Who is Baecr?

Our main protagonist, Baecr is a Praetorian Guard, and comes from an Equestrian (semi-noble) background. Married with a young daughter, on the surface he has everything: wealth, family, and social status. But is he happy? No. Why? Because he has regrets about something he did in his past. He also suffers from a long-standing injury which causes him continued discomfort and reminds him of something else he would also like to forget.

Despite Baecr's duty to protect the Emperor, he is a cynic, believing the world he habits is corrupt and self-serving. He has a logical mind, but no religion, and refuses to believe in typical Roman superstitions. Some describe him as unfeeling, condescending, arrogant, perhaps even nihilistic – his wife included. As a consequence of his moribund beliefs and behaviours he unwittingly sets in motion an unhappy chain of events that will result either in his doom or spiritual absolution.

'They've all got it Infamy'

Rearrange the following into a well-known phrase or saying, 'tu Brute et'.

Suppose you were spot on and arranged it correctly, it roughly means, 'blimey Brutus, not you as well'(2), reportedly the last words of Julius Caesar, as his mate Brutus and lesser bods thrust their daggers into him on the Ides of March(3).

If you're new to this don't worry because Julius doesn't particularly feature in our novel. But we reference him because whenever anyone thinks of ancient Rome they usually think of this guy and his brutal assassination by envious, fearful or power-hungry rivals(4). This is partly because Julius was a genocidal megalomaniac in the final days of the Republic, because he started the Caesar trend for subsequent emperors(5), and also Shakespeare described his death in a dramatic, bloody, scheming sort of way.

But on the Roman richter scale of the mad and the bad, Julius was more a moderate-to-strong rumble. He was was clearly power hungry but later Emperor's Caligula and Nero were the ones demanding absolute power to do pretty much anything they wanted, particularly if it involved extremes of debauchery and murder.

So, how much do you know about Caligula and Nero, sitting chronologically on either side of a much less interesting Claudius(7)? The best most usually come up with is one or possibly both were mad and Nero enjoyed a good fiddle while Rome burned to cinders. Ergo, most minds usually draw a bit of a blank. Which is a shame if you like tales of madness, debauchery, family feuds, plots, assassinations, intrigue and murder. It's all pretty weird stuff and frankly puts Julius in the shade.

And since we like pretty weird tales, we thought why not bring these two into our story?

So we are.

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Notes:

1 It's only right to credit Carry on Cleo for "Infamy, infamy, they've all for it in for me!"

2 'Et tu Brute' ('And you, Brutus?'), according to Shakespeare at least. The line has become an iconic representation of betrayal in both Shakespeare's play and subsequent adaptations, including the 1953 film Julius Caesar and the (literally) more colourful 1963 film Cleopatra, staring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The later film tends to condemn the earlier one to cinematic obscurity.

3 Technically, the Ides is pretty boring and just means 'mid-month'. But "Beware March's mid-month" lacks dramatic effect. Still, let's see if we can borrow this Ides idea for our book.

4 Happily, modern politicians prefer X, formerly known as Twitter, to daggers.

5 ...and Kaiser and Tsar.

6 History, like music, can be subjective.

7 To be fair, Claudius invaded Britain, which will be important to our story, and was probably interesting to most Britons at the time as well.

The Vog

Cave painting from the mines of Dun Tugal.

Beware the Vog, in half-human shape, something like the wolf.

The Vog? you ask with lighter tone and careless smirking doubt. What are they? you press in jest.

You haven't heard the stories yet, stretched back a thousand years and more? Then, in denial and unafraid, hear something now about the Vog, a little that I know.

But what to tell that won’t scare youth, or even you, saucer-eyed, bedcovers to the chin?

So first take note and be aware of high on granite hill elusive sounds and shifting shapes, long trailing shadows in spiny gorse falling within the blackened mire. Beware the weathered mounds and broken tors, dusky vales and flowing leats. Beware stealth in deadened air and whispering grass. Then dropping low on narrow paths, slight shrouding fog in sunken hollow, crisp rustled leaves beneath your feet, trailed by the owl's shriek. All to win in raising doubt hard goosebumps on the shivered neck.

Oh, I fear now any more to tell about the Vog itself! So wait a while, with only this til then. Beware you the coming mist and dark, both cloud or moonless nights, and if about keep close a friend to shield you from your fright.