#alongside your typical mist manipulation and magic

[mlady-magnolia]

“Who’s afraid of the dark?”

[tigerkirby215]

5e Viego, the Ruined King build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Pan Chengwei. Made for Riot Games.)

What? Did you expect me not to make this? It’s the goddamn Ruined King! He’s finally out after all these years! I mean sure he’s a goddamn twink but still; he’s finally out! Also Samira build is coming out 35 years from now.

And even though I put a Warlock TikTok meme in my last video, here’s a whole bunch of them because... yeah no shit he’s a Hexblade... Of the Ruined King.

GOALS

Ruin to all! - MIST'S EDGE: Basic attacks deal a percentage of the target's current health bonus physical damage on-hit.

Serve me in death - If you ever wanted to play as the enemy for a bit Viego will let you take a ghost or two; as a treat.

The mist is my great unending sadness - Foggy days are typical for an edgy boy, and King Ruin is so edgy he wants to cover the entire world with fog! Yeah that “mist is sadness” quote is real; I got it from the Wiki.

RACE

Viego is a human... but he has a great degree of variance. We’ll be going for yet another Variant Human because we’re not allowed any monster champions anymore. As a Variant Human you get a +1 in two different stats of your choice: increase your Charisma and Strength by 1 for the strength to be beautiful for your queen. You also get proficiency in a skill of your choice: Perception will let you see through the mist and search far-and-wide for your queen. And you get a language of your choice: Abyssal seems reasonable to speak to the mist.

Of course the main appeal of Variant Human is the feat at level 1, and to swing the Blade of the Ruined King Great Weapon Master will let you cut through a percentage of the enemy’s health! When you make a melee attack with a heavy weapon (such as a greatsword), you can choose to take a -5 penalty to your hit chance. If you do hit you’ll do an extra 10 damage with your strike! And as an added bonus when you score a critical hit (with a melee weapon) or kill a creature, you can make one melee weapon attack as a bonus action!

ABILITY SCORES

15; CHARISMA - League of shirtless anime boys amIrite? Gotta look good for Isolde.

14; DEXTERITY - Repeat after me: “something something Medium Armor.”

13; STRENGTH - This is a requirement for another one of the classes we’ll be taking. Yup this isn’t just straight 20 levels in Hexblade!

12; CONSTITUTION - A ruined king with a blackened heart is still allowed to have some health.

10; WISDOM - Destroying the entire planet just to simp for your wife isn’t the wisest move.

8; INTELLIGENCE - Nor is it the smartest.

BACKGROUND

You were the king of a long-forgotten nation, so unfortunately noble wouldn’t work. But you still have servants! The Knight background grants proficiency in the History that you lived through as well as Persuasion to get Isolde back. You also get proficiency with a Gaming Set and Language of your choice, which I’d say pick your fancy.

But the main reason we’re taking Knight (and not Noble) is for Retainers! You get three knights sworn to your kingdom (Kalista, Hecarim, and the third one) who will do mundane tasks for you. While Hecarim may be up for a slaughter unfortunately your retainers can’t do anything in combat and won’t follow you into dangerous locations. And of course if you treat your subjects poorly they will leave you. But it can always be useful to have more spirits in the mist to search for her!

(Artwork by @thejenneralchen on Twitter)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - PALADIN 1

Hah! Did you think we’d be starting with Warlock? Put simply we need things from Paladin more, notably the proficiencies as well as starting equipment. Dude imagine having to spend 3200 gold to buy the sword literally named after you? But for now you might just want to grab a Longsword to start. Regardless Paladins get proficiency in two skills from the Paladin list: Athletics are required in the jungle, and Intimidation will let everyone meet know that you will stop at nothing for her! You fucking simp...

You also get Divine Sense to sense the beasts of the mist, or your queen. As an action you can know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You know the creature type, but not its identity. Within the same radius, you also detect the presence of any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated. (Have a feeling you’ll find a lot of desecrated areas.) You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier plus 1, and regain all uses at the end of a Long Rest.

And you can restore a bit of health thanks to Lay on Hands. You have a pool of healing equal to 5 times your Paladin level that comes back at the end of a Long Rest. You can heal a creature for any number of hitpoints from that pool as an action when you touch them, or cure a disease / poison affecting them with 5 hitpoints. Man that would’ve been useful a couple of thousand years ago, huhn?

LEVEL 2 - WARLOCK 1

Time to pick up the Sword of the Ruler of the Mist. Hm... There has to be a better way of saying that. Regardless Warlocks get to choose their subclass at level 1 and to get a comedically large sword that saps peoples’ lifeforce we’ll be opting for the one, the only Hexblade patron! As a Hex Warrior you can wield martial weapons as well as medium armor (which you already could cause Paladin), but can also choose to swing a sword with your Charisma instead of your Strength or Dexterity. Which is great because you’re not exactly the buff sort. Unfortunately you can’t use a two-handed greatsword just yet, which is why I said you’d do good to grab a longsword instead.

But if you are locked in combat Hexblade’s Curse will make sure that you can dispose of them quickly. As a bonus action you can mark a target for 1 minute. During that time you do bonus damage equal to your proficiency bonus to the cursed target, crit on a 19 or a 20, and regain hit points equal to your warlock level + your Charisma modifier when you kill them. The curse ends early if the target dies, you die, or you are incapacitated.

And of course as a Warlock you get Pact Magic. You learn two cantrips and two leveled spells: Eldritch Blast will let you manipulate the mists for a ranged attack, and Prestidigitation will help you keep clean and kingly despite all the black mist flowing out of that gaping stab wound in your chest. As for leveled spells Armor of Agathys will let you put on some Thornmail to keep your health up and hit your foes back, and I mean Shield is on the Hexblade expanded spell list anyways so we may as well use it.

LEVEL 3 - WARLOCK 2

Second level Warlocks get Eldritch Invocations as the mist manipulates your body and soul. For now take Devil’s Sight to see through your Harrowed Path with your dumb human eyes, and we’ll be leaving the other invocation slot open for a level.

You also get another spell but all the other first level spells don’t really interest me. Yeah we’re not taking Hex you’re going to have to live with it!

