TheMerlin

Broken Skies

@deia876lat So this is going to be a bit awkward, but I only had enough time to skim through your post before going to work. Now that I'm on break however and have the chance to give a proper read, I got a question to ask.

Everyone on the hill (except for Arn) are all knights? I thought they were just regular soldiers this whole time, that's why I've been calling them soldiers. Was this a mistake or intentional?

If you want them all to be knights, that's fine. We could even say that they're Tyr's Vanguard Battalion and that Arn was assigned to them in the first place, that way there's no question about who's in charge. I just need to know whether I have to go back and edit all my previous posts to replace any mention of soldiers with knights instead.

If that does turn out to be the case, then Sergeant Firenze will have to become Senior Knight Firenze as knights don't have sergeants. That's a rank for the regular army.

Broken Skies

Just world building and as for following Tyrhallan, that's actually up to Arn. Part of the rivalry between knights and mages is that neither likes being bossed around by the other, so you're free to make this interaction as interesting as you like.

Broken Skies

The soldier approached Tyrhallan and gave a short bow as he continued, "Orders from the king, sir. The enemy vanguard is near and their scouts are following the refugee ships crossing the border, presumably using them as a shield to prevent us from using our guns. You're to gather reinforcements and move to intercept immediately, engaging by boarding action. The dropship will be at your disposal."

Overhearing the conversation, Leo sheathed his sabre as he called out to the soldier, "What are their numbers?"

"Three frigates, sir."

The news caused a ripple of murmurs among the soldiers, but Leo only smiled cheerfully as he turned to Tyrhallan and said, "Looks like we get to be first in the fray. Lucky us."

And he meant it too. Only the Silver Spider could be so earnestly delighted by the prospect of an impending battle.

"So asides from me, who else will you be taking?" Leo asked as he jerked his head towards Arn. "Him?"

Broken Skies

As Tyrhallan leapt into the air and evaded Leo's attack, the blade of wind exploded into a shower of grass where it struck the ground, cutting a scar into the soil. Aimed any higher and it would have severed the legs of those at the front of the audience, but then again Leo had no concern for such things when he was so focused on his opponent.

Magnificent, Leo thought as he bounded away once again to avoid Tyrhallan's counterattack, a vertical strike from above. But you've given me an opening.

As soon as the Crimson Rider had completed his descent, Leo sprang off from his back foot and committed himself to a lunging thrust aimed at his opponent's centre where he crouched upon the ground. It was a highly risky maneuver, but true to Leo's reckless nature, he saw an opening and wasted no time in exploiting it.

Just as the point of his sabre was about to run through Tyrhallan's chest however, it stopped just a hair short as Leo checked his attack at the last moment and said, "Spiders are ambush predators, you know. We let prey lead themselves to us... although."

Leo looked down as he continued, "Clearly not without risk."

At that moment, a dropship flew above everyone's heads and slowed to a stop as it descended on an empty patch of grass free from dueling knights and gawking soldiers. Its side door opened as soon as it touched down and a soldier came rushing out, calling above the whir of the engines, "Message for Knight Captain Venray!"

Broken Skies

I suppose it'd make sense for some knights to have their own retinue of sorts, particularly if they belong to a noble family. Friends, relatives, vassals, servants and retainers, that sort of thing. If that's what you want for Tyrhallan, that's fine. Just be sure you can keep track of your side characters like Sergeant Firenze somehow. Maybe add their names to the extra section of your cs or make them a full character with their own cs if you want. Or just save them to a text file, idk. Although now that I think about it, that's probably something I should also keep track of myself... Perhaps it's about time I make a proper lore thread for the roleplay.

Broken Skies

"That's not exactly what I meant by how a knight talks," Leo responded wryly as Tyrhallan finished speaking. "But I can show you the answer."

Then the Knight Captain drew his blade and Leo noted the shift in his demeanor as he took up his stance, his eyes like that of a predator about to strike. There you are, Leo thought as he controlled his breathing, channeling ki into his sabre and bracing for whatever might come. The Crimson Rider.

Time seemed to slow down as Arn called for the match to begin and almost immediately, Tyrhallan was upon him. His sword came as a blur from the left, tilting up towards Leo's head which he narrowly caught on the strong of his sabre, just above the hilt.

My reflexes are a match for his speed, Leo realized in that instant as he countered with a vertical slash, only to meet Tyrhallan's follow up attack whipping around to the other side of his head. Their blades clashed once again and Leo leapt back to avoid a potential third strike.

"Trying to give me a haircut?" Leo casually asked as he slowly circled around his opponent, watching every little movement. "I see you're good with the high guard, but what about..."

