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Poster: rufus sparkfire
Article ID: 8
Views: 701
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Posted: Fri 02 Oct 2015
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Poster: rufus sparkfire
Article ID: 8
Views: 701
Rated: Not Rated
Posted: Fri 02 Oct 2015
Approved: Yes
The Difference
A folk tale of Ostermark
It is curious to note that, in many cases, one can gain more insight into historical events from the folk tales and fireside myths of a region than from official records, which so often conflict with each other. This story dates from the brief war of succession that raged in Ostermark following the battle of Hel Fenn, and gives an interesting new perspective on some of the key figures. Though it follows the standard pattern used by many such tales, it is my personal belief that it represents an important contribution to our understanding of that baffling and inconclusive war. - JWG.
The difference between Helena and Gabriela was this: Gabriela was born four minutes before Helena. This may sound like the smallest of differences, but as the sisters grew up everyone was amazed by how much wiser Gabriela was, how much braver and more confident she was. Though the two girls were almost exactly alike to look at, nevertheless it seemed that Gabriela was a little prettier than Helena, and a little taller. You might think that Helena would envy her older sister, or that Gabriela would treat Helena badly, but the truth was that the two of them loved each other completely, and shared many of the same thoughts and dreams.
Now, this was long ago, in the time before the Blessed Magnus saved us all from the horrors that lurk in the dark places of the land. In those days the Lord Sigmar had turned His face from His children, for His Empire lay in ruins and no one would hear His words. He wept tears of stone that split the land, and dead things rose up and gathered together into terrible armies. There were many great men and women who called themselves Emperor, though none deserved that title, and they sent great armies of shining knights and brave soldiers to battle these monsters. These battles took away the lives of so many husbands and fathers that it was left to the women to work the land, so that even the noble families were made poor and hungry. Among them was Helena and Gabriela's mother, for their father had gone to the war as a Knight in Holy Order and never returned. But though they had few servants and fewer comforts, the two sisters were loved and they did not want for happiness.
Our land of Ostermark suffered more than anywhere else in those days, and even though the war lay far away from the place where the sisters lived, there were many monsters. At sunset, the people of the village hung garlic and wolf's bane in strings upon their lintels, and barred their doors until morning. Every night there would be scratching and scrabbling at the doors, and at the shutters of the windows, and from time to time there could be heard a dreadful, pleading cry in the voice of a loved one gone before.
The worst of these monsters was the Dry Bone Man[1], a terrible spectre that lived in the depths of the woods and preyed upon the unwary. His story was told in hushed tones by the flickering light of the hearth, by those who had seen him at the woods' edge as the sun went down and fled in terror of their lives. He was very tall and very thin, but bent over, like a man with a heavy load on his back. He walked with a strange, loping gait and could overtake the fastest runner in an instant. Then he would snatch his victim up in his claws and tear them, living, into pieces. He hung the bones, picked absolutely clean, in long strings from the trees, with words carved into them in a language no one could understand.
One day, in the winter when the sun was low and almost ready to drop below the horizon, it so happened that Helena and Gabriela were passing the woods on the way home from the village, where they had gone to buy yarn for their mother to make them new clothes. Now, the sisters had with them a little dog called Rolf that they had raised from a puppy and that they loved more than anything except for their mother and each other. Helena was carrying little Rolf in her arms when he suddenly let out a yelp and sprang onto the ground. Before either of them could stop him, he ran away from the path and into the woods. The sisters were of course very anxious to get Rolf back, but at the same time they were terribly afraid to enter the woods so close to dark. At length Helena began to cry, and Gabriela said, "Do not cry sister! The sun is still in the sky, and the Lord Sigmar will protect us. Let us enter the woods and save poor Rolf from the Dry Bone Man."
