The Lionsmith

## GENERAL INFORMATION

**"***The Lionsmith is young by the standard of the Hours, but old by the standards of war***"**
*The Lionsmith's Names*

## OTHER TITLES

- The Golden General
- The Shaphur

**WF Catalogue Entry**

 *'The Nature of the Lionsmith is
 to be stronger;
 to be seamless;
 to make monsters'*

**The Lionsmith** was originally a mortal from the Shadowless Empire, who traveled west and trained under the Colonel, returning to Persia and acting as the Golden General. When the armies of Alexander invaded, the Golden General refused to battle against “the blood of his mentor”, but King Darius shared with him a “great secret of betrayal”. In response, the Golden General broke his sword, enacting a teaching of the Forge and ascending as an Hour to become the eternal rival of the Colonel. The Lionsmith is a furious Hour of strength and rebellion, creating monsters and growing ever stronger. His aspects are Edge, Forge and Heart and his hour is 8 a.m.

## Events

* **The Training of the Golden General:** The Lionsmith spent seven years in the kingdom of the Perseids to study and train with their patron deity, the Colonel. He then returned to the Shadowless Empire, where he served as their Golden General.
* **The Battle of Issus (333 BC):** In one History the Lionsmith ascended after learning a secret of betrayal from Darius, who also told the secret to Alexander, causing him to turn back to Macedonia.

## Servants

* **Menhit:** One of the Lionsmith's Names, a Nubian war goddess who was also a lioness-goddess. She can be encountered in the Exile legacy at the Lionsmith’s shrines, where she may provide a revelation.
* **Striges:** Also called Many-Winged Ones, striges are Edge Names who gather around fallen warriors, who they honor by consuming their flesh and bringing their souls to the Hours of the Corrivality. They can be encountered at shrines to both the Colonel and the Lionsmith.
* **Skaptodons:** A type of monster with feline characteristics made by the Lionsmith, who have a long lifespan and are hard to kill. The teeth and claws of fallen skaptodons are shaped into weapons by servants of the Lionsmith, and the Tragulari and Histids of the Colonel tip their darts with skaptodon teeth. A skaptodon that eats things not found in the earth will degenerate into a human-like form, which occurred to Orsolina the Delver, an ally that can be found in the Exile legacy.
* **Labhites:** The youngest of the Lionsmith’s servants, known for their potency and beauty. Where skaptodons must eat things from the earth, labhites can only consume things from the sky, or else they lose their power. One corrupted by Echidna’s milks can be encountered in the Exile legacy in the form of a human.
* **The Merry Feaster:** One of the Lionsmith’s less dignified works, a monster lurking in the sewers of Aachen and consuming drunks and soldiers. Lalla Chaima asks for the player’s assistance in hunting the beast in the Exile Legacy.
* **Antaios:** A great enemy of the Lionsmith, known as Antaios the Opponent, the Son of Earth. The Lionsmith respects his great enemies, though, and so the initiates of the Antaeum who revere the Lionsmith also venerate Antaios. The player in the Exile legacy and the Foe are both Antaeans, Blood of the Earth, which supposedly implies a descent from the Flint and Wheel as well, and the Exile’s mother was an initiate to the Antaeum.
* **The Shadowless Empire:** Though during his ascension he abandoned allegiance to both the Colonel and the Shadowless Kings, the Golden General is still acknowledged as a champion of the Shadowless Empire.
* **Captain Welland:** A Forge-Long with allegiance to the Lionsmith and the Forge of Days, a veteran of numerous wars and a member of the Society of the Noble Endeavour. He can be encountered in the Apostle Aestuant legacy as an enemy Long and also appears as a character in *The Lady Afterwards*.
* **Orsolina:** A muscular woman who was originally a Skaptodon in the Lionsmith’s service. Her love of seafood caused her to lose her former shape, though she retains some her old strength even now. Orsolina can be recruited from Venice as an ally in the Exile Legacy.

## Relationships

* **The Colonel:** The former teacher and rival of the Lionsmith, who he rebelled against and now endlessly wars against in the Corrivality. There are also hints that the Lionsmith is in fact the son of the Colonel, or at least a descendant of him.
* **The Forge of Days:** When the Lionsmith destroyed his sword, he was aware that he enacted a teaching of the Forge of Days, where one must destroy their most precious tool to achieve their greatest goal.

