Topher Lydon

Hughie is hamfisted into random ships, abused and generally maligned... and verbally abused. Dio does the verbal abusing "There's a difference!"

Should have paid in full

The CSC, bladerunner's of this setting. They're there to apprehend a threat to the Construct program that Eriks represents, KW-479 is a rather fortuitous coincidence. They have been looking for him, it's highly interesting to them that he and Eriks are together.

As ever, thanks to the readers. A knight in the Darkness was my very first attempt at this genre and thank you for enjoying, reading, and engaging with it.

The Raptor's common room was silent. Lukas sat in the pilot's chair, staring at the rain on the viewport, his hands resting on his knees. The rose jacquard jacket hung on the back of the seat, replaced by the Militsiya uniform—clean, pressed, the fabric stiff with synthetic starch. The peaked cap sat on the console beside him, its visor gleaming under the dim lights. He had found it in a locker, buried beneath a stack of old reports, and something about the weight of it felt like armor.

Stephen is embarrassed, but rather enjoying sharing his bedroll... even if he now owes Ashot a chest full of coins.

Funny you should mention this, in the later book, focused on Ishan, we learn that his master/teacher was. The Seljuk Empire had a large amount of dealings with the Far East and the Orient. (The silk road passing right through it) And Ishan's father wanted a teacher for his smallest boy, that could teach him the Path of Water. Ishan in turn teaches this to Ashot. Ashot in turn teaches this to Atreus FitzDarien (a major plot point of book IV)

Ishan is highly skilled with a sword. And Wylan is NEVER getting messed with again, even after they swap back. When a group of highly fleeced knights run back to their tents and talk about how the BLIND saint kicked the snot out of ten squires, and a hundred knights... (you know this is getting embellished) no one is going to touch him.

Snot's become a trope in our weekly DnD game, used to describe any civilian/child/pet that gets adopted by a party member. Our GM is notorious for viciously punishing us for adopting annoying NPC's by brutally squashing them in some dramatic fashion or another... there was a string of cabin boys... it was not pretty, utterly hilarious though.

Good morning SNOT.

The training yard was a churned swamp of frozen mud and the frantic chaos of men who had been starving for months and were finally, mercifully, fed. Val stood in the center of it, her practice sword balanced on her shoulder, watching her new squire stagger to his feet for the dozenth time. Ashot's face was barely visible through the dented kettle helm Lloyd had given him, his dark eyes glittering with the reckless fury of a boy who had been hit too many times and was not going to stop unti

I believe he found it racist. Tripp also refuses. I think it's something I will keep consistent. They view it as degrading.

Volgograd, a corporate hell hole, crammed with billions of souls. Mmmm dystopia.

If he were thinking clearly.

The Kaynin, amongst the most popular of the species I created for this series. The youthful and enthusiastic creatures, puppy energy and fierce. Tripp's a good boy

Dawn came to Volgograd like a wound opening. The rain had stopped sometime in the night, leaving the streets slick and gleaming under the first pale light. Steam rose from the grates in the pavement, ghostly fingers curling through the air, and the neon signs that had screamed through the darkness now flickered weakly, their colors washed out by the gray of morning. The city was still asleep—or as asleep as Volgograd ever got. A few market stalls were already setting up, their vendors yawn

I don't think he knows, yet.

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.