Hinterlandic Bluecaps

Information sourced from 'A Gentleman's Guide to Swords-For-Hire', 'Mages of the North; The Culture and Lifestyle of Karthauld', and various Holy See histories on the Norman War

Written by David_Ulph

About the further end of this patch are great fir-woods, beautiful and calming, so rich with game to hunt and natural minerals to reap. But these woods are so full also with blue-headed rogues in bearskin and plaid that we dare not see them; None dare pass the glen of Grewmure without a guard of ten or twelve per rogue, at the least.

— Edmund von Schott, a mercantile guildsman writing on why no civilised merchant of the Holy See Territories would venture with trade into the Vallator Hinterlands, dated to 4E ~235.

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Blessed by the archaic God of War themselves, the Bluecap Sellsword is a fierce mercenary warrior which travels the known Mortal Realm in search of riches whilst wearing their distinctive blue bonnet to signify the fact that they of all mercenaries can turn the tide of a war with a single battle. Seen as national heroes such as the Bolster Lion who defended the lowly fishing village of Fuilrak/Bloodford from a hydra attempting to consolidate its territory; But also seen as the bogeymen with countless folktales detailing the revenants of these past devils-in-mortal-form still stalking the wilderness as a means to stop children from running too deep into the woods, such as the Black Ysmalice. Scourge of the living, Bluecap Lieutenant of Pale Prince and continued resistance fighter or radical bogeyman after the Pale Prince's passing into Eotem.

Design

As of 4E 297, the uniform of a Bluecap Sellsword revolves still around the distinctive headwear which gives the role it's name. This blue bonnet in the Mandorran style is a soft woollen with a distinctively broad and flat silhouette. Knitted in one piece from thick wool and felted to produce a water-resistant finish perfect for the Bluecaps' native rough environments of the northern Mortal Realm. The inner edge was often tightly sewn with string allowing for a close fit around the brow, with the top being pulled into a broad circle which can be

by Ron Greer

manipulated to suit the environments the Bluecap faces, such as being pulled down in various directions to provide raincover or shade, over the ear for warmth, or easily folded for concealment. Upon being crafted, the bonnet is dyed blue with the indigo extraction of the woad plant cultivated almost solely in Karthauld.

The colour blue is incredibly important not only to the tradition of the Bluecap Sellsword, but also for ancient religious symbolism in pre-Holy See Vallatorlan society. Especially in the Hinterlands, this Vallatorlan revolved around a belief system centred on Slanggar as a raiding and agricultural deity alongside Galana as a hearth deity. It was understood to the ancient Northern Slanggic Cults that Slanggar's holy colour was blue;

Slangg's rage and war has been present throughout all cultures across the history of the Great Dance, perhaps one of the most unique interpretations of this can be found in Vallatorlan's recently converted heathen past. Where most southern civilised cultures attributed Slangg's qualities to fire and blood, these were instead seen as signs of life and resistance in the harsh north where the so-called "Northern Slanggic Cult" is believed to have originated.
On the shores of Karthauld and Yuregrim, rage was personified by the blizzards of Winter and the destruction of a restless ocean, and so blue would be their colour of anger. And so, when the shamans of Slanggar and their zealot warriors known as Bluecaps went to battle in Her name, they would wear blue on their head to show their deity above which were faithful to Her and so which to favour with good combat.

— Varieties of Faith; Emotions of Anger

by Robert Ronald McIan

While not as internationally iconic, another important piece of the Bluecap uniform is the traditional thick belted plaid worn by almost all peasantry and nobility alike throughout the Vallator Hinterlands. This draping blanket-like garment is a cut woollen rectangle, longer than the wearer is tall and wider then the wearer's circumference. The plaid is worn to ankle-length, with the top used as a hood or hung behind like a cape. The width may be pleated until it will wrap around the waist, allowing for the plaid to hang like a skirt. This skirted fashion is favourable to both genders in the Hinterlands, as the ground is not particularly suited for horseriding and so a tradition of breeches never had need to develop.

This plaid is often used as a means for a Bluecap to show off their collected wealth, wearing dyed wool of magnificent and exotic colours, or most commonly in the modern

day woven into ceremonial tartan designs of the Midlands. Despite the newfound wealth of the modern Bluecap, the plaid is still preferred over any other protection for its simple multi-use dependability. Capable of being a bed at night, or even - as some witnesses claim - ample protection against even a blizzard if soaked in water and then worn with nothing underneath, the combination with the warm bodyheat can create steam akin to a boiling kettle.

