#François Froideval

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Cold winter: Ghorghor Bey

GHORGHOR BEY

Category: French BD

“Les Chroniques de la Lune Noire », in English « The Black Moon Chronicles », is marketed in France as the “greatest heroic fantasy saga in bande-dessinée”. Wikipedia rather considers it to be one of the main medieval fantasy series of France ; but by common consensus and with modern’s look onto it, it is rather a comic book that fits in the category of epic dark fantasy.

The Black Moon Chronicles was launched in 1989 by a collaboration between François Froideval and Olivier Ledroit, before ending at its fourteenth issue in 2008 – but the series had such a popularity that more issues were released as additional “cycles” or “seasons” ; a second cycle of seven issues from 2012 to 2021, and the promise of a third one to come one of these days… And when I say this series was successful, I mean it WAS a huge success. It stays one of the big names of the French bande-dessinée (the European form of comic-book), to the point it gave birth to two video games in the 90s, to MMORPG in the 2000s, a boardgame AND a miniature game.

And as I approach this series for the first time in my seasonal posts, it would make sense for me to look at its main protagonist, Wismerhill the mysterious half-elf in search of his past and father, who will turn from a naïve young man to a bloodthirsty and cruel warlord-sorcerer, as he is unknowingly used as a pawn and agent by various political, military, religious and otherworldly factions in a vast game of plots and schemes centered around a gigantic empire’s downfall and an ancient prophecy from the gods…

But I will not. Because I will instead focus on one of the secondary characters of the story: Ghorghor Bey.

Ghorghor Bey appears in the story as the leader of a group of dreaded warriors who are known to terrify even the bravest knights and strongest citadels. These bloodthirsty bandits obeying at Ghorghor’s sole and only command are known to roam the various lands of the series’ world, leaving only “ashes and corpses” in their wake – for they do not seek to conquer anything and have no ultimate goal. Ghorghor’s forces simply travel through the land, raiding and pillaging whatever they want whenever they want, and forcing their way wherever they have to go, never taking no for an answer – and since Ghorghor’s army stayed undefeated, no warlord even dares oppose him.

Our protagonist, Wismerhill, and his first and partner Pile-ou-Face, end up imprisoned in a cage by Ghorghor’s army due to an unfortunate series of coincidence – the duo was stealing chickens from a farm, just as Ghorghor’s warriors arrived, for they had recently conquered the village and so by stealing the farmer’s chickens the protagonists were stealing Ghorghor’s chickens. Pile-ou-Face, knowing too well the danger they were in, dreaded Ghorghor and his men, but still decided to play at being cheeky and witty with him, notably by letting Ghorghor steal away his magical swords before teleporting them back to his side, again and again. A trick which angered Ghorghor at first… before making him laugh, and prompting him to enlist the two as part of his band, because he likes men that don’t cower or show fear in the face of danger.

Thus begins the time for our protagonist as a member of Ghorghor’s forces – even becoming his lieutenant after using magic to avoid an ambush waiting for them. Because as it turns out, Ghorghor’s isn’t such a bad guy… He doesn’t like being criticized, is prone to anger and refuses to have his absolute authority discussed, but he is prone to humor, always liking a good jest (though his sense of humor tends to be crude, brutal and unrefined), and he protects and feed his men for as long as they battle for him and don’t drag behind them. Fail to your duty or prove yourself useless, you’ll be punished, but do something good for the troop and you’ll be rewarded. We also discover that Ghorghor’s group seems only to exist for the sole pleasure of having a “good life”, as they enjoy each battle, and mostly invade or “conquer” lands and cities temporarily, just to enjoy all of their food (and women) before leaving for another place. In fact, most of the time when they come up near a city they ask if they can stay for the night or the winter, and people usually accept out of fear despite it meaning they will be plundered – because if anyone refuses them entry to their domain, Ghorghor will just order the doors to be broken down and force his own way inside. Even worse if the owner of the land or city actually threatens or insult him, in which case he will ask his death as a payment – but of course, it is all just funny for him as killing is mostly a good sport. To give you an idea of Ghorghor’s “jokes” – he likes to say “You better knock at the door before entering, to be polite” as he is literally breaking down a door ; or he always offers his personal victims a “game” called “right hand, left hand”. The game? He slams his two enormous hands on each side of your head, and if you can’t avoid them you die with your head crushed. If you escape you win and can keep your life, but nobody ever wins since he never explains the rules… He finds it hilarious.

