I enjoyed the well-chosen details building characterization for the little warband. I particularily liked the one line about Eskiera's magic bringing order to chaos; presumably she's outcast for her magic, but usually 'order' is a good thing and 'chaos' is evil, so the fact that her magic is orderly hints that Eskiera isn't evil and doesn't deserve to be persecuted, without going into unnecessary detail. World- and character-building in one deft clause; I love it! The quick introduction of the civilian group right at the end intrigued me and made me want to know more, especially the goatman with an armload of scrolls (but then I've always been a sucker for beastman wizards!)
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Thanks! But that wasn't necessarily what I had in mind when I wrote that line. What I wanted to convey was that, firstly, Eskiera's magic is subtle and protective in nature, and secondly, that the battle was chaotic (without going in to too much detail). The phrase was just a way to connect those two. In general, I tend to move away from the "Order=Good, Chaos=Evil" thing, it's a bit limiting. In some ways the story is about that: the outcasts are good even though they're labelled chaotic by society. The Tyrants are bad even though they exemplify order. Now, I could say the line about Eskiera's magic was a deliberate point about how Order/Chaos is a false dichotomy or whatever, but I wasn't really thinking about it when I wrote it!