Saga of the Vyir: Thane Kjarten Helmbjorgsen's Wird. (fate)

Chapter One

The hailstones came down on the helmet of Kjarten, making a loud noise even worse than it had to be and it seemed the Kjarten would go deaf. Thane Kjarten and thirteen of his best warriors were chasing a rebel Frost Orc called Jaiir the Sneak. He had been burning down barns and killing livestock in the surrounding valleys for several years. That Orc was a smart one and was more destructive than ten of them combined. At times, Thane Kjarten felt that he and his men were chasing a ghost. "He is doubling back on his prints!" he said to his warriors. "Look how deep the prints are." he said, pointing at the Orc prints in the snow. "Turn around." he said and they headed the other direction until someone felt something brush against them. The warriors quizzed each other but no-one had bumped into each other. "He is wearing a cloak of invisibility." said the Thane. "Everyone wave your shields at the prints." said the Thane. The warriors did and Olsa hit something. Olsa quickly drew his sword and stabbed the invisible Frost Orc. The enchantment turned off and the rebel Orc fell dead to the snow. "You get the bounty!" said the Thane. The warrior lifted his sword in the air in celebration. The hail started back up again. "You made the gods angry at your celebration." joked a warrior to Olsa. It began to snow and the men returned to the Hall, five miles away. "It was a good hunt." said the men as they put away their armor and cloaks. "At least the rebel is dead." said the Thane. "Only if things appeared as they seemed." said a voice in the Hall. "Who was that?" said the Thane, angry that some magic user had entered his Hall. "And so you chase after invisible Orcs and did you check if they are actually real? Ha, hahahaha!" and the invisible mage teleported out. "So we are dealing with a mage! Probably some worshipper of the Dark gods!" said the Thane. "Anyone who can kill that mage gets 10,000 guilder!" said the Thane. 

The Dark Mage returned to his loft in the slave village. He didn't like the Thane and he intended to wear out the Thane before he made his final move. He had been Dark Mage in his homeland before he was captured but since the Vyir were killing mages, he pretended to be a serf. He didn't feel any kinship with his fellow slaves, they were just objects to be used and thrown away, he thought. The real goal in life was power and lots of it. He figured he could transform himself into the Thane using a perminent enchantment and then kill his way to the top and then become High Yarl so he could lead the Vyir to their deaths. He had it all planned out. Fortunately a slave woman had been watching his movements and told the Thane. "So! A Kelti dog of a mage hides in my village? I'll set a trap for him!" said the Thane. "Bring him to the Hall and tell him that I called him to give him his freedom." said the Thane to the slave woman. She nodded and left to tell the Dark Mage. The Mage suspected nothing, he thought that the Thane was weakening in his will. He presented himself before the Thane in his simple slave clothes. "So! You wish to become a freedman! You shall have it!" said the Thane. The Thane nodded and the Kelti Elder came behind the Mage and stabbed him in the back with a longsword. The point came out of the front of the Dark Mage and the Elder withdrew the sword and the Dark Mage fell to the ground dead. "Burn his body and scatter his ashes. We don't want his demon soul latching onto anything here." commanded the Thane. The demon soul of the sorcerer entered into a nearby sword and it began to gleam. One of the warriors noticed the gleaming sword and not knowing anything about enchanted swords, picked it up and claimed it as his own and paid the Thane for the sword. "Fine, have it." said the distracted Thane, not knowing that the sword was possessed by a demon soul. The warrior carried it back to his hut and greeted his wife. She seemed to turn into an Orc and he panicked and killed her. His children too turned into Orcs before his eyes and he killed them as well. He dropped the sword and the bodies changed back to human, right before his eyes. He screamed and fled the Hall grounds. He wept as he ran and he drew his short sword and fell on it. A huscarl heard the scream and went to see what had happened. He checked the road and saw the dead body, then he went to see the man's hut and saw the man's dead family. He spied the glowing sword and put together the events in his head. "This sword is cursed." he said out loud to the other huscarls who rushed to the scene. He went to the Priest of the Hall and the Priest took the sword to the Thane and explained everything the huscarl and seen and had figured out. "We need to destroy this sword." said the Priest. The Priest scattered some ashes onto the pommel of the sword chanting "Ashe Zu Ashe" and the demon soul screamed and came out of the sword. The ghost of the evil mage appeared before the Priest and the Priest quickly pulled out a silver sword and slew the demon soul. "Ashe Zu Ashe!" he chanted and the demon soul screamed again and turned into a pile of ashes. "The evil mage is finally gone!" said the Priest. The Hall went back to it's normal business. 

Chapter Two

A band of raiding Frost Orcs came to the hall and set it on fire as everyone slept and everyone had to either run or be carried out of the Hall as it burnt to the ground. "Our armor was in there!" said a warrior. "Fine. We can run to the next Hall and borrow some armor off the Thane there, he is my cousin." said Thane Kjarten. The Thane left his boys and wife with one of the women in the warriors village and the men ran all night to the Hall of his cousin, Thane Snorborri. The raiding Orcs attacked the defenseless men but they punched and kicked the Orcs and got their weapons off them and killed the Orcs with their own weapons. The men ran to the Hall and pounded on the door. "What cousin, is this some new prank you've devised? Run half-naked in the winter wearing Orc clothing and wielding Orc weapons? I admit I am almost laughing." said Thane Snorborri. "No cousin, the damn Orcs tried to burn me and my men alive in the Hall." said Thane Kjarten. "Come in, we'll host you until we can get your Hall rebuilt." said Thane Snorborri. The Thane and his men stayed for a month with his cousin while he had sent for carpenters to build him a new Hall. He had the new Hall built larger and better defended than the last Hall and he added a stone ringwall around the Hall grounds and four watchtowers built, and the huscarls manned these new watchtowers on shifts throughout the day and night. He learned that there was a band of Frost Orcs literally hiding in a large cave under his Hall from one of his scouts. He and his men armed and armored up and went to go find the cave entrance. They entered the cave and killed several Ice Trolls within and finally came to a wall with a door. They busted in the door and surprised the Frost Orcs within and killed all of them after a quick but fierce battle. The men then looted the room and sealed off the cave as they left. "Gods, why does everything happen to me?" he wondered out loud when he thought on those events. The next month passed and a band of Frost Trolls stole seven heads of his best cattle and slaughtered them. The Thane saw this and was angry and considered letting his slave herdsmen carry spears to keep off raiding trolls. He gathered his slave herdsmen. "I trust you and I don't trust the Orcs or the Trolls. I am giving you spears to counter-attack the Frost Trolls if they attack my cattle. You have to give me the spears on a nightly basis." said the Thane. The herdsmen nodded. He also gave them a horn to use to alert the warriors in case of an attack on the cattle. A week went by and the horn didn't sound. The huscarls went to investigate. They saw that the slaves had killed their share of Frost Trolls and had been tossing their bodies in a burn pit. "Good work!" said the Thane to the herdsmen and he went back to his business. 

More to Come!!!!!
 

Vyirlundia and Nordlandia Lore: The End of the Venetian Empire and etc

"The slothful Venetians overextended their Empire and fell into the outstretched hands of the Nords." -Gaius Maximus Ambjornsen. "The End of Time" Volume One.

The throne of Venetia and the Throne of Nordlandia was already related by blood and when the final War of the Generals wiped out the last of the Venetian Imperial Family, the crown reverted to the High King of Nordlandia. The only thing that the Venetians didn't count on was the Nord High King completely reorganizing the Venetian Empire into feudal baronies. When the Venetians learned that they were in the hands of their old enemy, they rallied to General Magnus Gaius Sophater and fought the Nord Army at Olsburg pass. The Venetian Army was finally defeated and the Nord Yarl marched into the Venetian Empire, razing all the cities, aqueducts, forts and towns. He named named 500 Thanes to be Barons and ordered them to divide the Empire amongst themselves. They did, building Castles and capturing Venetians and other native ethnic groups to work as slaves on the Nord manors. The 500 baronies grew to 1,000 baronies and the barons ended the Nord Kaiser-Reich after 200 years and fifteen Nord Kingdoms arose. After 300 years, the dream of reuniting the Empire came again and the Nord Kings (including the ones in Nordlandia) met at Amagdaburg and formed the Second Nordic Empire with King Amandus Anfredsen elected Kaiser. The Duchy of Dufronduc, far to the south, the most Venetian of all the realms, went on a rampage and conquered seven Nord Kingdoms before being stopped by the Kingdom of Nordmark. The Dufronduc Kingdoms then united under one King and renamed their Kingdom Allamange. Vyirlundia adopted a modern national army and the thanes and Yarls released their retainers. The Yarls and the Thanes were made Earls and Vyirlundia was strengthened against their Nord neighbors to the south. The Allamange King sent his barons against the remaining Nord Kingdoms within the Nord Empire and conquered them, all except Nordmark. Thus was ended the second Nord Empire. the King of Allamange declared himself Emperor of Allamange. Nordmark, being a close neighbor and ally of Vyirlundia, accepted annexation into Vyirlundia and Allamange became her southern neighbor. The Orcs had a major empire on the Western Continent and began to send raiders to harry the Allamange Empire. The King of Vyirlundia sent his new Navy against the Orc raiders and defeated them, sending them fleeing back to the Western Continent. The Vyir had several footholds on the Western Continent but the Orcs kept razing their colonization attempts. A resurgence in the Orcs was a thing to be feared indeed! The Emperor of Allamange and the King of Vyirlundia met and made a peace treaty and combined forces against the Orcs. Their Navies fought the Orc fleet in the Great Ocean and the Allied Fleet smashed the primitive Orcish Fleet. The Vyirlunders began to probe the coasts of the Western Continent and established a Barony in the Northwest with 1,000 Vyir and Nord settlers and one ambitious Prince. The Western Continent was inhabited by Wood Elves and Orcs, neither side loved each other but both despised the humans. The Wood Elves broke with the High Elves to the East and the Wood elves briefly joined the Orcs against the humans until it became clear that the Orcs intended to enslave the Wood Elves. The Wood Elves, under their Speaker of the Stars, joined forces with Allamange and Vyirlundia against the Orcs. The Orcs sent thousands of troops into the Barony of Prince Randolf (Prince Randolf's Land) but the Vyir and the Allamange resisted the Orcs attempts to kick them off the Western Continent. The Musketeers and Cannoneers of the Provincial Army proved to be a match for the Orcs bashers and maulers. The Allamange Empire set up a colony to the far south (Prince Percey's Land) and used that as a base to push the Orcs back. 

End of Lore for now!

The Holy Paladins of the Vyir: The Beginnings.

Chapter One

It was raining, hard. The hailstones came down fast and thick and the Battle-Priest cursed his misfortune as he pounded the door-knocker at the Great Hall in Olmsborg. "Come in." said a Royal Huscarl. The door opened and he came in and was given a towel by a slave. He dried himself off as he rehearsed what he was going to say to High Yarl Ingvaldbjorn Amundsen. The High Yarl was on the Dragon-Throne and the Battle-Priest came forward. "Your Excellency, I have returned from the Kaiser-Reich and your cousin the Kaiser wishes you the best." said Alarik Alariksen the Battle Priest. "Go on." said the High Yarl. "I saw a unit of mounted Priests in action called 'Paladins' they were able to do so much more than our own Battle Priests. I am convinced that if we had an Order of Paladins up here, our battles wouldn't be so protracted." said the Battle Priest. "Our warriors are the best in the world, why do we need another kind of warrior?" asked the High Yarl. "Demons have been entering the world and only the Paladins know how to repel them." said Alarik. "Good enough, you go south to the Kaiser-Reich of the Nords and bring up a leader of theirs to train our Battle-Priests into Paladins." said the High Yarl. Alarik bowed and saluted and left the Hall to join his comrades in their Hall for much needed food and rest. 

