History of the Sacred Band of Stepsons

Overview:

The Sacred Band of Stepsons, a mythical unit of elite ancient war-fighters, was created by Janet Morris in the story A Man and His God, first published in Storm Season, Thieves’ World #3, 1991. The Sacred Band of Stepsons is based on the historical Sacred Band of Thebes, an elite Greek war-band made up of 150 homosexual couples who made Thebes a great power from 378-338 BCE.

The Sacred Band of Stepsons was initially based in a myth-like milieu called “Sanctuary,” a “shared universe” project in which many authors wrote short fiction under editors Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey, contributing stories to the Thieves’ World series of books that flourished for over two decades. Tales of the exploits of the Sacred Band of Stepsons mix historical ancient places, people, gods, philosophies, and customs (such as homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece) with those that exist only in fantasy. Many of the Stepson novels take place completely or partially outside the Thieves World milieu, in historical places such as Mygdonia or Nisibis or Chaeronea.

Like the Sacred Band of Thebes in ancient Greece, sexuality among the Sacred Band of Stepsons is a behavior, not an identity; their identity is their membership in an elite, close-knit fighting unit. Stepsons are led by a legendary, immortalized commander, Tempus, who inherited the original ten pairs of fighters and initially augmented them with thirty single mercenaries. Tempus is the alter-ego of Herakleitos of Ephesus and often uses Herakleitan “Cosmic Fragments” in his dialogue. Under his leadership and in keeping with his Herakleitan world view, Tempus pits the Band against all manner of threats from gods and sorcery as well as earthly enemies and militaries.

The saga of the Sacred Band of Stepsons stretches over eight novels and thirteen twelve short stories, in which young fighters are born, come of age and mature. Sacred Banders fall in and out of love with men, women, and supernatural powers and sometimes die in battle. In The Sacred Band (2010), the newest novel in the series, forty-six of the original Sacred Band of Thebes are rescued by the Stepsons from the battleplain at Chaeronea where they face certain death at the hands of Philip II and Alexander’s Macedonian phalanx.

Tempus and his cavalry bring the Theban Sacred Band into the mythical world of Sanctuary to unite them with the Sacred Band of Stepsons and fight on other days. With the Thebans come their gods and the angry Greek Fates, who have been denied the deaths of forty-six Theban Sacred Banders by Stepson intervention. Together, the two Sacred Bands confront human and preternatural enemies and test their members' valor and their bonds with one another. In an ancient context, this series explores the difficulties facing military personnel in personal relationships and the enduring truths surrounding the military's historical mixing of homosexuals, bisexuals and heterosexuals in combat. The series is a gritty mix of ancient military and epic fantasy: high adventure, pitched battle, romance, and sexuality in a world where ethos and mythos struggle to combine.

The Mythical Sacred Band of Stepsons Meets the Modern Reader:

With the Sacred Band of Stepsons, Plato’s vision of an ancient honor-bound band of homosexual shock troops was introduced to modern fiction readers at a time before the advent of the internet, when Plato's recommendation that a state create an elite homosexual war-band (Hieròs Lókhos) was all but forgotten outside the realm of ancient-history scholars. At that time, sexuality as a topic in fantasy was just emerging and the Sacred Band of Thebes was the province of Greek military-history experts.  Spread first by the popularity of Thieves’ World and then by the selection by the Science Fiction Book Club of the first three Sacred Band of Stepsons “Beyond” novels, the Stepsons stimulated awareness of the historical Sacred Bands and the Sacred Band ethos of unflinching determination and unswerving devotion among readers and role-playing gamers alike.

The Unified Sacred Band:

The Sacred Band of Stepsons grew and matured, both in number and capabilities, until it eventually including twenty-three couples from the Sacred Band of Thebes who had fought at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BCE.  Like the historic Sacred Band of Thebes (378-338 BCE), the Stepsons serve throughout their history as an elite strike force. Unlike the Theban Sacred Band, the Stepsons mix couples and individual war-fighters, homosexuals, bisexuals, and heterosexuals, in a single unit. Both Sacred Bands adhere to the ancient military code of the Sacred Bands, special units who prize honor above all and die in battle rather than desert their partners, lovers or beloveds.  The Sacred Band pairs fight alongside unpaired men and women, heterosexual commando units, and freedom fighters.  Their gods sometimes fight beside them, and other gods fight against them, as do witches and wizards and demigods on occasion, in keeping with the Homeric model.

Gods, Curses, and the Sacred Bands:

From its earliest days, the Sacred Band of Stepsons benefitted from the relationship to the ancient Storm Gods (or Wind Gods or Weather Gods) of their commander, Tempus, including the primal Mesopotamian storm god, Enlil.  Under various names, and through syncretism, the Band is always aided by the some incarnation of the Weather Gods, although variously-named gods come and go.  When the Sacred Band of Thebes joins the Stepsons, their tutelary deity, Harmony (or Harmonia) follows them, and, as Greek deities will, manifests in the flesh. The Greek Morae, the original Greek Fates, follow and appear in the eighth novel, The Sacred Band.

