He led me into the church, both of us crossing ourselves in the traditional manner as we entered (I doubt Magnus is a practicing Christian of any stripe, and when the VG guards the Empress at religious services, it’s an Orthodox church, so he must have vestigial muscle memory from childhood re: how to behave in a church).
We went inside just far enough that we could turn around and look at the stained glass windows in the west front without drawing the attention of the congregants or the priest. There’s a big round window in the middle and some smaller ones to the sides. As is typical of churches like this, the big one depicts scenes from the life of Jesus, with emphasis on St. Bartholomew (one of the twelve Apostles), and the peripheral ones depict various other saints.
One of the stained glass windows depicted a knight with yellow hair holding what appeared to be a boat oar. Scattered around him on the ground were the supine forms of what I took to be defeated enemies. Behind him was a crude rendering of a church. A scroll above his head identified him as St. Tristan of Dintagel.
As you can all imagine, I was astonished and speechless for a minute. I became conscious of the fact that Magnus was studying my face intently. When I finally came to my senses, I said, “I had no idea that my saintly namesake had been commemorated in a church so far from home!” and thanked him for making me aware of it. I fell to my knees in a show of piety, offered up a prayer to St. Tristan, and purchased a candle, which I lit and placed beneath the window in question.
Magnus and I then walked back up to the barracks without further discussion of this incident. As far as I can tell, he accepts my story, which is that I was named after a saint who dwelled in my part of the world 150 years ago.
But until this incident I had no idea that there was such a thing as a St. Tristan of Dintagel recognized by the Catholic Church. Since I came back I’ve found traces of him on the Internet, but it’s all pretty sketchy and obscured by GLAAMR. I’m guessing that St. Tristan became a thing on certain Strands but not others. Any ideas, people?
Reply from Dr. Melisande Stokes:
On it. Will get back to you with any findings.
It kinda sounds like Magnus set you up. Any worries on that front?
From LTC Lyons:
He didn’t call me out. But I won’t BS you, Stokes, it’s worrisome and I think he senses something’s weird about me. On the other hand, it’s only two weeks until the Crusaders storm Galata Tower and then we’ll be going our separate ways, so I intend to go back to the DTAP on schedule tomorrow. For me to just disappear would confirm any suspicions he might be harboring.
From Dr. Stokes:
Can you delay your return to C’ople? A bunch of us are working this and coming up with spotty/fluctuating results. There is heavy GLAAMR around St. Tristan of Dintagel and so we’re seeing entire Wikipedia articles warping in and out of existence. Some risk that merely Googling the name is tending to make it more real.
From LTC Lyons:
So what is the point of my delaying return to C’ople? Shizzle’s about to go down, you know this. We’ve been working toward it for three years.
From Dr. Stokes:
We can get better answers by sending some Sages back to other Strands where we think that the St. Tristan legend is more firmly entrenched. We need to know more before Sending you into a potentially messed-up situation.
And by “messed-up situation” I mean “alternate universe in which you are a two-hundred-year-old warrior saint.”
From LTC Lyons:
No research needed. St. Tristan is damn well entrenched in the Strand I’m working—I already told you he has at least one stained glass window. So we have to stick with the story I told Magnus, which is that I’m simply named after him. Stokes, this is ubiquitous—almost everyone back then is named after a saint.
LETTER ON PARCHMENT, HANDWRITTEN IN LATIN BY PROFESSIONAL SCRIBE, CONSTANTINOPLE
JUNE 1203
Brother Ando:
May the Lord find you and our mother well. Upon receiving this letter please respond as swiftly as you may. I have met a valiant warrior here in Byzantium, a Varangian Guard like myself, but of a name too familiar, that is Tristan of Dintagel, which lies in England. The rantings of the Frankish priests are gibberish to me, so I care not for their saints. Nor was I ever one to listen to the songs around the hearth, but I know you were. Do you not recall a song about a great hero who hailed from a remote part of England and who had appeared suddenly in our region and fended off a tribe with whom we feuded? He was credited with saving the village and made a saint by the Christians. It strikes me as a remarkable coincidence to meet another man with such a name. There is some quality to this man that I cannot quite describe, but he seems like a man apart, as belonging to some other race.
I wonder if there be miracles and if so, how may I make use of this one—that a hero of legend has seen fit to manifest himself within my ken, just at the moment when we are under siege by the Franks! Please respond to tell me if my memory is correct, and say as much as you can of the old legends concerning this hero. Also send news of our mother and the village if there is any.
YOUR BROTHER,
Magnus
Exchange of posts by DODO staff
on “Constantinople Theater” ODIN channel
DAYS 1798–1805 (EARLY JULY, YEAR 5)
Post from Historical Operations Subject Matter Authority (HOSMA) Dr. Eloise LeBrun:
I’m just back from 1232 Paris with some results concerning “St. Tristan of Dintagel,” which I will post on this channel as I’ve time to write them up, but the executive summary is that I don’t think LTC Lyons should go back to C’ople. Has he been Sent yet? I can’t make heads or tails of the DEDE scheduling app.
Reply from Dr. Melisande Stokes:
He was Sent eight hours ago, and isn’t expected back for two weeks—this is where we complete the DEDE, during the Crusaders’ attack on Galata Tower @ Constantinople. What did you find?
From Dr. LeBrun:
Ugh, I just missed him:(
Well, it’s all academic now, I guess.
What I found is that on some of these Strands an oral tradition developed in the vicinity of Collinet in which the story of Tristan got inflated into a bigger and bigger yarn and eventually turned into a chanson de geste sung by various troubadours. Apparently it was popular enough that the church decided to capitalize on it by trumping him up enough to canonize him (even though there are no miracles or martyrdom attributed to him)—which is how he found his way into a stained glass window.
From Dr. Stokes:
On multiple Strands? But he only hit the burglar with the boat oar on one Strand!
From Dr. LeBrun:
Crosstalk between Strands apparently.
From Dr. Stokes:
Is that a thing!? Would one of our magic experts please enlighten me?