Chapter Two.

Alarik Alariksen and Anathon Anathonsen took a dragon-ship down to the Nord Kaiser-Reich and docked at Aldorburg and they traveled inland to the Great Paladin Monastery at Analiusburg, which was shared by the "Holy Hand of the Light" and "The Holy Order of the Light", two closely allied Paladin orders. The roads of the former Venetian Empire were still in good condition but the Nords had torn down all the cities and aqueducts to build their Castles and Halls. Even Venetia, which had once been the queen city of the whole world, was a Nord city of wattle and daub buildings, and a Nord Castle. The Temple of the Light was the last building remaining from the Venetian Empire, except for the Venetian Palace, which was the seat of Kaiser Alberkt Alansen Magnus the First. The Paladin Cathedral was a new structure and an engineering marvel, a cross between a Nord Stave Temple and a Venetian Temple. The men rode in and saluted the Archethnarch of the Orders. "Hail! Julius Varian Gaius Ammanuelsen the Third!" they said. The Archethnarch father was a Nord Baron and a Venetain noble woman, making him very powerful with both ethnic groups. "Hail to you!" said the Archethnarch as he saluted. "I come to establish an Order within the boundaries of Vyirlundia." said Alarik to the Archethnarch. The Archethnarch smiled. "Come to our hall and dine with us after prayers and Mass." said the Archethnarch. "Why do you Nords and Venetians believe that the High God is the only God to be worshipped?" asked Alarik to the Archethnarch. "The last Ethnarch of all men commanded men that the High God dismissed all of the minor gods and he is now in charge. That is the long and the short of it. The Dark gods oppose the will of the High God but they cannot win, so long as we continue to be faithful to the Light." said the Archethnarch. "That would be a hard doctrine for the Vyir to accept." said Alarik. "If a Yarl made himself the high overlord of all and made the other Yarls into Earls, who would object?" said the Archethnarch. "The Vyir all have statues of the god of war in their right pockets, if they heard that the god of war was powerless, who knows what would happen." said Alarik. "Just tell them that the High God has assumed that office and they are to trust only in the High God." said the Archethnarch. "You know that I secretly accepted rebaptism from you, but my baptism is not yet an open matter in Vyirlundia." said Alarik. The men entered the building and they passed the monks who were busy copying the texts of the last High Ethnarch's commandments. There where twelve books in total of the holy codex. "Our order is not only a fighting Order, we also spread the Word of the New Way to every corner of the world with our missionaries and scribes." said the Archethnarch as he pointed at the scribes busy at their work. The men came to the Office and sat down. "I can send you Brother Xaiver Timotheus." said the Archethnarch. "He will come with three scribes and three missionaries and they will talk with your High Priest. I have met the man, he has an open heart and I am sure that the native Priesthood will convert the land to the New Way." said the Archethnarch. "He will also train all converts interested in becoming Paladins. Shall we celebrate Mass?" asked the Archethnarch. The men went to the chapel and celebrated the Mass of the High God, chanting the Mass in Latini. 

Chapter Three.

Alarik Alariksen and Anathon Anathonsen returned to the Great Hall in Olmsburg with the seven brothers. The High Yarl heard of the New Way and accepted baptism. The High Priest came to visit and after hearing of the New Way, accepted baptism. "So Brother Ultherhed, you may choose a new name." said Brother Xaiver Timotheus. "I shall be named Brother Ambrose, after one of the Twelve followers of the late Ethnarch." said the High Priest. "I will reform the Temple according to the new pattern." said the High Priest. "Excellent, make sure that all the Priests receive baptism and choose Bishops and Arch Bishops from amongst them." said Brother Xaiver. "The Holy Subethnarch will receive them at his chapel in Antonburg." said another brother. "So, the yearly sacrifice of the atonement is out?" said the High Priest. "Replaced with the weekly Mass. You will need to erect new Cathedrals and churches in order to bring the change fully into effect." said another brother. "So we tear down the Temples then." said Brother Ambrose. "Yes, the only Temple left, and we call it a Cathedral now to conform with the new doctrine, is in Venetia." said a brother.

Chapter Four.

Priest Andolf Andolfsen heard of the radical change and prayed to the gods of the Light. "It is indeed true." said the White Wolf to him in a vision. "The High God has exiled all the gods from his sight because they became compromised by the darkness." and his dream ended and he told his vision to the other Priests. "By the gods, this is an artifice of men!" said an angry Priest, Aldrik Aldriksen. "I shall continue to lead the people in the ways of the gods." he said. The other priests warned him to repent and Brother Andolf, having received baptism, threw Aldrik out of the Priesthood. "Return home in shame you brother of bandits and Orcs!" he said harshly. Aldrik drew a sword and almost slew the Priests but could not because of their Light. Priest Aldrik went all over Vyirlundia preaching that the gods would never abandon them, and soon the Vyir became split between the false preacher and the true preachers. More and more Vyir accepted baptism and finally even Aldrik was baptised and repented his former rebellion. The way was finally clear for the tearing down of all the Temples and the building of Cathedrals and churches. Everyone adopted the new symbol of the New Way and in a ceremony the Archbishop of Olmsburg released all of the White Rams from their enclosures at the old Temple. The people sang a hymn and received Mass. The new Paladin order was established at Olmsburg with 100 mounted Paladins. 

Chapter Five.

The warriors and the Thanes were somewhat confused and resistant to the sudden change. Many still held to their pocket idols but change slowly came as more and more warriors and Thanes accepted baptism and agreed to not make marks on their body and to shave their heads and their beards. Churches were built in every slave village and as a part of the New Way, the slaves were all manumitted. The Kelti remained and agreed to assimilate into Vyir society. A few isolated Halls held out but after 70 years, they too converted. A huge change was that the latini alphabet and language replaced the Vyir runes for official business. The Orcs dared not to attack the Vyir now and only did occasional raids and forays into Vyirlundia. The Vyir Paladins focused on fighting the new threat: Demons portalling in from Undergard. A demonic Army of 1,000 demons led by a Dark Priest named Janus Ithicir marched on a number of towns in Nordlandia and razed them to the ground. The Paladin Orders rode in and defeated them in a massive battle at Anthon's Field. The Dark Priest was caught and executed and his body burned to ashes. The few Kelti and Nords that had refused baptism turned to the Dark gods and began to erect chapels to them in the wilds and set up a Dark Temple, deep within a mountain, replete with a Dark Sacrament and a Dark High Priest. The Dark High Priest then wrote down all the insane thoughts of the Dark gods and sent his missionaries to the wealthy and the powerful to lure them into the darkness. 

Chapter Six. 

"There is an active opposition. The Dark Temple seeks our destruction." said Brother Xaiver to the Subethnarch. "Send the Paladin Orders, destroy the worshippers of evil." said the Subethnarch. "As you Command your lordship." said Brother Xaiver. Brother Xaiver went north to Vyirlundia to speak with the Vyir Chapter of the Holy Hand of the Light. "I am not sure of your report. My mind seems clouded as of late." said Andar Andarsen, the Archethnarch of the Order. "Go gather more evidence and we will move then." he said to Brother Xaiver and went back to sleep.  Brother Xaiver took a look around the Monastery and saw Paladins either missing, not in prayer, off drinking or otherwise arguing with each other over trival matters. "Oh my, this is serious." he said to himself as he left the Monastery. The White Wolf came to Brother Alarik in a dream. "The enemy has sapped your Paladins! Go and quickly bring in Paladins from the south to confront the Dark Archpriest Arvandius! He hides in the mountain named for Thane Albergsen." said the White Wolf and the dream ended. He quickly saddled a horse and rode to the Nord Kaiser-Reich and rode to all the Orders, compelling them to join him. All the Archethnarchs agreed and 5,000 Holy Paladins rode north into Vyirlundia to meet the enemy. 200 Wilderness Priests of the New Way joined the Paladins, their ministry was that of tearing down the shires to the gods of the Darkness and ripping down idols of every sort. They came to the tunnel entrance of the Dark High Temple. The Dark Priests poured out of the tunnel with their golems. The battle began in earnest. The Light and the Darkness surged until finally all of the Dark Priests lay dead on the ground. The Paladins and Priests entered into the mountain to confront the evil High Priest of the Dark gods but he portalled out. The Paladins and Priests left the mountain and ordered engineers to cave in the tunnel. They did and the Dark Priesthood never came back. 

Prologue.

Over the proceeding years, the Paladins in Vyirlundia reformed and became a vital part of the war against the darkness. Demons invaded from different portals but were always beaten back by the Paladins. 

The End.
 

 

Saga of the Vyir: Dagfinnur Fanngeirsen the Troll-Killer

Chapter One

The Thane and his men were in their beds, sleeping off their drinking session, when little Dagfinnur Fanngeirsen heard the Orcs bang at the door and burst into the room. He wasted no time in defending the Hall, he ran over the the weapons rack and before the Orcs could do anything, he was under them and slashed their bellies wide open and killed the invaders. The men woke up and saw the Orc corpses by the shivering ten-year old. "By the gods! You saved us!" said the Thane when he saw what had transpired. "But we'll have to fix the door." said the Thane and the men labored throughout the night to fix the door and they added extra bolts to the door to keep the Orcs out. The ten-year old gave suggestions as to what would keep the Orcs from busting down the door again and they followed his suggestions. "You are the future Thane." said the Thane to his ten-year old son on that night. Several years later, Dagfinnur took his wilderness trial and went deep into the wilds and set up his lean-to by a stand of giant ceders. The area was well-known to him, he and his brothers had played in the area in times past, there was a narrow slot canyon with a swift river thirty feet bellow and there was only one area it could be crossed, at a log that was felled over the narrowest point, however a storm had swept away this log and now it was a chasm that could be jumped only by the bravest warrior. He backed up and ran at the chasm and jumped, easily cleared the dangerous void and landed on the other side. He walked to a cave and looked inside for anything useful. He saw remains of a campfire and nothing else. He walked up a steep hill and came to a cairn of bones and he saw that they were human bones, and the bite marks where fresh. "Ice Trolls!" he whispered. He quickly drew his sword and looked around for an Ice Troll and heard a grunting bellow the cliff. He saw that two Ice Trolls were eating one Nord and another was sitting in a wicker cage. He drew his bow and arrow and shot both of the Ice Trolls dead and freed the other Nord. "By the gods! I thought I was a goner for sure!" said the Nord. The Nord ran off without saying "thank you" and the rest of the wilderness trial went smoothly after that. He passed and saw his first battle a year later. 600 Orcs tried to cross the mountains to attack the Hall so the Thane and his 100 warriors walked up the mountain and flanked them from behind and scattered them so it was easy to kill the fleeing Orcs. Dagfinnur killed 50 Orcs that day. He decided to become a freebooter since the 20 year lull in the war had began. 

Chapter Two.

