A compilation of TEATRC lore, universe expansions & codices

[Tipodehaht]

So heres some lore on Murond and the Clans, which is just moved from the original thread that it came from:

Murond

Based on the War of 1066 in England. The island of Murond was a rich kingdom with its mines in the (uninhabitable/unexplore region of the island) the growing jealousy of the poorer clan tribes caused a great invasion in southern Murond. The Murond king gather his forces and marched south to send the rotten highlanders back to the sea from wence they came. Lauria, seeing an opportunity, gathered it's own invasion force and set sail (lost my notes on who from the Laurian line would be the invader). When the Murond King had finished with the Highland Clans, he took his exhausted troops North to deal with the Laurians.  Over powered by the well organized might of the Laurian army, the Murond troops were routed. Refusing to surrender, the Murond King was trambled by (particpating Knightly Order of Lauria). Having only a younger brother and a young son as heir to the line of Murond, the Laurians made a deal with the brother. If the brother agreed to fealty to Lauria and send the son as a ward, they would allow him to rule Murond till the son became of proper age. The brother, being a craven, agreed greatfully.

1495 - With Queen Imelda's war in Calridia, the heavy taxes on Murond reach their breaking point. Miners gather deep in the depths of the mountain, holding each other's black, dirty hand conversing of the rotten nobles living a life of luxury as the common people struggle to survive. Silence fills the cave as three men, once wealthy merchants now poor as everyone else, walk into the crowd. One stands on a crate they just brought in, "Too long have you gone hungery, while men who think themselves gods feast on your labour. Too long have your love ones suffered, as the ones who think they are high crawl into their warm beds. No longer! No man is above another, no matter his station, for the blood that flows through his veins is the same of anyone in this cave. Behold!" The man unvales a brown, leather book, "The Code! The Code, written in blood of common and noble, a guide of how every man must treat another. Come forth and swear by the code, to treat each other equally, thy brother, thy neighbour, thy enemy. All men who bleed red. Come forth and swear." As each person swore on the book, the black imprint of everyone's hand became prominant. The Black Hand was born.
In the crates were firearms. In an attempt to hinder Queen Imelda, the Haelmar Union smuggled crates of the weapons into Murond. Proving an overwhelming success with the free folk of Murond, it wasn't long before Waymouthport was stormed and the craven king's head and the rest of his family was beheaded and piked on the gates of the harbour. With the Island solely under Murond control the entire country celebrated, though soon after began to mourn. Their charismatic leader, known as George Blackhand had been killed while storming the keep of Waymouthport by a Laurian Knight. The only person to see this was George's right hand woman, Mary Perriton (also know as Bloody Mary for sending her troops into blood bathes) and her private Guard. The book in which the Black Hand had sworn on had also gone missing, but Mary annouced to the people of Murond that every household shall recieve a copy as she still "remembers" what George listed in the original book. She will install the political cabinet he fought so hard for and shall take his seat as Prime Minister to keep his memory strong.

The Clans

The many clans are lock in a bitter fight between each other over land and cattle. Magnus, the head of one of the stronger Clans stops the fighting by goving a promise to make all the clans rich. They set sail for Murond. Once there they meet the superior numbers of the kings army and Magnus falls, routing the soon to be bickering clansmen. Once back at home the fighting is renewed and the clans split once again.


1495ish - the son of Magnus, Magnus II, now a man, sees to stop the fighting like his father, but is stumped on the path to take. While conjuring an idea, an old man in worn purple robes enters his court, "I see what troubles you and I now in which way you must fix it."

Intrigued Magnus begs him to continue.

"Your belief. Of the bear and the wolf and the hawk. So many different things with so many different goals. Some of your people worship one, others another. That is why your people fight. The bear cannot like the eyes of the hawk, nor the hawk of the cunning of the wolf or the wolf of the strength of the bear. What you need is one animal. A lion. Strength, honour, pride, loyalty. A lion is the head of a clan and bestows gifts to those which are loyal to him. Behold, my loyalty to him has granted me with immortalty!" The old man raises his hand and conjours a dagger in his other, then thrusts the dagger into his open hand. When the dagger is removed no blood pours from his hand. 

When Magnus II asked the old man how he can learn to be immortal, he laughed, "It can not be learned, but given by the white lion himself, and only to the truest believers of Filaharn, like I."

And to the protest of the Magnus' own priestess he beckened the old man to teach him of Filaharn. When asked about his name he would only say "Zendar".


