Volume 1 - Early life and the great victory on the Roasted Conflict
This is the chronicle of Alpeth Wippendish, hero of the Union of Flame and the greatest general that ever lived on the Ambiguous Continents - authored by the lore-master Nethrez Ecodaru, on the request of the wise Lawgiver, Doce Yeargroup. Alpeth Wippeddish was born in the 4th year of our age. She was the second daughter of Jasro Carmineglory and the Great Prophet of Busbel, Das Dresschance. Her remarkable lineage should've been enough to hint at her portentous life, for her father was the chosen high-priest of Busbel Morningbuds the Clean Pelts, the Lord of fertility and agriculture, under whose guidance Das built the Convent of Winds in the still infant Scrubadmired, founding the church of the Early Cult. It was due to this act of devout worship that the humans of the Union of Flame managed to tame the inhospitable land of The Cunning Hills, extracting from the rugged terrain the means to their sustenance and growth.
It is said that it was due to an inspiration from Busbel that, in the fourth year since the founding of Scrubadmired, Das assembled the faithful and ordered them to farm the rugged land across the bay. In order to show his commitment to the arduous task, he sent his own wife and two daughters along with the pilgrims, who participated in the founding of the Hamlet of Anguishedblushed. They were led by the lore-mistress Eve Parchedhop who, four years later, would be raised as Lawgiver of The Union of Flames, rallying her people against the atrocities of The Scorched Root nation of elves. This was the first of many wars between the men of The Cunning Hills and their elven neighbors and was brought to an end by the Union's defeat in the Disemboweled Battle. It would take twenty years and a brilliant strategist for the Union of Flame to achieve their first decisive victory against the men-eating people of the woods.
When Alpeth was only two years old her mother felt the call of the wilds and left her and her two sisters, including a newborn one, behind. It is said she paired with a couple of women from Anguishedblush and spent the rest of her life prowling the Hills, hunting men and beast alike. This abandonment left such an impression in her three daughters that each would come to emulate their mother's footsteps somehow: Alpeth in her famous travels; her older sister, Aco, would become a bandit like her mother; and Dem, the youngest one, would go from a famous beasthunter in her youth, to a soldier under her sister's command, to spending the last decade of her life in the ignoble profession of her mother and eldest sister.
It is told that early in her infancy Alpeth took to admiring the lore-mistress Issha Crestpeaks, one of the great poets of her time and whose apprentices' works are recited in taverns from the coasts of the Union to the elven retreats in the forests and the dwarven great halls. It was no wonder that, upon reaching adulthood, Alpeth chose to be a lore-mistress as well, and asked Issha to be her tutor. Issha denied, feeling she wasn't yet ready to have an apprentice. This denial didn't appease the uneasy spirit of Alpeth, however, who approached the elven wanderer Ula Nutscradle and asked to be his new apprentice. It was clear the elven poet saw the potential of Alpeth for he took her to study in the Elven retreats at the Colorless Forest and the Faded Jungles, far beyond the sea to the south. There, Alpeth joined Ula's troupe of wandering poets, amongst other humans, dwarves, and elves, and traveled with them for three years, only leaving her master's company after he was chosen the Acolyte of his people and had to abandon his artistic career.
It was during this period that Alpeth would be first introduced to the subject in which her expertise is the most praised until today, for in the second year of her apprenticeship her master was drafted to fight in one his people's wars against one of the human kingdoms in the south. Her master distinguished himself in combat early in the conflict and was chosen to lead a bloody assault to the human lands, from which he came out as a clear victor and ended the war. During the Savage War, as it was named by the historians of the Brindled Confederation, Alpeth learned firsthand the secrets of elven warfare, from their reliance on ambushes to their use of fearsome beasts. Little did her master Ula know that these unintended lessons would come to bring much pain and remorse to his brethren in the north.