## Real-World References

* The Lionsmith takes the place of Strength in the Tarot of the Hours. The Strength card can represent power, courage, and action. It usually depicts a woman clasping a lion. Like the Chariot, it can suggest challenges to overcome, though these obstacles are inner, such as fear and self-doubt.
* The Lionsmith draws some parallels to the legendary hero Heracles. Heracles was also a warrior of great strength who defeated the giant Antaios, the Son of Gaia who was invincible so long as he remained connected to the earth. He was also responsible for strangling the Nemean lion, which had golden fur impervious to attack. After killing it, Heracles used the monster’s own claw to skin it and use its pelt as a coat.
* In our own History, the Battle of Issus was a decisive victory for Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic forces, and began the decline of Persian power.
* A strix in mythology is a bird of ill omen that feasts on human flesh. In Cultist Sim their description also brings to mind the Valkyrie of Norse mythology, who guide those who die in battle to Valhalla.
* The Merry Feaster is likely the Bahkauv, a legendary beast in Aachen described as a deformed calf with fangs, which lurked in sewers and would harass drunkards.
* Various shrines to the Lionsmith can be found throughout the Exile legacy, which connect the Hour to many other figures in myth and history, though to varying degrees.
	+ In Venice, the Chapel of St Mark of the Hammer honors Mark the Apostle, whose symbol is a lion and often associated with courage.
	+ In Samarkand, the Crossroads Ateshgah takes its name from Zoroastrian fire temples, linking the Lionsmith to the aspect of Forge and the Forge of Days herself.
	+ In Alexandria, Apis the Bull is a divine bull that was worshipped in Memphis. It was later merged with Osiris and identified with Serapis, a Graeco-Egyptian deity from which the Invisible Serapeum also located in Alexandria derives its name.
	+ In Meshad, the Shahrewar Stone refers to a Zoroastrian spirit that presides over metals. The stone appears to be a taenite meteorite, a material used for bullets to kill monsters.
	+ The Anteaum in Tripoli honors both the Lionsmith and his enemy, Antaios.
	+ There are also shrines located in Marrakech and Algiers.

## Other Notes

* Cats are said to be the least of the Lionsmith’s creations, though they also seem to be associated with the Velvet.
* The Lionsmith is likely the youngest of the gods-from-Flesh, and is frequently noted to be one of the newer Hours, despite existing for over 2000 years.
* Many of the Lionsmith’s shrines are located in Northern Africa, Southern Europe, and the Middle East, likely due to his origins in Persia and identity as a “fiery” Forge Hour. Interacting with his shrines often causes one to be filled with rage.
* The Lionsmith is said to have some monstrous children created with Echidna, though the term “children” is likely figurative since it is said that the Lionsmith makes his creatures as one makes weapons.
* The Rite of the Rebel Striving invokes the act of the Lionsmith shattering his own weapon.
* The Lionsmith plays a key role in the Exile legacy. The Exile’s mother was a part of a group that venerated the Hour at the Antaeum, and their birth occurred beneath the sign of the shattered sword. Should the player choose Defiance, it is possible to ascend under the Lionsmith as an Edge dyad with your Foe.

## Theories and Questions

* It is unknown if the Lionsmith was still mortal by the time of the Battle of Issus, or if he had already become a Long or even a Name by that point. Assuming he is the basis for myths about Heracles, the codification of which occurred probably around 600 BC, he would have to be at least several centuries old by the time of Alexander’s Invasion. Overall it seems unlikely that he went straight from a mortal to an Hour through the act of shattering his sword and defying the Colonel, though not impossible, especially since the effects of being descended from immortals are unknown.
* If the Lionsmith really is the son of the Colonel, this suggests that Hours are able to have mortal children and not be affected by the Crime of the Sky. It would also strengthen many of the familial relationships and conflicts found in the Exile legacy, and imply an aspect of the Corrivality as a struggle between the old generation and the new.
* The Lionsmith’s ascension may have caused the beginning of the Edge dyad system, as the Colonel did not have a clear foe to battle against in the Corrivality before then.
* It is unclear what the secret told to the Lionsmith and Alexander by Darius was, though it may have to do with the Colonel’s own involvement in the overthrow of the gods-from-Stone.
* The art of the Lionsmith’s Tarot card implies that he wrestles with his own creations, and his connection to taenite ore, used for monster hunting, and status as an Hour of rebellion further suggest that both he and his servants challenge and hunt his own monsters to grow stronger themselves.

## Sources

1. ↑ The Nature of the Lionsmith...
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Read 'The Book of Thrones'
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Rite of the Rebel Striving
4. ↑ Read De Horis, vol 2
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Edge
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 The Shahpur's Lesson
7. ↑ Make a Pilgrimage to a Brazen Shrine, for a Revelation
8. ↑ Celebrate my Victory
9. ↑ An Operation of the Strix
10. ↑ Make a Pilgrimage to a Brazen Shrine
11. ↑ Skaptodon Fang
12. ↑ Skaptodon's Sacrifice
13. ↑ Histid's Dart
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Skaptodon Tomb
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Orsolina, the Delver
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Arrange an Initial Meeting, #contact.delver sections
17. ↑ Labhitic Grains
18. ↑ Fallen Labhite
19. ↑ The Merry Feaster's Lair
20. ↑ Arrange an Initial Meeting, #contact.huntress sections
21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Antaeum
22. ↑ In the Antaeum
23. ↑ Kinship
24. ↑ Book of True Blood, Read 'Book of True Blood'
25. ↑ Our Enemy's Identity, #welland\_unknown section
26. ↑ The Corrivality
27. ↑ A Reunion
28. ↑ Subvert the Lore which Burns
29. ↑ Bahkauv
30. ↑ Chapel of St Mark of the Hammer
31. ↑ Crossroads Ateshgah
32. ↑ Anvil of the Bull
33. ↑ The Invisible Serapeum
34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 Shahrewar Stone
35. ↑ Lionhunter's Rifle
36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Meteoric Bullet
37. ↑ Hall of Brass Mirrors
38. ↑ The Lionsmith's Least Works
39. ↑ The Lionsmith's Names
40. ↑ A Complication, #ee.devourer section
41. ↑ Read 'The Leonine Tantra'
42. ↑ Eternal Enmity