LEVEL 4 - WARLOCK 3

Third level Warlocks get their Pact Boon for a particular tool of the Warlock trade, and to wield a weapon of spectral steel grab Pact of the Blade! The long and short of it is you can make yourself any melee weapon, and Hex Warrior affects any weapon you summon with this feature! This means that you can actually wield a two-handed Greatsword, but feel free to choose other options. Especially now that you can take the Improved Pact Weapon invocation to turn that Cutlass of the Twink King into a +1 weapon, and also summon yourself a gun (shortbow / longbow / light crossbow / heavy crossbow) if you so desire. But I mean, why would you when you have Eldritch Blast?

You can also add some second level spells to your list like Darkness to walk a Harrowed Path through the mist, though remember that even if you can see through the mist your allies probably can’t. And Misty Step, because something something Flash.

LEVEL 5 - WARLOCK 4

4th level means the first of many Ability Score Improvements. Charisma is used for everything that you do so... maybe increase that?

You also get another spell and another cantrip! For your cantrip Mage Hand is helpful to manipulate the mist to grab things from high places. As for leveled spells Blur is on the Hexblade list... but why would you take that instead of Mirror Image, which doesn’t require Concentration.

(Artwork by @WetHamster1 on Twitter)

LEVEL 6 - WARLOCK 5

5th level Warlocks get more Eldritch Invocations. To knock a foe down with Spectral Maw take Eldritch Smite, letting you channel a spell slot into a particularly deadly slash of your Viego’s Edge.

If you want an extra attack early you can also replace Improved Pact Weapon with Thirsting Blade, which is now available. But we will be getting Extra Attack from other sources later.

You can also now learn third level spells like Vampiric Touch for a bit of lifesteal. As a treat.

LEVEL 7 - WARLOCK 6

6th level Hexblades can put their passive to work, and have spirits serve your Sovereign's Domination. Accursed Specter lets you use the soul of a humanoid you killed and make it serve you, using the stats of a specter with temporary hit points equal to half your Warlock level and a bonus to hit equal to your Charisma modifier. The specter remains in your service until the end of your next long rest, which is good because you can use the ability once per Long Rest. The specter rolls initiative separately from you, and obeys your commands.

And hey: you’ve already got ghosts fighting for you, so why not summon your depression to fight as well? Summon Shadowspawn from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything (requires a 300 gold gemstone containing tears and) summons a spirit of Fury, Despair, or Fear to fight alongside you. There’s a lot of specifics to this spell that I don’t want to go into (its actual description does a far better job than I ever could) but the important thing to note is that it’ll give you another loyal follower.

LEVEL 8 - PALADIN 2

Time for a few levels in that other class we have. Second level Paladins can choose their Fighting Style and of course to swing a Shank of the Former Blessed Isles Great Weapon Fighting (style) will let you reroll low die to more reliably cut through the mists.

Paladins also get Spellcasting at level 2, and unlike with Warlock casting you actually get some spell slots! You can prepare a number of spells equal to your Charisma modifier plus half your Paladin level (rounded down.) Divine Favor will let you do a bit more damage with your titular blade, and if you want more of a burst of damage then either Thunderous Smite or Wrathful Smite will do some more damage along with additional effects. To protect yourself from the mists and others who’d want to keep you from Isolde take Protection from Evil and Good. And to borrow a death realm from the other world-ending lord of Runeterra take Compelled Duel.

Of course you could ignore all that spellcasting stuff for even more Damage of the Ruined Blade! Divine Smite will let you do 2d8 damage with a first level spell slot, plus an additional 1d8 per spell slot above first, up to a maximum of 5d8 (with a 4th level slot.) Additionally if you hit an undead or fiend you’ll do an extra d8, meaning that with a 4th level spell slot you can do 6d8 damage!

The real neat thing is that this works with Smite spells as well as the Eldritch Smite invocation, allowing you to effectively use two spell slots at once to smite if you so desire.

LEVEL 9 - PALADIN 3

3rd level Paladins get to choose their Divine Oath and nothing will stop your Oath of Conquest to save your queen. You get to add the Command spell to your spell list, as well as Armor of Agathys... Uh woups. Uh we’ll address that when we go back to Warlock.

You get two Channel Divinity options: to keep others from stopping you from reaching your queen Conquering Presence will let you force a Wisdom save on units of your choice within 30 feet to frighten them! Alternatively Guided Strike is like Great Weapon Master but in reverse, giving you +10 to hit. This means that if you use Great Weapon Master as well you’d have a +5 to hit and do +10 damage! But remember that you only have one Channel Divinity per short rest.

You also get Divine Health, because simps don’t take sick days.

LEVEL 10 - PALADIN 4

4th level Paladins get another Ability Score Improvement, and we still use Charisma for basically everything so with this you can cap it off completely!

You can also prepare two more spells but... there isn’t much I want from first level? I mean you can take Cure Wounds for a bit of healing... as treat.

LEVEL 11 - PALADIN 5

5th level Paladins get an Extra Attack. If you took Thirsting Blade from Warlock you might want to replace that too.

You can also prepare second level Paladin spells now! As a Conquest Paladin you get Hold Person to stun with Spectral Maw, and Spiritual Weapon for more soldiers from the mist. You can also prepare Aid to strengthen your army and Branding Smite to see your foes through the mist.

(Artwork by @vmatbox on Twitter)

LEVEL 12 - WARLOCK 7

Back to Warlock to replace a lot of things. But firstly you get another Eldritch Invocation: take Trickster's Escape for an emergency QSS.

You also get 4th level spells like Shadow of Moil to become a creature of the mist, and also to get an upgrade from the Darkness spell (which you might want to replace.) Speaking of replacing spells: you got Armor of Agathys from Paladin so replace it with Hallucinatory Terrain to cover the land with mist.

LEVEL 13 - WARLOCK 8

8th level Warlocks get another Ability Score Improvement or a Feat. We’ll be taking the Eldritch Adept feat for more Eldritch Invocations. Which Eldritch Invocation? Why Undying Servitude of course, for more servants of the mist!

D&D Beyond tip: Replace Devil’s Sight and then give yourself 120 feet of Darkvision on the sheet.

You can also get another 4th level spell like Dimension Door, to travel far and wide in a flash to reach your queen.

LEVEL 14 - WARLOCK 9

Hey more Eldritch Invocations! Whispers of the Grave will let you speak to the fragments of Isolde’s soul.

LEVEL 15 - WARLOCK 10

And hey: 5th level spells finally! To strike a foe with Heartbreaker take 

Negative Energy Flood, sundering their health and making them rise to serve you if you end up killing them.

