Enos the Maul

Enos the Maul has the distinction of being given his name by Amerasu herself rather than one of the Marshals as is more common for a warrior.


In 957, during a ceremony of rebirth at a ruined temple on the edges of the Indus forest, his actions undoubtedly saved the lives of several priestesses of Ashan and allowed the prayers to be completed without interruption.

The temple, abandoned during the Usurper Wars and desecrated by generations of Sudhod’ya since then, was to be re-sanctified in Ashan’s name. Mid way through the great hymn though the foul magics practiced by the local Sudhod’ya tribe disturbed the Sithi ritual and the stone guardians of the temple who stood in niches either side of the door, were animated for the first time in millennia and descended from their plinths and marched up the temple nave to attack the priestesses. Struggling to contain the backlash and complete the ritual the priestesses remained kneeling in front of the alter as the stone warriors slowly advanced upon them wreathed in flames from the Sudhod’ya magics.
Most of the warriors who had accompanied the priestesses were outside fending off occasional attacks from the local so it fell to the few within the temple to hold back the attack. Seeing his sword made no mark upon the stone skin of his opponent, Enos Aditu took up a great flint-headed war hammer that had been taken as a trophy from a Sudhod’ya chieftain who had opposed the Sithi advance on the temple. Leaping into the midst of the half dozen flaming statues, Enos swung the brutal weapon in great swings and brought it crashing onto his enemies shattering limbs and heads with each swing. The magic animating the statues was of the time of Aquila Te Lunashed, powerful and raw, and the stone men moved with disturbing speed and struck with great strength. However Enos was quicker and his violence more deadly.

So quick was his execution of the wardens that the warriors outside never knew that a battle had occurred, the priestesses were never aware of their danger and Enos’s fellow defenders in the temple stuck the attackers many times but none were brought down by any other weapon than the hammer swung by the Aditu warrior. It is said that Hiska Aditu, Comitati and bodyguard to Amerasu, standing at First Grandmother’s side at the alter, did not even feel it necessary to draw her weapon such was her confidence in Enos’s abilities. Though First Grandmother's back was to the fight, and though she led the prayers to cleanse the temple, Amerasu knew what had occurred and once the ceremony was over and the priestesses and other warriors were exclaiming at the ruins of the old wardens that lay scattered across the temple floor, she named the Aditu warrior Enos the Maul and sang his praises to the other Sithi and to Ashan above.


The weapon now sits in the great halls of Aquila, the head nearly split from the haft after Enos brought it down on the head of an orc warboss attacking the Great Wood in 1014. The maul, and the warrior who carried it, are blessed by Ashan and many Sithi warriors touch the polished hide of the handle for luck whenever they enter the Hall of Artefacts in the palace. Enos himself now serves as a warrior in the warband of Amren the Fair.

Oath at bottom

Very, very minor point, after much discussion if you recall we went with "sarn nan dorn" - "die by my hand" for the last part of last line in the end to avoid using megil - blade too much.

I assume that after everything has been sorted we will get rid of all the OOC stuff and just leave the cool IC stuff...? Or was there talk of a sep website for that...?

Stuff to sort out.

Extract from John's mail here. Add your thoughts in the comments box and refer back to which of the points you're referring to or whether it's a new thing.


1) Background stuff - I wrote a lot of stuff prior to last event and I know a couple of you said it would be good to go through and understand what I meant and also to point out contradictions, mistakes, changes and just holes in the thinking.
2) Character concept - what is each person's character all about and what are their goals. This runs the risk of removing some of the spontaneity from the play but I think will add more than it takes away as we will know what the hell Llofan, for example, is all about.
3) Aditu plot - what do we want to see happen to the house story? Where happens next basically and we can then fit play at day events, national events, IC letters and on-line discussions around this end goal.
and finally, given the above:
4) What do we see happening/want to see happening to our group? This is the real key to the meeting but I think the first three things need to be covered first so that we know where we are trying to take the group. This is where we will need to find a happy middle ground between differing ideas. Eg J has a more adventurers ambition, John has a more unimportant grunts ambition. How do we meet both as much as possible without one of us being bored or the other one not feeling they can play the character they have created?

The Indus War

The Prajda of Indus, self styled The Masked Tyrant of the South, was largely ignored by the Sithi until 412 when he claimed to be descended from a union between the Usurper and Prince Ineluki’s bloodlines. Subsequent acts in 414 and 415, denying the divinity of the Elven gods and displaying two captured Sithi in his Court of Masks, sealed his fate and War Marshal Thelion the Bold of House Aditu was dispatched with 200 Sithi warriors from four Houses to end the Prajda’s rule. Of his army of four thousand slave warriors, the much vaunted Jevlah, barely 200 were still fighting when Thelion led his Gaetasae to the foot of the Ivory Throne. Convinced of his own immortality, the Prajda chose to engage Thelion in personal combat despite his great bulk and a life of indulgence and excess. He rose from the throne and advanced swinging the Sword of Indus, his badge of office, in a slow, ponderous manner. His hand was separated from his sword-arm a heartbeat before his head was separated from his neck. Despite extortions to surrender, the Jevlah chose to fight to the end and not one of these bonded warriors lived by the end of the day.

A flourishing civilisation lay in ruins, it’s greatest city is now over grown by the jungle and populated by beasts, the wealth of the Prajda, the output of this jade and emerald mines, left lying in the streets. Thelion returned to Jao and presented the Council with the head of the Prajda, still wearing the ornate golden mask of the Tyrant.

