Ironsides Family/Bowie/Mourning Raphael

Mourning Raphael

Roleplay from Bowie Ironsides

Message sent to everyone in your realm (14 recipients)

Lord Bowie sat on the balcony of his estate in Nifel watching the peasants produce. He was already half way through the bottle of rum, the vice he brought with him everywhere he went, when a messenger arrived to his estate. From the balcony, he called to the messenger to read aloud the letters, expecting more of the same routine he had been hearing of late, but this time, the messenger hesitated.

Bowie yelled at the man to speak up, and so the man did. The messenger read the letter aloud:

Letter from Armstrong Ironsides

(Personal message to Bowie Ironsides)

My Dear brother,

It has been quite a while since we have spoken. I trust your wife and son are doing well? I wonder why I have not heard from you or them, but I cannot begin on that subject because this is a letter I regret must be written. Very recently, in the glorious defense of the capital of Enweil, our younger brother Raphael was killed. He was devoted to protecting humanity from the Scourge, and gave his life for that cause. Do you remember the rhymes he used to come up with when he was just a boy? He was too smart for such a young boy, much cleverer and literate than either of us were at that age. Oh no, sorry, I forgot you were already gone by then and missed his upbringing. Nevertheless, our brother is dead. Uncle Soren, in his advanced age, mourns with our siblings. You should as well.

My wife Cerise and our son Ford send their regards to you. They wish to meet you, especially little Ford who seems to think you are a notorious villain. I do not know where he heard that.

Please write,

Armstrong Ironsides

Count of Morshes, Marshal of the Westmoorian Column

Bowie stood there for a moment looking at the messenger. The man looked back, figured there would be no reply, and then began to leave. Bowie watched as the messenger walked along the path away from his estate. The quietness of the day suddenly became heightened. The wind blew, the peasants worked, but the world was quiet to Bowie.

"He was only twenty." Bowie said to no one. Then he raged at the world he now lived in, a distant, useless, restricted world where his younger brother could die and he would forever be on his quest for sanctuary. He yelled,

"The boy deserved to die! He should never have listened to me in the first place! I told him that continent was aflame with chaos and misery! He brought it on himself! I had nothing to do with it! Damn him! Damn him to oblivion!"

The messenger stopped, turned, and stared for a short while, then continued away.

Bowie stood, wondering what would have happened if he never wrote to his brother about what was happening on Beluaterra. It seemed destiny that the Demon of Dwilight would condemn his own brother to danger and death. Another play of the demon, or, was this the boy's own fate?

Bowie would never know.

Bowie Ironsides (Knight of Nifel)