53 Results in the "The Lion & The Owl" category
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Chapter
Welletrix the Veragros
Welletrix of the VeragriiAge 32 | He/Him | Helvetian Celt Wellet is an educated Celt of Veragrī lineage captured during the battle at Bibracte. He served at Villa Servi as a slave overseeing the household staff. He is a bastard son of the wealthy noble Orgetorix, making him important to the Gauls living in the Servian village. Though pursued by men and women in the past, Wellet has no desire for such…-
1.3 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
Villa Servi
I made a cornball map of Villa Servi, a unique structure built in the years following Hannibal's failed invasion (when Rome amplified the colonization of the Alps). Magnus Servius came to the Leontine's to oversee his grandfather's immature walnut grove and father's apple orchards. He spent most of his adult life adding a second-story to the farmhouse, and planting pears alongside the first orchard. His son, Rufus never left, marrying a Cisalpine Gaul, be began selling their crops to Rome proper. His…-
645 • Ongoing
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VIII – The Graticule
Fish and mud taint the wind, but there’s no sign of a river. Charcoal in hand, Vitus Servius focuses on his sketch. The leather strap around his neck fastens to a flat board wedged beneath his belly, and upon it are many sheets of crisp vellum. Cletus, his steed, swats at flies with his tail and moves slow enough that Vitus’s skilled hand never strays. Skipio, his son, snores upright on a horse whose name he never learns; he thinks only of his stolen mare, Luna. Soon, they trade the hilly…-
120.4 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
VII
Vibrant tunics blanket the knoll, their owners busy chopping the forest. The harsh sun bakes the skin, leaving the Romans and their Gallic recruits slick with sweat. Muscles aching, the younger men imitate their elders and wrap their foreheads in rags before dusting their hands with more chalk. Each axe swing brings a grunt and the thump of metal on wood, and by midday, their labor silences the rolling ticks of lonely cicadas. Nearby, camp immunes, who are laborers forbidden to fight, keep things…-
120.4 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
VI
Druid society includes seers, mediators, teachers, warriors, and healers, each earning a place in life’s tree through their achievements. Older druids accomplish more, which is why Ostin the Ageless stands above all others, and why Aedan the Ancalite remains on his knees. Father’s owl mask watches from the muddy shore, its upper trim blackened by fire. Fintan, the former Owl King, served as a healer, but he also guided the chieftain with battlefield wisdom. Aedan’s education in all things real and…-
120.4 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
V
Night marches are treacherous without torch or stars. It is solitary work, and anxiety devours the hours. The hiss of wind-swept trees overpowers the cadence of infantry boots. No one utters a word, not even to their horses. Skipio leads his scouts ahead of the legions. Over a mile ahead, they meet a barricade of towering reeds and foxtails. Insects and amphibians cavort so wildly that their clamor drowns out his pounding heart. Amid the bobtails lurks water, and entering unfamiliar wetland courts…-
120.4 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
The Tamesa Encounter
Roman horses smell more of their kind across the river as tension shrinks their nerves. A towering palisade stands along the opposite bank, where an elderly man, favoring his staff, stands on a rampart behind it. Wind lashes at his long white hair, exposing facial cracks that prove him the oldest man on this island. “This is as far as you go, Rome!” Ostin the Ageless shows his grasp of Latin. Caesar, the battle king these natives call Kaiser, yells back, “There will be no turning…-
120.4 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
The Spectator
Aedan wakes to a gentle song of slapping water. Household goods and jars surround him, but they restrict less than the tight ropes binding his legs. He tugs at the manacles around his wrists and, with a caterpillar’s skill, gets to his feet. His toes warm in the small band of light cast from a narrow slit above the door. Hopping toward it, he gets as close as his chains allow and presses his forehead to the opening. Mossy fish stink tickles his nose, and looking down reveals a wheel motionless on…-
120.4 K • Ongoing
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Chapter
The Servian Village
The Servii do not keep slaves but employ Romano-Gallic workers (mostly Gallic with Vitas and Scipio sending war prisoners to make up for the Roman's leaving during their absence). Many of the families there are generational due to the security the plantation provides. The pay is low but the harvests are seasonal, and when not harvesting, these people live rent-free in a village with walls, gardens, animals, baths, and fresh water. I used an existing graphic featuring a Roman farm from the Late Republic…-
645 • Ongoing
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Chapter
The Servian Plantation
I made the map above with Paint-shit Pro, using various other maps as a guide. The Servii keep a grand villa rustica on the same ridge as their plantation village. The two-story villa sits on the shoreline of a deep glacial pond with views of a nearby forest and the surrounding mountains. Using existing designs found on the web, I tried to configure details as my narrative presents. The Servii live in the Lepontine Alps, very near the Swiss border (close to the Adula peak). I mapped the journey…-
645 • Ongoing
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