10th level Hexblades get Armor of Hexes. If the target affected by your Hexblade’s Curse hits you with an attack roll, you can use your reaction to roll a d6. On a 4 or higher, the attack instead misses you, regardless of its roll. Naturally this ability makes you particularly good in a 1v1 with whoever you target for Ruination.

You don’t get another spell but you do get a cantrip. Take Toll the Dead to deal with enemies who have high armor, for the mist comes for all.

(Artwork by @stingrae36 on Twitter)

LEVEL 16 - WARLOCK 11

11th level Warlocks get their 6th level Mystic Arcanum, which looks like a spell slot and acts like a spell slot (IE it comes back after a Long Rest, not a Short one) but can’t be used to upcast your other spells. You can only use it to cast one spell, and for an AoE Heartbreaker take good ol’ Circle of Death.

Also more spells known from your regular Warlock slots: Banishing Smite is on the Hexblade list, and can be used to send any demons back to whence they came.

LEVEL 17 - WARLOCK 12

12th level Warlocks get an Ability Score Improvement or a Feat. I have no idea what else to grab so take the Tough feat for a much needed 24 hitpoint increase to a primarily melee-based character.

You also get another Eldritch Invocation so it’s finally time to get the true Blade of the Ruined King damage with Lifedrinker! This will make any foe struck by your Pact Weapon take an additional 5 necrotic damage. This means that you should be doing 2d6 + 11 damage with every swing of a (+1) Greatsword!

LEVEL 18 - WARLOCK 13

More Mystic Arcanum, this time at 7th level! Power Word Pain will let you subjugate the weak.

And more regular spells: Danse Macabre lets you get more servants forever loyal at your side!

LEVEL 19 - WARLOCK 14

14th level Hexblades are Master of Hexes. Put simply: when a creature affected by Hexblade’s Curse dies, you can apply the curse to a different creature you can see within 30 feet of you. (Though you won’t be healed for the last foe’s death.) This will let you bounce your curse around and reap all its benefits constantly, becoming a master of your own blade.

LEVEL 20 - WARLOCK 15

Our last level is the 15th level of Warlock for a handful of benefits. Firstly we can get an 8th level Mystic Arcanum: Feeblemind is the ultimate tool to truly sunder the weak and discard the chaff.

Secondly you can get your level 15 Eldritch Invocations, and to never mistake Isolde’s face Witch Sight will let you see through any illusion that may be hiding her!

You may also want to replace Improved Pact Weapon as by this point you’ve likely found something better than a regular old +1 greatsword. Visions of Distant Realms and Shroud of Shadows are both very good options.

And we can finally get our last spell: as you gather enough information on the new world Scrying will help you expand your search further beyond!

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Surrender to me! - Two smites plus Great Weapon Master on an already deadly blade results in absolutely devastating spikes of damage with your sword. God forbid you crit!

The black mist flows from me like a tide - You also have plenty of tricks to give you an upper hand in longer combats. Hexblade’s Curse of course, but also Armor of Agathys, Shadow of Moil, and Spiritual Weapon.

Fight, puppet; fight for your king! - You can summon all manner of ghosts, ghouls, skeletons, zombies, and everything in between to serve in your search for your queen.

CONS

The world denied my happiness - Low ability scores mean that your skills won’t be amazing. The ones you’re proficient in are alright but you aren’t much help outside of being deadly and being royal.

Answer for your crimes, death; answer me! - We didn’t take the 6th level of Paladin which means we didn’t get Aura of Protection. As a result your saving throws are rather low, and while I tried to avoid grabbing too many Concentration spells yo do still have quite a few, which is not at all helped by your meager +1 to CON.

She remains in this world; I can feel it - All the melee tools in the world don’t mean much when you lack any proper way to get close. You have Eldritch blast sure but beyond Dimension Door (which granted is very strong) enemies can easily keep their distance from the mad king with a big blade. Even if you want to use Dimension Door you have a very limited amount of spell slots.

But the world can only hide from the Ruination for so long. The black mist comes, and with it you come to search for your queen. Nothing can stop you; nothing will stop you until you have her again. The world shall be torn to shreds and shattered beyond repair, as long as you can have your queen... Or like, just find a Wish spell or something? Shame you’re a couple thousand years old because True Resurrection doesn’t even work anymore.

(Artwork by Bo “chenbowow” Chen. Made for Riot Games.)

[qm-vox]

So You Want To Run A Summer Court

Previous articles: So You Want To Run A Winter Court & So You Want To Run An Autumn Court

My endless thanks to SSG Jacob Karpel, US Army, for his advice and perspective on this article as a member of the Armed Forces. He helped enhance quite a few sections and clean up quite a few more; any errors are mine, not his.

The Court of Wrath. The Crimson Court. The Iron Spear. Summer is the second of the Seasonal Courts, the second of the Rising Seasons, and the Court with what is perhaps the greatest clarity of purpose, both as an individual political body and as a part of the wider Freehold. Summer prides itself on its utilitarian vision, its apolitical culture, service to its fellow Lost, and commitment to discipline, honor, and courage.

All of which is, to greater and lesser extents, bullshit.

The following article provides advice on designing and running your own Summer Court and Summer Courtiers, as either a player or storyteller, and draws primarily on Changeling: the Lost, Lords of Summer, and Swords at Dawn. Other books, if referenced, will be cited.

Disclaimer: I’m gonna be real, Summer is a Court near and dear to my heart, and may be my favorite of the Seasonal Courts. Obviously any source of information is going to have biases and even as a reader of something for enjoyment like Changeling it pays to be aware of those biases, but ah. I may be more biased than usual when it comes to my angrah children and how they screm. You have been advised; do as thou wilt.

Knights of Wrath - An Overview

Summer is associated with Wrath in all of its forms: anger, fury, hatred, frustration, malice, and more. The Iron Spear rarely lacks for recruits; the Lost are often angry, and forming a Summer Mantle is relatively easy as a result. To advance one though, to grow in one’s mystic bond to the Crimson Court, is not just to nurture blind rage but to relate to your Wrath, the Wrath of others, and to utilize it in your life.

