We are honored have with us today special guest character Sir Koray Clasicant, Lord of Dumon, better known as "Riposte" Clasicant. He has recently become famous in Dragoscala to a new generation of inhabitants for slaying a rampaging weresaur and saving a number of lives near the village of Hedgerow. How are you today, Lord Dumon?

Koray "Riposte" Clasicant: Very well, thank you.

MM: I should start off by saying that this interview takes place after the events of my novella "Silver Blades: A Duel Nature" and that you are an entirely fictional character.

RC: Of course. Although I prefer not to be associated with most thespians, imaginary beings and actor-class sorts, the fact is unavoidable that I don't actually exist in any "real-world" sense. I am, as you would say, a figment of your imagination.

MM: Right, so do you mind if we start with some general bio clarifications?

RC: Not at all.

MM: What is it that you do for a living?

RC: I am a martial theorist, I suppose... I was a captain of the King's Guard for a number of years, knighted and given a small baronetcy. Since I was decommissioned I have traded a little, and kept to my own devices. You might call me a 'gentleman adventurer' if you were so inclined. 

MM: I have heard others describe your pastimes far less favorably. 

RC: What small-minded folk call me is of no import to me. As I just mentioned, I keep to my own devices.  

MM: I see. And how old are you?

RC: I'm not sure.

MM: Seriously?

RC: Yes. I was orphaned at an early age, far from a Tilwen conclave. My foster family never knew my true age, so I guess they weren't sure how to even guess.

MM: Do you have an estimate?

RC: Perhaps. An approximate. I was with them—the Govanz family—for several decades as an imp, so assuming I was thirty or forty prior to that, I must be between 300 and 315.

MM: And you don't look a day over thirty. I guess age is a difficult question for any tilweni.

RC: It's more a matter of being irrelevant. Many from the Forest of Light don't even keep track. It helps to follow local politics—if you can remember something that happened in a certain year of a certain monarch or during a certain celestial or geological event, you must have been around. With enough of those memories you can piece it together. For me, It's easiest to remember the year I arrived in Dragoskala. They had just finished the new city walls, so that would have been around Lundora Year 3020.

MM: And you would only have been 70 or 80 at the time?

RC: Yes, I think so.

MM: That's rather young for a tilweni to be traveling the world, isn't it?

RC: For a typical tilweni, yes. But my foster family had taken the losing side of a regime change in Antondeak, and many of them were imprisoned. When my identity was discovered by the victors, they gave me my freedom and access to funds they claimed were mine. Apparently my true parents had been something of heroes to the children of the new regime, and through them I learned some unsettling things about the Govanz family. I cut ties with them, and determined to relocate to Northern Terrok, somewhere far from Lundora.

MM: How do you feel about that?

RC: Oh, I was sad and disappointed at the time, but I was always given a fair amount of freedom, and my guardians weren't what you would call 'loving,' so by that time I didn't feel much for the family.

MM: Did you consider them family?

RC: Definitely for a while, and in a way I still suppose they were—they fed and clothed me for two generations, and tried to "tame" me... it couldn't have been easy for them.

MM: How so?

RC: Human children mature in less than twenty years. My guardians were pensioners before I finished going through puberty. Their children were middle aged and had adult children of their own. I was an oddity in the area; the eternal child, only tolerated because through me they retained control of my true family's wealth. Tilwen were very uncommon in the region at the time.

MM: Did you have a happy childhood?

RC: Sure, I was a happy child, but tilwen children can be happy anywhere. It was when the Govanzes were denounced that I began to question things, and felt I couldn't stay.

MM: Can you tell me briefly what it's like to be a Tilwenor in today's world (meaning Terrok, of course)?

RC: I don't have any particular feelings about it one way or another. In some ways I am unique in that I have lived in both worlds extensively and don't fit into either one particularly well, but in others ... I don't know, I have these abilities and a tie to the land that humans don't have, but I also have an understanding of humans and their industry and foibles that most Tilwen just don't get. Both worlds seem to let me do my own thing, and that's fine with me.

MM: Have you ever been in a relationship?

RC: Yes, many.

MM: Who was your first?

RC: A Govanz girl. A great-niece of my guardians... my own foster-cousin once or twice removed, I suppose you could say.

MM: Were you in love?

RC: It was puppy love, and maybe curiosity on both sides. Very innocent, but it taught me a great deal about humans that had been a mystery to me, even having grown up among them.

MM: Like?

RC: Jealousy, mostly. Discretion. Impatience. Things that don't come naturally to tilwenor imps.

MM: Did it end badly?

RC: You might say that. It was just innocent play, really, but it split the family forever. In fact, it was that rift that led to the shift in power in old Antondeak. At least that's what I deduced later, but I'm not entirely sure.

MM: Who was your first love?

RC: A swords'wenna I met in House Ill'Enniniess.

MM: In Dragoskala? What is her name?

RC: Yes—Tyella il'Fora Si'lidyss.

MM: How long ago was that?

RC: Forever ago. Six-score years, maybe.

MM: Did she return your feelings?

RC: I hope so ... I believe so. I'd rather not talk about it.

MM: It ended badly?

RC: She left town rather abruptly, but I'd like to think that wasn't the end, if that makes any sense.

