Billmonger

Overview

A Bill is a polearm with a hacking head, not dissimilar to a halberd or poleaxe, but often less refined. The bill or other simmilar polearms are the standard issue weapon of the Bordevarian peasant armies. Issued in vast quantities, these simple weapons are used to devastating effect as massive ‘Bill blocks’ as Bordevarian soldiers keep their enemies at bay with reach and a slashing blade.

To be a Billmonger is to be a skilled peasant soldier who makes a living at war. Maybe as a captain in a Bordevarian mercenary company, or as a sargent in the Bordevarian peasant militias. Regardless, you’re a tough-as-nails fighting soldier who knows battle.

Need:

Combatant / Weaponmaster / Peasant Character

Billmongers are hard fighting peasant soldiers who are practiced in using long polearms as a part of blocks of soldiers. You might not always fight with a polearm but you are skilled in its use.

Shouldn’t:

Magus

While you’re unlikely to have spare experience, magic is not really the realm of a Billmonger.

Costume Marker:

Billmongers Campaign Helm

Over the decades Bordevarian soldiers have been issued and purchased many different kinds of helmets. While many of these get lost on campaign, sold on guard duty and turned into pots, you can recognise a Billmonger by the state and modifications they’ve made to their helmets.

Billmongers will often tie souvenirs from previous campaigns, religious or superstitious trinkets or useful accessories to their helmets. They’ll have custom paint jobs featuring monsters, scantily clad figures or brutal slogans. They’ll be dented, repaired, and well used. A Billmonger’s helm is their life story and their head armour all rolled into one.

Becoming a Billmonger:

It is no difficult thing to become a common soldier. There is near always a war to be had, something to be guarded, or some conflict to shake out. The hard part is in surviving long enough to call yourself a veteran. This is the essence of becoming a Billmonger.

As such, there is no extravagance or special task that must be accomplished to become a Billmonger. It simply requires time and survival against the enemy. A soldier, heroic or otherwise, can consider themselves a Billmonger once they have personally fought in and survived a full Tour of Duty, during which they may decorate their Campaign Helm for each major battle, event, or moment of particular impact.

While seemingly simple, what is defined as a Tour of Duty has changed over the many years. Originally, a Tour was only considered complete once certain objectives were met, such as in the earliest days of Bordevar’s conflict against the Endemani peoples. The Tour of Duty began with the start of the conquest, and was considered complete once the Endemani were dead and buried; an extremely long and taxing Tour. But there is historic knowledge of much shorter Tours as well, such as the quashing of a rebellion that had captured a stronghold on the edges of Royal Bordevar, a Tour that lasted around six months.

In modern Bordevar, particularly with its surrounding threats and alliance with The Concord, a Tour of Duty has been more simply defined. A Tour is two years worth of soldiering, no more, no less. Once a soldier has fully committed themselves to two years worth of war, and survived, they can be considered a veteran and a Billmonger.

OOC; To complete a Tour of Duty, the Character must spend 4 Downtime Actions Supporting an Army, ideally one after another though that is not a strict requirement. The Character must be a commoner during this time.

History:

Bordevarian armies come in two forms, Banners and Brigades. A Banner is composed largely of noble knights and their supporting troops. These heavily armed and equipped forces are powerful and decisive, if expensive and complex. A Brigade is around five thousand peasant soldiers, sometimes led by knights, but largely composed of Captains, Sargents, and other such commonfolk soldiers. Billmongers, while an unofficial title, are the backbone of a brigade, bringing experience, fighting skill, and campaign savvy to the Bordevarian army.

The Billblock as a style of fighting is a moderately new Bordevarian method of fighting. While large banks of spears are hardly a revolution on the modern battlefield, the use of hacking polearms and some amounts of armour on a broad scale has grown from a series of needs. Fighting alongside knights requires peasant soldiers to be at least somewhat survivable (bringing forward heavier and heavier armour) and the wide variety of foes of Esterra (from monsters to armoured Valleyfolk to swift raiders) has pushed for a more multifaceted weapon that is still easy to create. Finally, Bordevar’s hunger for expansion and paranoid borders creates a need for a constant supply of trained soldiers that the nobility cannot serve on their own.

This creates a role in Bordevarian society for a well-armed and armoured common soldier who is trained and professional in what they do, if not professional in tone. These Billmongers take orders and can lead others, they can be relied upon to hold against a charge as much as they can be relied upon to complain about the beer ration.

In the new age of The Concord, plenty of once-patriotic Billmongers are finding new employment as mercenaries. Sometimes alone as bodyguards or bruisers, but also as Companies, ‘Hiring a Block’ often refers to gaining the employ of a group of Bordevarian Billmonger mercenaries. Just as many remain in the Bordevarian army, taking the King’s coin in support of the First Banner or patrolling along the front lines against the undead.

Three Things Billmongers Are:

Tough as nails

Billmongers are trained and tenacious fighters. Courage and brute toughness are the order of the day. You need not be a bear of a soldier standing over 10ft tall, but you should snarl in the face of the enemy, hold your ground and make your foes regret running into your block.

Veteran Warfighters

A good Billmonger has fought on campaign. They’ve marched long distances, know their way around a campfire and dug more than a few latrines. Not all soldering is massive battles and glorious deeds. You’re a common soldier, so have plenty of tips and stories that have helped you survive.

Good Old Folks

While some Billmongers might long for a promotion or to lead their own company, they are all common people at the end of the day and have commonfolk joys. The harvest festival, a good keg of beer and the light of the Spheres are all you need.

One Thing Billmongers Aren't:

Glorious Heroes

The story of the Billmonger is one of the common people, doing their best and doing it honestly. While they may complete heroic acts and have heroic tales, they remain common people. If you’re looking for grandeur and heroism, look to the Avowed Knights.