Kingsmen

*"The people of the Lightchester Kingdom are often known as Kingsmen. They are a recently united nation of mandatory military service and zealous loyalty to their King. They descend from the most ambitious humans who endeavored to travel to the Southern continent and claim lands dangerously close to the Expanse."* *-Lauchlan Nobleheart of the Frostshield Archive from his book Realms of Convergence*

## **Appearance**

   Kingsmen knights are famous for their heavy plate armor, horse barding, and heraldry. Common foot soldiers are known to wear chainmail. Kingsmen of the military are among the most heavily armored, only outmatched by the Dwarven Stoneguard. Fashion among the people of the Kingdom is known to be some of the most elaborate, elegant, and creative in Convergence. Nobles are known to purchase and discard clothing seasonally as fashions go in and out rapidly. Clothing not found anywhere else in Convergence is found in the Kingdom, especially Fair Port. While fashion does change quickly, tight corsets and voluminousness dressed designed to present a woman's features are always popular. The ranking officers of the military are known to wear sturdy dark coats and tight light pants, when they are not in armor. A few women have risen to such rank as to wear what is traditionally a man's uniform, creating some controversy. Student uniforms also take on this military, formal, aesthetic, but with the women wearing skirts, leggings, blouses, and a sort of neck tie that is more reminiscent of naval military uniform.

Male Kingsmen tend to wear their hair short and grow out a well groomed, short beard if they can. Female Kingsmen grow their hair long, at most to waist length. Men wear pants and shirts in typically duller colors they view as more masculine. Women wear dressed and blouses which are allowed to be more colorful and showy. Men are expected to appear practical yet well kept, while women's dress is more creative and self expressive. Wealthy men often keep a sword on their hip, most people at least have a dagger on them, other than noblewomen for who such a thing is considered crude and unwomanly.

Kingsmen carry themselves with a sense of pride and purpose as everyone is expected to be a proud and contributing member of the Kingdom whatever their role. Men are expected to walk confidently, women gracefully.

Bathing in the Kingdom is more common to those living near a river or lake, but perfumes are a popular option for managing body oder. Nobles are known to care a great deal about bathing and can spend a great deal on the construction of fine marble pools or even golden large tubs. Large cities like Fair Port have public baths that all are expected to use if they have no other bathing means available.

Kingsmen typically have round ears, are taller than dwarves, but shorter than wood elves and Bloodmen. Enough Elf, Dwarf and other bloodlines are within the people of the Kingdom so the occasional pointed ear, tail, wings, or horns are interesting, but not shocking or considered "outsider" traits. Darker hair and eyes are certainty more common in the Kingdom than the Forests of Return, but its said some populations of men bred with communities of elves long ago, and that fair features are an artifact of this in many Kingdom communities.

## **Culture and customs**

Kingdom culture is organized by ranks of nobility and commoners or peasants of various levels of wealth. The King is the ultimate source of law, though his law is only as strong as he can enforce, and if too many nobles are unhappy with him war will result. King Seldan Lightchester has so far kept the nobles united since the total conquering of the Kingdom. Unique to the Kingdom is the class of peasants. Laborers, craftsmen, and farmers who live on a noble's land, and serve under him. While these people aren't known to be mighty warriors they do produce a great deal of foods and goods, which the nobles take their share of.

### **Governance**

The nobility serve as law makers and keepers in their lands. A noble of higher rank can command one of lower to some degree, but property lines and rules are very clear. The King is the highest authority followed by the Duke, which there is only one of currently, of the Suncaster Duchy. Beneath that are counts who rule counties, then barons of baronies. Knights are both a rank of nobility and a martial tradition of horsemanship, lance, sword, armor and shield. A noble may hold the title of knight and for example, baron. Knights can knight new men into the order, though it is considered irresponsible to knight a commoner. The code of knights often invokes honorable combat, heroism, and chivalry. Lords often squire for a knight with the goal of becoming one. Otherwise nobility is comprised of lords who the King has permitted to own land. Lords give vassalage privilage to those they believe can be trusted with the responsibility to manage their lands and peasants. Inheritance is patrilineal, though no law prevents a lord from naming other inheritors, including women, though this is known to create conflict.