Broadly, Summer serves as the soldiers of its Freehold (more on this later though). Like most military forces, that role is wider than one might expect. Unlike most military forces, your average Summer Court may be as little as a dozen guys and a truck. Compromises get made; rare is the knight of Summer that is not pulling double or triple duty in some way. Still, Summer takes on these duties both out of a sense of duty or obligation to the wider Freehold, and because as a Court it values strength in all of its forms: strength of body, strength of mind, strength of purpose, character, and will. Summer utilizes that strength in place of the social manipulations and magical trickery of the other Courts; in directly confronting the often labyrinthine machinations of the True Fae and other enemies of the Lost, the Summer Court represents an out-of-context problem that many fae and Fae are simply unused to dealing with.

The Chain of Command

All but the absolutely most self-aware Summer Courts tend to sell themselves as apolitical meritocracies. It isn’t a lie exactly - they certainly see themselves that way - but it is still bullshit. Any society has politics, and Summer is no different. Where Summer differs from the maneuverings of its sibling Courts is in how those politics manifest, starting with the Crown.

The one universal constant of how all Summer Courts from Tokyo to New York City govern themselves is the manner in which the Crown settles on the head of a ruler, which is built into the pacts that define the Court; that is, Summer doesn’t have the option to not rule themselves in this way. When the Court of Wrath takes power (typically on the day of the Summer Solstice until the Autumnal Equinox, though local customs may vary), the Crown manifests on the brow of whichever Summer Courtier is most seen by the others as their leader.

The candidate in question does not have any say in the matter.

This enforced democracy lasts for at least the reign of Summer, and it means that in theory Summer could change monarchs every year. In practice this is a lot less likely to happen; the Lost offer their trust with their whole hearts, so someone they pick with their hearts and minds to lead them is going to have to fuck up pretty mightily to not have the job again next year. While this is prone to the usual issues of democratic election (the Lost people want is not necessarily the best one for the job), it does help ensure unity in the Court, and Summer’s utilitarian culture does help offset the possibility of an incompetent monarch. Option two for becoming King is to murder the reigning monarch and take the Crown from their brow. Assuming you can get away with this (after all, this is the guy everyone else chose, and they’re likely to be ever-so-slightly annoyed that you murdered him), it makes you the monarch for the remainder of that Summer - at which point you’ve got the rest of the year to earn the Court’s hearts and minds, or you’re right back at this ‘regicide or no regicide’ decision point.

Those with doubts about Summer’s abiding friendship with the Spring Court are usually cured of them when they examine the remainder of Summer’s titles that serve beneath or alongside the Crown. The following titles and their functions are sourced from Lords of Summer and expanded on.

Wroth General Calescent  - Summer’s greatest strategist and military leader is given the title of Wroth General. In Courts that maintain a General (which is not necessarily all of them; many Summer monarchs are expected to fill this role, and may be saddled with the Crown specifically because of their strategic and tactical prowess), the individual in question may be equal to or greater in power than the Crown. Generals are more likely to flourish if Summer is politically powerful in its Freehold, if the Freehold is unusually populous, or ideally both; their broader strategic focus makes them an excellent candidate for creating and executing policies that involve the cooperation of the Freehold as a whole. In a Court with a politically powerful General, the Crown is likely to fill the role of embodying Summer’s ideals, setting grand strategy, and ensuring internal discipline and morale. A politically weaker General (either in comparison to a strong Crown or because the General is legitimately uninterested in politics) will serve in a more advisory capacity to the Crown’s overall command.

Iron Adjutant - In some ways the opposite of the Wroth General, the adjutant serves as the Crown’s majordomo; they handle the day-to-day running of the Court and attend to its logistics. While some monarchs offload this entire job to the Adjutant, it’s rarer than you might think, both because Freeholds are small societies and because, again, the Crown generally gets selected to do some actual leading. Still, a talented Iron Adjutant is vital for the smooth running of the Freehold during the Season itself, and for keeping Summer’s swords sharpened, its guns reloaded, and its armor in good repair. A wise monarch values those services quite highly.

Red Victor - The other title given to someone whether they like it or not, the Red Victor is the Crimson Court’s greatest champion, a Lost whose list of heroic deeds are both numerous and insane - Keepers struck down to the dirt of the mortal realm, slaves rescued from durance vile, horrors from the Hedge leashed and made to serve the Freehold, and more besides. She is the living embodiment of the triumph of Summer’s ideals, likely a beloved figure through the entire Freehold, and quite possibly one of the single-most personally powerful Lost within it. It’s not an easy job. Getting here can take a toll on your Clarity, and the duties expected of you are extremely public, to say nothing of continuing to serve as the Court’s champion. The death of the Red Victor sends her Court into magically-enforced mourning that can core the strength of Summer for weeks, creating a vulnerability in her Freehold. A good Victor recognizes this and acts accordingly, as the leader she may not have wanted to be but definitely is; a poor one is likely too busy with hookers and blow to care.

Hunter of the Longest Day (Jaeger) - The Jaeger is the Court of Wrath’s premier bounty hunter, tracker, and sometimes assassin. While Summer’s MO is to directly confront deception and labyrinthine plots, every now and again you need a single target taken out or dragged back in alive, or the Court requires a personal touch to move in alongside Autumn or Winter intelligence operatives. The Jaeger is valued for these talents more than their potential to contribute in a stand-up fight, and while the position is one of the most apolitical of the Court (and the most apolitical at its level of resplendent Mantle) it does net the bearer quite a bit of glory and pay if they can keep up the good work. More broadly, the Jaeger represents a living reminder to Summer that every now and again it’s better to hold back so that your devastating charge can hit the enemy from the side instead of right in the teeth of their defenses.

Sun’s Tongue - The full version of this title is, I shit you the fuck not, The Song Sung by the Sun’s Told Tongue, and if you don’t think Spring trots that out at the tiniest excuse to say the whole thing out loud you’d better think again. The Sun’s Tongue is Summer’s formal diplomat, tasked with interfacing directly with the other Courts, representing Summer’s interests to them, and bringing their interests back to the Crown. As the Court’s strongest primary social role, the Sun’s Tongue tends to be an odd duck in comparison to their fellow Summer Courtiers, but they still embrace the Court’s ideals of direct action and strength, often with a strong grounding in the philosophies of realpolitik and mutually beneficial arrangements. Unlike the Legate of Mists in Autumn, the Sun’s Tongue is only rarely a buffer between horrifying Courtiers and people justifiably worried about said Courtiers; instead they serve to facilitate the negotiations of the Crown and the Wroth General, and to keep a finger on the wider pulse of the Freehold.

