Forward, the Lyte Brigade: A Tale of Realmgard

By J.B. Norman

Nolan Lyte wants to be like his grandfather and become the greatest guild Captain in Porthaven. He wants to lead the Lyte Brigade just like his grandfather and great-grandfather before him. Unfortunately for Nolan, the Lyte Brigade has been disbanded ever since his grandfather retired. If he wants to lead a guild, first he needs a guild to lead. Before he can start living his dream, he needs the Lyte Brigade reinstated. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Nolan still feels confident that he’ll be able to restore the Lyte Brigade and lead it into a new golden age. Luckily, Nolan isn’t the only aspiring adventurer in Porthaven. There are plenty of people looking for a guild to join, just waiting for Nolan to find and recruit them. Easier said than done. Follow along for a Realmgard story featuring an all-new cast of characters!

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.B. Norman
• Release date: Dec 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005088224

J.B. Norman

J.B. Norman lives in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, where he pretty much lives and breathes writing. When he is not writing his own books, he is editing books written by somebody else. He wanted to write a book since he was about nine years old; upon discovering that "Viking" was no longer a viable career option, he finally sat down and did it.

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Forward, the Lyte Brigade:

A Tale of Realmgard

J.B. Norman

Published by J.B. Norman at Smashwords.

Copyright 2021 J.B. Norman.

Cover Art Copyright 2021 Joel Balkovec.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, locations, and events are either products of the author's imagination, or are used fictitiously.

This book is available in print at select online retailers.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

www.realmgard.com

Dedicated to everyone hoping for better years ahead

than a last couple behind us have been…

Table of Contents

First Page

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Preview Chapter: Charge of the Lyte Brigade

About the Author

Chapter 1

Nolan Lyte would like to tell you about the Lyte Brigade.

For sixty-three years, the Lyte Brigade was—in the opinion of many—the very finest adventuring guild operating out of the Free Mercantile City of Porthaven, winning a total of eighty-two awards from the Guild Authority of Porthaven. The guild was originally founded by Nolan’s great-grandfather, Sir Theophrastus Lyte, and the Captaincy eventually passed onto his grandfather Theophilus. In a perfect world, it would have passed onto his father, then to Nolan or his siblings.

Unfortunately, the world in which Nolan finds himself living is very much imperfect.

Things started going downhill after Nolan’s grandfather lost his leg—which is to say, a Dire Marmot gnawed through his wooden leg. Grandpa Theophilus lost his real leg in an accident years before, but he never let that stop him from leading the Brigade. Still, he decided the incident with the Dire Marmot was an omen and promptly announced his retirement.

On the plus side, the replacement leg he ordered from a woodworker in Goldharbour arrived recently, but he still isn’t any less retired.

Normally, there isn’t much of a problem when the Captain of a guild retires: the next highest-ranking member of the guild takes over, or the members of the guild vote for the new Captain, or they pull names from a hat, or appeal to have the Guild Authority appoint a new Captain.

But there’s a major problem for the Lyte Brigade. The guild is called the Lyte Brigade for a reason. The guild constitution stipulates that the Captaincy of the guild—as Nolan recalls reading in Article 1, Section A-and-a-half, Paragraph 3: shall be held in perpetuity by a member by birth, or legitimate and recognised adoption, of the Family Lyte.

That shouldn’t be a problem. There are plenty of Lytes all around Porthaven and across Realmgard: Nolan has a father, two aunts, an uncle, a bunch of cousins, two brothers and four sisters, and various other assorted distant relations. The issue is that none of them want to take over the Brigade. For example, Nolan’s father is, in his own words, quite content to be an innkeeper, thank you very much, Nolan. Now stop loafing and scrub those pans!

With no obvious or willing successor to the leadership of the Lyte Brigade, the Guild Authority decided to place the operations of the Brigade on indefinite hiatus. This, in turn, led to the members of the Lyte Brigade leaving for greener pastures. In one case, literally: one former member bought a herd of cows and retired to the idyllic life of a dairy farmer.

The Lyte Brigade still exists—technically. It just exists without any leaders, members, or funds.

As the only Lyte left in Realmgard with any interest in the honour and reputation of the Brigade, Nolan has now taken it upon himself to restore the guild to its rightful place among the leading guilds in Porthaven. With the blessing of his grandfather, and the merely unspoken disapproval of his father, Nolan has set out to recruit a new generation of bold adventurers to bolster the ranks of the Lyte Brigade.

But even with the advice of his grandfather, things are progressing less well than Nolan would care to admit. For one thing, he’s only Captain on paper, and the guild he’s Captain of still only exists in theory.

Nolan has been canvassing the streets of Porthaven for the last few days and hasn’t found anyone willing to join the Brigade. Most people he’s asked have just ignored him and gone right on their merry way. A few laughed at him and told him not to quit his day job—even though this is his day job. A few people sort of smiled at him and mumbled half-hearted apologies about not joining. Eventually, he had what he thought was a brilliant idea: going to a print shop to have a hundred posters printed to hang up around town announcing the triumphant return of the Lyte Brigade.

He had a brilliant idea. What he