I’m doing some research on various medieval cultures and time-frames for a few, free PDF supplements for Chronica Feudalis. I’m putting together mentor lists for each of these groups – like horse archers for the Seljuk Turks, housecarls for Anglo-Saxon England, and poets for the Almoravids and Almohads – and I want to make sure I’m not leaving out anything that you think is necessary.
Here are the cultures I have on tap:
- Almoravids and Almohads
- Anglo-Saxon England
- Byzantine Empire
- Seljuk Turks
- Vikings
So, to make a character who is part of one of these cultures, what mentors would you need? Please feel free to leave your answers in the comments of this post. Thanks.
#1 by Darren Brewster at November 13th, 2009
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How about something suitable for Saladin and the Ayyubid dynasty so we could play both sides of Kingdom of Heaven? That would be pretty sweet.
#2 by Jeremy Keller at November 13th, 2009
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That sounds like fair game too – and there’s probably some general overlap with the Seljuk dynasty. Are there any particular mentors you would like to see from that region/era?
#3 by Darren Brewster at November 13th, 2009
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I’m really not sure. It might just be the type of the thing where the basic mentors from the book would work fine with just different window dressings. Then again, I don’t know a lot about their history, so I could be missing some necessary things. All I know is that playing a crusades campaign has been on my mind for years since I read some collection of short stories in Dragon Magazine years ago!
#4 by Darren Brewster at November 13th, 2009
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Just throwing thoughts out there, but why not just come up with a set of Saracen mentors to kind of handle all the various cultures on that side of the crusades? Having the Seljuks and the Ayyubids be seperate would be quite a bit of overlap.
#5 by Jeremy Keller at November 17th, 2009
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Good point and that’s kind of the direction I think I’m going now. Though I hesitate to use the word Saracen. I guess the big thing that ties these cultures together is their Islamic faith, so I’ll probably use that term. One PDF could cover Turks, Arabs, and Berbers.
These are the appropriate mentors I have come up with so far:
Assassin
Engineer
Horse Archer
Poet
Ulema (muslim cleric)
Off course you’d have to cull the list a bit depending on where exactly your character is from. A Nizari Arab could have an Assassin as a mentor, but probably not a Horse Archer.
#6 by Darren Brewster at November 26th, 2009
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That sounds like a good selection of mentors. Yeah, I was only using Saracen because Wikipedia uses it for their articles on the Crusades. I don’t know if it has any bad connotations or not.
#7 by ANA at November 27th, 2009
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HI:
For Arabic kingdom mentors, Jewish/Christian kabbalists & learned men would be excellent!
Also, Arabic doctor mentors would need their skill augmented.
#8 by Jeremy Keller at November 28th, 2009
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Darren: yes, you’ve hit on one of the big problems I’ve been having while researching this. A lot of the readily available information (and not just Wikipedia) about the crusades is very Euro-centric.
Hi ANA: great ideas. I will definitely add those to the list.
#9 by Michael Blair at December 7th, 2009
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For Byzantium:
-A eunuch (politics!)
-A Varangian Guard
-A trader from just about anywhere
-An Icon maker
-A Jewish horse nomad from Khazaria
-A Chinese silk trader
For Vikings
-Skald
-Priest
-Skraeling (not likely but worth a mention)
-A Finn (mystical and mysterious woodsman)
-An Irish Monk
-An Arab trader
-Berserker
I am playing around with bronze age Homeric Greece myself.
#10 by Michael Blair at December 8th, 2009
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For Vikings, a really obvious one my brother suggested.
-An old wanderer with a hat drawn down over his one eye.
#11 by Jeremy Keller at December 8th, 2009
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Great suggestions, Michael.
#12 by Michael Blair at December 12th, 2009
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One Aspect that might not be a lot of use but it amuses me enormously:
“You may address me as ‘Your Holiness’”
A game where you can use that one would be ‘interesting’.
#13 by Michael Blair at December 12th, 2009
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It is really only dawning on me now that just by changing the Mentor list you can change the setting completely. Maybe tweaking the skills a little as well but basically just the Mentors. Wow.
#14 by Aramis at January 30th, 2010
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Spain and the Al-Moravids.