1499 - A Kingmoot is called upon all the clans. Many Heads of their clans speak to their kin stating they would make the better Highland King, but all paled to the son of Magnus. Cheers roared out as they elected him as their King though they soon came to regret their decision. With his reign came the burning of the old gods and the introduction of Filaharn. Some of the clans imbraced the new faith. Some protested quietly. And those who opposed Filaharn went into hiding or were crucified. Not all hope was lost, as the druids of the old gods saw the future and a champion would be born to fight the dreaded white lion.

In the winter of 1499, Lion Throne scout reported an entire outpost razed to the ground. Reinforcements were sent to investigate and were never heard of again. Weeks later the city of Dublyn, a strategic point for holding the northern clans fell in just a few days. Stories told of a mighty army, led by a boy with the spirit of the bear and the wolf and the hawk, crushing the armies of the White Lion as if they weren't there. More and more brigades were sent to challenge this boy warrior and each time they failed. Soon the only hold the Lion Throne had in the Highlands was the city of Adynburgh, where Magnus II held his seat. Magnus II asked his mentor, Zendar the 4th Deva of Filaharn to bring more aid to stop this devil and so Gunther, Piedmont and Aberdun in the Lowlands began to directly aid in quenching the revolt.

 

[Vaeya]

Following up on the stuff above, my effort on the earlier history on Murond and the people who inhabited it earlier for the side-mod we're working on at present (fairly heavily based off of the Britons and Anglo-Saxons)

Excerpt from ‘The Annals of Konstantine’

We have landed in a land to the north of Calradia, which as yet has no names. It is a horrid place, all rain and sleet, and the sun dares not show its face here. The people are brutish, and the food is worse. I fear the men will revolt if they must live in such squalour, so I have set about bringing civilisation to the chieftains.

Excerpts from ‘The Ecclesiastical History of the Murondian People’, by the Venerable Bod.

Lo! In what the Ellisians called the Northern Ocean, that we call the Obello Sea, an island. It is a wondrous isle, and upon it grow trees and plants and herbs, and in some parts wineyards are grown…The Dummonians, when they faced the clansmen, grew terrified. They sent messengers to Ellis, with humility and great weeping. The Emperor sent a great army to aid them thrice, and bade them defend themselves. When the Clans rose once more, they fell upon the Dummonians like wolves and wild beasts upon sheep; they trampled them like ripe corn underfoot….And so it came to pass that from distant lands came the strongest of folk, the Murondum, and brought with them a mighty host. They pushed the Dummonians north into the marshes and the fens, for they were a dreadful punishment by the Lord upon those exiles.

‘A Treatise on the Dummonians’, by Sir Geoffrey Monmaw, 1456

Though Bod’s account is not entirely without merit, he deprives the Dummonians of their autochtony. They were a flourishing people before the arrival of the Murondii, and they traded with their Calradian neighbours in the Highlands. Though Clans would, from time to time, send raiding parties over, the Dummonians were hardly defenceless: their skills at horsemanship and deadly aim with javelins forced even the Gallowglasses to think twice from attacking.
Their defeat at the hands of the Ellisian legions was in part due to their own in-fighting, and part thanks to the expedition’s leader, Konstantine, a fine tactician. He chose not to slaughter his routed foes but offered them peace - and the Ellisian way of life. The chieftains agreed (unlike the Clansmen), but many of their folk refused. This tension was ended by the arrival of the Muronds, whose success was gradual to say the least. Only through sheer weight of arms did they grind down the fortifications of the city-dwelling Dummonians, allowing them to drive their free riding cousins out into the Great Northern Fenland. For generations, the Dummonians have suffered persecution at the hands of the Kings of Murond, who demand great tribute and forbid them from their ancient traditions. Their ancestral lands are greatly diminished, for the mines which dot them hold great wealth: instead, they must live in only the most barren and destitute places, beyond the Crown’s authority.

 

[Shrugging Khan]

Very nice...it really feels like reading british history 

 

[Vaeya]

Glad you like it, Khan! We should hopefully have a map sometime soonish, and then even more history will be in the making (also, lots of bloodshed).

Whilst waiting, have a taste of some potential minor factions for Murond...

Lollards:
Concentrated in a few university towns centred around Oxbridge, the Lollards have an uneasy alliance with the Republic due to their hatred of the Laurians and their Inquisition. They are made up of armed students and tutors (the Gown), a hastily armed city watch (the Town), and are assisted by groups of mercenaries. Their most formidable force is, in theory, the ‘Lollard knights’. If all of these horsemen, squires and entourages were grouped together, they might prove a threat even to the Laurian tercio. In reality, however, they are disparate collection, ranging from truly noble nobles (and commoners with horses), through puffed-up tin-cans, more interested in titles than faith or heroism, down to the truly evil: men who use their stature to bully those beneath them into payments. Nevertheless, the power of the Lollards has contained the spread of Filaharnism into too much of Murond, with missionaries of that absolute faith sent to the blazing pyres.

