[OOC] Darkness and Light

[Cultural Titan]

Okay, so that's three responses of meh quality done, but I'm also going to try and give Frengo and Killbox things to do so I'm not done.

[IcePezz]

@Frengo I may need help with the Rangers :p as they were your creation especially.

[Cultural Titan]

@KillBox

Okay so I did not respond to you because I think there is a misconception. Now this is my fault for not putting out lore on all the places involved in all this time. That's on me and my sloth, but for the record the capitol city is not Oakorth, but Clandstein, currently only represented as the castle on the map. So my question to you is whether you want to start in Oakoarth or Clandstein?

[IcePezz]

and now we've got white walkers on our tail?! Lol not complaining, super excited, and now sure how Liara is going to survive :p

[Cultural Titan]

@IcePezz

Well I probably should have made it less enemies, but you lot did handle it in a less than ideal manner. I think running away is probably a good idea.

[IcePezz]

Lol I think so too

[Frengo]

To anyone who wants to go there, or who needs to interact with my Rangers, I present to you this:

Galuntrung Keep

Galuntrung Keep

Though now a mere decrepit ruin, Galuntrung Keep was once a bastion of power, belonging to House Stein. In the present day, it serves as the base of operations for a paramilitary force known as the Galuntrung Rangers.

---

History

Galuntrung Keep first appeared in the histories of the Kingdom some centuries ago, when an unknown Lord of the Stein family vested his fortunes on its construction. This he did, to secure for himself, and his family, a place of power from which to rule the commonfolk of his fief. For many years, the castle became a symbol of the pains that arise from any feudal system; the Stein family were not kind to their subjects, and taxed them relentlessly. Peasant uprisings were put down violently, thus spawning a pitiful cycle of resentment and revenge, where every few years a son of a slain farmer would rise up against his Lord.

This continued from the Keep's founding, to its undoing, when during the Korsh Invasion, the King neglected to assist the Stein family in their darkest hour. The result was the total sacking of Galuntrung Castle, and the villages that surrounded it. Only the keep remained, thoug it had been reduced to a hollow and burnt out ruin.

With the castle's fall, the Stein family faded in obscurity, and the ruins became dormant for generations. Every so often, vagrants or bandits would make their home in it, only to be eventually driven out by the local sheriffs. For decades, Galuntrung was more or less forgotten, and no Lord sought to rebuild over the bones of an archaic and hated family.

However, when Kalar Splint, a heart broken and raging vigilante, founded his Rangers, Galuntrung Keep became the perfect home for a geurilla force. Nestled on the western edge of the White Woods, its forested surrounds provided it perfect cover, and plenty of yew to be used in the construction of longbows. Additionally, any advancing force of determined brigands would be broken apart by the trees and forced to fight scattered.

To the present day, Galuntrung Keep remains Kalar Splint's base of operations, and it is from there that he is able to launch raids against bandit camps with total impunity. In times of dire need, when a settlement has become compromised by external threats, the keep is used as a refugee shelter.

The Crown pays little attention to Galuntrung Keep, preferring to turn a blind eye to Kalar and his band of vigilantes, rather than take action against his questionable attitudes to the Kingdom's justice system. If nothing else, the continued existence of Galuntrung Keep reduces the pressure on the Crown's armies and watches.

The structure of the keep itself has received little love from the Rangers, who have made no effort to rebuild the curtain wall. Instead, they revel in the idea of defending the mish-mashed structure as it is, believing that any real defensive battle would be fought in the forests around them, as opposed at the keep itself.

The Rangers of Galuntrung Keep

The Rangers of Galuntrung are a famous band of vigilantes, perceived romantically throughout the Kingdom as guardian angels, who risk themselves for strangers. They are adept archers, skilled in the use of the longbow, and rely heavily on guerrilla tactics with which to subdue their enemy. Traditionally, they hunt down criminals, and execute them without trial - a practice that has at times received scorn from the Crown in some form or another. However, though their form of justice is cold and absolute, the commonfolk support their endevours whole heartedly.

The Rangers found their beginning twenty years ago, when Kalar Splint, husband to a murdered wife, and father to two murdered daughters, tracked down the highwaymen responsible for the slaying of his family and killed them in Shadowsong Forest. This act ignited a spark in Kalar, who dedicated himself to killing those who would harm others without good cause. Over the course of the months that followed the avenging of his family, Kalar murdered several bandits, rapists, frausters and thieves. Sometimes his actions blurred the lines of morality, but it mattered little to those who he avenged.

