Purple Banner

Odsier Plains

Captain Goraidh looked down from the night sky at the ancient Garrah words engraved on his ceremonial blade and grinned.

'A-riamh buaidh, riamh eagal', the same words etched on the edges of the Purple Banner.

"Never conquered, ever feared."

The light of dozens of campfires nearby burned brightly all around him as he sat outside his pavillion. His two bodyguards standing as ever five paces behind him while some of the camp hands went about their evening routines and prepare their Commander's supper.

The plains were still rich with game. The herds were migrating south, more animals then they had ever seen before. Antelope and deer in their thousands. Not even a blind man would go hungry in these plains, the joke was already spreading among the ranks. Notch an arrow, close your eyes and you are bound to hit an animal, so many were their numbers.

He looked at the fire a few metres from him as he reclined on his field chair. After the Fall of Bastion many in the Legion had advocated to change their motto. He was glad they hadn't. Defeat was part of their way of life. It didn't matter how successful one was there was always someone else faster, stronger, deadlier, just over the next horizon. The lessons from ruling and losing Bastion would serve the Legion well for as long as they existed.

The men were in good spirits. The payment from Salos still heavy in their coffers and the plunder from the war against the Tribes still fresh in their memory.

The Purple Legion had fared better than most against the Odsier. Their ranks suffered the least amount of casualties. He had not been very pleased when he found out that many of the more pious among the ranks had accepted the call from the Purger to join his Order.

In Helias he would have issued orders to kill the traitors but here and especially when many of the soldiers were hailing that lunatic Margrave Otho, as the divine reason they had emerged victorious against the witches, he dared not make a move. Not yet at least.

While the Empire's gold continued to flow into their coffers they would serve. They would serve like they always did. To the death.

And if the gold ever stopped flowing, well, Captain Goraidh, could see himself building a nation for the Legion.

The lessons of Bastion would forever aid them.