Keelyn

The Balseraph Princess that was also a job application

Keelyn is one of the two leaders of the Balseraphs, and the only leader outside the Sheaim that contains the summoner trait. This is a significant rewrite from the original, which can be found here, bad poetry and all.

The city of Jubilee was outwardly a festival, but inwardly a prison. The endless carnival offered decadence without constraint, whether tastes veered towards sadistic or merely grotesque over-indulgence of natural whims. But the Mad King Perpentach’s malice, caprice, and unequaled mastery of compulsive magic were the dissonant melody in minor key that harmonized with the calliope’s jingle.

The palace’s tower, in contrast, was a prison whose facade masked a tea party. The dusty stairs leading to the cell showed no human footprints, but they were marked by hoof and talon and claw. “Keelyn,” the sign above the chamber door read, in both Patrian and Infernal. The Princess within was attended variously by spectre, elemental, and, of course, demon. Such as the Imp inside, currently cavorting for her amusement.

“Puppy, dear,” the girl announced, as she stood abruptly and stalked to the window. “I wish to leave my room and see the Kingdom.”

“Mistress,” the creature rasped, “My orders are clear in this regard. You cannot be seen outside these walls. If it comes to it, I will slay you.”

“You’re such a silly puppy,” she chided. “You would never hurt me. And you give much better make-overs than the skeletons.” The child preened in the mirror, admiring cheeks rosy as blood and hair highlighted with ash.

“I am glad I please you, mistress.” The imp gave an elaborate bow, and the girl bounded over and grasped him in a playful hug, or at least tried to. Her arms passed through him, as he suddenly wavered. The payments made for his services by the girls’ minders were nearing expiration.

“No no no!” Keelyn pouted, stomping her feet. “Why must you leave already?”

The demonling gave a shrug. He was pressing against the bounds of his agreement even to speak to the girl as freely as he did; he could not stay merely on her wishes.

Except, unbeknownst to the daughter of the Mad King, she had other heritage as well.

Deep in a forgotten corner of the palace dungeons dwelt the shade of a spy, worn into wispiness by time and neglect. A ritualist from the lands of the Sheaim had come years ago under guise of a wanton pleasure-peddler. In truth, she sought to ensnare the Balseraph ruler with a curse fueled by the blood of a child she would conceive by him. She was caught, though, and her child was to be the Balseraph ruler’s plaything. But as was the habit of the mad king, he moved on to other fascinations. The palace ministers gave her wardship over to conjurers, afraid to either harm their leader’s child or to dote on the off-spring of an enemy.

Now in the tower, that tainted Sheaim blood in Keelyn’s veins awoke a flicker of power. She could claim no expertise, no practice like the Balseraph conjurers, but they were parlour tricksters compared to the mastery the Sheaim had bargained for, and apparently Hell respected inheritance.

Black fire danced on the girl’s skin. “Stay,” she commanded, and the imp solidified.

Puppy the imp smiled. “Milady, you speak with authority. Sadly, it remains the fact that my contract is expired. But perhaps you would be willing to negotiate on your own behalf?” The creature produced a crude pencil and parchment from somewhere within the livery he wore, and the two sat cross-legged on the faded rainbow mat and discussed just what Hell might require in exchange for backing a new power in the Balseraphs’ lands.

They sketched out a rough agreement, earned with the promised blood of many. “But only after they dance for us,” Keelyn added, and the Imp made sure to note her addendum.

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“Finally, on the matter of next month’s festival,” droned Minister Koun, “Perpentach has requested a theme of ‘humor of the humours’. Five hundred slaves have been gathered and await having fluids drained and mixed with paint for the grand fresco.” The table thudded sharply. “Minister Jund, what are you doing?”

Minister Jund emerged from under the table. The portly Minister of War was a testament to the meritocracy of the Balseraphs regime, or at least it’s whimsy. A year ago he had been an illiterate, innumerate turnip farmer. And now, after Perpentach had suddenly appointed him command of all the Kingdom’s armed forces, he was one of the most powerful men in the world, still illiterate but having learned counting nearly to ten. “I’m looking for my pencil, Koun. I swear I had it here and now it’s gone. I had a brilliant idea I needed to write down. Legions of eight squads of eight each.” He sniffed. “Does it smell of sulfur here?”

