Argeus the Paladin
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I Am Skantarios! Rebirth of the Legend of the Roman Empire
A Hero Smash Fanfic/AAR
From the diaries of Skantarios Laskarides, May 29th, 2XXX.
Today twenty-one years ago I was born into the world. Today twenty-one years ago I began to bear the name of Skantarios. Today twenty-one years ago I started hearing with my tender ears and innocent soul the glory, the pride and the expectation such a name would entail on my person. Today twenty-one years ago I was registered as a true descendant of the great Basileus Skantarios Laskaris, the Scourge of Islam, the Retainer of Rome and the one who had, with his sheer cunnings and force of will, raise the Roman Empire from the ashes like a phoenix reborn and taking over the whole known world in his name and the name of the Basileia ton Rhomaion.
Even today, the name I bear is one weaved with both dread and mythic respect. Perhaps one day I will live up to the name I bear and prove myself worthy of its patronage, by committing deeds and exploits worthy of songs, delivering my worth in this world and sending my enemies running at my name. And until then, I'd be contented with being called Skantarios the Lesser of Clan Sons of Laskaris.
Either way, I am not here to recount the tales of Skantarios the Great. Many historians, both Christian and Islamic alike, had wasted countless pages discussing and debating the rights and wrongs of my most noble ancestor, and even in an alcohol-induced bout of overconfidence I would not dare to think I could do a better job than all those scholars have done. Besides, this is not my ancestor's tale. This is my story, a story that I hope, in what you may call the blind arrogance of youth or the foolishness of one who had admittedly not seen much of the world, to eventually come to the point where it would be worth mentioning in its own rights.
Let's talk about the beginning of my life. Despite at one point holding sway over the entirety of the Old Continent, stretching from the coasts of the Black Sea and the Anatolian peninsula to the Gibraltar strait, from the land of the mercantile Novgorodians and the wild Lithuanians to the far reach of Egypt and Lybia, my ancestors had since then fallen on hard times. When I was born, the Laskarides had all but fallen out of favor with Fate and Fortuna for many generations. I opened my eyes to the world in a third-rate clinic to a poor father and an ailing mother, whose greatest treasure were the tales of Skantarios the Great passed down from generations to generations.
The modern society, for all its weaknesses, had one strength I celebrated throughout my childhood. I was given a public education that taught me more than the curriculum probably intended to. I was taught about the ways of life, about how might and wealth make right, about how a ruthless person would inevitably raise to the heights better than any noble souls ever could, about how to make use of others so as to further oneself. It is just the way things is, regardless of time and tide. It also taught me that, in the bleakness of life, faith and loyalty had never really found itself useless. Years of being bullies and bullying others in turn contradictorily followed by many a moment of precious friendships and camaraderie showed me that if there is any rule to life, it is that there is no hard-and-fast rule at all.
A good mix of idealism and cynicism as any, if I would say so myself.
But I sense that sooner or later I would have to pick one over the other. For today, I set sail to Hero City, a place where, I was told, morality is a dichotomy. There are only the good-shiny, goody-two-shoes, dashing and chivalrous heroes literally in shining armors and the puppy-kicking, baby-chowing, sulfur-breathing villains with no middle ground. And yet it is this place of day and night morality that is seen as one of the best place to be for someone hoping to make a name for himself.
If that it the choice I have to make on my path to live up to my ancestral name, so be it.
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Fixed the link to the discussion thread. ~Gianna Glow
< Message edited by Gianna Glow -- 6/17/2013 14:11:09 >
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