Oh yes, because I forgot to precise one thing… the reason Ghorghor is so feared. He is not a human being. He is a half-ogre. Which means he is two to three times taller than a normal human being, and three to four times larger (given the comic was taken by different artists, and themselves weren’t always consistent, his size tends to vary from issue to issue). While this largeness is in part fatness (as an ogre he has a monstrous appetite, always eating entire pigs and drinking full barrels of beer for his meals, and the most regular insult he gets from people is “fatass”), it is also a good part of muscles – muscles offering him a gigantic strength. A strength with which he can crush a man’s skull with his bare hands, or even burst open the doors of a city by holding a battering ram ALL ON HIS OWN. As a result he can’t ride normal horses and has to choose from various large and monstrous beasts from long gone pasts – his first one being a sort of spike-covered rhinoceros. He himself is usually seen wearing a large and heavy armor covered in spikes – but he can switch for more comfortable cloth-and-fur clothes when he feasts inside castles.

While the group’s journey goes on without any troubles, Ghorghor’s troop meet their demise as they arrive at the border of the great empire we talked earlier, the empire of Lhynn. Its emperor, clearly seeing Ghorghor’s presence in his territories as a threat, sends to eliminate them a large army of holy knights/paladins known as the “Knights of the Light”. Ghorghor and his men were staying at Kendrhir at the time, formerly the “city of the great wizards”, but that they had completely invaded and taken control of earlier in the series – the Knights of the Light simply surrounded the city and besieged them. Ghorghor (actually influenced by a demon sent by a dark wizard, but no one will ever know that) decides to take the incredibly stupid decision to have his warriors leave the city to fight the Knights of Light in an open-field, resulting in Ghorghor’s troop decimation, and Ghorghor’s own death. Not death by weapons, as he is pierced by at least three dozen spears and yet keeps fighting with his gigantic axe of war (or cleaver of war depending on how you look at it, able to kill several men in one blow) ; but rather by being pushed off a cliff by the Knights.

This is all in issue 1, by the way.

In issue 3, Ghorghor miraculous returns – as the protagonist and a new group of friends went to seek the Oracle (a god of destiny bound to the human world) at his holy site, they find him back well and alive – he himself was seeking the Oracle to know what had happened to his former underlings. As it turns out, Ghorghor had on himself a magic ring with powerful regenerative powers that resuscitated him from his deadly fall… but this, only the narrator and us readers know that. Because Ghorghor ignores everything of the ring’s actual powers, and so he believes he was just a tough guy and that he got better all of his own from his injuries. Promptly Ghorghor tries to form back his band and recruit again his former warriors… only for Wismerhill (who in between got some nasty supernatural powers, a new personal quest to follow and some deadly skills) to actually force Ghorghor into becoming HIS warrior, under his command – first by invoking how Ghorghor’s stupidity led to all of his men dying before, and then by simply beating up Ghorghor into submission. Not that Ghorghor minds, though, as he still considers Wismerhill a good friend of his. And so he becomes one of the faithful companions and allies of our protagonist, and will remain as so for the rest of the series… And it is at this point that the plot really kicks in.

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I stop at the three first issues to recap this whole story for a very good reason: the first three issues are kind of their own thing. The duo Froideval-Ledroit were doing a big epic fantasy series for the first time, and so the first three issues were basically them finding their marks, offering a story still kind of in production, trying and testing out new things, just beginning and exploring. Heavily influenced by Dungeons and Dragons, and the You Are the Hero books (in fact the author was part of the French branch of D&D for a while), the story started out as a “picaresque road-trip about a group of characters trying to survive”, before gaining its steadiness and certainty and evolving into a serious story about territorial conquests, power struggles and the politics of an empire. As a result the character reflects that a lot – notably Ghorghor Bey, who was admitted by Froideval himself to have started out as a “punctual” character, who was probably just here for issue 1, but the author enjoyed him and his potential too much and so decided to have him return and become a regular…  And so while the first three issues are much needed to understand who the characters are, how the story starts, who are the powers at play and the plots set in motion, their style is much faster, wilder and humoristic than the following issues – for by issue 4, things get much more epic.

