Franz Lohner's Chronicle - The Blazing Sun

An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.

I finally had a chance to have a natter with Sienna the other day. What with the Drachenfels business, the Citadel of Eternity and all the other nonsense that’s going on, I don’t feel like we’ve had a proper chat in absolutely ages. Haven’t seen the need, if I’m honest. For all her idiosyncrasies, Sienna’s probably the most level-headed of the lot. 

Which ain’t to say she doesn’t have her moments. She’s been a bit withdrawn of late, and some of the lads say she’s been romping around in the catacombs beneath the keep. No idea what she thinks she’s going to find down there that generations of looters haven’t. Possibly she just wants a bit of peace and quiet. Bardin’s discovered the joy of brass instruments, and if you thought “Over the Mountain” carried far and wide when sung, you don’t know the half of it.

Anyway, the thing I really wanted to ask Sienna about was her newfound worship of Myrmidia. Well, I say worship, but all told I think Sienna sees it as more of a meeting of equals – you know, one incandescent ball of light to another. I’ll be honest, Estalians always seem a bit that way: happier to walk beside the gods than to kneel before them. 

What it all comes down to, apparently, is justice. Our Sienna’s never been one to stand by and watch while inequity turns to insult. Half the items on that docket of charges Saltzpyre insists on keeping around relate to her taking a stand on behalf of the wronged. Myrmidia’s a bit the same, at least in some stories – never afraid to side with a valiant but doomed cause.

I mean, we’ve all heard the story of the Battle of Magritta, haven’t we? You know, how a handful of Knights Panther were saved from certain defeat by a plunging statue of Myrmidia? Crushed the enemy warlord and his elite guard flat as a Stirland pancake, turning the tide of the battle. Now, you and I might think that was just a convenient tremor did the work, but those knights didn’t think so. Founded the Order of the Blazing Sun that very day, they did. 

There are others, too. Captain Johan Brecke. He held the bridge at Brannicksdorf alone against three hundred roaring orcs, until the wheatfields caught flame and roasted the greenskins alive and set the rest to flight. Or how about Venassa, Countess of Talabheim, who escaped execution on false charges of treason when the sun burst from behind the clouds and blinded the headsman with the reflection from his own axe? And there are hundreds more.

Could be these are all embellishments or straight up delusions. Of course it could. But Sienna believes them, and I confess I’m tempted to myself. Got a bit of a mind to be a folk hero, does our Bright Wizard, turning back the unrighteous tide of an unhappy world. Can’t argue with that – I’m not made of stone – but it has got me wondering what happens when it dawns on her that you can only hold back the tide so long.

I mean, drowning aside, obviously.