[FF] The Heart of the Kwahu

**Jingles** · April 03, 2011, 04:54 PM

Hello all. Ever since I started playing Thera again I wanted to do some sort of fan fiction for it, and here's my humble offering to the already considerable stack of literature surrounding the world of Thera. It's largely fan fiction concocted from my own imagination, but there are some things mentioned in here that bear relevance to the goings on my current Sycorax Nation campaign that I'm doing at the moment, which is what inspired me to write this in the first place.

I intend to write a number of short stories set in the Thera universe eventually, all in the style of books written by fictional authors in the game world, that I imagine would probably be found dotted around the libraries, bookshelves and desk drawers of Thera, or in some cases locked away in the archives of the inquisition!

A word of warning before you continue: I've made the font quite large. Mainly because I find it much easier to read on a screen like that. I can change it though depending on what people think.

Chapter 1

The Heart of the Kwahu

by Albrecht von Essen

Chapter 1

As an archeologist of the Imperial Society, I had found an increasing interest over the years with the mysterious, largely unexplored Mesocala-Lenapa continent in the east. Ever since the Reich's first contact with the primitive but alien peoples that live there at the founding of the Neuwelt colony, Scholars from across the Reich and abroad have expressed a great curiosity in the societies and cultures of the natives.

The inquisition, it is true, regards the pagan peoples of Mesocala and Lenapa with characteristic disdain, however in the enlightened lands of the Reich and the Ducado, the opinions of the Inquisitor are largely taken with a pinch of salt in academic circles. These days many professors, including those of archaeology, see themselves as men of science rather than men of God. I believe I may be counted amongst them.

While the natives of Mesocala have had a reasonable degree of contact and interaction with the Reich, their counterparts further north on the Lenapa subcontinent have remained incredibly isolated from the civilised world until very recently. Some years ago, the Kaiser's emmisaries reached the shores of Lenapa in the interests of establishing trade links with the tribesmen of the region. The expeditionary force was led by the now famous explorer, Sir Friedrich Beckermann.

On the 21st of März, 228ST, after many weeks aboard the Carrack "Valkyrie" the expedition arrived off the coast of Lenapa and landed the entire force and their equipment in skiffs. Their initial position is now approximated to have been not too far north of the mouth of the great river that divides the Mesocala and Lenapa subcontinents, and which leads into the dark, unexplored interior of the combined landmass (see below).

They recieved a mixed reception. The first group of natives that the expedition encountered attacked on sight, much to the surprise of Beckermann and his retinue, however they were quickly seen off by a few warning volleys of arquebus fire, and the tribesmen melted away into the forest to lick their wounds.

Undeterred by this encounter, Beckermann led his men onwards, away from the coast and into the interior of the subcontinent.