An interesting fact about the Black Moon Chronicles is that the characters have basically no past. It is most true for the protagonist, whose absence of past (and even absence of name, as he is named as an adult, in the first pages of the first issue, by a friend he just encountered in the woods) is a key plot-point of the story ; but in general all of the other characters lack any kind of past. They are introduced, they have their identity, personality, characteristics, but their background seems to be irrelevant for the most part (with this true “old fashioned D&D” and “You are the Hero” feelings of having characters starting out with basic traits and filling up their character as they go along). But the author “compensated” this by producing a spin-off series ENTIRELY dedicated to the backstories and pasts of each of the characters: Les Arcanes de la Lune Noire, in English “The Black Moon Arcana”.

Ghorghor’s very own backstory is told in the first issue of this series, and… I am not going to tell you everything because it is an entire “volume” full (for the French BD, each issue is a “volume”, which is basically a book-full of story, so usually quite bigger than a typical American comic-book issue), but if you don’t fear spoilers, here is the barebone of the story. He was born and raised in a human village by a human family in the northern part of the Lhynn’s empire – his mother had been raped by a young ogre (humanoid gorilla-like savage man-eating beings) during an attack on the village, but she still loved him, and he looked mostly human despite his unusual size and strength. However she was the only one who loved him, as everybody else hated and bullied him, including his mother’s new husband and his own son. After his mother’s death during his teenage years, he snapped at his step-father and step-brother’s abusive behavior and killed them in rage before fleeing in the night. He wandered in the snowy and frozen lands of the north, learning how to hunt and survive, rejected as a “monster” from every human village he tried to stop in – until as a tall and strong young man he encountered a travelling freakshow/circus that hired him and became his new family, teaching him all sorts of other talents such as weapon-throwing or reading. He became their “strongman” as the circus travelled to southern lands and bigger towns, and knew there for the first time romantic and sexual love in the arms of Siamese twin sisters.

Their downfall was however accepting the invitation of a gloomy local lord to play at his castle. Offended at the idea of paying them after their performance, he tried to lock them up away in a dungeon (except for the girls, that his sons wanted to “play” with in their chambers). The troop was barely able to flee the castle, and where hunted down into a cursed swamp filled with the forgotten corpses of an old war – this is where Ghorghor found his trustful battle-axe, and where his twin love found death in the tentacles of an ancient monster haunting the bog. Ghorghor killed the monster, but also swore on his lovers’ grave that he would kill the evil lord that had banished them here and all of his descendants. After escaping the swamp, he left the troop to their own travel, and now clad with the armor and weapons of the corpses of the bog set up on his vengeance. After killing the leader of a group of bandit who tried to attack him, he became the group’s new leader. With his men he burned down the castles of noblemen and plundered the convoy of aristocrats, using all the money to pay for huge feasts that often ended up in drunken vandalism, his fearsome reputation bringing him new recruits every day – and so he became a ruthless warrior, who was only know to spare the occasional travelling circuses he met.

Until he was ready to enact his vengeance on the lord that had caused the death of his two true loves… (Oh yes, and the regenerating ring is not forgotten and also gets its origin in this story).

[thefailurecult]

[oldschoolfrp]

At the risk of Tumblr lowering the image quality too much:  François Marcela-Froideval’s bilingual character sheet from Casus Belli 5, September 1981.  With public information on the front and private notes on the back, this is meant to be more thorough than a one-page sheet while less cumbersome than the AD&D Permanent Character Folder that also was difficult to find in France.  He has added a 7th core stat, “Beauté,” similar to the “Comeliness” that some people considered a necessary distinction from Charisma.

[balu8]

The Black Moon Chronicles by  François Marcela-Froideval and  Olivier Ledroit

[nunopds]

No dia 24 de novembro, foi distribuído no mercado franco-belga o quarto tomo da série de fantasia heróica Les Arcanes de la Lune Noire, intitulado Greldinard: première époque.

O argumentista François Froideval criou o universo das Chroniques de la Lune Noire no final dos anos 80 do século passado, tendo o primeiro álbum sido publicado em 1989 pela editora Zenda. A partir do quinto álbum, a série passou a ser publicada pela Dargaud, contando atualmente com 19 álbuns (incluindo a prequela numerada com 0) e um hors-série. A série tem sido ilustrada por Olivier Ledroit (tomos 1 a 5), Cyril Pontet (tomos 6 a 14) e Fabrice Angleraud (tomos 0, 15 a 18 e HS).

