MEDIEVAL FANTASY | PROGRESSIVE THINKING
The Dark Lord
“You shall see what acceptance of diversity and change can bring.”
“The Dark Lord approaches!”
“Make way for His Malevolence!”
“Stay out of his way! Lest you desire to be smited!”
“Kneel before your god, peasants.”
The usual calls from my Lieutenant and warriors went on as I stepped onto the burnt, torn carpet. I took slow, deliberate steps, letting my boots crunch satisfyingly. The people would think even my footsteps to be powerful, but the truth of the matter was, I could hardly see anything that wasn’t directly in front of me on the ground. My spine and neck groaned and popped in protest, but I had to maintain posture. I nodded at my Lieutenant, the one who had made the last call. The half-orc, half-troll bowed her head to me, her small, yellow tusks showing just under her bottom lip.
I stopped just short of the throne. With a loud THUMP, THUMP, I summoned my Captain — my second-in-command — with my heavy staff, who immediately materialized at my side. With a voice I hardly recognized as my own, I spoke softly to them.
“It is time.” Deep, dark, and echoing was my tone. I sounded foreign to my own ears.
“Sire… are you absolutely certain?” Their voice sounded foreign as well. I couldn’t wait to end the charade.
“Do I sound uncertain, Huntressss?” I made the last word almost inaudible, manipulating my voice into a snake’s hiss.
I could hear the barely audible sigh through their steel mask. “No, Sire.”
“Once you are beside me, you will remove your helm.”
“As you wish, Sire,” they said, not hesitating in the slightest. So good for me… they’d be rewarded later, in private.
As I lowered myself down, I could feel the coldness of the long-abandoned gold intertwined with wood. In times of war, no warrior or ruler ever speaks of cold thrones.
“Kneel before your king!” At my Captain’s powerful, echoing word, all guards hoisted their weapons, all hunters drew their bows in the darkened shadows from the rafters above. The crowd before me fell to one knee. Some needed encouraging clubs to their backs to comply, and the tattooed orcs, trolls, and over-sized monstrous mutants were happy to oblige with little to no mercy. The warriors were big, gruff, and burly, while the hunters were sleek, slim, and nimble. The bows disappeared into the shadows once more when all heads were down.
“You will be silent while your king speaks,” my second-in-command continued. Flaming arrows whistled down and landed in front of every kneeling member of the crowd, seemingly from nowhere, barely missing the skin on their knees. “He who speaks without being spoken to will be the orcs’ next char-broiled meal.”
I did not need to see in front of me to know that the orcs had licked their thick lips.
I held up my cloaked hand, and was met with pure silence.
“People of the Illock Mainland,” I began, raising my voice, roughing my throat and going as deep as I could force my vocal chords. “You and your kingdom have been overtaken by my army. Three years ago, your previous kings and queens did not even need smited — they surrendered the moment they saw their army crippled from twenty thousand to a mere five hundred.” I straightened my back and neck, finally fixing my posture, and saw a few raised eyebrows from the crowd in response.
“We have finally finished conquering the rest of the Realm,” I continued. “Each kingdom and free country has agreed to proceed under my rule, and those who opposed were eliminated.” I let my voice rise in pitch a little, which earned me even more confused expressions, this time from various people looking around at each other.
“My Captain and their Hunters, with my Lieutenant and her Warriors, have proven to be the most skilled and deadly force that this Realm has ever seen.” I glared, hard into the audience in disgust before me. “You, who outcast the trolls, orcs, and mutants, who forced them to live on the edges of the map, near the Forbidden Peaks. Where true monsters dwell. They could have thrived among your people, so long as you had let them. If only you petty, insolent, needlessly pathetic creatures had an inkling of basic decency flowing through your life force, we could have achieved greatness without all this bloodshed.”
There were no confused looks now. Just scattered looks of guilt, shame, and mostly stubbornness. People would never change. Not without the proper, firm hand to keep them in line.
“What you do not know is that your kingdoms fell before our rise to power.” Back to confusion. “Because of your insistence on clinging to tradition, out-dated superstitions, and failure to see potential, your kings and queens grew greedy, the class gaps grew wider, and many suffered in silence. My army and I rose up out of necessity, not out of need for control or power. Without us, the balance would have continued to remain broken, and the Realm would have eventually fallen to its own prejudice.”
My voice was almost normal now, and I had every eye in the room turned on me.
“And now… you shall see what acceptance of diversity and change can bring.”
I rose from the throne, slowly lifting my hood. Gasps of shock and horror ran about the room as my hair cascaded downward, flowing around my head as my locks were finally freed from their prison. The heavy braids hung firmly downward, cool, fresh air finally hitting the shaved sides of my head. I had hunter’s face paint with a warrior’s hairstyle. I slowly opened my lidded eyes, revealing an exotic and inhuman pink hue. More gasps.
