Hey all!
I'm new to writing fantasy, and I'm struggling to write a good query.
Any feedback would be amazing.
Thank you so much for your time.
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Dear Agent,
A war rages below the cordillera. Battalions march deep into its bowels, but the few who return claim to have found no enemy.
Boeum is one of those who came back. Now he guards the walls that ring the highest mountain peak, tasked with keeping out Tar, weapons, and the refugees he grew up with, his mother and sister still among them. All he wants is to keep a low profile and save up enough money to get his family within the safety of the Ringed City's walls.
But when Bouem stumbles on a cartel stash house, what was supposed to be a simple raid turns into a massacre. He finds himself in a cave riddled with tunnels, standing amongst sacks of silver and stacks of Tar, staring down at bodies wearing the queenβs insignia.
Fearing a bottomless pit of corruption, the other guards flee with pockets full of silver. Bouem hesitates, knowing that if he runs, his mother and sister will be arrested and leveraged against him. So he lays down his sword, says a prayer to the divine queen, and waits for the authorities to arrive.
Soon, men come through the tunnels. Their leader comes through the entrance. He calls himself The Heron, and what he says sends a shiver up Bouem's spine: donβt worry, your mother and sister are safe.
The Heron says he wants to behead the most vicious cartel, a paramilitary group known as The Knights of the Dead God. Bouem remembers them from his time Below. One of his childhood friends believed their lies, took a dark path, and never came back.
How long has this man been watching him?
Bouem is taken higher up the mountain. His parents are granted citizenship. His fears ease. This man seems to have the queenβs blessing. But some of the details donβt add up.
SWORD & SICARII is a 100,000-word standalone dark fantasy with series potential. It combines the looming dread, nuanced morality, and dark gods of Rebecca Roanhorse's BLACK SUN with the terrifying corruption shown in movies like SICARIO.
[Bio]
Thank you for your time and consideration.
A common trait Assassinβs Creed groups have is the constant theorizing about future settings, because historical tourism is one of the best parts of the series. Many fans want pretty cliche settings such as the American Civil War and Wild West, World War 2, Ancient Rome, and Feudal Japan. Most of these popular settings have been noticed by polls by Ubisoft that ask which settings weβd like to see next. Most of these have come true sooner or later, and Iβm sure more will soon. While I would love to see some settings such as Carthage during the Punic Wars, the Sengoku Jidai, or Yuan Dynasty China, I want to focus on a few settings that are a little more obscure. The common thread between all settings in this series of posts is that they have not appeared on a Ubisoft poll or survey that can be easily found (China, Japan, Rome), they are not overly requested settings by the fanbase (see wild west and world war 2), and they all are relatively known enough to be marketable to a broad base. In each of these posts, Iβll be discussing map areas, cities, architecture, culture, wars, historical events, historical characters, broad conjecture on how AC could work with this, and any existing lore in this area.
In 38 BCE Kawab was sent by Bayek to deal with the threat of Herod I in Judea. He was a client king on behalf of the Romans and instituted harsh policies of forced labor and servitude to the Romans. He executed his wife and her family to take power, and ruled harshly, hated by many. While we donβt know the role of the Hidden Ones in his story, we know from history that Herod died in 4ce, and 2 years later the Roman Empire firmly seized control of Israel. This was followed by large scale Jewish riots in due to the Census of Quirinius led by Judas of Galilee (different Judas from Iscariot of the Bible). Riots would again erupt in 37ce and would follow suit around Israel and the Roman Empire for decades to come arguing for the rights of Jews in the empire, including the right to worship
This pivotal moment is when I believe an Assassinβs Creed title should begin; the First Jewish-Roman War. During this time we have massive upheaval from the Jews and even a real order of assassins that predated the Nizari Ismaeli; the Sicarii. To this day Spanish hitmen take the title of Sicario due to the fame of the Sicarii in ancient Israel. The Sicarii became important leaders of the
... keep reading on reddit β‘They were Jewish zealots in the first and second centuries AD. As far as I've found, they're the first to use literal cloak and dagger tactics as assassins, and they were rebelling against the Romans occupying Judea. (Of course all my info is from wikipedia) They predate the ninja and hashishin by centuries, and since there is little known of them, the creators can embellish whatever story they think of. I figure since they inject a fictional assassin group into different points in history, why not weave some of the first assassins into the AC universe?
In this video, Sicarii makes the argument that Israelites can lie to non-Israelites and says that is what Paul did before Agrippa in Acts 26, He uses examples like pointing to Abraham lying to the Egyptians by saying his wife was his sister and a couple other examples. What do y'all think?