Como curiosidade, registe-se que este universo de banda desenhada tem vindo a ser representado noutros media, como um jogo de tabuleiro, um jogo de miniaturas, MMORPG e videojogos.

Les Arcanes de la Lune Noire é um spin-off deste universo. Iniciada em 2001, esta série de banda desenhada narra a vida de diferentes personagens secundárias da série original, antes de encontrarem Wismerhill. Cada álbum conta a história de um dos heróis e pode ser lido de forma independente dos outros volumes, tendo tido cada um dos álbuns direito a um ilustrador diferente.

Greldinard, foi desenhado pelo português Manuel Morgado, sendo o primeiro personagem desta série que deverá ter direito a mais do que um álbum, como o subtítulo de première époque permite antever.

Clique nas imagens para as visualizar em toda a sua extensão:

Eis a sinopse da editora:

Qui était donc Greldinard avant de devenir ce guerrier parfait, bras armé d’Haazheel Thorn, et que cache donc ce casque rouge qui jamais ne quitte sa tête ? Ce nouvel Arcanes est là pour vous raconter son histoire, du sombre mystère de sa naissance à sa rencontre avec Wismerhill dans Les Chroniques de La Lune Noire. Froideval narre le destin vertigineux d’un des personnages les plus énigmatiques de la série, avec un nouveau jeune prodige portugais au dessin, Manuel Morgado.

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Greldinard, de Manuel Morgado e François Froideval No dia 24 de novembro, foi distribuído no mercado franco-belga o quarto tomo da série de fantasia heróica…

[amazingstories]

Les BD de fantasy en France

Les BD de fantasy en France

En France dans le domaine de la fantasy la BD a précédé de presque 10 ans la littérature. Et c’est dans les colonnes de Métal Hurlant que tout commence. C’est là que le scénariste Jodorowski associé au dessinateur Arno font vivre les aventures de Alef Tau. Ce récit de fantasy initiatique mêlé de mysticisme et de philosophie humaniste (c’est du Jodorowski), relate les aventures d’Alef Tau, un…

[nurthor]

Belle novélisation des Chroniques de la Lune Noire chez Léha

Belle novélisation des Chroniques de la Lune Noire chez Léha

Belle novélisation des Chroniques de la Lune Noire chez Léha par le brio duo d’excellents auteurs que sont François Marcela-Froideval (scénariste de la saga en BD) et Jeanne A. Debats à la plume phrasée mais ici pas trop ! :O ❤ Et c’est la vraie vie… avec ma critique pour SciFi-Universe de ce pari réussi de novéliser la légendaire saga du jeune Wismerhill et demain mardi 21 décembre sera publiée…

[hermanwatts]

The Black Moon Chronicles: Beginnings

God might not play dice with the universe, but the devils do.

In The Black Moon Chronicles: The Sign of Darkness, written by François Marcela-Froideval and drawn by Olivier Ledroit, Lucifer grows tired of his generals throwing matches in their little games. So he engineers a game in the mortal world where none of the players can deliberately lose. A Chosen One prophecy and the fall of an empire would do nicely. But what man will be chosen?

He might be a nameless lancer out in the woods, little more than a highwayman in armor. Call him Wismerhill after his home town, or Wis for short. It’s as good a name as any. But this half elf has an unknown past and hints of more sinister gifts, as the rogue Heads-or-Tails discovers in their first meeting. Wis may be sheltered and naive, but he falls into bad company with the mercurial rogue, whose personality shifts based on which of two magical swords, good or evil, he currently wields. The two fast friends embark on a series of petty crimes and capers. But the eye of the half-ogre Gorghor Bey soon settles upon Heads-or-Tails’ swords.

The swords, however, are attached to Heads-or-Tails, and it is only by the whim of Gorghor Bey that the two highwaymen keep their heads. Now fighters for the half ogre warlord, Wismerhill and Heads-or-Tails join the Gorghor Bey’s invasion of the Empire. Caught up in a whirlwind of fighting, training, and loving, Wis quickly distinguishes himself as a valued aide, able to read the winds and save the horde from multiple ambushes as they raze the hinterlands of the Empire. But such a display of military power cannot go unchecked, so the Empire sends the Army of Light after Gorghor Bey. And other, more sinister forces have taken notice of the chaos for their own ends.

