Meet the walk-ins

Some of them at least. I've got dozens. Some I've managed to kill, some refuse to die, and one made an appearance some 40 k after I disposed of him. Turns out he wasn't dead anyway. Just missing, presumed dead. Next time I'll make damn sure that he actually has kicked the bucket before moving on. It's rule 13 of the Evil Overlord list after all. I shouldn't have forgotten:

"All slain enemies will be cremated, or at least have several rounds of ammunition emptied into them, not left for dead at the bottom of the cliff. The announcement of their deaths, as well as any accompanying celebration, will be deferred until after the aforementioned disposal."

I'd better make a post-it of it before I forget.

But I won't deny it was useful to have him alive. If he was dead, Marcus would've been killed when the legions at Vetera had surrendered, and then I couldn't have made him walk to Mainz and sent thunderstorms and wolves his way. Hmm... maybe those walk-ins are useful after all.

But not all of them.

Embric is a git. He's some sort of important Bructerian nobleman, incredibly arrogant, very rash, and rather stupid. Fun to write, but I wish he'd stop trying to kill Geravan. It's very difficult to write with a dead MC. Luckily, those two have finally agreed to stop arguing - at least for the time being. They've decided to kill the Romans first, and once the war has been brought to a successful end (they don't know they're losing. Yet), then they'll fight to the death. Fair enough. Didn't stop Geravan from breaking Embric's nose though.

Lucius is the worst of all. Or rather, he was the worst. I managed to kill him, but it took a while. He's random legionary #34 and his full name, at the moment is Lucius *insert nomen* *insert cognomen* so he goes by Lucius, lol. He started out all right, but then he began to whine and complain and he became really depressing. Now why would he do that? I mean, I only killed his best friend. Well, anyway, I thought I'd teach him a lesson by breaking his ankle, but noooooo, he became even whinier. So I made him ill during the siege of Vetera and hoped he'd snuff it. Did he? Of course not. I had him shot when the legions were ambushed after the siege, and then he finally died. I'm still not sure whether Geravan shot him or not. If yes, I'll never be nasty to him again (ha! As if!) and I'll name a town after him or something. But I'll also tell him that his aim is lousy because it took too long for Lucius to die. Oh, I don't mind him suffering, but his last words were so cheesy.

Next is Bob, that Frisian nobleman who was finally killed this week. Best death yet, I think. No Hollywood last words, no heroic last stand or anything. He just died. I got rid of his brother, Bob2, quite easily as well: I sent the lot of them back to their homes in the north to arrange the funeral. Muahahaha.

Of the top 5 Most Important & Annoying Walk-Ins, that only leaves Verax. He's different from the others in the sense that he is actually historical (he's Civilis' sister-son) but Tacitus devotes only two lines to him so I thought I'd just forget about him. When the Batavians had burned their capital and retreated to the Island, Civilis decided to attack four Roman camps at the same time, and Verax led one of the attacks (the one on the Second legion who had camped near the Batavians' former capital, present-day Nijmegen). He was supposed to destroy a bridge the Romans were building, but the attempt failed, and Verax had to swim back across the river to get out of there. That's it. Nothing more. I didn't have my notes with me when writing that battle, so I put Geravan in command of the army attacking the Second. Biiiig mistake. Once I took a look at my notes, Verax started complaining. I thought, what the heck, Geravan can attack the legion itself, and in the ensuing chaos Verax can try and fail to destroy the bridge. Should keep him happy.
It didn't. Verax is a spoiled brat. He's used to getting things his own way, and to ensure that he is one of the most important characters in the book, he has decided to become Geravan's childhood friend. Idiot. I'll have a word with Geravan about the company he keeps.
Verax is fun to write though. And I've discovered that to keep him happy, he just needs plenty of booze and shiny objects.

View from my window. This is taken around midsummer, at 2 AM. See why I love summer?