Lore/Prophecy of Tears/CH6/Start

(female soprano)

Alexandre Konovalev and Freya Cloudchaser.

It seemed a modern Romeo and Juliet story: the brilliant young ruler of the Blood Eagle and the beautiful daughter of a Starwolf Chieftain united in matrimony as a symbol of peace between two warring tribes.

Music -- Albinoni's Cinque in G Minor, first movement

VIDCLIP - A handsome young couple smiles at the camera. He is dark-haired and aquiline, clad in a blood-red dress uniform; she is blonde, blue-eyed, and wears a white robe adorned with a stylized wolf knotwork pattern. He holds a heavy saber at a jaunty angle. She holds a spear decorated with a trail of Kyorn feathers.

Man (stealing a tender glance at the woman): Let this marriage represent an end to the traditional hostility between our tribes. We can make a new beginning, all of us. Together we need not choose war.

Woman (gravely): If Wolf and Eagle can make peace, can the rest of the wilderzone be far behind?

Reality would not to live up to the hopes kindled by the marriage of early part of 3904, despite the birth of twins in 3904 and a second son in 3905. Indeed, the falling-out of these star-crossed lovers would eventually claim the lives of their children and leave their tribes deeply entangled in a web of bitter hatred and bloodshed. VIDCLIP - Image of Alexandre and Freya freezes, and flames consume it, leaving the faces until the end.

The disastrous culmination of their separation would take place in 3932 with the use of ecocidal weapons on the Starwolf world of Hepta Ourubis Two. H-O Two, as it is commonly called, is located near the edge of Blood Eagle Territory. A jumpgate thread leads to the B-E world of Shaakhar Crucis, an important hub with links to the key Blood Eagle worlds of Bira Marduk and Bloodjewel. VIDCLIP - Cut to Starmap. Green light highlights HO2. Red lights highlight the other worlds and their pertinent jumpthreads as they are named.

The years after 3904 saw a steadily growing estrangement between Alexandre and Freya, a division fueled by Alexandre's deteriorating temper. But the early years were good, and the couple seemed to personify the hopes of the wilderzone for peace between the Blood Eagle and the Starwolf. VIDCLIP - A dark-haired toddler boy laughs and plays with Alexandre. Freya sits in foreground holding a golden-headed infant. A second dark-haired toddler watches from next to Freya's chair, a shadow on her face.

As the years wore on, Alexandre utterly indulged his second son Ulysses, permitting the boy any liberty he wished and showing little regard for anyone else, especially his first-born children Geoffrey and Alyxandra. Ulysses would inherit signs of his father's strategic genius, but his talent was obscured by his contempt for the advice of anyone other than than his father, even his respected weapons instructor and bodyguard, Sikkyn-Captain Starkar Mace. Mace had been assigned to guard Freya shortly after the announcement of the betrothal, and she insisted he become the special protector of her son. He and Ulysses developed a close relationship.

VIDCLIP - On a balcony overlooking a frozen lake, a young Ulysses throws his furred hood back and looks up at his father, revealing a head of bright golden hair.

Cut to a procession in Court at Outermost. Alexandre walks with Ulysses at his side while two slender dark-haird children walk behind. Alexandre puts his arm around Ulysses's shoulder and squeezes before letting go and ascending to take his place on the throne. At this point, Ulysses is still

Cut to Ulysses as a young teenager, tall and well-muscled. He examines a katar in the company of a powerfully-built, square-jawed warrior. They stand on what appears to be a training ground in a courtyard. Freya watches from a balcony in the background as the older man demonstrates a fighting stance.

Sometime in 3910, Alexandre began to change. His attitude toward the Starwolf became first distant, then increasingly quarrelsome as he began to display signs of paranoia and an uncontrollable temper. Ulysses remained the center of his world. VIDCLIP - Alexandre presides over a Court meeting on Outermost. He looks tense. Deep lines have etched themselves in his face. Ulysses stands behind him, taller and in his late teens. He is broad-shouldered and deep chested, every inch the warrior born. His lip curls as he hears something said by a courtier.

Alexandre had little time for his other children, and even sent his daughter to be fostered by another Bloodline in 3915, over Freya's objections. VIDCLIP - Freya hugs a dark-haired young girl goodbye as a shuttle prepares to depart. There are no tears, but their embrace lingers, and the girl visibly catches her breath before climbing up the ramp to enter the shuttle.

