This is a play commonly put on in Tecard. It consists of three acts, and is a slightly comic tragedy. It's shown on a complex rotating stage with a large cast and lots of scenery and action set pieces.
Act 1
Covers Devlet's youth, growing up in a small town in western Acaria. He is the 7th child of 11 to his mother, Ezgi. He is however the result of a liaison with a "weak man" named Oray - a low ranking reeve who came to town and his mother "bought off". He is outmatched by his bigger brothers, most of whom are fathered by a brutish soldier called Cag, who has very little time for Devlet.
The culmination of the act covers his coming of age ceremony where he is not well fancied but through a series of lucky breaks (one is injured, two get in a fight, one is chased by a rampant goat (to much amusement) he is able to finish second and get selected by the recruiters for prime military training. Cag is not amused.
Act 2
There's a time jump, to after his training has been completed and he's been posted along with a group of much larger, much stronger soldiers to an outpost in the far south west of Acaria. The act begins in media res, with a highly stylised action scene as they fight off a group of marauding orcs. Devlet spends much of it cowering in a corner, and when threatened tries to run away through a newly broken gap in the defences. He tries to hide in the undergrowth, and accidentally stumbles across the Orcish leader Knorgh, attempting to sneak around to assault the compound from the rear. Terrified, he starts wildly flailing his mace around, and hits a tree, which falls and kills the orcish leader. Shocked by the loss of their leader and taking heavy losses elsewhere, the other orcs flee.
Devlet is heralded for his bravery and quick wits to deduce the devious plans of Knorgh, he is now largely left to his own devices in combat, and has surprising luck in stumbling across secondary threats, or accidentally killing powerful foes. There's a montage, with an Ettin squashed by a falling rock, a large group of goblins who fall from a rope bridge, and a gnoll who falls into his own pit trap. Devlet gets cocky, and deliberately starts a fire in the woods when his group is surrounded by another orcish brigade, which spectacularly backfires as a large swathe of forest catches fire and most of his group are killed by the flames. He gets trapped under three fallen trees and next to a rock, and while his breaks his leg he is protected from the worst of the fire and survives. Again, he talks himself out of it, and continues to exaggerate his heroics.
Act 3
This is where the tragic element fully comes in. Unable to recover from the cough he developed after inhaling too much smoke, he retires back to his town with an honourable discharge. Cag, now the elder of the town, does not approve and encourages much of the village to shun this "weak, unfortunate scrap of a man" who did not complete his tour of duty. He tells all sorts of wild tales of to anyone who will listen, which is very few. He is however befriended by a young lady Yener from out of town, who is willing to put up with his wild tales. They have a romance, and fall in love. They agree to travel back to her home town.
She is killed along to way by brigands, but he continues to her town anyway, taking her body to be buried at home. He meets her father, who turns out to be Oray (his own father!), and while initially this not noticed, it is commented on at the funeral that they bear a striking resemblance. The town elders decree this to be an abomination and that Devlet should be punihsed. Oray is chosen to kill him, but has a crisis of confidence, having taken to Devlet, and he kills himself instead. Devlet flees, but is chased down into the woods by a mob of the townsfolk. He hides in a small cave in the woods, and looks to have escaped. A lone guard stands above the entrance to the cave, with Devlet cowering in the entrance, and gives a speech about the shame Devlet must feel. This includes a bunch of things he couldn't possibly have known. Eventually he then slams his mace down on the rock below him in frustration and walks off. Devlet breathes a sigh of relief... and the cave entrance cracks and falls in on him crushing him.
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