Post by ashimbabbar on May 25, 2023 19:46:27 GMT
The inspiration for this army comes from the high fantasy novel La Reine de Vendôme by Colin Marchika. It can be read for fault of anything better to do.
As I don’t believe it has been translated I’ve transcribed the names to something serviceable in English. If you know the novel you’ll know who I’m talking about.
In this world, the two main powers are the recent enough Empire – a coalition of states under an elected emperor, which boasts the best and by far the largest army – and the ancient kingdom of Vendôme, whose rulers – the Bablon dynasty – have all proved powerful magicians with a knack for recruiting other powerful magicians.
What complicates the matter a little is that they’re nearly neighbours.
Both sides wish to keep peace until they can decisively upset the balance in their favor, which was the opportunity His Badgership had been waiting for : it was easy enough for him to obtain the worthless strip of terrain between the Empire and Vendôme.
Although it’s been out of fashion for a few millenia now, magicians in this world have for a long time attempted to create humans out of animals ( I wonder why as there are humans enough… )
His Badgership claims to have been one of the first to have been experimented on and to be 20,000 years old, which if true would probably make him the oldest living being in this world. So far, no one has been able to disprove him.
It is worth noting he is the only beastman known to have magical abilities, which, although they're very middling compared to the really powerful spellcasters like the Bablons or the insanely powerful Dark Magician Jered Raque, could be connected with his longevity...
Beastmen have faced and still often face hostility, many individuals and small groups have been lynched. His Badgership is determined to stop this and has founded a beastmen-only state in the land conceded to him. He's proved tough, shrewd and devious enough for his community to survive so far.
It's hardly an ideal place - he rules with an iron paw, everyone has to work hard and keep their weapons at hand - still it beats being killed by a knight who feels like it or by an angry mob.
They end up on the side of the mostly-good guys in the novel, but that's mostly because the bad guys thought they might as well kill them since they were in the way.
THE ARMY
- His Badgership is not going to let anybody else be the General.
The obvious choice is to rate him a Magician - even though he's of a definitively middling sort, in his long life he's found and created artefacts and learned secrets. Anyway, that’s his reputation – and he used it to bluff an immortal magician of nearly divine power from the battlefield.
However, he doesn't seem to have used battle magic at any point and the book insists on his berserk rage when his people are threatened, so you conceivably could field him as Warband.
other possible characters
- Paladin: TrueKnight Ferret
Nowadays most knights are brutes in armor, fanatically loyal to their ruler and unencumbered with scruples. At least that's the narrator's opinion.
A TrueKnight is something else. They're far better fighters with some magic resilience, for a thing - they're also bound to a moral code more than to a sovereign: they remain a ruler's vassal only as long as they approve of said ruler, when he goes too far for them they leave him and find another lord. So, Paladin.
Ferret has been bred and raised for the part. To His Badgership, he is first and foremost a political asset: as long as Ferret sticks with him, human rulers have to treat him as a legitimate ruler and not as a beastman chieftain with delusions of grandeur, and his community as an actual state.
Ferret is often abroad on ambassadorial missions, with the added bonus it allows His Badgership to hide from him the seamiest aspects of his rule.
- Hero or Sneaker : Weasel
Weasel is the head of His Badgership's assassin squad, a very efficient killer and dangerous fighter as well - her one weak point is that it's hard for her to stop killing once she starts.
She also is his daughter, although it's doubtful she knows it.
She also is Ferret's mate, and no female better paw him unless she's ready to get stabbed.
Ferret and Weasel are the two most likely characters to join an allied army.
- Hero : Sharptooth
Sharptooth is a grey wolf and the community's fighting instructor. Although he's far younger than His Badgership - a few centuries at most - age has begun to sap his strength and dull his reflexes, but he's still extremely powerful.
- Hero or Behemoth : Hammer
A mass of muscle and shaggy fur wielding a huge hammer. The community's master smith.
