Chapter 1 (Part I): An Explosive Development

I’m sure you’ve heard Magister Iiger say, ‘a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.’ But what I’m going to show you today is that a lot of knowledge can be a much more dangerous thing. Any amount of education or wisdom can be put into the service of evil in the absence of compassion and goodwill.

-          “The Ox” guest lecturing a class on the ethics of science and spellcraft.

Azraea had expressed concern when Ochsner chose to stay behind at the dwarven citadel with Vinny while the others went down to Defiance, but the dwarvish woman hadn’t been especially worried. Ochsner did have misgivings about Vinny being a foreign agent operating within their country – the woman hated being lied to. Her mother had told her that if she had one fault, it was her gullibility, and her father had told her (quite lovingly over a game of liar’s dice) that if she had a second fault, it was her own total ineptitude in deception; it was one of the few arts that she wasn’t proficient at. But Ochsner always had a curious way of looking at people. She didn’t like to think she objectified people, but in some sense it was easier for her to think of a person as a complex system or a technical mechanism – a moving, reactive puzzle that was hideously complicated, but not so inscrutable she couldn’t work with it. 

Vinny was another puzzle, and finding out that he was a spy simply meant she’d learned that she needed new ‘rules’ to govern her interactions with him. Always look for secondary motives for his actions, consider carefully the consequences of doing anything he asked, and – most importantly – never take his word alone for anything crucial. Interacting with someone who had more ‘rules’ was emotionally and mentally taxing, true, but she’d known simpler people she liked far less, and more complicated people she’d give her left pinky for. Understanding Azraea had turned in to a years-long ongoing project, but she couldn’t imagine life without the mercurial woman’s friendship.

Though she did not trust Vinny, Ochsner liked him well enough to feel comfortable staying in the citadel, especially knowing that her friends were just down the slopes of the small mountain. Although, truth-be-told, she would have had trouble saying ‘no’ to his invitation under any circumstances, as he had promised to allow her further access to the ancient tablet she had found when they had first explored the subterranean fortress. The enchanted device was mystically tied to a wealth of knowledge held deep within the mountain – it promised access to secrets of such great value she could not have refused such an offer. Fortunately, Vinny had been true to his word, allowing Ochsner to spend the entire night studying the archives the device was connected to. Of course, it was not as if Vinny did not have an alternative agenda; he had spent the night hovering over her giving her the hard-sell on the Gnoman Empire.

“You would be amazed at the things we have,” he said, halfway through a bottle of wine, “The things we’ve achieved. Not just our art and culture, but things anyone should appreciate. The spellcraft that allows that device to communicate with what’s in this mountain? We’re on that, we’ve got magic that allows people with no magical training to communicate instantaneously over vast distances, I can show you; I brought the enchantments with me! But you know what? More than that, we have people who are starting to understand why the spells work. Not just how, why. And besides magic, we’re making amazing advances in the natural world, advances that aren’t just locked up in some hidden vault under a mountain; they’re literally making it to our streets. We’re experimenting with a system of self-igniting gas-lamps in our capital. By this time, next year, every night at sunset, the city will be illuminated by lamps on every street. And the plumbing in Kingstown? That sort of thing is commonplace throughout our major cities, and we’re working on improving the infrastructure even in our small towns. We’re working on improving everything all the time. Healthcare, food production, sanitation, and we’re throwing everything we’ve got at education, because that’s what’s making it happen.”

Ochsner sighed and put down her tablet, “But those advances? They’re paid for by the spoils of war. The Gnoman Empire thrives by devouring other countries. I don’t want any part of that.”

“Who told you that?” Vinny said, “Who teaches that crap? That’s not how it is.”

“Fine, then, how is it? Hm, how do you justify the fact that your empire is an empire, how it went from a small coastal country, to dominating an entire sea?”

“You’re thinking of us as some big lion that’s out to devour everything in our path, and just gets bigger and bigger with every meal, but we’re not. If anything, we’re a rose bush.”

“A rose bush?”

“You never had wild roses? They’re amazing – domesticated roses are a pain in the ass to grow, but wild roses, the more you cut them back, the stronger they get. You know how many wars our empire has been in in the past two centuries?”

Ochsner sighed and tried to remember her history classes, “Like a dozen or so?”

“Eight,” Vinny said, “Although one of them has been going on for nearly fifty years, so the confusion is understandable. Do you know how many we started?”

“No,” Ochsner admitted.

“One,” Vinny said, “In two hundred years, we’ve started one war. The fact is, the bigger our rose bush has gotten, the more people have wanted to cut us down, but when they tangle with us, oh man, they get the thorns. We come back bigger and stronger, and we firmly believe the best defense is a good offense. Other people start wars but we finish them, and if we keep something for our trouble, well, then maybe that’s a lesson for everyone.”

“Keep something? You mean the entire Facian peninsula? Didn’t you wipe out they’re entire culture?”

“Not exactly… See, Gnomania started out as a small colony of the old Facian Empire. All Gnomans were essentially Facians. When we became self-sufficient and found ourselves crippled by rising Facian taxes, though, we declared our independence – as did most of our smaller sister colonies scattered across the Facian Sea. Facia didn’t like that, but when they collapsed due to, we’ll call it terrible mismanagement, they couldn’t do much about it. Facia divided into a bunch of small warring city-states, and off and on, some of the coastal states would get this idea that they’d show they were the rightful heirs to the Facian legacy by trying to reclaim us. Which was stupid, of course; they could barely protect themselves from their neighbors, and we’d been building up to defend ourselves from the Sillsresh corsairs to our south and the orcs living across the mountains to our west. Eventually, though, we got tired of our old motherland coming and harassing us, and decided to put an end to the infighting in the Facian peninsula. With the help of the same Sillsresh corsairs that had previously been our enemies, we sailed over and conquered Facia. We standardized the hell out of things and set up a thriving trade system.”

“So the reason Facian culture was supplanted by Gnomanian culture was because Gnomanian culture was Facian culture to begin with?”

“Basically,” Vinny nodded, “If anything, we wiped out the frankly petty differences that had emerged among the city-states, and brought back the ideas that had united them all to begin with; with some more modern sensibilities of course.”

“Honestly, are you here because Gnomania has designs on our kingdom?”

“If it were your kingdom we wouldn’t need to be here. But despite what it says on paper, this is the dragon’s kingdom, isn't it? And we figure it’s only a matter of time before she picks a fight with us. She’s made like she’s content to lie on her pile of gold and roll around in the suffering of your people, but she does more than lean on you all economically. She’s gotten increasingly enmeshed in the functioning of the country, like a weed spreading roots through the plants around it, and she uses those connections to strangle the kingdom’s agencies and departments, increasing people’s dependence on the businesses she controls. It’s profitable for her of course, but it’s also given her more control over the kingdom every day, and whatever she gains control of she turns to one purpose – getting more…”

“Yeah, okay, I get the picture. You’re afraid that she’ll gain so much control over Caelia that she could force us to attack our neighbors.”

