[center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/88510423-c8b6-4864-8477-0d784d84fb41.png[/img][/center] [center][u][b][h1]The Band of Fools[/h1][/b][/u] [b]A Medieval Mercenary Company Roleplay[/b][/center] [quote=Deacon Malcolmson, Chronicle of the Kings of Westar][i]"King Adalmar II of the House of Northall peacefully ascended his father's throne in the year of our Lord 817. The chroniclers of his reign note it as one of harmony and contentment. His Grace was well known for his charity and piety, founding Colleges at Innsmouth and Edmunton and rebuilding the North Chapel at Kingsbury Abbey. In the year 819 he took Elise of the House of Ordoth, daughter of the Duke of Forlinger, as his Queen. She would bear him two sons, the Princes Edmund and Osbert, neither would ascend the throne. King Adalmar II and his sons fell victim to the spring sweating sickness that struck the capital in the sixteenth year of his reign, leaving no clear heir. Thus the Kingdom of Westar was plunged into one of the darkest periods of its great history, the Anarchy of Adalmar."[/i][/quote] The King and his sons are dead. The plague that swept through the capital is past and in the chaos of its wake four principle claimants to the throne of Westar emerge. Godfrey of Innsmouth, cousin of the former King through the female line and a powerful courtier, has seized the capital and crowned himself. Across the great river Wasser to the east, the Prince of Taratio gathers his own armies and those of his Bordian allies to press his own more senior claim of decent. In the wild north of the country the old Lord Howard of Northall, a remaining cadet branch of the Northall dynasty, hosts his bannermen and the local nobility in preparation for revolt. And most worryingly of all, across the Western Strait is the King of Blancia, Raynaud de Alecion, he remembers his grandfather's attempt to take the Kingdom of Westar almost a hundred years previously, not through right of descent - but by right of conquest. The board is set and the pieces are in motion. Between them these men shall unleash a tide of blood across the country. They will do it for their pride, they will do it for their honour, they will do it for their greed, and most of all, they shall do it for power. Kings will rise and fall, men will die, and the fate of nations hangs in the balance. But you will have no say in it. You are not a King, nor even a great Lord. You are a mercenary, either one step above a common peasant, or so disgraced a noble it might have been better for you to be born that way. You have the dubious honour of serving in one of the Kingdom's oldest Free Companies, the Band of Fortune, or as it is better known: The Band of Fools. Many years ago they were a powerful and respected fighting force numbering over a thousand. Now they are but a shadow of their former selves, barely being able to muster a quarter of their previous strength. The relative peace of Adalmar's reign meant that the mercenary companies that did not leave Westar atrophied. With work scarce they became little more than glorified thugs and many even turned to banditry when hard times struck. But now this new war has made their services back in demand, and some in the company still hold onto a notion of the glory and the wealth that could be theirs if they play cards right in the coming conflict. So welcome, brothers and sisters in arms, to the Band of Fools! [hr] [Hider=World Map - Subject to Change][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/88dbdab9-e2eb-4492-ae73-e8e041e816f7.jpg[/img] [/hider] [Hider=Map Key] 1 - Kingsbury, the capital of the Kingdom of Westar. 2 - Edmunton, a major population centre and port in Westar. 3 - Innsmouth, a major population centre and port in Westar. 4 - Tradeforth, the provincial capital of Northern Westar. 5 - Northall Rock, fortified seat of the Dukes of Northall. 6 - The Skerry Isles, annexed from Ragmark by the Kingdom of Westar 200 years previously. 7 - Forlinger, major population centre and seat of the eponymous Duchy, sat on the shores of the Loch Forr. 8 - Old Neystead, former capital of Westar. 9 - Greenwick, a famously rich agricultural town on the shores of Loch Lantris. 10 - The Grey Drum, a Westar border fortress across the River Wasser. 11 - Port Layton, a trading hub on the border with the Bordian Republic. 12 - Artaeis, the Tranquil Isle, seat of the Patriach of the Westar Clerisy. 13 - Bordia, capital of the Princely Merchant Republic of Bordia, also known as the City-on-the-Isles. 14 - Filante, capital of the Principality of Taratio. 15 - Arlan, capital of the Kingdom of Avaria. 16 - Durranheim, capital of the Kingdom of Ragmark. [/hider] [hider=Notes of the Wider World and History] [b]Religion and the Clerisy[/b] The predominate religion of the region is the Faith of the Blessed, whose Church is commonly known as the Clerisy. It is headed by the Arch Patriarch in the city of Great Litan, which lies south of Taratio and Bordia. It is monotheistic and believes in a messiah figure that was an incarnation of God who appeared in what are town as the Blessed Lands to the east over 800 years ago - the calendar is taken from the date of their first miracle. The Faith of the Blessed was originally a heretical sect from the the Faith of the Daewa (literally Faith of the People) a religion focused around a series of prophecies about the coming of a future messiah. The Blessed were initially persecuted in the east and many believers emigrated west to the Kingdom of Litan, where the religion eventually became enshrined as the dominate state religion and a formal church would form under the Arch Patriarchs. After the collapse of the Kingdom of Litan by the Avari invasions, the ancient city of Great Litan has been ruled by the Arch Patriarch as a distinct political entity. Each nation has its own autonomous Patriarch who acts as the head of the Church in that state and is answerable to the Arch Patriarch. In recent centuries the Arch Patriachs have called for great holy wars and crusades against those still following the Daewa faith in order to recapture the Blessed Lands and the cities of the first prophets. The early attempts to do so were largely successful, but recently the crusades have lost their momentum and their religious motivations have been co-opted by economic and political ambitions. The Faith takes the symbol of three vertical bars through a circle as its emblem. This represents the spines of the three holy books: The Book of Prophecies, The Book of