Topher Lydon

The embassy came on the last day of February, when the winter had frozen the mud so hard that men could walk without sinking to their ankles for the first time in months. Darien was at the edge of the camp when they appeared, a line of silk and jewels emerging from the gray morning mist like something from a dream he had forgotten he was dreaming. The Egyptian diplomats rode horses that had been fed, their coats gleaming, their saddles worked in gold and crimson. They wore furs against the

It's what the Peligian's exploited, having him build them a perfect host.

he is, Ben never existed, not as a separate entity. This is touched upon in Queen of Ice, where Rikard suspects Ben is not what he seems. And yes, how is he tracking Niklaus? Rikard is not a standard GN-1 not at this point. It is implied that he did something to himself in order to interact with Peligian technology, I think Lex Talionis tortures Rikard through this alteration. He is aware of where Sephradon is and what she is doing when away from her. And she recognizes his power/abilities eclipses her own. Feodor (the Templar trainer/architect) hints at this as well while rebuilding Alessandro to counter the GN's. The Templar devised a way to fight them, and hid it away. There's a bit of scattered lore out there that I am trying to iron into something cohesive. This story is very much an exploration of what Rikard is.

Katherynn was assassinated, married to Alexander VonGrippen, it was one of the catalysts to him forsaking the empire. Ben was really Edward "Matt Elias" in disguise so the Big IE. He is still alive and a bit of a temporal anomaly with attitude. Markus was the original Emperor and was killed by Rikard to clear the path for the GN-3 Niklaus is Niklaus/Lukas - The original Nicholas Denver. Leif is the subject of a future story so presumed dead, but very much alive. Sephradon is VERY much alive as of this time period. The second batch of GN-2's are still in status until Sephradon releases them. (strega et al)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Lake_of_Antioch

Rikard has always had a number of questions surrounding his existences, longevity, and power when no other GN-1 survived the UN war. This story aims to answer that question.

Yummy! I am always amused by the persona that Rikard chose to hide behind. Denver's smiling face on every packet of noodles consumed up and down known space. Be it Matt Elias wolfing it down on the Dragonfly, through to Dimitri and Gremlin sharing a packet that Isaiah made them, through to Eriks cooking it up as his favourite snack. All of them unaware whose face is winking at them.

Rikard has a vested interest in little Niklaus Rikardsson. He was, after all, designed to endure.

We all know that is made from some alien life form that's been squeezed into bottles by unethically sourced workers in the back water colonies.

THE CROWDED MAN The first crack appeared in the hangar. Lukas was sitting on the cargo container, watching the rain, when the world tilted sideways. Not physically—the concrete floor was still level, the Raptor still humming, the drips still falling in their steady rhythm. But something inside him *shifted*, like a tectonic plate grinding against its neighbor, and suddenly he wasn't in Volgograd anymore. He was in mud. Deep mud, the kind that sucked at his

He will continue to be a rather thorny problem for Radoslav, the Church, and Frankia as a whole as he ascends. His son is FAR WORSE

Lloyd prefers his little Lord to be a bit messy. Now it should be noted, because someone brought it up. When the book series started it was 1095, it is currently 1098. Both Julian and Wylan started out at 15-17. They are both later teens to 20 years old at this point. Remember that Lloyd was around 20- 21 and at the upper edge of being a Squire. just to make it clear.

It was a very sacred part of the era. Fell out of favour because the Church doesn't like to admit it used to have a rite of same-sex marriage. But it is the ultimate protection for Wylan that Darien can do. A papal bull, from a legate of Rome, sealing them as untouchable. Good luck persecuting that. "You're a damn dirty sodomite!" "Actually we're clean sodomites, sanctioned by the Pope, and the might of the Church. Care to see the paperwork?"

His face was a face, that was a face, that had a face I didn't notice at the time that I got locked into a repetitive trope, I have a bad habit of doing this. Good morning Guess Darien got what he wanted.

Ch18 The command tent stank of fear. Darien had been standing at the map table for three hours, watching the markers that represented Ridwan of Aleppo's army creep across the worn leather, and he had come to a terrible understanding: they were going to lose. Not tomorrow, not next week, but now, today, in the hours before dawn when the scouts brought the last reports and the lords who had been arguing about supplies and desertions and the things that were killing them faster than th