The Glass Ninja @cashdash
Warork Darko Castiel I have the answers to any questions you may have coming up, and speaking of which, here's some info. A map, and the available areas.
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The Mechanics
This game will be handled slightly differently than others, primarily in that it is run on an engine developed for the purpose of this game that simulates real battles in a realistically medieval way. Soon, I will run a simbattle, but set it in the world’s history. I would like to encourage players to pick sides in this battle. The outcome will determine some of the history of their own house and its actions in the past. Other mechanics will deal with things such as depopulation as young men are called off to war, political intrigue and of course, sieges.
The Game
You will take the role of a noble family, a ducal house. A lord, his wife (if he has one) children (If he has them) and perhaps siblings (If he has them) One does not need to roleplay every one of them however. Take, several characters for your POVs, the marklord, some of his children, perhaps a spouse, siblings or friends. Vary them. This is about characterization. You can select any one of the Marks save Avenor provided it is not already taken.
Choosing a Mark: Choose one of the twelve Marks of Rudaur, save for Avenor. Once you have made your decisions, we can discuss via PM or skype about your family, your characters, and your lands, and from that, create an overall 'mark sheet' that states the characteristics of each Mark and it's people and their interaction with Rudaur as a whole.
Lowmark
The lowlands, some of it below sea level, the land is kept save by the sea walls and river dikes that keep out the ocean. The countryside is fertile, called by many the “Garden of the North” It’s armies are primarily infantry based, and place a great deal of importance on both the spear and the ash military bow, the catch-all of ranged weapons, between the longbow and the crossbow. However it has relatively few abundant castles, instead relying more heavily on mottes, hill forts and small fortlets of unmortared stone as seats for the minor nobility.
Havermere
The people of Havermere are proud and fiercely independent, and they have always looked up to their ruling house. They have a unique weapon, the infantry spike, favored by their feudal soldiers, a lethal combination of spear and club that is easy to make, but few others use it. They harbor a long-running disdain for knights, ever since they defeated the mounted knights of Seamark in the Battle of Arquen or their now shared border nearly a hundred years ago, and as such, they have few knights among them, instead preferring to use simple soldiers on horses as their cavalry.
Havermere is famous for it’s red poppy fields. Though they are common in other places too, the Haverish poppy fields can be found in nearly every shire, and they make a great profit exporting these for medicinal use.
Westmark
Few marks are more militant than the duchy of westmark. One of the largest marks, it is famous for it’s warrior culture. They are easily roused to war, and when they do go to fight, they bring the entire might of their massive mark to bear, recruiting soldiers from all over the Mark.
They excel in the field of both heavy infantry and heavy cavalry, fielding many knights and men at arms as well.
Westmarkers are not however, just militant knights. Many are clever statesmen. Indeed, the Duke of Westmark’s sister is married to the king’s uncle, William Longsword, King of Arundel.
Eastmark
Eastmark is an open plain ringed on most sides by mountains, open to the sea in the east. The Eastmarkers are an old people. They live in the fields, mostly keeping to themselves. The lands have an abundance of stone for quarrying, but many of the people grow wheat and potatoes, supplying other nearby marks with grain and produce. The flat land and lack of many hills or large rivers makes Eastmark a land where it is difficult to situate castles in natural defenses, and as such, the eastern lords, though they attempt to use the land as much as possible, situate their castles close to their towns to better defend them
Redessa
The Redessan March is a mark always at war. It is mostly desert and dry cliffs. What of it that is livable is claimed by the lords for their peasentry.
Though shockingly poor in natural resources, Redessa makes up for this by having the highest concentrations of holy places and shrines in all of Rudaur save for the states of the Clergy. Questing knights of all stripes migrate there to serve a ‘holy’ cause converting the pagan Drusic peoples by the book or by the sword. It is a far more religious place than the rest of the Empire, and rather unique in that it swears fealty to two states, both the emperor and the Clergy. The Duke of Redessa rules over thousands of questing knights, pilgrims and natives, making his people and armies a rather doscordanant bunch, but nonetheless still dangerous.