Dummonian Renegades:
Not all the riders of the fens agreed to serve with the Republican army. A number, seeing the infighting across the Obello as an opportunity for freedom, have begun to attack all their enemies. Miners are often captured by them, paraded about, and then put to work as slaves in the mines which their forebears captured. Some say they are looking to foreign powers for aid, though this remains an unsubstantiated rumour.

 

[Tipodehaht]

So just an update, I'm in the process of making the map. Its going slow as I'm hand moving all the vertexes to make all the islands. I'm halfway done Murond and have the outlines of New Zendarr and the coasts of Lauria/Bermia and Western Calridia.

  In the meantime,  I've moddified the troop trees and given abit of details on each unit and its role, and as you'll notice each Faction (except for New Zendarr)
Will have a "defensive" unit and an "offensive" unit from towns, and their affiliated uniques from cities.

The Republic of Murond

Spoiler

Towns
->Republic Minutemen: With the northern invasion of Henry the Boy, President Perriton called the people to arms. Building recruitment offices in every village and forcing the locals into service, the Captains of the Army have a near endless supply of Infantry, as long as they can supply them with an Arquebuse captured from the previous Monarchy. (An average unit in all fields, there strength comes from numbers)

-->Republic Linemen: survivors of the initial recruitment process are usually deemed as good troops by their commanding Captains and are given better gear for their continuely (forced) service. They equip the exspensive, Murond built Matchlock Musket with a spear point fixed to the end of the barrel. The open breach at the base of the barrel allows for a quicker reload, but the escaping gases forces the user to fire the rifle away from their face resulting in an inaccurate shot. (The first of the defensive units for Murond they are more like tough infantry with a small range capablity)

--->Republic Redcoats: brainwashed by the propaganda of the president, these troopers will died willingly for the betterment of the country. The Captain admired this blind loyalty and forge a gorget and helmet to better protect them in battle. (Very tough units that hit hard in melee)

-->Republic Calvary: Pulled from the ranks for their accurate shooting they are trained in both horse and marksmanship and given much better accomidations and rations. This better treatment makes being in the Calvary the only position where troops stay willing and don't have to be brained washed. (These are the offensive units of Murond. Being weak in melee they use their fast coursers to get into position, take out vital targets and retreat back to the line before the enemy can send out a counter attack)

--->Republic Rangers: usually made of the most vetern Calvary they are seen either leading the Calvary regiment into operations or completing long range scouting. (Just a better Calvary unit)

City
->Republic Leutenants: Captains with large armies usually promote some of his most vetren Linemen to the rank of Leutents to help manage the Line and to keep tabs on potenial deserters. This position has caused many troops in the line to nickname the officers "Leutenant Snitch". (Essentually a Redcoat with the setup of a Murond Pistolier. They are the standarbearers of Murond and can go into formations. Not sure if the linemen/redcoats should be classed as archers or infantry aswell)

->Republic Engineers: the Universities in the cities allows the local towns people to train for the better paid and generally safer positions of the Army. One of the two available employs Engineers to build defences when the army stops to camp. (This unit uses the Murond Scatter Gun, which fires five shots at once. For melee the have a crugel/seldge hammer)

->Republic Sappers: the other devision of the Universities trains for the destruction of enemy fortifications. Here they learn to operate the much more dangerous Hand cannon. (Same stats of the engineer but equips a hand cannon and a two handed axe for melee)

->Republic Mounted Police: the personal guard of President Perriton, they offer their services to protect the people of Murond, but the more intelligent Captains figure their service is more for keeping tabs on Bloody Marry's Armies. Reguardless many Captains still hire them as their skill in battle and holding the line outweights the whole being spied on. (These unit mimic the the cruiassiers of the Imperial State, being well armoured, hard hitting Dragoons)

The Kingdom of Murond

Spoiler

Towns
->Murond Levies: with the invasion landing successfull, and many of the towns and cities unperpared for the Laurian Army, King Henry conquered the north with ease and few losses. That changed when they reached the mountains and the quickly assembled yet effective line of fire arms slaughtered the advancing Laurian Tercios. Left with an army of reserves and figuring what his next step will be, a spy enters his tent and hands him a book. It is a remade book of the doctrine of the Black Hand. The spy states the he had seen the original and that the revision differs greatly in the way that the old treated all men equally and the new hints strongly at supporting the head of the state. With this new knowledge, Henry turns to the local Murond people and reveals the difference in the books. Most figure the difference in books is a Laurian trick, but after some convincing of the more powerful representatives and a promise to honour the book and include the people in forming the country, he gains the people on his side and begins to rearm them in the fasion of the old Murond army that his uncle led.

