"Chaszyrd the Crazy," fingerbone of a cannibalized fic
Wednesday, 4 June 2008 08:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teakay
Because I was feeling nostalgic (see the little icon?) and just can't accept death. That garden ornament about dragging your loved one back from heaven that Elaine Cunningham thought was so creepy? I'd snap it up.
More than a year ago, while working on my wannabe Realms magnum opus/divine soap opera, I did character sketches of a dozen various folk I intended to use. That fizzled, and now I busy myself reusing their names in the Remembered Realms (Shardax the snarky Vhaeraunite spy is now Shardax the bereaved boyfriend of an Elaith Craulnober wannabe) and working them into the history and the flavor quotes.
Chaszyrd Thenduk is the latter case, and right now he gets a line at the start of Tarlyn's next chapter. Have his introduction from my old opus, tweaked slightly, in which the Selvetargtlin of Eryndlyn brainstorm new sacrificial rituals in the aftermath of Selvetarm telling Lolth to stuff it.
***
Tsabrak was on his feet. “Throw the faerie a blade. Let’s see if he-”
Another of the spiderswords, without looking at him, said, “Don’t be an idiot.”
“I say we just sacrifice it,” said a Grand Temple judicator. “Cut out the heart. That’s what it was here for.”
“How do we do that? The old spider-daggers and so on? We’ve sworn that off, haven’t we?”
“We haven’t sworn off spiders. The Truth of the Seeker can still do his.” The Truth of the Seeker, notable in his absence. “So can Jhalavar.” A gesture toward the young priestess in question who, report given, continued to stand in the doorway with her spellsinger comrade.
“A battle-death would be a better sacrifice, wouldn’t it?” This speaker inclined his head toward Tsabrak, who recognized him as Master Chaszyrd Thenduk - not a priest, but a combat instructor who’d often given his spare time to the Grand Temple, embracing Selvetarm’s battle frenzy and the Spider Queen’s love of chance. He was often called Chaszyrd the Crazy, both in and out of his earshot, and he appeared to relish the epithet.
When Tsabrak was in training at the Grand Temple, novices in service of both Lolth and Selvetarm had whispered that Master Chaszyrd was compiling a secret list of everyone who called him crazy to his face, in preparation for slaughtering them all. Tsabrak himself had never addressed him as such - he was a fine one to toss such a descriptor about, and he was not entirely disbelieving of the whispers.
“Selvetarm smiles on a death in battle against overwhelming odds,” said the same spidersword who’d called Tsabrak an idiot, “not a death in battle against a chit of a faerie priest waving a knife.”
“What kind of proper warrior,” Chaszyrd said, “could die to a chit of a faerie priest anyway?”
***
Now in Remembered Realms his god's been offed, as per the book that Jossed my late lamented opus, but Chaszyrd lives on under the radar another couple hundred years, gets to be city "Weapons Master" after a number of bloody riots once Lolth's apparently followed suit, and goes on to have to an unreasonably long life, during which he produces a bunch of quotables.
Tsabrak in Remembered Realms timeline, I think, probably didn't live to see 1376.
More than a year ago, while working on my wannabe Realms magnum opus/divine soap opera, I did character sketches of a dozen various folk I intended to use. That fizzled, and now I busy myself reusing their names in the Remembered Realms (Shardax the snarky Vhaeraunite spy is now Shardax the bereaved boyfriend of an Elaith Craulnober wannabe) and working them into the history and the flavor quotes.
Chaszyrd Thenduk is the latter case, and right now he gets a line at the start of Tarlyn's next chapter. Have his introduction from my old opus, tweaked slightly, in which the Selvetargtlin of Eryndlyn brainstorm new sacrificial rituals in the aftermath of Selvetarm telling Lolth to stuff it.
***
Tsabrak was on his feet. “Throw the faerie a blade. Let’s see if he-”
Another of the spiderswords, without looking at him, said, “Don’t be an idiot.”
“I say we just sacrifice it,” said a Grand Temple judicator. “Cut out the heart. That’s what it was here for.”
“How do we do that? The old spider-daggers and so on? We’ve sworn that off, haven’t we?”
“We haven’t sworn off spiders. The Truth of the Seeker can still do his.” The Truth of the Seeker, notable in his absence. “So can Jhalavar.” A gesture toward the young priestess in question who, report given, continued to stand in the doorway with her spellsinger comrade.
“A battle-death would be a better sacrifice, wouldn’t it?” This speaker inclined his head toward Tsabrak, who recognized him as Master Chaszyrd Thenduk - not a priest, but a combat instructor who’d often given his spare time to the Grand Temple, embracing Selvetarm’s battle frenzy and the Spider Queen’s love of chance. He was often called Chaszyrd the Crazy, both in and out of his earshot, and he appeared to relish the epithet.
When Tsabrak was in training at the Grand Temple, novices in service of both Lolth and Selvetarm had whispered that Master Chaszyrd was compiling a secret list of everyone who called him crazy to his face, in preparation for slaughtering them all. Tsabrak himself had never addressed him as such - he was a fine one to toss such a descriptor about, and he was not entirely disbelieving of the whispers.
“Selvetarm smiles on a death in battle against overwhelming odds,” said the same spidersword who’d called Tsabrak an idiot, “not a death in battle against a chit of a faerie priest waving a knife.”
“What kind of proper warrior,” Chaszyrd said, “could die to a chit of a faerie priest anyway?”
***
Now in Remembered Realms his god's been offed, as per the book that Jossed my late lamented opus, but Chaszyrd lives on under the radar another couple hundred years, gets to be city "Weapons Master" after a number of bloody riots once Lolth's apparently followed suit, and goes on to have to an unreasonably long life, during which he produces a bunch of quotables.
Tsabrak in Remembered Realms timeline, I think, probably didn't live to see 1376.
