A Tale of Steel & Blood

INTO THE WILDS OF ARGOS

PLATEAO

56 A. D.

It took us some time to actually gain some confidence, but finally, Waltyn, I and a few others from Calathos decided to make the journey to Plateao.

There was so much fucking jungle to venture through and I dared not see Dragonfire's blade to be smeared with jungle juice. Instead, I used an old iron sword that I had acquired from a former member of the Brethren.

Actually, a whore that I fucked gave it to me as a token to remember her. I never got around to asking where she got it, but I could only assume that a member of the Brethren tried to convert her to his religion and she refused, and he probably beat her and she possible killed him with his own sword. Of course, I could only assume something of that nature happened.

Anyway, after a day or two of braving the jungles, we managed to find the city of Plateao, but to our surprise, we found it nearly deserted.

"This city is like a ghost town", Waltyn said.

"You told me this city was ripe with people", I replied.

We spread out to find any signs of life, but to no avail. However, we stumbled upon a massive pile of burnt bodies, lying next to a ruined temple. Waltyn examined the bodies and found pieces of weaponry belonging to the inhabitants of Plateao, as well as signs of members of the Brethren. Something must've happened in Plateao.

While Waltyn and his men continued to search through the city, I took it upon myself to investigate the ancient site that was situated in the rock wall of the cliff that stood tall over Plateao.

If I didn't have a torch with me, I probably wouldn't have seen the sights that I beheld inside that structure. The age of the temple brought me to the conclusion that this predated Plateao and possibly Calathos.

I wondered if this was one of the many shining temples that were erected during the Golden Age of Argos. But nobody truly knew what befell Argos or what it was that caused the First Settlers to cross the Kraken's Sea to find a new home.

I do remember approaching an old statue that was standing at the end of a rather large altar. I scratched it gently, wondering if it was really made of gold. But my hopes went down in flames when I looked closely at the material that the statue was made of.

It was nothing more than regular rock, which led me to conclude that the rest of this temple was made of the same thing.

However, there was one thing that caught my attention, and it was a rather large sheet of parchment lying on a slab next to the statue that I examined. I was careful enough to remove it from where it lies, for it was without a doubt, the most ancient piece of parchment that I had ever seen.

The voice of Waltyn shouting for me immediately got me out of the temple. I remember joining up with Waltyn and inquiring if he had found anything.

"I'm afraid I did. In the temple of the Old Kings, we found dozens of men and women clinging to life", Waltyn explained.

I asked what happened to them and he answered, "They are showing signs of great Blood Lung, lad".

I then asked, "How do you know it's Blood Lung"?

"I've lost a great many shipmates to that plague, lad and I know the signs all too well", Waltyn replied.

When he mentioned the plague of Blood Lung, it started to make sense. The bodies that were burned in front of the old temple were possibly the ones that died of the ailment and the ones that remained in the Temple of the Old Kings were the ones that were still dying of it.

I asked if there was anything we could do to help them, but Waltyn insisted that there was nothing to be done. So, that led us to cut our adventure short and return to Corvanus.

A few days later, Waltyn and I were examining the parchment that I had recovered from the temple in Plateao. With the help of the old Shaman, we fully translated all of the text scribed onto this parchment.

It was a list of ten commandments set down by the Argosian god of fire, Aemoth. According to the Shaman, the religious regime that conquered all of Argos were devout followers of Aemoth and that living by Aemoth's standards was essential to all in his service.

The Shaman translated all ten of these commandments and I didn't like them one fucking bit.

Through the translation of the ancient Argosian text, the commandments read the following:

I. Aemoth is the God of all Gods; therefore, no gods shall be worshipped before him; pain of death will be the punishment for breaking this most sacred commandment.

II. Followers of Aemoth will not desecrate any shrines or temples that honor the God of all Gods; Death will be the punishment.

III. All followers must bring non-followers to the ways of Aemoth, either by the words of Aemoth himself or by the sword; those who do not accept will perish.

IV. Men of Aemoth will not lay down with any women unless they are married.

V. Followers of Aemoth must not consume wine; such beverage is meant for Aemoth and Aemoth alone.

VI. Honor the annointed disciples of Aemoth; dishonor will be met with death

VII. All children of Aemoth must adhere to the teachings of the annointed disciples without question.

VIII. Followers shall not bare false witness; violators shall have their tongues cut from their mouths.

IX. Followers shall not covet their neighbor's spouses; violators will have their genitals removed.

X. Keep holy the Days of Worship.

In the end, the religious regime of Aemoth carried forth only ten of these rather barbarous rules for its followers to adhere to. Failure to follow any and all commandments were punished swiftly and without mercy.

The invasive regime was too much for a great many of Argos' people that they decided to flee their homeland and seek out a new land to call home. And thus, these people were known as the First Settlers of Dragos. Most of the Settlers held on to no beliefs, while only a small handful held on to some.

And that is why I would never join any kind of religion or cult, even to this very day, as I am now nearing the end of my journey.

One day after leaving Plateao, our party was ambushed by a faction of the Brethren, led by this rather overzealous fucker named Edmond.

"You dare set foot in the heathens' city?! It is forbidden", Edmond spoke.

I told him, "Says who!?! Your god of fire?! Fuck your god, boy. We are free men, and we will travel where we please". 

Edmond and his fellow members weren't at all happy to hear such defiance from our mouths, so like all loyal believers, they turned to the blades.

Needless to say, that there was a lot of fighting and a lot of killing. Waltyn and I lost a few men in our party, but we made those religious fucks regret their choice to start a fight with us.

Even Edmond died as well.

It was a good thing, too, because the first time Waltyn and I crossed paths with him and his faction, they had attempted to ransack a local farmer's home and rob him of his livestock and his money. We drove the fuckers away, but not before Edmond himself took a knife to the old farmer's throat and threw him to the ground to die.

So, it was a great feeling knowing that we had avenged that farmer that day.