Dagfinnur and Elvar the Left-handed rode down to Nordlandia as freebooters with the intent of making themselves rich by collecting bounties. They established themselves in the Hold Capitol in a bunkhouse and rode out daily to the Royal Hall, looking for bounties to fill. They didn't have much success at it, since the bandits kept running away from their camps. They left Nordlandia and went to the coast of Vyirlundia and asked if any Captains were leading raids into the Kelti Kingdoms. They found the fishing town of Edvinborg whose dragon ships outnumbered it's fishing ships. They spoke with several Captains on the dockside and Sea-thane Eyvaldur Eyvaldursen took them on as raiders. Rowing the dragon-ship out to where the winds could be used was hard work but Dagfinnur was no stranger to hard work and toil. The men unfurled the sails and they sailed around the Continent to the Kelti domain and sailed up the Ardan River and reached the summer fort where the raiding bands were gathered under a common banner. "This is Aeolwulf's Fort, a Nord built this and named it. We have a hall and barracks within. Aeolwulf himself is the lord of this place. In return for his hosting us, he gets 10% of the loot gained in raids. He also gets 2% of the slaves taken. Also this is the biggest slave market on the Continent." said the Sea-thane to his men. King Coineach even pays us millions in gold to "go away" and we play along and then we start up the raids again." said the Sea-thane to the men. The whole Castle was built of local stone and was built in a way that kept attackers from taking the Castle. The first raid was a settlement up the river called Kian. The Sea-Thanes and their crews rowed the ships up the river and waited till the twilight hour to attack the town. The Vyir and Nords fell on the town with screams of bloody murder and the villagers were scattered while the Vyir and Nords plundered the town. Some of the Vyir men kept the townsfolk under watch in a nearby building while the raiders took everything. Then the Vyir looked at the men and women and took only the strongest of them as slaves and left the rest. "I suspect the King will have an army to the area soon." said a Sea-thane. They loaded up the loot and plunder and the slaves into the Dragon-ships and sailed down back to the Castle. "The raids are daily, some men choose to take a rest at the Fort but there is money to be had lads!" said the Sea-thane. The men cheered at that and after a week of non-stop raiding, Dagfinnur had enough gold and silver to pay a dowry. The Sea-thane heard of his request to return to Vyirlundia and he loaded his Dragon-ship with slaves and the men returned to Vyirlundia. Dag got 12% off the sale of each slave and he walked away a fairly wealthy man. He rode a new pony down to his Hall only to discover that the Hall had been burned down and his father was dead and his retainers had been scattered. Even the Kelti slaves had run away and the only inhabitants were the cows and bulls in the fields, getting fat and increasing in number daily. He rode to the Yarl to secure his title and once that was confirmed, he rode back to the farm with some newly captured slaves and rebuilt the Hall and the Barn. He rode off to the nearby Thane Aeolborger and asked for the hand of Gunhilda Aeolborgersdottir and after paying the dowry, they were married at the Temple in the nearby Hold. 200 men heard that the Hall had been rebuilt and the Thane had returned and they came to swear fealty to him and to fight his battles. Since the Frost Orcs had all but left the peninsula for the core of the Orcish Empire, the only fighting to be done was against the Frost Trolls, who built scores of village forts all over the land, hoping to reclaim what was once their Kingdom. A typical Frost troll village consisted of ten large wooden halls surrounded by a wooden pallisade, the inside of the palisade had four watch-towers with drums in them for the watchers to alarm the trolls inside of the village that the humans (or Orcs) were coming. The Frost Trolls did not use metals but instead used stone and wood to make their weapons. They wore necklaces of skulls and often had huge cairns of bones in the middle of their villages, both Orc and human. The Thanes and their armies would rain down oil-tipped lighted arrows on the villages and let the trolls burn to death within their villages. The few that escaped would be slaughtered by the Vyir Warriors. Thane Dagfinnur led his warriors in burning down fifty such villages and when not killing the Frost Trolls, they would hunt down and slaughter the Ice Trolls, the dumb cousins of the Frost Trolls. The Frost Trolls were known for collecting gold and silver coins to make into necklaces and the Thane and his men looted five million guilders in gold from the Frost Trolls. After three years, the Frost Trolls were gone from the Yarl's lands and more Thanes were able to settle the lands with their farms and Halls. Occasionally there was the stone ruins of an Orcish fort or city and the men would gather what stone they could from the ruins and bury the rest of the ruins so it could be used for grazing for cattle, sheep and ponies. The thanes would use the stones from the ruins to build stone walls around their farms and fields so they could keep out unwelcome visitors. The Thane had his slaves build thick and high stone walls around his fields and his Hall.

Chapter Three

Some Orcs from the Stone-Mountain Clan went to see the Thane and in broken Vyir they offered themselves as warriors and vassals to himself and the High Yarl. "Why? I thought you hated us." he retorted, not trusting them. "We dislike Orc Emperor even more, ancient feud. We rather fight him than support him! We fight good and farm good. Make us retainers and vassals and gods smile on you." said Dor'rock the Basher. "This is a first! Perhaps the Orcs are ready to fall. You must go to our Priests to receive baptism into the gods of the Light and renounce the gods of the darkness first." he warned. "We already did, our eyes opened and we want to be the good Orcs." said another, Jaill Hammerfist. "Then swear fealty to me, the Yarl and the High Yarl." said Thane Dagfinnur. They quickly swore fealty and the Orcs were received by the men as allies and fellow warriors. The Thane placed the fifteen Stonemoutain Bashers on his right flank in battle and after each battle, more and more Stonemountain Orcs came to his banner until they numbered forty. He expanded his Hall and added an extra table for them. The High Yarl himself went to see this new development and commended the Thane for his judgement. Pretty soon even the High Yarl had gained sixty Stonemountain Bashers who fought at his side. 
The peace ended and the other Orc Clans saw the treachery of the Stonemountain Clan and attacked their forts and tried to destroy them but the Vyir came to their rescue. A string of lands owned by Stonemountain lords were annxed to Vyirlundia that year and the Vyir gained a vital invasion route into the Orcish Empire. Dagfinnur was raised to Earldoman and was sent to govern the forts in the newly gained province. He led an army of 7,000 Nords and 7,000 Vyir into the region and settled the armies into their garrison forts and built several Castles based on the one he lived in when he was a young man when he was a raider. He improved the Orcish forts and reinforced them and even built a long wall starting at G'rothnir's Rest and ending at Jar'nik's Fort far to the south. He had his garrison patrol the wall and the wall kept out further invasions from that direction, although the Orcs could still hit them from the south. 

Chapter Four. 

The High Yarl saw his work at the new border and raised him again to Yarl and gave him a brand-new Hold. The fort-line was given to a cousin of the High Yarl. Yarl Dagfinnur built his Hall and his Hold out of stone and even added a large tower to the city wall. The fortifications were strong enough to keep out Orcs and everything else as well. Thanes and Merchants settled in his new Hold and Yarl Dagfinnur leased the lands around the city to Thanes for farms and those incomes made him a wealthy man. He also hired engineers to look for gold and silver veins and copper veins and several were found and tapped and became mines, with all the revenue going to Yarl Dagfinnur. The engineers also built a tomb under the Hold for the Yarl and his Thanes. When Yarl Dagfinnur died at 90 years old, he was buried in an underground chamber inside of a Dragon-ship assembled for that purpose. It floated in water and was tied by chains to the walls of the chamber. The chamber was sealed off by an iron gate from the rest of the tomb, which had rooms for the Thanes in death, with their sarcophagus's and the gold vessels and silver vessels lined around the floor in the tombs.

The End.

The gods of war: The Vyir warrior in battle and in drink (lore)

The Vyir fight mostly with a steel shield and a steel short sword but berserkers prefer a weapon, like a battle-axe, to slay dozens of enemy with every swipe. Some warriors were dual wielders, again, berserkers. The Priests use battle staves in which they send bolts of light from. The Battle Mages also use staves but the stave depended on what element they wanted to project. A Fire Mage would use a Fire Stave, a Water Mage would use a Water Stave and so on. Everyone used carved runes on bone for it's magical properties but the Priests used the runes the most and taught the others how to use runes for a battle advantage. All Vyir men were covered from head to toe in full body tatoos by the time they were thirty. All men grew huge beards (even the Priests, who only shaved their heads) Most Vyir men grow out their hair and braid it. They would also braid their beards so looking from warrior to warrior, it was hard to tell them apart unless you ask them! All Vyir, regardless of rank, had a tatoo on their right arm of their Clan symbol. Singing in battle is very common, since Orcs did not like to hear humans sing on any note, it provided an extra distraction. Once the Vyir warriors are in their Halls, they either recite their battles in verse or they sing of their achievements. On the Holy days, all Vyir would gather to the Priest and be led in singing after the sacrifice of the atonement, 12 white rams and the blood would then be sprinkled on the crowd and their sins would be declared to be forgiven. Most Vyir are not overly religious but they mutter "wird"(fate) or "by the gods!" if they are surprised at something. The warriors and the nobles raise their boys to be warriors and their girls to be wives and mothers, although since Raghilda the Immortal, it was no longer frowned upon for a properly trained daughter of the Thane or a Yarl to lead men into battle. Some Clans frown on the practice altogether and some openly embrace it. Dead Orcs stink and the Vyir never take trophies from the body of the Orcs they kill but they do loot the bodies of gold and silver. Everything else (except for the weapon, which was melted down and reused) was burned. Only Nords take bodily trophies. Every Hall had it's vomit pit outside of the Hall and every Clan had their own drinking game. A Thane would always add his sons, his nephews and his cousins to his shield wall and then they would accept outsiders. Warriors could be elevated to Thane only by a Yarl and only the High Yarl can raise a Thane to a Yarl. Clan Ysgramor was the most honored, respected and powerful Clan in all of Vyirlundia, that is why they are only asked to sit on the Dragon Throne in case of extreme National emergencies. Usually the Clan Heads (Clan Earldomans) would refuse a Yarldom because their office kept them busy enough but in rare cases, a Clan Earldoman would accept the office of Yarl but he would pass the Earldoman title and responsibilities to his brother or one of his sons. The High Yarl would sometimes create Earldomans in order to watch over forts owned by the High Yarl as well as reward friends. The Earldomans without a fort to watch were on their own and could own farms but they could not lead men into battle. Thanes could own multiple villages and farms in theory but in reality, because of the war, most owned just one farm and one village. The Yarls (even in war) often owned multiple farms and villages and would place Elders of the Kelti in charge over those manors but the revenues went to the Yarl. The money that is used by the Vyir is the guilder and it is based on the Nord gelder, the only difference being that the guilder could either be of silver (lesser value) or of gold (greater value) and the head of the Yarl in the city of the mint went onto the coin. Every Hold Capitol had a mint. Some merchants quickly discovered that they could make money by holding money so they opened up banks and the rest is history. The Yarls did not regulate the economy unless the merchants started to become too powerful, since the war was of utmost importance. The Vyir didn't think twice in slaughtering Orc woman and children because the Orcs didn't think twice in eating Vyir women and children. The Frost Orcs once had a powerful Kingdom where Vyirlundia is now but the Frost Trolls revolted from under the Frost Orcs and destroyed half of their Kingdom and the Vyir destroyed the other half. The Frost Orc kings left numberless tombs filled with gold and silver and enchanted weapons and the Vyir spent their time looting these tombs when not at war. The very few poor that existed in Vyirlundia were the blind, maimed, halt and feeble-minded, the Temple provided a small stipend for them in return for services in the Temple, such as being a lay preacher or a lay healer. The few warriors that ran from battle (it was rare) were expected to move to the Holds Capitols and take up a useful trade. Nords would come up from the south to fight alongside the Vyir but since their strength was not "on par" with the Vyir, they would fight in the back of the shield wall as archers. Vyir youths at twelve or thirteen would take their wilderness test. If they came back alive and they received no help, they passed the test. If they received help, they failed and had to go to a Hold Capitol to pursue a useful trade. Rarely would a brother or a father have to go into the wilds to bury the body (what was left of it) of their son. The war booty that a warrior would collect, 10% of it would go to the Temple and depending on the Bride price asked, a large chunk of his winnings would go to a dowry to be paid to the father of the bride on the eve of the wedding. In return for the dowry, the son-in-law could expect a place on a shield wall (if the father-in-law was noble) or immediate aid in case of a disaster (if the father-in-law was not noble). Every Hall has a Blacksmith and a Priest but only the wealthy Halls have a Battle-Priest. 

More lore to come!

(By the way, if you are an author and a historian and you wish to help me write this series, contact me on this blog and I'll give you permission and you can co-author this series! P.S. Everything you write in this series becomes my property since this series is under copyright.)

