OSR and Jack Vance's "Liane the Wayfarer"

That Dixieland jazz loving, Jack Vance’s story – Liane the Wayfarer – carries the torch for many an old school game. Only nine-pages long, the wayfaring is just a start.  

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There’s Liane. He’s no good – killed a merchant this morning then fussed about blood on his shoes this afternoon. Got good advice from a wanderer, then killed him:

...dropped a block of granite large as his head. A thud, a croak, a gasp – and Liane went his way.

No good and yet he's human. Confronting unknown, arcane power, Liane panics. Enraptured by a golden witch, he swoons. Preening with newfound power, he oversteps.

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Liane the Wayfarer’s a tale of (un)courtly love. Liane’s no Lancelot, not Sir Gawain. In Vance’s tale, Lith (as in lithesome) is Liane’s lady – and he must serve.

‘I am Lith,’ said she, ‘I am what you say I am. I ferment, I burn, I seethe. Yet I may have no lover but him who served me. He must be brave, swift, cunning.’

He serves her with a quest, or, for Liane, “wayfaring” – to steal an ancient tapestry. "'I go,' said Liane, 'One day to Kaiin, one day to steal, one day to return. Three days.'"

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Liane the Wayfarer’s filled with Vancian magic. There’s Liane’s coronet, an ancient crown that one online reviewer compared to a bag of holding:

[Liane] turned into an archway, pulled his bronze ring over his head, down to his feet. He stepped through, brought the ring through inside the darkness. Sanctuary. He was alone in a dark magic space vanished from earthly gaze and knowledge.

There’s the spell Lith loosed – repulsing lusting Liane’s lunge:

“…twenty thin shafts darted out, twenty points pricking at his chest…”

And her explanation, “So easily could I seek your vitality…had I willed." Then there’s a spell-fest in the Magician’s Inn (e.g., “up from the tray came glittering motes, flashing the prismatic colors red, blue, green, yellow…”)

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Liane the Wayfarer’s an unlikely story. Nothing's explained, ancient forces shape its action, and it's got a great punchline. But it's in many ways a dark one, "vanished from Earthly gaze and knowledge." If not a dark one, somehow gray, and fading.

Thanks for reading.