-> Murond Levies: simple peseant folk, they usually bring their own homemade weapons to the battle. Ranging from the family hunting bows to pitch forks, they bravely join the ranks to fight for their country.(These units are armed with a mix of glaives and pitch forks, short bills, hunting bow and usually have padded clothe for protection, and have an average skill)

-->Murond Billmen: with much of the arms left of the old army after the revolution, it wasn't too difficult to re-equip the ranks. Better armed from the levies they provide a decent protection for the archers. (Armed with a Bill and slightly better armour).

---> Murond Light Calvary: with Officers being shot by Republic Calvary, the generals of the army called for an Light horseman that could guard the flanks of the Main Tercios and chase off the Rangers before they could set up. Being lightly armed for speed their skill would only be suited against the dreaded rangers and not the main firing line of the Republic. (Pretty much a Caravan Guard).

---> Murond Halberdiers:

-->Murond Crossbowmen:
--->Murond Arquebusier:
--->Murond Longbowmen:

City

->Laurian Standard Bearer

->Laurian Pikemen
-->Laurian Cosolete
-->Laurian Arquebusier

->Murond Yeoman
-->Murond Knight

->Laurian Harquebusier
-->Laurian Conquistador

The Free Clans of the Highlands

Spoiler

Towns
->Clan Raider: (axe and a round viking shield)

-->Clan Warrior: (oval ellisian type shield with a spear, javalins and sword. These guys are tough and act as the defensive unit for the clans)

--->Clan Vetren Warrior: (same as warrior but wear chainmail instead of a kilt)

-->Clan Woad Warrior: (wears a kilt with woad painted over bare skin and helmetless they carry an axe or highland sword with a round or oval shield. They move fast and hit hard and act as the offensive troop of the clans.)

--->Clan Woad Fanatic: (similar to the woad warrior but they forgo the shield and wield a claymore).

City

->Highland Druid: (too weak to fight in combat by Highland standards, they use their knowledge of herbs to poison their arrows that they send to the enemy. With a short bow and only wearing a robe, they make the only true ranged unit of the Free Clans.)

->Highland Hobelars: (the only mounted units for the Highlands, they are really only used when brute force fails and a flanking manuver is required.)

The Holy Kingdom of the Highlands

Spoiler

With the Highlands temperary out of the Lion Thrones grasp, Sir Zendar the Forth Deva of Filaharn gathers reinforcements from the Lowland villages and rebuilds his force to help Magnus, Kingpreist of the Highlands, to reclaim his rightful lands.

Town
->Western Auxilery: (the rugged fur clad lowlander equip with a boar spear and round shield, they sometimes equip crossbows.)
-->Lowland Warriors: (an auxilery with chainmail.)
-->Lowland Skirmishers: (Crossbowmen with sword and shield)

City

->Ellisian Spearmen
-->Ellisian Pedes
-->Ellisian Thereophoroi

->Bearer of the Radiant Cross

->Brigadier of the Radiant Cross
-->Calvary of the Radiant Cross
-->Propugnator of the Radiant Cross

->Mylesian Calvary
-->Vetren Mylesian Calvary

->Lowland Infantry
-->Vetren Lowland Infantry

->Gunther-Piedmont Gunners
-->Gunther-Piedmont Gunners

->Kara-Khitan Archers
-->Vetren Kara-Khitan Archers

New Zendarr Privateers

Spoiler

All of the units for Zendarr excel at both range and melee, but they lack physical protection.
Town/island
->New Zendarr Marooner: (they equip throwing daggers, a knife and a club for slaving runs.)

-->New Zendarr Corsair: (they trade the knife and throwing daggers for a cutlass and a pistol)
--->New Zendarr Shwashbuckler: (similar to a corsair but they get better armour)

City

->Blackflag Buccaneer: (blunderbuss weilding pirate in service to Blackbeard himself)

-->Blackflag Bombardier: (hand cannoneer)

-->Blackflag Privateer:

I'll be filling up the descriptions for the other factions shortly to explain what each unit is equipped with and their usuage, but let me know what you think of the trees and if they need to be tweaked at all.