“It may not be her plan now, but she’ll get there. And she won’t care who dies in the process, on either side,” Vinny said, “It’s just about money and power. She’s addicted to it, there’s never enough. And she’s running out of room to grow here. If you’re worried about a despot gobbling up other countries, you should be looking in Kingstown.”

“But you’re not going to prevent that?” Ochsner said, “Your plan is just to be prepared to respond when she finally makes her move?”

“Well…” Vinny started, “Like I said, the best defense is a good offense, so when you say ‘respond’, that’s sort of an understatement. Guys like me do their job, and the war will be extremely short with very little of it happening on a battlefield. Still, the best wars are the ones that don’t happen, and I firmly believe, you never do anything for someone that they can do for themselves.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning I have a few barrels aging in the basement, metaphorically speaking.”

“And was Meingen one of those barrels? Metaphorically?”

“No, an old eccentric like that?” Vinny answered, “He was a means to an end. He had his crazy plan to poison the Dragon’s horde as part of some economic revolution. I needed some connections in the university, so I gave him some tips that led here. Easiest sell I’ve ever managed; dwarven history and culture were like catnip for the guy.”

“I got that impression,” Ochsner said, “I was kind of surprised he couldn’t read old dwarven.”

“Say what?” Vinny set his wine glass down on the table, “He reads dwarven fine. One of the first things I needed him to do was take care of some translations for me. That’s how I found this place to begin with. Cross-referencing old Facian records with some journals and maps we recovered from an ancient dwarven shipwreck.”

“He didn’t tell me that,” Ochsner said, “He spent his whole time in an alchemy lab trying to fill in the gaps in what we know because he couldn’t understand anything more than the numbers and diagrams. I mean, given that it gave him everything he needed to know about the composition of the deathmetal he wanted, that was enough, but he couldn’t have read any of the scrolls. I mean, he said he couldn’t.”

“Well, he lied,” Vinny was looking decidedly uncomfortable. He had a loose cannon on his ship, and he didn’t like that, “Did he get one of those?”

“The tablet?” Ochsner asked, “The only ones I found were in an observation room he didn’t go near.”

“So you were separated?”

“For most of the time we were down there. We didn’t come out together, either. We had to run when Azraea tripped an alarm with her magic. He went back out the way we came in, and we went up through the ammunition feed for the ballistic pipe. I don’t get it, why would he lie?”

“That’s the problem,” Vinny said, “I don’t get it, either. I expect people to lie to me to play their angle, but I don’t know why he’d lie to you. He needed me to get him to this place, and gave me a nutty motivation that I didn’t question because it was enough that I didn’t think he could actually get into the place without the master-word, and because, even if he did, he agreed it’d be in our best interests if we kept the place secret for the time being.”

“Well, he seemed intent on keeping it secret,” Ochsner said, “We agreed to that too. He’s not working for the dragon, is he? He could be riding to Kingstown to tell her all about this place.”

“No, I’ve missed something here, but I know my profile is spot on. He hates that dragon. It’s pathological for him – he hates her and everything she symbolizes in his mind.”

“So his agenda would still be to kill her, then?” Ochsner asked.

“And deal the killing blow to the kingdom’s economic system,” Vinny said, “Hence his scheme to poison all of the gold in her horde.”

“Which you knew would never work,” Ochsner said.

“Well, yeah, it’s not exactly practical to perform alchemy on tons of gold,” Vinny said, “It’s the sort of idea you come up with as a child or… drunk.”

“But he’s a tenured professor of alchemy,” Ochsner said.

“He could be the tenured professor of rainbows and miracles,” Vinny said, “It doesn’t mean he can make the impossible happen, no matter how much he believes in it.”

“No, but it means he can convince you he believes in something he knows wouldn’t possibly work.”

Vinny went wide eyed, “He played me; he played on my expectation that the crotchety old professor was off his gourd. Well,” Vinny paused, “this is… this is humbling and disturbing.”

“Okay, so, he’s an alchemy expert, he probably still wanted something to do with the deathmetal. He told us he wanted the deathmetal itself, a small amount of it. So maybe he was planning to use it in something, or maybe he was planning to use it to make more, like he said.”

“But he can’t make that much more,” Vinny said, putting aside his humiliation, “Not if he’s making it from gold. If he’s using lead, then he can make a lot. That stuff is everywhere now.”

“So he makes a few ounces, or he makes a ton, so what?” Ochsner asked rhetorically, “Unless he can get the dragon to eat it or sleep on it a ton of deathmetal’s not going to get things done any better than a few ounces. If anything it’d just kill him before he can do anything with it.”

“It’s not just about the dragon,” Vinny said, “It’s about the money. He thinks it’s all the same, all one big evil.” 

“Yeah, but like we said, the dragon’s horde isn’t a plausible target…”

“But the dragon’s gold isn’t money anymore,” Vinny said, “Not if you think about it. It’s been out of circulation for years. They’d been plating lead with gold,” Vinny pulled a dark coin out and tossed it on the table, “And now they aren’t bothering to plate it.”

“So, you think he’s going to poison the money that’s in circulation?”

“It’d make people sick, right?” Vinny said, “Eventually it would, and it’d be the rich people first. Exactly the sort of thing he’d want.”

“No, the rich people don’t see much coin. Their wealth is mostly in their ledgers. The people who’d get sick would be the people who handle money every day. The vendors and shopkeepers,” Ochsner said, “Bank tellers, but not bank owners.”

“Yeah, okay,” Vinny agreed, “And that’s the opposite of what he’d want. He’s willing to break some eggs, but he wouldn’t directly target the common man unless he could really get some mileage out of it. Plus, I’ll admit, he didn’t impress me as patient enough for a plan like that.”

“How many eggs would he break?” Ochsner asked as she began flipping through pages on her tablet.

“Depends,” Vinny said, “If it meant tearing down ‘the system’ as he called it, he’d break a lot to make it happen. He wants a revolution, and he never pretended he expected it to be bloodless.”

“Meingen knows his dwarven mythology well. He knows the legendary hypotheses,” Ochsner said, “If Meingen knew that place wasn’t a mine... then he might have gone in looking for the means to make one of them happen.”

“Legendary hypotheses?” Vinny asked, “You were talking about that the other day; they’re like myths about things that haven’t happened yet, right?”

“Yes, but over the centuries, some of them have come to pass, and Meingen might be close to making another one work,” She tapped the tablet frantically, swiped a few times, and, finding what she was looking for, turned it around so Vinny could see it.

Vinny studied the complicated diagram, “I’m sorry, but I have no idea what I’m looking at.”

“Meingen’s reset button,” Ochsner said, “A device that could wipe out the dragon, the gold she’s sitting on, and the government that works for her, in the blink of an eye.”

