#Aragon: Tip of the Lance

[zelsisi]

( wip meme ask ) could i please ask about 'aragorn : tip of the lance' ?

Thanks for the ask! <3

I know the prompt said brief but this ain't gonna be brief. This is one that I'm really passionate about. xD

Ok. So. Aragon: Tip of the Lance is a D&D campaign that I'm playing in. My character is Anduin Thurarsh, who is in my OC Masterlist pinned to my page.

We've had 25 sessions so far and honestly, other than the game I DM, it is my favorite campaign to play in. Bar none so far.

Its a fantasy setting with 5 nations and one area where we have no clue what's going on. The 5 nations are The Castiya Archipelago, The Imperium Ryos, Carthago, Greika, and The Holy Kingdom of Phairon. Castiya is based off of Spain, Imperium is based off of the Roman Empire, Carthago is based off of northern Africa, Greika is based off of Greece, and Phairon is based off of Egypt. And the one place we have no clue what is going on is call The Blacklands.

We are playing as natives to The Castiya Archipelago, specifically being in Lancer Academy which is the nation's best military school. We're in Class Omega, basically the elites of the military or elites in training. All chosen for different reasons. And our party is very diverse too. (I will be referencing the Five Man Band tropes here xD)

We have Anduin, my character, as a Male Half Orc Artillerist Artificer who is the Leader of the party. Another name for Artificers here are Technomancers. He was chosen because he defended a town single handedly from bandits. Though he has "skeletons in the closet" cause he's keeping secrets from the rest. Basically he's the eldest son of a noble family of the nation and made choices that his family didn't agree with and abused the fuck out of him because of it. Only reason he's hiding it is cause he wants people to know him for him and not his family. His upcoming first character arc will be fun xD

We then have Elirthan, my boyfriend's character, as a Male Elf Apollo Labrys Knight (homebrew class) who is the Lancer of the group. He was picked because he defended a farming village from wargs by himself. We've learned more about his past cause we've had his first character arc. Basically Elirthan is trans. He used to be the daughter of a noble family of the nation and didn't want to continue to be a tool for their politics so a friend helped her become him with magic and surgery and helped him run away. That friend was captured and executed by his family and we were sent to help find "her". We found a book in a secret room with a hatch and Elirthan was revealed to be "her" so we then did a plan that basically gave a big middle finger to his folks. It was hilarious. Elirthan is also a character that Anduin has a crush on.

Next up we have Gastron, a Male Goliath Gula Sinwrought (another homebrew class) who is the Heart of the party. He was noticed because he defended the tavern where he was working by himself. He is the party's cook and really good too. We're getting pampered cause we're at a military school and we have someone who can cook regardless of what they have on hand xD We don't have his backstory yet cause he also have secrets. But he's a really good friend. Always there for the rest. That's why he's the Heart.

Fourth up we have Ordekko, a Male Deep Gnome Divine Soul Sorcerer eventually multiclassed with Bard who is the Smart Guy of the party. He was noticed when he saved a prison guard with magic powers he didn't have before. He's very skittish and shy but he's growing out of it. I honestly thought Anduin would've been the Smart Guy but no xD We've been through his first character arc too. He was in a gang when he was young and took the fall and was in a prison when one of the Six Gods brought an earthquake there and it was destroyed. This is where he was noticed when he saved a guard with magic he didn't have. So he got visions and a voice spoke thru him that was like "find this book in a library under ruins" So we went to the underground where the ruins are and Ordekko cast invisibility on himself and ran from the group with Anduin's homunculus (metal owl named Cai) on his shoulder. Elirthan wanted to go back to Lancer but everyone else was like "Nah. We going after him and giving him a talking to". So the homunculus came back and guided us there and we found the book in an ancient library that no one knew about so we got the find of the century. Also found out the source of his powers is from a God called The Hollow who we thought was only legend. Ordekko then discovered he can undo acts of the Gods with the book. So we know have a mission to eventually take down the gods cause they are pieces of shit but research and gathering strength and all.

