Billhook Blog

Appendix P: The Deed of Paksenarrion

Fantasy Adventure!

I have a deep and abiding love for roleplaying games in general, they have been my chief hobby for at least a decade, and I have been playing them since I bought the D&D 3E starter set in 2000 (25 years ago?!?). There are so many different structures and genres that are explored by RPGs, and I find many of them so very compelling, but as far as I can tell my favorite will always be Dungeons and Dragons and it's vast genealogy of fantasy adventure games. I'm foremost an "OSR" gamer, and I don't really see that changing. To that end, this is my personal Appendix N for fantasy adventure games, with a particular focus on one of my favorite fantasy trilogies.

I've lost count of how many times I've read The Deed of Paksenarrion. I believe the first time was in middle school, no long after I first started playing D&D. My mom, who I have to thank for instilling in me my love of reading, gave me the book after she finished it and i devoured it in short order. In the intervening decades I've returned to Paksenarrion's adventures every 3-4 years, like reminiscing with an old friend.

It's pretty clear to me that the author Elizabeth Moon must have taken some inspiration from D&D in the writing of The Deed. If not there are a lot of coincidences, too many to explain. The first book Sheepfarmer's Daughter was published in 1988, just before the 2nd edition of AD&D. Unlike many novels that take inspiration from D&D The Deed isn't beholden to the narrative structure of a D&D campaign, and focuses on a singular protagonist. These advantages, along with Moon just being a better writer than say The Hickman's or Douglas Niles allow the trilogy to transcend the first wave of "D&D fantasy".

Sheepfarmer's Daughter

Sheepfarmer's Daughter

The first book of The Deed begins with Paksenarrion running away from home and an unwanted marriage. She wants to be a soldier, so she joins a mercenary company and learns the trade, eventually becoming a competent and respected veteran in the company of Duke Phelan. One of the striking things about the book is how completely ignorant Paks is about soldiering and the world at large. We watch as she learns how to fight, how to march, how to deal with people. Heck, we get to watch her learn about geography and military logistics from the perspective of a soldier of the line. Not only does this make Paks a more believable and relatable character, it also allows Moon to build the world piece by piece unobtrusively.

Sheepfarmer's Daughter especially appeals to me as an OSR head because it doesn't ignore how someone becomes a Fighter. In 5E D&D a player would just pick Background(Soldier) and move on, but one of my favorite OSR aphorisms is "play/your character is what happens at the table". I like stories that don't ignore how incredibly difficult it would be to master sword fighting, or how much goes into warfare beyond two armies hacking at each other. Elizabeth Moon was a US Marine Lieutenant which must have given her a leg up during research, and it shows. There's an extended segment of the book where Paks and two companions shadow an enemy army on the march and it's delightfully miserable.

Content Warning: Chapters 3-5 depict the fallout of Paks being sexually assaulted by two fellow soldiers as well as her description of the assault to her sergeant. While she isn't by some definitions raped, it is violent and that is the intent. The rest of the series doesn't dwell overmuch on this event, but Paksenarrion's sexual agency is a recurring theme (she's Ace).

Divided Allegiance

After the events of Sheepfarmer's Daughter Paksenarrion decides to take a leave of absence from Duke Phelan's company. She unintentionally becomes an itinerant adventurer. She makes friends and enemies, delves a few dungeons, and eventually finds herself a Paladin in training in the service of St. Gird. There are a lot of D&D tropes, especially in the first half of the book. There are Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Mages, Clerics, a Druid, a Guild Thief, Hirelings, and a "Starting Town". The book has some fun dungeon crawls that are actually narratively interesting rather than feeling like someone's restatement of B/X procedures or one of Salvatore's constant fight books strung along with a bare thread of a plot. St. Gird is basically a fleshed out version of St. Cuthbert (one of the first two gods for OD&D clerics) if you tilt you head and squint.

I think this book is my favorite of the 3, but I don't actually have much more to say about it. It's really good? Read it!

Oath of Gold

I managed to avoid many spoilers in discussing the previous two books, but I can't really talk about Oath of Gold without context. If you're anti-spoiler, and I've convinced you to read this series, skip this section!

If Sheepfarmer's Daughter is about Paks the Soldier, and Divided Allegiance is about Paks the Adventurer, Oath of Gold is about Paks the Big Damn Hero. This book is the payoff. This is the one where the Hero Saves the World (or several neighboring kingdoms).

At the end of Divided Allegiance Paksenarrion is psychically damaged by Dark Elves (just evil, not inexplicably black), and made a coward. She can't fight, and can't become a Paladin. She eventually finds herself back with her [Druid] friend The Kaukgan of Brewersbridge who heals her. After some time in half-elf land training with the rangers Paks pledges herself to a variety of gods, including St. Gird, and becomes a Paladin, hooray!

Oath of Gold deals with politics in a way the previous two books don't, and involves Paks solving a mystery, defeating great evil, reinstating a Rightful King, and saving the land. I suppose my thesis is that Oath of Gold wouldn't be nearly as satisfying without the groundwork laid by the previous two books The basis of the story is nothing special "Hero empowered by the gods proves the lineage of a Lost King by way of Magic Sword, trials are had, Evil is defeated". My description of the plot is rather trite, but the book is a rousing and engaging capstone to Paksenarrion's tale. The trilogy earns it's cliche storybook ending by carefully building the setting block by block, and showing Paks growing from young shepherd to soldier to adventurer to hero. Just like a good campaign should.*

In the end, these novels are pretty silly. They're not high art, they aren't challenging or particularly provocative. There's beautiful craftwork here though, and I love them dearly.

Other Works of Inspiration

* I hope it goes without saying that a novel is not a campaign. There is a group of protagonists in a campaign, not one. No one wants to play your novel, so if the group never sets foot in the Half-Elven kingdom of Lyonya you'd better not get bent out of shape. Just have the realm crumble into chaos and the aftershocks ripple through the setting.

** This post was made as part of Marcia B.'s blog bandwagon for personal Appendix Ns, with organizational help from Warren Smith of Prismatic Wasteland.