Main Menu

In the ever-escalating Valde Bellum against the relentless hordes of the Excrucians, personal agents of Victoria Regina sought ever new ways to beef up the proud ranks of the Chancels Legion (cf. the Crew Deficit Problem). One of those agents, the brilliant physician and natural scientist Arthur Lord Baskerville?, after the international scandal of the well-forgotten Soulless Abominations of Piltdown), redeemed himself by making in A.D. 1920 a fabulous discovery that revolutionized aetheric warfare: the survival of faeries in the Prosaic World, in Yorkshire, England!

Several diplomatic missions to the Fae Realm by the appropriate Nobility thereafter led to an historic alliance between elements of the fairy folk and humanity, sealed in A.D. 1983 by the Great Song of Tienandra Tikritandy?, though the Sidhe Throng? formally disapproved and stayed apart from the proceedings, to their eventual (though bootless) profit. The primary result of this, aside from increase in magic within the Prosaic World (over the objections of some on the Council of Four) was the formation, within the Chancels Legion, of the Fae Guard. These storied units were assigned to several of the Legion's mighty aetherships in a number of key functions:

• as shock troops, striking with indefatigable speed and mobility (as well as swarming ferocity).
• as anti-boarding defense, capable of movement within the aetherships far swifter (and utilizing their own, cunning short-cuts) than human-sized crew.
• as tactical support within the very medium of the Aether itself, being capable of flight there with as much ease and grace as within Earth's mundane atmosphere.

The stirring tales of these diminutive, yet doughty warriors, their mighty formations of bejeweled wings, glinting spears, lighting movements, and ululating androgynous cries, could (and will!) fill several volumes, from the curdling horror of the Macropterous Malacoids of the Moon? (A.D. 2019), to the soaring triumph during the Terrible Tintinnabulation of Tau Ceti? (A.D. 2147), to the timeless tragedy told on the Lithochrome of the Lost 500 Spears? (A.D. 2269). Only during the "Black Eye" Rebellion? against the Jovian Hegemony? (A.D. 2035) did a unit of the Fae Guard ever suffer utter defeat (and that was only due to an unfortunate misunderstanding regarding the slipperiness of gravity wells).

With the Great Rollback, though, Lord Entropy, in his bounteous power and wisdom, guided Earth on a bold, new course, wherein Faerie was finally banished to the Mythic World, and the tiny, gleaming standards and brave rolls of the Fae Guard were interred in the mausolea of memory.

And yet, only one dead inside would not feel at least some slight wist in recollecting those stirring days, when the Fae Guard, screaming their piping battle cry (which motto was personally selected for them by the Immortal Empress herself) "Ludere causa ludendi!", would charge into the fray like a swarming rainbow of righteous carnage, striking yet another a bold blow for the forces of Right and Truth and for the ultimate victors of the Valde Bellum itself!

SEE ALSO: Chancels Legion, Macropterous Malacoids of the Moon?, Soulless Abominations of Piltdown

< Eaglewing, Lance | Lexicon 500 DEF | Faringei >

This is an F entry in the Lexicon of the Lost 500 Years