Rise of Azraea, Book II: Foreword

This book stands as the second installment of The Rise of Azraea, and is an immediate sequel to the events of that book. While Book I chiefly focused on events that receive little attention outside of academic circles, Book II covers events which are far more widely known and discussed, especially within Caelia. As a result, I imagine many people may leap directly to this book, and for them I would present a note of caution.

The historical events presented herein have been subjected to interpretation and reinterpretation by journalists, historians, political scientists, politicians, educators, and students of all ages. I have presented what I believe to be the most accurate version of these events; for many people, the story presented in this book will be drastically at odds with what they have been taught. I can only say that I have based this book on research with primary sources and interviews with surviving participants of these events, as well as the most well supported theories and perspectives that have been advanced by those in my field. That said, in order to help the reader relate to the challenges Azraea and her allies faced, and to avoid what might otherwise be a dry read, I have taken some artistic license as an author. For a more straightforward, objective description of these events, I would recommend reading the sixth edition of Cadlmun’s Definitive History of Caelia. I have coauthored a chapter about Azraea in that text, which is largely based on the research I carried out for this book. Any students wishing to cite my work in their studies should go to that text for their research.

Having addressed that, I should provide some context for readers that have not read the previous book, or who may have read it quite some time ago. In the previous book, our three main protagonists, Azraea Michelle Thanel, Ochsner, and Kairumina Doro Asterigennithika, had finished their studies in Kingstown and journeyed to the east end of the kingdom to hunt and kill the scolopendrae, a vicious treasure-guarding monster, which actually turned out to be an army of creatures engineered by the dwarves many centuries before. In the process they encountered a foreign agent, an immortal guardsman, a heroic orc warrior, and a pair of polyamorous weredogs. The journeys and encounters described in my first book had a profound impact on each and every one of the women, though for each of them, they seemed to find more problems than solutions.

Azraea, a western Caelian human of Arbarii descent, began her odyssey as an outwardly chipper, friendly, kind, and studious woman. Inwardly, however, she was racked by silenced doubt, regret, and shame forced upon her by the rest of the world. She had just completed advanced studies in necromancy but had found herself unable to secure employment appropriate to her education and abilities. Hoping to delay her return home just a little bit longer, Azraea took on a quest to slay the Scolopendrae of the Dark Dweller’s forest, hoping that the treasure would pay for her considerable student loan debt. What she found instead was a brutal introduction to life outside of the capitol; a violent free-for-all where bandits, corrupt guardsmen, and survivalist militias had overtaken the countryside. This baptism by fire changed Azraea considerably; she hardened, became tougher and more strong-willed, but also more confident and self-accepting. After years of keeping it hidden, Azraea finally opened up about her feelings towards her close friend, Kaira. However, Azraea’s renewed sense of inner strength brought with it a heavy weight; for the first time, she felt like she had the power to change her world, and with that came the responsibility to do so. 

Azraea’s best friend and college roommate, Ochsner, was a dwarvish  woman from the subterranean metropolis of Undver in southeast Caelia. Ochsner was, even then, a polymath, a jack-of-all-trades who had accumulated education and experience in several fields, but had never been able to secure a job in any field which would lead her into a career. After countless internships, assistantships, adjunct positions, and part time jobs, Ochsner had reached the point of near hopelessness, agreeing to join Azraea’s quest out of desperation. What Ochsner found was an unexpected knack for adventuring; it might not have been the safe, stable career she wanted, but her broad range of skills and knowledge repeatedly proved essential to overcoming the challenges her party encountered on their journey. In fact, it was Ochsner who was ultimately able to unlock the secrets of an ancient dwarven citadel and subdue the scolopendrae. Ochsner had finally found her true calling, but as a result had drawn the attention of “Vinny”, an agent of the Gnoman Empire, who began pressuring her to defect from the country of her birth.

Finally, Kairumina Doro Asterigennithika, a very young elvish woman from eastern Caelia, had devoted her studies to survival, combat training, and military history. This partly came from a fascination with orcish culture, and partly from a general love of the martial arts. From her earliest days in Kingstown, Kaira had intended to become a professional soldier, but despite her excellence, and the support of a couple of influential mentors, she had never been able to penetrate the gender wall surrounding that field. Accompanying her friends into the wilderness, however, had eliminated any self-doubt that had seeped in with that rejection. Kaira’s experiences, and some mentorship from Vinny, also taught Kaira a measure of pragmatism, and she learned to take pride in who she was and what she had accomplished, rather than aspire to someone else’s arbitrary standards. However, while Kaira had largely avoided relationships since a tragic loss in her adolescent years, she now found herself caught in the beginnings of an unexpected love triangle between the dashing orc warrior, Thrakaduhl, and her own close friend, Azraea.