The Bluecap is also trained in a dual-wielding combat style, with one hand holding a silvered basket-hilted rapier and the other holding a similarly-silvered dirk; A long thrusting dagger with the hilt made with selected material of the Bluecap in question. It may be made from bog-wood found near their birthplace, or the antler from the first deer they ever killed. While the rapier is replaceable, the dirk will never leave the side of the Bluecap in question. Often times, the blades of these dirks would be inscribed with traditional sayings, such as "To the Great Field", "The Bondsbreaker", "I am Minded to Rise", "Vindica Pannus Apostata", or the motto of the clan they hail from or lived under.

by John Pettie

^{Five Bluecap Sellswords draped in ceremonial Midlandian Tartan are granted their bill of payment by the clerk of a Doldreic Lord.}

Evolution & History

Fiercer though, than the riders of great bears, than the sorcerous treemen shepherding swarms of petals, than even the revived skeletal remains of Giants long-executed, were the garbed men which hid in the bushes of our flanks until the right time to pounce. Revealing their blue caps from behind thick plaid, daggers in hands, they screeched war-songs in druidic tongues to their bloodthirsty god which stayed in tune to the beat of their heavy bounds and the rattling of metal piercings which hung from any open skin available.
I witnessed a dozen of these barbarous heathens butcher and devour an entire detachment of clerical templars. Thank Courga above for his favour in stopping that damned war. No more do I wish to see a blue cap atop any skull except on the dead.

— Archbishop Oates' Commentaries on the Norman War

While a Bluecap has always been recognisable as such throughout history, the uniform has undergone some evolution the more the sellswords have intermixed with foreign cultures to the original Vallator Hinterlands. While the remnants of Slanggic tradition still bleed through, most notably in the continued refusal of a Bluecap to wear armour, this has not prevented the style and wealth of the uniform to adapt.

Cultural tradition of Karthauld, according to

Hodden Grey Material

Mages of the North, is one of more conservative values in relation to wealth where 'the Karthfolk aptly resemble the bleak landscape which surrounds their northern wastes'. As such, it is culturally frowned upon to display ones wealth both in public and in private, keeping any sense of valuables locked away in secure locations. The early religious Bluecaps would keep to these cultural values of their homeland (that of now-ruined Slanggic Monasteries on the slopes of Ben Hall), with the belted plaid being dyed in the unassuming hodden grey.

At this point, the Bluecap was a religious zealot and key priest-figure of the Northern Slanggic Cults. Where the holy women would become shamans closest to Slanggar whom the Vallator depicted as female, the holy men were charged with protecting these shamans closest to their beloved deity and so would don the blue hat. Here as well, before the Norman War, the headgear was a flatcap design known as the Carnegie Bonnet after the Princely Clan which ruled Karthauld.

As hostilities grew throughout Vallatorlan, the Bluecaps became more militant throughout the Hinterlands as they feared the destruction of their entire ancestral way of life. A deal was struck between Clan Carnegie and the Arcane University of Evocation, where these warriors would be permitted to enhance their weaponry with enchanted ice to replace their steel blades. With these enhancements, the Bluecap became an elite ambush warrior under the orders of the Pale Prince in the Norman War, responsible for the Hinterland's significant victories.

After the gruelling Norman War, the warrior lodges of the Slanggic Cults were disbanded under force by the victorious Holy See. Abandoned by their once-favourable nobility and with no living or free Shamans to follow in servitude, the Bluecap tradition of life was shattered. Some under the leadership of Black Ysmalice carried on a guerrilla campaign in the Heldenmarch of the Holy See itself but would slowly be picked off to extinction. Many more simply retired, falling into deep depressions or paranoia as a result of living a life in hiding in case their prior actions would come back to haunt them. However, a small portion decided to carry on the tradition, most fleeing with their families from the Vallatorlan which was now incredibly hostile to the old pagan traditions, and forced to become mercenary sellswords throughout the Holy See Territories in hopes of keeping their tradition alive and carving out a new image of their holy order.

In the modern day of 4E 297 after the Virtuoso Order's fall from grace, Bluecaps are renown as being the most elite sellsword bodyguards available to nobility and merchant guilds. Living as good a life as they can carve out for themselves, modern Bluecaps have gone away with the conservative values of their forefathers and don themselves and their families in the spoils of war. Golden adornments hang off exquisite plaids in the pattern of the most expensive Doldreic Tartans, as they sip wine from adamantine decanters in the warm summer estate of a coastal Ruddlestone noble. Holy See officials still refuse to hire a Bluecap, however, after the slaughter their fathers and grandfathers caused to the faithful in the Norman War, with some more puritan members of the Heldenic Inquisition even hunting down those who don the blue bonnet.