Human ally: Eyr (Hero)/Selles (Paladin)
Some 150 years ago Selles was the most renowed of TrueKnights ; his lady was Queen Semiramis of Vendôme.
Then a Demon King attempted to burst into our reality and shatter it, at a spot within Vendôme. Which forced a doubly unexpected alliance between Selles and Jered Raque as the two characters with enough power to deal with the intrusion before it turned to disaster.
« Doubly » because Selles had been Queen Semiramis’ lover but she had jilted him in favor of Jered Raque.
Our reality wasn't shattered and Jered Raque came back alone, claiming not to know what had become of Selles. The funny part is, he was telling the truth.
What happened was this. Manitardes the Magician, a friend of Selles, would have been worse than useless against such a threat as a Demon King and knew Jered Raque could have snuffed him like he’d have put out a match. Still he followed at a distance.
When he found Selles dying of the physical and spiritual wounds inflicted by the Demon King, he spirited him away and did all he could to heal him. It was a long process – spiritually Selles had to rebuild himself from the ground up – and in order to protect him Manitardes wove a glamour that persuaded everybody, Selles included, that he actually was Eyr, a Scion (=magical creation) of Manitardes that took the career of a wandering musician and singer.
Now that Manitardes is dead, many wizards would love to know how comes his Scion survived him – by disassembling him for instance. So far Eyr has proved fast enough and skilled enough with a sword to escape them, also to teach manners to knights who dislike his songs – about half denounce present-day knights ( he is the narrator, with a rather naive outlook on human relationships ), the other lampoon legendary TrueKnights of the past and Selles first of all.
He genuinely admires what the beastmen have achieved and has helped them on occasion, they in return made him a permanent guest – His Badgership calls him his friend for whatever it’s worth.
In the course of the novel, Selles will fully recover and regain his memory and powers.
The troops
With their fighting style most would be Warbands with a fair sprinkling of Lurkers. 1 or 2 stands of scouts could be rated as Beasts.
Although only mammals are shown in the novel, I won’t tell on you if you field 1 Flyer and/or 1 Water Lurker.
As I don’t believe it has been translated I’ve transcribed the names to something serviceable in English. If you know the novel you’ll know who I’m talking about.
In this world, the two main powers are the recent enough Empire – a coalition of states under an elected emperor, which boasts the best and by far the largest army – and the ancient kingdom of Vendôme, whose rulers – the Bablon dynasty – have all proved powerful magicians with a knack for recruiting other powerful magicians.
What complicates the matter a little is that they’re nearly neighbours.
Both sides wish to keep peace until they can decisively upset the balance in their favor, which was the opportunity His Badgership had been waiting for : it was easy enough for him to obtain the worthless strip of terrain between the Empire and Vendôme.
Although it’s been out of fashion for a few millenia now, magicians in this world have for a long time attempted to create humans out of animals ( I wonder why as there are humans enough… )
His Badgership claims to have been one of the first to have been experimented on and to be 20,000 years old, which if true would probably make him the oldest living being in this world. So far, no one has been able to disprove him.
It is worth noting he is the only beastman known to have magical abilities, which, although they're very middling compared to the really powerful spellcasters like the Bablons or the insanely powerful Dark Magician Jered Raque, could be connected with his longevity...
Beastmen have faced and still often face hostility, many individuals and small groups have been lynched. His Badgership is determined to stop this and has founded a beastmen-only state in the land conceded to him. He's proved tough, shrewd and devious enough for his community to survive so far.
It's hardly an ideal place - he rules with an iron paw, everyone has to work hard and keep their weapons at hand - still it beats being killed by a knight who feels like it or by an angry mob.
They end up on the side of the mostly-good guys in the novel, but that's mostly because the bad guys thought they might as well kill them since they were in the way.
THE ARMY
- His Badgership is not going to let anybody else be the General.
