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King Malcolm - Malcolm has always been intelligent, and
has had a knack for reading people. Over the years however, this
has started to turn towards increasingly self-serving goals.
Malcolm grew up as a spoiled prince. When his
father (the previous king) died and he rose to accept the throne,
Malcolm became more dangerous than simply being a spoiled royal
brat. His mother (also long since dead) had always taught him to
be fair and just, and he usually upheld that so long as he got
his way too. But more recently he's started to become somewhat
irrational, and has taken to doing some less-than-moral deeds.
Some even suspect that he's been reaching some reprehensible
agreements with the lichelords. Since there's no direct proof,
life just goes on as usual, but many fear what may happen with
an unstable king.
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Queen Isobel - The love of Malcolm's life, she is one of
the few sane, rational, and balanced individuals in the court,
except of course for her minor drinking problem. Her heart is
usually in the right place, but unfortunately she almost never
gets any say, and has no real power. She often gets brushed off
as a "silly woman" or is told "surely you've had too much to drink".
She is however one of the stronger influences on the king...
probably the only one that holds the king together. Malcolm's
trust in her is second only to his trust for Lance. However,
the King does sometimes take her for granted, and she deals with
it by returning to the bottle.
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King Leonard - This is Malcolm's brother, who upon their
father's death, broke away to establish his own court. He's been
fairly successful, but doesn't have anywhere near his brother's
resources. Though mostly on good terms, they do occasionally
squabble. This rarely leads to any sort of significant conflict,
but the fact that Leonard secretly wants Isobel for himself is a
powder-keg waiting for a spark.
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Lars, the Field Marshall - His job is to oversee the
infantry soldiers, and to ensure that training and sparring is
done in a relatively safe fashion. He deals with armour and
weapon concerns, as well as training drills and excersizes.
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Servants and Labourers - A variety of workers from the
peasant class are always around. Here we see, from left to right,
a fisherman, smith, cook, and stable-hand.
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The Assassin Brothers - Masters of stealth and highly
trained in the art of killing, these two men are very secretive
about their past. Vince and Corwin are very good at what they
do, and King Malcolm has called on their services many times.
Apparently they get hired by others as well. They're often seen
about, interacting with merchants and other people. It's quite
likely that they also do some work on the side as private
investigators or enforcers.
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The Bombard Brothers - Not much is known about these
two, partially because their grasp of english isn't solid,
but also because they prefer not to talk much. No one even
seems to know their names, so they tend to be referred to
simply as "the cannon guys". Large siege
cannons are known in this land, but aren't very common. And
on top of that, the recipe for gun powder is a closely guarded
secret handed down in family lines, and no one under King
Malcolm's rule has such knowledge. So when the two of these men
appeared one day with not only large siege cannons, but also
small maneuverable ones the likes of which no one has seen,
Malcolm hired them on the spot. They were very eager to obtain
employment in a fortified castle, perhaps because they're running
from their past. Malcolm treats them very well and keeps them
quite happy, so as not to lose their services. They both also
carry muskets... something that is very remarkable, since small
firearms don't exist anywhere. No one has ever heard of such a
thing, so most assume that they're just carrying unusual looking
scepters or that they're tools for working on the cannons. Just
where did these guys come from anyway???
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The Dragon Tamers - Another pair of skilled men who
have been hired by the king from time to time. These two have
a very unique vocation-- taming dragons. Dragons, in general,
can't actually be tamed or "broken" like horses, so in reality
what they do is entice the dragons to do their bidding through
a system or rewards and in some cases nagotiation. Trying to
control dragons is much like taming cats, as they are willful
and independant creatures. It takes great skill, effort,
understanding, and care to pull it off successfully.
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King Malcolm's Soldiers - The King's own men are well
trained in both close-combat and ranged weapons. Their skill
sets are intentionally kept well-rounded, though these men
usually are kept on archery duty on the castle walls and towers.
Crossbow duty is considered the more important job in wall
defense, simply because the ranged attack is the first line
of defense should the castle be under siege. The second line
of defense, close combat on the walls, is usually left to
the less-trained troops.
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The Royal Guard - A small hand-picked group of loyal
men who are well trained in a variety of weapons. Usually
they're armed with halberds, so as to look menacing. Rarely
do they end up in actual combat situations though, which
would seem to be counter-productive (some of the best men
are taken away from the garrison).
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The Bulls - This is a group of mercenaries that the
king has hired to bolster the castle defense. He knows that
their loyalty is based more on money than on anything else,
and therefore keeps them as the last line of defense in the
castle. Chances are that the castle is in serious trouble
already once the battle starts taking place inside, and
these less-than-loyal men will have nowhere to run when things
get that bad. The Bull emblem isn't specifically associated
with this group of mercenaries, but rather a specific guild
of combat trainers and armourers. Having obtained training
and equipment from the Bull guild is prestigious, so the
emblem is displayed by all who have done so. The Bull Mercenaries
simply hire only from those who have received such training.
Actual knights just laugh at it, since bull-training is only
prestigious to that level and down. In reality, their skill
and equipment is no better than King Malcolm's own infantry.
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Infantry - These are plain-old soldiers. They're men who
looked for a better life than just living as labourers and
peasants. While life as a soldier is hard work, and obviously
involves great personal risk, it pays well and they're well
fed. Their combat skills are obtained only through sparring
and simple training in the castle courtyard, overseen by
the resident knights and Field Marshall.
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Ninja Suicide Squad - Not much is known about these
guys, probably because they always commit suicide before
revealing anything. It's quite inconvenient, actually. :)
Rumor has it that they are trained from a very early age in
multiple forms of martial arts and weapon use, all in
preperation to one-day be sent on a critical suicide mission.
They train and spar constantly, without ever going into an
actual combat situation. Eventually when a mission is deemed
to be both dangerous enough and critical enough, one or more
are chosen to go on this mission. Honor dictates that they
do not come back alive, succeed or fail. To succeed
grants them both honor and glory. To fail just means they
fulfilled their obligation of honor. To come back alive in
either case brings shame to them. This is all, of course,
just rumor. No one knows where they're from or who they work for.
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Witch Coven - Not much is known about the witches either.
In fact, no one actually remembers ever seeing them directly, so
their existence is considered just rumor or myth.
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