As if each woman’s challenge was not enough to overcome, Caelia was nearing the worst part of a two centuries long economic decline, which had exacerbated racial tensions and anti-progressivism throughout the country. Decaying infrastructure, deregulation of private enterprises, and withdrawal of oversight from county law enforcement had returned the countryside outside the cities to a primitive state that some have described as a mini-dark age. The power to govern the towns and communities lay in the hands of those who could either buy titles or buy militias. The highway guardsmen were as likely to participate in criminal endeavors as to stop them and the major agricultural corporations were using manipulation and intimidation to assume the roles of feudal lords. 
Across the board, Caelians were frustrated by their government's disorganization, impotence, and sometimes apparent malice towards its citizenry. At that time, Caelia was governed by a House of Lords, a voting body comprised of individuals who owned more than a certain amount of real estate (the exact number shifted back and forth over the centuries). Land-owning citizens who fell below that line voted at the county-level to elect a sheriff or governor who would in turn appoint someone (usually a family member) to represent the modest land-owners in their area. Each member of the house controlled votes proportional to their holdings (or their constituents' holdings). Formally, Caelia's monarch controlled the largest portion of the vote by virtue of holding the most property, although Caelia's last king wielded considerably less power than its first, as his predecessors had been forced to sell many of their holdings to the dragon, Syliva.
If it seems an ill-conceived system of government now, bear in mind that Caelia's founders had believed themselves forward-thinking when they limited their monarch's powers, and more so when they provided the means for Caelia's smallest property owners to make their voices heard in the House of Lords. It was expected that competition between the strongest lords would ensure that the common people would still be given their due; for the greater lords, power would depend on allying themselves with the individually weaker but numerous elected representatives, and that would require winning the support of the voting public.
Unfortunately, Caelia's forefathers did not account for significant changes in Caelia's socioeconomic strata; over the centuries the portion of Caelia's 'unlanded' population grew considerably, and so too did the number of Caelians disenfranchised by their government. This problem was greatest in the densely populated cities, where per capita land ownership was so low that even moderately successful citizens had no real influence on national politics. 
Having no voice in their government, the denizens of the growing cities became scapegoats for the greater lords who found that support from their rural countrymen could be won more cheaply through aggression than compassion. The problems of urban Caelia became go-to talking points for rural politicians, and their more powerful supporters readily endorsed any ideas which shifted the blame for any given problem onto urban Caelians. Many rural Caelians came to see cities like Kingstown, and institutions like the university there, as breeding grounds for contemptuous arrogance at best and total moral bankruptcy at worst; the rhetoric of their county representatives capitalized on that. 
For example, while Azraea and her friends finished their education in Kingstown, the heralds for the greater lords persuaded rural Caelians that the 'over educated' 'liberal elite' in their city had allowed violent immigrants to overrun it, and that a rising tide of hostile foreigners now threatened the kingdom at large. The heralds claimed that the kingdom's guardsmen were handicapped by policies instituted to protect the nation’s racial and ethnic minorities, and persuaded rural voters to support county representatives who would rescind those protections. Those representatives then followed through on their promises by supporting a very broad reduction in government oversight of law enforcement - a move that not only freed law enforcement to harass and abuse ethnic minorities in the cities, but also made it easier for private organizations to secure the cooperation of law enforcement in the countryside. Some of the smaller heraldry businesses, like The Rat Catcher Report, tried to bring stories like this to the attention of the greater public, but beyond the city walls they were generally drowned out by the bigger heraldry businesses like The Vulpine Post and The Kingstown Herald. 
Indeed, the only good thing that could be said about Caelia's system of government is that for two centuries it limited the influence of Syliva. While the dragon had been able to hoard most of the kingdom's gold and jewels in the few years after her arrival, land was not something she could easily pick up and carry off. It wouldn't have been a significant concern for most dragons, but Syliva seemed to become uniquely interested in manipulating the system from the inside, treating it as a game with rules, and finding satisfaction in bending and exploiting those rules as much as possible. As a result, in order to gain greater influence over Caelia, Syliva had to slowly transform her stolen wealth into legitimately held real estate, and to secure the cooperation and even loyalty of influential (or potentially influential) individuals. 
While no one really forgot what the dragon had done two hundred years earlier, people did seem to care less and less, over the decades. Syliva's heralds distorted some facts over time, but most people simply had such low expectations of the dragon that the odd instance of her not being openly malicious was praised as exceptional philanthropy. If the king suffered a wardrobe malfunction at a royal dinner he was said to have disgraced the country, but if Syliva crushed a business, destroyed someone’s livelihood, or was even rumored to have eaten someone, few people cared; she was, after all, a dragon operating in a free market. 
That is roughly the state of Caelia as we begin Rise of Azraea, Book II, with Syliva reveling in the dystopian chaos from its epicenter in Kingstown. 

Book I (Ap.D): The Tale of Rhughash and Rhenna

This story was related to me by the grandchildren of Chieftain Thrakaduhl da Tharka, of Clan Dhakka, who would tell them the story when discussing his love for the elf, Kaira. Thrakaduhl’s grandchildren related the story to me as their grandfather had told it, complete with his particular way of speaking, and some laughter and tears shed for his memory.

Immortality in this life is over-rated. I know many humans long for it, wish for some way they can avoid their end, but you need to understand, there are things far worse than dying. I’ll admit, I don’t believe that we’re all dreaming. It’s the traditional orc belief, I know, that you can jump off some cliff and just pop back up somewhere else like some persistent gopher. But I’ve always held with the idea that we start with this life, and when we move onto the next, that’s it. No dying and coming back. It’s a one way trip. You get one chance at this life, so make it count.

I say all that because when I tell you immortality is a load of hog swill, I want you to understand that it’s because we get two lives for two different reasons. We get an afterlife that lasts forever, and we get this life, which doesn’t, and that’s the point. That’s what makes this life special. This life is short, so anything you gotta do, you gotta get it done fast, and not waste too much time on regretting and second guessing. Save the philosophy for the next life, you’ll have plenty of time for it.

That said, the story goes that a long, long time ago, there was a young orc named Rughash, who had a damned hard childhood. He was born in the middle of the biggest war between orcs and elves that was ever seen on this side of Kaleida. You see, after our common mother Hannoua died, the bonds between us and our elven brothers and sisters became strained. Orcs live only briefly, but elves live for a long time, so, not surprisingly, elves ultimately ended up running things. King Ellouin’s eldest daughter succeeded him, all of Queen Hannoua’s children by Dureshka being long since dead, and from then on elves controlled Lallau’s throne, and eventually everything else – even after our ancestors crossed the Morn Ocean from the Old Kingdoms and came to Feguncia.

Now, I’ll allow, it did make sense for them to run things. When an elf can watch two dozen generations of orcs come and go, you can be sure she’s going to be the wiser for it. There’re two problems with that idea though. The first is, there’s more to ruling than being wise. When you’ve lived that long, you forget what it’s like to be young, and you don’t think about how little time the rest of us have to get on with our lives. You start thinking you should be making decisions for everyone else, for their own good, but you forget what’s good for you isn’t what’s good for them. The second problem is, that while an elf might become wiser with time, they forget that some of them ain’t born with the sense God gave a horse. I’m telling you, it is possible to be so damned stupid that, if you had a hundred lifetimes, you couldn’t find your own ass with three mirrors and a court attending.

Now, problem was, in Feguncia the elves who crossed over from the old world had, for some reason I still don’t understand, allowed themselves to fall under the leadership of the dimmest elf that ever graced this hemisphere. The elven King Vlakahs was dumb as a rock. Most elves are like wine, get me? The bottle don’t change, but what’s inside gets better. Vlakahs was like bottled goats milk. In the end, he had less brains than a head of cheese, and unlike cheese, he didn’t get any sharper with age. But that didn’t matter to him because he was too stupid to know how stupid he was. Unfortunately for the rest of us, he was on the throne in Feguncia for centuries, which was more than enough time to screw the kingdom up royally. It was under him that the elves lost control of Facia to a race of bureacrats, and got hoodwinked repeatedly by Dwara in the west. Some of the other elves even tried to talk to him, explain what a damned mess he was making, but the words went in one pointy ear and out the other with nothing to catch them in between.

Now, where was I going with this? Oh, yeah, Rhughash. Rhughash was born after the orcs, and some of the humans who’d come to live beside them, had finally had enough and decided to split with the elves. Some of the elves wanted to join their fight against Vlakahs but the orcs didn’t want their help – said they needed to find their own way in the world and couldn’t do that with them hanging over their shoulders. And to their credit, those elves understood and agreed to simply be neutral. They up and left, and settled in the forests of northern Feguncia, on the coast of the Morn Ocean. Which, by the way, is where your grandmother’s family is from.

Anyway, I’m not ashamed to admit, our orc ancestors and their human allies got their asses handed to them. Vlakahs was twelve biscuits short of a baker’s dozen, but his military commanders weren’t idiots, and they knew more about fighting than three generations of orc warriors. In fact, I imagine they could have ended the war in just a few years, but the poor fellows had to deal with Vlakahs dragging them down. Almost inevitably, they’d be just about to make some decisive final victory when the king would suddenly take an interest in the war, would come down from on high, and start telling them how they should be doing things.

