Of the Scipii Family/Aulus Severus/They have come, and they have killed

Current population in Oberndorf: 6919 of 7400 possible. - After the Sirionite Looting Run

The Oberndorf Rally

“They have come, and they have killed” shouted Aulus out to the crowd, their faces illuminated in the darkness “Once again the elves have shown no mercy, and they shall likewise be shown none”

The Count of Oberndorf looked around at his people, the mass of well over two thousand having gathered before him. Aulus still wore a slightly bloodied bandage around his head, where a Cavalry sabre had clipped him in the battle the previous day, and held his left arm tight to his side where another gash was slowly healing.

“The 500 people the elves killed, those brave Fontanese who took up arms to defend Oberndorf, they died for our realm, in defence of her citizens, defiant against the brutality of the elven horde that came here to act as thieves and murderers.”

The multitude of freshly dug mounds of earth, an entire field dedicated to and pock-marked by the graves the people had laboured over to bury the fallen, lay to the side of the crowd. Their husbands, sons, nephews, and in some cases even wives and daughters. The Elven looting had been thorough and violent, and almost everyone in the region knew someone who had been killed.

The Lord raised his head to peer over the crowd, despite being raised by the pile of wood he was using as a platform, and identified the movement he had spied along the road.

“See there!” he called out in anger, pointing to the soldiers marching “There are the gallant Sirionites! The murdering filth that dare to speak of honour on the battlefield, that claim it is they who are being persecuted in the north! They think it wrong that four realms should come against them, yet they do not understand why! Why do so many fight them? Because of what they are, because they must be brought down, their hegemony cannot be allowed to stand!”

The few hundred soldiers that had been travelling toward Gadlock, had paused as the Lord had chastised them from his podium. A band of twenty or so moved off the road and seemed to make toward the crowd, drawing their swords, no doubt their intent to arrest the Count.

The citizens of Oberndorf readied themselves, brandishing the pickaxes and spades, the very tools they had used to bury their dead only hours before, making their willingness to defend their Lord clear as they moved to surround the platform he stood upon. Aulus gingerly drew his dagger and raised it high alongside those of his people.

The elves faltered, halting their advance upon the crowd and shouted a few lines in retort, waving their weapons threateningly, but the crowd booed and shouted them down.

“Begone elven invaders” Aulus shouted out as the peasant’s jeering died down, jumping from the platform and wading through the crowd, that then began to part before him “You are not welcome here, scurry home to your corrupt republic and take your dishonourable ways of war with you”

Aulus reached the front of the crowd and stepped out, a bare 20 yards from the soldiers. The captain of the elves knew they would likely be cut down by the sheer number of peasants gathered, and though they would take plenty with them they obviously valued their lives more, and bid a slow retreat, still waving their weapons but merely in an impotent manner.

As the soldiers returned to the rest of the Elven Army on its way West the peasant crowd cheered loudly, and Aulus retraced his way through the jubilant throng to stand before the wood pile. He requested, and received, the flaming torch from a man next to him, and held it high in the air.

“Here we commemorate and honour our fallen brethren, hero’s of Fontan and our Democracy!”

Aulus held the torch for a moment longer, and then ceremoniously threw it into the large wood pyre. The peasants followed his lead and chanted the same line, almost solemnly, casting their own torches and more wood onto the fire, that quickly began to blaze.

As the fire roared high and crackled loudly, lighting the sky, Aulus turned to the men, women and children around him.

“For Fontan!” he shouted

“For Fontan!” came the mass reply, loud enough for the elves on the road to hear once more.

“Long Live Democracy, Long Live Fontan!”