Arrayer of Distant Thunder - The hidden hard mode of Summer’s social roles, the Arrayer of Distant Thunder has the “commission of array”, the right and responsibility to speak to any member of the Freehold from Queen to pauper and draft them for war. If that was all they did, the Arrayer position would be quite empty except in the largest of Freeholds (where their person-to-person interaction with Lost outside of Summer itself makes them an absolutely invaluable resource to the Wroth General and the Crown); the Arrayer of Distant Thunder is also responsible for ensuring that these other Lost are ready for war. Though it falls out of the formal scope of the title, that means that a good or even middling Arrayer either trains Lost in combat or arranges for them to be trained, negotiates with the other Courts to ensure they maintain armories in the event of an emergency, and is tasked with reaching out to even the most isolated and short-tempered of their fellows to bring them into the fold for battle. Where the Wroth General dictates grand strategy and the overall expense of resources, the Arrayer is expected to know the individuals involved and to advise their superiors on where best to place their talents in war or in preparation for the same. Rare is the Arrayer of Distant Thunder without a scattering of Court Goodwill across the entire Freehold.

Constable of Calefaction - The sheriff of the Summer Court, who for some godforsaken reason is called “the Calefactor” instead of Sheriff in your usual case (Summer: “We are serious adults.” Also Summer: This, constantly, in every fucking title). The Calefactor’s primary responsibility is maintaining internal discipline and keeping the peace in the Summer Court; as a society of people who encourage each other to get mad and kill things, they are somewhat prone to, you know, getting mad and killing things. Most Summer Courts are small enough that the Calefactor is the only formal member of any kind of law enforcement, which means that they often share skills in common with the local Jaeger, including tracking, investigation, and a certain distressing insight into the psychology of their prey. However, in an unusually populous Freehold, or one with strong intimate relationships between the Courts, the Calefactor may fill a more general role of law enforcement and informal counseling, working closely with figures such as the Verdant Advocate (Spring), the Ashen Notary (Autumn), and Winter’s Iceclad Armigers.

Man-At-Arms - A cut above the standard grunts, Men-At-Arms (local titles vary, inevitably into something more dramatic like ‘Crimson Knight’) are the minimum tier at which the Court pays for your upkeep. Expected to fill the role of primary combatants, Men-At-Arms have their mundane equipment seen to by the Court, and depending on the situation in their Freehold may also have concerns such as rent and food taken care of so that they can focus their attention on the full-time needs of soldiering. Of course, no Freehold is on a war footing all the time, so without the attendant responsibilities of higher ranks one will find the Men-At-Arms hiring themselves out to their peers in other Courts and supporting their Motleys in personal projects, as the desire and need strikes them.

Dust Grunt/Mud Grunt - The bottom of the barrel; Summer’s youngbloods are trained in battle and small-unit tactics and then put on the front lines to soften up the enemy. Chances are you start here when you sign onto the Court (but see below), and these irregulars can more often resemble a militia rather than the greater standardization of the warriors above them, with equipment ranging from nickel-plated revolvers to sharpened shovels. These decisions are more pragmatic on the part of the Court than they are malicious, though even the most hellbent fuck-up of a Grunt is part of Summer’s brotherhood, to be defended by their fellows.

Lords of Summer presents two more bottom-tier titles, the Sentry of Summer’s Vigil and the Mule Squire. Both of these are redundant to the Grunts; the Sentry’s work of guarding locations or people, and the Squire’s work of essentially doing the Court’s cleaning and make-work are both great uses of spare Grunts that need something to do, and a way of teaching or forcing discipline on them. Even in a modern military apparatus like the United States military, full-time guards are an incredible rarity and are mainly a position of honor rather than an immediate and intense need that craves filling. I encourage you to ignore both of these titles entirely.

So, how does one advance in Summer? Not dying is a good early step, as is putting in the work. Summer joins Winter in being one of the more utilitarian and pragmatic Courts, and that means demonstrating that you can fill the position you’re seeking. Its internal culture of cultivating strength and training means that someone who aspires to climb the ranks can often find someone else willing to teach them, provided they haven’t lost the respect of their own Court somehow. Given the reality of Summer’s limited numbers, it can pay to build a relationship with the current holder of the title you’re seeking so that they can teach you directly. Unlike Autumn, which often has the practical problem of its apprentices going full Sith Lord on their masters, Summer’s often quite happy to teach you what it knows; after all, they have a much higher than average chance of leaving a vacancy through no fault of your own.

But there is also the matter of the Tribulum.

By virtue of ancient tradition, a certain repressed sense of drama, and a not-insignificant amount of malice, those who seek title and authority in Summer must petition to be tested. Collectively, these tests and the process of them are the Tribulum, which in theory threshes the wheat from the chaff. They can be fantastically cruel; an aspiring officer might be forced to win back-to-back chess games for days on end with no opportunity to eat or sleep, or an aspirant to become the Arrayer of Distant Thunder timed on runs through the Freehold that demand death-defying feats of parkour. In a healthy Summer Court, these tests have more benefit than the cruel amusement of the higher-ups (though they definitely provide that benefit); they help those in power gauge how the aspirant performs their duties under pressure, and see how they relate to their own Wrath and how that Wrath is expressed in the job they seek. Someone seeking a social role such as the Sun’s Tongue may be expected to navigate a party or conference while the Court embarrasses, undermines, or demeans her; a potential Jaeger may be kidnapped and thrown naked into the Hedge with a command to bring back the head of a dread beast. Those who survive these trials emerge with the respect of their peers and the confidence of their superiors, with the obvious downside being that sometimes, people don’t survive them and the Court is then deprived of their talents.

Once the chain of command is established, Summer organizes itself and the Freehold (during its reign) along militaristic lines, with clearly established authority and duties. Lawful orders are to be obeyed for the greater good of the Lost around you and the things you, and they, care about. The Crimson Court can be somewhat clannish, though not nearly to the extent of Winter. Aside from its essentially selfless mission statement, Summer tends to frame the Freehold as a whole as an army in which everyone helps everyone else, with Summer and a select few members of other Courts as that army’s core combatants. They take pride in the dangerous work they do, and offer their respect to others willing to take it on. This does mean that Summer, like Autumn, only rarely has its internal logistics established; they rely on Spring and Winter for income and political interfacing with much of the mortal realm, and on Autumn to help provide magical backup and Goblin Fruits, to say nothing of capabilities like Spring’s powers of healing, Winter’s intelligence work, or Autumn’s mind-shattering powers over Fear that Summer simply cannot match on its own even if it has internal specialists that can support those roles.