Anyways, moving onto number five! We have Justinian, played by the DM (whose my best friend), a Male Champion Fighter who is the party's Big Guy. He didn't necessarily get noticed, it was political things. I'll go into that in a bit. Hits really fucking hard as we found out in combat and sparring. He's from the Imperium and the Heir to House Cerinthus one of the Six Big Houses. He got into Class Omega because of political reasons that we don't know which now Anduin is thinking its for stronger times because a war might be happening. But Justinian is a really good person. We haven't had his first character arc yet but we getting there. Anduin also has a crush on him too.

Number six! We have Angelo, who joined late, a Human Mastermind Rogue who is the party's Sixth Ranger. He'll probably fit into another slot once we've had more sessions with him. We don't know how he was noticed just that he's there and it works well for use cause we didn't really have a rogue. We're waiting on his first character arc as well. Anduin is on the fence with him cause they literally just met while he's known the others more.

We used to have another member but they left so not mentioning them.

Ok. So that's our party xD

We've been taking it really slow and actually going to classes and all, getting to know those in the party to be like "Yeah, they're friends" without too much backstory till now cause C-C-C-CHARACTER ARCS! We meld really well and if you've noticed, all of the party members are boys. And all of us are on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Some are Bi, some are Gay (Anduin).

We're now getting to like "main story" arcs too. Justinian is captured and we just fought Shapeshifters last night that were trying to take out the King and military leaders of Castiya and we fucking won. We're rescuing Justinian next session.

There's also SO MUCH LORE AND SO MANY NPCS! I have a google folder that's called Anduin's Notebook, cause Anduin is the notetaker of the group like myself but its after session cause I can't do it during, and that's where all the lore is put and info for NPCs, nations, Gods, party members, gadget ideas and other things. I obviously have my favorites and all but yeah xD

I have so much on them. A lot of text RP too with the DM with NPCs and Justinian.

I'm gonna leave it there for now. But if you got any more questions about Anduin, the lore of the world, or the NPCs, send me an ask and I can respond. I might just do it anyways xD

[didanawisgi]

Simon Turney explores the surprising history of the female Knights Templar.

“The Knights Templar are without a doubt one of the most well-known groups of the medieval world – studied endlessly, depicted in numerous novels and movies as both good guys and bad, their bravery and piety vaunted, their secretive nature explored, their morals questioned, their godly purpose stacked up against their worldly wealth. It would seem that every aspect of Templar life and history has been covered in fiction. And that was what I thought when I first considered writing about them. How could I do something that’s not simply rehashing ground already covered extensively? I found the answer in not one unexplored niche, but in two that were closely tied together by two historical figures.

The first is 12th to 13th century Reconquista Spain. Oddly, despite the great span of that land and its troubled history, in English literature, at least, it is sparsely touched upon. I suspect that the lure of the great crusades in the Holy Land somewhat overshadow what was simultaneously happening on the Iberian peninsula, especially where the Templars are concerned, given that they were formed in Jerusalem as a direct consequence of the ongoing struggle in the Middle East.

But it is worth remembering that the Templars were an international organisation, for all their initial focus on the Holy Land. Their political and administrative heart shifted and focused, at times, more in France than anywhere else. And while Richard of England and Philip of France were securing their place in history at Acre, and the Templars there shared in the disaster that was the battle of Hattin, their order was also at work in Iberia.