So about a century into the war, we orcs had gone and just about spent ourselves, despite King Vlakahs repeatedly providing the idiot’s equivalent of a divine intervention. We’d thrown everything we had at the elves as fast as possible, banking on our greater numbers and relative fearlessness to quickly overwhelm them, but it was like throwing a bucket of water at a wall. Our population was decimated – and I don’t mean that in the literal way your grandmother would say I’m supposed to use it, I mean that in the way normal folks use it; a hundred years into the war, the orc population was one tenth what it had been at the start, and that one tenth was now our entire standing military. Another defeat could have obliterated the orc population altogether.

So, that’s the world Rhughash was born into. His parents were soldiers barely older than you. They were too young to fight a war, and definitely too young to become parents, but back then orc kids were being encouraged to make babies as fast as possible, being told it was the only way to save the race. But about like you’d expect, his parents didn’t last long in battle against elves, and Rhughash was orphaned not too long after he was weaned.

Now, this part gets pretty hinky, doesn’t really make much sense, but I reckon I’ll tell it to you the only ways I ever heard it. The story goes that Rhughash was such a perceptive child, that he knew immediately what needed to be done to save his people, and that when he spoke his first words, they were a prayer to the Loutha. Now, the only way I’ve ever heard that explained, is that Rhughash was actually a Louan – a sleeper who chose to remember his previous dreams – and because of that he was able to call upon the awakened for help.

Whatever the case may be, he made a deal to become unkillable, or as the story would tell you, he made sure the Loutha kept him asleep for eternity. The idea was, an orc would finally live long enough to learn all the things the elves knew, and one orc, at least, would always survive every battle. Now, the catch was he couldn’t just restore the orc race by using the time he was afforded by his immortality to just start getting busy with orc women – he would have to be celibate – no relations with women. According to some folks, he was forbidden to love altogether. Well when Rhughash struck the deal he was an angry little boy, so he wasn’t concerned with relationships, and he agreed to it.

Now, I can assure you, it took a damned long time, but Rhughash eventually did what he said. He learned to fight, learned to win, and learned how to teach. The orcs began winning a few fights, then some more, and then a lot, and their population grew, while the elves began to wane in number. Partly because a lot of them were just tired of the war and up and left, but hey, I reckon winning is winning.

Now, in his long years of fighting Rhughash made many friends, fellow soldiers who followed him into battle and inevitably died, but he learned to accept that with grace. That is, until he met Rhenna.

Rhenna fought like a devil let lose in a locked building. No one could stand against Rhenna, so it was inevitable that Rhenna the Relentless would eventually wind up next to Rhughash the Unkillable on the battlefield. You’ve heard of the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object? Imagine if those two things met, and then decided to come after you together. They crushed the elves again and again in one battle after another. And, with so much time spent fighting alongside each other, they eventually developed a bond that transcended the comradery of the battlefield.

Now, there’re two very different versions of this story here that orcs have argued over a lot for a mighty long time. I reckon it doesn’t really matter which version is true, but you kids should know both.

In one version, Rhughash had sworn himself to celibacy, and moreover, to never know the loving touch of a woman. Because of this, he never told Rhenna how he felt about her. She knew, of course (after all, orcs aren’t subtle), but there was an unspoken agreement that they must honor his vow to the gods. Unfortunately, Rhenna eventually died on the battlefield. Rhughash knew he’d lose her eventually, of course, but when Rhenna did actually die, with Rhughash never having actually told her he loved her, he was overwhelmed with grief over the loss. Moreover, because of his immortality, he fell into despair, because he knew he’d never see her again. He knew that if he’d consummated their love, they could have died together, and been joined in the afterlife, but he had made a vow, and could not break it now any more than he could have then. Nevertheless, he regretted his pact with the gods so greatly, that when they burned Rhenna's body, he could no longer bare the weight of it. He walked into the fire as it consumed her and begged the gods to withdraw the immortality he’d been blessed with. Now, legend has it, he went into the fire and never came out, but not one person in attendance heard but the pop and crack of the fire, and Rhughash’s weeping prayer to be reunited with his beloved Rhenna. That's one version, anyway.

Now, in the other version, Rhughash had foresworn love in general, not women. Now, to Rhughash, when he made the vow as a child, it was all the same. Everyone around him treated it the same – when a man grew up, he would love a woman, and she would bear his children, just as his parents had. That was what he vowed not to do, or so he thought. The problem was, eventually he met Rhenna, the unstoppable warrior, just as in the other version, but according to this version, Rhenna was a he – not a she. 

Just as in the other story, Rhughash loved Rhenna, but in this case, he didn’t leave it unspoken, he denied it to himself, because he did not believe it possible for one man to love another in that way. Eventually, Rhenna actually confessed his love for his leader, and Rhughash spurned him. To him it was nonsense. So, the next day, Rhenna went to the battlefield, and fought as Rhughash would – with no regard for his own safety. Legend has it he won the battle with his own two hands, but he succumbed to his wounds afterwards. When Rhughash saw Rhenna’s lifeless body, he was consumed with grief believing he’d never see his beloved friend again.

Story goes, though, that whoever he’d made the pact with was so moved by his grief, that they decided that Rhughash had fallen in love, whether he had admitted it or not. That meant he’d broken his vow, which dissolved the pact and ended Rhughash’s immortality. But, being the romantics they apparently were, they could not punish Rhughash by destroying him or denying him entrance to the afterlife, because doing so would be punishing the heroic Rhenna.  So, Rhughash’s life was ended, but he was reunited with the man he loved.

Like I said, I don’t reckon the difference between the two versions is real important, because the point is the same. Living forever doesn’t mean nothing if you never really live. Fall in love whenever you can. Don’t go being shy about it. And when death calls, don’t say ‘goodbye,’ just say ‘see you on the other side.’

Book I (Ap.C): The Tale of Dureshka Fal, Father of Orcs

This is the story of how orcs came to be, as related to me by Ygun of Clan Rohgar, who assures me it faithfully relates the same story her grandmother, Ygritte of Clan Rohgar, would have told Azraea when they met in the town of Defiance.

Once upon a time, there were two brothers; Dureshka Fal and Ellouin Fal. Ellouin was a stoic, methodical, and calculating warrior. He was a hero, and a true friend, but to many he would have seemed cold. His brother, Dureshka, was also a hero but he was less disciplined and less inhibited. He did what was right when he thought it was right to do so, trusting his heart to guide him, and perhaps not often enough his wits.

Now, Dureshka and Ellouin were not only brothers, they were fast friends, and they did everything together. It was sometimes said that, without Dureshka, Ellouin might never do anything, and without Ellouin, Dureshka might never live to do anything twice. They were two halves of a whole. Unfortunately, this also meant they both loved the same woman, the princess Hannoua.

