Ritter

'But remember this, It's not always as obvious as it seems. Winning is everything, but the trick is to know where the winning really is. Hell, killing the enemy is the job of the regular soldier. The task of a Ritter is more subtle. Finding how to win, Or what to win. Or what kind of win will really count in the long term. You have to use everything you have, every insight, every angle. Never, ever be a slave to simple strategy. The officer cadre are about as sharp as an elk's arse sometimes. WE are political animals. Through us, if we do our job properly, the black and white of war is tempered. We are the interpreters of combat, the translators. We give meaning to war, subtlety, purpose even. Killing is the most abhorrent, mindless profession known to man. Our role is to fashion the killing machine of the human species into a positive force. For the Sphere's sake. For the sake of our own consciences.' - Ritter-Kaptain Franz Burkhard, 201AE

Overview

While the cursed Greenweald forest is a place of danger and arcane malady, it is also a place of riches. The verdant groves of hartswood, thunder oak and other natures bounties support the baronies in their survival and are an appealing lure of greedy foes. The duty of the Greenwealds defence falls to the Ritters, a group of warrior-leaders who mix skill at arms with academic knowledge and careful strategy. Pragmatic and skilled, Ritters are the leaders of the Greenwealds armies and their first line of defence.

Need:

Combatant / Armoured

Ritters are commanders and soldiers, requiring the ability to take to the field of battle. Their focus on warfare also leads them to wear far heavier armour than other Greenwealder combatants, leading to the image of Ritter clad in plate mail.

Shouldn’t:

Magus

Within the Greenweald, arcane magic is a dangerous thing that must be handled carefully. This would endanger the tasks required of a Ritter.

Costume Marker:

Mercy Blade

Granted to a Ritter when they graduate from their years of study a Mercy Blade is a finely crafted dagger about as long as your forearm. Generally straight and double-edged, they vary from Ritter to Ritter as they are often custom made to fit a style and aesthetic representative of their wielder.

Mercy Blades at their core are a mark or rank and status. They recognise that their owner has completed the study and training to become a Ritter and can be regarded as someone of skill and intelligence. But they hold a variety of implicit reminders to those that carry them beyond this.

Mercy Blades are only to be used to grant mercy, and should not be used for simple camp tasks. They remind the Ritter to offer mercy, to the soldiers under their command, to wounded enemies and beasts. But it also reminds a Ritter that the only mercy available in the Greenweald and from the Greenweald is death. Anything less will result in the destruction of the Baronies.

Becoming a Ritter:

Over the course of years would-be Ritters must master warfare from its lowest and most violent realities through to its most theoretical strategic heights. Not only is this a long and difficult process, but it is one that takes time, and will see the apprentice travel far. While each School of Warfare across the Baronies have their own curriculum, traditions, and tutelage times, there are a set of commonalities across them.

Generally, a Ritters training is a four year process apprenticeship with holistic teaching across its entirety. Which is to say that apprentices will have a diverse curriculum throughout these four years. If the apprentice is enrolled at a School of Warfare they will be a part of a cohort for the first two years, before being apprenticed out to a mentor (commonly called a ‘Teach’) during the final two years. In less formal circumstances (such as within an army or mercenary unit) they may be apprenticed to a Teach the entire four years. Regardless of setting and age, all Ritter apprentices are treated the same. It doesn’t matter if you are a grizzled veteran seeking additional training or a sixteen year old youth, you will eat in the same barracks and study from the same tutors.

Unlike other archetypes, becoming a Ritter is largely open. Where a School of Warfare exists candidates need only present themselves on the enrollment day, sign their Bond of Intent’, and pay their fee (most Schools make first and second year apprentices pay a fee to support their course of study, largely due to the scale of first and second year dropouts, fees are normally ten locks for a first year, fifteen for second). The ‘Bond of Intent’ is a document that encompasses a summary of the training for the year, the role of a Ritter, and the candidates consent to undergo it, along with knowing how to withdraw. As a martial and legal organisation there is no underhanded abuse within Ritter training, it is all clearly labelled on the page. In circumstances outside a school the Bond of Intent may be given verbally by a Teach and then recorded and the fee may be waved.