Heros of the Vyir: Arnbjorn the Bear Killer

Chapter One

Arnbjorn Margrimur had his studded leather armor on and war equipped with his enchanted oak bow. He stalked through the woods with his special arrowheads, the ones that killed bears, especially Ice Bears. He walked up a wooded slope covered with huge aspens and firs. The air smelled like the trees around him and the dampness hung in the air. His hunting camp was ten miles away but he was used to traveling up to 100 miles a day to "bag a bear" he was intently focused on his quarry: He was tracking a male alpha Ice Bear, the most dangerous bears in Vyirlund. He smelled the musk of a bear and saw that it was a young sow and he left her alone, he needed bears and he considered himself a "bear manager" and in a way, he was. His Yarl knew he was a hunter and asked him to cull Ice Bears to reasonable numbers and to keep an eye on the land and make sure it remained healthy. He heard a noise behind him, he quickly turned and saw the male alpha almost on top of him, he pulled out his short sword and stabbed the bear in the heart for a clean kill. It fell dead and he began to skin it. He was going to sell the coat to a furrier and the rest of the bear he slaughtered for it's meat and intestines for bow-string, the rest of the bear he left for the carnivores of the woods. He left the site and traveled back to his hunting camp. He saw some Nords talking nearby and he became deeply concerned because Nords in the woods were usually bandits. "Hey!" he said in Vyir which most Nords understood if said slowly. "What are you doing in the forest of the Yarl?" asked Arnbjorn. "We are huscarls looking for a thief that killed a traveler in Nordlandia, we were told he lived at this camp." said the huscarl. "You were given false information." said the hunter. "This is a Ranger Camp, mine. I work for the Yarl." said Arnbjorn. The huscarls came over and looked him over. "He is a hunter alright, a bandit wouldn't be so well armed with these kinds of tools." said a huscarl. "Keep your eyes open. This Nord uses different names, he is 7'11, deep blue eyes, blonde hair. His real name is Alvis Djornsen. According to our laws, a man pays a fine on his first killing and on the second killing, he is declared outlaw and when caught, is beheaded after a fast but fair trial." said the huscarl. "This is his second killing, he is a useless bandit." said another huscarl. "Okay, I will keep my eyes open for him." said Arnbjorn. The huscarls left the camp and Arnbjorn took his man-killing arrows and went hunting for a criminal. It didn't take long to find the bandit's camp, he saw the bandit was asleep in the tent. He raised his bow and aimed the arrow at the bandit's head. "You are under arrest by the orders of the Yarl and the huscarls looking for you. The charge is second murder. You have the right to a fast and fair trial. What say you?" asked the hunter. "I didn't do it!" said the Nord. "Unlikely, there are witnesses to your crime." said Arnbjorn. "Let me tell my story. I was the son of a Thane in Nordlandia who was just minding his own business until I witnessed two huscarls murder a woman. I ran back to my Thane and reported it. He sent his huscarls but the huscarls never came back, then the bandit huscarls attacked our Hall and burnt it to the ground and killed the Thane! I went to the Yarl but the bandits went to him first and accused me of the crimes! The Yarl issued a warrant for my arrest and I have been on the run ever since." said the Nord. "The two huscarls I encountered. Come with me to my camp and I will explain your story to the Yarl. If these huscarls are indeed the real killers, then it can be proven." said the hunter. The huscarls reappeared. "Fool! You made up that story to escape the Yarl's justice! You are coming with us!" said the huscarls. "Let me examine you." said the hunter to the huscarls. "You better not." said one huscarl, going for his sword. "Just kill both the hunter and the Nord, I'm not about to be beheaded!" said the huscarl. "Then you are guilty, you just proved it." said Arnbjorn. Arnbjorn quickly disarmed both huscarls in a swift move and the Nord helped tie up the men. "In the name of the High Yarl, I charge you aliens with murder and attempt to cover up murder." said Arnbjorn. "I will take you to my Yarl "So the god of war more or less has us go against these Orcs, now I know why. He made them too powerful." said a Priest. "My tutor never taught me this!" "So the god of war more or less has us go against these Orcs, now I know why. He made them too powerful." said a Priest. "My tutor never taught me this!" and his huscarls will transport you to the High Yarl of Nordlandia for a speedy trial. He threw the men on his pony and led the felons back to the Yarl. "Good work. I will send these dishonored men back to their Yarl for trial. The Nord"So the god of war more or less has us go against these Orcs, now I know why. He made them too powerful." said a Priest. "My tutor never taught me this!" they were hunting is cleared of all charges." said the Yarl. "I would like to remain up here as a warrior." said the Nord. "After I settle the matter with these wolvesheads." he said, motioning to the Yarl. "Sure, fine. You can fight on my shield wall if you have a head for battle." said the Yarl. The Yarls huscarls led the disgraced men off on the narrow horsepath south to Nordlandia. The Nord followed in order to give evidence against the murderers. The Nord Yarl listened to the account from both the Nord and Arnbjorn and found the disgraced, rogue huscarls guilty of multiple murder. They were lead out and beheaded outside. "Thank you for helping me settle this matter, here is a 1 million gelder bounty for you two to share." said the Nord Yarl. The men both accepted the money and walked out of the Hall and past the headless bodies of the murderers. It was raining. "I am going to ride back to Vyirlundia if you still want to join us." said Arnbjorn to Alvis Djornsen. "I have to settle things with my Yarl here about getting the Thanedom transfered to my uncle." said the Nord. "Tell your Yarl I will see him in a month or less." said the Nord. "Fine." said Arnbjorn. He got on his pony and rode back to Vyirlundia. Arnbjorn never saw the Nord again and he assumed that the Nord probably was killed in battle or was killed by the family of the dead huscarls. Months passed and he continued to hunt Ice Bears and he was surprised to see some Royal Rangers at his hunters camp. "Stop, in the name of the High Yarl you are poaching on the land of the High Yarl." said the lead Ranger. "Wait. This land belongs to Yarl Edvin Aeolbergsen. I am hunting and managing this land by his lease." said Arnbjorn. "We will take you to the Yarl to see if this is true." said a huscarl. Arnbjorn took a deerskin parchment letter from his satchel and gave it to the huscarl. "This letter confirms the lease for Arnbjorn Margrimur to hunt on the Yarl's lands and to manage the resources thereof." read the huscarl out loud. "Alright, this matter is between the High Yarl and the Yarl then." said the huscarls and they rode off to see the Yarl. After a few weeks of messages going back and forth, the scribes of both Yarls redrew the maps to correct the error and Arnbjorn was given a copy of the map. 

Chapter Two

Arnbjorn rode into a camp of Orcs one day and saw three Orc bashers, all drunk and asleep. He drew his blade and quickly dispatched the Orcs and burnt their camp with fire. We rode off to warn the Yarl about the Orc movements in the wilderness. "Probably Frost Orc rebels." said the Yarl. "If you can report anymore camps, I would be in your debt." said the Yarl. The Yarl gave him an 800 guilder bounty for killing the Orcs. The hunter went for a ride around his large territory and discovered three more Frost Orc rebel camps. He rode back to the Yarl and reported their locations. The Yarl sent his warriors and huscarls to kill the Orcs and the hunter was given another 1,500 guilders for the service. As he continued to patrol his lands under his watch, he found several Kelti runaway camps. He reported the runaways to the Yarl and the Yarl sent some huscarls to round up the slaves and send them back to their villages. One day he happened upon a camp of lizard-men who appeared to be mages. He left them alone since they were not breaking any laws. In exchange for his kindness, the lizard-men gave him some fireball and ice scrolls in case of an emergency. One thing he saw on a regular basis was thirteen year old Vyir boys on their Wilderness Trial. He left them alone because giving aid would render the test void. He slept at night but he knew that the most criminal activity occurred at night. One day he rode into a camp of rebel Vyir. They explained that a neighboring Yarl and tried to unjustly strip their Thane of his title because of a Clan dispute. The Thane was there and confirmed their story. "So we wait outside of his reach. When he dies or retires, we'll return to our land." said the Thane. "Come to my Yarl, he will settle the matter with the other Yarl." said Arnbjorn. The Thane and his followers broke camp and followed the hunter back to his Yarl. "I will settle the matter with the other Yarl." said the Yarl to the Thane and his warriors. The two Yarls met and discussed the matter and finally the other Yarl restored the Thane to his position. 

Chapter Three

Arnbjorn found a Tomb that was previously undetected by him. He looked at it and it was the tomb of an ancient Frost Orc King, back when they still had a Kingdom up there. He went inside and was surprised that it was an open, unguarded room with the sarcophagus open, the bones long since gone and the room totally looted. The paintings on the walls where still there and he was surprised to see a symbol that humans had used thousands of years ago but no longer. "So the Orcs had the same symbol, humpf." said the hunter. He looked around and saw a grip on the wall, he grabbed the grip and a secret door opened. "What is down here?" he wondered out loud. He took a torch and walked down the winding stairs. He came to a room filled with gold coins, masks and bodies of noble Orcs, all mumified. He gathered the gold and put it in his bags and he memorized the masks and the paintings on the walls. He was shocked to see a painting of a human with Orcs in a line, all bowing to him. "Who was this?" he wondered. He left the tomb and closed the door and went to see the Yarl about his discovery. "Orcs bowing to a human? Perhaps there is a bit of their lore we do not know? I will put my scribe on it." said the Yarl. The scribe spoke. "I do not tell this story around the warriors. Long, long ago, when the Orcs were still a tribe, a man who was born of the war god and a human woman became the first Emperor of the Orcish Empire. He designed their entire civilization for them and they have more or less stuck with that pattern ever since. His name was Girgatha and his tribe is more or less extinct, they had been wiped out by the Kelti. His bloodline became extinct one thousand years ago when his last male heir was killed by angry Orcish nobles." said the scribe. "So the god of war more or less has us go against these Orcs, now I know why. He made them too powerful." said a Priest. "My tutor never taught me this!" said the Yarl. "There are a lot of things that are written down that no-one ever hears of." said the scribe. "Another thing that you men don't know. The Thaugmar taught the first tribe of men how to mine and smith weapons, and High Elves taught us language and how to make clothes. The Hill Dwarves taught us how to farm and raise cattle. The Orcs controlled the entire world at the time and they gave us government, in a way." said the scribe. "Amazing." said the men in the room.

Chapter Four.

The hunter was back in the woods, hunting Ice Bears and a bit more informed of the world around him. He learned from a High Elf ranger that Vyirlund had once been, before the Trolls and Orcs, the domain of the Frost Elves, who were now extinict. The ranger pointed out some tree burials to Arnbjorn when they were hunting for bears. "The Frost Elves lived simple lives, they were nomads, moving from place to place. They worshipped the gods in their way and the only thing they left were these tree burials." said the High Elf ranger. One of our great Druids was the last of the Frost Elves, he died 800 years ago." said the ranger. "They also left large oak circles. You can still see them if you know your trees." Lastly the two rode up to a large stone statue. "Do you know the origins of this?" asked Arnbjorn. "That stone statue was raised by the Orcs when the wiped out the Frost Elves. It was their King." said the High Elf ranger. "I wonder if the Vyir will suffer the same fate in this cruel and remorseless land." said Arnbjorn out loud. "Who knows." said the High Elf. "Who knows."

The End.

 

Queen Raghilda Sigmundursen the Immortal

Chapter One

"No! I will not hear of it! It is not the proper place of a woman!" said Aeolmundur Sigmundursen. The warrior turned his head back to the fireplace. "Your brothers are all fine warriors, I need you to marry the man I choose for you so this family can remain strong." he said in a softer tone. "The gods will see." said Raghilda Sigmundursdottir. She was secretly training in the family barn with a target dummy and had only just now broached this topic with her father. Raghilda and her mother cleaned the plates off the table and daydreamed about the day she would be able to join a shield wall. 