The Sign of Darkness serves as the ever-popular origin story for the twenty volume Black Moon Chronicles. This French dark fantasy series has given birth to two spin-off series and even a video game. The emphasis here is on dark fantasy, if the slight elven warrior with an evil magical sword was not a clue. Wis is fighting on the side of orcs, ogres, and barbarians against the setting’s version of Gondor, and there is no mistaking these invaders for the side of Good. At best, Wis and his companions act as anti-heroes who are a little too comfortable with the terrible acts they commit. But those acts are in the future. The Sign of Darkness is comics’ answer to The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, an extending training montage pushing Wis from a nameless tough to a champion on the run. He has yet to be swept up into the various gambits playing out for control over the Empire.

The setting is familiar, with a gleaming white Empire as the bastion of church and civilization standing against a tide of invading barbarism. This time, we see it from the invaders’ point of view, without the expected propaganda of imperial hypocrisies that a contemporary version of the story would demand. Some people just want to watch the world burn. Those willing to light the match fight for Gorghor Bey. The resulting chaotic, orkish invasion is so familiar, as are Wis’s winds of magic, that it would not be a surprise to discover that Games Workshop plundered the Black Moon Chronicles as they did The Lord of the Rings for their Warhammer Fantasy setting. As of yet, the Black Moon Chronicles does not revel in the destruction and cruelty to the same degree that a grim dark world where there is only war has, or with the exquisite artistry of a Melniboné. Instead, a strong dose of self-deprecating humor keeps the excesses away.

The Black Moon Chronicles uses an interesting design choice. Those characters and objects which are evil, or, in the case of Wis’s powers, chaotic, have rougher, dingier, uglier art. Clean lines and beauty are reserved for the good, whether that be the Army of Light or Feidreiva, Wis’s unlikely lover who spends less time clothed than French fanservice favorite Laureline. And as Gorghor Bey changes from Wis’s captor to mentor, his portrait smooths. But the real star of the artistic show are the big battle set pieces. Ledroit conveys in his art both the immense scale of massive armies as well as the immense chaos of battle. The only portrayal that comes close is The Return of the King‘s field battles.

I am intrigued by the potential in The Black Moon Chronicles: The Sign of Darkness. It is just the opening act, and the villains and main conflict of the story have yet to be revealed. Fortunately, the full 20 volume series is offered on Kindle Unlimited, making it easy and affordable to follow along Wismerhill’s journey under the Black Moon.

Of all the terrifying warlords to wreak destruction across the empire, few can match the savagery of Ghorghor Bey. His name alone can cause even the bravest of soldiers to tremble in their boots, and noble lords and ladies throughout the land pray that he never comes knocking at their castle doors in search of gold, booze, and maidens. But few know the tragic story behind this fearsome warrior’s rise to power. From his harrowing childhood to his first love(s), his devastating heartbreaks and crushing victories, read on and discover how a naïve young half-ogre would go on to become Ghorghor the Terrible.

I’ve been rather taken with the Black Moon Chronicles, the French dark fantasy comic from François Marcela-Froideval, Olivier Ledroit, and Cyril Pontet that uses humor to soften the horrors of a decadent Melniboné-style empire falling to the apocalypse. At turns aiding and resisting the fall into soul-devouring horror is the half-elf Wismerhill, the unwitting pawn of the evil Black Moon. But how did fate draw Wismerhill’s companions to him? And who better to start with than the jovial giant, the fearsome half-ogre warlord now know as Ghorghor Bey?

The first of The Black Moon Arcana serves as a direct prequel to The Black Moon Chronicles: The Sign of Darkness, detailing the rise of Ghorghor Bey from outcast to the scourge of the Empire as he is in the days before he meets Wismerhill. While the prequel sheds little new light into the twists and turns of the Black Moon’s world-dooming invasion or Ghorghor’s revolving-door relationship with death, it is a welcome insight into a beloved character who tends to get only a panel to two to mug in each new volume.

However, this prequel checks the boxes on the standard villain’s back story. Stop me if you’ve heard this before. A half-ogre child born from rape and unwanted pregnancy cruelly shunned by his adopted father and the rest of the village. When his mother dies, the half-ogre is expelled from the village and forced to live on his own–

Yes, I thought so too.

The boy, Ogur, falls in with the circus, where he finds acceptance and love among the freaks and performers. He learns the strongman routine and finds the loves of his life in a pair of Siamese twins. Here, he has the family he was denied.