The cracks between husband and wife deepened to a crevasse as Alexandre grew even more intolerant and short-tempered. Freya was a strong-willed, patient woman, and kept her peace until 3924, when her eldest son Geoffrey committed suicide after resigning from tribal military service. Geoffrey had always been poorly disposed to military discipline, being of a more refined intellectual temperament. His position as firstborn heir meant he had little choice but to follow a military career.

VIDCLIP - Picture of Geoffrey Alexandre Konovalev, dark and serious, holding a stiff pose in front of a turbograv fighter craft. He wears a resplendent dress uniform, but his eyes are large and haunted. His slender form is unremarkable compared with the leonine Ulysses Konovalev.

At a state dinner several weeks later, the Great Eagle publicly humiliated a grieving Freya for a comment suggesting that the Blood Eagle's training customs could be reformed.

VIDCLIP - A sumptious state dinner on Outermost. Camera pans along a well-laden table. Guests wear Starwolf and Blood Eagle uniforms. The murmur of conversation blends with the clink of silverware and fine crystal. Chamber music plays in the background. Suddenly a commotion erupts from the head of the table. A voice is heard exclaiming, "No! I forbid it! Even the thought suggests treason! He was unfit, I tell you!"

"Damn it, Alexandre, li-"

The camera view blurs to focus on the source of the noise and catches Alexandre as he leaps to his feet and swings his hand across Freya's face with a sharp crack. Her head snaps to one side with the force of the blow.

Everything falls silent. The music trails off. A white-faced Freya rises slowly, her cheek flaming where her husband struck her. Alexandre glares at her, breathing hard. Without a word, she spins and leaves, pausing only to lock eyes for a moment with Ulysses, who sits at Alexandre's right hand. After a moment, her son looks away, but makes no move from his seat. Starkar Mace intercepts Freya and escorts her from the room.

Camera returns to pan back along the table. The Blood Eagle remain frozen-faced. Several Starwolf are on their feet, their expressions grim, fists clenched. Someone coughs. Alexandre sits and motions for the music to resume.

It was the last straw for the proud Starwolf warrior. Freya left Alexandre two days later, disappearing in the middle of the night. Ulysses remained behind. The Great Eagle was completely enraged. Accounts from anonymous court sources claim Alexandre decimated the house guard on duty the night his wife departed. These sources also claim Alexandre's mental condition took a far more bloodthirsty turn following the loss of his relationship with Freya. The great tragedy, they maintained, was that the Great Eagle truly loved his wife.

VIDCLIP - Exterior shot of the massive building housing Alexandre's Court. It is a sprawling, baroque structure, with ornate stonework bedecking the exterior. Huge palatial windows gleam between massive columns.

Quick cut to a kneeling shadow of a man. Another shadow swings a blade at the first one's neck. Cut to next clip just as the shadow blade strikes.

One week after Freya's disappearance, Ulysses Konovalev assumed command of his father's elite Marathon Pennant to recapture his mother and return her to Outermost. In his speech to the Assembled Bloodlines of the tribe, Alexandre claimed Freya had been "taken" by Starwolf wishing to use her as a hostage against the Blood Eagle.

VIDCLIP - Alexandre stands in Court, grim and white-faced. Camera pans across a cavernous room full of uniformed officers before returning to Alexandre. The Great Eagle appears barely under control, passions raging under a thin veneer of decorum.

"Siers, I cannot tell you how deeply this destructive act wounds the relations between our tribes. Freya Cloudchaser is my wife. She is the mother of my son. I will never surrender her to the mercies of the Starwolf…."

Starkar Mace accompanied Ulysses, despite what Mace's friends described as grave misgivings. Over the next five months, the Marathon Pennant struck a series of Starwolf holdings Ulysses believed had harbored Freya. Mace objected to this course of action. He also tried to dissuade his longtime pupil from attacking Hepta Ourubis Two, as reports indicated the Hepta Ourubis Pack had pulled together a massive force. Unfortunately, Ulysses refused to listen. Though Mace remained close to his protégé, the young Konovalev, now twenty years old, had inherited his father's blind pride.

VIDCLIP - Ulysses in black and crimson Assault-class armor, inspecting a line of hardshell troops. He holds his helmet in the crook of his arm. Mace follows, also in Assault-class, his face expressionless.

Cut to blurry image of Blood Eagle Scout Armors launching spinfusors into a Starwolf base. A turbograv fighter screams by overhead, chainguns yammering.

Cut to Ulysses as he tears down a Starwolf banner in a holdfast hall. Banner in one armored fist, he toasts toasting a mixed group of Blood Eagle knights with a goblet of wine.