And so enter the woods they did, each holding the other's hand very tightly. But the woods were very dark, and sunset came quicker than either of them had expected. After a while, the sisters heard a rustling and a creaking noise coming towards them through the trees, and they knew that the Dry Bone Man had found them. They ran, but in their fear and confusion each let go of the other's hand, and they became separated. Helena cried and cried as she ran, not daring to look back, until at last she came to the edge of the woods and emerged onto the path. There she found a man waiting; a big, heavy man with a great black beard and huge eyebrows like bushy caterpillars. He carried a sharp axe over his shoulder, so that Helena knew him to be a woodcutter. He asked her, in a kind voice, what was wrong, and she told him about her lost sister and the Dry Bone Man. "Do not be afraid, child," he said to her, "come with me into the woods and we will find your sister. I do not fear the Dry Bone Man." But Helena did not trust the man, and she dared not go back into the woods, so instead she ran all the way home, with the woodcutter calling after her.
The next day Rolf came home looking none the worse for his experience. But Gabriela never returned, and there were fresh bones upon the trees.
-0-
Some years later a troop of soldiers came to see Helena, after the war had ended and the last of the dead things had been scattered and sent back to their dark hollows and horrid lairs. They told her that she was the true heir to the throne of Ostermark, which had been empty for many long years, and that if she agreed to go with them she would one day be Grafin and Elector. Now, Helena's mother was very happy and urged her to go, but Helena did not trust the men. But then her thoughts went to the woodcutter, and how if she had trusted him that night years ago, her sister might have been saved. And so it was that she agreed, and they brought Helena and her mother to Stirland to meet the Graf Martin, a great hero who would one day, it was said, be Emperor.
Everyone was very nice to Helena, and she had good food and beautiful clothes for the first time in many years. There were tutors who taught her the history of her family line, and how to manage money and resources, and also how to walk in a dignified manner and how to talk to the nobility; though her mother had taught her all she could of such things, there had always been too much work to do in the old days to devote much time to learning. But the Graf himself had little time for her, and they barely spoke.
Before too long there came a day when she was taken into Ostermark, moving in the triumphant wake of the Stirland army as it marched north toward the city of Bechafen, where she would find her throne. It was a very long journey, and a difficult one for Helena, since she shared her coach with the Graf and his mistress, and his contempt for Helena was clear in his every word and glance. But still there were parades and parties, bright colours and exotic scents, and much that was happy and wonderful.
Eventually the coach came to an old castle where the Stirland army had its headquarters. There was a great feast that night, and in the months that followed the war went well, and the people of the castle rejoiced and made plans for what they would do when the fighting was over. As time passed the mood began to change, just as a warm and glorious summer sinks gradually through the decay of autumn into the frigid death of winter. The war began to turn against the Stirlanders, and one awful night the ghosts of the castle murdered the Graf's mistress as she lay sleeping by his side. After that the Graf locked himself away and saw no one, not even his closest friends, and everywhere there was dread and despair.
But one day a great many knights arrived at the castle, magnificent in their silver armour, and they brought with them an old man in fine robes. The old man met with Helena in a private room in the highest tower of the castle, and he said to her, "I am the Grand Theogonist, the Voice of Sigmar on earth, and I am here to prepare you for the throne of Ostermark."
Helena curtsied, and replied, "Your Holiness, I am honoured. But I have already received many months of training to prepare me for the throne, and I feel no more ready than the day I began."
At that the old man smiled, and in a kindly voice he said, "My dear, that was only the worldly knowledge of wise scholars and astute stewards. I bring to you the Truth of Holy Sigmar, whose breath is the life of the faithful." He sat down in a padded armchair, and continued, "You once had a sister, whom you lost in tragic circumstances."
Helena looked down at the ground, so that he would not see her tears. "I know that you blame yourself for her death," the Grand Theogonist said, "and it is time that you learned what really happened to her. Today, I shall call up her spirit from paradise, and you will speak to her."
Now Helena knew as well as anyone what a great evil it is to conjure the spirits of the dead; but how could she disagree with the Grand Theogonist himself?[2] And so she sat quietly as he lit candles and spoke magic words and sure enough a bright light appeared in the air before her eyes. As she watched, a door seemed to open up and out of it came her sister, looking as she had that day by the woods. At first, Helena was delighted to see her sister again, and she threw her arms around her and hugged her with all her strength. Then she remembered how she had abandoned her sister, and she fell to her knees and begged for forgiveness. But Gabriela took her by the hand, and kissed her cheek, and said, "My dear sister, you are not to blame. It was my decision to enter the woods, and you could not have saved me."