Soon, tales of a hooded ranger that stalked the forsests of the Kingdom became the core subject matter of many bards. Kalar's exploits made him a reluctant victim of fame, which brought him into confrontation with the law. Arrested for murder, Kalar was spared the hangman's noose by a sympathetic judge who shared in Kalar's views of those that used their strength and power to abuse the helpless. He got off lightly, and vanished.

Going from village to village, from west to east, he gathered a broad following of have-a-go heroes and indebted "clients", all of whom swore their alliegence to him. With such support, Kalar was able to tackle larger bandit gangs, and though his first operations were bloody disasters, he soon became a competent commander. He cut a bloody swarth across the land, driving bandits into obscurity, and enabling remote settlements to prosper.

Kalar finally ended up at Galuntrung Keep, which he made his base of operations. From there, his ability to project how power to the surrounds increased tenfold, which rendered him an unofficial Lord of those people that dwelt within sight of the keep. However, being stuck in one location damaged his ability to launch forays further afield, and soon lawlessness returned to the Kingdom's southern, northern and western extremities.

Still, the east prospered, and the Rangers' ranks swelled. Today, they are perhaps the Kingdom's largest military presence within a hundred miles of the White Woods.

However, they refuse to swear allegiance to a Crown. Kalar saw the Kings and Queens of his country as merely biggoted fools, disconnected from reality and from the plight of the commonfolk. The lack of army patrols in the remote areas of the Kingdom only served to backup his feelings, and so he chose to remain fiercely independent of any form of state regulation. Though, on the same note, he has never openly challenged a soldier of the Crown - even if said soldier was as much as a bandit as the roughians Kalar put to the sword. The Chief Ranger knew that civil unrest between himself and the Capitol would only cause misery and harm to those he sought to protect in the long term.

There is perhaps a thousand rangers all told, though not all are active at any one time. Many, unlike Kalar, do not ail from troubled pasts, and have families and obligations to look after. Therefore, rangers are rotated every three months, though the Chief Ranger reserves the right to call for a general muster in times of crisis. Such a move would take days to organize.

Each ranger is trained in the use of the longbow and the sword, though skills vary drastically between members. Typically, the best of them are those who willfully serve full time, and it is they who form the vanguard in any attack.

To help lead his men, Kalar has a number of lieutenants who take care of the day-to-day running of the organization, leaving him free to personally take part in patrols and engagements.

[Infinite Cosmos]

@Cultural Titan

Wherever the king is, and I assume that would be Cladstein :p

[Absolis]

Well, minus Zombies that went well. Fire throwing guy is going to splat probably.

[Frengo]

@Frengo I may need help with the Rangers :p as they were your creation especially.

@IcePezz

Uh huh, I need to read all the recent posts and see what's what.

In the meantime, in an act of great coincidence, I just posted a whole lore section of Galuntrung Keep for you to read. It provides some details on the keep itself, and the Rangers.

Will get back to you as soon as I'm up to speed with the situation.

[Cultural Titan]

@Frengo

I'll need to read all of that at some point... Got some things to take care of though.

@KillBox

Just edit it so that he's in Clandstein and I will give you something to do, hopefully soon.

@Absolis

As Kaird is player controlled I don't think he'll be going down that easily, besides, he has backup even if the bandits are pansies.

[Frengo]

@Cultural Titan Shouldn't be much for you to quarrel about, it's only designed to add some flesh to the bone. However, you do have an eager eye for lore conflicts, so I can at least be confident that any mistakes on my part will be quickly detected and corrected. :)

I'll be contacting you over Oglaff soon, so that I don't end up breaking stuff.

Also, well done for that entry, from experience I know it's a bastard when you have to be in fifty places at once in one post.

@IcePezz Gorgeous post by the way, superb! Liara's flare really came through in that entry, I look forward to seeing what that gal can do.

@Absolis I love your writing style, it's very unique, but sometimes I get a bit confused. You use the word "would" alot, and whilst there's nothing wrong with that, it brings my brain to a halt sometimes lol. You know, I starting thinking "wait, so she hasn't done that yet? Oh, no she has, I think?"