In the twentieth year of our age, the 16 year old Alpeth returned north to her people, hoping to find a new master and continue her poetry studies. After a brief passage through Anguishedblushed, she learned her sister Aco and other villagers had left for the eastern peninsula, where they had founded a settlement in the Hopeful Hills. Called Touchscribed, she learned the hamlet was home to several lore-masters, amongst whom one would find her old acquaintance Issha Crestpeaks, who had taken an elf as an apprentice. It is said that Alpeth greatly impressed Issha and was finally accepted as her apprentice. It was in the next six years that Alpeth would come to compose her three surviving works: Cooperation Grieving, The Dirt Weeps Afterward and the Copper Quiescence, based in her experience during the southern war. Already she displayed far greater skill than her new master, and would've probably become one of the world's greatest lore-mistresses, but fate had a different plan.
In the year 27, Alpeth was invited by her father, who longed to see his daughter again after many years apart, to visit him in the capital Scrubadmired. Yielding to Alpeth's insistence, the High Priest took her to the court, in order to entertain the Lawgiver with her poetry. Eve Parchedhop became impressed not only with Alpeth's artistic genius, which surpassed her own poetic skill, but also with her invaluable knowledge of elven culture and, more importantly, tactics. It had been only two years since the Union of Flames had fought against the elves of The Hail of Lances, at the request of the neighboring human realm of The Oracular Kingdom. The cruel elves had been assaulting their human neighbors for almost twenty years without a stop, committing the most gruesome atrocities against the Union's Oracular brethren. Led by the inept mercenary Laro Shovelhelms, the armies of the Union of Flame had only managed to obtain an indecisive victory, and Eve feared the nascent Union would be unable to defend itself from future elven retribution. As an act of (some have said "divinely inspired") desperation, she removed Laro from the post of General of the Union of Flame and granted the title to Alpeth.
The next seven years are popularly known as the period of Alpeth's legendary travels, in which she famously was the only known human to explore the region of the Massive Hills, deep in the uncivilized deserts of the far northwest. What is not so often mentioned in the popular discourse is the practical purpose of these endeavors. Alpeth took advantage of the seven years of peace that preceded the Roasted Conflict to scout the surrounding land for the upcoming battles and to instruct the Union armies in the elves' taming techniques and their use of beasts in warfare. She famously tamed several creatures in each place she visited and it is said it even included a fearsome giant dingo that she rode in several battles.
In the year 34, Alpeth's scouts reported a force of elven warriors deploying to the north. Their objective was to raid the vulnerable Union hamlets, with the purpose of destroying their crops. In the 22nd of Hematite the Union's war leader Bendi Cuddlesnarled gave Alpeth orders to execute a preemptive strike. Using her knowledge of the terrain, Alpeth circumvented the enemy ambushes and struck deep into elven territory. In a matter of two weeks the Union armies routed and pillaged four elven retreats. The sheer efficiency and brutality of the attack, unseen in a human army so far, shocked and terrified the elven leadership. After a bloody field battle in the summer of 35, the elven Queen sued for peace. The ending of the Roasted Conflict was the Union's greatest victory against the elves. Never again would the Hail of Lances be able to threaten the Union's territory and to this day elven mothers tell their children stories of the fearsome Nirothilama, a warrior-maiden that rides a giant dingo into battle and strikes down the impious and the wicked.
This was Alpeth's first of many battles for the Union of Scorching. In the next 20 years, elves and men of the Union would expend each other's forces pointlessly, with neither party being able to gain any ground. Little did they know that their true enemy was yet to reveal itself, for the Dark Forces were only starting to extend their claws from the scorching deserts of the east... So I was scrolling through legends in a freshly generated world and I found a very interesting human character. Her name is Alpeth, she is a former poet, daughter of the first High Priest of her Civilization's main deity, and she spent 70 years of her really long life (she lived until 118) as the general of her civ, The Union of Flame. She died only 4 years before the beginning of the game and led at least 90% of her nations battles against the elves and the goblins, including one where she captured the gobbos "master". It was a fun read and I decided to start writing her story in chronicle format. I had a great time, and I hope it is as entertaining to read as it was fun to write. I will write down the rest of her story later and post it here as well. I will post screenshots of the legends entries that I used to compose the story in the spoilers below.
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Topic: The Chronicle of Alpeth Wippeddish - Authored by Nethrez Ecodaru (Read 1331 times)