Ari Marmell is a novelist and a prolific freelance RPG writer. He was recently interviewed on Suvudu about his new book, The Conqueror’s Shadow, and his future projects. The Conquerer’s Shadow his first book which isn’t part of a preexistent shared world. I haven’t read his “Magic” novel Agents of Artifice -and probably never will- nor his variety of fiction for Wizards of the Coast set in Dungeons & Dragons universes, but I can speak of his RPG writings. His contributions to the Scarred Lands setting were definively dark and gritty Sword-and-Sorcery stuff. The present volume is labelled as a “Dark Fantasy” and looks promising. Mr Marmell has two interesting articles at Suvudu: why up-and-coming writers should play RPGs … and what they should leave behind in making the transition so as to not write a campaign journal.

Here’s the blurb:

They called him the Terror of the East. His past shrouded in mystery, his identity hidden beneath a suit of enchanted black armor and a skull-like helm, Corvis Rebaine carved a bloody path through Imphallion, aided by Davro, a savage ogre, and Seilloah, a witch with a taste for human flesh. No shield or weapon could stop his demon-forged axe. And no magic could match the spells of his demon slave, Khanda.Yet just when ultimate victory was in his grasp, Rebaine faltered. His plans of conquest, born from a desire to see Imphallion governed with firmness and honesty, shattered. Amid the chaos of a collapsing army, Rebaine vanished, taking only a single hostage—the young noblewoman Tyannon—to guarantee his escape.

Seventeen years later, Rebaine and Tyannon are married, living in obscurity and raising their children, a daughter and a son. Rebaine has put his past behind him, given up his dreams of conquest. Not even news of Audriss—an upstart warlord following Rebaine’s old path of conquest—can stir the retired warrior to action.

Until his daughter is assaulted by Audriss’s goons.

Now, to rescue the country he once tried to conquer, Rebaine once more dons the armor of the Terror of the East and seeks out his former allies. But Davro has become a peaceful farmer. Seilloah has no wish to leave her haunted forest home. And Khanda . . . well, to describe his feelings for his former master as undying hatred would be an understatement.

But even if Rebaine can convince his onetime comrades to join him, he faces a greater challenge: Does he dare to reawaken the part of him that gloried in cruelty, blood, and destruction? With the safety of his family at stake, can he dare not to?

An extended preview is available here. One of his D&D stories was converted into the weekly Black Crusade web serial, you can read it here.

The premise sounds appealing. I hope that The Conqueror’s Shadow is closer to Karl Edward Wagner or Glenn Cook’s writings than to Salvatore‘s…