It is misleading, of course, to speak of Spain. In the late 12th century, there was no such thing as Spain. What there was was a collection of Christian and Arabic states that sporadically jostled and engaged in war. The Reconquista was never a continual push south by combined Christian forces, but more reminiscent of what was happening in the Holy Land. While France and England, along with other nations and orders, engaged in no less than nine crusades there over two centuries, in Iberia, rival Christian kings would launch campaigns, occasionally gaining new territory and forcing back the line of Arabic control, sometimes with disastrous results. The Christian kingdoms of Portugal, Leon, Castile, Navarre and Aragon were as often at loggerheads with one another as they were busy fighting the Moors. What had once been a collection of individual Moorish taifas, however, each led by an emir, had been subsumed by a tide of new zealous moors from Africa, the Almohad Caliphate. Only one independent taifa remained on the Balearic islands. The rest of Islamic Iberia was united and focused against a fragmented Christian world. As such it is no surprise that the reconquest of Iberia was a slow and painful process that took more than seven centuries in total.

But here we find a niche for the Knights Templar. In that famous order we have a force of purposeful ready-made crusaders whose allegiance was to God and the pope and no individual nation. As such they were a useful tool for the Iberian kings to employ in the Reconquista. In return for grants of land and power, they would lend their lances and muscle to the fight against the Almohads. Thus the Templars spread across the Christian lands of Iberia, sometimes achieving great influence, such as in the striking will of Alfonso I of Aragon, who left everything to the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre.

Thus the Templars had their niche. But Iberia in the late 12th century was a hard land for them. In other countries, their order gathered manpower and land and wealth in donatives at a surprising rate – enough to eventually make kings jealous and cause their downfall. Iberia was different, though. Centuries of war against the moors, as well as internecine conflicts in the north, had left a land that was considerably poorer in both resources and manpower than it should have been. Moreover, a significant proportion of the workforce in the Christian lands were moors who had either converted or were in effect slaves. We should not forget the significant Jewish population, also. So, in Iberia often we find that the houses of the Templars are somewhat different from those in other countries.

There are records in Spain of Templar lands being administered and worked by moors and Jews. The Order had Moorish slaves, for certain, but there are surprising documents that tell of transactions between the Templars and groups against whom they would be seemingly naturally opposed. This is the interesting world I discovered when I began to look into Templar Spain. A world where the Order’s rules were perhaps bent considerably more than in other lands by simple necessity.

And therein lies my hook and the two figures I mentioned above that tied together my two niches: Templar Spain and Templar women. It will surprise many to know that there were women in the Order of the Temple. After all, they were the Knights Templar. Their remit was to be a sword-arm of the Church to protect pilgrims from heathen raiders. What place then did women have in the Order? The answer is officially none. Indeed the Order’s Rule, laid down by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, specifically forbade women, and went so far as to set rules that kept the members of the Order as far from the temptation of women as possible. There could be no female Templars.

And yet at Mühlen in Austria we find a Templar nunnery, and officially labelled as such. And in the cartularies of the Templar houses there are many, many records of female members of the order, at least at the associate level of Consoror or Donat (lay sisters or women tied to the order through donations). This in itself is interesting enough to consider as the heart of a novel, but in further investigation into the role of woman in the military orders, I found my two figures, and their existence simply flabbergasted me.

Ermengarda of Oluja, along with her husband Gombau joined the Order of the Temple and donated land. They were clearly shuffled off into separate houses, and Gombau disappears from the record a few years later. Ermengarda, though, is unique. She is noted in documents as a Sister of the Order. Not a lay sister, consoror or donat, but as a sister, the presumed equivalent of a full brother. This again is astonishing to me, but there was more to come, and it blew apart all my preconceptions of the Templars, for in the historical record, Ermengarda is referred to as a preceptrix, commanding the house of Rourell in Catalunya. So not only do we have a female Templar which is forbidden in the rule, but she is no peripheral figure. She is a mover and shaker in the Order of that region and even commands a small Templar monastery. This is the sort of figure about whom legends arise. Moreover, there is a further record of Ermengarda admitting a woman by the name of Titborga into the Order as a sister at Rourell.

Daughter of War was born from this discovery. I had set out to create a tale of the Knights Templar, but I did not want to rehash the crusades or the supposed esoteric nature of the Order. I wanted it to be real and historic and yet to cover new ground in a well-trodden area. I found that virgin ground in the form of two women who did what could not be done. Two female Templars in a land where nothing was simple. The discovery that gave rise to the book only goes to show that history is never simple and a little digging will always turn up surprises.