MM: How did that affect you?

RC: Terribly. I changed a lot... started dwelling on my feelings more than is healthy. It was all too late, though. Like I said, I'd rather not talk about it.

MM: You still have feelings for her?

RC: You're remarkably observant. Do you have anything to drink here?

MM: Not really... Let's move on. What do you care about?

RC: Aside from the obvious?

MM: Yes, other than this tilwenna, Tyella.

RC: Well, there's my work. I like swordplay, martial arts and theories, and working with the raw materials of war craft to perfect methods and training. Fencing, of course, because it is an art form that is constantly evolving, as are the tools and outside responses to the changing face of the art. I'm sure you don't want to hear all the latest developments, but there really isn't anything quite like it. Aside from that, I haven't kept up with the news or politics. There's always talk of war... I just take care of my weapons and try to do right by my investments.

MM: What are you obsessed with?

RC: Listen, I said I didn't want to talk about it.

MM: Tyella you mean?

RC: Isn't that to whom you referred?

MM: No, actually the question was about anything you might be obsessed with.

RC: Oh. Well, nothing really. I'm not an obsessive person.

MM: No pastimes you are carried away with? No habits you indulge?

RC: Just the usual things, you know. I wouldn't call them obsessive.

MM: Explain those, then.

RC: Well, when in proper routine, I wake early to work the forms of several different arts martial, including unarmed forms, longsword and rapier. If I have a partner, I take advantage to work in a little sparring. Sometimes more than one partner, if they aren't suited for one or another art. If I have volunteers willing, I try to spar against more than one opponent. Thereafter I clean up and go about my day, taking care of business and other obligations, then perhaps some music or reading in the afternoon.

MM: How many hours a day would you say you train with a sword?

RC: No more than two or three bells.

MM: Wow, that's four to six hours by Earthly measurements!

RC: If you say so. I have no knowledge of such things.

MM: I haven't seen you train anything near so much.

RC: Yes, well, I'm afraid I've been a little lax since leaving the King's Guard. You've only known me for a small number of moons, after all.

MM: Just how long ago did you leave the Wandeers?

RC: A while ago, now—It was before the Teldor war.

MM: More than seventy-five years ago?

RC: Something like that, yes.

MM: So you're saying you haven't trained regularly or maintained what you would call your daily routine for more than three-quarters of a century?

RC: When you say it like that, it sounds like a long time.

MM: Why did you leave?

RC: I was more or less asked to leave when certain personal pursuits began affecting my work.

MM: Such as?

RC: I'd rather not say.

MM: Okay, I'm sorry, but you said you would be open with me...

RC: I didn't realize—Listen, I know everyone has a past, but there are a few things I would prefer to keep private.

MM: Okay, let's move on... what's your biggest fear?

RC: I don't know that I have one. Dragons, maybe.

MM: Dragons? Isn't that kind of a cop out? I mean, everyone's afraid of dragons.

RC: Okay... Well, I guess if I'm being honest I would have to say something that took away my self-control... mind-control magic, and that kind of thing. That stuff is freaky.

MM: Does that include something more mundane like, oh, I don't know... a drinking problem?

RC: No.

MM: Not even if it affected your discipline and habits for almost eighty years?

RC: Next question.

MM: What is the best thing that ever happened to you?

RC: The day Tyella walked into my life—or I walked into hers. I'm not sure which happened, but it changed everything, even if I didn't realize it at the time.

MM: Interesting, and the worst?

RC: The day she walked out.

MM: What was the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you?

RC: Oh gods, I have to pick one? Do you mean an embarrassing social misstep or a shameful experience?

MM: Let's try both.

RC: Walked into that one. Very well, I regurgitated into the duke of Sendarmo's hat during a state visit with Teldorian nobility. Sometimes my friends and I joke that this was one of the things that led to the trouble with Teldor.

MM: And the most shameful?

RC: Ah, well, there was a time that I was pursuing a relationship with an engaged woman, and I had her fiancé detained on the front so I would have time to seduce her before her wedding.

MM: Scandalous! Do you mean Balina Orluz?

RC: Ah... actually, no.

MM: ... Who then?

RC: I probably shouldn't say.

MM: Seriously, you can tell me. No one you interact with will ever read this... it's metaphysically impossible.

RC: Fine, although it shouldn't matter. It was Balina's mother... Horowa (Thembaldur) Orluz.

MM: Ah, another of the famous 'maternal line...?'

RC: No comment.

MM: So tell me, what is your biggest secret?

RC: I don't have secrets. I may not talk a lot, in general, but that doesn't mean I'm hiding anything. Just the usual sorts of things a former military man might need to hide for national security.

I would prefer, though, if you didn't tell Balina about the extent to which a wager has affected her family's history... Or her mother the extent of my relationship with her daughter, for that matter. Please.

MM: What is the one word you would use to define yourself?

RC: Describing any thinking being with one word is ridiculous, but if I were forced into an exercise in this sort of in-comprehensive psycho-babble, I could provide a few to choose from: analytical; fervent; sincere; regretful.

MM: What word would someone else use to describe you, then?

RC: I don't have a sense for that, and in any event, don't care. Most would be wrong anyway.