Helena choked back her tears for a moment and said, "But if only I had trusted the woodcutter, you might have been found!"
"The woodcutter did find me," said Gabriela, "and it was he that slew me, not the Dry Bone Man. If you had not run, you would have died along with me." Gabriela put her other hand on Helena's head, and spoke urgently, "Sister, you were right to be suspicious that day. You must not trust these men either, who talk of thrones and crowns but use you only to gain power for themselves. If there is a throne waiting for you, you must reach it by yourself. Now I must leave. But I will be with you always, in your heart. May the Lord Sigmar watch over you, my sister. Farewell."
So Gabriela disappeared back through the door in the air, and Helena wept long and hard. But she heeded her sister's warning, and that night the Grand Theogonist helped Helena and her mother to flee the castle and vanish into the countryside. What happened to them is not known, but some say she gathered followers to her cause, and one day led a great revolution against the foreign rulers of her beloved homeland, and cast them out. They say that Helena became Elector, and founded a new dynasty that ruled for a hundred years, and that she built a statue in the centre of Bechafen; a statue of her sister carved from the purest white marble. Because in the end one sister was brave but the other was wise, and that was the difference between Helena and Gabriela.
[1]The Dry Bone Man is a classic example of the 'monster in the woods', one of the universal features of Imperial folk tales. The woods and forests of our land are filled with terrible dangers, both human and inhuman, both living and undead. It is vital that children are impressed with a healthy fear of the forests from an early age, so that they do not rush heedlessly to their doom.
[2]All know that Necromancy, the magical art of speaking with the dead, is one of the very worst crimes there is. That the Grand Theogonist himself should have committed such an act is almost unimaginable: yet this tale is not the only evidence that Kurt III was indeed guilty. The reader is referred to my own publication of the journal of Erasmus Buchner, under the title 'Everything but sleep', which contains a first-hand account of His Supreme Holiness' corruption.
A folk tale of Ostermark
It is curious to note that, in many cases, one can gain more insight into historical events from the folk tales and fireside myths of a region than from official records, which so often conflict with each other. This story dates from the brief war of succession that raged in Ostermark following the battle of Hel Fenn, and gives an interesting new perspective on some of the key figures. Though it follows the standard pattern used by many such tales, it is my personal belief that it represents an important contribution to our understanding of that baffling and inconclusive war. - JWG.
The difference between Helena and Gabriela was this: Gabriela was born four minutes before Helena. This may sound like the smallest of differences, but as the sisters grew up everyone was amazed by how much wiser Gabriela was, how much braver and more confident she was. Though the two girls were almost exactly alike to look at, nevertheless it seemed that Gabriela was a little prettier than Helena, and a little taller. You might think that Helena would envy her older sister, or that Gabriela would treat Helena badly, but the truth was that the two of them loved each other completely, and shared many of the same thoughts and dreams.
Now, this was long ago, in the time before the Blessed Magnus saved us all from the horrors that lurk in the dark places of the land. In those days the Lord Sigmar had turned His face from His children, for His Empire lay in ruins and no one would hear His words. He wept tears of stone that split the land, and dead things rose up and gathered together into terrible armies. There were many great men and women who called themselves Emperor, though none deserved that title, and they sent great armies of shining knights and brave soldiers to battle these monsters. These battles took away the lives of so many husbands and fathers that it was left to the women to work the land, so that even the noble families were made poor and hungry. Among them was Helena and Gabriela's mother, for their father had gone to the war as a Knight in Holy Order and never returned. But though they had few servants and fewer comforts, the two sisters were loved and they did not want for happiness.