Until a lord double-crosses the circus. The lord enslaves most of the circus, and drives Ogur and the rest of the freaks into the swamp. While there, a Divorak swamp kraken attacks, devouring Ogur’s loves. Ogur slays the monster, and swears a blood oath to avenge his friends and lovers. And when he slays the leader of a band of highwaymen, Ogur has the opportunity he has sought, as the highwaymen give him their allegiance. Now calling himself Ghorghor Bey, the half-ogre raises his standards, and rogues, orcs, and ogres rally to him. The new warlord scourges the local nobles, returning the brutality that the lords had visited upon him. Yet he never loses the whimsy that surrounds him, a brutal whimsy that never turns to cruelty. You may die in Ghorghor’s jests, but you will not die slow.

Finally, the warlord returns to the lands of the lord who wronged him. Ghorghor Bey single-handedly breaches the castle and, one by one, pitches the defenders over the walls. No quarter will be given until he frees his friends. After the lord is slain and the chains on the circus performers broken, Ghorghor Bey turns his fury against the nobility, scourging the Empire in the first of many apocalyptic invasions that will tear it apart. And, along the way, he runs into two bandits, the mad elf Heads-or-Tails and magic-touched Wismerhill…

As I said, standard villainy fare. But the Black Moon Chronicles tries to make a distinction between being bad and being evil, between falling and fallen. Ghorghor Bey is undoubtedly bad, driven to his own cruelty by the cruelty of others, but he never crosses into the demonically evil. That terror is saved for Wismerhill. And for unrepentant, soul-devouring evil? Wait until we meet Haazel Thorn.

There is a rough honor to the brutal and cunning Ghorghor Bey, who later becomes Wismerhill’s trusted lieutenant. There’s also the bit of the clown, of intelligence, whimsy, and the subversion of expectations, including a surprising gentleness. The performer never left the warlord, as he can be found mugging in the background of many a panel. But the one thing he is not is the dullard brute that many ogres are portrayed as in fantasy. That Ghorghor Bey is given a chance to shine once more outside Wismerhill’s shadow is welcome. I just wish there was more meat to these formulaic old bones.

So, at the start, The Black Moon Arcana is for the fans already invested in the signs and portents of the Black Moon. But maybe when we get to the true holy knight Parsifal, the story will pick up. In the meantime, please check out the more palatable Elric-type story that is the Black Moon Chronicles.

The Black Moon Chronicles: Beginnings published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

[swipestream]

New Release Roundup, 5 January 2019: Fantasy

This week’s roundup of the newest releases in fantasy feature a wayward Roman legion, a demon horde rampage through India, and the Sword of Truth.

The Darkest Revenge (The Elder Stones Saga #1) – D.K. Holmberg

Ages ago, powerful beings known only as the Elders left their mark on the world, gifting powerful stones to their followers. Through these stones, some have been gifted by birth with great abilities, while others search for them as a way to access that power. Scattered around the known lands, wars have been fought for them, and won by them.

On the outskirts of the city, living within an ancient stronghold, Haern longs for a life beyond what he knows—and away from the long shadow cast by his father. When an attack on the city renews a decades old battle, Haern volunteers to leave the city and find the one person who can lead their people to victory. His inexperience might kill him, but his instincts might be the reason they succeed.

For Daniel, a member of the ruling family, life in the palace is easy and his path is clear. Eventually, he will rise up to sit on the council and lead the people of the city. An injury to someone he cares for changes everything for him, and he must go to the one person he despises most for help. If he fails, he’ll learn what it means to lose everything he cares about.

Though born to power, Lucy longs for an understanding she can’t find in books. When a horrible attack leaves her forever changed, her quest for understanding leads her to those responsible—and a means of stopping them.

All paths lead toward the Elder Stones, for the one who controls the stones controls power.

Demon Days (The Valens Legacy #12) – Jan Stryvant

The war has finally begun and the duty of fighting it has fallen to Sean. Now if only he could convince the rest of the world that there really is a war on and it isn’t just another ‘art installation’ at Burning Man. Maybe then he could get some help. Fronting the costs of a war isn’t cheap, and while Sean may be making money hand over fist, he’s spending it twice as fast. If he doesn’t get help soon, the lack of money, food, and supplies will kill him faster than any demon.

Then there’s the demons themselves. What comes out of the gates at times seems almost as random as the gates themselves. Some of the groups are obviously coordinated and very well trained making Sean’s job of stopping them a hard one. As the gates are getting larger with time until the main one opens, Sean will find his resources and his people being stretched farther and thinner as the immortal demon lords bring their massive armies to bear.