Fifteen Sithi warriors had died and many more were injured in the brief war, not least Hathken Aditu, the ranger who had lead the army south. His brother, Beorn the Whole, took his shattered body to the Gorge of Res-Nela to plead the Bone-witches and the High Priestess of Glandu-Gen herself to intercede and save Hathken’s life. Hathken survived but as a broken being, not the ranger he once was. Confined to his home he is sought out by alchemists and healers for his knowledge of plants and herbs outside the Great Wood. His brother meanwhile remains in the Dead Guard, protecting the valley where Glandu-Gen is strongest, paying off his debt to the diseased goddess for his brother’s life

The Tunnels

Drip drip drip.

We liked the tunnels. The sudhodya can’t see a thing in the dark, they lose their bearings as well; even their veterans struggled down in the black.

There were other things down there with us, neither sithi nor sudhodya, but they were giving us wide berth now. We’d run into a few darker beings earlier but they came up against the Retan and Fearbane, two wide in the tunnel with our shields over their heads and Valine dancing between us with his spear darting death like a god’s whip.

Drip drip drip.

I can’t remember when I started hearing that beat under our near-silent passage, I couldn’t trace it in the tight confines. The walls were dry, we made this after all, and so was the floor but it was ever present now, just on the edge of hearing.

Drip drip drip.

I cocked a questioning glance at Etan but he shook his head. In the dark he looked pale and grim, but we’d been going for hours now and I suspect we all did.

A tap on the shoulder, passed forward, and we paused. The Dogged gave a hold-fast sign to the Retan and then ghosted back. We waited.

Drip drip drip.

More waiting.

Sudden violence behind us. The Dogged had sprung whatever rude surprise he had planned on whoever was trailing us down here.

Eyes front still, lucky that, as a sudden flare illuminated the tunnel. Etan and I turned and leapt to the rear to replace those who’d lost their vision. A Sudhodya mage, mid-cast, with two marines, our people backing off, blind shields high. My brother’s axe took the caster in the teeth from ten feet and we dealt death to the marines in their sudden darkness.

More waiting as our eyes re-accustomed and joints and blades were checked.

Drip drip drip. Back to the front and slow steps forwards.

No tunnel now, a room, large, so much so that even our eyes could not see the corners. The smell of men and blood, but old and less pungent than that which we carried with us. Spreading out, a circle of shields now, one deep, as always.
Etan to my left, as always.

We knew then that it was a most likely place for an ambush, but we would have walked on anyway; Grandmother called us home, so home we went.

Drip drip drip went with us.

They came with a hail of arrows and a spellcaster. The sudden light took away our advantage; their advantage was numbers. They closed swiftly following the arrows, marines again, more of the Inquisition’s best. Shields and short-swords for the close quarters, still some archers to their rear and their mage plotting who knew what.

Valine took a shaft and had to discard his spear, dropping behind he started to cover for Etan who was slowing. Soon I was not attacking at all but simply trying to keep my brother alive, he was lost and wavering. A nothing blow, off his shield, to his helm, took him down.

It was only when I stepped over him that I saw his entire left side drenched in blood.

No more drip drip drip.

He had not breathed a word.

A shaft rocked my shield back and two marines followed quickly. A jab low to my legs cost one of them an eye but his friend came over my shield with a bastard sword. As I fell I wondered where that had come from, I’d not seen it until that moment.

I remember seeing Anlus charge into the gap and Fearbane turn to cover us as amber liquid began to fill my eye. Damn that’s not good. I need that. It ran across the surface of my eye and fell from the bridge of my nose.

Drip drip drip.

Landing on the Shores

And when we had landed on the shore, our captain ordered us to fire the ship. The flames were as a beacon to the Sudhod’ya of those lands that the Sithi of Aditu had arrived. From miles away the flames could be seen and the glimmer of fire upon the helms and swords of the Gaesatae. By the burning of our ship the sky itself was painted the colour of blood. That is why they call him the Red.

They pushed, and were pushed. But the men of the tribes had gathered to push the Sithi back into the sea and soon the waves licked their heels and their backs were to the burning hulk. Y’dar Caran called for a warrior to break the Sudhod’ya line and Llofan, most pious of the Gaesatae, stepped forward and declared that in the name of the gods, he would strike down the Sudhod’ya. Then did Llofan stride up from the sea and break the captains and champions of the Sudhod’ya one by one. He pushed but was not pushed back. He struck but was not struck himself. The Sudhod’ya broke around him for the gods love those who do battle in their name…

But then came the Sudhod’ya King and his household and once more the Sithi stood on the beech and held back defeat at the water’s edge. Many were wounded or captured by the Sudhod’ya who valued slaves above all property. The mortals would risk all to take a Sithi captive and they would pay with their lives for this desire. Y’dar Caran ordered them to stand just one deep and kill until none were left to kill anymore. In the dark, with the ship behind them, only the curves of the helms and shields, only the lines of spears, axes and swords could be seen. In the dark, all that could be seen was coated in the blood of those who resisted Y’dar. That is why they call him the Red.

Now the last stood alone on the beach; at their feet lay the King and his household; but those Sithi left could not defeat the horde that remained. Then a cry went up from the Sudhod’ya host for more ships now rode the sea. The Gaesatae of Neyad Prelgur and Anlus Bechal stood upon the decks of their ships and drew back their great yew bows. A flight of arrows so great as to rip the clouds into the tatters rose up from the ships. One further ship drove forward to the shore and a great warrior jumped from the prow as it grounded, landing square on the shore as the arrows fell. His helm had the wings of eagles on its sides. His cloak was of the deepest blue, black it seemed in the firelight. His axe caught flames in its shine and reflected death to the Sudhod’ya who saw it. He said “E-em Amren Jelass, Telen Amal a Aditu.” And the Sudhod’ya fell dead on the beach.