Our land of Ostermark suffered more than anywhere else in those days, and even though the war lay far away from the place where the sisters lived, there were many monsters. At sunset, the people of the village hung garlic and wolf's bane in strings upon their lintels, and barred their doors until morning. Every night there would be scratching and scrabbling at the doors, and at the shutters of the windows, and from time to time there could be heard a dreadful, pleading cry in the voice of a loved one gone before.
The worst of these monsters was the Dry Bone Man[1], a terrible spectre that lived in the depths of the woods and preyed upon the unwary. His story was told in hushed tones by the flickering light of the hearth, by those who had seen him at the woods' edge as the sun went down and fled in terror of their lives. He was very tall and very thin, but bent over, like a man with a heavy load on his back. He walked with a strange, loping gait and could overtake the fastest runner in an instant. Then he would snatch his victim up in his claws and tear them, living, into pieces. He hung the bones, picked absolutely clean, in long strings from the trees, with words carved into them in a language no one could understand.
One day, in the winter when the sun was low and almost ready to drop below the horizon, it so happened that Helena and Gabriela were passing the woods on the way home from the village, where they had gone to buy yarn for their mother to make them new clothes. Now, the sisters had with them a little dog called Rolf that they had raised from a puppy and that they loved more than anything except for their mother and each other. Helena was carrying little Rolf in her arms when he suddenly let out a yelp and sprang onto the ground. Before either of them could stop him, he ran away from the path and into the woods. The sisters were of course very anxious to get Rolf back, but at the same time they were terribly afraid to enter the woods so close to dark. At length Helena began to cry, and Gabriela said, "Do not cry sister! The sun is still in the sky, and the Lord Sigmar will protect us. Let us enter the woods and save poor Rolf from the Dry Bone Man."
And so enter the woods they did, each holding the other's hand very tightly. But the woods were very dark, and sunset came quicker than either of them had expected. After a while, the sisters heard a rustling and a creaking noise coming towards them through the trees, and they knew that the Dry Bone Man had found them. They ran, but in their fear and confusion each let go of the other's hand, and they became separated. Helena cried and cried as she ran, not daring to look back, until at last she came to the edge of the woods and emerged onto the path. There she found a man waiting; a big, heavy man with a great black beard and huge eyebrows like bushy caterpillars. He carried a sharp axe over his shoulder, so that Helena knew him to be a woodcutter. He asked her, in a kind voice, what was wrong, and she told him about her lost sister and the Dry Bone Man. "Do not be afraid, child," he said to her, "come with me into the woods and we will find your sister. I do not fear the Dry Bone Man." But Helena did not trust the man, and she dared not go back into the woods, so instead she ran all the way home, with the woodcutter calling after her.
The next day Rolf came home looking none the worse for his experience. But Gabriela never returned, and there were fresh bones upon the trees.
-0-
Some years later a troop of soldiers came to see Helena, after the war had ended and the last of the dead things had been scattered and sent back to their dark hollows and horrid lairs. They told her that she was the true heir to the throne of Ostermark, which had been empty for many long years, and that if she agreed to go with them she would one day be Grafin and Elector. Now, Helena's mother was very happy and urged her to go, but Helena did not trust the men. But then her thoughts went to the woodcutter, and how if she had trusted him that night years ago, her sister might have been saved. And so it was that she agreed, and they brought Helena and her mother to Stirland to meet the Graf Martin, a great hero who would one day, it was said, be Emperor.
Everyone was very nice to Helena, and she had good food and beautiful clothes for the first time in many years. There were tutors who taught her the history of her family line, and how to manage money and resources, and also how to walk in a dignified manner and how to talk to the nobility; though her mother had taught her all she could of such things, there had always been too much work to do in the old days to devote much time to learning. But the Graf himself had little time for her, and they barely spoke.
Before too long there came a day when she was taken into Ostermark, moving in the triumphant wake of the Stirland army as it marched north toward the city of Bechafen, where she would find her throne. It was a very long journey, and a difficult one for Helena, since she shared her coach with the Graf and his mistress, and his contempt for Helena was clear in his every word and glance. But still there were parades and parties, bright colours and exotic scents, and much that was happy and wonderful.
