One important note - while the central monastery of the game is titled "Nementon" by Koudelka, sequel Shadow Hearts names the same building "Nemeton". This site will use both spellings interchangably.

The site is themed around the subject of chess. This is because chess was brought up passingly by Koudelka's mechanics (the three lead characters are each identified with a chess piece and the battle engine is based on a square grid field), but mostly because the site creator has a distinctly lame sense of humor. Any strange or unusual terms or subject headers probably stem from chess terminology (though it is, admittedly, woefully misused and any real chess players who stumble across this site will probably cry). The title of the site, pale legions toward the sable train, comes from the poem "Caissa", by Sir William Jones (1763) which is features as a central subject - yes, you've guessed it - chess. The line was ideal because while it's actually referring to a chess match, it can be connected to the "ghosts slowing arriving at death" theme that pervades Koudelka. Yes, sometimes I amaze even myself. Incidentally, it's truly astonishing how many poets have contemplated the subject of chess. I don't care how I do it, but somehow I'm going to shoehorn the relevant lines from the chess-match with Fortune in Chaucer's Book of the Duchess into this site. Somehow.

This site is a shoot-off from The Garden of Random Insanity and lives underneath its tender but watchful gaze.

If you feel compelled to link to this site, please just link to the main site at http://www.darkmaterials.com/adobe/fan/kou

E-mail can be sent to adobescribe@hotmail.com or inquiries can be left in the guestbook. If you ask nicely, I can hook you up with the Koudelka soundtrack.