I asked the shop owner to make sure he always saved me one of those Lyra flyers, and asked who the creator, Simon Roptell, was. “Just a uni student, he told me — media arts. They wouldn’t let him circulate the work on campus, due to the PC nature of the place; it kept ending up in the bin, so he’d asked the shop if I could display it here instead. It was a bit of a throwback to the glory days of S&S and I didn’t mind that. Despite, a resurging interest in the quality works of Tolkien and Martin, the genre was already filtering itself into the boring, harmless, aimless thing it’s largely become today.
I snapped up a few editions of the Lyra Zeth adventures, tried out the riddles and was completely hooked. Woven through her adventures was the origin of the first gun, alongside an editorial referencing historian Ahmad Y. al-Hassan’s claims about new evidence suggesting an advanced firearm may have existed far earlier than the history books admit. All in all, reading about and adoring Lyra Zeth was some of my favourite memories at this time.
In fact, it made me rediscover and reappreciate the VHS era of Sword and Sorcery cinema. At first glance, I thought Simon was doing something genuinely different with the scantily clad heroine — presenting her as more than decoration. Lyra Zeth was not ditsy and dumb, nor was she predictable in the way contemporary storytelling often renders female warriors. She was the smartest person in the room, and this is no different from the Barbarian and Amazon Queens that populated the Corman videotapes of that era.
Society has conditioned us to dismiss these films as having reduced their heroines to Barbie Doll caricatures — pieces of meat in minimal armor. But that’s a profound misreading of what is actually on screen. These characters emerged directly from the Robert E. Howard school of thought, where physical and mental excellence existed at the same heights of perfection. The heroines weren’t presented as objects despite their sensuality; they were presented as complete warriors whose femininity was inseparable from their competence. A woman could be unapologetically sensual and strategically brilliant, could wear minimal armor and possess genuine agency. The sword and sorcery tradition understood something that contemporary storytelling has largely forgotten: that strength and intelligence don’t require the renunciation of femininity to be authentic. These weren’t exploitation fantasies masquerading as adventure — they were stories about capable women operating in genuinely dangerous worlds, and their scarcity in modern cinema represents a genuine loss.
But the industry of entertainment is blurry and insincere. For those that know me, know that I fought for real independent cinema, free of the bias and corruption of film festivals, studios and distributors. I cannot tell you how many times I saw a film project that had great potential be shot down because it did not fit a narrative. Around about 10 years ago I reached out to Simon to see what ever became of Lyra and he responded he was in the process of making a Lyra Zeth movie himself as part of his Quest for Steel trilogy — but the film world was dead set against a scantily clad heroine, and he was told, repeatedly, to give her the “modern treatment.” Thankfully, he resisted. He told me that his Lyra was going to have all the bravado that was displayed in those black and white printouts I so lovingly devoured and be in a story rooted in a history that could plausibly have happened — a gun, in the age of Genghis Khan. There would also be her key philosophy in this telling — what she calls the Rule of Two — is a remarkable code. I won’t go into detail here; it’s one of the joys of discovering her story for yourself.
In 2021, I was one of the first to see Simon’s debut feature, called Quest for Steel — a kind of prequel to the Lyra Zeth story, set in the Bronze Age, telling the origin of the first steel sword. He stayed faithful to that Boris Vallejo, Frank Frazetta gaze throughout, and I loved it, as it remained bold to his vision — though Simon and others weren’t fully happy with the effects, as, you guessed it a distributor became involved and messed up vision (demanding it be a series instead of a film and then bowing out. Leaving the production in a bit of a mess) The good news is he’s now retooling it with no overlord or anyone to demand anything different.
In addition to the Quest for Steel reforge, Simon is also making the Lyra Zeth story — this time titled Quest for Steel 2: The First Gun — also releasing in 2027. When I reached out to him, he told me he’d found his Lyra, and that she’s the living embodiment of the illustrations I fell in love with more than twenty years ago.
I am excited that true vison and independence exists with people like Simon and characters like Lyra. To quote the engaging Robert Meyer Burnett, we really do live in a world where authenticity is the currency of this century and our desires can now be met, not with mega-expensive projects that promote one thought, one politic, one company but a whole gamut of ideas and expressions. I support free expression and I back true Indie film.
Jay Rowlands is the creator of the Back Indie Films initiative ad lives in Sydney Australia.
#Lyra Zeth #Quest for Steel #2027 Fantasy #Fantasy Movies #Sword and Sorcery
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