The Promise of Summer

Summer tends to be loud and proud about its high ideals, and those ideals can be very attractive to potential recruits. On the practical level, Summer offers skills such as combat training and self-defense, and the self-confidence to use them. Lost who have strength can often flock to Summer, but so do those that crave strength, who want the power to change the narrative if their Keeper comes back for them again. Ogres, social Beasts (especially those that run in packs and herds), and Elementals are often natural adopters of Summer for these reasons, though you’ll find people in every Seeming who look at the circumstances of their Durance and conclude that if they’d been stronger, faster, or more decisive, they might have been able to make a difference.

Beyond practicality though, Summer offers the Lost that join it something to fight for beyond just survival. Ideals like justice, honor, and duty are near and dear to Summer’s heart. The most compelling promise of Summer to many of its recruits is the idea that they can take the evil done to them and make something good out of it. Summer is well aware that the world is unjust, that the honorable are taken advantage of by the deceitful, that people shirk their duties. That knowledge can turn toxic in some Summers, resulting in elitist braggarts or callous killers jaded by the dark world around them, but many other Summer Courts accept the reality and work on changing it. Maybe you can’t fix the world, but you can fix your part of it, and in a world of darkness holding forth a light to guide others becomes all the more important.

Most Summer Courts romanticize a knightly ideal of some kind, or another militaristic one, which enshrines the values to which they aspire. A certain amount of self-awareness goes into this even if Summer doesn’t talk a lot about it. Violence is not an easy thing to practice, and it can do things to you if you don’t have people to help you through it, don’t have rocks to hold onto, don’t have values to guide you. Though published material is rife with Summer Courts in a hard failure spiral (arguably, White Wolf has never published a Summer in a success state, not that I’m FUCKING BITTER), a successful Summer Court is as much a support group for its members as its peers are. Even beyond valuing a code of honor in itself, questions like “is this what a true knight would do?” can help ground a soldier of Summer before they make an angry choice that leads to regrets.

Ultimately, the core of Summer’s promise for your healing and recovery is bringing good out of evil. The Lost who join Summer were hurt and abused; Summer can help them ensure that others are not. They may struggle with self-discipline, self-control, or self-confidence; Summer can offer them the training they need to have these things. The weak and fearful can be raised into strength and courage. The Court of Wrath may tempt new recruits with vengeance against the Fae who wronged them, but those that stay do so because they want, or need, what Summer has to offer them.

Fury Oh Fury

Like Fear, Wrath is a passion that can very easily turn toxic. Summer knows this. Whether Summer does anything about that is another question, but for the most part even a Summer Court in a tight failure spiral isn’t stupid enough to simply let loose their brimming Wrath at-will. No one can be angry all day, every day, but you can cultivate anger, both in yourself and others. How Summer relates to its Wrath and what it uses that Wrath for defines it as a local Court.

Not all Lost are cut out for Wrath; as a passion, it is often one that grows out of another. Wrath at the loss (and thus Sorrow) one has endured, Wrath at the object of one’s Fear, Wrath that stems from frustrated Desire. While Summer is willing to help recruits find their anger, it can’t make the decision to seek and build a relationship with Wrath for a Changeling. For those who are angry, and seek validation or explanation for their anger, joining Summer provides them with the support and context needed to ask the foundational question, “Why am I angry? What am I angry about?”. From there, they can start on their journey towards relating to their own anger, and that of others.

While Summer values Wrath in and of itself, it tends to be more practical about that than its companion Courts do. Wrath is the tool with which Summer does its job; it sparks the protests that Summer uses to correct injustice, drives home the blades they use to put down True Fae, spurs on the athletes they take to competitions. It can provide the foundation of Summer’s camaraderie and brotherhood, and encourages Summer to defend those who cannot defend themselves. While some Summer Courts can be clannish and dismissive of the other Courts, most recognize that they choose violence in the hopes that others can have the opportunity to not make that choice. When mortals or Lost trying to live peaceful lives become the prey of the wicked, Summer’s Wrath is there to intercede.

Summer takes care to keep the fires of its Wrath ready. It’s not about constantly blazing with Wrath, which no one can do, but in recognizing the causes of their own anger and bringing it out. It can be bitter and hurtful work, remembering the pains you’ve been caused, deliberately nursing grudges, but it also provides Summer with a boundless source of energy and motivation. In a healthy Summer, this also means that the Court, so famed for its heights of berserk fury and unending rage, is also a paragon of proportionate response. “You wanna fight about it?” is less of a threat from Summer than it is an offer; two members of the Crimson Court knock each other around for a bit to vent their Wrath, to gain the satisfaction of taking action, and then sit down to shake hands or to negotiate a formal peace. It can look needlessly macho from the outside (and, in fairness, it kinda is), but it’s also an acknowledgement of each other’s Wrath; in resolving personal conflicts directly, Summer accepts the grievances that cause them as valid.

When it comes to the Wrath of others, Summer can have a dividing line between causing Wrath (which they must do to sustain their magical reserves) and relating to that Wrath. Malice is a kind of Wrath, and it’s a useful one for a Summer Courtier who needs Glamour because ultimately it means pissing people off. The ability to be a dick about just about anything on demand is a handy one for Summer, whether it’s by holding up a busy line during the lunch rush, insulting someone in front of their friends, or deadass eating someone’s burrito while they’re walking by and legging it for the hills like a hungry, burrito-deprived person is about to kill your bitch ass. The Fleeting Summer Contract also helps Summer seek out large sources of anger they themselves did not cause, at which point Summer has a choice to make about what they find. Joining a protest or demonstration for a just cause can both feed Summer the Glamour it needs and advance its ideals, but Summer also sometimes finds people rioting, attacking abortion clinics, or forming lynch mobs. Summer’s remit is to defend the innocent, and a healthy Summer will value that remit over the potential power they could gain, but not all Summers are healthy, and horrible things are done in the name of strength. For those that do choose to stand by their principles, becoming the target of the ambient Wrath - say, by standing up for those in danger - is a great way to gain the Glamour they’re about to need to defuse the situation.

