... was watching a certain classic of the wuxia genre recently, and also rereading a certain fantasy novel, and the result, given who and what I am,
was perhaps sadly inevitable. I set it in a fantasy-derivative of Green Ronin Games' Freedom City, for reasons that I'll go into if
anyone's curious. Until then, enjoy "The Princess Bride with White Hair":
Once Upon A Time ...
... in a town not far from bright-spired Freedom's Reach, there lived a boy who was, by his eighteenth year, the most beautiful boy in the world. His name
was Leslie. A certain ineffable aspect of his appeal might well have been that he was utterly unaware of it, and of its effect on the girls of the town. Even
had he known of it, perhaps he would not have cared, for it would have had no pertinence to his greatest joy in life -- tormenting the orphan girl his parents
had taken in as a maid, who had to do whatever he said without complaint. And did so, every time, only replying to his demands with the words, "As my lord
pleases."
And then, one day, he chanced to look into her clear blue eyes as she spoke those words, and what he saw there would have told the slowest of men -- which he
was not, though he was in the running -- what the maid was really saying when she said them. And was shaken. And knew
that he loved her too.
It was impossible, of course. He was not some poor farm boy, after all, but the heir to a large estate, who must marry the heir to another large estate to seal
an alliance between their families. He could not marry an orphan girl who had not even a proper name of her own. But she knew that as well, and so she had
decided on what she would do. She would leave, and seek her fortune in the wild world beyond -- and when she found it, she would return in triumph as one who
could marry the heir to a large estate.
Before she left, she asked him to promise one simple thing -- no matter what should happen, no matter the vagaries of fate that should confront them both, he
would never, ever come to distrust her. Leslie swore a mighty oath, before the winds and the gods, that never would he do so. And then he gave her a name --
Joy.
A letter came that spoke of her joining a caravan. Some weeks after, the news came back that spoke of that caravan being ambushed by the Infamous Brigand King
Bayles, who -- of course -- never left any survivors. Heartbroken, he agreed to marry the girl of his parents' choosing when they finally chose one a few
years later, and prepared for a life without joy.
But before the wedding could take place, his fiancee was kidnapped by a group of mercenaries. Leslie set out in pursuit with some of his family's
retainers, but, just as they caught up to the mercenaries, their quarry was set upon by a group of brigands led by a mysterious woman in black. The mercenaries
were overcome, and the brigands took their captive for their own. A strange turn of events, to be sure, but he continued to pursue his fiancee's new
captors with every bit as much vigor as he had the first group.
When they caught up to the brigands, however, their leader flew a flag of truce, and offered a strange deal. She would allow him to exchange himself for her
captive, and then the brigands would wait for a suitable ransom to be delivered. He agreed, and sent his fiancee home to their anxious parents with the demand
for the ransom. Having delivered himself into the woman in black's hands, he asked only that he be treated with some dignity.
"As my lord pleases," she said, pulling back her mask with a smile.
Yes, I know. You saw that coming a mile away, didn't you? Perhaps you've heard a story like this somewhere else? But
the strange and wonderful and tragic thing about stories is this -- they are alive. And like all living things, they
combine with each other, and create offspring that resemble their parents in some ways, and are very different in others. And this tale is not yet done.
For Joy had survived the attack on the caravan, and so impressed the Infamous Brigand King Bayles with her courage that he invited her to join his band of
thugs and killers. And, having no other survivable options, she had accepted the invitation, and quickly risen to command that band. She was prepared to
abandon it all for him, and, though he knew it would mean he must also abandon everything, he was prepared to do the same for her.
But his sense of propriety would not permit him to do so without a word of farewell to his parents and fiancee. So they separated once again for what they
hoped would be a brief time as he rode away to do just that. She reminded him of his vow, and he assured her that he had kept it, and always would.
When Leslie reached the valley where his parent's farm stood, he stared in shock and horror and the burning remains. He rode down to find his family's
steward on the verge of death from his wounds. The man lived just long enough to relate that the farm had been assailed by men led by a woman in black,
who'd killed his parents most cruelly ...
He stumbled out of the wreckage of his family's farm just as his fiancee and a large group of her family's retainers arrived. It turned out that there
had been an attack on her family's farm as well, led by a woman in black, and it had been repelled only with heavy
losses. In despair, he agreed to lead them to where the brigands were encamped.
But only Joy was there, waiting. And he looked at her, looked deep into her clear blue eyes, and asked her, "Why did you do this?"
And everyone there heard something snap. "One thing I ever asked of you!" she screamed, as her hair came
alive and bleached itself white. "One thing!"
And then she was suddenly gone, and Leslie fell to his knees in shock ... that turned to horror as he heard his fiancee begin to laugh, echoed by her men, and
he turned to look at them and realized that in the right light, her armor would seem black ...
But by then, it was too late.
