Player Guide
Welcome to Valor. This article is your guide to things your character knows about the world around them, and the training they have received.
The small ship took its time crossing the lake, following a long, crescent route to avoid the rougher waters near the center as well as the commercial fishing and merchant traffic. Finally, however, Albion comes into sight--bustling docks breaking the white line of the sea walls.
As you come nearer, you can see the full gradient of the city, from the warehouses and fishmarkets of the West End, to the vibrant homes and manors of new lakefront, to the businesses and guild headquarters of the East End. In the distance, on a rise above and beyond the rest of the city, you can just make out Castle Albion, a pale silhouette that resembles sky more than stone from this distance.
As the ship pulls into its mooring and you take up your gear, the feeling may wash over you anew: you've made it. Training is over. Whatever brought you to this is through and gone. You step out onto the dock and into your new life as a Valorian Knight.
Valorian Knights
The Valorian Knights are employed by the kingdom of Valor to protect against monsters and keep the peace. It’s a good paycheck, a good chance at glory, and a chance to do Good. Though nominally religious, dedicated to the goddess Valor Ascendant, the knights are now essentially a secular organization merely overseen by a religious institution.
Based out of the The Valorian Temple in Albion, the knights travel extensively to provide aid wherever they are needed, throughout Valor and even beyond its borders.
While off-duty, the knights are free to do as they please, provided it does not tarnish the order's upstanding reputation and that they can be quickly located and recalled if need be. Rookie knights are required to stay in the barracks, but after a few years, many knights choose to move to a place of their own in the city.
Training
All characters will have completed the organization's extensive training regimen at the Camp at Greycott. This included:
Martial Training
The knights employ a variety of fighting styles, and prefer to deploy Wings with a complementary mix. Trainees try their hand at everything from quick dagger work to archery and from traditional swordplay to unarmed brawling. However, the majority of their training will focus on the style that best suits the individual and balances the field of their peers.
Fighting Monsters
It is not enough just to know how to fight, of course. A knight must know how to fight monsters, specifically.
Characters will be versed in common types of monsters, the abilities and weaknesses of those they are more likely to encounter, and the relative dangers of confronting them.
Monster Classification
Classless Barely considered monsters, a Classless creature may pose a threat to the young, unarmed, or careless, but are unlikely to attack and / or unlikely to pose a threat to anyone with martial training or experience. Example: Iguamor Rank I These monsters pose a significant threat to civilians, and may be a challenge for rookie knights if they are caught alone or do not yet work cooperatively with their Wing. Example: Tatzelwyrm Rank II These monsters pose a threat even to a Wing of rookie knights, but more experienced knights are expected to be capable of facing them. Rank III These monsters are a serious threat, and should be handled by a highly-ranked Wing or several Wings working together. Imperial Imperial Class monsters are thankfully rare. They can pose a threat to entire cities, and may even call for mobilizing a full Flight. Example: any True Dragon
History
Finally, one should know what they fight for. To this end, the knights provide all of their trainees with a broad study of history, covering the fall of the Raithar Empire, the founding of Valor and the other Free Nations, the creation and history of the Valorian Knights, and major engagements and incidents, such as the Battle of Arlickson's Field.
Equipment
Rookie knights are provided with the basic arms, armor, and other equipment needed to perform their duties; they are also allowed to use their own gear if they have or can afford such. Finer, and even enchanted, equipment may be given over time as reward for good service.
The one piece of equipment that knights are required to carry with them is a Valorian Spear. Provided upon graduation, these tokens are approximately three inches long and can be worn as a pendant or pin. They serve as proof that one is a knight in good standing, and should be treated as a badge of honor.
Life in the Barracks
The Barracks are located in the Eastern Inland, near the city wall. There are four residence halls, one for each flight, around a central practice yard. At the north end of the yard is a mess hall and kitchen, and at the south end is the "gear mess" where general supplies are stored. Each residence hall has a House Guardian in the shape of a gryphon, each holding a different symbol of Valor Ascendant and bearing their flight's color.
It is a long walk from the barracks to pretty much anywhere, often requiring a circuitous route through the sprawling East Inland. However, there are roads leading more-or-less directly to the East End lakefront district and to northern end of the Albion Forums.
