THE HIGH TABLE
Established: 2023-11-17
Chat room: #BARBARUS
- No holds barred
- Weapons
- Extreme violence
- Blood
- Death
A worldwide organization of men trained for violent, bloody, and even deadly combat. Their competence is indicated by their qualifications, from the lowest to the highest, reserved for an elite.
441 members
1168 stories
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18 files
CAPTURE
I became the property of Domyrek, Lord Corrector of the Outer Provinces.
They stripped me and reviled me.
As failed knight, my penis was forfeit.
I learned I had never deserved it.
: 
Caged before my countrymen, I confessed my failure
before Evryk, Knight Justicar, now Satrap of Kuluz, who mocked me.
I was made to share my torments with Erynd, a young noble of Kuluz.
Together we were given over to the Empire's devices.
At a monastery outside Chalyth, the Oriarch singled us out.
ORYN
Lord Oryn, necromancer and brother-general to my master, claimed Erynd.
Within Erynd’s suffering, Oryn found a rare instrument.
The mirror became Erynd’s prison, and Erynd became Oryn’s medium.
The abyss opened its mouth.
Oryn led me through the waste.
He bade me lie upon the table.
As Erynd watched, my body was remade.
I, a slave, no longer wholly man.
TRAINING
My master showed me the Ossuary.
I was delivered to the dead.
...forced to fight them...
...then made to kill my own countrymen.
Soon I saw the dead everywhere.
Waking ceased to matter.
THE PROVING
Amid their laughter, the Oriarch foretold what I would become.
My master told me the dead do not doubt.
The fall of Kuluz once more…
My blade crumbled.
I did not rise.
He trampled while they laughed.
Then I served without being told.
Domyrek called it correction.
I prepared him for judgment.
Erynd and I accompanied him into the garden.
He taught that nothing should be untended.
Only then did I see what my master had cut away.
He returned me to his brother Oryn.
The nightmares resumed.
The world surrendered its laws.
EDUCATION
: 
There seemed no end to the ordeal.
Oryn crowned me First Among the Dead.
He armed me with the weapon of my conquerors.
Yet even the dead proved stronger than I.
ACCEPTANCE
They instructed me.
They accepted me.
Meanwhile my master led my people to their deaths.
Until I found myself among them.
They obeyed.
So I led.
INVESTITURE
My master pronounced Oryn’s work complete.
He crowned me before the great host.
I prayed to prove worthy of the weapon I now carried.
Ready to command his legions,
I, no longer weaponless….
SERVICE
My place was now beside him.
I was his blade.
We traveled through mysterious lands.
: 
In the ruins, I served him.
In the ancient places, we entered the sacred agon.
There he corrected me.
THE UNSHEATHING
My master unsheathed me before the Empire.
His Dark Grace the Oriarch celebrated my unsheathing.
The last General of Kuluz brought before the Army of the Black Sun.
The sentence, dismemberment.
In this agon, I am victor.
One I had once served given over to me...
I placed the harvest before my masters.
Only then did my masters lay aside their robes...
Published: 2026-08-09, viewed 72 times.
Freaker
2026-08-09 16:05These three connected stories form a dark, original and remarkably atmospheric chronicle of Kuluz and the Empire of the Black Sun. For the clearest experience, begin with *Journal of the Lord Corrector’s Slave*, which introduces Roland and the imperial system; continue with *From the Archives of the Black Sun*, where the surviving plates, observations and private fragments reveal Erynd’s mysterious transformation; and finish with *Life in the Correctory*, which shows what their existence has become afterward. The Correctory is Lord Domyrek’s imperial domain, a prison, training ground and institution where defeated enemies are “corrected” and reshaped for service. Together, the three narratives combine epic fantasy, psychological domination, poetry and forbidden archival history in a distinctive and compelling way. Thank you, Erynd, Roland, Oryn of Vaelkor and Blockbuster, for publishing this extraordinary cycle in THE HIGH TABLE!
Roland
2026-08-09 16:30(In reply to this)
Sir, thank you for your review of the torturous road that led me to become my master's sword. True, my weapon was taken from me, to be returned only after penance, discipline, and right attention taught me how unworthy I had been to wield it. But in earning it again, I learned to see anew. Praise the Black Sun, by whose Darkness the faithful learn to see!