I nodded to my Captain. They marched over, stood by my side, and removed their helm and outer piece of upper-body armor. I didn’t think that the crowd could make louder or more sounds than they already did, but they swiftly proved me wrong. My Captain’s hair flowed just as mine had, only shorter, cut more cleanly. Their head was shaven only on one side, and they reached up to scratch the dent the steel had made in their scalp.
I nodded to my Lieutenant. She had never hidden her gender, for both her peoples and the mutants did not care for gender roles. But orcs’ and trolls’ genders were a bit harder to tell than humans’ because of their size, stature, and deeper voice. She too removed the outer piece of her upper armor, and stood next to my Captain with her head held high, her breathing gruff amongst the shocked exclamations from the crowd.
“This cannot be!”
“The Realm was overtaken? By women?!”
“Impossible. This is unheard of. Implausible. Improbable.”
“What in the Hells do you call us kneelin’ and them standin’ there, then?! You got any more ‘imp-’s to say?!”
“What… does this mean? Everything we were taught… everything we know…”
“It has to be some sort of trick-”
I swiftly transformed my head into that of a bear’s. “SILENCE!!!” I roared, letting the animalistic urge to bare my fangs take over.
Instantly, silence hung heavy in the large, empty throne room. I changed back.
My Captain cleared their throat and glanced at me, requesting permission to speak. I nodded in return.
“Heed your ruler’s words,” they said in their normal voice, met with hushed murmurs that were swiftly silenced by glares of the warriors. “Us lowly ‘women,’ as you have called us, have been more successful in the past three years than your men have been for centuries.” They turned to me. “Shall I give the order, Sire?”
I briefly turned my head into a wolf’s. Just for fun. “You may, my beautiful Huntress.”
“Hunters!” Immediately, humans and mutant humanoid figures by the hundreds emerged from the shadows, now on the ground rather than in the rafters, their bows drawn and ready for orders. My Captain nodded at their Lieutenant.
“Warriors!” she bellowed in her deep voice. The warriors bore arms instantly, holding their clubs and greatswords in battle-ready positions.
“See how ready and willing they are to follow females into battle? How swiftly they follow orders? How keen they are to serve?” My Captain had stepped off the small podium and was now pacing in front of the crowd. “Do you know why they follow us?” Not a single word was spoken. “Because we have earned their trust. Our motto is…” they paused their pacing, glancing at me and the Lieutenant.
All three of us chanted in unison:
“‘Rule by trust, not by fear. Listen to the people, never ignore.’”
“But…” Someone in the front row had half stood-up, earning a growl from a nearby warrior, but he paid no mind. “What are you doing right now? With hinting words of violence to us, your underlings’ names for you like ‘Dark Lord’ or ‘Evil King’ or even ‘god?’ With clubs to our backs and arrows at our knees?”
I chuckled. I just couldn’t help myself. “Would you have listened to us if we approached you diplomatically?” I turned my head into a viper’s, letting the reptilian hiss enter my words. “Would your kings have listened? Would anyone have listened to, or even respected an unruly band of female outcasts, especially if we had somehow came to power peacefully?!”
Again, pure silence.
I changed my head back. I raised my hand, and the warriors and hunters stepped back, withdrawing their weapons. “You may rise, O People of Illock.”
The crowd hesitated at first, unsure if I was playing tricks or not. But the brave few who stood up were immediately followed. They looked around in confusion, and some jolted away in unexpected shock when the hunters and warriors suddenly and gently offered food, water, and bandages.
“We had to use war, fear tactics, and moves for power in order to take control. Your leaders made it so there was no other way. You had made it so there was no other way. We had to keep up this charade so that everyone would take us seriously. But now that we have control…” I stepped down to face the crowd directly. “You will have a voice. You will have a say. No king, queen, or ruler will make a decision without hearing the people’s word first. I am starting this process here, in the heart of the mainland, and will work my way outwards, until all inhabitants know of their own voice. Orcs, trolls, and mutants included.” I looked them all directly in the eyes, not over their heads, to show that I was serious. “You need not believe us. You need not forgive us for our actions. Hells, you need not even fully understand or grasp the concepts we are trying to make.”
I could feel my second- and third-in-command make their way to stand behind me side-by-side in the middle of the aisle. I leaned forward, annunciating each word with confidence and purpose.
“You need only… to listen.”
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my story. 🖤 I appreciate any and all feedback: comments, claps, constructive criticism, etc. Please consider visiting my author page, and check out B.A.M. Bomb Journal along with my co-conspirators: Adrienne Belbrooks and MJ Huntsgood.
- Becca.🖤🏳️🌈