Marchfold
In the south, below Seamark but above Ridemark lies Marchfold. It’s name literally means “The Folded Borders” It shares a border with the nation of Celedorne, and, though it is mostly flat, is dominated by the bulk of the Wailing Woods, a massive, eerie forest of dark, oppressive trees stretching as far as the eye can see, and above the forest, one can sometimes in hear thin wails, though some say that it is only the sound of the sea in the far distance
Marchfold is a wetland, though not swampy. The south is mostly soft grassy fields shot through with streams and pools of moving water. The north of Marchfold is mostly open fields and thick forests. The nobility of Marchfold are often rather sorrowful, and ithas gained a reputation for many making as many bards as it does warriors. The nobility appreciates music, and the Marcher Fiddle is known throughout the Empire for its haunting strings.
This is not to say that they never fight, however. The yew trees prevalent in the Wailing Woods give the Marches longbowmen to defend it, and defend it they do, as the robber barons of Celedorne descend from their mountain fastness to plunder the lowlands with swords in hand.
Seamark
The trilling of the songbirds, the waving of the grassy fields, the hamlets in the forests, the castles and the sighing wind are all iconic sights and sounds in Seamark. Vaunted for it’s mist-laden vallies, it’s beatific shores and it’s bright fields, the jewel of Rudaur stands proud.
Snapping banners and pennants fly from high towers of its castles and the lances of it’s knights alike.
The wailing of the gulls too is the sound of seamark. Not only the seat of nobility, Seamark is vaunted for it’s sea power. It holds two entire shires off it’s shores, one made up of many small islands, another, the single long island of The Princess Isle.
Seamark’s sea power is primarily achieved by its war dromonds, able to overtake, ram and board other ships, enabling Seamark’s heavily armed soldiers to storm the enemy vessel and add it to their fleet.
Seamark has both an impressive fleet, with its current duke being the Lord of the Waters, appointed by the King himself, but it’s land strength lies in its soldiery. Heavily armed infantry and cavalry combined prove devastating to foes. They also build many castles.
However, Seamark’s shires are far apart, and some are truly a long distance away by sea, and it’s success has made it some powerful enemies.
Greymark
The Snowhawk and Icefang mountains meet to form a cradle for Greymark, protecting it from the dangers without.
Greymark is mostly highlands, and throughout its long history, it has only been conquered once. Each hill has a fortress at its summit, and each valley is home to a village of doughty greymarkers.
The land was only conquered once, through cunning, when Variel the Unifier seized the lands and made them his own. Greymark is notable for, while not owning many mines, stockpiling riches almost excessively.
Blackmark
With massive dense forests in the east and fertile fields in the west, Blackmark is on the eastern coast, and is well known for it’s impetuous, honor hungry knights and proximity to the Tyne River. It’s people have gained something of a reputation for barbarity and violence, but that is in the past. Now, though their knights tend to be more soldiers than statesmen, they are a tough people who nevertheless espouse the ideals of nobility and chivalry. Blackmarkers have a distinctive gruff speech.
Blackmark itself is filled with forests and fields in nearly equal measure. The people are either woodsmen or farmers, and though stone is quarried from the southern shires, Blackmark has no mines for precious metals.
Ridemark
Open grasslands and a lack of stone means that, while Ridemark must only quarry from the mountains, it has a great bounty of meat, grain and fruits. IT does not border the sea in any place, as the kingdom of Celedorne lies to the west and the mountains separating it from the wild lands of the Dacic tribes and the principality of Kairinthe to the east. Due to the fract that it is a chokepoint for the Empire, it is strategically immensely important, particularly for Pilgrimage, as none can get to Redessa without either taking ship or passing through Ridemark without entering another kingdom. Ridemark has many, many horses, and places a great deal of emphaisis on the charge of the mounted knight.
Highmark
While it has beatific cliffs a little fertile land, Highmark is best known for being filled with gold mines. The people are not primairly soldiers, though the nobility, like many, still ride to war. Instead they mostly prefer to let mercenaries do their fighting for them, with many recruiting free lances and companies to fill out their small armies.
Avenor
Avenor is the capital of the Empire, home to the city of Avenon, where the Emperor holds rule and the Archpreist of Avenon has the final say. Ever since the War of the Clergy forty years ago, Avenon has been home to the northern faction of the Clergy, a faction that is less reverently religious than the clergy in Alinor, but holds similar power.
