Blackwing

A man without a cause, a crusader without a holy war, a villain without evil, all could be used to describe this figure. Shrouded in nearly as much myth as King Arthur himself, very little of what the man behind the legends is like has been put to page. Some rumors, a few testimonials, the occasional written statement or supposed account exists. From hearsay and word of mouth, it has been said that the man known as Solomon Argost was charismatic, charitable and a man of devout faith. It was said that he could recite any verse of the bible with perfect pitch and not a letter out of place. His speeches rallied soldiers to battle and turned the tides of battle against Jeanne d'Arc herself in some cases. Known to lead from the front and spare any who threw down their weapons, the man known as Solomon the crusader was a legendary figure.

These are the early tales of course, and as time goes on, the legend begins to degenerate and decay.

Later accounts give us a very different picture, of a lone knight in what can only be described as a dark mirror of his old armor wandering the battlefields, cutting down soldiers without remorse and never so much as speaking to the opposing commander. Tales speak of him once being called to a treaty with an enemy commander only to place a crossbow bolt through the man's head upon entering his camp. The story goes on to say that he silently dispatched the rest of the camp. Of course there are accounts that detail him degenerating into mad laughter as he cleaved his way across the battlefield, ignoring the screams of any friendly soldiers unlucky enough to be caught in the path of his rampages.

At this point the legends seem to disappear entirely, as though the man depicted just dropped off the face of the earth.

Much less grandiose stories begin to crop up in the years following the man's public execution. They tell of a soldier from neither side riding a massive horse, black as midnight and flying a banner belonging to no recorded faction. The man described in these tales is said to lead a small band of soldiers thundering across the lines of battle, silent as the grave and deadly as the reaper's own scythe. The few survivors of these seemingly random intervention tell of the man tearing out their commander's heart and leaving without a word, others say he saved heavily outnumbered English platoons on occasion, shouting praise to a long dead queen while doing so. Little is known of this man's personality, save that small scraps of paper supposedly kept by the soldiers in question depict him as an able, if terrifying leader.



"Tales tell little of the man who would later come to be called Solomon's early life, though most sources agree that the legendary figure started out a common beggar, raised on the streets and only uplifted by the most random of coincidences. This coincidence would be that he appeared similar to a member of the nobility who had died not long before and many people mistook him for the man. As word took extremely long to travel from one city to the next, he was able to easily keep up the charade until the noble's widow finally visited. At this point, the legend diverges into two separate strands, though they have similar endings, with each seeming to converge several years later. One version suggests that the woman too believed him to be her husband, resurrected through prayer. This version says they went on to live happily until the man's conscription into the English army as part of the draft for the event known as the Hundred Years War.
The other variant goes similarly, though it suggests more cunning on the part of the widow. This version -supposedly obtained from one of the chambermaids employed in the house- states that she knew the man was not her husband yet took him in anyway so that she would have to neither remarry nor give up any rights and titles. Several tales were concocted to explain the man's different mannerisms and seemingly different memories. This tale ends at the same point the other strand did, with the man going off to the Hundred Years war. It is at this point that the tale of Solomon the Crusader can honestly be said to begin.

Accounts tell of the man being devout and chaste, the perfect example of what an English noble should aspire to. Local legends say he lead his troops personally against the forces of France and claimed victory from the jaws of defeat on many occasions. What happened next is where the tale of The Crusader becomes that of The Fallen. Once more, the threads of myth twist away from one another only to entwine themselves yet again at the later point. One version, which is generally regarded as being local superstition applied to the truth, is that the man came upon an enchantress one day while riding to a battlefield. legend says he abandoned his troops to stay with the woman and cost them the battle as -without his leadership- the once stalwart troops fell apart under Jeanne d'Arc's relentless assault. The other variant goes wildly differently, though with a similar ending. In this version of the tale, Solomon accompanied his troops to the battlefield and lost as a result of unfavorable conditions and several unforeseen stratagems on the part of Jeanne. In the first version, he later arrived at the battlefield and was captured by French forces, while in the second he was simply captured alongside his men.

Whichever account is true, he was taken back to France and supposedly tortured for many years before escaping in a prison riot and returning to England. At this point, he is described as a different man, his vibrant blonde hair having grayed and deep creases having appeared on his face. The King of England immediately placed him back on the front lines, though with a set of far more menacing armor as per the man's request.

This is truly where his title as The Fallen becomes relevant. A man who once led his troops with honor now displayed insane tendencies whenever he was fielded against Jeanne d'arc's forces. They tell of him throwing wave after wave of men at her forces before leading suicidal cavalry charges simply for a chance at her throat. A man once respected as England's greatest general had become a beast hellbent on revenge. While he still amassed victories against other forces, his insane hatred for France's female general wound up causing more harm than good, as even the most elite soldiers under his command were sent into suicidal situations so that he might slay her. As time went on England began to lose, in no small part due to large portions of their forces being sacrificed for little gain by the man now considered insane.

The tales say that as a result their general's unnaturally long -for the time- lifespan as well as his apparent blood lust, he had been possessed by a demon and upon his return to London, he was burned at the stake in an attempt to purify his flesh. All reports of the man stop after this, though a mysterious figure -depicted in frescoes as a black knight with several crows flying overhead- begins to crop up, assisting both France and England alike in their battles. These stories say that when all hope is lost by one side, he would ride out and slay the commander of the opposing force, claiming the man's heart as a trophy. While it would be far from fact to assume that The Black Rider and Solomon were connected, there was a noted tendency for the darkly armored figure to head straight for Jeanne d'arc whenever she was present.

Unlike Solomon, the man always stood alone in his charges and frequently reached his target, nearly succeeding in killing the female saint several times. At the conclusion of the Hundred Years war, the Rider disappears entirely, though reports of him across England made their way into folklore. Each time he appeared, he was silent, never speaking a word."

~Summary of "From Hero to Heretic: The Tale of Solomon Argost" by author Jeramiah Trauer, best selling author.

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