Weyland the Smith

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Weyland the Smith is a popular Nova English folk hero, whose story is thought to predate the reign of King John I. Stories tell of a gifted blacksmith who lived in a small hamlet in Eastmoorland who following a raid by bandits was sold into slavery in the Asiatic city states. It was in one of these city states that his skill as a blacksmith was discovered, leading him to be hamstrung under the orders of the local warlord to craft him weapons of war.

Weyland was forced to craft jewellery and ornate swords for the warlord, whilst he watched the suffering brought upon other captured and enslaved Britannics. After ten full cycles of the moon, Weyland requested an audience with the warlord, promising a sword so glorious it would blind the unworthy. Disregarding the advice of his lieutenants the warlord entered the makeshift smithy that had been Weyland’s prison. Weyland greeted him warmly and beckoned the warlord to a sword of divine magnificence. The warlord dashed towards it with all due haste, elbowing the blacksmith out of his path as he grabbed at its hilt. Weyland leered as his hand clasped the handle of a smelting pot, whose contents boiled away in molten fury and brought it arcing down upon the warlord’s head.

Despite his handicap, Weyland was able to disappear from his workshop leaving the smouldering flesh of the now dead warlord behind. He made his way to the racks of slave cages carrying a heavy hide bag and his forging hammer. The lone guard’s head was caved in before he could raise any alarm. Under the cover of darkness Weyland used his now bloodied hammer to destroy the locks and free his countrymen. From the hide bag he gave each of them blades of various sizes, crafted from the scraps and off-cuts that had forged the trinkets and ornamental blades of the warlord.

The free men and women, led by Weyland flowed through the night towards the small keep that housed the warlord’s supporters. Those unlucky enough to be out on the streets, were cut down without mercy, their throats slit, their chests punctured and bodies thrown into the shadows. Within the keep the warlord’s men were holding a feast, dancing, drinking and eating in honour of the spoils they had amassed.

The tide of shadows slaughtered the guards in furious silence and barricaded the doors of the wooden keep. They stacked hay from nearby stables against the structure and threw lit torches into it. The fire soon spread and engulfed the keep, the men inside screamed and hacked at the walls as they tried to escape the smoke and heat. Eventually some of them through the ferocious hacking of their axes broke through the barricade into the moonlit night. They quickly halted as they were greeted by the sight of Weyland, his face blackened with soot, clothes stained in blood and his legs held straight with metal splints. They could sense the bloodlust that had taken him, as his maddened eyes looked at each of the five men before him in turn. Two of the lieutenants charged him and he parried their axes with his hammer, with a sickening crunch he lifted the hammer upwards between the legs of the first lieutenant before striking the second across the jaw separating it from its owners head.

In desperation the remaining lieutenants attacked in unison, leaping over the bodies of their mutilated comrades to attack Weyland. Weyland roared in defiance, embedding the hammer into the face of one attacker, gouging the eyes from another and snapping the spine of the last. With the last of the lieutenants dead, the blacksmith returned to the lifeless body of the warlord. Using a knife he carefully prised the eye from the corpse and entombed it in resin. He took the sword from the corpse’s hands and fitted the ‘jewel’ into the hilt. As he left the burning settlement with his rescued folk, he gave an oath to his sword that the warlord would be forced to witness the death and suffering of his people at its blade for all time.

Usage in Nova English Christianity

Stained Glass window in Detsab

With the story routed in defiance against the often hostile bands of Asiatics that surrounded Nova England. The Church of the Holy Lance utilised it as an important rallying point and example by which all good Christian Nova English men and women should follow. A number of churches also feature stained glass windows depicting the story's events.