Willow Swan was a long-haired blond man and army deserter from Roses in the northern continent who first crossed paths with the Black Company in Shadow Games. He and his two close friends Cordy Mather and Blade were hired by the rulers of Taglios – the royal siblings known as the Prahbrindrah Drah and the Radisha Drah – to organize the first armed resistance against the initial invasion attempts of the Shadowmasters. After the resolution of the Shadowmaster wars, Swan would be seduced by Soulcatcher, and he helped her entrap the Captured beneath the glittering plain. He became the sorceress's lover during the period referred to by the Black Company as the Captivity, and he commanded her new urban police force, the Greys, while she consolidated a sprawling empire called the Protectorate.
Swan's relationship with the Company throughout the years was complex. He was an ally during the Shadowmaster wars, an enemy during the Kiaulune wars, and an ally once again in the Protectorate war.
Before Shadow Games[]
In Roses, Swan deserted from the military after less than six months in service, then drifted through the southern continent with his travel companion Cordy. Along the way they saved Blade, a mysterious black man who had been thrown to the crocodiles by priests he had insulted. Blade became fast friends with his rescuers and a valuable military ally. The three reached Taglios and settled down to open a brewery, where their exotic racial backgrounds made them popular with local women.
Shadow Games[]
Taglios had been pacifist for generations, so the Taglian royal siblings approached Swan, Cordy, and Blade to organize the protection of the city against the first invasion from the armies of the Shadowmasters. Using tricks that Cordy and Swan had learned from the Black Company's campaign near Roses more than 15 years prior, they trapped the invading Shadowlanders into small prepared towns which were then burned around them. They destroyed the 5,000 man force sent against them, north of the Main. These events became known as "Willow's war", which turned out to be the opening skirmishes of the larger Shadowmaster wars. Then, the trio returned to their tavern in Taglios.
About a year later, the three accompanied Smoke and the Radisha Drah for hundreds of miles northward up the great river to Thresh. There, he introduced himself to the Black Company and Croaker after they arrived on their fortified river barge, and later attempted to enlist them into Taglian service.
Swan, Blade, and Mather rode with Murgen south toward the Main river during the modern Company's first reconnaissance of that region. They encountered Croaker, who had been separated from Lady, Otto, Hagop, Sindawe, and the roi Shadid due to an ambush by a mob of of Shadowlanders directed by six shadowweavers. Croaker later ordered Swan to accompany Shadid to scout Numa, a ford on the Main.
Not long after, Swan's tavern in Taglios was gutted when the rival Company wizards Goblin and One-Eye – alongside their respective imps Frogface and the snake imp – had an uncharacteristically violent duel.
Dreams of Steel[]
Willow, Cordy, Blade, and Smoke observed the Battle of Dejagore from a great distance, and witnessed the Taglian forces lose. Willow was deeply distressed, and bickered with Smoke, who was not entirely dissatisfied with the outcome. The four then traveled back north to Ghoja.
While the months-long Siege of Dejagore was underway, Willow helped coordinate some Taglian forces to assist Lady ambush and crush a force of Shadowlanders.
Later, Swan accompanied Lady, her new Strangler allies (Narayan Singh, Ram, and two arm-holders), and Blade during their risky, covert infiltration of the Shadowlander camp. Immediately after their successful assassination of Shadowspinner, they were surrounded by enemies. Swan helped Ram and the others conduct a massive bluff to trick the confused Shadowlanders into believing that Lady was the Daughter of Night and that Kina was at work among them. In this way, Lady took full control of the Shadowlander forces outside Dejagore. This changed the course of the siege.
She Is the Darkness[]
In their roles as Royal Guards, Willow and Cordy accompanied the captive Prahbrindrah Drah when Croaker, Lady, and Murgen brought him across the Shadowgate using the Lance of Passion in search of Khatovar. Among them was Soulcatcher, another Company prisoner. Throughout that hazardous journey across the glittering plain, Willow was seduced by Soulcatcher with the aid of her bloodline's love me sorcery, unknown to the others. Inside Shivetya's fortress, he removed her bonds, and she was able to spring the sorcery trap that disabled everyone except her. She used a levitation spell to raise the unconscious bodies of 35 of her new captives, and with Willow's help, she brought them deep below the fortress, and entombed them in the Cave of the Ancients. These people would later become known as the Captured, although Catcher and Willow genuinely believed them to be dead. Catcher and Willow sped back across the glittering plain on the backs of Croaker and Lady's mounts, a pair of tireless black stallions.
Before Water Sleeps[]
Soulcatcher rewarded Willow, and they became lovers in the 15 year gap between She Is the Darkness and Water Sleeps (the period referred to as the Captivity by the Black Company). However, despite being in the high favor of a gorgeous woman who was the most powerful person in the homeworld, Willow would regard these as unhappy years.
Willow Swan was on Catcher's side as she established her own tyrannical government called the Protectorate. She took de facto control over Taglios and her empire included the former Shadowlands. Meanwhile, the remnants of the Black Company were now led by Sleepy; the Protectorate would go on to win the 5-year-long Kiaulune wars against the Company and its Shadowlander allies. During this time, Willow heard a rumor that the Company wizard One-Eye was slain either at Khadighat, Bhoroda, or Nalanda.
