The Campaign Builder's Guild

The will of the collective.  

What do you think of them haviong their own forces, something like the Cardinals guards?  Having a Rochefort almost makes it worth it by itself...

A clerical guard? hhhmmm. It would be interesting as a power group.

How would they choose these guards? Elite soldiers from the army? Specially trained warriors from highly devoted members of the church? a combination of the two?

Would they have more power than a regular army commander? Could a small group of the guard take control of an Empire's regiment?

Well, it is actually not a new idea.
Temple guards go back into hittite and Egyptian times.  The Princes of the ancient Hindi would recruit and vie for the temple forces in their territorial battles.  

Maybe I just have a love of the machiavellian.  I have 'knighthoods' of most of the churches of my world, and due to the level of training and equipment, the aritsocracy and governemnts often see whcih way they will line up in a confilct before they choose sides.
In most history, they are rivals with the regular military groups.  So I don't dee them as having rank in the regular army...just extra muscle for the church, and anoteh interesting twist for PC's withing the Empire.

I know they are not new, I was wondering how you would implement them in this setting. Your response has given me an idea.

Actually these guys would be almost perfect. They served as knights for the old Empire. They were still loyal, but dwindling when the Empire collapsed. With the emergence of a new Empire they now serve the new Empire with the same loyalty. However the head of the church has asked for them to become the clerical guard, since they are the most loyal. They are to serve the saints wishes through the Empire [a semi-saint] and the church.

Quote from: Knights of the Crown (recreation of paladin flavor) by nastynateThe Knights of the Crown have served the emperors of both the old empire and the new. For hundreds of years they alone were all that remained of the old imperial regime, an archaic order devoted to their unbreakable oath to serve men who no longer held power over the lands of Cebegia. During the dark ages between the fall of the old empire and the rise of the new, the Knights of Crown traveled the lands of the world primarily as lone heroes and adventurers. They were only loosely affiliated during those times, but they did manage to keep contact with one another, and to uphold their oath to defend the crown. While no man had risen to power to claim the imperial throne, the knights managed to seal away the imperial crown and scepter (the symbolic vestiges of rightful rule) in a secret vault, and there they would lie for three hundred years, before a man worthy of knightly fealty, would claim dominion over the lands. When [insert name here] united the first seven city-states, revived the religion of the empire, and drove the wild beasts from the land, the knights knew they had found their new emperor. They reassembled the order, unlocked the imperial crown and scepter, and returned to serve the man they would call [insert name here] I, founder of the new empire.

Since that day the Knights of the Crown have served their emperors through good times and bad, but they have remained loyal throughout. Some of the men to have claimed imperial power have been great kings, while other have been little more than unworthy puppets. The knights understand that not all men will be as just and as pure as they, but that for the good of mankind, they must remain optimistic. Their loyalties are to the ideal of the empire, their code of honor, and the emperor himself. At times they have to choose which of their three loyalties comes first, and it breaks the heart of knight to admit that not all three can always be served equally. Their idealism however is unshakable, and the Knights of the Crown hope that if nothing else, their own benevolent and pure intentions, will rub off on the men whom they serve.

The knights of the Crown were once welcomed throughout the various city-states, during the rule of the old empire and the dark ages that followed. They were seen as pure men, with the drive to improve the lot of mankind, protect the weak, and defend the innocent. They were romanticized heroes who were greeted by swaths of children wishing to hear tales of their many adventures. They were welcomed by the injured and sick for it was said they could heal such ailments with but a touch. They were the fantasies of young maidens, who swooned over the flawless shining armor and charismatic charms. Times however have indeed changed.

While the knights are treated much as they always have been within imperial lands, beyond the domain of the new empire, the knights are seen as traitors and villains who have sworn to serve the enemy. Long gone are the days of a warm welcome. Today when a lone knight dares to ride into one of the rogue city-states, he can expect children to throw rotten vegetables in his direction, he can expect the sick or the wounded to recoil from his touch, and young maidens spit at his feet (if not in his face). At times the knights have lynched by mobs, when they dare to tread within the city-states, and hung from the boughs of trees, or even sacrificed to the Totem Gods to whom the city-states have sworn their allegiance.

It is said that a knight never breaks his oath, but these are trying times. There are numerous rumors of rogue imperials that have severed their ties to the order and the crown, and live among the barbaric folks of the city-states. Within the empire such rumors are dismissed as rebel propaganda, though there are those who have their doubts. The Knights of the Crown consider betrayal the gravest of sins, and should these rumors continue to rear their ugly heads, there is bound to be an investigation. The knights for their part do not wish to fuel the fires, so they cannot conduct such an investigation themselves; too many would doubt the order, if they began to hunt their own kind. It is possible however that they could hire a handful of adventurers and scouts to investigate the matter for them.

I think you are onto something.  I especially like the way they would be reviled in other area.  
The head of this Saint-backed knighthood might be an ambitious man.

Heh.
I'm replying to my own stupid Junus Post...
Speaking of Thread Necromancy...I kill them, and bring them back.  All for the mental health of the Sea God...

Alcan Empire (Just nudging out Big Al's Canintina) seemed to be the consensus name of the Old and ressurected Empire.  Am Iright?

I liked Ish's bame convention of going with Autarch.  Was this a yes or no, or one of the many pertinent question that got run over by the pursuit of a really oversized battlebarge?

