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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 9777666" data-attributes="member: 8461">I just finished reading Maxwell Alexander Drake's 2024 "HârnWorld History Novella," Carnage of Kiraz.I became interested in Hârn several years ago, when I attended a seminar at Gen Con about the setting. I was drawn in largely by the low-fantasy nature of the world, as well as how a significant number of its products were system-agnostic, providing short but informative topics on various aspects of medieval(-esque) life, ranging from farming to fishing to running a manor house. As a sucker for game-related reference material, all of that made me so Hârny.<ducks tomatoes>So naturally, when I came across an official HârnWorld novella at Gen Con 2025, I had to pick it up (and get the author's autograph as well), finally settling in to read it a few days ago.Set six hundred years in the past, Carnage of Kiraz is the story of how, unsurprisingly, <a href="https://legacy.drivethrurpg.com/product/459469/Kiraz-The-Lost-City?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Kiraz: The Lost City</a> (affiliate link) became lost, though not having that particular product I hadn't realized that salient detail, which changed my expectation going into this.That's because the story, which centers on a young dwarf warrior-in-training named Einar, initially comes off like a bildungsroman. At the start of the story, Einar and his group of friends are being punished for a night of drunken mischief by being ordered to stay behind and tend to the furnaces as their kingdom's menfolk, fifteen hundred strong, leave the city on an expedition to find sufficient provisions for their people to weather a famine.Now, I'm no expert, but it seems to me that a hunting expedition wouldn't want to take so many people along, since feeding them would become an issue and so undercutting the prospect of gathering enough food for an entire city. But the book makes no intimation that this was actually them volunteering to go to their deaths or that there was any other kind of skullduggery afoot. Instead, the men all leave, with no one except Einar's "Battlefather" (i.e. warrior instructor) warning that the city could be in danger, despite having been at peace for centuries at this point.Naturally, the Battlefather is proven right when, almost immediately after the men leave the city, it's besieged by...you know, I don't think they ever actually name what the creatures are, but they're described as being what we'd think of as orcs or possibly some other kind of goblinoids.Now, this is where I thought the story would turn into a heroic tale. Einar and his friends are all young and eager to earn honor and glory, being highly sensitive about how unimportant they are in the eyes of their peers. Hence my assumption that this would be a coming-of-age tale where they fought in a war and managed to turn the tide at the cost of their innocence (and probably the lives of one or two of their group), learning the the price of honor and glory is higher than they could ever have imagined.But that's not the story that's told here, as noted by the fact that Kiraz is, in the "present day" of the Hârn setting, a lost city.I'll say that I feel mildly hypocritical for the fact that I'm inclined to give this story a pass on how thin most of its characterizations are, having complained at length about that regarding the previous book I read. But in this case, I'm inclined to be more generous not only because of how short this story is (it lives up to its "novella" title quite aptly), but also because I don't think that characterization is really the point. While seen through Einar's eyes, this is about the sequence of events more than the individual who witnesses them. Einar is the medium through which we experience the mounting horror of someone seeing his entire world be destroyed—his family and friends slaughtered, his home overrun, and his efforts to stem the tide all for naught—while being forced to confront how little he can do about it.My only real complaint here is that the book's ending is actually a to-be-continued, and that while not ending on a cliffhanger per se, feels unsatisfying for its lack of resolution. Questions of what happened to the king and his men, or who are the enemies and why are they invading, are all left for the next book (which has yet to be released). Rather ironically, what happens to Einar is perhaps the least pressing question, since his ultimate fate is (as noted previously) less important given that he's a vehicle for narrative tragedy.In that regard, I have to give Drake credit here; he does a good job of showing Einar's suffering as his losses mount. When I still thought this was going to be a heroic tale, I expected Einar to have some badass moments, rising above his horror and loathing to turn into a savior. But there's virtually none of that here, with him instead barely managing to endure the repeated losses rather than reversing them. It's presented remarkably well, feeling more operatic than gritty, all the more so since the dwarven society presented at the beginning is so down-to-earth, with gossiping wives and loquacious old uncles and giggling children. It's an idyllic presentation which makes its loss all the more heartbreaking.I suspect that once the sequel comes out, I'll find myself unable to help but pick it up.</blockquote>

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