The warm autumn winds shifted through the bustling courtyard, carrying the various crimson and golden leaves through the air and across the sandstone walls of Redwall Abbey. Anticipation hung in the air as the various beasts hurriedly finished their tasks, knowing the excitement that awaited them. Outside the towering gates, music could be heard in the distance as the colourful banners of the Travelling Thistledown Troupe appeared on the horizon. In the lead was a tall hare, who betwixt his paws held a large conch shell. Holding it to his mouth, the hare's ears stood up as he emptied his lungs through the shell. Its cry echoed ahead of the troupe announcing their approach.

The arrival of the troupe only further served to signal that the Name Day festivities would soon ensue. Delicious aromas wafted from the abbey's kitchen, filling the Great Hall and making their way into the courtyard where the Thistledown Troupe was receiving a very warm welcome. Dibbuns who could barely contain their excitement broke out of their single line formation behind the Sister watching them, descending upon the arrival troupe with squeaks and giggles of unbridled joy.

Jugglers and tumblers suddenly moved to the front of the crowd, wooing and entertaining them well into the evening, Their antics caused the Dibbuns to roll around the grass in fits of giggles while deep belly laughs came from the adults in attendance. As the night wore on and the smell of the feast being prepared overwhelmed the senses of the hungry crowd. As if hearing the cries of the stomachs of those in attendance, the Troupe's Melodious Mice broke into song, humming a simple melody while the hare returned to the stage and placed the shell to his mouth again blowing a few well-timed notes before breaking into song.


The hare's question was barely out of his mouth before the Dibbuns cried back in response, their less than on key voices drowning out the three mice lasses joining along with them.


The hare chortled with laughter before responding once more.


As the hare let his final note ring out, a pair of moles in colourful clothes and silly make-up snuck up behind him. The Dibbuns cried out for the Hare to watch out but it was too late as the mole dumps a pair of buckets over his head. Laughter erupted from the crowd suddenly as the buckets emptied, as in place of water, flower petals rained over the hare.

"Let's eat!" The Friar cried out as the crowd moved into the Great Hall. Sprawling tables were filled with all sorts of foods. It was a joyous meal for honest creatures. Dishes went this way and that from paw to paw. Dishes made to be passed and to be shared. Dishes both sweet and savoury.

Hot cornbread with hazelnuts and apple baked into it, and a salad of celery, lettuce, shredded carrot, and white button mushrooms. Steaming soups, new bread with shiny golden crusts, old cheeses studded with dandelion, acorn and celery. Turnip-potato-beetroot pie, shrimp 'n' hotroot soup, and numerous cheeses rounded out the savoury dishes. But that was hardly the extent of the feast.

Snowcream pudding, hot fruit pies, colourful trifles, tasty pastries and nutbread cake iced with clover honey. Sugared plums and honeyed pears vied for a place with the harvest salads and vegetable flans. Turnovers, fondants and tarts alternated with beakers of cold fizzy strawberry cordial, cowslip and parsley liquor, brown ale, greensap milk, mint tea, rosehip cup and elderberry wine to wash it all down.

Not a single beast walked away from the Nameday feast with an empty stomach and more than a few walked away plumper than they had been when the day began. The watchful eyes of Martin the Warrior peered down fondly from his image upon the sprawling tapestry that nearly spanned the entire width of the Great Hall. The tapestry originally detailed the founding of Redwall Abbey and Martin's triumph over Tsarmina Greeneyes but over the years it had been added to and now was a visual history of the Abbey's history. From Martin to his reincarnation, Matthias and beyond, the tapestry depicted the Abbey, its warriors and the events that had befallen it.

Studying the tapestry in an effort to stretch his legs after such a full meal, the young initiative paused upon coming to a fearsome figure looming at the edge of the intricate piece of art. The stitching here was newer than other places, a more recent addition to the tapestry. The figure in question was drawn like a wildcat, but larger, the ears different, more pointed with tuffs coming off of the end. An army of vermin surrounded the figure, shields like the initiative had never seen, interlocked and creating a wall.

"Have you ever heard the tale of the Yurazen Prince?" A voice asked from behind the initiative, causing the young squirrel to nearly jump out of his fur.