the Blessed One, and The Book of Interpretations - all connected through the Oneness that is God. However, reform movements have recently plagued the Faith of the Blessed, with many believing the Book of the Blessed One to be the only true teachings of God - the Prophecies being part of the Daewa faith and the Interpretations being set down by the first Arch Patriach long after the Blessed One's death. [b]World History[/b] For hundreds of years the major power in the region was the Kingdom of Litan, with its warm climate and long stable history it easily dominated the petty kingdoms to the north west that would eventually become Westar. The Litan Kingdom collapsed when the Avars, a nomadic people from across the steppe, invaded over 500 years ago. The peninsula which served as the heart of the kingdom is to this day divided into fractious city states and principalities, such as Taratio and Bordia. The Avars receded to the plains to the north east and eventually intermarried with the local population. Many adopted sedentary lifestyles thus creating the Kingdom of Avari. Tensions between Avars and Litani peoples still run high because to these long ago events. The collapse of Litan however precipitated shift in the balance of power in the north. Westar, an inland petty kingdom centred around the wolds to the north of Old Neystead, grew through marriage and conquest over the next hundred years or so until it was the dominant political entity. After its initial rapid expansion, its borders would remain relatively stable until the accession of the House of Northall to the throne 200 years ago. The Northalls were one of two claimants to vacant throne, the rival claimant was backed by the Kingdom of Ragmark. In retaliation to for this the Northalls seized the Skerry Isles from Ragmark in the years following their consolidation of power. The political status of the isles is still a sore subject for both Skerrymen and the people of Ragmark.[/hider] [hr] [centre][b][h3]OOC information[/h3][/b][/centre] Welcome to the Band of Fools, a reboot of an RP that my friend Danimal ran on the old guild site, albeit in a much edited form. For those of you who weren't in the Interest check I'd like to quickly law down a few rules/pointers about this particular roleplay: [list] [*]Most people should no this by now, but the usual suite of roleplaying rules apply: Listen to the GM, don't be a massive prick, no meta gaming, no god modding, you know the gist. [*]High-Casual' level RP, which for me means I expect advanced levels of spelling/grammar/writing, but without the expectation of writing walls of text every post - although I will probably do these from time to time. Give me a well written paragraph or three and we should get on fine. [*] I'll be aiming for at least one post a week, possibly more, possibly less, we will see. Important thing is to stay active in OOC chatter etc, so that people know you're still planning to respond. [*]Low-Fantasy. No magic (although your characters might [i]believe[/i] in magic), no non-human races, no ridiculous anachronistic stuff for a period equivalent to the High/Late Medieval. In terms of technology levels, I'm aiming for the late 13th - 14th century Europe. If you don't know what this means or really want to do something you're not sure about, PM me, we can chat (or have a look at this [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/166179-medieval-arms-and-armor-historical-guide-to-warfare-and-contexts/ooc#post-4410124]handy guide[/url]). Realism will also extend into how these wars will be fought, there will be a lot of sitting around at sieges, people dying of dysentery, and marching in the rain - not just heroic battles. [/list] [hr] [centre][b][h3]Character Sheets and Submissions[/h3][/b][/centre] Please find the C.S skeleton for this RP below, post your character here in the OOC for review when you're done, please put it in a hider so it doesn't take up too much space. DO NOT post it directly into the character tab without my prior approval, there are likely going to be more submissions than available spaces so there will be some kind of selection process. Feel free to edit the character sheet to your personal aesthetic, but do take note of an specifications I put in the fields. There will be a number of roles and positions available to your character in the Band of Fools. These include: [list][*]Leftenant x 1, one of the two second in command of the Company. [*]Men-At-Arms/Knights, leader of single Lance (3-10 men) served by a squire/serjeant and supported by infantry/bowmen [*]Squires/Serjeant, a junior man-at-arms in service to a Lance leader [*]Infantry [*]Crossbowmen/Bowmen[/list] There will also be some unique positions, such as the paymaster, quartermaster, armourer, and perhaps even a battlefield surgeon. Some of these can be jointly held with command roles. You could potentially play a non-combat role such as a camp servant if you so desire. If you have something a little outside of the box, go for it, although I can't promise you'll be able to play whatever you want. [hider=Character Sheet] Name: Gender: Age: Role/Position: Do you hold any special position in the company? (see above for details) Appearance: Pictures are optional, descriptions required. Keep your pictures relatively realistic if you please could, yes, that means no anime. Personality: Keep it relatively brief, feel free to hold some stuff back for organic character growth and reveals. But please check with me if its a major difference what has been put here, i.e. your happy go lucky character is secretly a manipulative sociopath. History: Same with personality, keep somethings back for surprises later on, again check anything big with me i.e. secretly a descent of powerful nobility. Skills and Abilities: Give me three things your character is really good at. Weakness(es): Give me at least one thing your character is really bad at, or a trait hinders them. If you are worried about metagaming or someone using it against you, you can PM this to me too. Equipment: Tell me a bit about your equipment, primarily armour, weapons, horses etc. ([url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/166179-medieval-arms-and-armor-historical-guide-to-warfare-and-contexts/ooc#post-4410124]handy guide[/url])[/hider] [hr] I think that's pretty much everything I can think of at the moment, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them below, PM me, or join me in the [url=https://discord.gg/Ch9tFmU]discord server[/url] - I don't bite.