Eventually the coach came to an old castle where the Stirland army had its headquarters. There was a great feast that night, and in the months that followed the war went well, and the people of the castle rejoiced and made plans for what they would do when the fighting was over. As time passed the mood began to change, just as a warm and glorious summer sinks gradually through the decay of autumn into the frigid death of winter. The war began to turn against the Stirlanders, and one awful night the ghosts of the castle murdered the Graf's mistress as she lay sleeping by his side. After that the Graf locked himself away and saw no one, not even his closest friends, and everywhere there was dread and despair.
But one day a great many knights arrived at the castle, magnificent in their silver armour, and they brought with them an old man in fine robes. The old man met with Helena in a private room in the highest tower of the castle, and he said to her, "I am the Grand Theogonist, the Voice of Sigmar on earth, and I am here to prepare you for the throne of Ostermark."
Helena curtsied, and replied, "Your Holiness, I am honoured. But I have already received many months of training to prepare me for the throne, and I feel no more ready than the day I began."
At that the old man smiled, and in a kindly voice he said, "My dear, that was only the worldly knowledge of wise scholars and astute stewards. I bring to you the Truth of Holy Sigmar, whose breath is the life of the faithful." He sat down in a padded armchair, and continued, "You once had a sister, whom you lost in tragic circumstances."
Helena looked down at the ground, so that he would not see her tears. "I know that you blame yourself for her death," the Grand Theogonist said, "and it is time that you learned what really happened to her. Today, I shall call up her spirit from paradise, and you will speak to her."
Now Helena knew as well as anyone what a great evil it is to conjure the spirits of the dead; but how could she disagree with the Grand Theogonist himself?[2] And so she sat quietly as he lit candles and spoke magic words and sure enough a bright light appeared in the air before her eyes. As she watched, a door seemed to open up and out of it came her sister, looking as she had that day by the woods. At first, Helena was delighted to see her sister again, and she threw her arms around her and hugged her with all her strength. Then she remembered how she had abandoned her sister, and she fell to her knees and begged for forgiveness. But Gabriela took her by the hand, and kissed her cheek, and said, "My dear sister, you are not to blame. It was my decision to enter the woods, and you could not have saved me."
Helena choked back her tears for a moment and said, "But if only I had trusted the woodcutter, you might have been found!"
"The woodcutter did find me," said Gabriela, "and it was he that slew me, not the Dry Bone Man. If you had not run, you would have died along with me." Gabriela put her other hand on Helena's head, and spoke urgently, "Sister, you were right to be suspicious that day. You must not trust these men either, who talk of thrones and crowns but use you only to gain power for themselves. If there is a throne waiting for you, you must reach it by yourself. Now I must leave. But I will be with you always, in your heart. May the Lord Sigmar watch over you, my sister. Farewell."
So Gabriela disappeared back through the door in the air, and Helena wept long and hard. But she heeded her sister's warning, and that night the Grand Theogonist helped Helena and her mother to flee the castle and vanish into the countryside. What happened to them is not known, but some say she gathered followers to her cause, and one day led a great revolution against the foreign rulers of her beloved homeland, and cast them out. They say that Helena became Elector, and founded a new dynasty that ruled for a hundred years, and that she built a statue in the centre of Bechafen; a statue of her sister carved from the purest white marble. Because in the end one sister was brave but the other was wise, and that was the difference between Helena and Gabriela.
[1]The Dry Bone Man is a classic example of the 'monster in the woods', one of the universal features of Imperial folk tales. The woods and forests of our land are filled with terrible dangers, both human and inhuman, both living and undead. It is vital that children are impressed with a healthy fear of the forests from an early age, so that they do not rush heedlessly to their doom.
[2]All know that Necromancy, the magical art of speaking with the dead, is one of the very worst crimes there is. That the Grand Theogonist himself should have committed such an act is almost unimaginable: yet this tale is not the only evidence that Kurt III was indeed guilty. The reader is referred to my own publication of the journal of Erasmus Buchner, under the title 'Everything but sleep', which contains a first-hand account of His Supreme Holiness' corruption.
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