This was my original synopsis document for my ‘The Rise of Karras’ series. It will never be finished, but for completion’s sake I have included it here so that fans of the story can see how it was meant to end. Enjoy!
Chapter
1: Karras is in the Hammer library, at
Prisongate. When another Hammer finds
Garrett, Karras is angry because he believes that, had his new better cameras
been installed, the thief would never have got in. Later, the riot destroys the library, and Karras is incensed at
the failing of the Hammerite guards, and believes even more ferverently that
had the cameras and other machines been in place this would not have happened.
Chapter 2: The encroach of the
Trickster’s minions fills Karras with even more alarm. He is alarmed by the failures of the ‘human’
Hammerite guards, and is convinced that the technology he is developing, based
on that recovered from the Bonehoard by the Hammers under his command, would
have dealt with them. The technologies
of the Bonehoard allow him to develop machines which throw arrows, and later
bombs. This evidence of the knowledge
of the past prompts him to look for the technologies of the Precursors, the
race who inhabited the Lost City, Karath-Din. While he is there, Lord Bafford bursts in to complain that Karras
has not executed a thief the lord handed over to the priest in return for
valuables from the Bonehoard. Karras
wanted the thief because the man was a renegade Hammerite who showed mechanical
expertise. The man was taken to
Cragscleft, where he was persuaded to work for Karras, and is the one who has
developed the traps.
Chapter 3: Karras now has a
reputation as an innovator, and during the consolidation of the power of the
City Watch has developed new inventions.
His faction, comprised of most of the progressive innovators of the
Order of the Hammer, have gained in power.
One of his faction – Brother Coltus – developed a primitive robot, and
Karras took over the development. With
this now available, Karras can force his will upon the Order. He takes the cog as a symbol of the
Mechanists, from the cogs that drive the robots. The break-away almost complete, he is visited by Markander, old
and ill, who attempts to convert Karras back to the way of the Hammerites. Cowed by the robots, he beats an ignominious
retreat.
Chapter 4: The drought in the
City lowers water levels to the point where the entrance to the Lost City is
visible. Karras breaks in, pumps out
the water, and there discovers the Precursors’ lost city. He immediately sends Mechanists down into
there to recover any lost artefacts.
While down there himself he finds a container of rust gas, and after
observing its effects believes that the Builder has guided him to it so that he
may bring about the Builder’s paradise.
He observes this when a cultivator is accidentally fastened to the rust
gas, which then proceeds to turn the Mechanists there to rust.
Chapter 5: Brother Coltus – now
friend Coltus – discovers the method of creating Servants, and Niklars
Hammersmith is chosen to be the first subject.
Hammersmith was a Hammerite until the fall of the Order, when he left
and set up his own gambling den and burrick stables. Karras is delighted at this, and orders further experiments. Meanwhile there are other inventions that
have been developed, and Karras makes reference to the fact that he has
obtained Sheriff Truart’s trust.
Chapter 6: Karras proclaims
triumphantly to Coltus that he has obtained street-scum from Truart in return
for robots and cameras. He then turns
to Coltus, tells him that he will soon be with the Master Builder, and signals
for the robots behind him to carry Coltus away to be transformed into a Servant
himself. As Coltus/the Servant returns
from the building, Karras hears the bells of the clock tower strike 11, and he
hurries to the seminary, ready for the conversation with Truart at midnight.
Written in third person
narrative. Writing is Modern English –
Hammerite and Mechanist speech is in Old English.
Chapter: 1 = Chapter
5; A Thief’s Apprenticeship
Chapter 2: = During
the events of ‘Into the Maw of Chaos’.
Chapter 3: = A
short while after the end of Thief: The Dark Project
Chapter 4: = Between
Thief: The Dark Project and Thief II: The Metal Age
Chapter 5: = A
short while before the beginning of Thief II: The Metal Age
Chapter 6: = Immediately
before the events of ‘Eavesdropping’.
The Hand Of Karras; The Rise Of Karras; Child Of Karras; The Ascension of Karras; The