All of a sudden, the Spider dropped into a crouch and swung his sword in a wide horizontal arc, releasing the ki in his blade into the very air and sending it forth as a blade of wind aimed directly at Tyrhallan's feet.

Broken Skies

Just remember guys, consent is absolutely important if you want to control another person's character in your post. Even for minor things, don't just assume they'll be cool with it. Ask first, either here or in a pm and if you're not okay with what someone else makes your character do, don't hesitate to say it even if it's me. Just like anyone else, I can make mistakes too sometimes so point it out if it happens.

As for the knight ranking thing, I was kinda just speaking hypothetically, but honestly @deia876lat's idea isn't too bad. There's just a few things I'd like to add. For the knight apprentice, I think a blank shield would be best. The idea being to show that though they're training for knighthood, they haven't earned their knightly name yet so until that happens, they remain nameless in a sense. They'll mostly be found training in knight academies or under the direct tutelage of a full fledged knight, but they won't be officially knighted until they've passed a rigorous number of tests and a final evaluation of their skills through a duel with a knight.

Some soldiers however, such as my character Leo, can rise up from the ranks and earn knighthood by gaining enough merits through battle, allowing them to skip the apprentice rank entirely (with the king's approval). Unlike apprentices, such people didn't train specifically for the role of knighthood, but gained their skills and experiences through their time as soldiers. The difference between soldiers and knight apprentices being that most soldiers are just ordinary people serving in the military whereas knight apprentices specifically train to be ki users from an early age.

As for the other ranks higher than knight, no need to add an extra shield. Just have the sword(s) positioned behind the shield and there's your rank. Personally, I think blades crossed downward would look better for the knight captain. For the knight commander, it ought to be basically a combination of the senior and captain rank insignias, so crossed swords with one in the centre. I'll also say that the job of the knights isn't to command, that'd be the general's job, though they can give orders to anyone of lower rank if they want. The most valuable asset about a knight is their fighting ability, so their only job is, well, to fight. As the most powerful ki users in the military, each knight is basically a one man army so they're only ever called upon to protect someone or something very important, or destroy a particularly dangerous individual or group. Think of them as special forces and artillery rolled up into one.

All of that is pretty much a long winded way of saying the knight commander wouldn't be in charge of commanding the army. Just the knights.

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First of all, I just wanna say nice post @deia876lat. Always good to see some HEMA in action, but there's just one thing. You mentioned Arn starting the match without @Omni5876 writing that in their own post yet, so Omni, does deia have your permission to do that?

As for the insignia thing, I suppose if the non-standard equipment and the emblems on their armour aren't enough, we could say that all knights wear a crest in the shape of a shield somewhere on them, each symbol unique to the wearer and based on their knightly name. For example, Leo could have a white spider on a solid black background for his crest. Tyrhallan could have something like that, which he apparently already does. A swallow tailed kite.

Knights don't really have a rank structure since all of them would be equals except for their Knight Captain, which is more of a title than a rank. Similar to how everyone just knows Barristan Selmy is the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard in Game of Thrones, so would it be assumed that everyone knows Tyrhallan is the leader of the knights. If knights did have an official rank structure though, it'd go something like: Knight apprentice (squire) > Knight > Senior Knight > Knight Captain.

As for the regular soldiers... I'll have to think about that.

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"Finally," Leo drawled as he hung his sabre over his neck and followed after Tyrhallan with a swaggering gait.

The Spider had more than enough of all this talking, but looking back at the hilltop they were leaving behind, he couldn't help feeling a tinge of regret for moving away from that spot. Two knights crossing swords atop a hill in the light of dusk, nothing could have made a more ideal scenery. Then again however, there was something to be said for the wide open space and even ground of a windswept meadow such as the one they were heading towards.

"Here will do," Leo said as he lowered his sabre, letting it trail over the stalks of grass all around them before turning to face the Crimson Rider. "What do you think?"

Seeing soldiers and other onlookers pointing at them from a distance, Leo smirked as he continued while taking up the same guard stance from before, "Ready to demonstrate how a knight talks?"

Broken Skies

I suppose that could work. While knights are basically the fighting elite ki users in the military, battlemages of varying skill levels could be found just about anywhere, so it makes sense that they have a ranking system to decide who should go where depending on the situation. Low level threats for lower level mages and higher level threats for seasoned veterans. Only thing I'd change is to shorten the years for the novice rank, because I reckon 8 years is way too long to be doing something and still be considered a novice. Maybe rename it to apprentice instead? Or maybe just add apprentice as a rank between novice and adept, and split the years between them. What do you think?