The Man and his Mechs

Sir Owain the Red's family are fourth generation Mars-worshippers. As a child he listened to the stories of when the planet was lifeless and red; he heard the legends and absorbed all the myths. Mars is much changed from those old days, but Owain thinks he remembers them... Before he came of age he took a tattoo of the old, red planet on his back, an artwork that spans his torso. It shows ley-lines that are talked of in the ancient stories, the old passages of rivers and streams. It is on his back but Owain can trace it from memory.

Sir Owain is the master of his household now, and the controls to the family's mechs have been passed to him. All but one of them has been in the family for a very long time; he has read the family history of them, as well as his great-grandfather's more fanciful tales from when the family converted to Mars-worship. He likes both accounts.

The greatest of the mechs is Dyn Gleddyf Mawr; this colossal metal man has been in the family since before there was a family. It is the champion, the power. The family have poured love and care into its upkeep. A bipedal armoured man, criss-crossing patterns of artwork covering the skin. Mawr has many ranged weapons systems, and a phased plasma blade which Owain delights in using.

There is a strong design similarity between Mawr and Ryfel Bychan, which is much smaller but carries a heavy arsenal. Owain's grandfather told him that Ryfel Bychan was Dyn Gleddyf Mawr's baby brother. As a child he believed him. Ryfel Bychan is small but strong. The family has not tested it in battle for many seasons. There is some hope that it could hold it's own, but in Owain's life he has never seen the red eyes alight.

Marchog Deircoes was added to the family's mech arsenal only in the last fifty years. It was a wedding present given on the occasion of Owain's father's first marriage. Deircoes carries traits and markings from several different elder design schools. Almost impossibly it seems as if it were put together more recently than the old times. Which must be impossible. But how else to explain the three legs that it walks on, coupled with the radically different torso and head? No matter, it has weapons and moves, and that is to be valued.

Poor little Cofamhir... He is so small compared to the other mechs and now used only to carry things around the estate. But as grandfather used to say to Owain, "Cofamhir is old, so very old. He did great and mighty things in the past - look at where his left arm should be, eh? Yes, so old... But he must have seen so much..."


And then: it was the winter of Owain's 22nd year, a week or so after his birthday. Judgement had been carried out on the case of the farmer and the tradesmen. Owain hoped that it had been wise. Would father have done the same? Father was dead. A knock at the study door. So sorry to intrude. So sorry to disturb. In cataloguing your father's possessions we found this...

A small chest. A control crystal. A letter. A location. Of another family mech. Stored in secret, twenty feet underground, out under the old stables. His birthright. Owain called for his horse, changed his mind and asked that Cofamhir be brought to him. A new sight perhaps, for the little mech's old eyes...