The next day, she put on some birch training armor and started to train outside with a target. The Thane and his men rode up to the farmhouse from the hold and saw her in training. "Lad, where is your father?" asked the Thane. She quickly bowed herself and told him that he was in the house. "Oh! You are no lad! Why do you train for war lass? Are your brothers all dead?" asked the Thane. "No my lord Thane, I desire to join a shield wall someday." she said. The thane looked at her distance from the target and the placement of the arrows. "You would make a fine archer! Is your father objecting to your dream?" asked the Thane. "I fear so, my lord Thane. I do wish to eventually marry but in the immediate future, my dream is on the shield wall." The Thane grinned and shook his head. "Let me soothe this over with your father." he said. Raghilda nodded. The Thane walked into the house and everyone saluted. "Thane Rosinkar!" exclaimed Aeolmundur. "Is it war?" he asked. "I need you as well as your sons and your daughter, she is very skilled in archery. Don't worry, I'll keep her in the back with the other archers and I will warn her that war is not a child's game. Perhaps one or two battles will knock any notions of glory from her head." he said to the concerned father. "We all meet at the Hall tonight, everyone in gear and weapons." the Thane rode off. "Did you hear that? Everyone, including Raghilda, gets to go to war." said Aeolmundur. He walked his daughter to the weapons rack in the attic of the house. "You'll need my bow and arrows if you want any chance of surviving a battle." he opened a drawer and pulled out some studded leather armor. "Put this on." he said. She put the armor on like an expert and equipped the bow like a professional. "You seem to know the basics but you'll barely get a chance to train on a moving target. The Thane has a moving target you can practice on. Are you scared yet?" he asked his daughter. "Plenty." she said, honestly. "Good, your brothers lied to me in their first battle and nearly got their skulls split open by an Orc Basher." said the warrior. "Will the Thane make you a huscarl papa?" she asked. "That is up to the Thane." said Aeolmundur. "Come, lets get to the Thane's Hall!" he bellowed to his family. The last time she was at the Hall was for the Yuletide Feast last winter, when she was helping her mother and her aunts with the food and watching the kinders to keep them out of trouble. The warriors and the new shield-maiden mounted their ponies and rode to the Thane's Hall.

Chapter Two.

The Thane and his 30 warriors plus one archer girl marched out the next day. The enemy was camped only five miles away up the creek in the mountains. The young men saw that she was a female and began to flirt with her. "I am too young yet." she said to the warriors. "Keep your minds on the battle ahead!" said the Thane. "Treat the girl as if she is a man! One moment of dreaming could result in you with an Orcish mace bashing in your skull! Keep a sharp eye!" he warned the men. They came upon the Orcish camp and the Thane signaled for the archers to get into position. The shield-maiden followed the example of her fellow archers and got into position. He motioned for the shield wall and they formed. "Forward!" he cried. The line started forward, the men hitting the shields with their short swords and singing Vyir battle hymns. The Orcs spied the female and dropped their weapons. An Orc finally spoke up. "We will not fight females! It is not honorable!" said the Orc warriors as the surrendered. "Take these damned Orcs prisoner. We'll march them to the Yarl tomarrow." said the Thane. The men gathered up the Orcs and the Orcs went in peace. "That was certainly an odd turn of events!" said the Thane to his trusted huscarls. "The problem is, these Orcs will only face us in battle someday." said a huscarl. "Just kill them!" said another. "We are not like them! We will escort them to the Yarl." said the Thane.

The troops marched all day to the Hold Capitol with their prisoners and gave them to the jailers. "The Yarl wants to see you!" said a huscarl from the Yarl. The Thane knew what the Yarl was going to say. He rushed up to the Throne room and saluted. "My Yarl!" said the Thane. "You know full well that we can't afford to house and feed every Orc we capture. It's the woman in your ranks. We can't have her in our battle line or they'll refuse to fight. Give her to me and I'll make her an honorary huscarl in my Hall." said the High Yarl. The Thane went to get the girl. "You caused some complications for us and the Yarl is unhappy. He has agreed to make you an honorary huscarl to keep you out of trouble." said the Thane. "Honorary? You can keep it." she said. She marched off into the Hold city and went to stay with a relative. "The girl refused." said the Thane. "Just as well, we don't need women messing up this war." said the Yarl grimly. Raghilda met her Uncle Sandur and explained the situation. "You would do well in disguising yourself as a man and adopting another name." said the uncle. She went to cut her hair and used a sticky paste to make a false mustache and she adopted the name Rikhardur. She traveled to another Hold and offered her services. The men could not tell that "he" was a "she" and the Yarl offered her a place with the archers. After a few days in the Hall, a huscarl took her aside. "How long did you intend to deceive us? You are clearly not the right age to fight with us." said the huscarl. She wisely said nothing and the huscarl let the matter drop. 

After a month of training and feasting, the Army marched out and went hunting for Frost Orc rebels. The Frost Orc rebels moved from cave to cave and raided livestock, even during peacetime. The Yarl's Army encountered a band of Frost Orc rebels in the mountains, a band of twenty. The Vyir warriors slaughtered them and Raghilda got her first kill. She was worried at the response that her mind gave her, instead of feeling exultation, she felt grief and sorrow at the loss of life. She retreated to a private area to cry and she wept in private and she began to regret her decision to become a shield-maiden. She rejoined the Army and the Army settled down for the night. "Hey, it is against our laws for a woman to fight alongside men!" said the Yarl to her. "How did you know?" she asked weakly. "I saw you, by happenstance, expose yourself to bathe." he said. "Where can I go?" she asked. "I will send you back to your family." said the Yarl. "My father is already angry with me and will beat me if I return." she said. "I should beat you for taking the needless risk!" said the angry Yarl. He walked to his mount and told the huscarl to hold the Army in position until he got back. He rode her back to her house after he asked her where she lived. "My daughter." said Aeolmundur. "Thank you my lord" said Aeolmundur to the Yarl. The Yarl said nothing but he turned his pony away and rode off. "The Yarl was angry! Why did you run off from our Yarl? Are you a madwoman?" asked Aeolmundur. She said nothing. "Stay at home like I ordered! I was a fool to believe you!" he said in a fury. He did not hit her but her mother hit her bottom with a wooden spoon. "Stay home girl!" said her mother, reproving her daughter. Her father stormed off. "He was disgraced in the sight of the Yarl. Perhaps one day this reproach will leave our family but until then your father is going to have to give the Yarl many gifts before his anger will disapate." said her mother in an angry tone. "I am sorry." sobbed Raghilda and she ran into the house. She dropped the armor and weapon into the attic. She dressed into her night clothes and went to bed. The next day came and she was given an angry look by her father and her brothers gave her an angry look. She knew that she had to seek her own fate, outside of her family. She packed her bags and left am note for her mother; "I am sorry mother, I must leave so that the reproach of this house will lift." she left the note on the table in the main room and left. 

She walked to the Hold Capitol and took a boat to the Hold of the High Yarl. Once she arrived in the city, she walked to a tavern and offered herself as a bar-maiden. "Sure!" said Egbert Karlsen, the Tavern owner. "Just stay busy and the tips you get from the customers are your income. Did you have a falling out with your family?" asked Egbert. "I prefer not to discuss it." she said evenly. "Not my business." he said. "Just watch out, some men in this city seduce girls like you and turn them out into the streets to sell their bodies! It is shameful." he said. "I am no whore." she spat. "Good. Keep your nose clean here and maybe you'll be able to marry a well-off merchant here? Who can say?" he said with a smile. "Now go to my wife, she will give you our tavern dress." he said. The girl looked for the "woman in charge" and saw a scary-looking older woman with a scowl that would scare the Orcish Emperor himself. "Yer new here! Put this on new girl!" she said, tossing a blue dress to Raghilda. "I expect you to clean everything here daily. Don't flirt with the customers and don't act like a little girl or I will treat you like a little girl. Understood?" the ugly woman asked. Raghilda nodded her head. "Good, now get out there and sell some mead to the customers!" she said. Raghilda didn't see herself doing this forever but she needed money to stay in the city. She used her disposition to sell the Black Mead to the men and the wine to the ladies. Egbert saw her selling more Black Mead than anyone else working there and complimented her on it. "You are good for our business. There is a certain bravado about you, a certain brashness." he said. She smiled and nodded and he left her alone. At night, she was allowed to sleep in the servants quarters downstairs. Then a day came that changed her life forever. She was serving Black Mead when she saw her merchant uncle, Skarfur Skallagrimur, sitting at a table with some other men. She walked up and presented herself. "Raghilda! You were but a babe when I last saw you! Why did your family drive you out?" he asked. She told them the full tale and left nothing out. "That is unfortunate my dear niece. You said you are an archer?" he asked. She nodded. "That is fortunate for me, I need archers to protect a my caravans. I will hire you. If you want, I can send a gift and a letter to your father to explain that you are working with me now and I am also looking after you as a father." he said softly. "I am dead to them." she spat. "Give it time, perhaps you will be eventually reconciled." he told her and he patted her on the shoulder. The older woman came up and actually smiled. "Skarfur! As I live and breathe! How is my old boyfriend doing these days?" she said with a smile. "I just hired my niece off you." he said with a grin. "What? She is your niece? Then her father is your brother, Aeolmundur. How is he doing?" she asked. "Angry." said Raghilda. "Yes, certain events caught my niece here a bit off guard. She will be a fine archer for my caravans." said Uncle Skarfur. "What? I am losing my best serving girl?" asked Egbert. "Indeed, she is going to fill enemies with arrows if they dare touch my goods." said Skarfur. "Well, may the gods bless your endevours young woman." said Egbert. The old woman merely nodded. Skarfur and Raghilda left the tavern once she packed her goods.

Chapter Three.

