The warrior, wizard, ranger, rogue, bard, and scribe make an appealing fantasy adventure group. While humans have the same essential nature, we still have preferences and natural skills that can give our lives purpose. In Indo-European literature, you may read of the three functions: the farmer, warrior, and priest or the martial, legal-juridical, and magico-religious roles, embodied in Thor, Tyr, and Odin or Indra, Mitra, and Varuna. The main characters in The Fate of Our Union were based on these functions because they create fun contrasts and unique learning experiences.
Rufus is a farmer and scribe who becomes a warrior. His character was initially influenced by Hesiod’s Works and Days, which warns of Zeus's punishment for violence and vice. He was further developed by Musonius Rufus’s liking of farming and country living and Hierocles’s circles of concern and family focus. Like these philosophers, Rufus admires the virtues of famous heroes, though fame and heroics are not his pursuits. An admirer of the historian Tacitus, Rufus also records powerful historical events and has knowledge of foreign people.
Being a Stoic, Rufus is committed to justice/lawfulness, specifically law in accordance with universal nature. In this, he is like the legal-juridical gods Tyr and Mithras and expresses his political philosophy as would Cato and Cicero. Through the philosophy of oikeiosis within the Indo-European family (oikeiosis is the appropriation for the self with the expanded concern for others), Rufus draws Sunu and Keresaspa closer to his self-circle because he sees worth in their virtues and draws other Indo-European cultures closer based on his desire to see relate peoples make peace through parallels. His commitment to peace and lawful purity makes him reluctant to slay when necessary and drop the tragic past attached to the sword.
Sunu is a warrior who becomes a bard. He is based on the Early Germans and Norse warrior-poets Egil Skallagrim, Grettir the Strong, and Kormak Ogmundarson (my favorite) provided the model for Sunu, though his verses are in the Anglo-Saxon style of Germanic poetry found in Beowulf. Sunu’s ambitious warrior side is balanced by his guardian nature. He admires the historical hero Hermann the Cheruscan, who defeated three Roman legions, and the mythical Sigurd, who slew the serpent Fafnir. Like Indra, Thor, and Hercules, he is quick to act and well-equipped to handle unconquerable adversaries.
As a bard or poet, Sunu has the most prestigious ability; nothing was more important to an Indo-European hero than having his deeds live on in poems (the major mythologies are preserved in poetry). This skill and memorization could take decades of training, but Sunu acquires it with a drink of poetic mead. His heroism and cleverness have charismatic appeal, yet his path to fame and glory often leads to tyranny and lawlessness; divisiveness also follows his lack of wisdom and attachment to praise, resulting in unfavorable opinions of those who previously admired him.
Keresaspa is a priestess who has the skills of a wizard and ranger. She is based on the historical Sarmatian tribes—horse riders who produced female warriors, and her story incorporates aspects of the wise valkyrie Brynhild. Her thinking and manner of speaking are influenced by the Iranian priest Zarathushtra, as Sarmatians were an Iranian people. She has a special position in that Sarmatians inhabited the Eurasian steppe, the homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans.
Keresasapa’s wizardry includes sight into the future and animal communion like the magico-religious Varuna and Odin. She enjoys being in tune with the spiritual world but is closer to the realm of the dead, including a wild hunter, than she would prefer. Her eventual mastering of Patanjali’s Yoga gives her the power to calm her traumatized mind, merge with the universe and the gods, and build rapport with Sunu and Rufus. Through this spiritual connection, she learns the purpose of their journey, the higher purpose of life, and how to communicate being As One in a way her congregation can relate to and understand.
Another female character appears briefly in the story, who will fill the role of the rogue in the sequel.
Comments