Since then, the White Lady -- so-called, because her hair is white, her skin is a milky shade of pale, and she always wears a white dress that never seems to
stay muddy or bloody for long -- has wandered far and wide over the world, never staying in one place for long. Her sword is for hire, though she rarely stays
in anyone's service for too long, and has even been known to act as a protector of the innocent from time to time. She has fought against Raven Darkcloak,
and fought at her side.
She never speaks of her past -- seldom speaks at all, in fact. She does not answer to the name "Joy", except to say, whenever someone calls her that,
that "Joy is dead." What she is seeking, if anything, is known only to her.
And what of Leslie, you ask? Some say that he survived the onslaught of his fiancee's retainers, though only narrowly, and having lost most of his famous
beauty. These same tales claim that he has wandered in the White Lady's wake ever since, trying to find a way to earn her forgiveness. This is an
absurdity, of course. One man, not known for his skill at arms, against a dozen? And yet ... the story is told. And someone must have survived to tell the
tale. And it is not the White Lady who tells it, nor does it seem likely that the fiancee would do so, nor any of her men. So that leaves but one other
candidate ... or perhaps there's another explanation ...
In The World of Freedom: The White Lady can end up in the modern day world through any of the usual cross-dimensional
malarkey. The fact that she has a sword-and-sorcery character's attitude towards life and death is likely to brand her a villain (or at best a vigilante)
very quickly, though if someone bothers to explain to her that people don't go armed with swords in this place and time, she'll start to behave more
appropriately. (In other words, she'll get a gun.)
Given her intelligence, she is likely to quickly realize that various famous individuals in this new world are reasonably close facsimiles of people she's
familiar with from back in the real world. This, in turn, will probably make her somewhat curious about where her
counterpart can be found. It may be that she simply doesn't have one, but that's a very boring answer, don't you think?
A more interesting one is that she doesn't have a counterpart yet ... that the series of events that leads to her
becoming who and what she is haven't begun, or haven't reached their finale. In this case, it seems very likely that she would take a considerable
interest in seeing that they happen differently, and better. (For a grimmer alternative, she could take an interest in seeing that they happen just like they did to her, on the basis that misery loves company.)
If Leslie is following her around, and has followed her to the modern world, and realized what she has about their
counterparts -- a fool can learn wisdom, after all -- then he will definitely take such an interest. And seeing him trying to put it right could be what it
will take to get these people to the right end of any story that begins "Once Upon A Time". On the other hand, given the air of disaster that attends
them, it could just make the whole thing that much worse ...
was perhaps sadly inevitable. I set it in a fantasy-derivative of Green Ronin Games' Freedom City, for reasons that I'll go into if
anyone's curious. Until then, enjoy "The Princess Bride with White Hair":
Once Upon A Time ...
... in a town not far from bright-spired Freedom's Reach, there lived a boy who was, by his eighteenth year, the most beautiful boy in the world. His name
was Leslie. A certain ineffable aspect of his appeal might well have been that he was utterly unaware of it, and of its effect on the girls of the town. Even
had he known of it, perhaps he would not have cared, for it would have had no pertinence to his greatest joy in life -- tormenting the orphan girl his parents
had taken in as a maid, who had to do whatever he said without complaint. And did so, every time, only replying to his demands with the words, "As my lord
pleases."
And then, one day, he chanced to look into her clear blue eyes as she spoke those words, and what he saw there would have told the slowest of men -- which he
was not, though he was in the running -- what the maid was really saying when she said them. And was shaken. And knew
that he loved her too.
It was impossible, of course. He was not some poor farm boy, after all, but the heir to a large estate, who must marry the heir to another large estate to seal
an alliance between their families. He could not marry an orphan girl who had not even a proper name of her own. But she knew that as well, and so she had
decided on what she would do. She would leave, and seek her fortune in the wild world beyond -- and when she found it, she would return in triumph as one who
could marry the heir to a large estate.
Before she left, she asked him to promise one simple thing -- no matter what should happen, no matter the vagaries of fate that should confront them both, he
would never, ever come to distrust her. Leslie swore a mighty oath, before the winds and the gods, that never would he do so. And then he gave her a name --
Joy.
A letter came that spoke of her joining a caravan. Some weeks after, the news came back that spoke of that caravan being ambushed by the Infamous Brigand King
Bayles, who -- of course -- never left any survivors. Heartbroken, he agreed to marry the girl of his parents' choosing when they finally chose one a few
years later, and prepared for a life without joy.
But before the wedding could take place, his fiancee was kidnapped by a group of mercenaries. Leslie set out in pursuit with some of his family's
retainers, but, just as they caught up to the mercenaries, their quarry was set upon by a group of brigands led by a mysterious woman in black. The mercenaries
were overcome, and the brigands took their captive for their own. A strange turn of events, to be sure, but he continued to pursue his fiancee's new
captors with every bit as much vigor as he had the first group.