At knightdom is generally limited to an estate, a tower house, and perhaps some extended woodland. A barony is at least a small castle with a surrounding town, and the lands surrounding it. A county contains several towns, and is governed from a central larger castle compound, often within a city. A duchy can contain several cities, which lords can be given warden rights to manage and tax, with permission from the duke, but can be dismissed at any time. The Kingdom contains all these lands, and at least is stated to have legal claim over anything, but of course the reality is determined by power and politics. There are few consistent rules, as force still determines who "owns" what. Most typically the eldest son will inheret all of the lord's property, leaving younger sons with nothing other than what they can make for themselves professionally or in conquest. It is common for these sons to become knights in service to their family or someone else. And as one would expect it is common for these younger sons to attempt to kill the eldest so that they may inherit the lord's title. Also if a lord produces no male heirs, or no heirs for that matter, often times the closest male relative, an uncle or cousin, will have legal claim over the lord's estate. Such claims are not always honored and many times these matters can become chaotic and violent. Some will cynically claim there are no real inheritance rules, and this lack of consistency causes massive problems and conflicts. Perhaps there is truth in it, but none can deny the Kingdom exists now as a united entity like none before it.

The Kingdom has little concept of corrective justice and no prisons. Criminals are either seen as too deviant to allow into the community again, or as harmless trouble makers enough that a simple public lashing before returning them to the community is enough. Criminals judged as too dangerous are promptly executed, more often in a private grove of trees, than in public. Other times the offense might be seen as simply dishonorable, and the criminal is not dangerous to others, and will often simply be banished.

Family crests often indicate relations between families, sharing symbols and colors for relatives.

### **Faith**

Estus, the Shining Sun is the patron god of the Kingdom. His radiant sun is an important part of agricultural abundance in the Kingdom. The Bright Fire festival is the most celebrated day in the year and the people are known to enjoy this festival even in times of famine or war.

### **Economy**

The Kingdom work force and diverse range of goods produced make them one of the great trade powers in the world, perhaps the greatest. It's production of various foods, textiles, lumber, ores, spices, wines, and more goods outmatches all other cultures in Convergence. This juggernaut of material wealth is only expected to grow.

### **Language**

Burg is the main language of the Kingdom. Most port city folk also speak Dwarvish decently, though many country folk do not.

### **Culinary customs**

As with their trade goods the Kingdom has tremendous diverse food options thus their cooking has become some of the most complex since the union of the Kingdom. Bread is the most loved food item in the Kingdom. The nobility enjoy a fine white flour bread made from wheat, and less expensive, and less pure flours are also available. While oats and barly are still popular in most of Convergence, wheat has become the main grain of the Kingdom. Most people love honey and some lords have built their forture on great apiarries. Honey, butter, and fresh baked wheat bread is the most loved breakfast. Kingsmen also love their cured meats, several types of cured pork are well known and exported as far as Frostport.

### **Structures**

The most well known structures of the Kingdom are the house and the castle. Houses are framed with heavy dark wood beams and filled out with white plaster to a striking effect. Roofs are often wood planks or thatch.

Their castles are some of the most sturdy structures, being built from large grey stone blocks. Castles main function is military, creating a safe position for the lords family to be housed from. Around such castles towns spring up to take advantage of the lord's leadership and protection.

Grand temples to the Gods are built in some of the larger cities. Huge open spaces with terrific colored glass windows depicting the Gods make for a awe inspiring experience.

### **Settlements**

Fair Port is the capital and seat of the King for the Kingdom.

The traditional settlement of the Kingdom in a town is about 2000 to 3000 in population, with stone walls and a stone keep or castle over watching the town and lands, perhaps an evolution on the tribal tula. Why this became such an established norm, and why large cities like Fair Port are rare, is a mystery. Some suggest ancient catastrophe like plague, which large cities are particularly vulnerable to, impacted the cultural memory so much that people avoid too large collectives of people. The other idea is that towns larger than this are too difficult for one noble family to govern, would require more providing farm land needed to feed all those people, and this extra territory to cover would be too much to protect against raids. Other theories simply suggest that humans do not like groups larger than this and find such cities overwhelming, unnatural, and stressful to exist in. There is some evidence for this as the people of Fair Port seem on average more distressed, but the resources and comforts of such a large city seem to out weigh those costs for many people.

