@ Maxwell:...That map...is awesome lol. Thank you so much. I think I can make this work now. I've adjusted my post outline to accommodate all the new information, and I'll have a rough draft done today. Expect an edited version tomorrow come hell, high water...or haukes.

That map is great! I see my assumption of city walls abutting the keep was incorrect. Ah well, that happens, presumably, Sir could still have made it over the walls, as undetected as he was... probably not, but shhhhhhhh(unless you'd like me to change that?). Also, now I'm curious about the other royal emblems. That manticore is pretty awesome, by the way.

Acrolith, I liked the post too. :)

So, does that mean that all, or most, of the kingdoms wouldn't demand levies except in the form of taxes? No enlistment demands of having every of age citizen spend two years in the army or join the ranks whenever war is declared? I suppose since the other kingdoms are constantly warring, it'd make sense they'd have an actual standing army and find it worth their while to pay it, since they'd be, hopefully for them, adding to their coffers from the loot of each victory. But how do they keep the numbers up? They'd still have to recruit from somewhere, and fighting generally dimishes the ranks rather than replenishes it. (Duh, Nem, thanks for that bit of wisdom. *coughs*)

As far as I know, the only real-world country (in Medieval Europe, which is what I'm basing these countries on by default) that had everyone practise every year was England, and that was just with the bow. Altranor herself has a reasonably large army of professional soldiers, but the main fighting force comes from all the vassals who are required to provide fighting men and equipment in times of war. There's never been a shortage of eager young recruits with dreams of gold and glory, but if additional soldiers are needed on short notice, there's always mercenaries and - if the need is exceptionally dire - adventurers.

Of course, the fantasy elements of the setting muddles things a bit. A church might decide that your war coincides with the will of their god, and offer the services of their templars and priests. An ogre farmer has neither the lack of fighting skill nor the morale problems of a human, and are very tempting to draft - although that still turns an income into an expense - and wizards tend to be either commissioned officers or mercenaries. If your ruler happened to have a friendly relationship with a dragon (of which the Fanged Island has mercifully few), you would have an incredible terror weapon available, and so on.

Now, I'm not a historian by any stretch of the imagination, so I could certainly be wrong. These are the assumptions I'm running with, though.

That makes sense. I keep forgetting about vassals. Should stop doing that...

Technically, most vassals would be using conscription to build their own armies, which they would then send to the king, unless they have the rights to a mine or other enriching ressource that would allow them to pay for their own little army and the upkeep of infantry and yeomen, but there are numerous methods of getting professional troops, and they could all be using whichever best suits their fancy unless the monarch decreed a universal method or there was some law passed concerning peasantry and citizenship and conscription during active war time.

Vassals also face the problem of sending their main source of income to inevitable death in a war. Conscription probably happens now and then, when the need is dire, but it's not a sustainable method of waging war. Many lords could conceivably hire out their excess soldiers as mercenaries to lords closer to the border, who can put them to lucrative use against monsters and warlords. Yet another reason why the king had such a hard time getting his armies together in time to repel the invaders.

@Maxwell: Just woke up but I'll clack out an explanation before I get to my errands. Picking up on the medievalish vibe you were putting out is what made me want to throw levies into the mix, seeing as unlike today it wasn't an option of last resort. On the assumption that most of these people are serfs, working and living on land they don't own they really are the picture of expendable. It's winter after all, plenty of time to get new farmer before the crops are ready to plant again. And like you said, most would be required to own and practice in the use of a bow or some other form of weapon--so it wouldn't even cost their vassals a copper to pad out the ranks with them. Also keep in mind that if they're taking mostly men that earn their daily bread at quarries, mills, fields and other menial professions they're both physically fit and easily replaced.

Pike formations are devastating. Partly in how quickly men can be taught to use them properly compared to swords and partly from how quickly and cheaply these men and weapons could be fielded. They were the bane of horsemen and great at protecting any soldiers positioned behind them. And protecting is the key, as it is much harder to replace a career soldier ((especially I would think in a setting where they develop superhuman combat prowess)) that a vassal has housed, fed and trained for quite some time, than just another serf.

Still, if you'd rather I bump them up to armsmen I'll happily oblige you. Just let me go out and scratch off my grocery list first.

