Lone Blades (Movie Series)

***Lone Blades*** is a movie series from Kyrenaia, starring Okan Fahnnan in the Main Role as the Lone Bladesman and various other actors in varying roles. The first movie was released in 2010.

The movies chronicle the path towards vengeance and forgiveness of the Lone Bladesman, a Byronic Hero.

The movies had been officially dubbed into English, German and half a dozen other languages, while several fandubs exist as well, one of them into Selkie.

## Setting

The Series is set in a dystopian future, a few hundred years from now. After an unspecified disaster (it is heavily implied, that Climate Change plays a major role) in the middle of the 20th century, Kyrenaia broke into its component states, only to be reunited by Federation of the Twelve Emirs. However, after a string of civil wars and coups and general upheaval, the Federation is nothing but a rump state and a shadow of the former states.

Desperately and without hope, the remains of the Federation cling to the Rayid River and the Tahul River System, the water it carries, once a source of life and strength, now a sludge. The rest of Kyrenaia has either turned into desolate wastelands or, mostly along the rivers and shores, clings on. Some cities and their surroundings are safe and secure, others are not. Nothing good comes from the Wastelands.

The metropolis Challajid, it is heavily implied, that it would be around where Ribla is today, is on the brink between a safe and secure city and a Fallen City, about to fall to corruption and greed. The Powers in Charge, the Challajidi Confederation, and the Corruptors, a loose alliance of crime bosses, gang lords, a religious cult centered around the Ever-Searing Sun (despite the obvious similarities, it is stated outright, that this cult has nothing to do with the Worships of Ischthar or Malakbel, the Lioness and the Sun-God of Kyrenaian Polytheism respectively) and a foreign co-conspirator.

## Movies

### 2010: Lone Blades

The Lone Bladesman searches for forgiveness for a past failure, for the failure to protect what is dear to him, and for vengeance, on those, who took from him, what is dear to him. He fights for these selfish desires against with wanton disregard for authority, almost like a vigilante, except, that he isn't out for justice.

The movie opens

## Important and Recurring Characters

### The Lone Bladesman (Okan Fahnnan)

The Lone Bladesman is an anti-hero in the form of a Byronic Hero: He is driven, intelligent, but fights for himself and his own, personal wants and needs, the need for vengeance and the need for forgiveness. He is to some extend cynical and arrogant and a social outcast in part because of it - a status, in which he revels. His past, shrouded in mystery, is dark and the viewer only receives glimpses, tidbits, throwaway lines, which point at a dark origin (one of these tidbits is, that he once was an Enforcer for the Corruptors, but something made him desert them). He is a man of passion, seeing the way he fights as a form of art, but far greater is his passion for the fairer sex, which lead to outbursts and disappointment. He seemingly, at first glance, loves no one, but his passion is rarely fulfilled, he breaks slowly but surely at the passions left unfulfilled, the lack of catharsis.

While he soon rallies people to his cause, he is no leader, merely a figurehead, while others lead the people around him. While he refuses their authority, both of the people themselves and of the offices and structures the assume, he does work together with them, even if it only is by coordination.

While he seemingly doesn't love anyone (or nearly anyone), he respects some people.

While his favourite weapons are two Dagger Sabres, he is shown to be an excellent marksman and a good pilot of Hoverbikes. More often then not, he prefers firearms to his blades and cunning over firearms.

### Officer Tarthaqil (Rasha Inisali)

Officer Tarthaqil is an officer (roughly equivalent to a Captain) of the Special Forces of the Challajidi Militia and commander of its III. Column. She fits more into the archetype of a hero, or heroine, as the case may be, fighting for justice and law, but the ideals of it has long since left her. Rather then disillusioned with her ideals, she still believes in them, but she also believes, that the Confederation's Government ill-prepared to fight the battle it needs to fight. She is a competent officer and skilled tactician.

It takes until the third movie until Officer Tarthaqil is shown outside of her Combat Suit, as a small and petite woman - still kicking rear ends.

While neither a direct foil to the Lone Bladesman nor an antagonist to him, she is also not a supporter, her goals not add fundamental odds, but in conflict with each other from time to time. The casting of Rasha Inisali, an actress known before the *Lone Blades* Movies for being the cute and petite love interest in Romantic Comedies, as the hardened and strong Officer Tarthaqil surprised many, including when it actually worked and bled over into other movies with her, too, breaking her Typecast.