The caravan was well into the borders of the Venetian Empire and Raghilda proudly sat on the lead horse with her crossbow at the ready. The road seemed safe enough, it passed through the fields of wheat belonging to the wealthy nobles of the Empire. "I see a bandit." said Raghilda. "How can you tell?" asked a fellow caravan guard. "He is armed, he is in poor clothing and his ear is punched, like a slave." she said. "Kill the bugger then!" said Sigurbrandur, a freebooter. "Wait, he is waving to us and putting away his weapon." she said. "Can I come near?" asked the run-away slave. "Don't make any sudden moves or I'll put a bolt right into your heart." said Raghilda cold-bloodedly. "Are you the shield-maiden Raghilda? Our bards are singing of your brave exploits! You marched in a man's army and fought with men until discovered. Then you ran off and joined up with this caravan?" asked the escaped slave. "Sure, kind of along those lines." she said. "I want to join your caravan until we get to Halakir, then I will jump off." he said. "What can you offer us?" asked Skarfur. "I am a swordsman. I was the Nord son of a Thane but I was driven off by a false rumor." he said. "And that rumor was?" asked Skarfur. "That I had slept with twenty daughters of Thanes, all unmarried but of age." he said. "You would be a liability for our caravan. Run wherever you want to but I don't hire whoremongers!" said Skarfur. The runaway slave looked downcast and walked off. "Keep an eye on that one, he is a lone wolf and could cause trouble for us." said Sig. "Hold on! On second thought, I had too had my share of fun as a young man, just not with that many." said Skarfur to the runaway Nord. Sig tossed the new man some armor and a sword and a shield. "Ride here with us, can you chase down bandits on horseback?" asked Skarfur. "Yes, I have seen my share of battles." said the runaway. "What is your name?" asked Skurfur to the runaway slave. "Adrianus Arnfredsen" said the Nord. He joined the caravan and got on a wagon to protect it. Nightfall came and Adrianus went to Skarfur and said; "Watch out in these parts, runaway slaves form together into raiding bands and they are like rabid wolves, they don't care who they kill! They would kill their own kinsmen if they could get some gold from their purses. They are still slaves in their minds and they can easily turned back into bondsmen, with the right amount of torture." said Adrianus. His words proved to be right, that night, bandit-runaways attacked the caravan. The guards fought for an hour and killed all of the attackers. The guards looted the bodies for gold and silver and found quite a bit of plunder. "This how we make most of our income." said Sig. "The bandits that attack us are loaded! Even their weapons sometimes fetch a good price." he added. "Why are so many caravans on this route unlucky?" asked Raghilda. "Because they don't hire the right people, I have heard horror stories of caravan guards turning on the caravan they are guarding and looting them and becoming bandits themselves." said Sig. The caravan got underway again and they reached Venetia and unloaded their goods. The guards remained with the Caravan Master and kept their eyes open for anyone that was watching them. The city was uneventful and Skarfur bought 1,000 bolts of silk and loaded them onto the wagons. The caravan started up again and after several hazard-filled days of bandit attacks, they reached the Free City of Halakir. The city was filled with stacks of fired-clay glazed brick houses alongside marble towers of the nobles. The entire city was a storefront, everything was for sale. Even the Temples did a brisk business in selling forgiveness of sins and withholdments of the wrath of the gods and other such hubris. "This whole city seems to be gold mad." said Raghilda. "The Trade Prince of the city is the richest man in the whole world." said Skarfur. "Only the richest Kings and nobles can sit with him, everyone else he politely turns away. He has a weakness for dark-haired women with blue eyes and he drinks coffee with liqour instead of ale or Mead. His policies helped build this city from a collection of stinking mud huts to the grand city it is today. The Colosseum was built by him, with his private funds, same with the city water system and sewer system." said Skarfur. "How do I know all this? I used to work for him!" he said with a smile. The wagons of the caravan rolled down the main bolavard, slowly least they run over one of the millions of humanoids that thronged the streets. The wagons rolled to a stop in front of a silk merchant and the workers from the caravan unloaded the wagons and after an hour of haggling, Skarfur walked out with 15 million in gold. "Well, when we get back to Vyirlundia, I am going to retire and build a large home in the Hold Capitol." said Skarfur. "But first, we are loading up spices and cumin!" said the merchant. "You said you are retiring? I am getting off here." said Raghilda. "Here is your pay, and thank you." said her uncle and he tossed her a bag of gold. She caught it and counted it. It was enough to let her live in comfort in the city for some time. She saluted her uncle and walked away into the crowd.

Chapter Four

She went to see the Trade Prince and asked his Grand Bashsir if he needed personal bodyguards. "We hire new guards all the time, assassins keep killing our old ones!" laughed the Grand Bashsir. "Well, I don't die so easy. I am Raghilda the Blade." said the young woman. "I like your confidence Vyir woman, what brings you out of your homeland?" he asked. "Adventure and the chance to win a reputation for myself." she said. "Our bards sing of your gutsy attempt to join the war against the Orcs, to fight alongside the male warriors of that land? We are impressed!" said the Grand Bashir. "At least someone is." she said, unemotional. "Fine, you are hired. You will be paid 100 dinars a day. Remember you are "on call" all the time. Sometimes the the Prince's Guards are sent on bounty-hunting missions. You look like you would thrive as a paid killer." said the Grand Bashir. "I might." she said. "Good! Go see the Captain of the Guard and then he will send you to the Captain of the Assassins. He will train you to kill with only your hands and body." said the Grand Bashir. She went looking for the Captain of the Guard. He waved to her and she saluted. "A Vyir, very good! You people have a reputation for being blood-thirsty killers of the worst sort." he said with an evil grin. "I am Raghilda the Blade." she said. "Oh! I should have guessed you would eventually come here." he said. "You are drawn by wealth and power? The Trade Prince might have some work for a warrior of your reputation. The Master Assassin will help shape your skills and make you into a deadly weapon." he said. "In the meantime, follow me." he said. They walked down the stairs and into the chambers bellow the Palace. "Here are the rooms of our guards, pick a bunk and it is yours. Everyone eats at a common table, you will see both of us on a daily basis. There is a large training room down here." he said. "I suggest that you hone your skills until the Master Assassin can see you." said the Captain. He walked off. She went looking for an empty bunk. She found one but soon saw a large, snoring Orc right next to her. She tensed up, her fear increasing but she remembered that the War wasn't going on down here. "Great, a snoring Orc for a room-mate" she said outloud. "Do I hear a Vyir? Did you come down here to slay me?" asked the Orc. "No. I am a mercenary." said Raghilda. "Good, then don't bother me." said the Orc and she went back to sleep. "Wait, are you female?" asked Raghilda, wondering what a female Orc was doing way down here. "I am, I wanted to fight the Vyir on my father's column but he said "No!" so I ran away and the Trade Prince hired me as an assassin." said the female Orc. "Yes, that is pretty much my story too." said Raghilda. "I will be leaving the Trade Prince's service. I am pregnant. I am marrying Tir'hald'a'kar and we are going back to our homeland to start a farm and raise a family." said the female Orc. "I never thought I would say this to an Orc but the gods bless you." Raghilda said with a tear running down her cheek. "Same to you." said the female Orc. She went back to sleep and Raghilda went looking for the Master Assassin. She felt a tap on her shoulder. She looked behind her and when she turned, someone punched her in the face. She dropped like a sack of potatoes. "If you want to survive here, you need to learn how to fight." said a male voice that sounded Nord. She rubbed her face and got up. The Nord hit her with his distaff and she fell again, this time she swept the legs out from under him and he went down. "Very good!" he said as her threw her down the hallway. She got back up and grabbed a polestaff lying nearby. She attacked and floored him. "I let you do that." he said, getting up. She swung at him and floored him again. He jumped to his feet and conceeded. "You are as skilled as they say." said the Master Assassin. "I am Ambrosius Edmondsen." he said, "Usually known as 'Ambrosius the Assassin' I alone survived the Assassins War." he said. "Actually, there is a former assassin turned to a Priest in northern Vyirlund that also survived the war." she said. "Yes, I have heard of him by reputation. But I meant I survived the blades sent for me by the High Elves in their attempt to end that war. I fled here and received employment by the Trade Prince and the rest you know." he said to her. 

Chapter Five

She trained with the Master Assassin for three weeks and one day heard that the Trade Prince himself wanted to see her. She expected to see a dark-skinned Sultan and instead saw a veiled Thaugmar sitting on a Throne. "I am the Trade Prince." said the Thaugmar in Vyir. She supposed that she wasn't surprised. "Why did you call me?" she asked. "I wanted to view the one they call Raghilda the Assassin." said the Thaugmar. "You can go now, I have other business." said the Thaugmar and suddenly the audience was over. She returned downstairs and went back to the training room. She found it odd that the Trade Prince did not give his name but she remembered that most people in this city were either felons or escaped slaves. The High Kings tolerated the city because it was useful to them. She stayed down bellow the Palace and avoided the city streets so she would be able to operate freely and undetected. "We have a job for you." said the Master Assassin. "You are to go to Al-Jarazid and kill their Sultan. He refuses to pay his loan back to the Trade Prince so he must die." said the Master Assassin. She geared up and put on a cloak of concealment and went to find a caravan going to Al-Jarazid. She got on a wagon undetected and waited for the journey to begin. The caravan pulled out and when it was halfway to Al-Jarazid, it stopped for no reason. The teamster in the wagon shoved her out and ripped off her cloak. She was visible. "Good, we shall soon have our friends here." said the teamster. A troop of Calvary showed up and one of the men threw a net on her. She knew that someone had betrayed her. "Come with us." said the soldiers. They chained her and put her on the back of the wagon and took her to the Sultan of Al-Jarazid. "So, the Trade Prince wants to kill me? To the deepest dungeon you will go until you are either executed or freed by me." said the Sultan. The soldiers dragged her down into the lowest level of their Palace dungeon and threw her in nude, except for her undergarments. She scanned the walls of the dungeon and looked for a way out of the cell. She felt air coming out of one of the cracks behind the stone blocks and she dug at the ancient caulking with her fingers until she was able to remove the stone. The wind stank of corpses. She threw the weakened masonry out of the way and made her way into the ancient tomb. She checked all the corpses and found plenty of ancient weapons to choose from. She took a kitana and armored up from a recently dead soldier. She advanced deeper and deeper into the dungeon, fighting zombies and skeletons every inch of the way. She finally got to an iron ladder and climbed it. It led to the desert outside of the city and she felt the 134 degree heat against her skin. She walked back to the city and jettisoned the armor outside of the wall and laid prostrate near the gate. "My goodness!" said a merchant and he lifted her up and took her to his place and tended to her. She remained with him for a few days, getting her strength back. "I need to get back to Vyirlundia." she told him. "Hard to do that. The High Yarl has ordered all trade with our part of the world stopped until further notice. I suppose a caravan can take you as far as Nordlandia." said the merchant. "Fine, and thank you for the kind treatment." she said as she slipped into the city disguised as a native woman. The guards looked for her but she stayed one step ahead of them as she looked for a caravan going back to Nordlandia. She had no money but offered to cook and clean for the caravan. "Fine, you are hired." said Dumas the Master Caravaneer. The caravan took several days to reach Nordlandia. She made a small sum after the caravan reached the Capitol city of Nordlandia. She disembarked without a word and began the journey back to Vyirlundia. After she reached the Capitol City of Vyirlund, she looked up her old employer and rehired as the serving maid. 

Chapter Six

She remained in safety and obscurity in the Capitol City for several years until she met a Thane and married him. Her family heard of her marriage to Thorbald Arbjartursen and came to forgive her. She wanted nothing to do with combat or warfare and yet something inside of her still waited for a battle to begin. She bore him three boys and seven girls and was surprised to see a large payment of gold show up one day at the Hall. "Mistress, this gold was given to you by the Trade Prince of Halakir. You left in a hurry and never reclaimed it." said the servant of the Trade Prince. She counted it. It totaled 20 million guilders. She took the money to her husband and he placed it in his chest. "We'll save that for a bad day." he said. "Besides, I am happy here with you and the children, why would we need more than what we can afford?" he asked and she nodded and smiled. Her husband was promoted to Yarl when the old Yarl died without a clear heir. "So you are a queen now! Well I know that you have good sense." he told her. He ruled for several years and she tended to the household. He died in battle, which caused her to mourn for several months. She was afraid to be thrust into combat again. She appointed Thane Annarsen the Commander of the Army until he was killed in battle. She had enough of it. She donned her armor for one last time, equipped a battleaxe and left her kids with a servant and led the Army into battle. "We will fight in the memory of my beloved husband, my father and my brothers! All killed by the Orcs! Shield wall, advance!" and the Vyir warriors fought and defeated the enemy, knowing that they were being led by Raghilda the Immortal. No-one could kill her it seemed. She was the only Vyir, ever, to receive that title in her lifetime. She killed over 2,000 Orcs in her fury over a series of 20 massive battles. One battle went badly for her and she was dragged off the battlefield badly wounded. She almost died but rallied after she heard that they had won. Years passed and she ruled her Hold as the only Queen in Vyirlundia, she was respected by all Yarls and even the High Yarl seeked her out for her advice. When her daughter wished to become a shield maiden, she took her aside and told her; "Honey, I love you very much and I would never do anything to drive you out of my home or my Yarldom. If you want to be a shield maiden, fight alongside your husband, only when you have to. Don't follow the dark path of being a mercenary." she said to her teenage daughter. "Thank you mother." she said and smiled. Her daughter trained on practice dummies and eventually was married off to the Crown Prince of the High Yarl. When her time came, she led the Grand Army into battle when her husband, the High Yarl was sick or on a diplomatic mission. Raghilda the Immortal was buried with full honors as the Yarl in Mt. Ysgramor when she died at 98 years old.