Acrolith said And like you said, most would be required to own and practice in the use of a bow or some other form of weapon

What I said was that only England did that. And since the vast majority of your workforce are peasants already, getting more of them would require you to recruit them from outside your country. It's not like today, where you have 10% of the population sitting around praying for work.

I would also think that peasants with pikes three times their own length are the last people you send into a city - much less a castle - but I wasn't going to say anything. However, if you want there to be peasant levies running around, that's much more important than what's realistic or not. Just don't have them make up the majority of the armies of anything - I don't want to dip too far into the grimdark bucket. I play Warhammer for that.

Also keeping in mind that conscription doesn't need to mean everyone of age, but could just be one person from every family, or a certain number of people from a certain size of village/hamlet/community/town, it would make sense that at least some of the army brought against Erasmus aren't as well trained. Of course, that could also be the whole, they're the new recruits thing. What better way to get them blooded than tossing them into a siege that seems a pretty cut and dried victory?

Most peasants, even in England, would probably not actually want to be caught with a bow as it would surely mean they've been poaching larger game than they're allowed to take from the lord's land. Although not every country had that rule, it would be fairly prevalent. Peasant weapons were most often their farm tools re-imagined, or slings. Though I honestly have no idea what most conscripts were given when they were brought into an army. Most probably, unless it was a regular thing (which isn't the case here anyhow, I'm just babbling because babbling is fun), they were expected to bring their own or pick something up from a dead enemy.

Pikes can be useful in closed quarters, as moving forward with them would require the whole phalanx to be facing the same direction, so they'd be susceptible to attacks on their flanks and from behind, but then city streets would offer some protection from that. Still, in order to be offensive with pikes, you'd want well-trained men. They do make a great defense, but against enemies on walls... Maybe not so much.

@Maxwell: I'll be sure to dial it back in the future, and for what it's worth I love the feedback.

So, I will either be posting tonight or tomorrow. :) I'm going to a concert tonight which is why it might not be tonight, but tomorrow definitely. Sorry guys, I've had a pretty crazy week, should be much faster from here on out.

@ Maxwell: Question. Do you care if I make Soven's colors blue and white? I know you're giving us a pretty free rein here, but I also don't want to ruin anything else you might have set up. Not that a nation's colors are THAT important lol.

EDIT: And my post is done. I'll edit it into fighting shape tomorrow and post it. I need to do some work on it, but I think it'll at least get Riven out of the situation she's in now.

Reading my posts again, I think I've been more negative than necessary today. Sorry about that, I'll have to watch out for it.

You never know what might be important, heh, but colour schemes are not. Make it whatever you like.

No worries, we kinda got going there. I had fun imagining people going out of their way to befriend dragons though. That amused me, yes it did.

I'm a little over halfway done editing my post. It's...well, it's alright methinks. Feedback would be appreciated since this was a strangely difficult scene for me to write.

I'm boiling over with anticipation!

And it's up. I plan to tinker with it until I have a chance to actually write up a new post. Honestly, I didn't expect it to go quite the way it did but there you go. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so expect wording to change, descriptions to be add, and so on and so forth. The only thing is...it's a battle. Pacing and such should be quicker in a situation like that, no? Anyways, enjoy and feel free to ask questions, comment, pick, poke and otherwise prod.

Fast pacing and getting in the details you want are the bane of each other. I think you did a pretty good job with balancing them both though. And with getting Riven's thoughts through. Which is, of course, always important. :) Any more description will probably slow the pacing too much to keep the action flowing, at least in the actual fight scenes nearer the end. But I don't think it needs anything more there or in the beginning either.

Sir is quite happy she dealt with the other man for him, and is now wondering if he should save her. :P And if Taula needs saving... Speaking of, how close was Taula to Sir at her jumping off the wall point?

*Snerk*, when I describe the ogres as ten-foot dwarves, that's not really what I had in mind. But honestly, why not? I can think of at least one Scotsman who'd make a great ogre.

Guys, you don't have to put so much effort into your posts. You're making me look bad here. ;P

Writing is fun. :P

And that insult was pretty epic.

I can't stop playing that link....