It was first written in 1994, for the Heroes of the King project, and has served us pretty well over the years as we auctioned manuscripts off to raise guest fares etc. at a variety of conventions.
Although I have updated some references to cover Hero Wars, Helden is essentially a RQ-era story. Making it completely HW-compatible would in essence mean a complete rewrite, something I did not wish to do. The RQ-era worldview is evident explicitly in some of the spells, the allied spirits, and some of the perspectives on humakti and vingans. (Vinga was almost completely unknown when Helden was written!). Implicitly, its there in the 'greekiness' of the language and some of the concepts of ritual and herodom - beneath Helden-skald's runic ramblings you'll detect my strong debt to Homer, Aeschylus, Archilochus and the poets of the Greek Anthology. Fine sources for heroic tale-telling all, but these days we'd associate them more with Lunar than Heortling or Ralian culture.
What *is* still relevant is the mystery of Argrath. Helden is essentially my response to 'King of Sartar', and suggests one possibility among many. As we prepare for Sartar Rising and the outbreak of the terrible calamities to come, its timely to bring the mystery of Argrath once more to mind.
More important for me personally is what I hope is the 3rd major character of the story: Far Point itself. My campaign arc is hidden away in the backstory, and for all my nattering about gors and gallt and wet weather, I hoped to convey something of the Far Place's unique grandeur and elemental distain. Come visit, but bring a rain cape.
I was trying to break out of genre when I wrote Helden, and I learned much through the experiment. I began by making the protagonist almost everything a humakt wasn't, and let his wyrd unwind from there. Cradledaughter did her best... but, well, he did shut up in the end. :)
John
>From tulas harsh-stripped
streamed the strong called to battle, Spears each held ready, shield-clash they sought. Fyrd-fierce and fearless, from hearth called and harstings Fashioned they feasting for Humakt's dark-swans.
My kinsmen, my comrades, they budged not in battle Brought courage to combat, feat-strong and fierce. Like berries in harvest, bright red their bounty they made shame of armies, caused red moon to flee.
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