I think we decided the Pre-Alcander (Pre-Alcandic?) Empire tongue had become the language used only by the church, while Old Alcandese has become the lingua franca for trade.

And can we name the knighthood of the Saintmen after some particularly martial and heroic old Autarch?

Quote from: LordVreegHeh.
I'm replying to my own stupid Junus Post...
Speaking of Thread Necromancy...I kill them, and bring them back.  All for the mental health of the Sea God...

My mental health degraded many months ago. (I'm now only a little above asking for BRAINSSSZZ)

Quote from: LordVreegAlcan Empire (Just nudging out Big Al's Canintina) seemed to be the consensus name of the Old and ressurected Empire.  Am Iright?

I think so, I left the name out of the welcome thread because I need to look at it more indepth, but I think the name was firm.

Quote from: LordVreegI liked Ish's bame convention of going with Autarch.  Was this a yes or no, or one of the many pertinent question that gor run over by the puruit of a really oversized battlebarge?

What's a bame?

Quote from: LordVreegI think we decided the Pre-Alcander (Pre-Alcandic?) Empire tongue had become the language used only by the church, while Old Alcandese has become the lingua franca for trade.

I'm really going to have to look over the language and naming stuff, cause I do not know

Quote from: LordVreegAnd can we name the knighthood of the Saintmen after some particularly martial and heroic old Autarch?

Come up with names, if people like them then we can use them. :P



I think (unless there is a particular one that people like) the Saints are going to be scrapped and re-written (by those of us participating). Rose has bowed out and his original plan is no longer truly known by us so starting fresh might be for the best.

Bamik is the weaver God in my setting, and I was redoing my Igbar map and writing at the same time.  Name.  NAME.  

We had also decided that the Empire was living off a large amount of slave labor.

and that there was something of a hidden chrysocracy, with old, moneyed families being a fourth power block (along with the Church of former ruling Saints, the new Autarch, and the military). though they all intermingle.  We also spoke of a rising mercantile class...

We have to redo the Saint worship?  
Crap.
Is LC around?  And I'm going to draft Tybalt if I can.  Give me those two, and the three of us can produce a religion that will make strong men cry, strong women drink, and strong hermaphrodites stay out of those nasty websites...

Damnit, I shoulda got first repost in this whilst I still could. :P

I'm still in favour of naming people some inflected (or non-inflected, in fact) version of Alcander, after their actual name. Tyborius Alcander, for example. As for languages, the Saintly Church still appears to be a bit of a new player, so their use of a language that had not been spoken for hundreds of years before their founding doesn't make much sense to me (as averse to the Catholic Church, whose use of latin was due to the original founders' language). Still, if it was the first language of most of the Saints, I could see them adopting it as a kind of 'holy' language.

[blockquote=Wensleydale]Still, if it was the first language of most of the Saints, I could see them adopting it as a kind of 'holy' language.[/blockquote]
That was my thought.  The common language of the Older Alcan Empire became the Lingua Franca of the area, but the 'Court Language' of Big Al's time was Pre Alcan/Old Empire (a whole 'nother thread...), which is why many old buildings and markers are in that language.
The Church of Saintansim (I couldn't resist  :D ) worships an idealized version of the First Alcan Empire, as Light Bringers in a time of darkness (hence how easy they were to bring along for the flaming-sword tour of the current empire), thus the Court Language of the Big Al would be a natural for the Saintanists, so they could recite the pithy mouthings of the Saints without the corruption inherent in translation.

Packed a lot of presumption in that last paragraph, does it ring true to the assembled throngs?

It works pretty well.

Although, 'an idealized version of the First Alcan Empire' sounds remarkably similar to Pylorin's religion of an 'idealized form of empire'. :P

[blockquote=Xathan]I'd say the old empire had the strongest ships in the world (I agree, strongest is better than fastest) and so other races have acess to those, but the problem is, the new empire actually improved on the old empires design in a significant way that would be difficult, if not impossible, to reproduce without significant infastructure. (I'm thinking something like limited iron plating, magically reinforced hulls, weapons magically enhanced for both range and damange, the ability to submerge...something fantastic, in other words) I also like Ishy's point, that they should have overwhelming numbers - perhaps it will be like their army, with a few of the elite ships and then a huge fleet of smaller, more average ships to compliment them?[/blockquote]

So Trade and seapower have been decidedly Key.  We also decided earlier to have the resurgent Empire to come from a new power base.  Does it make sense to have Candar (the Old Capital) on the Far western Coast, but the new one to be either in that 'bay within-a-bay' in the middle north, or in the south-eastern bay, if the 'new-trade routes' are in the south.  (boy, that little isthmus might be a natural place to land goods and portage them across that little strip, instead of the long way around the Empire).

I just got this absolutely awesome image of a fleet of Imperial ships rising from the depths majestically, water pouring from an invisible wall above their sails...

...

Awesome. Just. Totally. Awesome.

I agree with the 'bay-within-a-bay', personally - it seems pretty much ideally placed for trading purposes.

Hey, Lord of the Sea-creatures, do we have an idea by the 'other civs' map to draw the map with the proper names around the Mepire, and an idea of the histories around it?

Quote from: LordVreegHey, Lord of the Sea-creatures, do we have an idea by the 'other civs' map to draw the map with the proper names around the Mepire, and an idea of the histories around it?

Who and the whatits?