The Chronicles of Hvad Ch. 00

THE CHRONICLES OF HVAD - CAST OF CHARACTERS

For those of you having trouble remembering who's who ...

Feel free to peruse the list - there are no spoilers.

Author's comments at the end.

From Gosdan's steading

GOSDAN - the Hospodar

MIHRAN - his Hand (a combination of bodyguard and advisor)

ANTRAS - his eldest son

KHOREN - Antras' Hand, a brute

BORNA - the second son

LJUDEVIT - Borna's Hand, the narrator

ANSIS (TEETH) - a guslar

ELO - Gosdan's wife

DIRAYR - the horse master

PRIIT - a warrior, friend of Ljudevit

LOVRO - a lanky, ugly warrior, the best fighter in the steading

ABIRAD - the complainer

SHANT - Mihran's son, still just a boy

BERIT - the first female warrior, with a thirst for vengeance

HRAVAR - a warrior with an ugly helmet, and a dilemma

AIGARS - an older veteran of Gosdan's following

NANAIDH - a woman warrior

FIMI - a woman who wants to be a warrior

From Asrava's steading

ASRAVA- the Hospodar

MUSHTAL - his foul-mouthed son

GARINE - the eldest daughter

NOYEMI - the younger daughter

LULALME - Asrava's concubine

KANNI - a mistreated slave

Others from Yeseriya

KAWEHKA - a forester

TSOLINE - his sister, a skilled archer

SIRET and DURRA - women who want to be warriors

From Manahir's steading

MANAHIR - the aged Ban of Yeseriya

AHAM - his son, also old

MAIGON- his grandson, and would-be heir

VAZRIG - the 2nd grandson, a twisted individual

AARE - a young man of integrity

MODRI - a former Hand, a man of honour

From Yelsa

INDREK - known as SlumpShoulder, Ban of Yelsa

ARMINE - his wife

AHLI - their clever young daughter, betrothed to Leho of Adarion

From Adarion

IMANTS of ADARION - a young guslar

LEHO - the ambitious Ban of Adarion

DAGNIS - his brother, who prefers things Izumyrian

ELOF - an unlucky commander

Uplanders

HANIK SAWTOOTH - a surprisingly hospitable chieftain

VEPAR - a warrior, known as the Boar

BACHO BEARDEATER - another chieftain

LUNACH KINSLAYER - a chieftain with few friends (and even fewer kin)

MUTIMIR THREENIPPLE - another chieftain, in search of a better nickname

PAYL - the Shining One, a female chieftain

IRIJA - her friend, an archer

MEELI DEADEYES - Payl's friend, who frightens most everyone

BROER BUGEYES, GATIS THE YOUNGER, REEGO REDFINGERS, and EERO - Uplander chieftains who want in on the action

Izumyrians

BARSAM - young heir to the Northern Duchy

ANFROY - a military engineer

KEPTEL - a man at arms, whose mother was Hvadi

INGRAM - a reasonably friendly captain

LIR - his nephew

BARON VOSS - advisor to Barsam, somewhat of a stuffed shirt

BARON KAIM - advisor to Barsam, a man of few words

DULO - owner of the Marga inn, a capable woman

RASIPH - an old regular at the inn

KURS - a brave young man

Once again, I want to thank Alianath Iriad and Lastman416, my editors and first critics. They made several corrections and many suggestions, one of which resulted in an additional chapter and improved the ending quite a bit. Any remaining errors are mine alone.

Thanks also to Comentarista82, for his enthusiastic support and encouragement. (No - it's not an alias of mine, and we're not related.) Thank you, too, to the readers whose names I recognize now, because you've supported and commented on some of my previous efforts.

Obviously, I'm not in it for the money. But I enjoy creating new worlds, and especially these characters. Yes, I was a DM (Dungeon Master) for my D&D group. Surprising your players with a plot twist, or having them love/hate an NPC (non-player character) is a real rush. It gives me tremendous pleasure when someone genuinely likes these stories, and lets me know.

Several readers have noticed that I used Estonian names for some of the characters (also Croatian, Mordvin, Lettigalian - and many others). I had already decided to include quite a few features which were obviously inspired or borrowed (okay, stolen) from Eastern Europe: guslars and druzhinas, as well as Hospodars, Bans, and Voivodes.

That was all part of a deliberate attempt to avoid a fantasy setting that would immediately look and sound like a rip-off of Vikings, or Anglo-Saxon England. Don't get me wrong: I love tales set in those eras. But there are plenty of those - I was aiming at something just a little bit different.

Thank you all for your support and kind comments. That's why I publish my stories on Literotica - and will continue to do so, for the foreseeable future.

I'll add a few unnecessary words here, because the Literotica editors won't accept a story with less than 750 of them. I don't blame them for that policy; it just makes it difficult to slip in a cast of characters ... which is why I'm shamelessly padding this one.

Apologies to Laurel & Manu and their editors for causing them headaches with my formatting issues. Hope this one works.

Thanks again,

AspernEssling