Being a Gun Dog ain't an honour. It's a bleedin' punishment.
Sgt. Rygard Sunn; 4th Lentica Cavalry.

Let me tell you 'bout the city states of the eastern coast of Seven Stones

We 'ad been fightin' small wars for centuries. We ad' all lost loved ones and friends arguing over bleedin' land! One of the states, Lentica - that is my 'ome, was under the rule of a military officer named Damon. Nice bloke my old man used to say, nice but quick to punish. Can't say things like that anymore though, well… not wiv'out loosing an appendage anyway. Damon formed a great army and trashed the other cities in a war that lasted almost three years. My old man fought in them wars; he led the 6th Armoured Cavalry against the poxy Shand defences. They fell in minutes. That story always makes me smile; I might tell you about it sometime.  When the dust settled and the dead were honoured - ours not theirs. They didn't bleedin' deserve it!, Damon declared himself emperor and formed The Empire of the Five Cities.

The Empire is still young, bout' 30 years or so, an' is as stable as a donkey on a tightrope. Bleedin' plots to over fro' the Empire from extremist and rebellious politicians keeps us lads on our toes. Outside ain't  much better neither. Both human and non-human tribes from round the boundaries, such as the maskers, is always causin' us problems (them nightwalkers is nasty buggers too!). We, the empire that is, is constantly trying to expand our borders by building some outposts furver and furver away from the five cities. We is annoyin' them tribal folk, but who cares?

Right…The Empire of the Five Cities: there is the imperial capital city of Lentica - a great metropolis wiv' a hell-of-a-lot of people in it; Shand - seems to be famous for its brainiac mathematicians. Crap army though. Loads of em' teach at the Imperial University (it was The Academy until we took over). The Shandi are a strange lot, with inventors and artificers making all sorts of dumfangled bits n' bobs.; Mirimji and Fantoon are the smaller and less educated and unimportant of the cities. I don't av' much to do wiv' em. Smelly lot en'all. They is so stupid that they can't even talk High Lentican! 30 years practice too! However, they do come up wiv some great swear words every now and again; Port Dismas is where we keep the boats. The yo ho ho imperial navy sits in a very large harbour. Never saw the point in em' really. They can't sail across land can they?

Gun Dogs! I owe my life to a couple of them blokes. Not a normal soldier by any standards, in fact they is a prisoner on deaths row that has been given a chance to make things right and serve the Emperor in glory or death… normally death and usually an 'orible one at that. There is a saying amongst us lads, "A Gun Dog is sent where an army won't go and an angel wouldn't step!". Ain't that the truth! They wears a dog collar that can only be removed by them wizard types. It makes sure that the Gun Dog does as he's told and don't do a runner. If they are stupid enough to try and run for it, the collar tightens and frottles em. I've seen that happen a couple of times. One bloke's eyes actually popped out of his ed'. Quite funny now I come to think of it. They also carry those new inventions from the boffins of Shand. It fires a small metal ball out of the end faster than any arrow goes. Makes a bang when it goes off en'all.

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