When they caught up to the brigands, however, their leader flew a flag of truce, and offered a strange deal. She would allow him to exchange himself for her
captive, and then the brigands would wait for a suitable ransom to be delivered. He agreed, and sent his fiancee home to their anxious parents with the demand
for the ransom. Having delivered himself into the woman in black's hands, he asked only that he be treated with some dignity.
"As my lord pleases," she said, pulling back her mask with a smile.
Yes, I know. You saw that coming a mile away, didn't you? Perhaps you've heard a story like this somewhere else? But
the strange and wonderful and tragic thing about stories is this -- they are alive. And like all living things, they
combine with each other, and create offspring that resemble their parents in some ways, and are very different in others. And this tale is not yet done.
For Joy had survived the attack on the caravan, and so impressed the Infamous Brigand King Bayles with her courage that he invited her to join his band of
thugs and killers. And, having no other survivable options, she had accepted the invitation, and quickly risen to command that band. She was prepared to
abandon it all for him, and, though he knew it would mean he must also abandon everything, he was prepared to do the same for her.
But his sense of propriety would not permit him to do so without a word of farewell to his parents and fiancee. So they separated once again for what they
hoped would be a brief time as he rode away to do just that. She reminded him of his vow, and he assured her that he had kept it, and always would.
When Leslie reached the valley where his parent's farm stood, he stared in shock and horror and the burning remains. He rode down to find his family's
steward on the verge of death from his wounds. The man lived just long enough to relate that the farm had been assailed by men led by a woman in black,
who'd killed his parents most cruelly ...
He stumbled out of the wreckage of his family's farm just as his fiancee and a large group of her family's retainers arrived. It turned out that there
had been an attack on her family's farm as well, led by a woman in black, and it had been repelled only with heavy
losses. In despair, he agreed to lead them to where the brigands were encamped.
But only Joy was there, waiting. And he looked at her, looked deep into her clear blue eyes, and asked her, "Why did you do this?"
And everyone there heard something snap. "One thing I ever asked of you!" she screamed, as her hair came
alive and bleached itself white. "One thing!"
And then she was suddenly gone, and Leslie fell to his knees in shock ... that turned to horror as he heard his fiancee begin to laugh, echoed by her men, and
he turned to look at them and realized that in the right light, her armor would seem black ...
But by then, it was too late.
Since then, the White Lady -- so-called, because her hair is white, her skin is a milky shade of pale, and she always wears a white dress that never seems to
stay muddy or bloody for long -- has wandered far and wide over the world, never staying in one place for long. Her sword is for hire, though she rarely stays
in anyone's service for too long, and has even been known to act as a protector of the innocent from time to time. She has fought against Raven Darkcloak,
and fought at her side.
She never speaks of her past -- seldom speaks at all, in fact. She does not answer to the name "Joy", except to say, whenever someone calls her that,
that "Joy is dead." What she is seeking, if anything, is known only to her.
And what of Leslie, you ask? Some say that he survived the onslaught of his fiancee's retainers, though only narrowly, and having lost most of his famous
beauty. These same tales claim that he has wandered in the White Lady's wake ever since, trying to find a way to earn her forgiveness. This is an
absurdity, of course. One man, not known for his skill at arms, against a dozen? And yet ... the story is told. And someone must have survived to tell the
tale. And it is not the White Lady who tells it, nor does it seem likely that the fiancee would do so, nor any of her men. So that leaves but one other
candidate ... or perhaps there's another explanation ...
In The World of Freedom: The White Lady can end up in the modern day world through any of the usual cross-dimensional
malarkey. The fact that she has a sword-and-sorcery character's attitude towards life and death is likely to brand her a villain (or at best a vigilante)
very quickly, though if someone bothers to explain to her that people don't go armed with swords in this place and time, she'll start to behave more
appropriately. (In other words, she'll get a gun.)
Given her intelligence, she is likely to quickly realize that various famous individuals in this new world are reasonably close facsimiles of people she's
familiar with from back in the real world. This, in turn, will probably make her somewhat curious about where her
counterpart can be found. It may be that she simply doesn't have one, but that's a very boring answer, don't you think?
A more interesting one is that she doesn't have a counterpart yet ... that the series of events that leads to her
becoming who and what she is haven't begun, or haven't reached their finale. In this case, it seems very likely that she would take a considerable
interest in seeing that they happen differently, and better. (For a grimmer alternative, she could take an interest in seeing that they happen just like they did to her, on the basis that misery loves company.)
If Leslie is following her around, and has followed her to the modern world, and realized what she has about their
counterparts -- a fool can learn wisdom, after all -- then he will definitely take such an interest. And seeing him trying to put it right could be what it
will take to get these people to the right end of any story that begins "Once Upon A Time". On the other hand, given the air of disaster that attends
them, it could just make the whole thing that much worse ...