The obvious choice is to rate him a Magician - even though he's of a definitively middling sort, in his long life he's found and created artefacts and learned secrets. Anyway, that’s his reputation – and he used it to bluff an immortal magician of nearly divine power from the battlefield.
However, he doesn't seem to have used battle magic at any point and the book insists on his berserk rage when his people are threatened, so you conceivably could field him as Warband.
other possible characters
- Paladin: TrueKnight Ferret
Nowadays most knights are brutes in armor, fanatically loyal to their ruler and unencumbered with scruples. At least that's the narrator's opinion.
A TrueKnight is something else. They're far better fighters with some magic resilience, for a thing - they're also bound to a moral code more than to a sovereign: they remain a ruler's vassal only as long as they approve of said ruler, when he goes too far for them they leave him and find another lord. So, Paladin.
Ferret has been bred and raised for the part. To His Badgership, he is first and foremost a political asset: as long as Ferret sticks with him, human rulers have to treat him as a legitimate ruler and not as a beastman chieftain with delusions of grandeur, and his community as an actual state.
Ferret is often abroad on ambassadorial missions, with the added bonus it allows His Badgership to hide from him the seamiest aspects of his rule.
- Hero or Sneaker : Weasel
Weasel is the head of His Badgership's assassin squad, a very efficient killer and dangerous fighter as well - her one weak point is that it's hard for her to stop killing once she starts.
She also is his daughter, although it's doubtful she knows it.
She also is Ferret's mate, and no female better paw him unless she's ready to get stabbed.
Ferret and Weasel are the two most likely characters to join an allied army.
- Hero : Sharptooth
Sharptooth is a grey wolf and the community's fighting instructor. Although he's far younger than His Badgership - a few centuries at most - age has begun to sap his strength and dull his reflexes, but he's still extremely powerful.
- Hero or Behemoth : Hammer
A mass of muscle and shaggy fur wielding a huge hammer. The community's master smith.
Human ally: Eyr (Hero)/Selles (Paladin)
Some 150 years ago Selles was the most renowed of TrueKnights ; his lady was Queen Semiramis of Vendôme.
Then a Demon King attempted to burst into our reality and shatter it, at a spot within Vendôme. Which forced a doubly unexpected alliance between Selles and Jered Raque as the two characters with enough power to deal with the intrusion before it turned to disaster.
« Doubly » because Selles had been Queen Semiramis’ lover but she had jilted him in favor of Jered Raque.
Our reality wasn't shattered and Jered Raque came back alone, claiming not to know what had become of Selles. The funny part is, he was telling the truth.
What happened was this. Manitardes the Magician, a friend of Selles, would have been worse than useless against such a threat as a Demon King and knew Jered Raque could have snuffed him like he’d have put out a match. Still he followed at a distance.
When he found Selles dying of the physical and spiritual wounds inflicted by the Demon King, he spirited him away and did all he could to heal him. It was a long process – spiritually Selles had to rebuild himself from the ground up – and in order to protect him Manitardes wove a glamour that persuaded everybody, Selles included, that he actually was Eyr, a Scion (=magical creation) of Manitardes that took the career of a wandering musician and singer.
Now that Manitardes is dead, many wizards would love to know how comes his Scion survived him – by disassembling him for instance. So far Eyr has proved fast enough and skilled enough with a sword to escape them, also to teach manners to knights who dislike his songs – about half denounce present-day knights ( he is the narrator, with a rather naive outlook on human relationships ), the other lampoon legendary TrueKnights of the past and Selles first of all.
He genuinely admires what the beastmen have achieved and has helped them on occasion, they in return made him a permanent guest – His Badgership calls him his friend for whatever it’s worth.
In the course of the novel, Selles will fully recover and regain his memory and powers.
The troops
With their fighting style most would be Warbands with a fair sprinkling of Lurkers. 1 or 2 stands of scouts could be rated as Beasts.
Although only mammals are shown in the novel, I won’t tell on you if you field 1 Flyer and/or 1 Water Lurker.