The Quartermaster is in charge of the barracks, but particularly oversees supplies, monitors the gear mess, and enforces curfew with bed checks at nightfall and roll call just before dawn. Some squad commanders will run drills and training sessions at the practice yard, while others leave their squadrons to their own devices.
Due largely to the barrack's relatively remote location and the strict nightly curfew, most rookie knights will take dinners at the mess hall. However, it is not required; those with the funds for it are permitted to eat wherever they like. Whether they eat there or not, though, all are required to take their turn in the kitchen, aiding the cooks (provided by the culinary guild) and responsible for cleanup.
The Broader World
Life in Valor
The lifestyles of Valorans vary significantly depending on whether they are rural or urban, but there are also many unifying threads. Most Valorans feel a strong connection to place, usually their home city or the land they farm. A focus on goals and ideals, courage, honor, and hard work are valued. Superstition is frowned on in a general way, but openly dismissing an individual's beliefs is considered worse.
There is some some movement in the urban elite towards more intellectual and philosophical pursuits, rather than the traditional veneration of martial skills or craftsmanship, but this has not seeped much into the mainsteam.
Whatever one's position in society, life is generally peaceful. Tensions with Deeproots Elidian, the nation just east of Valor, have dwindled over the past generation. There is long-standing rivalry and jostling for position with Anteus, the country to the southwest, but no particular threat that this will escalate.
Monsters roam the wilderness, from the badlands of the south to the Northwoods ancient forests, but rarely bother settlements or established farmland--and if they do, the Valorian Knights are quick to send aid. Travel can be hazardous for the untrained, but escort can be hired from several sources, including the widespread Hunters Guild and from the Valorians themselves.
Guilds and Currency
Guilds are the driving force of the Valoran economy, and society at large. Every profession and field of study is overseen by a guild, from the decentralized and sometimes unruly Fishers Guild and the nearly-ubiquitous Hunters Guild, to the esoteric Astronomers Guild and the feuding Chemists Guild and Alchemists Table.
In addition to education and employment, guilds often subsidize their members' health care, ensure continued means once the person has retired, and even provide entertainment. Many of the guilds provide amply for their members at certain holidays or contribute to public festivals.
It is generally expected that one will enter a guild around ten years old (for humans, or a similar developmental stage for the other races), and definitely before fifteen. Changing to a different guild as an adult is possible but difficult, generally requiring the agreement of both guilds.
Exceptions include those among the wealthy who have no interest in working, and those who dedicate themselves to the temples, although the temples themselves operate very much like the guilds anyway.
Though bartering and reciprocity are common, Valor does operate on currency (which is often even accepted in the other Free Nations). All denominations are a lightweight metal, speckled blue-gray in appearance, rough but with shining pieces, that is extremely difficult to replicate.
- Flat (ƒ): The cheapest denomination, flats are about as long as a human man's palm is wide, almost as wide as a finger, and flat (hence the name). They are stamped on one side; the pattern covers the entire width, and may include third markings for even division. Thirds, halves, and "sixers" (1/6th) are accepted.
- Bolt (þ): The same length and width as a flat, but thicker. The ends are mostly square, with rounded edges. A gold rod is at the center of each bolt, and can be seen at each end. Created by splitting bars, bolts are not generally divided further, with flats given in change instead.
- Bar (β): A bar is five bolts still connected. They are made in molds, so the smith's markings can be both embossed and engraved. This denomination is preferred for official business.
For ease of counting larger payments, flats or bolts might by collected in a "solid bundle" of 25 or 10 respectively, and tied with red cord to signal that they are pre-counted. Someone caught shorting such a bundle is called a "cord-thrift," and considered to be just short of a thief.
Religion and Beliefs
Though religion is not a large, active part of most people's daily life, it is a steady backdrop and a (mostly) unifying force. Reviving the worship of their ancestral gods was an early priority when Valor was established, and despite the staggering loss of knowledge, practice, and artifacts to the Raitharan occupation, it was largely successful.
However, theological disagreements still about. Within the accepted temples, these disagreements are handled as quietly as possible, but there are also splinter factions, heretical groups, and cults that can be much louder.
Contents
Valorian Knights The Broader World Sidebar
People to Know
There are a few people whom all the characters would have at least heard of in training, if not sooner.
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