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The woodsman (WH40K Short story)
I remember when I was but a boy, the sweet horrors of galaxy still unknown to my blossoming mind, they came. Like monsters from the story books I would read as I grew, their forms but a deadly shadow in my fading memory. From what I hear of the survivors, they were titanic wolf like abominations, tall as three men and weighing as much as six, they tore Wood from House as one tears meat from a bone.
To say we were unprepared would be a laughable understatement.
Our knights had seen creatures like they far from the fiefdom in there hunts, there Cannons and swords tearing through there hides like paper. To them they were slight more than a nuisance, an item to distract from the larger beasts of the dead lands. But to mear peasants with rifles, they might as well been gods. Shot bounced harmlessly from there thick hide, only succeeding in showing the beasts to there next target. Some did eventually fall, but not in such numbers as our own.
We hadn’t a chance, the knights were heavily injured from there most recent conquest, there oh so noble riders locked safely on there manor.
If not for our gaurdian angel, we most certainly would have been lost.
He came not in the skin of a man, but that more similar to an armiger. Metal and wires replacing skin and veins. he wasn’t human, closer to the abominations that forsook us. He stood almost 3 meters tall, with armored skin thick as bricks. He looked as though a person who had never seen a man was told to make armor for him. Shoulder plates that extended far above his head, thick joints that could barley move without hitting each other. With him came devastating armaments. In his left hand, a strange gun, that spat shot closer to artillery than bullet, and occasionally a blast of energy like a beam of pure radiant sun. In his right he held a massive hammer, like that of an ancient Terran smith. It looked a rather impractical weapon, easily half his height and being so obviously cumbersome we at first thought it was more trophy than weapon.
You could hear the beasts spine shatter just as our expectations when it was first used in combat.
Even today, almost Fifty years later, the battle is remembered like gospel, and while acounts are Varied, it is commonly agreed upon that the woodsman slew no less than 13 beasts before they ran from my village in terror. He had taken blows that may have even incaipacted a knight, but he stood, armor torn and bloodied, he stood.
It had taken minutes before anyone spoke, the silence akin to the void of space. It’s metallic eyes fixated on a man lying dead on the side of building, gored by beasts, but still griping his weapon even in death. The woodsman strode to the fallen man, and picked him up as if he were a doll in need of sewing, and carried him to the graveyard, gently resting him against a rock. Than another, a woman who had kept the beasts from her child. For her he did the same. This continued for hours, a wordless gesture was spoken by him to our people, one not repayable in ten lifetimes. He then simply walked back into the forest, as if he was suddenly beckoned to others in need.
None of us knew why he had saved us, nor why he treated our dead. We simply couldn’t fathom anyway to comprehend what had happened. Weeks later, when the Knight were repaired and the houses rebuilt, many said we should search for the Angel machine, for it more than deserved our highest thanks. We sent search party’s in explorator tanks that had been in storage since the colony ship had landed on world all those millennia ago. The knights searched far and wide for him, needing to balance there honor with our savior. None found him. It was as if he was a phantom in the wind, gone before we even knew he arrived.
I write this now so my grandchildren may now of this tale, so that the statue in the center of the township has as much meaning to them as it does to there elders. For even now, as my bones grow brittle and my mind begins to fail me, I still know of that man, my, and many others memory’s simply refuse to forget him. He may be long gone by know, even the best of machines will fail without care. But I hope that if we see him again, it shan’t be as a lifeless automaton slumped like a corpse, but as a glorious knight striding into battle once more.
-Arnekev Glasgow, historitor Dominus of Knight Feifdom Raile.
(Please DM/Comment any criticism on this story)
Link to part #2
Woodsman continuum
So I’m thinking about writing more on The Woodsman and Feifdom Raile
If anyone has any ideas or criticism of the original, please post it here on Private message me.
Link to part #1
Woodsman #2
“I stand here, a testament to your legacy, proof that you once existed”
-a common phrase amoungst historitors of the imperium.