In their first year Ritter-Apprentices (Ritter-Apprentice being the official title, marked by a single downward sword on the bicep or on a white tabard or belt-flag) are acclimated and set their foundations. Within the martial sphere the work is primarily around general fitness and breadth of experience. Apprentices will run, carry, climb, and build in all weathers, environments, and intensities. The goal being creating warriors who are fit and capable in any circumstance. During this time they will also be exposed to a wide variety of weapons, fighting styles, and armours. Extensive time is not spent with any one style or equipment as the intent is to expose the apprentice to violence and its paraphernalia, rather than its minutiae. Tactical study is focused on supporting the fight, with apprentices learning life saving medicine, water carrying, and acting as messengers. This keeps apprentices useful on the field, builds much needed foundations, allows them to see warfare from a variety of locations, and also serves to frustrate and eliminate those apprentices only present to sate bloodlust. Strategic study is focused on history. Many hours spent reading important military treatises and receiving lectures, before synthesising and reproducing this information. The role of a Ritter is one that requires learning, study, and dedication. This crucible of academics reinforces this fact, weeding out those students with more steel than words. Such is the importance of academia within the training that those students who arrive without the ability to read, write, or do arithmetic are placed into intensive study in place of all other training until they gain proficiency with the written word and at least passable mathematics.

An apprentices first year ends with what is called ‘The Gauntlet’, a day and night trial of apprentices conducted en-masse. Each Gauntlet is slightly different but all are a condensed test of their first year of study. It is not uncommon to see apprentices hiking distances through the dark, only to complete a tabletop wargame, before fighting off faux-attackers, and hiking off in the other direction, all in the space of an hour. The Gauntlet gives apprentices the confidence to continue into their second year, acts as the final test of their first year, and binds the cohort together. Importantly, The Gauntlet, and all of Ritter teaching, is not competitive. While each student passes alone, they are not scored against each other, as warfare is a struggle undertaken arm-in-arm with your comrades, not in competition with each other. However, the Ritter-Teaches cannot let unprepared or poor students be buoyed by their support allies beyond safety and means. As such those students who are struggling beyond repair are often told directly that they should withdraw or are induced to failure until they do. While brutal, this method ensures that those who should not be in the training or the battlefield are not present.

Second year apprentices (who add a second downwards sword to their sigil) have proven their ability to build a foundation that a Ritter can be built upon. They will find that their second year, while difficult, is what they truly took up the mantle to learn. Martial training begins in earnest, with second-years expected to gain proficiency with the single sword, the shield, and the spear, being the three most common weapons the world over. Second years are also expected to train and acclimatise to armour, starting with padded gambesons, before moving to chainmail and finally harnesses of metal plate. Martial training is conducted constantly and students are expected to carry their weapons and armour nearly-constantly to become accustomed to the weight. Being unable to present your arms to another Ritter when asked is often grounds for punishment, as is presenting a faulty or unkempt weapon. Tactical courses move to the battlefield with apprentices learning how to fight as a part of a unit. Students begin working in groups of three before finally taking part in large mock battles as a part of units of twenty. Students are taught battlefield awareness, supportive combat with allies, and identifying weakness in their enemies skill and formations. Wherever possible they will also be embedded within local militia, watch, or military organisations for hands-on training. It is not uncommon to see two or three white-tabarded ‘two-swords’ flanking muscled bouncers at local taverns in towns home to a School of Warfare learning ‘small unit tactics’. Strategic study in the second year is affectionately called ‘The Quartermasters Course’. In this students will learn everything needed to support, corral, and equip a force of fifty soldiers for a night, a week, a month, and a whole campaign. They will learn how many pairs of boots a soldier will wear out marching in forest versus a swamp, how many meals a warrior needs to recover healthily from wounds, and how to reduce rations to maintain supplies. The course is easily the most gruelling of the three, requiring memorisation of important information, deductive reasoning, and all their prior knowledge.

The second year of study ends with ‘The Two Swords Examination’, a formal three part examination. Alone, students are examined on their martial skill with sword, shield, and spear. They complete a series of tactical puzzles and they face a battery of questions regarding the logistical conduct of war. Each part is examined and scored alone, but a passing mark is required on all three parts. Students who fail are given a single reattempt, but a second failure requires completing the entire second year. Students are given a simple pass or fail mark and those that are skilled enough to pass are also given a twin-sword medallion for their troubles. For many (often more than two thirds) this is the end of their training. ‘Getting your two swords’ is a mark of training more than sufficient to gain entry to any mercenary company in the Weald, to become a watch sergeant, or a bodyguard. These graduates may never call themselves a ritter, but they can wear their two swords with pride.