An Ancient Viewpoint: Heroism, Sexuality, and Ethos in the Sacred Band of Stepsons

The Sacred Band of Stepsons is a mythical Sacred Band whose initial social and military structure is based on the historical Sacred Band of Thebes, an historical war-band comprised of hand-picked male couples of older lovers and younger beloveds. The attitudes shared by these two Sacred Bands toward sexuality, including bisexuality and homosexuality, are as different from modern thought as is their ethos.

Because of the Herakleitan nature of its commander, the Sacred Band of Stepsons differs from the Sacred Band of Thebes as it matures , digressing from Plato’s homosexual-only model. The Sacred Band of Stepsons admit heterosexual pairs, bisexuals, father and son pairs, and single mercenary fighters, not limiting the ranks to homosexuals. Sometimes, after a death of a partner, new pairs or couples are created by the Stepson leadership. However, the attitudes of both Bands are the same toward religion, philosophy, sack and pillage, curses and sorcery, the gods, women, and sexual roles, and remain representative of views held in the ancient world.  The Stepsons and Thebans are Homeric in nature:  gods and preternatural forces are real to them. They are not only heroic in the classical sense, but they believe some of their number to be descended from or favorites of the gods themselves. Like Homer's heroes, some have god-given weapons, assistance, or attributes.  They are subject to the whims of jealous deities, to curses, to numinous interventions as well as threats from mortal enemies and conventional militaries.

Formation of the Sacred Band of Stepsons:

The Sacred Band of Stepsons was formed by their fictional commander, Tempus, from an original ten pairs of lovers and beloveds, plus thirty single mercenaries.  These homosexual couples, originally composed of older lovers (erastes) and younger beloveds (eromenos), followed the social model of the Sacred Band of Thebes, and so did other pairs recruited subsequently.  Heterosexual Stepsons and Sacred Band pairs fought side by side. There was no requirement to be part of a couple to serve among the Stepsons, and single mercenaries initially outnumbered the Sacred Band pairs.

The Stepsons were principally a cavalry (hippeis)  squadron, and not primarily heavy infantry (hoplites) as were the Theban Sacred Banders.  (However, the Theban Sacred Band were trained in horsemanship, music, dance, and wrestling, as well as the military arts).  While the three-hundred-strong Theban Sacred Band was constituted by Theban law-givers and maintained by the state, the Sacred Band of Stepsons was loyal only to one another and their commander, Tempus.  Among the Sacred Band of Stepsons, fathers and sons and Platonic couples, as well as single male and female fighters, could serve. In this mixed company, pairs and individual cavalry and infantry fighters were recruited as circumstances required. It was to this end that the Stepsons rescued twenty-three couples from the doomed Theban Sacred Band at the Battle of Chaeronea and integrated the survivors into their force. At full strength, the Sacred Band of Stepsons numbered as many as three hundred and sixty fighters and fought in three major campaigns.

Evolution of the fictional Sacred Band of Stepsons

The first story involving the characters and milieu of the Sacred Band of Stepsons, An End to Dreaming, was written by Janet Morris in 1978, before the advent of Thieves’ World, but not published until 1982 in “Whispers,” (Stuart Schiff, ed.). This story introduced the Band’s nemesis, Aškelon, and Tempus’s sister-in-arms, Cime, as well as the mystical realm of Meridian and is collected in the book, Tempus. Beginning in 1980, Morris grafted her own ancient world onto Thieves’ World, introducing first their legendary commander, Tempus, and then, in 1981, the Sacred Band, into the Thieves World series.  Because Thieves' World was a "shared universe" where many writers could use the same characters, others wrote stories featuring the Sacred Band of Stepsons and their immortal commander, Tempus.  Notable authors in the shared universe of Sanctuary who wrote stories featuring characters from the Sacred Band of Stepsons include Chris Morris, Robert Asprin, Lynn Abbey, Andrew Offutt, and C.J. Cherryh.  With the success of the Thieves’ World series, the Sacred Band of Stepsons made their entrance into role-playing games and a wider public consciousness.

For nearly a decade, Janet Morris wrote stories and novels, some with Chris Morris, about the Sacred Band of Stepsons, taking them beyond the fantasy world of Sanctuary into real ancient, modern or futuristic locales. Morris's first three Stepsons novels were the first authorized "Thieves World" novels and Science Fiction Book Club selections. Three additional Stepsons novels and a short story per year followed until 1990, when the Morrises ceased production until 2010. In the latest Stepsons novel, The Sacred Band (2010), the Stepsons rescue twenty-three couples of the historical Sacred Band of Thebes from the Chaeronea battleplain and bring them, with their Greek Fates and gods, to Sanctuary, providing one answer to the puzzle of what happened to the forty-six skeletons missing from the mass grave of the Sacred Band of Thebes at Chaeronea, where the whole band of three hundred was supposedly buried.