Ellouin was dazzled by Hannoua’s unearthly beauty and grace, her white hair and blue eyes were so vibrant they were said to be like an icy mountain lake. Dureshka however, was enamored of her fiery spirit. She was filled with passion in all things, especially fighting and loving. [Ygun adds that, she personally would like to think that, whether he admitted it or not, this is also why Ellouin loved her – because she was so much like his beloved brother.] The three were all good friends, and had many adventures together, but this is the tale of how their adventures ended.

Hannoua’s father was the Mage-King Lallau, a powerful sorcerer and a devoted but perhaps overly protective father. Lallau was well aware of the attention his daughter received from her two friends, and was more than a bit uncomfortable with their tendency to whisk her away for quests and such. Lallau was worried that, one day, Hannoua might follow them and not return.

However, King Lallau knew that she loved her two friends so greatly that he could not forbid her to see them. He conspired, then, to bring their adventuring to an end the old-fashioned way – through marriage. Hannoua’s younger sister had already wed, and the time Hannoua spent with the two men raised many eyebrows in the court, especially since they were born of considerably lower station than the princess. Lallau, then, began to pressure her to marry. It was an idea she intensely protested, for she did not wish to be wed to some prince in another kingdom. However, Lallau suggested that, if she were to wed soon he would break with tradition and allow her to marry beneath her station – she could take one of the brothers as her mate, even though neither was royalty.    

It was an unusual concession to say the least, a compromise Hannoua could not refuse. However, she truly loved both of the brothers, each in their own way. Dureshka was passionate and exciting, but Ellouin was comfortingly reliable. One thrilled her, and the other made her feel safe. With one she could imagine growing old together, but with the other, she had to admit, she might not grow old at all.

Hannoua tearfully confessed her indecision to her father. King Lallau, however, was not so conflicted as his daughter regarding who to choose; he liked Dureshka better as a man, but if he was going to trust his daughter to someone, he knew it would be Ellouin. He kept this to himself, though, and promised to help make the decision by giving the two men a test. He would use his power as the king to give each of them one wish, and then, when she heard what each of their wishes were, she would know who the better man was.

So the king called the two men before the court, and made his offer. Because they had both won his daughter’s heart, he would give his would-be sons-in-law one wish each. Both wishes would be granted, and afterwards, the better man would wed his daughter. The two brothers pondered silently for a moment, and Dureshka began to speak first, as usual. Ellouin, however, stopped him and insisted he make his wish first. It was very unusual for Ellouin to do anything before Dureshka, for he never considered anything without lengthy contemplation. Because of the unusual circumstances, Dureshka honored his brother and was quiet, allowing his normally stoic friend to speak first.

Ellouin spoke of Hannoua’s beauty both inside and out, and wished that the king would use his magic to ensure that she never change, that she be not only young and healthy until she died [actually told as “until she awakened”], but that her wit remain sharp and her heart remain good. This selfless wish pleased the king, and he knew for certain, Dureshka’s wish could not surpass it.

Dureshka looked to Ellouin in surprise, but Ellouin simply smiled, and told him that all would be well, and to make the wish his heart told him was best. Dureshka looked to the lovely Hannoua, thought of their many adventures together, and told the king what his one and only wish was – Hannoua’s hand in marriage.

The king was furious with Dureshka for violating the spirit of the exercise, but Ellouin advocated vociferously for his brother, arguing that technically Dureshka’s wish must be honored. You see, Ellouin loved Hannoua but he knew his friends well. If Hannoua married Dureshka, Ellouin knew he would still keep Hannoua as his friend. But if Hannoua married Ellouin, Ellouin feared that he might lose Dureshka as his brother.  

The king had no choice but to grant their wishes. He gave Hannoua ageless beauty and strength and married her to Dureshka, appeasing all three. The king, however, did not like to be tricked, and the fact that Ellouin had been clever enough to do so only reaffirmed his belief that Ellouin would be a better husband, so he used his power to make Ellouin ageless like Hannoua, and he cursed Dureshka to age faster, believing the marriage would end quickly and Hannoua could spend the rest of her very long life with Ellouin.  

The king’s magic, however, had limits. Dureshka aged rapidly while Hannoua not at all, but in the few years he was with Hannoua, their passion for each other and their love of life was so great that she bore several children before Dureshka died, all of whom inherited their mother’s blessing, and their father’s curse – not those bestowed upon them by Lallau, but those bestowed on them by their own nature.

Hannoua’s blessing was that she was as beautiful and genuine within as she was without. Her heart was filled with love for the two brothers and for her own father, but more than anything, she did not want anyone else to be hurt by the choices she made. She was selfless at heart and that was reflected in her outer beauty. Dureshka was not as selfless as Hannoua but, for better or worse, his heart was honest. He knew that he might not have been the better man for Hannoua, but when asked what he desired, he could only answer honestly. Dureshka Fal’s outward appearance may not have mirrored his inner self, but he was transparent in all that he said and did. 

Thus, a child of Dureshka Fal and Hannoua is blessed and cursed, for his or her outward appearance matches the inner soul and nothing can be done to mask it. This is why all orc infants are identical, you see. People begin as blank slates, and so orcs are born all looking the same. We do not even have boys and girls as you think of them, just children who become, in their own time, what they will be. Like anyone, we all have a little beast in our heart, of course, but unlike most others our beasts always show through. Because of this, with an orc you will always know what you’ve found.

Book I (Ap.B): The Dreamers; An Orcish Creation Myth

This story was related to me by Yghchrizta, Shaman of Clan Rhanseyh

Most stories such as this start with, ‘In the beginning’ but for orcs, there is no beginning. Orcs have no creation story dealing with the universe, only with what we understand to be the real world. Outside of this world live the Loutha, or the true people. We know little of the Loutha, even though each of us is a Loutha.

The world as we know it was created when a Louhtha, whom we know as Liruna, the mother of dreams, became so tired that she fell asleep. Some believe that this was an unusual occurrence, because the Loutha are tireless beings, but others believe that no Loutha had slept before, simply because sleep hadn’t been invented yet. Either way, when Liruna fell asleep, she dreamed of a strange and wondrous world, and as she slept the world grew and her imagination created wondrous and terrible things to fill it. Liruna was alone in this dream and became frightened, so she awakened. Liruna was captivated by the world her sleeping mind had created, though, and wished to sleep and dream more, so she convinced her closest friend, another Loutha named Hosin, to lie with her so that she would not be alone as she slept.

Liruna and Hosin dreamed together, and they traveled the dreamscape side-by-side, creating whatever their imaginations could conceive. They slept for what we would consider an eternity in the dream world, crafting the sun and the stars, the earth and its seas, and creating the rules which would govern their movement. But, eventually the wonder of their creation faded in their hearts. What at first had been new and strange, was now commonplace and ordinary, for no matter what they might imagine, they could create nothing which surprised them. Eventually they began to see their world as bleak and desolate, so they awakened again.