That small cohort who wish to continue their training in pursuit of a mercy blade will find their training becomes free, more intensive, and bearing a different quality. A third year apprentice (gaining a third sword on their sigil, this one often upwards between the two downwards) has proven their skill at arms, is accustomed to the thrum of combat, and knows the business of war. Now they study to hone that knowledge in defense of the Baronies. For the next two years the apprentice will be seconded to a single Ritter Teach who will oversee their training, even if they remain within the bounds of a School of Warfare. This Teach will act as mentor, facilitator, and ultimate adjudicator of an apprentices study. They are expected to find appropriate tutors for the various aspects of their apprentices' study in particular weapons and guide them through their final years of training. Some apprentices will change Teaches a few times during the final two years, but often this is not more than a handful of times and often occurs between the third and fourth years.

Martial study expands in variety and allows for personal expression. As a minimum students are expected to learn the greatsword, bow, and unarmed brawling to some level of proficiency, if only to understand each weapon's strengths and weaknesses. Depending on their location and the tutors available to them they may become familiar with a wider armoury of weapons. What is important is that over this time the student selects a personal panoply of arms as they will find themselves acting on their own more and more. Those weapons that form a students mainstays are expected to be mastered by them, with their constant study, maintenance, and refinement coming as natural as breathing. Tactical study is completed by secondment, with students and their Teaches embedding with armies, mercenary companies, and other such organisations across the Weald and beyond. In this the apprentice is expected to act as a planner and leader of fighters, often being directly responsible for upwards of fifty warriors. They familiarise themselves with night raids, digging defences, long marches, and other forms of warfare. Most importantly is that they learn the subtle whims of morale and discipline. Third year apprentices are expected to lead a cohesive unit that maintains order and fights professionally. They must maintain this order themselves, dispensing punishments as they deem fit. This is central to a Ritters business and failure to adapt to reading and ensuring discipline can see even a skilled third-year withdraw from study. Strategic study dominates that second half of the year, with students being sent to serve in support of local leaders, often a town's mayor, a regional commander, or (if they are lucky enough) a Baron. With the advent of The Concord this has broadened even wider with Third Year apprentices travelling further afield to serve distant Senators, Bordevarian Dukes or Lerona Mere Admirals. During this time the apprentice acts as personal aide to these powerful people, with the expectation that this time teaches them the realities of power, the origins of war, and the weight that responsibility can have, while also giving apprentices some time to build their own reputation. During this time students are expected to maintain their martial studies and write or report to their Teach as often as is possible.

The third year of a Ritters study ends with a homecoming. The Apprentice is expected to return to their Teach after six months with their hostmaster and offer a report on their studies. It is expected that an apprentice returns with accolades and a glowing recommendation from their host. It is not unheard of those third years who fail to make a mark on their hosts to be forced to repeat the third year. But those that do are gifted their fourth sword and a well deserved break before entering their final year of study.

The fourth year of an apprentices study (symbolised by a fourth sword in their sigil, often in an alternating up-down pattern, leading to respectful title ‘Four-Sword’) is vastly different from the previous three. As a Four-Sword, the apprentice has undergone more training than most soldiers and warriors, they have travelled and learned from a variety of masters, they have served the powerful and meek, they have proven their worth. During this final year the apprentice is attached to a Ritter who is actively working, rather than teaching. During this year they act as second to this Ritter, assisting them and experiencing the life of a Ritter on deployment. For the first time in three years their waking hours are not taken up with training and studying, but rather learning through immersion in the world of a Ritter.

After a year, following the recommendation of their Teach, they may take the Ritter’s Oath. This oath recognises the role of Ritters as leaders of soldiers, the importance of maintaining discipline on and off the field of battle, and the weighty symbol that a Mercy Blade is. Apprentices must give this oath in the presence of their Teach to ideally a Ritter-Kaptain, but oaths have also been given to Barons and Generals in the past. With the completion of this fourth year, the swearing of this oath, and the gifting of their mercy blade (traditionally from their Teach) they have become a Ritter.

Out of Character Note

This system of learning is designed to produce a tough and fulfilling hero's journey as new Ritter characters move through the swords. But it is important to acknowledge that our characters are likely more heroic and fitter than we are. While it is encouraged that Ritter-Players embrace the physical and academic aspects of their archetype, recognise that this training isn’t the place for Teaches or anyone else to experience a power-trip and put their apprentices through a bootcamp. It should be tough, since that creates for a fulfilling challenge, but no more than the story calls for.