I tip my hat to the impressive Ermengarda d’Oluja.

A daughter of war.”

Simon Turney has published more than 25 novels, including the bestselling Marius’ Mules series. Daughter of War, published under the name S.J.A. Turney, is the first in an epic new series about the Knights Templar and is out now.

[zelsisi]

Time and D&D

Ok. So. Those who are my mutuals know that I’m really into D&D. A lot of my OCs are D&D based. But I’m not here to talk about my OCs, well I suppose in a way I am. I’ll get to that later.

But seeing as how I’m not going to college for the Fall Semester (family finances and all) I have a lot of time on my hands. Currently its 2:40 am. I’m EST. I’m just a night owl as well as only getting tired after taking my meds and Melatonin. I just get caught up in what I’m doing sometimes

Moving onto the reason for this post. I wanted to post this to give how many games I’m in, on what days and what times and then what OC I have in that with a brief gist of those OCs. This might be a bit long so, read below the cut for more

I play on 5 different days but 1 day we alternate between like 3 games. So 7 games

1. Sunday at 8 pm The Burning Stars of Elebor 2. I say 2 cause it is the sequel to the original. I DM this game! Me! My game! Its my baby. Its kinda based on Lord of the Rings. Remember how I mentioned I started fanfiction after I read Lord of the Rings? That fanfiction sparked the original campaign. And then the original had loose ends and so the second game happened. And my players are enjoying themselves so far. There’s drama and fun and everything. And they also meet what will probably be my self insert NPC, Sebastian Magicshield, Male Half Elf Storm Bloodline Magicshield (homebrew class). The youngest Prince of the Kingdom of Elebor and Commander of the White Company. He’s a warrior but he also puts his people and men first. Castian, one of the party members, is his right hand and confidant but they are also secretly courting. 

2. Monday at 8 pm Engine of Progress. This game is my boyfriend’s game. But its not 5th Edition like the rest of the games. This is Pathfinder. Its much more difficult but its still fun. Its also is heavy exploration. My OC for this one is Astraea Vatir. An Aasimar Moon Oracle. She has a twin brother played by my best friend who is a DM of another game. She’s very charismatic but she’s very concerned for everyone (and is also insecure about everything else) cause she’s support and Healer but can do damage if she needs too. She’s very pretty too.

3. Tuesday at 8 pm Aragon: Tip of the Lance. I got an ask about this one yesterday and I answered it! Heavily xD Here is the link. This game is my best friend’s game! He self depreciates about his DMing but he’s really really really good. And I’m not shy about my opinions about this game. This game is my favorite game to play in! All the lore, character interactions, NPCs, I love it all. We get history rolls here, but if you roll one week you can’t roll the next week so you gotta wait two weeks, I am one of the most frequent rollers cause of my modifier and for the first time in the history of the history rolls, I failed. Me as an Intelligence based character with a +7 to History, failed. I used my luck on the combat lol xD But my character is Anduin Thurarsh. Male Half Orc Artificer (Technomancer in the world) who has a terrible self esteem but looks out for everyone. He’s the Leader of the group. And is organizing a student get together to make new friends and have some sparring sessions with other students or playing dodgeball and talking afterwards. He gives everyone respect except for those who prove they don’t deserve it and he’s always liked helping others. All this despite his family. I’ll do a separate post on that eventually. Same with what I got in my notes folder

4. Wednesday at 6:30 pm/7:30 pm Seas and Sorcery. This game is ran by a friend of my best friend. Its a Pirate themed so we’ve been sailing and going on missions and getting loot and all. Its fun and the character interactions are really good and that’s why I like it. My character is Thyneros Hymn or Thyn for short, he’s a Male Tiefling Swords Bard. The dice hate him (started with stats rolled a lot of 9′s and begged for re rolls) so I’ll be very surprised if he lives through the game (He’d be my first character death ever). He is very snarky and has no self preservation instinct, he’s gotten some really good insults in as a bard, I have a Google Doc filled with insults cause I can’t come up with things on the fly so xD. He’s also really gay and is with the Paladin of the group and they’re really sweet together. I love them. 

