Aliases are alternative forms of a reference. They can include actual aliases for characters, nicknames, plural variations, gendered versions of some [Classes], and even typos.
That meant no heroic charges. Niers was speaking to all of his students, but his eyes lingered upon one of his newest recruits, a tall Minotaur who stood with his arms crossed, frowning intensely down at the map. He nodded silently. Venaz was in charge of his left flank, and he was no doubt keen to impress him. He had been sent from the Isles of Minos after much competition to become his student, he gathered, and the Minotaur was always attempting to outshine his other students.
That showed how new he was. Venaz blushed a bit as his more senior students chuckled and pawed at the ground but made no comment. Touchy. Niers sighed.
“Stop that. The exercise of the drum signals, Venaz, is to confuse the enemy. The complex signals mean nothing to my soldiers. It will be meaningless to everyone but Grimvol. He will wonder about what the signal means and whether or not his trap has been discovered. It will slow his reactions and make him more hesitant than he already is.”
Niers looked over with a frown. That was Venaz for you, or rather, Minotaurs. They disliked secrets and they preferred to do everything out in the open. It was a flaw he’d resolved in his strategic thinking, but it still bled into the way he handled everything else.
That made Venaz frown, but Cameral and Umina nodded. Their species understood privacy a bit more, even if that wasn’t the entire reason why Niers was so hesitant.
Some, like Marian the Centaur and Venaz the Minotaur, were supremely confident in their abilities. Venaz was leaning back in his seat, lounging with a smirk on his face as he watched the others, waiting to be called on. As for Wil and Yeranolla…Niers passed over the Human and Selphid. They would field any question he shot at them.
Some, like Marian the Centaur and Venaz the Minotaur, were supremely confident in their abilities. Venaz was leaning back in his seat, lounging with a smirk on his face as he watched the others, waiting to be called on. As for Wil and Yeranolla…Niers passed over the Human and Selphid. They would field any question he shot at them.
He looked around, this time eying Venaz and wondering if the Minotaur had any better suggestions than ‘use Minotaurs’ as his arguments. He was about to call on him when a tap on one of the windows by his head interrupted him.
“Now, an Antinium army has assaulted your very odd army of pikes and archers. You’ve a few high-level individuals among them, but no one noteworthy. Your terrain is a canyon, with ground porous enough that the Antinium can dig through it. How will you survive their assault? Venaz, speak. And so help me, if you claim your entire army is filled with Minotaurs I’ll send to you to Izril so you can see how well your tactics hold up against the Antinium in person!”
As it happened, Venaz had a far more intelligent plan of staggering his lines of pikes and archers, creating a hostile terrain for any burrowing Antinium and pointed out the use of charging pikes as opposed to a static defense. For that, Niers grudgingly awarded him full marks and set the rest of the class to fielding questions about how to handle the Antinium specialist types which the world was aware of.
“Just remember that plate armor’s restrictive. You’ll move slower, see less—and a [Strategist] needs to see the battlefield. Like everything else, it’s a calculated risk. Now, Venaz, Marian, you two seem to disagree on how a [Strategist] should behave when in danger. Show me which one of you is more correct. Form up an army—I want an equal match so calculate accordingly. You have twenty minutes!”
“Thank you, Peclir. Let me know when Venaz wakes up. I imagine being trampled by Marian hurt his pride more than anything, but I’d like to know he’s alright.”
