Adam writes:

"I’m Adam. I write.

I suppose I’m a kind of Caliban in this brave new world; I don’t write a blog. I’ve never really learnt the knack. I do a little bit for Yog-Sothoth (the Bookshelf, on Yog Radio – look for it in the audio downloads at Yog-Sothoth.com if you’re feeling keen) but it’s not the same thing.

Now, I’m fondest of history, horror and crime, in that order. Exceptionally cunning readers might notice at least one of my sources. You probably won’t notice the other, which springs from an amateur’s interest in cypher. In this instance the cypher is based on telegraph code, which grew out of a desire to transmit as much information as possible as cheaply as possible. Since the charge was per word, the end result was that one small word could do extra duty, as per:

Enrique streamlet solstice turtle worthily

The ship Enrique is stranded but not seriously damaged, through the fault of the pilot. Tugs are assisting; more details to follow.

[see also ABC Telegraphic Code]

For those of you who want to know what else I’ve written , most of my published work is RPG based. I’ve written two articles for Pagan’s Unspeakable Oath (it can’t be dead if it eternal lies) and an article for Chaosium about Prohibition. For those more interested in history I can recommend my work on the 21 Club in New York, which can be found on their website 21club.com. I also heartily recommend the 21; it’s a friendly place, and one of my favorites.

Watch this space.

Curtain’s up! Enjoy the show."

The latest Shadows of the Apt short story is to be found here.

A lot of this batch of stories are, as you may have noticed, taking place specifically up in the Commonweal during the Twelve-years War with the Empire, a conflict over before Empire in Black and Gold starts, and taking place in lands that we're unlikely to actually see first hand for some time. So why?

Nothing in Empire makes sense without the Twelve-year war. Salma, for example, is a child of that war. He would have been around eight years old when it started. It dominated most of his life. His father and his foster-sister were both casualties of it, as were many other people he knew.

And then there's Thalric, whose duty committed him to atrocity in that same war, who was just a young officer when Myna was taken, but came out of the Commonweal clash a bloody-handed veteran.

But most importantly, there is the Empire. The Empire was already a great and accelerating force when it commenced its invasion of the Commonweal, but it was in its battles with the Dragonfly-kinden that it honed its skills, especially its new technologies. Those skills are now to be turned on Stenwold's people and the rest of the Lowlands.

And of course, it was a near thing, in the end, once Myna and its neighbouring cities were conquered. What a small change of strategy would have seen the imperial forces chasing Stenwold all the way back to Collegium seventeen years ago, rather than turning their attention north?

I've been criminally lax in linking to David's other art (1), so I've added him to the blogroll (ridiculously ungracious name!) and you can see more of his work here.

(1) the reflex to put the capital 'A' is hard to fight.

Diminutive Fly-kinden live everywhere in the Lowlands and beyond. Clannish and pragmatic, and unrivalled in the air, they form a thriving underclass wherever they go: cheap labour for the Beetles, servants for the Spiders, military scouts for the Wasps. Fly-kinden are the world’s great opportunists. Fly-kinden will work for anyone, believe in no grand causes, and can thrive and prosper, in their small way, where any other people would be crushed underfoot.

With that resolution, here's a story that, in part, is about a certain Mantis kicking his heels in Helleron between chapters one and two of Empire in Black and Gold, but, despite that, is purportedly about Fly-kinden.

Download Fallen Heroes here.