Avenor's countryside is picturesqe, and many ssay that it is the most beutiful of all the Marks of the Empire. It lies on the eastern coast, and it is from here that the Emperor rules, and to here that the Elector Council must convene upon his death to elect a new Emperor
The Emperor
The emperor of rudaur has nominally been elected from the ranks of the Marklords or other claimants. The only requirement is that he be an Orthian male, but first be crowned King of Rudaur, a presumptuous phrase, and entirely a ceremonial position, as Rudaur is not a land unified under one banner.
Any claimant must, however have the backing of either one of the Archpreists (Of Avenon or Alinor, or both) or two of the Marklords of the Empire. This is so that it can be assumed that the man is without great fault.
In the last hundred years however, the Empire has fallen back into the dynastic days of old, when petty kings still ruled their tribes with mailed fists and plaited beards. The house of Weyland has ruled the Emperor nominally for generations.
It began with emperor Fieren Weyland.
The charter of the electors state that
The Claimant to the Imperial Throne must be backed by the Clergy or two of his peers.
The Claimant to the Imperial Throne must be Orthian
The Claimant must have made pilgrimage at at least one point at his life
No weapons are permitted within the Avenon Throneroom save those of the Emperor’s Guards
Aimory Arundar, Marklord of Arundel was backed by the Clergy, as he had made pilgrimage and had converted many in Redessa by the sword, beginning the tradition of militant pilgrimages. He was unanimously elected as emperor, and ruled justly for thirty years marred by only one major conflict, the Ryne War twenty five years into his reign, when the marks of Lowmark, Havermere and Greymark went to war over control of trade on the Ryne and plunged the north into five years of chaos. Aimory successfully campaigned to halt the war once it became clear that the reason had been all but forgottn. When he ended the war, he ruled for five more years before it became clear that he would die soon, at which point, in a clever move, he replaced the Imperial Guards with his own household guards to see to his son’s ascension before he died.
When he died, his son, Alistar, was immediately made claimant, and when the elector council convened, the guards, nominally there to protect the marklords, entered, wearing live stel on their hips, and the captain of the guards brought the imperial regalia to the young boy (16 at the time)
It became clear what was going on. Resignedly, rather than be slaughtered, the Marklords elected Alistar emperor. They were permitted to go free, but Marchfold, Seamark, Highmark and Ridemark rebelled once they returned to their home provinces. The Empire was plunged into civil war once more.
Though it took a year, the war was beaten down. Highmark’s lords, the ringleaders, were executed and replaced with a house more compliant to the Weylands and the rest were ordered on penitent pilgrimage and their children put in power.
Alistar ruled for forty years, seeing no new major wars. When he was slain in battle against a rebel lord, his own son, Richard, took control of the Empire, voted in by the Marklords, many now enriched or otherwise persuaded to vote in favour of the Weylands. Richard married Merie of Arundel and had a son, Merle. However, Merie died and Richard remarried to Jane of Celedorne, the daughter of the King of Celedorne and had another son, Baldren. When he died fifteen years later, this son was the one was put forth for the imperial throne, despite the better claim of his older half-brother, who was instead made lord of Arundel.
Baldren ruled for twenty years, marrying Jane of Eryn, and they had a son, Variel II, who was discovered to be a leper some twenty years ago. Despite this, he was still crowned king.
The Current Royal Family
Emperor Variel II
A great statesman and warrior in his former years, Variel is now slowly dying, eaten from within by the base disease of leprosy. Born to Jane of Eryn and Baldren, now both dead. Variel, named for the first emperor of Rudaur was discovered to be a leper when, at the Battle on the Vohyn, fought on the titular river between the armies of the Rudauri Lords and the Golden Eagles, an army of peasant rebels, he was wounded by a vicious sword stroke to the arm and did not feel the pain. Since then, monks and chirurgeons have kept him alive with what medicine they can perform.
Empress Felicia: A southeron beauty, Felcia is a princess of Estorno, a southern state famed for the skill of its crossbowmen. Her father, the king of Estorno has backed Variel in both wars fought during his reign. The peasant rebellion known as the Flight of Eagles and the border war between Marchfold and Ridemark and he has funded the imperial throne extensively.
John: The young son of Variel and Felicia, aged only five, the heir presumptive to the imperial throne.
Next: Mechanics of warfare
Later: Technology, Castles, Military and Warfare
After at least 5 players have chosen their Marks: A history of Rudaur.