It is entirely valid (and even a good idea) for characters to come in as a third year apprentice. This means that their active play isn’t focused on learning and has some more freedom to it, perfect for a Concord hero. Of course, those who are eager to run the whole gauntlet should do so.

It is important to note that the process of becoming any archetype with as many formal systems as the Ritter journey has should be discussed OOC with your would-be teaches ahead of time. There is a lot of content to be had here, but it is very hands on. Other players don’t have to consent to taking apprentices and should do so with everyone informed of how the process works.

History:

The nature of the Greenweald means that populations will never be extremely high, particularly in comparison to nations such as Lerona Mere or the Iron Valley. It also means that to meld entirely with the forest and pursue ambush tactics opens fighters up to the forest's own dangers. Once the Greenweald was initially settled the Baronies pursued a raising of a defensive military that could repulse the Wartribes as well as others who might pursue the wealth within the Weald. But to address the nature of the Greenweald’s dangers, they would need officers and skilled leaders who were well trained and intelligent, not simply martially skilled.

Ritters filled a niche desperately needed in The Greenweald. With so much danger present within their borders, it was likely that the Baronies could be blindsided by an invasion or subterfuege from outside the Greenweald. It was in the eponymous Ritterswald where they were first trained in 24AE. The Witterswald College of Warfare set a trend across the baronies, where schools that mixed martial training with schooling in the other nations of the world began to appear. Each barony trained their own Ritters and in return, the Ritters would lead the Baronies forces in war and organise their defence.

Over time Ritters have become a skilled class of warrior-scholars, who train in combat, leadership, foreign policy, counter-espionage and supply. They do not make up all leaders of the Baronies military, but those who carry a Mercy Blade are well regarded and often turned to for their skills.

The training of a Ritter has also shifted over time. While the only remaining school of warfare is the Eisen Battle Academy (whose Ritters are trained in very small numbers due to the school's small size), other Ritters are trained less officially, often by apprenticing to another Ritter or working with Ritters in a military unit. Graduating from this apprenticeship is a difficult task, requiring intense physical training, long nights of study and moral pragmatism, as encompassed through the 'becoming a ritter' section above.

Notable conflicts where the Baronies Ritters have fought include the Shamans War, the border skirmishes against the Kingdom of Bordevar and the Uprising of the Reeds in Vassertal. Beyond this, all of the Baronies defensive and military plans have been made by Ritters and their training.

Three Things Ritters Are:

Military Leaders with sword in hand

Ritters fill a space between a military commissioned officer and a knight. They are expected to lead forces in combat, while also taking to the field themselves. A good Ritter is comfortable in command and with a sword in hand or is at least pursuing training in both those aspects.

Scholars and Students

To support their nation properly, Ritters are expected to know the world beyond the Baronies, to understand different fighting styles and military organisations, but also politics, economics and social cues. To support this, Ritters must also be literate, good with numbers and capable of holding a conversation. This study, much like that of combat, never ends and Ritters are expected to always be growing in this respect.

Pragmatic Shot-Callers

Ritters are expected to make harsh choices in the defence of the Baronies. They are expected to use every tactic, tool and strength at their disposal. They must never balk at what needs to be done and never hesitate. They must always remember ‘You cannot betray your enemies.’

Two Things Ritters Aren't:

Knightly Monster Hunters

While they do cover themselves in heavy armour and live in the Weald, Ritters are not honour bound or monster hunters. They are skilled leaders of little moral compass aside from ‘Protect the Baronies’. They also primarily train to fight and kill other humans, leaving the monster hunting to the Houndspriests.

All Knowing

Ritter training covers martial and physical skills, and education with a focus on foreign policy and leadership. Many will still have holes in their knowledge and it is important to recognise that Ritters are always studying and looking to improve, rather than claiming the heights of intellect and abandoning the title of student.

Game Information

The Eisen College of War in Resinderholz was approved for construction and completed in 222, returning the grounds to a semblance of proper use and promoting the training of additional Ritters. Ritter-Kaptain Osten Valdreig served as the Colleges Kaptain and oversees both operations there and recognition of Ritters in the wider region. Ritter characters who are interested in taking on apprentices or completing tasks set by the College should speak to other Ritters or contact The Ritter-Kaptain, as it is likely the College can supply resources to assist.

Notes

Opening quote modified from 'First and Only' By Dan Abnett, a very good Science Fiction book worth reading that helped grant clarity and diversity to the Ritter Archetype.