The old tech adept strolled amoungst the complex, his great ruby cloak and mechadendrites trailing him, along with a full entourage of servo skulls and servitors. The gleaming metal of his armor and cybernetics obscured all that once made the man human, save but his right eye.
He strolled through the townships main road, remembrances of his childhood still everpresent. He could still feel the brisk chill of the wind, even if the mechanicum had all but rendered him mute to such things with augments. He could almost taste the sweet spring air, all be it with a faint tang of galvanized plasteel. This was one of the few things in life he truly loved, his dedication to The Omnissiah being the only thing to surpass it. Even if his childhood was not spent like that of a normal child (if such a thing even existed in this imperium) he still held fondness for those year long lost, they held a certain calling to him.
None of these memories clearer than those of Him. The Angel, The Saviour, his very reason for joining the Martian Mechanicum, The Woodsman. The memories were like that of a favorite song, he could recite them perfectly. We’re it not for his love of technology as a child and the most base need to learn more about he fiefdoms gaurdian, he very well may have been a remembrancer for the legions. But his lust for knowledge kept him planet bound, always searching, even seventy years later.
“Historitor?”
He turned his masked face toward the voice.
“It’s time to depart sir”
The gentle features she held would have roused him in his youth, but he was beyond such mortal desires.
“Is it? I thought I could have a short walk before we left” he answered with a soft plea, as if he were a child begging to stay with his friend for just a while longer.
“I’m sorry sir, the knights have said they won’t wait any longer” the sergeant held no malice toward the man, but she was irritated with his whims always getting in the way of his work.
A gentle sigh escaped the man’s vocalizer, “so be it” he answered with gentle gusto “To the Exploritor”
Flags of Sphaera
Aurian Federation
The Aurindi Héraðsríki (Provincial Federation of the Sun) takes the split solar halo seal from its predecessor, the Aurian Empire. The Seal of Aurin depicts the sun in both dawn (upper, rayed) and dusk (lower, disk) forms, symbolizing its endless trek across the sky.
Dwarven Clans
The base form of the Radh Nîu Klannr Darven (Council of the Nine Dwarven Clans) sigil is an overlapping morph of the darvic rune "Dunn," representing the dwarven species as a whole. In the Dunnic form there are eight vertices/intersections, plus the Eye of Maera in the center, coming to a total of nine points to represent the clans.
Enelese Tribal Alliance
The flags of the Allyan inh Hælei Enele (Alliance of the Enelese Tribes) depict the complex, recursive Tree of Life that represents their ancient belief in the sanctity of life and the interconnectedness of all things.
Tyrian Empire
Before the catastrophic civil war that wrought the empire to shards, the imperial seal of the Sanctus Imperium Tyra (Divine Empire of Tyra) bore the sun, both moons, and the wanderstars, revered as gods in Tyrian culture.
United Arokhan Tribes
The flag of the Oaq-in oq’Kagam ahl’Arokh (Unified Tribes of Arokha) bears a complex symbol with roots in ancient orcish culture. The black and brown circles represent fertile earth, moistened by the blue water and its tidal master: the crescent moon. Piercing the earth is a pair of crossed spears, flushed deep red with the lifeblood that binds all tribes as kin.
Gorgonic Tribunal
Flags of the Ssakaar Hhhik’chi Ssalehri (Tribunal of the Gorgon Clans) bear the sigils and colors of each of the three gorgon tribes of eastern Sikano: the seafaring Medusic tribe, the forest-dwelling Euryalic tribe, and the badlander Sthenic tribe.
Eian Empire
The seal of the Sragni Eia’al (Dominion of Eia) depicts the mythic Blood Serpent –the attested god-ancestor of the gnolls– encircling the sun, the moons, and the five wanderstars that race across Sphaera's night sky. The Serpent binds these through day and night –the Eian Empire never rests.
Mauhakan Empire
The seal of the Stynix-aox Naztok ez Mauhak (Night-blessed Nation of Mauhak) bears both moons and the five wanderstars, symbolising the blessings bestowed upon the nocturnal empire by Stynix, the patron goddess of all nightfolk.