In relating to the Wrath of others, Summer often practices solidarity. Only rarely will you hear a knight of Summer saying you’re angry for a stupid reason (and if they do, chances are your reason is stupid indeed); they can make fantastic listeners about the woes of your life that have made you angry, and excellent counselors on how to handle that anger. Making Wrath and war their business also means that Summer excels at practical self-care. A Summer Courtier is often going to be the first person to tell their friends and Motley that they’re mad because they’re hungry, overstimulated, exhausted, or other sources of non-productive Wrath, and to encourage those same people to, y’know, grab a Snickers. It can take a bit for Summer to catch up to the things that make mortals angry (the Lost can have awkward relationships with labor protests, for instance, because for many freshly escaped Lost the idea of safe work practices is alien), but once they do you’ll find Summer soldiers supporting all manner of causes. “What do you want to do about it?” is the common follow-up question when Summer hears that one of its friends is angry, and the Court can be both a great enabler of direct action and a sort of safety valve to help keep responses proportionate, or the situation safe for those who seek to take that action. Many of the Lost struggle with feelings of guilt or doubt about their own woes and their own Wrath, and Summer stands to validate that Wrath for them, to remind them that they have a right to be angry about what they went through and a right to seek resolution to their anger. For many, being asked the simple question of if they’re willing to be the sort of person who takes the revenge or retribution they claim to desire can defuse a lifetime of regrets before they happen.

Shit’s On Fire Yo - Hedgefire Wars and Summer’s Day-to-Day.

The majority of this section is drawn from Swords at Dawn.

No society can stay on a true war footing for long. Even modern giants like the United States of America can only really, emotionally, rev up for armed conflict for about five years before the fight is just gone from the general populace, even if the actual state of war persists. While Freeholds live in a world of constant danger from the Fae, from the Hedge, and sometimes from each other, they are also much smaller than the communities they live in, and much less able to maintain a state of armed conflict for an extended period of time. The Lost can have trouble coping with stress on the best of days, but even if everyone is ready and willing to fight, there are logistical issues. Soldiers need feeding and if they’re constantly combat-ready they’re not actively contributing to the wealth of the Freehold that is used to feed them. Shields need forging, armor needs repairing, guns need ammo, rent needs to get paid, Glamour needs harvesting, Goblin Fruits need collecting, and the longer a conflict drags on the harder all of those get.

Thankfully, these logistical issues seem to exist on both sides. The Gentry do not gather grand armies, and neither do hobgoblins. The Lost, of course, can’t; a Freehold might be as small as 19 people total, and the world’s largest is barely 200 soaking wet. As a result, so-called Hedgefire Wars tend to be brief, excessively violent conflicts with strong similarities to conflicts between gangs or criminal organizations, often decided in a single battle or a series of ambushes and traps. Summer makes a point of excelling at these conflicts, which can tip the balance when they occur. The True Fae, masters of deception and indirect action, are often simply not prepared to even imagine a troop of Iron Spear soldiers kicking their door in and starting to shoot.

So what does Summer do with all of the time it’s not conducting Hedgefire Wars? Train, for one; being able to conduct a military action at the drop of a hat like that means personal and collective training, drills, and putting in the work. Summer’s soldiers assist their Motleys or hire out to other Courts for dangerous work such as escorting messengers through the Hedge, clearing the site of a proposed Hollow, or body-guarding nobles during tense negotiations in order to keep their edge sharp. Summer supports causes in the mortal world with varying levels of legal-to-vigilante activity; it’s not unheard of for a local Summer Court to take on an organized crime family out of sheer moral outrage, personal vendetta, or literally just to keep their hand in the game. A Summer with a strong Arrayer of Distant Thunder, or in an especially imperiled Freehold, may fill some of their time training reserves from the other Courts in this manner as well. Summer soldiers volunteer or are assigned to guard Hedge Gates or care for vital, communal Freehold assets that might otherwise be vulnerable to theft or destruction.

Beyond that, Summer creates and participates in competitions of all kinds. Wrath dwells in the heart of the competitive spirit, and athletic events, esports, and other contests can be a fantastic magical investment for Summer, but they also host competitions inside of their Freehold to build camaraderie and encourage themselves and others to diversify their strengths. Yeah, Autumn is probably going to win a contest of sorcerous innovation hosted by the Court of Wrath, but by throwing the contest to begin with Summer not only gives Autumn the chance to show off its might and feel good about its choices, but encourages all who participate in the contest to improve their witchcraft and thus become stronger, more capable Lost. The soldiers of the Iron Spear are often the first to sign up for competitions thrown by the other Courts, and some of the first to offer or accept formal duels, especially those that do not end in death.

Brothers in Arms - Organizing Summer

Alone in Lost society, the basic unit of Summer is the Court; Summer’s internal culture of brotherhood and solidarity can make it difficult to divide into discrete chunks or turn against itself, because quite often, unless the matter is wholly personal, to deal with one knight of the Iron Spear is to deal with all of them. While internal titles (both the near-universal ones listed above and local ones created to serve the needs of a particular Freehold) denote a place in the chain of command and specific responsibilities over which a particular Lost can claim authority, in general Summer Courtiers help each other out for the asking, safe in the knowledge that they will be helped in turn. Summer’s claims of being apolotical might be bullshit (no society is free of politics), but its offer of mutual support is as genuine as they come.

The small nature of Lost society and in particular being one Court out of four in such a society means that Summer Courtiers live in each other’s metaphorical pants. While they’re expected to obey the chain of command, the upshot of this is that even the lowliest Mud Grunt can reasonably expect to voice an opinion about a proposed plan of action, or reveal their specific expertise that might assist in an operation or proposal, and have that voice heard by the Crown and luminaries such as the Wroth General. They may not be heeded, but they will be heard. The bickering and backstabbing that can attend to small-town politics exists here, of course, but Summer strives to keep that to a minimum and to respect the contributions of its soldiers. Even if it didn’t value solidarity as a virtue, any given Summer Court often doesn’t have a choice; there’s only so many bodies to go around, and the Court can’t afford to hemorrhage men to disrespect.

Still, loose groups do form, generally composed of the holder of a particular title (say, the Jaeger) and those Courtiers they trust to assist them and/or are being trained to take that position in the event of a vacancy. These informal cliques are more about the specialized work done by those in them than they are about politics, with the collective identity of the Iron Spear taking precedence, but they can and do often represent divisions of ideology within the Court. The Jaeger and her apprentice are naturally going to be among those who prefer indirect attack and ambush; in contrast, a friendship between the Sun’s Tongue and the Arrayer of Distant Thunder can form on the basis of being the only social roles in a Court that largely does not value such roles. In cases where the Court divides against itself, such as revolution, one likely finds these cliques collectively on either side of the line.

