Fan Art by Yukisamui [1]
The Hundred Companions is a High Fantasy series by Ari, following the adventures of a mercenary company of the same name. It is based on a D&D campaign the author was in, which was run by fellow writer D.M. Kiely.
The story begins with the company's departure from the coastal city of Wellspring, after their failed attempt to protect the local governor from an ancient, deadly assassin. Down one employer, the Hundred Companion's contract is soon picked up by one Spirit Eater. And so begins an adventure involving death, love, "reliable" merchants who may or may not be dragons and one snarky demon trapped in an ancient sword.
The story can be read at the author's Tumblr.
The Hundred Companions provides examples of:
- Ambiguous Gender: Adrien, one of the main characters, has an ambiguous gender and is referred to with they/them pronouns.
- Artifact of Doom: Alister, a demonic executioner trapped in a sword for crimes hateful even to his fellow Chaotic Evil outsiders.
- Cool Sword: Alister, again.
- The Chosen One: The girl Shyre rescued from orcs may be more than she seems.
- Demihuman: Dwarves, gnomes and orcs appear in person, and the elves are all dead by the time of the main story.
- Dying Race: The Forsaken have turned their attention towards the dwarves, making them this. This is after they succeeded with the elves.
- Emerging from the Shadows: Spirit Eater has this tendency, as do several of their fellow Forsaken.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: Alister, again, again. For an item improvised at random during the Pathfinder sessions the stories were originally based on, Alister appears in more fan art than any of the other characters combined.
- Ethnic Magician: One-Eye is described on the author's blog as looking like Morgan Freeman cosplaying Gandalf.
- The Fair Folk: The single Gnome we've seen thus far seems to have these tendencies, apparently unable to distinguish between a hilarious prank and an assassination attempt.
- Fantastic Racism: Even otherwise sympathetic character, like Captain Ursin, have the tendency to judge people by their race first.
- Faustian Rebellion The Corpsemaker, Lady Silver Moon, as well as The Shattered One. The Corpsemaker had less success than either Silver Moon or The Shattered One.
- Fish People: They appear in early on in the story, seemingly charging towards the ship the mercenaries are aboard. Turns out they're not so much charging as being chased.
- Functional Magic: Many members of the Hundred Companions, including second in command One-Eye and his apprentice Sven, rely on it almost exclusively, while others, like Shyre and Soren mix it with some degree of martial arts.
- Gender-Blender Name: Adrien is a gender-neutral name. Even when coupled with their gender, very few questions are raised.
- God Guise: The Mistress at least likes to play up the image, and has a cult dedicated to her worship. Whether she is merely a very powerful sorceress or has actually ascended to divinity is unclear.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Half-Orcen Monk Nazu of the Hundred Companions.
- Heel–Face Turn: Silver Moon fights alongside the Hundred Companions in the last chapter.
- Interspecies Romance: Lady Silvermoon and Sven.
- Trapped in Villainy: The Shattered One had no desire to be one of the Forsaken, however his own life as well as the lives of his friends were threatened.