Because humans are food to the demons and the larder is now very full, and they don’t intend to leave this time until they’ve eaten every last one.

Fortress of Radiance (The Karus Saga #2) – Marc Alan Edelheit

Surrounded by an army of Celts and facing certain destruction, the Ninth Imperial Legion, one of Rome’s most powerful military formations, has been unexpectedly transported to the world of Tannis. The legion, now under the command of Camp Prefect Karus, finds itself lost in a strange land. Cut off from everything they have known, they find temporary shelter in the abandoned city of Carthum.

They quickly learn an unholy army of orcs, goblins, trolls, and humans known as the Horde is on the march, sweeping across the face of Tannis like a dark tide, conquering one land at a time. No force upon this world has been able to withstand the armies of the enemy. Yet the Horde has never met the might of Rome, and Karus means to fight.

In the dungeons under the palace, Amarra, last of the faithful, is found. Together they are visited by Jupiter himself and given a series of dangerous tasks that sets them on the path of destiny. The first is to recover the dread sword Rarokan the Soul Breaker from the Fortress of Radiance. But the sword has a will of its own, and the enemy will stop at nothing to get the dangerous relic.

The Iron Trishula (The Iron Soul #8) – J.M. Briggs

A call from an ancient ally takes the mages to India. A Demon horde has found a way around the defense of the Iron Gates and is building an army to take over the Iron Realm. The Desai family, descendants of one of the past Iron Souls, welcome the mages with open arms, but how can Alex reconcile with an old family when she’s lost her modern one?

Lokpal was a warrior, trained from childhood to protect his home from the Demons who wander the land. Nothing prepared him for a god slipping into madness. When two strangers with magic arrive, he must navigate between his culture, his family, his beliefs, and the long-standing traditions upheld by the Grand Mages if they have any chance of stopping the Demons.

The Opal Throne (The Black Moon Chronicles #18) – François Froideval and Fabrice Angleraud

At the center of the empire was the Oracle… The Oracle announced the coming of the one who would change the world. This is his story. One day, when Heads-or-Tails was out roaming the forest, he comes across a nameless man. He christens him Wismerhill, and from that day forth, the pair are inseparable. They start out on the road of adventure, and sooner or later end up joining a gang of amiable war dogs, feared throughout the land. Wismerhill soon proves his worth, and begins to demonstrate some surprising powers. But just as everything is going well, the light comes, bringing darkness in its wake…

After transforming into a titan and vanquishing his enemies, Wismerhill has fallen, brought down by a power too great for him to control. This vast power has made an ephemeral God of him. Still, he is but a man, and he must return to mortality in order to continue his reign as emperor of the Opal Throne.

A Sellsword’s Will (Seven Virtues #5) – Jacob Peppers

Aaron and his companions return from Baresh with the truth of what the alliance faces, yet such knowledge is little comfort. Throughout the city, men and women whisper of demons, of monsters. But though they might disagree on the nature of Kevlane’s twisted creations, there is one thing they have in common. Fear.

For the creatures they face are not men–not any longer. They are death given form and function. They are, it seems in the darkest hours–and there are many such now–Telrear’s doom.

Crippled by indecision, the alliance leaders argue; they argue, they bicker, and they hesitate. A hesitation which, Aaron could tell them–if only they would listen–will kill them swifter than any blade or bow.

For shadows move in the night. Shadows which feel no pain or mercy, that have long since forgotten the meaning of compassion.

Meanwhile, confident of victory, Kevlane bends his dark desire to creating even more terrible horrors. Yet there is one thing he has not accounted for, one which the coming days and weeks will teach him–the strength of a sellsword’s will.

Siege of Stone (Sister of Darkness: The Nicci Chronicles #3) – Terry Goodkind

The Sorceress Nicci, the Wizard Nathan Rahl, and the young swordsman Bannon remain in the legendary city of Ildakar after a great internal revolt has freed the slaves and brought down the powerful wizards council. But as he fled the city, capricious Wizard Commander Maxim dissolved the petrification spell that had turned to stone the invading army of General Utros fifteen centuries earlier. Now, hundreds of thousands of half-stone soldiers from the ancient past have awakened, led by one of the greatest enemy commanders in history.