Continuing characters:

• Abarsis, high priest of the Storm God who upon his death bequeaths the first ten Sacred Band pairs to Tempus and becomes the patron shade of Tempus’s Sacred Band of Stepsons
• Agis, Theban Sacred Bander; wounded in a sniper attack with his partner, Archias
• Archias, Theban Sacred Bander and more canny, elder partner of Agis
• Arton, called Hawk; son of a fortune-teller, a Stepson-trainee who can see the future, but dimly
• Aškelon, entelechy of dreams, regent of the seventh sphere, lord of dream and shadow, ruler of Meridian
• Bashir, warrior-priest of Free Nisibis and insurgent, boyhood friend of Nikodemos; ruler of Free Nisibis after the war for control of Nisibis
• Cassander, called Stitch; Sacred Band of Stepsons hippiatros (horse doctor) and iatros (human doctor), from Mygdonia; field surgeon who treats Niko and others when wounded
• Charon, leader of the Theban Sacred Band contingent among the Stepsons and priest of Harmony, the Greek goddess of love in war
• Chiara, Evening Star of Lemuria, from whom Tempus and Cime inherit the Lemurian citadel and the ability to fight anywhere in place and time
• Cime, Tempus’s sister-at-arms, Free Agent and sorcerer-slayer, with whom Tempus shares an ancient curse
• Critias, called Fox; task force leader and half a Sacred Band pair who rises through the ranks and struggles with his personal relationships as his partner becomes more and more entangled with a necromant
• Cyrus, Tempus shape-shifting son who has an affair with Roxane
• Datan, the Nisibisi warlock, Roxane’s lord and master; possibly killed in the war on Wizardwall
• Dolon, hero serving with distinction in the Sacred Band of Stepsons
• Enlil, ancient storm god, who speaks to Tempus and sometimes manifests in his flesh
• Faun, Shepherd of Sandia, and mother of thirteen baby gods of Sandia’s new pantheon
• Gayle, 3^rd Commando fighter and later member of the Sacred Band of Stepsons, master of the crueler arts, whose dialogue is scatological

• Genos, king and sole ruler in The City at the Edge of Time, the fourth novel, and father of Macon and Tabet
• Gorgias, Theban Sacred Bander and hoplite trainer
• Grillo, Rankan intelligence officer in Tyse,  compromised by multiple allegiances
• Gyskouras, son of the Storm God through a ritual copulation, who comes of age and joins the Stepsons in the eighth novel, The Sacred Band

• Harmony, Greek goddess of the balance, justice and celestial order, who falls in love with Nikodemos
• Janni, Nikodemos’s murdered partner, who becomes an undead until Abarsis intercedes
• Jihan, daughter of the primal god, Stormbringer, and Tempus’s paramour as well as his oft-time fighting partner; in thrall for a time to Aškelon, the dream lord
• Kama, Tempus’s daughter and a fighter attached to the Rankan 3^rd Commando
• Lysis, favorite of  the Theban goddess Harmony, a young fighter from the Theban Sacred Band who becomes Arton’s partner and has unique skill with horses
• Maat, ancient Egyptian goddess of the balance, truth, and justice and embodiment of Nikodemos’s mystery
• Macon, prince of the realm in the City at the Edge of Time and pawn of sorcery; banished
• Madame Bomba, insurgent and confidant of Tempus in Tyse
• Mano, 21^st century Stepsons and inheritor of the mandate to form a Sacred Band of Stepsons in the far future
• Matilla, nurse to Macon and Tabet in the City at the Edge of Time, killed by sorcery
• Merricat, friend of Shawme’s and at one time Randal’s apprentice in wizardry
• Nikodemos, called Stealth; Sacred Bander, a pure soul and secular adept around over whose allegiance gods, witches and sorcerers contest throughout many of the stories and books
• Perses, Theban poet and eromenos of a Theban Sacred Band pair; his elder partner is Simmias
• Randal, an abstinent mage who loves Niko and serves briefly as his partner
• Rath, 20^th century intelligence officer, apparently killed in Tempus Unbound
• Reton, one of the oligarchs of Sanctuary and a pseudo-intellectual
• Roxane, the Nisibisi witch who perennially stalks Nikodemos
• Seth, chief sorcerer of the City at the Edge of Time
• Shamshi, son of Datan the warlock; held hostage in the battle for Wizardwall; taken to Bandara by Nikodemos; in thrall at times to Aškelon, on Meridian and afterward
• Shawme, a young girl fleeing poverty into harlotry, who becomes beloved of Gyskouras
• Simmias, Theban intellectual and fighter, erastes of a Theban Sacred Band pair with Perses
• Snapper Joe, fiend who wants desperately to become accepted by humans, sometimes barman at the Vulgar Unicorn in Sanctuary
• Straton, called Ace; Critias’s partner, who for a time commands the Stepsons in Sanctuary
• Sync, the 3^rd Commando colonel and horse-tamer
• Stormbringer, Jihan’s father and unbegotten Weather God
• Tabet, princess of the City at the Edge of time and once Nikodemos’s wife
• Tempus, called the Riddler, the Black, Sleepless One, favorite of the storm god Enlil, immortalized commander of the Sacred Band of Stepsons
• Theagenes, Theban general and last commander of the Sacred Band of Thebes at Chaeronea
• Theron, strategos, army general, one-time emperor of Ranke
• Widow Maldives, Tempus’s paramour in Tyse
•  Zip, head of the revolution in Sanctuary when they had one

These characters aid, abet, confront and vanquish many others over the saga’s eight volumes.