5. Friday at 8 pm A Brighter Day. This game is DMed by a friend of mine, new one but still a friend. Its a modern fantasy game of what if fantasy races lived with normal humans in the modern days and its honestly really fun. Its also a cop game, we’re part of the police. My character is Silver Fox, a Female Swiftstride Shifter Monk/Rogue. She’s very loose and plays with the rules a lot sometimes breaking them. She is badass and is very protective of people. We’ve lost several players so its just me and two other players. But we have fun in it. 

6. Friday at 8 pm Three Kingdoms. This game is ran by Brighter Day’s DM and it sometimes is ran in place of Brighter Day. Its based on a fantasy world and there’s a horde of undead coming to annihilate everyone. Based off of World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King. But its fun. My character is Valis Entropy, Male Tiefling Whispers Bard. Very sassy, good vicious mockery lines too, but cares for people not for nations. Its funny too cause my best friend’s character is Arkam and his character is a Harem protagonist cause everyone is in love with him but he’s oblivious too. Valis is among that number but not in the way normal bards are, he doesn’t want to sleep with him. Like he’d want to be in a relationship with him. But he’s hesitant to step forward cause he’s going away afterwards and Valis is needed somewhere else so he doesn’t want to put Arkam in that position

7. Friday at 8 pm Heartfelt Service. This game is ran by Brighter Day’s DM and it sometimes is ran in place of Brighter Day. Its based off Maid. We’re butlers or maids in a young man’s manor and are striving for his affections against the other staff but everyone has no hard feelings if the master choses someone else. Friendly competition. My character is Trystan Gray, a Male Fighter/Cleric. He wields a sword and shield. He’s very dedicated to his duty as Head of Security but he loves having fun and being of help to people in the manor, a bit of a jokester and loves to poke fun at people (no hostility all fun). He’s very attractive and plays to his strengths. We have affection points gained from skill checks and a roll from the master. I’m in second place so far. Trystan got to show off and get several affection points from sparring against 3 guards under his command at once with the opening line of “Open floor boys!” and the master got a blush from watching him which he saw out of the corner of his eye. He also sparred against the master and when he got hit across the face his response was to smile and say “Very good”. If Trystan isn’t chosen by the Master, then he’ll go for probably his bodyguard Kellin unless he’s chosen, they’re friends for now. He also has hidden trauma that he hides and reads poetry.

If you have any questions about the storylines or characters, send me an ask! Please! I have nothing to do tomorrow...

[zelsisi]

( wip meme ask ) could i please ask about 'fallen soldier' ?

Thanks for ze ask! I really appreciate it <3

Ok. Fallen Soldier.

This is basically a fanfiction of my D&D character from Aragon: Tip of the Lance, Anduin Thurarsh.

Its basically a what if.

Everyone knows that I love my angst and the DM of the game isn't a fan of doing angst RP like me. I like wholesome RP but I want that dark side xD

Fallen Soldier was inspired by a TikTok too. It was in an Emotional D&D TikToks and it was where the Fighter had stayed behind and the Warlock tried to go back but couldn't so the Fighter died.

Basically Fallen Soldier is where Anduin realized that to get the team out, majority of whom was unconscious except Ordekko, he'd have to distract them while Ordekko got his teleport spell off. So he drew them away and wasn't there when they teleported so Class Omega's Head Instructor, Rhys Kelikai, who Anduin is viewing as his father since his real father wasn't much of one, went to go get him.

Whole bunch of angst and a close call for Anduin. I don't have the heart to actually kill him off in a fic cause he is my favorite character to play right now.

But yeah xD