THE END

Tyrfingur Valmundursen the Invincible

Prologue.

Tyrfingur Valmundursen was not the best warrior on the line but he had a strength that his Thane used quite often: He was the perfect spy. He was small and fast enough to sneak anywhere undetected and his memory was better than most men's, he was also literate in Orc, since he spent a few years as a prisoner of the Orcs. With these skills, his Thane often knew what the Orcs were going to do before the Orcs themselves actually knew what they were going to do.

Chapter One. 

"Death always follows on the heels of extreme danger."- An unknown Vyir Skald.

Thane Valmundur Vilhjalmursen was an angry man and ran an angry household. All of his sons had already deserted him except for little Tyrfingur. Tyrfingur hid from his father when he went into his rages. His father would begin to hunt for him around the Hall with a strap in hand but little Tyr found out that if he put on an old cloak with runes on it and hid, his father would never find him. The poor wife of the Thane was often driven to tears by her boorish husband and pleaded the Yarl for a legal separation. "No, what then would happen to your baby boy?" asked the Yarl to the hapless woman. Finally she packed her bags in the dead of night, packed her little boy's bags and left the Hall for her uncle's house in Whitefield. She remained away for an entire winter and she finally began to worry that her husband might have killed himself. She sent one of her oldest sons, armed, to the Hall but discovered that Orcs and attacked the Hall and killed the Thane and had burnt the Hall to the ground. She remarried quickly thereafter to Thane Tjaldur Volsungursen. The Thane promised his little stepson that he would not beat him without a reason and the boy quickly grew to love his new father. A step-uncle came by the Hall one day and spoke about the need for spies. The boy was thirteen and was ready to take his Wilderness Trial. "I'll volunteer." said the boy. The older men liked his courage and his step-father said, "Once you pass your Wilderness Trial. Then I will put you under my spymaster." said the Thane. The next day, the boy went out to his week long wilderness trial, armed only with a short sword. He went out into the deep forest and built a shelter and then set traps for rabbits. He walked to a fast stream and refilled his water skin. He repeated the process daily and was able to feed himself daily with rabbit meat. During the trial, he confronted a Troll and was able to brain it before it killed him. He passed and began training. "Read this book, memorize these runes. Then ride a pony to me in Winter's Craig and repeat back to me the entire book, from memory." said Dagbjartur Eyvarsen, the spymaster. "That is so far away" thought Tyrfingur. "I know it is, but it is the only way to learn!" said the spymaster, seeing the look on his student's face. So Tyrfingur read the book, cover to cover and kept reading it until he was ready. "I have to go." said Tyrfingur a day later, to his father. "This is for your training? Where are you going?" asked Thane Tjaldur. "If I told you, it wouldn't be a secret." said the young man. "I was testing you." said the Thane. "Watch out for killer Frost Wolves, they are in great numbers this time of year." said the Thane as his stepson saddled up a pony. "I have to focus on what I read." said the young man. "Still testing." said the Thane. The boy rode off and focused on remembering what he read. His journey took him two days and by the time he reached the Hall at Winter's Craig, he found the spymaster and repeated the entire book to him, verbatum. "Now read this book, memorize it and take the information to Yarl Eikar." said the spymaster. He did and rode off to Summer's Reach. The journey took a day and he quickly found the Yarl and repeated the book verbatim. "Very good!" said the Yarl. "Now to have you read yet another book and I am sending you back to your master with the information contained therein. Have you noticed any enemy activity on the way here?" asked the Yarl. "Just damn Frost Wolves and Ice Bears." said the young man. "Good, no enemies then. Keep your eyes sharp and your ears open. Another function that you serve is to pass information to me about rebellious Thanes. It is no secret that some Clans do not like each other and will do everything short of open rebellion to make each other look stupid." said the Yarl. "Tell me anything you hear. Sometimes I have to pay a visit and settle the quarrel myself." said the Yarl. "Yes my Yarl!" said the young man. "Now get some food with the men tonight. Read this book." said the Yarl as he passed a 300 page book to the trainee. Tyrfingur took the heavy book and read it over and over again for three days until he had it memorized. He then rode back to the spymaster at Winter's Craig. He found the spymaster and repeated the book verbatim. "Good!" said the spymaster. "Do you know what kind of books you have been reading?" he asked. "Yes master, they appear to be cookbooks but at further investigation, they are actually code books. I was able to decipher the codes within and I wrote them down here." said Tyrfingur and he passed the spymaster the translated codes. "By the gods! I was about to tell you about that!" said the spymaster. "You are indeed a fast learner." he said. "So we skip ahead to the next lesson. Ride back to the Yarl and listen in on the conversation he has with his huscarls, tell me everything and leave nothing out!" said the spymaster. Tyrfingur rested, ate and rode his pony back to the Yarl. He silently sat in on the Yarl and his men and listened intently and observed their body language. The Yarl said not a word but he motioned to his huscarl and threw his eyes to the east and the huscarl saluted and left. Tyrfingur knew exactly what that meant. He rode back to the spymaster and made his report. "The Yarl sent a huscarl to deal with a Thane to the east." said Tyrfingur. "Good, excellent. You saw the Yarl give the hand sign for "Thane" then. Nothing slips past you. Now for the most dangerous part of your training and yes, you will have to escape from this part of your test: Get taken prisoner by the Orcs and escape only when you have learned both their language and their body language. They have loose tongues and they discuss sensitive matters in front of prisoners. At worst, they will make you cut wood or work in a salt mine, at worse, they will learn you are a spy and they will execute you. I advise you use this if they are going to execute you." the spymaster dropped a wolf-whistle into the hands of Tyrfingur. "They hear on lower levels, like the animals, anything from this whistle will put them in intense pain for a time of 40 minutes, use that time to escape." he said. 

Chapter Two

Tyrfingur decided to let himself all into the Orcs hands for that part of his training. He had the whistle concealed where the Orcs usually don't look and he rode out unarmed. He rode out to the Orc camp, seemingly unconcerned about this direction or fate. "Gaaarash Ozzzug!" said an Orc. The Orc grabbed the pony and he got off and presented his hands to the Orc. "Kimmash?" asked the Orc. He said nothing. "You are a stupid Vyir." said an Orc in Vyir, with a staff. "I am the Shaman for this clan. You are now our prisoner. You must tend to our wolves now. Perhaps we let you live and let you go home, if you are good." said the Shaman. "But if you try to run away, we make a big stew out of you, and we crack your bones for your marrow!" said the Shaman. The Orcs laughed. Tyrfingur said nothing. They didn't search him but they did put him in wooden stocks and he was chained to a cave wall at night. He began to observe their speech patterns and objects they associated with the words. He began to talk with his captors in Orcish about little matters, like Bears and wolves and even the weather. A few days passed and the Shaman began to trust him. "Listen human, we didn't want this war. This land that you claim was once the Kingdom of the Frost Orcs. We were powerful and had many slaves. We once had over 5,000 villages and three big fort-cities. All gone! Your people destroyed them! Our Priests warned us that the gods were angry with us but our King and the Great Emperor didn't listen. Now we might become your vassals, if you will let us live!" said the Shaman. "I am not such a cub, I can tell the path of the future." he concluded. "Our Yarls have accepted vassals from Orcs and Trolls in the past, and they worked for us honorably, only after they converted to the Way of the gods of the Light." said Tyrfingur. "Hail Shaman!" said another Orc, in Royal colors. "I must attend to this matter." said the Shaman. Tyrfingur listened to the conversation carefully. "We can't hold this human, we can barely feed ourselves!" said the Orc noble. "He seems sympathetic." said the Shaman. "Are you kidding? They would kill us before accepting us! I will give him to Borrok the Slaver and he will take him to the salt mines in Orgundia." said the Orc noble. "I rather like that youngling." said the Shaman. "No! He must go and that is final." said the noble and the conversation ended. "You heard?" asked the Shaman. "I heard, how do I avoid death there?" asked the young man. "Just swing your pick at the salt rocks and push carts and make sure to steal enough bread to survive." said the Shaman. "It is a bad way to end your life." said the Shaman with a sigh. He walked off. The next day, the slaver came by the camp and took Tyrfingur. He was put on a pony and after a journey of a week deep into Orgundia, they came to a mine and Tyrfingur got off his pony. "You here." said the Orc. "Me take new slave." said a huge, nasty-looking slaver. He placed an iron stock on Tyrfingur and led him into the mine. "Take pick when I take off stock. Stay and mine salt rock. You must go to table and take bread when eating time." said Orc. "Other slaves take food. You survive. They do not." he said with an evil grin. He left Tyrfingur with a pickaxe and left. He wondered if he was totally ready. He could read their body language and he knew their language quite well. "You, Vyir. Come with me." said an Orc noble. He lead him to a table with books and papers and a quill. "Me no read. You read, very smart. You do accounts. I be watching. You even make gold! No as slave but as retainer." said the noble. Tyrfingur saluted as an Orc would salute. "Yes my lord!" he said, convincingly. The Orc noble laughed and patted him on the head. "You wise. Soon Orc Empire be very huge again!" and he left the room. He checked the books and they contained a wealth of information about the Orcs profits, their trade routes and even the locations of the Orc nobles and their retainers. He knew what he had to do. He stole as much gold coin as possible and secreted it into bags, then he freed all the slaves, in secret. After memorizing all the books he was given, he slipped out on a stolen pony and rode back to Vyirlundia by bypassing the fortified part of the border and instead rode through a cave with two exits that straddled both lands. He rode to the High Yarl and made his report. "Good work! You disrupted their economy enough for a year so they will be easy to attack. You keep the gold, get my smith to turn it into guilders. And repeat the books to my scribes and they'll rewrite them in Vyir for official records. I am stealing you from your Yarl. You will be under Fafnir "One-Eyed." Drengursen, my spymaster. The High Yarl wrote his Yarl about the new arraignment and Tyrfingur settled in as one of the five spies of the High Yarl. "Go to the Tavern district. Best place to pick up information." said Fafnir. Tyrfingur walked down to that district and listened in on conversations throughout the day to get any useful information. He was sitting down when he heard a shifty lizard-man talking to two Nords. "Listen, my agent has a job for you lugs. Kill the High Yarl. I can give you 10,000 guilder." said the lizard-man in Ossian. Ossian was close enough to Orcish where Tyrfingur could catch most of the conversation. He walked out of the Tavern and then ran to the Great Hall and reported to the High Yarl. "Dori! Arrest those men that Tyrfingur described!" said the High Yarl. The Royal Huscarl went out to do his job and returned later with their heads. "They resisted arrest my Yarl." said Dori with a grim smile. "You have done me a great service Tyrfingur! I name you Thane and I grant you Springs Frost Hall, not too far from here." said the High Yarl. "I also give you one huscarl from my personal guard." and the High Yarl nodded to a huscarl. "But you are still my spy, so I will call for you when I need you." said the High Yarl. Tyrfingur packed his belongings and rode out to the ruined Hall. "What happened?" he asked out loud. "This place was sacked by the Orcs." said the huscarl. "The High Yarl has given you 1 million guilders to rebuild the place." he said. Tyrfingur returned to the city and hired workmen and they started to repair the ruined Hall, in the meantime, he lived in the city in the Great Hall with the other spies. The rebuilding took several months and finally he moved into the place. Not surprisingly, 30 warriors came to his Hall, asking to swear fealty to him. "Do you swear to fight my battles and the battles of the Yarl and the High Yarl?" said the new Thane. "We swear." said the men. "You are now my retainers." said Tyrfingur. "Since I am a spy and no great tactician, Huscarl Fengur will lead you into battle. Keep my lands free of Orcs, Trolls, bandits and feel free to kick out drunks and freeloaders." said Tyrfingur. "I almost forgot. You keep all loot you find but all skins from Bears and Wolves go to me." said Tyrfingur. Tyrfingur knew that skins sold in the south for 100 guilders a pelt, he knew which merchants would give him a good deal. After a few days of having no furniture and no mead or ale, he was finally able to get a merchant in to sell him a furniture set and a liquor merchant to sell him several casks of Black Mead and fine brown ale. Local young women began to hear of his being "raised in rank" by the High Yarl and according to Vyir custom, their fathers sent letters of invite to him to their Halls for the purposes of him meeting their marriageable daughters. He spent a week on that and thanks to his uncanny abilities, he picked Alfhildur Arinbjornsen, whose father was not too rich but wasn't greedy either. He paid a dowry of 2 million guilder for her and they were married at the Temple of the Light in the Capitol City. 

