MSNPC Rugen - The Hall of the Not-Forgotten

[Gogigobo Fairhug]

@Sal Taybrim knows how to write a villain. 😈

((Hall of the Not-Forgotten, Chief’s Chambers – Secured Location on Byzatium))

He always walked through the hall of the Not-Forgotten before heading into the stars and going to war.  Here were collected the relics of the honored dead, those who had lost their lives in the never-ending war.

And that is what life was for him.  War.  Never-ending war.

It was what he was born into and it was what he would leave this sentient existence desperately clinging onto.  There was no other choice – he could not comprehend a different way of life.  This was life.  Is life.  And someday he hoped he would not be forgotten.

Rugen picked up a green woven sash, worn by his beautiful Imelnia into battle.  They had fought side by side.  She had born his three children.  She had collapsed in the most beautiful pool of blood that Byzatium had ever seen.  Her belly split open by a charged plasma sword, blood running from her like hot red rivers.

Dorfmen did not mourn.  They did not grieve.  It was unthinkable.  So he celebrated her death with a ten day drunk.  He kept a lock of her hair tied to his belt with a tiny red silk ribbon, one of the few luxuries he had given her.  And now she was not-forgotten.  He would carry her with him into battle in the stars.  

The same with his best friend Korth who’s throat was slit by Omunics, his young son Ruton who was reduced to atoms in an explosion and his father Ruseth who was cut down by a thousand blades while leading a charge against Bardeez.  

None of them would be forgotten.  Tokens of them rested in this hall, some still stained with spilled blood, others slowly decaying.  But not forgotten until they crumbled away into dust and new generations placed new tokens here.

Rugen was determined to lead his people forward.  To conquer, to fight.  It was all he knew, and he prided himself on his culture.  He carried his people forward in the way it always was, the way it always had been, the way it always would be.

There were others talking about change.  A fundamental change of the way of life.  As if that was possible, hah!  No, Rugen felt they were – at best – dangerous fools playing with the fate of the universe.  And at worst they were manipulative predators trying to pacify and fatten up the Byzatium population for takeover and rule by Bardeez and the horrible empires that existed beyond.  

He would much rather fight an endless war than die as a slave.  No one in the hall of the Not-Forgotten would have ever wanted to see anyone in the tribe bow to outsiders.  He would do it for them.  For the memory of what was and the continuations of what is.  War was an inevitable reality of his existence and he would continue on its path until he, too collapsed in a honorable pile of blood.

Slowly he set the tokens down and strode out of the hall of the Not-Forgotten, emboldened to do what he had to do next.

War.

It would be done.

~*~
~tbc~
~*~

MSNPC Rugen
Byzatium Tribal Leader

 

 

 

"Why do we fly? Because we have dreamt of it for so long that we must"

~Julian Beck
E239010ST0

 

 

[Evan Ross]

I loved this one too! Such a great read, I'm really looking forward to getting to know him (or maybe rather not 🫣) 😊