So I was digging through legends mode artifacts earlier when I found an interesting book: A pink tourmaline-bound, 125-page biography called "And They Sang 'Lusko Chaineddefense!'," authored by "Shosá Smigesana" (Shosá Peachloved). I decided to find out who this guy was and why he wrote a book like that and it was... Sad.
To start, Shosá was born in the year 2, the eldest son of Kara Anvilhare and Othdo Perplexedstood. Kara and Othdo had a daughter and another son, as well. He had a very rough start to his life as both his father and his younger brother were killed in the year 4 by, curiously enough, two separate ettins. In the year 8, Shosá himself was confronted by a minotaur but escaped unscathed. His mother packed up, took Shosá and his sister, and started shifting between different settlements over the course of a decade: Stormsilvers in 9, Iceseizure in 11.
Both Shosá and his mother worked as rangers in Iceseizure. In 16, his mother was attacked by a rampaging brush titan and was struck down. Shosá decided to move again in 19, going to a hamlet called Tulipsteels. It was there that he met
Lusko Chaineddefense and married her in 22.
(Lusko was a minor figure in the world, relatively: she was one of the first humans and spent some time wandering the wilds before founding Stormsilvers with her group, which Shosá had lived in for a short while. She even helped form the position of lord and ruled Stormsilvers herself for some time.)Over the course of the next few years, they had six children:
- Obin Moistenharvests; eldest daughter; b. 23
- Innu Shocktoe; second eldest daughter; b. 24
- Nedun Wringcalled; only son; b. 25
- Ceru Trenchdrank; third eldest daughter; b. 26
- Tikbo Rhymedlabored; fourth eldest daughter; b. 27
- Speski Twoshadow; fifth eldest daughter; b. 29
However, things were about to go
terribly wrong for Shosá. In the year 29, a bronze colossus by the name of Ipa Silveryprides attacked Stormsilvers. Ipa's rampage cost Shosá dearly: In the attack, his wife was killed, along with Obin, Nedun, Tikbo, and Speski. Obin was the oldest, at six years old, and Speski hadn't even reached her first birthday yet. With over half his family dead, he moves to a hamlet called Amusehammer in 31 and becomes a farmer in 32. He immediately abandons his job and forms a bandit group called "The Branded Seasons," which sees nobody but himself join it. He moves yet again to a hamlet called Bottlebunny in 33.
In the year 35, he became obsessed with his own mortality, just six years after his wife and four of his children were murdered by the colossus Ipa. In 36, he became an apprentice of a dwarven necromancer called Atis Greatertrades, who taught him the secrets of life and death. He moves to the tower Lastdents in 36 and took his own apprentice in the same year: a dwarf woman by the name of Stodir Scarletguild. Afterwards, he wrote "And They Sang 'Lusko Chaineddefense!'" in the year 53. The writing - his only memorial to Lusko - is described as "reasonably serious."
At one point, Stodir led her own group, "The Mechanisms of Gravel," pillaging and murdering. She was actually very successful, winning many battles, even though she could only have claimed to have killed six unimportant humans in her life. They had multiple clashes with "the Messianic League" over the course of a couple of years, which was a group serving under a human civilization called "the Dented Empire." Many such battles were fought in a region called the Aqua Steppes, at no particular site. In the year 80, the Mechanisms of Gravel and the Messianic League went at it yet again: Stodir was leading the Mechanisms of Gravel and the defenders were led by a human called Emung Riddlednoble. The secrets of life and death proved insufficient and Stodir was struck down by Emung. 174 years later, in a terribly ironic twist, Stodir's corpse was raised by another dwarven necromancer called Ustuth Rampartmoisten, totally unrelated to Stodir, Shosá, the Mechanisms of Gravel, or anybody in Lastdents.
The last person of note in Shosá's trauamtic life is Tokda Dancefortunes, a human woman born in 64. In 137 she murdered an elf, in 138 she became a lady, and in 141 she became obsessed with her own mortality and pursed the secrets of life and death - like many before her. She became an apprentice of Shosá in 148, learning the secrets of life and death. She gave birth to ten children - all of whom died centuries ago.
And that is the end of Shosá's tale. Innu (his second eldest daughter) passed of old age in 104 and Ceru (third eldest) was claimed by age in 114, neither of them having done anything notable aside from marrying. Tokda is still alive (surprisingly) and continues to reside in Lastdents. Shosá's master still lives as well. Shosá himself continues to sit in his tower, four centuries after his last children died, writing many books on many topics, but none of them mentioning Lusko Chaineddefense a second time.
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Topic: Shosá Smigesana - Or: How Dwarf Fortress Nearly Brought Me to Tears (Read 5602 times)