Thursday, September 22, 2011

Game of Kings First Phase revisited

For the better part of the last three years, I, along with a great team of fellow bubblers have been working on a chess-themed collaborative project called the Game of Kings. Featuring a board populated by creatures as varied as the backgrounds and skills of the artists involved, the second phase (the battle/chess game itself) wrapped up recently (you can explore the whole story starting from here)

However, as anyone who has explored the various pieces of the board, read their bios, or the additional prelude pieces contained within the GoK profile would discover, there is a wealth of untapped material concerning the two opposing armies and the worlds they inhabited before their climactic struggle began.

So, proving yet again that they are two of the mightiest contributors (or most foolhardy ;o)), messrs Sturstein and Ausven took it upon themselves to start adapting some of the early prequel material. Starting today, you can read the fruit of their labours, beginning right HERE
Click on image for larger view.

THIS IS THE ORIGINAL STORY PIECE
The White Queen, Her Bishop and the University of the Gears.

The steps to leading up to the University doors were imposing, they’d even have an air of respect it weren’t for the dog turds everywhere.
The Queen’s Bishop was witnessing first hand one of his greatest triumphs and failures in one hit.
Having pioneered gene slicing and genetic engineering, as Dean of the University his most brilliant achievement had been to create his Lone Wolf battalion.
A genetic combination of human and wolf, years of trials had created the most fierce and loyal fighters outside of the King’s own personal guard.
The only problem was that no matter how he tried , even after giving the Werehounds the power of free will, speech, the ability to educate themselves and breed, the Bishop still couldn’t stop them from going to the toilet wherever it suited them.

The Bishop who was the military chief of the Werehounds was also responsible for their mess and the King’s Bishop was always there to remind him of the consequences of playing with God’s tools.
Angel’s were just so damn self-righteous.

The Queen’s Bishop never really trusted his companion Bishop but these things usually swung both ways.
Having the Queen’s ear and control of the university gave him huge influence and his work at the university had been responsible for the ultimate strengthening of the armed forces, something the King had prioritized many years ago. which had resulted in the Kingdom being the most powerful nation in the dimension.
The Bishop, along with the University of the Gears staff had created marvels and oddities using science and ancient crafts and majik that had his peers could only dream of achieving in several lifetimes.
The Steam City and the control of the Rock Titan ,
but it was the re-animation of the past heroes and Generals that had been the turning point of his career.
When the Bishop had rediscovered the secret of re-animation with the Necromancer tribes of the Western Plains, the King’s reaction had not been favourable. In fact it was so severe it had threatened the end of the university, especially after his companion Bishop decreed that laws of the known God had been broken and that abominations had been created. If it hadn’t been for his Queen’s intervention and her quick wits all would have been lost, and together they would never have found out the truth behind the King’s distress.
With the Queen’s persuasion the King had let the living dead remain in the service of the army on several conditions.
Firstly, that they remain under his flank, secondly that only their military memory be reanimated with their bones, and the final condition – that only those the King chose were to be raised from their tombs.
The Queen’s argument was that these past warriors would be invaluable in combat. Their experience and knowledge would be unsurpassed, which they went on to prove time and again. The King’s concern was that such figures of history would reveal what had taken him centuries to hide.
Of course, the ever insightful Queen with the help of her Bishop strayed beyond these commands and discovered from one of the ancient soldiers the truth of the King’s origins and filed it away for future use.
The Queen and her Bishop’s ultimate aim: to find out why their King was so determined to built such a vast unbeatable army, when he had already conquered everything that was defeatable in and beyond his known realm.