Hello again! For today's primer I'm going to discuss some changes to Alden as a character and the war that took place between Drygallis and Hilva.

To start with, I'm going to discuss perhaps the most important change from Volume 1 to Volume 2: Alden's memories.

Although I began the story with the intent for Alden to be plucked from a life in the real world, during writing Volume 1 I gravitated toward him having no attachment or memories involving his previous life, with some notable exceptions. My ‘fix’ for this, which will have greater story implications down the line, is to have Alden be an actual amnesiac (as opposed to just pretending). Note, however, that Alden will still maintain a semblance of coming from another world to account for certain actions taken in the story, which will be expanded upon in the rewrite & Volume 2.

The second part up for discussion today are the events of the war that takes place in Volume 1, which will be known in universe as the 2nd Hilvan Rebellion. The 2nd Hilvan Rebellion, during which the Licester Barony acted as a prominent gateway for Hilvan troops to enter Drygallis, has a number of issues when viewed from a strategic/tactical standpoint. Issues that I'll attempt to resolve the specifics of in the rewrite, but for now can only express vaguely.

The most important aspect is scale: going forward the 2nd Hilvan Rebellion will be regarded as having been of much greater scale than expressed in Volume 1. There will have been more armies, led by more nobles, taking part in larger battles and resulting in more deaths and destruction that what was described in Volume 1.

Another aspect is one of the root causes of the war, that being the Imperial Curtain. The Imperial Curtain, the policy that essentially separates the Emperor and his inner circle of power from the rest of the Empire's affairs, has led to a great deal of discontent in Hilva which has been primarily perpetuated by the religious leadership of Highharrow, the religious center of the Empire itself. This, in turn, lead the common people to consider the war not one of independence, but rather a religious crusade that would decide if the Emperor was truly favored by the Gods.

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The final aspect of the war I'll discuss is technically a soldier's role: the Death Guard. The Death Guard, of which Uhtric was a former member, are the soldiers responsible for perhaps the most gruesome work, that being post-battle cleanup. Though the majority of their work consists of collecting and sorting weapons and armor from fallen troops, the Death Guard is also responsible for collecting the bodies themselves and sorting them into two groups. Their fallen allies are collected and laid out in rows of makeshift funeral pyres, which would then be burned one by one in a religious ceremony.

The bodies of the enemies, however, are not afforded the same respect. Their bodies are stripped naked, then piled together in a single heap of death. This heap of death is then set aflame at nightfall, thus acting as a bonfire by which the victors dance and celebrate their victory & survival.

The bleakest aspect of the Death Guard's work, however, comes in the form of enemy survivors. While allies are moved to medical tents for healing, the fate of surviving enemies is left in the hands of the army's current leader. While some army leaders, particularly knights, often opt for imprisoning higher ranking enemies and quickly killing the rest, some, particularly nobles, often have the survivors undergo forms of torture such as maiming, flaying, vivisection, castration, or crucifixion. Others opt for even more creative methods of torture, sometimes under the guise of research.

The reward for such duties is significant: a serf is able to raise his/her status to become a freeman, while a freeman is able to obtain land rights. These rewards are conferred after either 5 years of service during peacetime, during which members of the Death Guard essentially act as morticians/grave keepers, or after a single war deployment, which in Drygallis is half a year.