{"id":300,"date":"2010-10-05T08:06:51","date_gmt":"2010-10-05T12:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=300"},"modified":"2010-10-05T08:06:51","modified_gmt":"2010-10-05T12:06:51","slug":"breaking-an-empire-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=300","title":{"rendered":"Breaking an Empire #1"},"content":{"rendered":"

This marks the beginning of a 30k word short story set in The Four Part Land. It takes place 400 years in the past from the time of Tarranau and Chloddio, and details the collapse of Hymerodraeth Heula, the Empire of the Sun.<\/em><\/p>\n

\tThe crowd roared, a rolling thunder that spread out from the centre and echoed back off of the buildings surrounding the square. Today, they had come to hear an announcement from their lord and ruler, and they were incensed by what was said, for Niam Liad had risen in rebellion against the rightful rulership of Ymerawdwyr of Hymerodraeth Heula. Now the crowed cried out for blood, for vengeance, for a sacrifice of those insolent peons to the empire of the sun. The Dialedd Lluydd, the army of vengeance, was being prepared to crush this rebellion, and Ymerawdwyr had called for new recruits to come join. Swept in a tidal wave of passion, young man after young man ran to the army barracks and begged to joined. Today, enlistment in the army would run to the highest totals seen in decades.<\/p>\n

\t Rhyfelwyr looked at the mess before him and sighed. All these new pups, wanting to be soldiers. That just meant more work for him training them, and more people who didn’t have a damn clue what they were doing getting killed on the battleground. He glanced over at Locsyn, where the same expression was written on that soldier’s face.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe’re in for a right mess, aren’t we, Loc?\u201d<\/p>\n

\tLocsyn spat onto the ground before answering. \u201cBetter believe it. Now lets go get drunk before the officers find us and make us train those louts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cGood call, good call. Get the others?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThey’re already there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t Rhyfelwyr nodded, and the two soldiers set off into the backstreets of Bhreac Veryan, wending their way to a grungy old bar tucked away in an alley. Shouldering aside the mat that hung in the doorway, the two sat down at a table with three more men. The youngest of them was in his late thirties, and all had the weather-beaten look of men who had spent too much time outdoors. For a while, none spoke, but a conversation seemed to be carried on nonetheless, in gestures, glances, expressions, and shifting in their chairs. Finally, the largest of the squad, a giant named Gwyth, looked at Rhyfelwyr and spoke.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAlright, what is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t Rhyfelwyr drained his mug, wiped his face, and then answered. \u201cWe’ve got six months, maybe seven, to train thousand and thousands of new recruits, them march them halfway across the damn continent, and then fight against Niam Liad skirmishers in their home countryside. I’m just not looking forward to it, is all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tTaflen spoke at that. \u201cMuch as you might like to have us believe that, Rhy, we know there’s something more going in there.\u201d Taflen glanced around the table, at each of the four faces, finishing with Rhyfelwyr’s. \u201cYou think they’re going to break up the squad, don’t you? Promote us all to sergeant or lieutenant, give us each our own. I hope the officers aren’t that stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tRhy shrugged. \u201cThey’re officers, and they’re twenty-three and never seen real battle before. What do you expect?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cA little better sense than that, at least from the veterans further up. Anyway, don’t worry about orders like that coming down. We’ll deal with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tLlofruddiwr perked up at that. \u201cMy dealing?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\tTaflen blanched a little at that. \u201cI’d rather not. We’d run out of officers in a hurry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tLlofruddiwr shrugged, then downed another mouthful of beer.<\/p>\n

\tThe conversation drifted away into other matters, and the night stretched long as the soldiers drank.<\/p>\n

\tDays and weeks passed as the squad was used to train the youngsters. The very basics of marching, of holding a weapon, of moving in formations. Rhyfelwyr despaired that any of the recruits would become soldiers, or even live past their first five minutes with the enemy. Each time he’d spar with one of the kids, a flick of the wrist, a simple block with a shield, and the openings he found were large enough to drive a herd through. And he’d go back to the bar and hear the same reports from Locsyn, from Taflen, from Gwyth, and from Llofruddiwr. Although he expected that from the soldiers being trained by Llof. The man was a wizard with the blade, and with the other assortment of weaponry that he kept tucked away within the folds of his armour and his cloak. Even the cloak was a weapon: it had weights sewn into the hem so it could be used to catch and trip opponents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This marks the beginning of a 30k word short story set in The Four Part Land. It takes place 400 years in the past from the time of Tarranau and Chloddio, and details the collapse of Hymerodraeth Heula, the Empire of the Sun. The crowd roared, a rolling thunder that spread out from the centre […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[34,7],"tags":[32],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pRIK4-4Q","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":358,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=358","url_meta":{"origin":300,"position":0},"title":"Breaking an Empire #6","date":"November 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The sixth installment of a 30k word short story set in The Four Part Land. It takes place 400 years in the past from the time of Tarranau and Chloddio, and details the collapse of Hymerodraeth Heula, the Empire of the Sun. The final month of training passed quickly, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":381,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=381","url_meta":{"origin":300,"position":1},"title":"100 Posts of Solitude","date":"November 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"And I'm still here and still writing away happily. It's been over a year since the blog was started, and in that time I've managed 100 posts (this is actually the 101st). The time in between has been quite a journey for me as a writer, doing multiple edits on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":443,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=443","url_meta":{"origin":300,"position":2},"title":"Breaking an Empire #19","date":"February 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The nineteenth installment of a 30k word short story set in The Four Part Land. It takes place 400 years in the past from the time of Tarranau and Chloddio, and details the collapse of Hymerodraeth Heula, the Empire of the Sun. Leaving the others to their mirth and unwinding,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=30","url_meta":{"origin":300,"position":3},"title":"Breaking an Empire","date":"January 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In order to give others a look at what goes on in the background, I'll start posting in-progress writing here. All of the work will be unedited, and presented so that a comparison may be made between beginning and final versions of a work. I won't be posting any of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":405,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=405","url_meta":{"origin":300,"position":4},"title":"Breaking an Empire #13","date":"December 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The thirteenth installment of a 30k word short story set in The Four Part Land. It takes place 400 years in the past from the time of Tarranau and Chloddio, and details the collapse of Hymerodraeth Heula, the Empire of the Sun. \u201cWhat's got into him?\u201d Gwyth and Locsyn joined\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":334,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=334","url_meta":{"origin":300,"position":5},"title":"Breaking an Empire #3","date":"October 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The third installment of a 30k word short story set in The Four Part Land. It takes place 400 years in the past from the time of Tarranau and Chloddio, and details the collapse of Hymerodraeth Heula, the Empire of the Sun. Two months had passed since that first call\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}