Nicci, Nathan, and Bannon have to help Ildakar survive this unbreakable siege, using all the magical defenses of the legendary city. Even as General Utros holds Ildakar hostage and also unleashes his incredible army on the unsuspecting Old World, an equally powerful threat arises out in the sea.

Nicci knows the battle won’t remain in the city; if she can’t stop this threat, two invincible armies can sweep across the Old World and destroy D’Hara itself.

Sorcerous Stabber Orphen: The Wayward Journey #3 – Yoshinobu Akita

Orphen is a Sorcerer drop-out from the prestigious Tower of Fangs. His journey to save Azalie, a girl he looked up to like a sister, has brought him to the bustling city of Totokanta. Here they are reunited for the first time in five years. But what is the truth behind her monstrous transformation?

Orphen’s journey takes a sour turn as a loan shark starts sending a deluge of hired assassins after him! But one of these assassins, Philietta the Fools’ Hound, notorious Sorcerer hunter, has her own plans for Orphen. Just what sort of mind-boggling mystery awaits our haphazard party in the remote village of Kinkhole…?

The Storm (Time of Heroes #2) – David Drake

The universe has shattered into chaos and monsters. Jon, the Leader, is dedicating his life to reuniting the scattered hamlets into a Commonwealth where all humans can live protected against the darkness and the things that live in that darkness.

But no man can reshape the universe by himself. Jon has Makers to build weapons and clerks to handle the business of government–but he also needs Champions to face the powers of chaos which will not listen to any argument but force.

Lord Pal of Beune is one of those Champions. He has fought monsters and evil on behalf of Mankind, and he will fight them again. But now Guntram, the man who transformed Pal from an ignorant rube into a bulwark of the Commonwealth, has disappeared. Pal must locate his friend and mentor–and then he must battle an entity which may be at the core of the splintered universe!

New Release Roundup, 5 January 2019: Fantasy published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

[oldschoolfrp]

How to use your character sheet -- New players need help, even a type III demon with average human intelligence of 8-10  (Didier Guiserix, Casus Belli 5, September 1981, title header for article by editor François Marcela-Froideval)

[balu8]

The Black Moon Chronicles #2 by  François Froideval and Olivier Ledroit

Europe Comics

[thefailurecult]

[nurthor]

Après les BD voici la saga des Chroniques de la Lune Noire en roman chez Léha

Après les BD voici la saga des Chroniques de la Lune Noire en roman chez Léha

Cette belle saga d’AD&D portée en BD sort prochainement en roman chez nos amis de Léha Editions sous la plume de Jeanne Debats et François Marcel-Froideval ! :O ❤ Et c’est la vraie vie… du rôliste nostalgeek qui va pour (re)vivre les belles et épiques aventures du jeune Wismerhill qui pourront vous inspirer des scénarios pour DD5, Dragons, (H&D) Rôle n’Play, ou autre JdR médiéval-fantastique !…

[nurthor]

Wismerhill aura le droit à une version romancée chez Léha Éditions

Wismerhill aura le droit à une version romancée chez Léha Éditions

La saga des Chroniques de la Lune Noire sera déclinée en romans chez nos amis de Léha Éditions, coécrit par François Marcela-Froideval et Jeanne A. Debat ! :O ❤ J’ai eu la chance d’interviewer François Marcela-Froideval pour les 40 ans de Casus Belli font il est le fondateur et qui est parue dans le Casus Belli n°37 avec une scènette, faite pour l’occasion, sur une page des aventures de Gros…

[nurthor]

Casus Belli fête ses 40 (n°34) avec une interview de François Marcela-Froideval son fondateur De nouveau disponible en boutique, ce numéro 34 de Casus Belli est exceptionnel avec ses 272 pages !

[nurthor]

Le Casus Belli 34 spécial anniversaire de ses 40 ans est top avec une belle interview de FMF

Le Casus Belli 34 spécial anniversaire de ses 40 ans est top avec une belle interview de FMF

François Marcela-Froideval (FMF) s’est prêté amicalement au jeu de l’interview par ma pomme ! ❤ Ce fut là un excellent moment de partage et de souvenirs nostalgiques entre 2 personnes aux statuts très différents dans les année 80: FMF était le grand manitou du JdR: le fondateur et rédacteur en chef de Casus Belli puis bras droit de Gary Gygax chez TSR et moi jeune adolescent gros joueur de D&D…