After watching Brian Blessed’s news update, and the revelation that his character was completely historical, I decided to wind up the old Googler and have a shot at discovering the story behind this Konrad Kyeser. What I found was an exiled Crusade veteran obsessed with sorcery, machines, and Alexander the Great. His most famous works, a manuscript entitled “Bellifortis” (War Strengths), is easily the defining point of his entire career. What Erikson is to Columbus, Kyeser is to Da Vinci. You can find a pdf version up for download here.
While skimming through some of the designs, trying desperately to make sense of them, and then looking up their explanations, a few questions appeared; How are Kyeser’s mad scientist ramblings going to be treated in the story? Will the idea of “sorcery” be approached at all? If so, how will the idea be taken by the protagonist and other characters, with the era in mind?
I can’t imagine they’d take it very well.