"So much for this group of yappers," he says with a confident grin. "Who's next?"

Hepta Ourubis Two was a garden planet in 3925. The tragedy of ecocide still seven years in the future. VIDCLIP - Pan across a lushly forested valley of silver mists. Flocks of birds rise from the treetops. In places, the mist parts to reveal a river winding between verdant hills.

The Hepta Ourubis Pack was formidable, led by the Warlord Nevor M'Klannin, an experienced campaigner not given to rash judgments. Despite his flair for tactics and leadership, Ulysses lacked any real combat experience and was completely outmatched. He did not take advice well. VIDCLIP - Shot of a red-haired warrior in Starwolf gold and blue armor. He is bearded and scarred, and he surveys the land around a Starwolf base thoughtfully.

Consequently, the Blood Eagle were utterly crushed at H-O 2. VIDCLIP - Carnage. The red and silver of Blood Eagle armors litter a scorched landscape. Smoking skeletons of trees and wrecked vehicles loom out of the mist.

Some survivors escaped, such as Sikkyn-Captain Starkar Mace. The rest were taken into thralldom, a custom the Starwolf continue to follow today. VIDCLIP - Starwolf warriors armed with blasters herd a group of stumbling, skinsuit-clad prisoners toward a dropship.

Ulysses Konovalev's body was never found. VIDCLIP - Freeze frame of a smiling Konovalev toasting his soldiers in the Starwolf hall.

Starkar Mace disappeared shortly after the H-O 2 debacle, perhaps fearing Alexandre's wrath. Or perhaps he could not live with the shame of failing his charge. VIDCLIP - Freeze frame of Starkar Mace demonstrating a katar fighting move to a young Ulysses.

Freya Cloudchaser went into seclusion among the Starwolf, grieving over the death of her younger son. She never contacted Alexandre again, and to this day her whereabouts remain unknown. VIDCLIP - Freeze frame of a smiling Freya Cloudchaser cradling a golden-haired infant in her arms.

Alexandre Achilleus Konovalev spoke to no living soul for nine days. On the tenth day, he emerged from his quarters and committed the Blood Eagle to the utter destruction of the entire Starwolf tribe.

VIDCLIP - Freeze frame of a wide-eyed Great Eagle standing in battle armor before the Court. His face twists in rage. He thrusts the curved blade of a khanjar into the air.

"No matter the price, no matter the cost in blood or tears, we shall purge the wilderzone of their presence…! We shall destroy them once and for all! This I swear to you on the living blood of our Legacy. This I swear: They are dead! Dead! DEAD!"

Yet despite his revitalized leadership and the guidance of his brilliant generalship, Alexandre's instability finally crystallized a seed of opposition. At the end of 3926, the Commander of the Order of Wrath's elite Eviscerator Talon, which spearheaded the renewed offensive against the Starwolf, was a woman known only by her warnom: "Fury." VIDCLIP - Freeze frame of a dark woman with a patch covering one eye. She wears Scout Armor armor and crouches on the running board of a Shrike-class turbograv.

She rose in rank like a comet, propelled by success after success on the battlefield. In the coming years, both her popularity among her troops and her independence from Outermost would grow. VIDCLIP - Slow zoom in to image of Fury from previous shot. She appears surprisingly young for her rank. Her expression is grave, almost sad, and the corners of her mouth are tight, as if she disapproves of having her picture taken. The patch is like a yawning hole in her face.

Today she is Alexandre's chief rival, and the Blood Eagle are torn between their oaths of loyalty to a failing House on the one hand and the promise of a vigorous new leader on the other.

The future of the tribe rests on how the Blood Eagle choose. Will they go to a civil war, fighting over the throne as they did following the death of Grand Master Paramount Hector Komarosu back in 3831? That conflict caused more B-E deaths than any other war in the wilderzone, and has been pointed to as the bloodiest of any tribal war.

Very soon, the Blood Eagle will play out their destiny, and we shall see whether the brilliant but unstable House Konovalev can weather the storm.

VIDCLIP - Close up of Alexandre followed by close up of Fury.

Cut to Blood Eagle emblem crimson inset to moss-stained stonework. As we watch, a crack appears in the middle, splitting the Eagle's breast. Then the entire screen explodes into white light.

Fade to black.^[1]

References

↑ Prophecy of Tears - Chapter 6

[1] Prophecy of Tears - Chapter 6

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