Liruna and Hosin told the other Loutha of their dream, and told them they needed help making more dreams, and so the other Loutha slept as well, each one dreaming new and strange things – trees, flowers, birds, and beasts. The dreaming Loutha became the Louan, the builders of this world, the first people, who could command and shape this world around them just as Liruna and Hosin had. The Loutha would sleep and become the Louan, awaken again as Loutha, and then return to sleep, and each time they slept, they created new dreams – until they also began to run out of things to dream.

The Louan were sad, for they had no more to do, but then a great Louan wisewoman, Taya, had an idea – she would awaken, but vowed that when she returned to sleep, she would be sure not to remember anything of her waking life, or the dreams she had had before. So it was that the first of the forgetting peoples came to this world, for when Taya returned, she knew nothing, not even her name, or what would happen when she reached the end of her dream. The other Louan told her who she was, how she had come to be there, and what would happen, but despite this, everything had become new to her again, and she was happy for it.

Eventually Taya woke from her sleep, and as a Loutha, remembered everything that had preceded her awakening. She was overjoyed by the experience, and after a time, decided to do it again. The rest of the Loutha did the same, and before long, few Louan remained in our world – they were replaced by the forgetting people, the dreamers who did not remember their waking lives. The Loutha who chose to forget became new and different things, people of all shapes and colors, and who dreamed new lives, with new stories. Each would dream for a time, then awaken, and dream again, remembering nothing. Only rarely would a Loutha return to the dream as a Louan, to shape the dream with their power of remembering. 

This shapes our understanding of not only life and death, but magic as well. We know that there is no life or death as others think of it, only the dream which we pass through briefly, and when we awaken, we become Loutha again, remembering all of the dreams we’ve had before.

Further, because we know there is no life, only the dream, we know we have no limitations. We can change anything. Like the Louan, the first people, we can shape our world and ourselves as we please if we have the will and imagination to do so. This is why traditional orc shamans do not write spells or incant special words, or gather herbs and burn incense. They know these things are not truly necessary for magic, and we believe that magic can still be made the old way, as the Louan did it. Many among the other races do this as well when they first learn the ways of magic. They learn to shape the world in simple ways through thought alone, but when they try to do more, they are taught the way of spells, and so many forget the power in their hearts.

Book I (Ap.A): King-U College of Magical Studies Handbook (Excerpt)

I found a very old copy of a student’s handbook from the college of magical studies at the university in Kingstown from about the time Azraea would have begun her studies there. I have included it in these appendices because I think it impressed upon me how diverse the interests and abilities of her faculty and fellow students were. For those not familiar with the Caelian higher education system, it also gives some idea of how magic was taught at her school. Most notably, necromancy did not have a dedicated school – it was a subset of spiritual studies, which likely meant Azraea had to go well out of her way to learn the craft as well as she did.

College of Magical Studies: The Magic happens here!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have the power to bend reality and shape it according to your will? The College of Magical Studies may be the right fit for you! Undergraduate students are introduced to seven schools of spell casting and six schools of spell crafting, with advanced classes offered in each school, and graduate programs open in most. Our schools include:

Schools of Spell Casting: Written Casting, Bardic Casting, Visual Casting, Somatic Casting, Chemical Casting, Mathematical Casting, and Conceptual Casting.

Schools of Spell Crafting: Energycraft, Mattercraft, Biocraft, Mesmerism, Spiritual Communication, and Dimensional Manipulation

Our curriculum is fully customizable, allowing you to master and combine skills according to your abilities and interests! Mentors and academic counselors will guide you through the process of developing your own personal academic plan and help you choose the classes that will help you achieve your goals! Countless possibilities are open to you!

Would you like to create a ball of fire in the palm of your hand? How about freeze a bucket of water with a simple wave? Or even move an inanimate object without touching it? Study in the school of somatic casting and the schools of energycrafting or mattercrafting, and you can learn to move energy or objects from place to place with but a gesture! Students who excel in either field may move onto graduate studies in masscrafting, and learn about energy creation and its role in perpetual mechanics.

Would you like to inspire people with your voice? Enthrall animals with a musical instrument? Study in the schools of mesmerism and bardic casting to influence the perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of others through sound.  

Would you like to speak to the dead, or understand your dreams? The school of spiritual communication works closely with the school of bardic casting to help students pursuing a future in sleep studies and, for those who are truly motivated and capable, even necromancy.

Would you like to better our world by developing new cures for terrible diseases? Create new types of livestock and crops? Better fertilizers or pesticides? Study in the schools of biocrafting and chemical casting to manipulate life itself through the use of magical potions, pastes, and dusts. Students who excel in these studies will change our world, and make a substantial profit!

Or, would you like to explore the cutting edge of magic? Study the mysteries of space and time through advanced mathematics? Theoreticians in the schools of mathematical casting and dimensional manipulation work closely together at our school to better understand the essence of magic and our universe itself – study hard in their classes, and you could one day be the first person to travel instantaneously across the world, explore new worlds, or even travel back to the dawn of time!

Finally, students in the college of magical studies do not need to be planning for a future in the sorcerous arts! Many students from fields outside of magic including smithing, architecture, literature, and more study magic in our schools, making them uniquely skilled and invaluable assets in our modern economy!

The College of Magical Studies at the University in Kingstown can be the beginning of a new life for you! For more information, talk to your admissions advisor!

Writer's Notes! - Illustrations

Time for more artwork!

First, the big one I obviously HAD to do, one of the scolopendrae!

Yep, it's a giant centipede. Probably not that shocking to anyone who already new that "scolopendra" is the scientific word for centipede. But why a centipede, you ask? There's a few reasons.

Centipedes never sat high on my list of anxiety-inducing creatures, but apparently they do for others. I once had a room full of women grab me from a hallway to dispose of a common house centipede - a creature that not only looks like an animate feather, it has all the ferocity of one as well. Evidently, though, there's something about all those legs that freak people out.

On another occasion, I went to an entomology club social (which was actually really fun) and was fascinated by the fact that almost every creature - spiders, scorpions, etc. - was out of its cage. They were being played with and petted; I even saw a woman get stung by a scorpion and apologize to it. There was one notable exception, though: the "giant" centipede was kept in a sealed case at the back, with a warning sign that depicted several fingers being removed by a circular saw. That impressed upon me, that in the centipede world, size matters, and one does not **** with the big ones.

Finally, the whole passage with the Dark Dweller's forest was written while living with my parents and attempting to landscape part of their property that had been overgrown by ivy and wild vines. The darkness, stillness, and general oppressive feel was inspired by the way the foliage seemed to isolate you, and - of course - all while I was wading in the 8 inches of thick ivy, all I could think about was that centipede with the big warning sign on it.

So, yeah, centipedes were definitely going to be the big boss fight of the book.