“Jund, nevermind the pencil,” the senior Minister said slowly.

In the doorway to the council chamber stood a creature Balseraph conjurers dared not bargain with — a Balor. Eight feet tall, rippling muscle, wreathed in unholy flame, scented of decay and slaughter, and wearing a lacey pink collar. Perched on his shoulder was a raggedy young girl. Perpentach’s spawn.

“Giggles,” the girl said to the creature, “tell them that I’ll be in charge while my daddy’s out.” The Balor roared.

Erebus was never the same.

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Keelyn comes first in this retrospective because she earned my entry into the ranks of Fall from Heaven 2¹ writers, along Wilboman (William “Wilboman” Nordan) and Corlindale (Jon Duus), and of course Kael (Derek Paxton).

Joining wasn’t intentional, honest. I just had a cool idea for a second leader for this fan-favorite civ. Prior to that, the circus themed civilization featured only one , Perpentach, who gave them most of their mechanics with his ‘capricious’ trait — he picks up and drops traits randomly through the course of the game, forcing the player to adapt. The Balseraphs do hit a certain pre-existing dark fantasy aesthetic, but how do they justify the role of a whole civilization? More on that when we get to Perpentach himself!

Anyways, I conceived of Keelyn and wrote her story on the forums. Alongside a somewhat fanatical devotion to the mod, this impressed Kael enough that when Firaxis offered him the opportunity to put a scenario onto the Beyond the Sword expansion pack, he invited me to join the team and help flesh out the reams of descriptions needed.²

Typically in these games, there are short encyclopedia style entries for, well, everything, from units to technologies, to leaders, that tell players about the real world justification for their inclusion. What’s smelting, who was Ghandi, etc. For our mod the real world references were inapplicable and immersion breaking; filling them in with fantasy equivalents was the work of the writing team.

Prior to Keelyn, not much was established about Perpentach. Associated with mind magic and themed around a circus. And he spoke in rhyme. How did he rule? What was life in this society like? What was diplomacy like with this nation? The great thing about working with Kael was that, while the mod was based on his old D&D campaigns, he was happy to take any good idea as canon, and I enjoyed working through the implications of the dark fantasy milieu, integrating them with gameplay mechanics, and alluding to them obliquely, subtly building out the world.

Structurally, the original piece is okay. It’s a lot of telling and not showing, due to the length and it being one of my first pieces in this format. I think there’s a neat idea behind it, though, this lost little girl alone in the mad nation, with power over otherworldly creatures but no real schemes on how to apply that — until you the player step into her shoes. Hopefully the revision printed here brings you a little closer to Keelyn’s perspective.

Another regret about the original is that the courtesan spy was changed from hailing from the Amurites (neutral magician nation) to the Sheaim (apocalyptic summoning nation). Which itself is fine, it explains the summoning better, but makes her attachment to her child somewhat out of character. In this revision, that’s changed to something darker and more fitting the dangerous world of Erebus.

Gameplay/narrative synchronicity was always something I kept in mind when writing; the stories existed to serve the game. In this case, Perpentach’s unpredictability and capriciousness is the cause of Keelyn’s reprieve. Also, the vanishing of her playmates ‘yearly’ is because the summons in game last 1 turn, which equals 1 year in game.

Keelyn is a potent force in game, as her summoner trait combines with the Balseraph puppeteer unit to greatly extend their spellcasting. Over the course of the mod this faction got a lot of love, with powerful unique units.

Did you have any experience playing Balseraphs? Do you like frightening whimsy in your dark fantasy? Want to mock my doggerel? Let me know in the comments.

1. There was a precursor, Fall from Heaven, that did not have unique civs and leaders and imo mostly served as a tech demo. I might use the two terms interchangeably, but I’ll always be referring to FfH 2.

2. Firaxis was incredibly gracious with the amount of text space they allowed us on that CD; someone in the studio was clearly a fan. We’ll see some of that next time!