"Abbot-"

"Oh young one, I didn't mean to frighten you." The Abbot chuckled, "Beautiful isn't it? The tapestry is one of the Abbey's most precious possessions. Arguably more so than the Sword of Martin itself." He added, gesturing with a grayed paw towards the blade hung above the tapestry. Forged of a fallen star, the Sword of Martin the Warrior was a family heirloom that was reforged by the Badger Lord, Boar the Fighter. In times of trouble, the Spirit of Martin would elect a champion from the Abbey to wield the legendary blade. A simple weapon adorned with a red pommel stone, the blade was inscribed with the phrase 'I AM THAT IS'.

"I've never seen anything like it." The young squirrel responded. "It's almost like it was calling to me."

"It's not unusual for the Spirit of Martin to do so." The Abbot mused, "He has quite the eye for potential."

"Who was the Yurazen Prince?" The squirrel asked returning to the Abbot's initial question.

"Oh, that is quite the tale, so much so perhaps everyone should gather around." The Abbot answered, raising his voice to address the Great Hall. "Come, young ones," The aging beast stated as he moved towards his chair with the aid of his cane.

"The tale of the Yurazen Prince comes from the first-hand account of Brother Rigby, nearly twenty seasons ago. Gather around my friends, our story begins now."

Lord Wraith invites you to return to a simpler time and embrace the nostalgia of epic battles waged between beast and vermin. Adapting the novels of Brian Jacques into a roleplay, the intention is to replicate Jacques' storytelling style with players taking on the roles of Abbey Dwellers or other members of Mossflower in an effort to repeal an invading vermin horde led by a Prince intent on taking both the titular Abbey and the Sword of Martin the Warrior for himself.

As events unfold in the initial IC, it will turn out that the Sword of Martin the Warrior is missing from Redwall Abbey. After the Spirit of Martin reveals itself to the player characters, they will then depart from the Abbey to locate the ancestral weapon, all while the advancing horde led by the Yurazen Prince comes closer and closer. Ideally, the story will revisit favourite locations like Salamandastron, and favourite factions like the Guosim (the Guerilla Union of Shrews in Mossflower) shrews and the Long Patrol.

Players will be allowed to apply initially for one primary character who will be undergoing the quest, but later able, and encouraged to create supporting characters as other factions are encountered and the world expands. In keeping with the style of the books, heroic characters will only be 'beasts' (mice, squirrels, otters, moles, hedgehogs, shrews, hares and badgers), while villainous characters will be vermin. Initially, players will be dissuaded from applying as vermin, but as the Yurazen Prince and his army come more and more into focus, players will be able to assume the role of supporting characters in the vermin horde.

Our tale will begin during the Autumn of the Long Harvest when Redwall Abbey is visited by the Travelling Thistledown Troupe. The Mossflower Country will be the primary setting for events in our story, with Redwall Abbey obviously appearing heavily in the beginning and end of the game and any time in between if we decide to run any sort of 'B' plot featuring additional Abbey Dwellers.

For this game, we'll primarily be referencing from this map, which is heavily based upon the official map from the Redwall Map & Riddler. Unfortunately, Jacques has a number of minor inconsistencies from book to book both in geography and scale of the characters (ie in the original Redwall, horses, manmade structures and the size of the cat are all more in line with realistic proportions versus as the series went on and developed and a lot of these elements are dropped leading to wolverine being roughly the size of a badger).

Our vermin horde, however, will be of my own creation is going to be coming from the East, beyond the Bell and Badger Rocks and even beyond the Southern Plateau. Coming from the distant land of Yurazea, the Prince and his army, will be shown primarily through GM posts as advancing steadily and the obstacles they have to overcome until such a point that they've made it to Mossflower Woods.

For a character submission, I'm not going to be providing a skeleton and instead leaving the formatting of your application open to you the player. This way, you can use your skeleton as a way to tell us about your character even further. Basically, what I'm looking for is a character concept, obviously, we need the basics like name and species, but more importantly, I want a brief synopsis of who this character is, why you want to play them, what they will bring to the team and any goals you have for them.

Names in the world of Redwall are fairly straightforward and often under the pen of Brian Jacques, were generally meaningful to the character. Some species, such as the Otters and Hares, often carry family surnames, while Badgers more often have titles, especially Badger Lords. Squirrels, Mice and Moles all have more traditionally given and surname structures.