Of course, I wanted the creatures to have a little bit of fantasy about them, so I decided the Dark Dwellers should blur the line between living and artificial, with an armored carapace that almost looks forged. In my mind, there was inspiration being drawn from the scorpions in the newer Clash of the Titans movie, Mechanacles' conveyance in Aladdin, and a transforming ear-wig I have tucked away somewhere in my Beast Wars collection. Making the legs actual swords was probably carrying it all a bit too far.

On the subject of villains, I'm also going to hop back a little. In my head, Chieftain Tharkrada's look was inspired by one of Gamesworkshop's Ork warbosses. Of course, those are a bit over the top for the book, so I tried to come up with my own looks. I also started experimenting with a different art style, based on Bruce Timm's cartoons.

This is actually spoofed off of a DC character called Kalibak...

And this one uses the character Lobo as a base.

Of course, from Tharkrada, it's an easy segue to his son, Thrakaduhl.

This was an attempt to create a face that would look orcish, but still be sort of handsome in a prince charming sort of way. Think I definitely overdid it on the eyes though, so here's another, very different, approach:

Either the quiver is on the wrong side, or T.D. is left handed. Not sure.

So, that's right - this version not only has emerald green skin, he has silky black hair, deep eyes, and trim pencil-thin mustache above his little tusks.

Finally, one concept for the dwarven contraptions that chased our heroes out of the abandoned 'mine':

I originally imagined something like the T-1 HK Tank from Terminator but with the general style of the automatons from Bioshock 3. The drones are supposed to be multipurpose, reliable machines, though, so I figured the look needed to be a bit less aggressive. Carrying the weight of built-in weapons would waste energy when the drone spends 99.99999999999999% of its active time doing basic maintenance tasks. The same would be roughly true for armor - the machine would need enough of an outer casing to protect its most fragile parts from the occasional dropped piece of junk or accidental collision, but it doesn't need to be a tank. The interesting part in the book was describing a tractor tread in the context where mechanization is an almost alien concept to most of the characters. Azraea and Kaira would be familiar with tension-based clockwork mechanisms (gears, springs, pulleys, counterweights, etc.) but only Ochsner would have any acquaintance with pressure-based mechanisms like pistons and hydraulics.

Anyway, if you've stuck with us this far, THANK YOU!

We're coming to an end soon, and then before long we'll be starting Book II!

Writer's Notes! Vinny's 1hr Campfire Surprise

In the book, Vinny cooks a dish I experimented with in my high school Latin class. My high school Latin teacher, Stephen Boyd, actually found and sent me the recipe I used. It was from L. Giacozza's A Taste of Ancient Rome, and was titled therein as an "Onion Appetizer," a modern variation on a Roman "Vegetable Appetizer."

The strange dish made it into this book for three reasons: (1) the Gnomans are, as their name suggests, supposed to be analogous to Romans, (2) I actually liked it, though sadly I've not had it since high school, and (3) it fit the demands of the situation.

Contrary to its title, this "appetizer" is a very rich food. Assuming I made it correctly in high school, it is not at all appetizer-like (but then, the Roman cheesecake I made wasn't very dessert-like - even after quadrupling the honey in it). The preparation of the dish is also simple, and the ingredients are relatively cheap or easy to find substitutions for. Given the fresh meat required, it couldn't be cooked after a full day of hiking, but it's feasible for anyone camping within a few miles of a butcher, or anyone willing to make substitutions based on whatever wild game they could take down before dinner.

Main Ingredients:

• 7oz. Liver (Pork) - This was the hard part for me to get past as a teenager, but once it's mixed in with everything else, it's really not identifiable as anything other than meat. For health/safety reasons, we used beef liver. Vinny might have used deer liver given the opportunity, since (supposedly) it's delicious and safe for humans to eat. 
• 2 Thighs and Wings (Chicken) - What's important here isn't the appendages used, it's that you use dark meat; as I recall this dish, it would be pretty weird with white meat in it. That being the case, I imagine this dish could also be made with other forms of poultry more readily obtainable while traveling. Duck, in particular, seems like a good choice.
• 2lbs. Bulbs (Onions) - According to Giacozza, the Romans would have used wild gladiolus or asphodel bulbs, but edible versions of those plants aren't really available in the here and now. A Gnoman traveler would probably use whatever he could scrounge up near his camp site, though, so in that spirit we'll follow Giacozza's interpretation of the recipe and scrounge up some onions - I'd recommend white or yellow, but not red (though it might be interesting to try once).
• 2 Tbs. Olive Oil - Nary a Gnoman steps out the door without his trusty, multipurpose olive oil.
• 2 Tbs. Garum - Another necessity for Gnoman travelers. Garum was a sauce made from fish, which the Romans used a great deal. Know that person in your family who puts ketchup on everything? Two thousand years ago he would have been covering everything in garum.
• 2 Tbs. Wine - We used red wine. I recall the wine had a strong impact on the flavor, despite thorough cooking, so this may be the easiest place to adjust the recipe to fit your tastes. Just make sure whatever type of wine you use, it's going to go with the onions you picked. 

Sauce ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Wine - The sauce is nearly half wine, so like I said, your choice of wine is kind of important.
• 1/2 cup Passum - The other half of the sauce is more wine! Passum was specifically a sweet wine originating in Carthage that tasted like raisins. It was obnoxiously sweet, apparently, but popular with Roman women, since appletinis and birthday cake-flavored vodka hadn't been invented yet. If you can't find raisin wine or straw wine, look for something that's going to be ridiculously sweet. 
• 1 Tbs. Garum - More garum! Seriously, it was pretty typical for it to be in every recipe. Twice.
• 1 Tbs. Lovage - This is an herb that tastes like celery, though much stronger.
• Black pepper - Add as needed.
• 1 tsp. Cornstarch - Add before serving.

Preparation: Chop the liver and chicken, and slice the onions. If you haven't tried liver before, I'd recommend chopping it into small pieces, as it can be pretty chewy. Start cooking with onions (2 lbs.), olive oil (2 Tbs.), garum (2 Tbs.), and wine (2 Tbs.) in a sauce pan. Once the onions have cooked, throw in the meat. Cook for 30 min while getting the sauce ready. Throw all of the sauce ingredients except the cornstarch into a separate pan or bowl and mix thoroughly. Add the sauce to the main dish and cook for an additional 30 min. Mix in the cornstarch to make the dish thicker, and serve. If I were to do this again now, I'd probably serve it with white rice or garlic bread.

The old book I got the recipe from doesn't say whether to cook the dish on 'high' or 'low'. The omission of that detail makes sense, given Romans didn't really have those settings on their hearths (and our adventurers wouldn't have them on their campfire). This is definitely a play-it-by-ear (and nose) situation. While overcooked liver is not good, the dish will end up being pretty dark and thick, and given the sweet and savory flavor, and the pungent tastes of the onions, slightly burning it will not ruin the meal.