#3 – The Lancer of Luck
The Lancer is a counterpoint to my already-established character, The Archer of Discord. Â While The Archer serves (to an extent, at any rate) the powers of Discord and Eris, The Lancer is similarly bound to the personification of Luck, often known only as “The Lady”.
Once a talented jouster who served in world-wide competitions representing the human kingdom of Redshirtia in the elven realm of Avalon Vale, The Lancer was considered to be undefeatable by most opponents. Â He fought, in jousts, all takers of all races, sized, and experience levels, defeating kings and goblins and time-travelling robots from the future with the same degree of capacity and restraint.
The Lancer was bound by honor and duty, and served the code of the knight (without technically being a knight) and also fought in real battles, often to improve his skill in official jousting. Â Legend has it that once he managed to stack up three enemies on his nearly indestructible alloy lance, and would have had more but further foes kept falling off the end.
His undefeated streak ended at the same moment his fealty to Luck began. Â In keeping with his vow to take any challengers, he accepted a gauntlet across the face from a large and burly knight from a nearby kingdom who he had defeated previously and did not consider to be a serious threat. Â During the joust, a small girl in the crowd accidentally let go of a cat; the cat pounced at a mouse, which scurried up a woman’s skirt, causing the woman to panic, throwing her mug of ale into the air, landing in a coop full of chickens, sending them into a flury, causing the one chicken still amongst them capable of flight to launch from the cage and nearly claw the Lancer’s eye out. Â He was then defeated by the other knight.
After the joust ended, considering the events, he realized that it was not truly the knight who had defeated him – it was luck. Â Bad luck. Â Upon finding the girl who had released the cat and confronting her, she transformed before his eyes into The Lady, confirming his suspicions, and at that moment he pledged to serve her until he was defeated again.