Chapter Three.

Seven years later saw the Thane relaxing at his Hall with his seven children playing around the Hall and his wife tending to the Kelti slaves and making sure that they made the meals on time and tapped the mugs for the warriors, the huscarls and the Thane. According to the tradition of his Clan, the warriors ate first, the huscarls ate second and finally the Thane ate last but the Thane drank first and the order was reversed from that. Each Clan had a different tradition with that. The drinking game was thus; The Thane drank from the horn of the honored guest. If there was no honored guest, he drank from the horn of his first huscarl. The huscarls drank from the horns of the warriors every other drink and finally everyone drank from the Thane's horn. And that is how it went all night. The men would stagger outside and puke out their vomit but not in front of the stairs, but off to the side in a hole dug for that purpose. The tradition varied with the Clan. Clan Ysgramor was the "top" Clan with major Yuletide gifts going to the Clan Head, the High Yarl was the next to get major gifts and finally small gifts of gold and silver were sent to the Priests. None of the Vyir could figure out why Clan Ysgramor never gave another one of it's members as a High Yarl but whispers had it that a Clan Head from Clan Ysgramor sitting on the Dragon Throne would be too powerful unless if it was a major crisis. The other Clans made sure, during the High Althing, that "their man" had a turn on the Throne and the Yarls all sat on their thrones according to the will of their Witangomots, which consisted of all of their thanes, so everyone was happy. The Thane was turning these things over in his sharp mind when he was told that the High Yarl wanted to see him about a matter. He got on his pony and rode to the Hold Capitol. "You wanted to see me my Yarl?" asked Tyfingur. "Tyrfingur the Unseen! I wanted to know if Clan Ysgramor wants to wrestle my throne from me. Go find out if their Thanes and Yarls are agreeable towards me." said the High Yarl. "Your will be done my lord!" said Tyrfingur. He rode the circuit of Hold Capitols, listening in on the conversations, disguised as a wandering Priest. After hearing nothing amiss, he returned to the Great Hall. "My lord, your fears are unfounded, Clan Ysgramor sleeps and is at peace with your rule." said Tyrfingur. The High Yarl nodded his head. "Good, because whenever Clan Ysgramor gets the Throne, they tend to curb the rights of the Yarls." said the High Yarl. The sons of the High Yarl sat at the Great Table and listened in. "Now the only problem is my sons! All of them want to be High Yarl but if I can't pick an heir, the High Althing will put a different Clan on the Dragon Throne." said the High Yarl. "My lord, give each one a test. Make each one memorize the Great Law Book. The one who can recite verbatum from the Great Law Book will become the High Yarl." suggested the Thane. "Fine! A great suggestion! You run the test." said the High Yarl to Tyrfingur. Tyrfingur gathered the sons and told them the test. They agreed to recite the tome after they had all studied it, in a month. Tyrfingur rode back in a month and conducted the test. Crown Prince Aeolbjorn was the only one who could recite, from memory, the entire law book. "Aeolbjorn is your heir." said the Thane. "Aeolbjorn? He is the youngest of my sons." said the High Yarl. "But he is the governor out of all of them." said the Thane. So the High Yarl named Aeolbjorn his successor before the Moot and the Yarls accepted him as the next High Yarl. Wartime came and Thane Tyrfingur was sent out on dozens of missions against the invading Kelti Kings. The Kelti Kings had thrown their armies together into a 600,000 warrior invasion force and began to attack and burn Halls to the ground where they found them. To make matters worse, Kelti slaves were running away to join the Kelti invading Armies. Thane Tyrfingur and Anton the Assassin cooked up a plan to assassinate the Kleti Kings and thereby confuse the whole invading army. They disguised themselves as Kelti runaways and told the Kelti Kings that they should meet in a certain cave at a certain time to meet with traitors from the Vyir side. The Kings agreed and when they came to Astmundur's Cave for the meeting. A Vyir battle-engineer had rigged the cave with explosive compounds that ignited when a torch was stuck nearby, causing the cave to collapse, killing the Kings and it sent the Kelti armies into a panic and the High Yarl was able to encircle the invading force with the Grand Army and wipe it out. For that act of amazing bravery, Tyrfingur was raised to the post of Yarl, replacing a Yarl that had been killed in battle. Yarl Tyrfingur was a wealthy man now and was surprised by an old Vyir woman who came to him and gave him some news. "Do you remember your birth father well?" she asked. "Not really, I just remember running and hiding from him!" he said with a chuckle. "Your father was a member of Clan Ysgramor, but he never revealed that secret to anyone, even his wife." she said. "gods!" Tyrfingur exclaimed. "How many people know this?" he asked. "Just me and my sister." said the older woman. "I must tell the High Yarl that I must exclude myself from the succession." said Yarl Tyrfingur. "Just be warned that the High Yarl is secretly arresting the members of Clan Ysgramor." said another old woman. "That doesn't sound like the High Yarl." said Tyrfingur. He saddled up his pony and went to visit the High Yarl as his summer Hall. "There is no truth to the rumors." said the High Yarl. "Why would I do that? The whole nation would rise against me. I was concerned about Asliefur Astvaldsen and I put him in my dungeon." said the High Yarl. "Let me see him." said Yarl Tyrfingur. The High Yarl gave assent and he went down the narrow stairs to the dungeon. Men cried in the darkness and the Yarl thought he heard a man pleading for mercy. "Torture! by the gods!" said Tyrfingur. He walked to the cell of Asliefur. "Treason and contempt!" cried Asliefur. "Silence!" said the jailer. "No justice and no mercy!" said Asliefur with contempt. "What is going on?" asked Tyrfingur. "Two odd older women visited me a week ago, claiming that my father was a member of Clan Ysgramor. I told them to leave my Hall and to never repeat that matter, least I declare them outlaw. They accused me to the High Yarl! Both of the vile witches should be declared outlaw!" he cried in tears. "Those women sound familiar. I will speak with the High Yarl. He went upstairs and explained the matter. "So those old witches fooled me! Huscarls, go arrest those women! They are staying here in the city." said the High Yarl. "Tell the jailer I free Asliefur and I lift all charges against him and I restore his titles and his property and I give him 1 million guilders for being patient for the High Yarl's justice." said the High Yarl. Yarl Tyrfingur went downstairs and freed the prisoner. The two evil women were arrested and under closer examination, it was revealed that they were actually Orcs under an enchantment. They were both immediately executed by orders of the High Yarl. 

Chapter Four

Yarl Edvard Edvardsen was resentful of Thane Eyvaldur Fjolsvinnursen and accused him to the High Yarl of being a plotter against the High Yarl. Instead of submitting to arrest, Thane Eyvaldur gathered his retainers and went on the run, hiding in caves and gathering followers. The High Yarl called in Yarl Tyrfingur. "Old friend, go to Thane Eyvaldur the Rebel and see why he rose against me." said the High Yarl. Yarl Tyrfingur found the location of the rebels and went to speak with the Thane. "Why did you rise against the High Yarl?" asked Yarl Tyrfingur. "Because a base-born man by the name of Edvard Edvardsen slandered and libeled me to the High Yarl and now I am a wolf's Head in his sight." said the Rebel. "End the rebellion, ride with me to my hold and I will put you under my protection and you will have the chance to explain yourself to the High Yarl." said Yarl Tyrfingur. "I want to stand before the High Althing and let them judge me." said the rebel Thane. "Fine, we will wait for the meeting of the High Althing." said Yarl Tyrfingur. He rode the rebel Thane back to his Hold and then rode to see the High Yarl and explain the situation. "Huscarls, go arrest Edvard Edvardsen!" shouted the High Yarl. The huscarls went out and got Edvard. Edvard spat at the High Yarl. "You offended my cousin! So I gained revenge by making you look like a fool!" said Edvard. "Huscarls, execute that base-born traitor." said the High Yarl. "Wait." said Yarl Tyrfingur. "High Yarl, your bad decisions are making everyone mad. I suggest you abdicate in favor of your son." said Yarl Tyrfingur. The High Yarl became angry but said; "Edvard. You made your point, now go home and stop bothering me or I will clap you in irons. I declare the rebel to be pardoned and fully restored. Yarl Tyrfingur. Just go away for awhile before my temper makes me put you in irons." the High Yarl warned. Yarl Tyrfingur turned and left for his Hold and began writing the other Yarls about forcing the High Yarl to abdicate. "Dearest Yarls, the sitting High Yarl is lacking in skill and ability, his son would be a better choice than him. Vote in the next High Althing to force him to abdicate in favor of his son." and he sent out the copies of the letter to all the Holds and to the Earldomans. The next year came and the High Althing met and discussed the matter and decided to convene a Moot. The Thanes left and the Yarls remained in the stone circle. "All in favor of forcing the High Yarl to abdicate in favor of his son, the heir we close, say "Aye!"" said the judge in the White Robe. The Yarls all voted "Aye!" with one accord and the clerks sent the decision to the High Yarl by messenger pigeon. The High Yarl received the decision and put the Crown on his successor and he retired to his Hold. 

Chapter Five

Yarl Tyrfingur heard of a relic sword hidden in the deeps of mountain, deep within a former Thaugmar hold. He recruited Bjargmunder the Double-Axe, a warrior of great renown. They went together into the mountain to find the relic sword but a million deep-trolls attacked and slew both men after a protracted battle. The gods looked down on the tragic ending and wept. The god of war sent his Valkyries to resurrect Tyrfingur and Bjargmunder and slew the deep-trolls. The men got up, completely healed of their battle-wounds and they knew what had happened to them. They both marched into the main chamber, now free of deep-trolls and took the relic sword. The relic sword was a Thaugmar-steel overlay that was frost enchanted so whenever it hit an enemy, it turned the enemy into a statue of ice. "I shall rename you "Dyrmundur!"" said Tyrfingur to the sword. The sword hummed with a positive energy and Yarl Tyrfingur and his friend returned to the Hold in triumph. The new High Yarl heard about the relic sword and asked for it. "Sorry, the sword is soul-bound and it would kill anyone else who tried to use it." said Yarl Tyrfingur in a letter. "Fine then, I want you by my side. I name you High Chancellor and High Huscarl." responded the High Yarl in a letter. Yarl Tyrfingur accepted the promotion and came to serve at the new High Yarl's side. The Orcs invaded and Tyrfingur cut into the Orc line with "Dyrmundur" and slaughtered thousands of them. The Orc Army fled and Tyrfingur with the Grand Army pursued the Orcs and slaughtered the remainder. The battle-field was a collection of Ice Orc Statues and the Vyir named the battle-field "The Field of Ice Statues." the Orcs stayed out of Vyirlundia for 20 years after that. During that time, warriors tilled their farms and the Yarls built needed forts, roads and even trade towns. The High Yarl had a statue of Tyrfingur erected outside of the Capitol City upon Tyrfingur's demise at 103 years old. The relic sword itself reverted the the High Yarl's Throne forever and was put in a glass case in Hall Vallhalla-Mitgarde.

The End.