The future is uncertain for this most ancient tradition. While Bluecap Sellswords are increasing in renown and riches, the numbers of their pagan order dwindle by the year. Where one rises to fame throughout the Territories, I could tell you of ten who fell in the line of duty for that individual to gain his position. However, none can argue that the legacy of the blue bonnet will indeed survive forever.

— Mages of the North; The Culture and Lifestyle of Karthauld

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by David_Ulph on Hero Forge

^{Magically-painted statute which once beckoned visitors through the northern gate of Freestwin, until it was taken by Rivercrowner forces during the Norman War of 4E 226-234. The statute now sits in the 'Museum of Holy Conquest' of Helden as a trophy claimed in the expanding name of the Holy See. It depicts a now-unnamed noble commander of Bluecap mercenaries believed to have once been connected to the Princely Clan Gunn itself, and is shown to many as the archetypical style of a Bluecap warrior in their long-gone hayday, as well as showing the previous style of headgear in the Carnegie Cap as opposed to the modern Mandorran Bonnet.}

Reputation

A patron will enter a tavern in search of bodyguards. On one end are a gang of burly mercenaries famous in the area, on the other is a lone individual sitting with a blue bonnet obscuring his face. Only one man will leave the tavern with the patron.

— Common saying in Ruddlestone

Vallatorlan

After the Norman War led to the dismantling and conversion of the Northern Slanggic Cults, the bluecap became analogous with highwaymen and petty criminals who would continue to disrupt and rebel against the Holy See's growing influence throughout the Hinterlands. Therefore in the Lowlands and banks of the River Stromlos, a blue hat portrays the stereotype of the wearer being cruel, brutish and notoriously bloodthirsty.

However in the Hinterlands, the bluecap has remained a symbol of Vallator pride and martial tradition, though has gained the romanticised reputation of being donned by freedom fighters during the Norman War. Slain Bluecaps became martyred folk heroes admired for their bravery, rough chivalry and colourful personalities. No matter if you are Hinterlander or Lowlander doesn't change the fact anyone can tell the tales of Oliphant Fenrie, Euan Crofter and the Bolster Lion.

The blue cap or bonnet became so ingrained as a symbol of Vallatorlan (specifically the Hinterlands) and preservation of it's culture, that whenever there has been minor rebellions, slave revolts or extremist assassination attempts, these rebels would dye their clothes or hats blue in solidarity with the fallen and disgraced Bluecaps who fought and died for Vallatorlan's independence. Additionally, many of the more xenophobic and isolationist nobles in the Conallsburgh Parliament will wear a blue sash or cockade to display their proud ideology. This movement saw an unprecedented rise in Lowlander Clans after rising hostility from Rivercrown to the east escalated into the Curling War.

by François de Troy

^{A nobleman of Lowlander Clan Kerr of Graupin poses for their official portrait to hang in their office of the Conallsburgh Parliament.}

Beyond

Picked and selected men of great and mighty bodies, cruel without compassion. The greatest force of the battle consisted in them, choosing rather to die than to yield, so that when it comes to handy blows they are quickly slain or win the field entirely.

— A Gentleman's Guide to Swords-For-Hire

The further one travels away from the biased printing presses of Vallatorlan, Rivercrown and the Holy Heldenmarch, and into the opposite extremities of the Holy See Territories, the blue bonnet brings up different connotations.

In Analand, Buerach, and Ruddlestone, the simple blue headgear is seen as a crown which sits atop a loyal, competent and ruthless mercenary, worth every coin in the high price to keep one's head. Due to this dependable reputation, many local sellswords in these regions who are aware of this will attempt to fake their way into better paid jobs by donning a blue bonnet themselves. On the rare occasion this bluff works - despite the sellsword having the wrong dyed hat, lack the training and hardly even look Vallator - these fraudulent Bluecaps often meet quick ends against such severe foes a real Bluecap is sent to fight.

Ardena too was a heathen culture based around Slangg worship before the emergence of the Holy See. This caused Ardennese culture to see incoming Bluecap Sellswords as rivals to their own proud warriors. However, due to the fall of the Virtuoso Order, the Bluecaps have seeped over the border seeking to fill voids in the market of mercenaries in the newly reformed monarchy. After the Virtuoso Order's coup d'état, Ardennese nobility are more comfortable with hiring capable foreign bodyguards than their own blood.