Raven Field

Raven Field is the celebrated ballet of Kurst Vacheq. The work was commissioned by Ivana Boritsi in 744 BC and was first staged at Misericordia in 745 BC. The ballet received rave reviews from the crème de la crème of the Borcan aristocracy. It was staged later in 745 BC in Levkarest where a somewhat wider audience swooned before Vacheq's artistic genius. An agreement was then struck for the work to be staged in Port-a-Lucine by Le Ballet National du Dementlieu. Unfortunately, gross financial improprieties at the national ballet led to the institution's shuttering in 746 BC for two years and it would not be until 757 BC that Raven Field was to at last reach the Dementlieuse stage. Many regret that it ever did.

The death in 747 BC of Vacheq freed the hand of the national ballet's artistic director, Claude Lemieux, to make very significant "improvements" to the work. The Dementlieuse public initially gave the result a tepid reception. This public, however, was entirely upstaged by Borcan aristocrats who had travelled to Dementlieu for the opening. They walked out en masse in the middle of the second act and proceeded to accuse the Dementlieuse of deliberately desecrating a Borcan national treasure. Improbably, the Borcan ambassador, who had stayed to the ballet's bitter end, was attacked and robbed by ruffians on his way home. More improbable still, he claimed that the ruffians had been led by Lemieux, demanded that the artistic director be hung for attacking a sovereign and allied state, hinted that certain members of the Council of Brilliance had orchestrated the affair, and demanded a public apology from Lord-Governor Marcel Guignol.

Nothing would be said of the matter by the Lord-Governor and his council. But arrangements were made to repay the Borcans in kind. Lemieux was quickly showered with praise from all corners of the Dementlieuse artistic and literary communities for his "brilliant adaptation of Vacheq's initially muddled work". Records were set for the number of performances and the number of tickets sold. And the very hansom profits were boldly plowed into a plan to tour Darkon in 758 BC. The Darkonese would be treated to the performance by Le Ballet National du Dementlieu of Lemieux's variation of Raven Field. The story even circulated that the Borcan ambassador, upon receiving an invitation to join Lemieux in Martira Bay for the Darkonese opening, throttled the messenger.

All did not, however, end well for the Dementleuse. Lemieux and the national ballet, en route to Viaki, vanished without a trace. Their disappearance remains a mystery, unsolved by the Darkonese authorities, to this day. It is whispered, however, that the rage of Vecheq was such that it could not be held by the bonds of the grave. The artistic genius walked once more, striking down those who had sinned against his masterpiece.