Catarin's Weapons

By: Peladoris Posted on: May 30, 2006

Catarin's Weapons: Three poetical musings with historical background

Here are three poems I have written, thoughts about three weapons of Catarin deSangre and about her love for Lucaine Pyramides, after his death.

I am including some bits of historical information so that the less learned may better appreciate the poetry and to inspire all to discover the wonders of our history.

Historical notes:

For "Three Moons"

Lucaine Pyramides was probably the best swordsman Sapience has ever known. Originally an assassin hired by Castomira Brangwin's forces to kill Catarin during the Selucarian Wars of Succession, he fell in love with her at first sight and became her most important champion ...

But he never told her he loved her, not even after she declared her love for him just before he was killed.

One hundred poems he wrote to her in the year he served her, or ninety-nine and a half, and these she found after his death. The ninth of those is my personal favorite.

Three Moons was Lucaine's sword, broken when he was ambushed and killed and carried so, both in battle and afterwards as her scepter of office as queen, by his beloved. This despite the fact that she also possessed the staff of Nicator until she deposited that in the depths of the earth after finally killing Castomira.

I think her choice of symbol of office is what inspired me to write this first poem.

The sword is said to have been buried with her in King's Tomb, the burial place of Selucarian rulers.

The part of the blade which was broken Catarin left embedded in an oak tree, where it was when she found Lucaine's body. In her journal Catarin herself mused that eventually the tree would grow around it, which, over the centuries, it must have.

For "Silence is Golden"

The golden staff of Nicator was lost before the Black Wave and not found again until Catarin and Lucaine together retrieved it from King's Tomb toward the early part of the First War of Succession, an early episode in their relationship.

The staff was believed to have been destroyed in the final battle between Catarin and Castomira for the duration of Catarin's reign, but in fact, Catarin disposed of it because she feared the destruction it might cause. This was only revealed after her death.

For "Revenge is a Dish Best Served as Dessert"

Shortly after the death of Lucaine Pyramides at the hands of Trenton Dias, Catarin was invited to a dinner party at the mansion of a person she believed to be a supporter, but who had in fact become a supporter of Castomira Brangwen and intended betrayal. Present at this dinner was Trenton Dias. In response to a taunting remark from him about her beloved, Catarin lunged suddenly across the table and killed him with her dessert fork.

Fortunately for Catarin, one of Castomira's chosen guests intended betrayal of Castomira, and Catarin survived the ensuing chaotic fight. It is believed the dessert fork was destroyed along with the rest of the mansion by the Staff of Nicator. Castomira escaped.

If you haven't yet, you really should read Tancred Lasalle's chronicle of the wars of Selucarian Succession, a compilation of extracts from many works, some of which are no longer extant.

Three Moons

Two Moons sit in lost King's Tomb--
One rests entombed in oak.
Token of a love long loved alone,
Symbol of a love returned too late,
Ender of sister-love, turned to hate,
This the tool that forged an Empire's fate.
Staff was power, but sword was soul,
Broken yet unbroken, poet's smoke,
Blood and Lives, its toll.

Silence is Golden

I could not hold the Staff but it remind
Me, even after all that it had wrought,
Of love, of that first touch, whereat my thoughts
Were all of you, holding the way behind.
Near death you were, and I protected you
One time, my dearest, as you oft had me.
My love began there. Death alone set free
Your love, begun before, and ever true.

The Staff gave me the strength to win a war,
To kill, destroy, but not to speak my heart.
I do not rue its loss, let it no more
Trouble the lives of mortals, take no part
In peaceful times. Let turn my Seleucar
As you, my sweet Lucaine, from war to art.

Revenge is a Dish Best Served as Dessert

Two noble weapons.
Catarin: What did you wield
That gave you greatest
Satisfaction, peace of mind?
Three Moons? Staff? ... Or dessert fork?