Ironsides Family/Armstrong/Unchained

Armstrong Unchained!

This is one of the final episodes in the tales of the young knight Armstrong Ironsides, nearing his moment of heroism.

After fighting the Confederates and their allies in An Najaf, Armstrong’s unit, the Roughnecks, took a deep hit. 27 were killed and 19 were wounded. Another wave of attack came in and the Roughnecks were surrounded. Vastly outnumbered, the Roughnecks were forced to surrender and become prisoners of the Confederacy, Armstrong included.

Having never been captured and imprisoned before, Armstrong met the worst. His cell was an old dugout in a dungeon, meant to be a hold for the dungeons domestic animals. Filthy, he thought. How could the Confederates say they are in the right? Look how they treat their prisoners. He had never considered the Confederacy before this event. He assumed they were enemies just like any other. Maybe even better than the rest because they professed democracy while the others would not. Maybe he could consider them nobler than the warring Perdanese, Caligulans, Ol’Rancaguans or the elfish Sironites. They were after all, still Fontanese.

Not anymore. While being incarcerated, Armstrong grew to hate his captors. He came to the conclusion that they were in fact the mortal enemy of democracy, and especially of Fontan. The solitude allowed plenty of time to think and reflect on his life and position as a noble during this civil war.

The truth spoke to him while in the darkness of isolation. He saw the base of the matter, the kernel, the essence of what the Confederacy was. The Confederacy was a tyranny, disease to Democracy. The Confederacy existed to replace the original, true Fontan, first and oldest democracy on the East Island. The Confederacy was a vehicle for corruption, oppression and violence. They are the biggest threat to our realm, and so long as they live, they threaten the very existence of Fontan.

The terror of this revelation chilled his starving body. He thought it must not be so, but how to stop it? The engines of Fontan’s destruction are in motion through the Confederacy. How does one end the life of a realm? What is the cure for tyranny?

Then, in the gloom and depth of his prison, he remembered the words of the Sage of Krimml. The Democratic Sage he met during a miserable blood mired stay in the old capital had told him the answer.

Devotion to Democracy.

Having lost track of all time and coherence, Armstrong had found the way. The entrapment in a Confederate prison, while beneficial to them in the short term would create their worst enemy. For on the very day Armstrong bought his freedom, for fourteen pieces of gold, after spending five long painful days in their dungeon, he declared himself, Armstrong Ironsides Hero of the Democracy!

May Fontan prevail, and the Confederacy fall asunder!