the snowflake project

Kos is a young, novice monk leading an idyllic life in a monastery in a city on the coast of an isolated and peace-loving island nation. His life of peaceful contemplation and monastic work is tragically interrupted by the invasion of a powerful empire from the west. Though the city’s monks are trained martial artists, they are quickly overwhelmed by the superior weaponry and military might of the empire’s forces. Finding himself suddenly living in an occupied military state, Kos and the remaining monks resolve to live in quiet, peaceful resistance to the empire. Kos and his lifelong friend, Achi, witness an imperial soldier beating a helpless shopkeeper over a minor dispute, and they rush to the rescue. Their boldness gets them captured and branded as conscripts into the imperial army for later collection. Though they attempt escape from the city, they are hunted down by an imperial golem and forced onto a departing ship, torn from their home.

Kos and Achi go through basic training during the voyage west to the main continent, the empire’s home. Their lives of discipline and training in martial arts earns them both the respect of their fellow conscripts and their sergeants. Kos struggles, but forces himself to accept every change to his life with silent stoicism, but Achi laments their fate, mourning the loss of his home and his friends. Achi eventually adopts an attitude of bitter resignation, abandoning all that he’s left behind, including the principles of the sanctity of life he once lived by. Kos begins to experience flashes of blinding light and color, followed by extreme headaches. Once landfall is made, Kos and Achi are assigned to a region in rebellion, which their regiment is to dispel. In battle Kos and Achi are ordered to kill rebels. Achi follows the order, completely rejecting his former life as a peaceful monk, but Kos only defends himself and his fellow soldiers in battle, do little or no real harm to the rebel soldiers. For disobeying a direct order, and for refusing to do his duty as a imperial soldier, Kos is stripped of his rank, court-martialed, and sentenced to life in the Blood Pits as a gladiator – a fate no-one suffers very long before death takes him.

Kos’s time as a gladiator in the Blood Pits begins badly, when challenged by his fellow prisoners, including Torik, who causes Kos to lose his sword and shield, he swears he will not fight them, which, along with his young age, makes him an object of ridicule. In the arena, when Kos makes good on his promise, managing by skill and extreme focus to defend himself and wear out his opponents without seriously wounding them. This earns him a flogging after each fight. Soon, all but a few of the gladiators come to respect Kos, and he grows in notoriety with the public as well. Aryenne sa’Tabine, a local lord’s daughter, hears of the boy gladiator and comes to the Blood Pits to see him fight – she is deeply touched by his refusal to kill his opponents, and arranges to meet with him in his cell. Aryenne and Kos form an instant bond with each other, which angers Achi, now an officer in rank, who desires Aryenne for himself. Achi convinces Aryenne’s father to demand the death of Kos’s next opponent in the arena, Torik, and when Kos refuses he is sentenced to death.

Aryenne arranges for the gladiators, including Kos, to escape the night before Kos is set to be executed. However, Achi discovers Aryenne where she should not be, and she is forced to claim she was seeking him out. Sacrificing freedom and some self-respect, Aryenne submits to Achi’s advances with the intention of obtaining as much information about the empire as possible. Meanwhile, Kos continues to struggle with his innate ability, and he rejects any leadership responsibility – without Kos’s leadership, the escaped gladiators turn to banditry and Kos leaves them. In the wilderness, Kos begins to starve, lacking basic survival skills. He meets Sky-Kicker, who rescues him from starvation and fever. Sky-Kicker helps Kos learn to control his magic using elvish techniques, and Kos begins to see that he has a responsibility (which he believes is to bring peace). Kos and Sky-Kicker (against Sky-Kicker’s wishes) travel to a village to find news of the empire and the civilized world in general. Torik and Aryenne’s messenger find them there, in the midst of a brutal attack on the village by twisted, bestial monsters. Many die in the attack, but Kos, Sky-Kicker and Torik save most of the villagers from the monsters. Kos realizes that there are greater threats in the world than a warlike empire – what he sees that day chills him to the marrow.

Aryenne’s messenger, wounded in the battle, barely manages to deliver his message before slipping into a coma – the empire is uniting the known world to prepare for a foretold conflict with a monstrous evil. The messenger’s injuries are causing him to become like the monsters that caused them; Kos makes a difficult decision to kill the man, symbolizing that he has taken up the bitter responsibility to fight evil, no matter the cost. Kos travels back towards the center of the empire, and north to the capital, where Achi and Aryenne have moved, collecting followers as he goes. At the empire’s capital, Achi rides out with an army to confront and arrest Kos. Kos and Achi fight, and Achi flees, defeated. Kos’s victory of Achi, who had become like a poisonous snake in the emperor’s household, gives him the momentum he needs to lead his forces right into the forbidden part of the city. Kos does his best to rouse the emperor, but the emperor is too focused on conquest, thanks to Achi’s influence. Kos takes his followers and goes out to meet the advancing wave of evil. Kos’s small force is quickly overwhelmed and surrounded by the monsters, despite his magical abilities. At the last minute, an army of elves (led by Sky-Kicker) and a massive imperial force approach the battle from either side and break the monsters’ flanks – routing them completely, and Kos and his allies are victorious.