While the towns, cities and castles of the Kingdom are its iconic symbols, a large portion of the Kingdom's population still resembles the tribal life of their ancestors, and is very similar to that of the Mistborn and Foothill folk. Many of these communities live so deep in the wilderness that they mostly go unnoticed by Kingdom politics. Some towns live more closely to these communities and traditions than others.

### **Marriage, sexual relations, and childbirth**

The Kingdom has a patriarchal hierarchy and clear division of roles between the sexes. Men are expected to be competent providers. Most women are expected to serve domestic roles, though many work and own businesses to great success. Marriage is an important goal of people in the Kingdom and married life is centered around making a woman comfortable and available to bearing many children, sometimes upwards of 20 in a life time, though 3 or 5 is considered plenty.

While the patriarchal system of the Kingdom does benefit men, and disempower women, there is also a great expectation on the men to provide everything his wife and children could need and to protect them. Men who fail these duties are sometimes shamed publicly and can even lose their property. Women are especially expected to be faithful to their husbands and while there is no law against adultery it is not unheard of for women to be punished or publicly shamed for such acts. For men it is more complicated. His fidelity is more or less important depending on his wealth and power compared with his wife's family. More powerful men can get away with having more relations. Its not unheard of for a wealthy man to father multiple bastards on the servants of his household. This is even encouraged as manly and virile in some communities. Peasants are said to have less consistency in their marriages as there is much less property to fight over when a marriage ends, thus both husband and wife are perhaps more relaxed with their relations. Peasant communities seem to resemble tribal folk more, being unconcerned with who's child is who's as everyone shares the child raising responsibilities.

Marriage is a legally binding contract with material wealth defined in ownership. Opportune marriages between wealthy families and nobles is encouraged, but natural and consensual attraction is considered important. It is believed children produced from unhappy pairings will be weak, sickly or even cursed. Incest is considered abhorrent. It is generally believed it is healthy to seek people from outside one's community to have children with, so much so that occasionally remote communities travel and join other communities for fertility festivals.

Pregnant women are relieved from any duties and cared for by her sisters and mothers. The men are expected to provide foods and other needs during this time especially.

A pregnant Kingdom woman will often pray to Eatora for her child's health and a safe delivery. She'll offer precious gems and metals at her local temple or shrine. The men are known to be particularly gentle and patient with pregnant women, giving them whatever they ask for, though perhaps it is out of a desire that their child be strong and abundant in energy.

For a time Fair Port was strangely obsessed with sexuality, becoming very concerned with controlling and regulating it, but paradoxically this just made it more of an obsession. The city has since returned to normal after their crisis with the vampires seems to have ended, perhaps there was a connection?

### **Death**

Ignoring the threat of the undead, Kingsmen go to great effort to preserve and entomb their dead. Great burial mounds who's openings line up with the sun on the holy day of Cemtrix are used in rituals to celebrate and listen to one's ancestors, perhaps about how best to survive the coming winter.

Wealthy families build great crypts and fill them with lavish coffins, filled with bejeweled preserved corpses. Long underground tunnels have niches carved into them for placing the bodies in. Temples go to some effort to sanctify these remains and tombs so that they may not be defiled by necromancy.

### **Military**

The Kingdom is the first nation to train and maintain a constant professional army. All serviceable men are required to enter into at least a year of basic training and membership into the reserves.

The proliferation of the crossbow dramatically changed how armies were formed and function. What used to be a skill learned only by nobles with the extra time and resource for it, is now available to the majority of men. While crossbows remain a back line or defensive position weapon they have dramatically multiplied the number of soldiers that can be fielded as they do not require great strength or a lot of training. Many worry that the crossbow ruins any chance for warfare to be honorable or soulful, but the Kingdom has been united with the aid of these units regardless. Women who prove particularly gifted with the crossbow are allowed to fill specialized roles under a commanding officer. There are indeed heroic tales about women snipers and assassins proving terrifyingly deadly with the heavy crossbow.

Women gifted with magic are allowed to serve under a male officer, though a few especially powerful women have obtained high ranks within the government and military.

It is still tradition in some communities to send young men out into the wilderness to train and learn with the berserkers, as a coming of age ritual. The introduction of the crossbow and conscription into the military means that these young men also must train in the new way, and that even men without the heart for war, must at least learn to use the crossbow.

### **Other beliefs and superstitions**

Many Kingsmen believe the deep forest is a wild and magical place. