Prologue

The following is a short excerpt from Cesse: A Complete History:

Cesse – or Ravage, as it is known in the North – is a game of wits, wills, and most importantly, dominance. One cannot think of it without also thinking of the brothels in which it was born; of the rooms heavy with smoke and eyes, of the two players locked in attention, hands white knuckled around a whalebone board, trapped in a tension so delicious all else pauses to bear witness.

One cannot think of Cesse without also thinking of the sex that follows.

It is as simple as fighting. The attacks and messages conveyed by the momentum of the pieces – the sacrifice of a spy on square A7 is an invitation, a dare on B12 a reply. And just as in battle, there must be winners and losers.

And, in the case of the whores and the rulers – the founders of this game – there must be the dominator and the dominated.

The whorehouses that birthed Cesse could not contain it for long; within weeks of its conception, the game had spread across the countryside, swallowing the land and spawning a new capital in the Western country of Siacchi, named after the very game, a capital I'm sure you're very familiar with – Cesscounthe.

Cesscounthe flourished under the select watchers and the players brought to enjoy Cesse. The intellect that led to victory within the game became the country's most sought feature. After all, there is nothing more alluring than a dominator who takes the loser.

As it grew, the game disentangled itself from its sexual roots. It became something integrated into school systems, into classrooms. The Northern Kiterans, for all their barbarism and love of physical prowess, with a complete disregard for superior intellect, would find this strange. But Cesse helped to hone the mind, to train the pacifists of the West how to conquer in a non-violent manner. Cesse still maintained its hold on dominance, however, and many moves were banned from children's tournaments because they were entirely too sexual in nature.

As Siacchians will crow, Cesse became their crowning jewel: those who won the yearly tournament in Cesscounthe would receive fame and fortune for years to come, so highly sought after was a strong player's intellect.

But Cesse was not content to be contained merely in the West. It soon flocked to the South – and later, the North.

It was there, in the wintery lands of Northern Kitera, that it became something different. Dominance in the far North was not a concept rooted merely in intellect, but also in strength… and thus, Cesse's twisted sibling, Ravage, was born.

Ravage was used to train military leaders, to hone the raw strength of the Kiterans as they prepared for the battles that the Siacchians were so opposed to. It was the whetstone to fuel their minds and their bodies – and it was the outlet for them to unleash any pent up energy.

But what would happen when the two games – when the two countries – collided? The answer became all too clear when Kitera launched its first attack on Siacchi's borders.

Their beastly soldiers never could have guessed what would stand in their way.