A Girl Worth Fighting For

I went there and I regret nothing!

There can be a disconnect between Summer and its companion Courts, mainly because Summer by its nature is composed of people who respond to some, many, or all negative situations by getting angry, and this is not necessarily or even often the case for their peers. Still, Summer - like Winter - has an appreciation for how friendships with members of other Courts can help balance out their own life, and the lives of the Lost around them. Winter doesn’t just keep Summer stocked with bullets, it reminds Summer of what has been lost and what remains left to lose. Autumn provides a whisper of caution that tempers Summer’s valor, and counsel away from the pit of darkness that violence can lead them to. The deep and famous friendship between Summer and Spring exists because quite often, while Summer fights, it is Spring that builds something worth fighting for. Summer, in turn, offers not just their own services to these other Courts but a reminder of the courage, honor, and valor of which they are capable. A knight of Summer defends their friends, and a good one inspires those friends to stand up for themselves too.

Summer’s straightforward approach and generally honest culture makes them seem easy to be friends with, though that same straightforward honesty can also be a frustration in their friendships and romances. A knight of Summer who’s still struggling with their Wrath and with self-control & self-discipline soon finds themselves without friends outside of their own Court, and for good reason. Anger is the tool with which you are supposed to do your job, not a curse to visit upon those you love. The Court exists to try and help those unfortunates, but they need to accept that help or it won’t do them any good.

Summer’s romances can be internal for a lot of the reasons that Winter Courtiers tend to date other Winter Courtiers; both people understand the shared struggles of those who practice violence, as well as the day-to-day things such as bruises from training that can be awkward to explain to outsiders. Summer also often falls in with Spring when they become attracted to the joy, verve, and glad-hearted acceptance that Spring has to offer (Spring, for its own part, is often fascinated by the sheer passion of Summer’s Wrath, and many Spring Courtiers can find something romantic in loving someone protective and nurturing). Courtships with Autumn happen at times as well, which go better than it sounds on its face; Autumn’s self-awareness is often good for a Summer lover, and they have a lot of the understanding that Summer/Summer romances bring to the table. The opportunity to let their hair down, stop being spooky, and be honest with someone can be a great relief to an Autumn Courtier who otherwise struggles with self-doubt and Clarity.

The Ranks of the Raging - Making Summer Courtiers

When making your own Summer Courtier, think about why they chose to make the honestly-unusual decision to become a knight of Summer. Most Lost lean away from direct confrontation and direct action, favoring tools such as theft, conspiracy, and avoidance; even an Ogre who joins Summer has made a somewhat unusual choice in the grander context of the Wyrd. Does your character already have great strength of some variety, or have they joined the Iron Spear seeking such strength? Is Summer their first Court, or have they come here from another? How do they feel about the high ideals at the heart of Summer? Some other considerations include:

What Is Worth Fighting For? - In a society with a pretty high mortality rate, Summer’s is higher than average. What does your character seek, or want to protect, that encourages them to put their life on the line? How do they relate to violence and what do they think of those whose relationship to it is different? Has there ever been a moment of great courage or cowardice in their past that still motivates them?

What Are You Angry About? - Everyone’s traumas and tragedies are different. What is the burning heart of your character’s Wrath? Do they take a genuine interest in the Wrath of others, or are they consumed with their own pain and resolution? Will they accept Lost society’s vision of justice for the wrongs done upon them, or will only revenge soothe their fury? Could their Wrath ever burn out?

What Do You Offer The Court? - Summer could use all kinds of specialized roles, especially if you’re willing to teach them to others. Are you a hunter and tracker, able to bring down dangerous foes by yourself? A classic Grunt or Man-At-Arms, ready to throw down? A teacher and motivator, being groomed by your local Arrayer? Do you have unusual skills such as stunt driving or engineering that the local Court might have recruited you explicitly for?

How Do You Relate To Others? - Summer’s brotherhood is a place where the Courtiers can let their hair down and relax. That solidarity does not necessarily automatically exist outside of Summer; how do you relate to members of other Courts and their differing ideals? Do you take pride in fighting to defend their diverse viewpoints? What friendships and connections do you have outside of your Court and why are they important to you? Are any of them mortal?

Stand Together - Summer In Your Freehold

Unlike Autumn, Summer has a pretty clearly defined role in the Freehold, which helps to keep its direct political relationships with the other Courts relatively simple. Summer has needs (guns, ammo, blades, armor, food, space for their armories, medical care, emotional support, etc) that the other Courts can provide, and in exchange for those needs they provide military service, advice, and support, as well as services for which physical strength and speed can be invaluable such as labor for construction projects or hauling in big-ass boxes of decorations for Spring’s parties. The cold fact of the matter is that Summer is good at spending money and bad at making it (almost like they’re combat-ready soldiers or something, who would have fucking guessed), so the Court of Wrath needs some kind of positive relationship with at least Spring or Winter, and ideally with both. Some Summers try to resolve this with a military coup, but that’s how you get Miami and no one wants Miami.

Summer tends towards extremes, either being very healthy or very toxic, and can be sensitive to the attitudes of its leadership about where it falls in that divide, though not for the reasons people think. It’s not that a toxic Crown creates a toxic Court, it’s that toxic Courts end up electing toxic Crowns, and then the cycle reinforces itself quite a bit. Often the only way to resolve this problem is for the Crown to die for some reason and for a better leader to change things while Summer is temporarily without a king. Unfortunately as trained warriors and hateful bastards, Summer leaders can be somewhat difficult to kill.

The situation the Lost find themselves in can make authoritarian leaders appealing, which means that regardless of season, Summer’s relative political power goes up during times of strife and chaos. At the same time, the Lost are sensitive to oppression and enslavement, and have a strong tradition of taking dictators and nailing their skin to a door in case some other asshole gets Ideas. During its own season, Summer extends its chain of command to include the other Courts, in part because that’s how Summer thinks and moves, and in part as a sort of yearly drill for wartime that lasts the entire Summer. When battle comes calling, the Lost of your Freehold should already know what’s expected of them.

As always, I welcome feedback, discussion, and criticisms on this article. Thank you for your time in reading!

Next up: Spring.