Commander of the Greys[]
Catcher appointed Willow to be the leader of the Greys, the city's new police force. This appointment ended his former place as a commander in the Royal Guards but gave him a seat in the Privy Council. However, he was "barely a figurehead" in reality, and he disliked his job. Willow's Greys were comprised entirely of men from the Shadar religion, alienating the majority Gunni population. But the Greys were very effective at cracking down on genuine crime and corruption of all kinds. The last major stronghold of criminal activity within the city which the Greys had to confront was Chor Bagan, a sprawling slum.
Water Sleeps[]
By Water Sleeps, Willow's "once-marvelous golden hair had gone grey and stringy" and he had begun balding. He participated in several Privy Council meetings, and was increasingly stressed by the chaos that was escalating within Taglios, including the self-immolations of several Bhodi disciples, the resurgence of the Stranglers, and operations that would later be revealed to be the work of the Black Company. On Soulcatcher's orders, Willow's Greys tried to capture an unknown book thief at the Taglian Royal Library, but they failed, and their library informant Adoo was soon murdered.
Abducted by the Company[]
Willow was kidnapped in an operation orchestrated by Sleepy, the leader of the underground Black Company. She committed a large number of the Company's remaining fireball projectors to the abduction. Although the operation was a success, she underestimated the destructive power of the weapons. Sleepy was herself almost killed in the fiery carnage as fireballs melted through at least six feet of the stonework of the Palace of Taglios. Soulcatcher appeared personally but could only duck out of the way of the discharge from those lethal weapons. Willow was smuggled to the Company's secret headquarters, a warehouse owned by their Nyueng Bao collaborator Banh Do Trang. Willow played tonk with three of his captors, Slink and the Gupta brothers, until Sleepy arrived in person to join the game and interrogate him. He was surprised to find One-Eye alive. When Swan learned that the Captured were still alive, he swore aloud. But Slink, a devout Vehdna monotheist, snapped at him not to take God's name in vain. It was later revealed that Soulcatcher had altered Swan's memory of his betrayal of the Company and his invaluable assistance in imprisoning the Captured. He had not known that Croaker, Lady, the Prahbrindrah, and the others were still alive.
Journey south[]
Swan would accompany Sleepy's group south, and finally across the Shadowgate, guiding them as best as his faulty memory served. During their trek across the glittering plain, he explained to Sleepy that "Surrender to the Will of the Night" had been a slogan among the supporters of the Lady's Empire. And, at least according to his assessment, her Empire satisfactorily minimized crime, war, plague, pestilence, and famine in its interior regions:
| “ | Surrender to the Will of the Night. [...] In my great grandfather’s time it was the slogan of the Lady’s supporters. They believed that peace, prosperity and security would result inevitably if all power could be concentrated in the hands of the right strong-willed person. And it did turn out that way, more or less. In principalities that did ‘Surrender to the Will of the Night,’ particularly near the core of the empire, there were generations of peace and prosperity. Plague, pestilence and famine were uncommon. Warfare was a curiosity going on far, far away. Criminals were hunted down with a ferocity that overawed all but the completely crazy ones. But there was always bad trouble along the frontiers. The Lady’s minions, the Ten Who Were Taken, all wanted to build sub-empires of their own, which never lacked for external enemies. And they all had their own ancient feuds with one another. Hell, even peace and prosperity create enemies. If you’re doing all right, there’s always somebody who wants to take it away from you. | ” |
After arriving at Shivetya's fortress and descending to the Cave of the Ancients for the second time in his life, Swan mourned when he discovered that his old friend Cordy Mather had been killed. He later helped Sleepy incinerate the Books of the Dead. Soon, the pair had their first taste of manna, supplied by their new ally Shivetya, and carried down to them by Riverwalker and the brothers Iqbal and Runmust Singh. After the first 5 Captured were liberated, Willow accompanied them all to the strange new world of Hsien, where they established a new headquarters, the fortified town called the Abode of Ravens, for 4 years.
Soldiers Live[]
Blade, Willow Swan and Cordy Mather by Виталий Стрелец
Willow Swan was part of Croaker's eclectic group of Company members and allies permitted by Sleepy (who was now officially the Captain) to enter the Voroshk world to get revenge upon Lisa Daele Bowalk for her recent murder of One-Eye. Shortly after their arrival in the alien world, Spiff and JoJo were killed by shadows under the command of the Voroshk. With conventional weapons, specially-prepared magic fetishes, and fireball projectors, they all subdued Bowalk despite her ferocious forvalaka shape. They also defeated 3 Voroshk wizards, one of whom, Shukrat, was brought by Swan on a stretcher for capture. (Like everyone else present, Swan was awestruck at the young Voroshk woman's beauty.) The group soon decapitated Bowalk and then incinerated her in a huge pyre. Others who were present during this operation were Lady, Murgen, Thai Dei, Uncle Doj, Cratch, Slobo, a group of Unknown Shadows called the Black Hounds; they were later joined by Goblin (possessed by the Khadidas) and the two Chu Ming brothers.
Swan then joined the rest of the Company in the homeworld for the Protectorate war. He participated in the grueling combat against Mogaba's well-trained center force, the Second Territorial, during the costly Battle at the Shadowlander cemetery. He and his longtime friend Blade were killed there along with many other highly valued and trustworthy Company soldiers and allies, including: Iqbal Singh, Riverwalker, Li Wan, Pham Huu Clee, the two Chun brothers, Cletus, and Loftus. Sleepy, the Captain, mourned his death after the battle. After his body was recovered, he and Blade were buried in the old Shadowlander cemetery which both men had helped fill more than 2 decades prior.