But don't change a thing, it works well once I get my head around the style :)

[Cultural Titan]

@Frengo

So problem in the first sentence. It has only been Galuntrung keep for twentyish years. Before that it was a full castle. However the way its written, it makes it seem like its just the one structure for the whole time. I know you refer to it as a castle later, but I'm just going to mention everything. This also causes a problem with the third paragraph as there would be little time between the castle's fall and Kalar taking it over. However if we want to create more of a time gap there then I think we can work something out.

The King did come to help. Just not until after the Stein family was down to just Raven and the castle was destroyed. The way it is there though it reads as if he never came at all.

That's about it.

[Frengo]

@Frengo

So problem in the first sentence. It has only been Galuntrung keep for twentyish years. Before that it was a full castle. However the way its written, it makes it seem like its just the one structure for the whole time. I know you refer to it as a castle later, but I'm just going to mention everything. This also causes a problem with the third paragraph as there would be little time between the castle's fall and Kalar taking it over. However if we want to create more of a time gap there then I think we can work something out.

The King did come to help. Just not until after the Stein family was down to just Raven and the castle was destroyed. The way it is there though it reads as if he never came at all.

That's about it.

@Cultural Titan

So I didn't do too bad then.

The first error is a more related to how I wrote and can be fixed easily, the second problem is due to me thinking Raven was really old as his age was "?", and third problem was me misunderstanding what you meant by the King marching for his own glory - I thought you meant he took his time getting there, because he didn't like the Steins and wanted them to die so they didn't end up taking the spotlight in any victorious outcome, as opposed to racing out to save them.

So how old is Raven? How long ago since Galuntrung Castle got wrecked? It matters very little to me, I just thought it happened a long time ago. The more information you can provide, the more accurately I can colour in your world for you :)

Unless the information is already there, and I am just a moronic tool that can't read properly... which is perfectly possible. I have been known to be stupid, on many occasions.

Alternatively, you're more than welcome to do the lore on the keep, if you would be more comfortable with that. I was just trying to lighten your load a little.

[Absolis]

@frengo thank you! That's a great thing for me to hear. I do use would alot, but that's because I tend to take a bit more initiative, and plan things out. So the would there to leave it open for people to stop me.

@cultural titan it was a bit of a joke. He killed Kalar and now has a wolf bard sending sounds to him and Liara ready to rip his throat out.

[Cultural Titan]

@Frengo

You are right about the your impression of the king, but he still came and the way it was written it sounds like he never came, which is different. Raven has been dead 20 yearsish because I wanted to tie it in with the previous king, but if peole think he should be more ancient then I can work with that.

[Frengo]

@Frengo

You are right about the your impression of the king, but he still came and the way it was written it sounds like he never came, which is different. Raven has been dead 20 yearsish because I wanted to tie it in with the previous king, but if peole think he should be more ancient then I can work with that.

@Cultural Titan

That's okay dude, I'll have another crack at writing it. My apologies, I admit that I am not the best writer... I sorta just start typing and run with it, which can lead to inconsistencies and what not, and even proof-reading still leaves glaring errors. But hey, that's why I joined this forum, so that I could just f**k up relentlessly until I start improving :D ... just means you guys have to bare the brunt of my shenanigans.

As for Raven, it's entirely up to you. Personally I think old undead = best undead, but maybe this RP needs a sexier, younger model.

[IcePezz]

@Frengo thank you thank you thank you. I feel a bit intimidated by the talent here, I'm just trying to keep up with ya'll.

@Cultural Titan sorry if I messed up any plans or went about something in a different direction than what you were looking for. Running will definitely be a course of action she will push for, I just want to give @Makrinagon a chance to post before she issues that retreat.

[Cultural Titan]

@Frengo

You are not allowed to knock your own writing until it slips bellow my abilities. I only said raven was dead for 20 years though, not how old he was when he died. which was still not old, but whatever.

@IcePezz

No need to apologize. It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. I would personally blame Adria as the source of how everything went wrong.

For the record did everyone forget about the ten zombies? Because I've been holding onto them flanking in behind you for a long time now.

[Absolis]

Adria was just trying to be nice. Its not her fault bandits and cultists are ugly.

On another note, my characters do that alot. Whether I want them to or not. I make a splash where ever I go. Suffice to say, I would much rather be using Adria as she was meant, rather then a fighter.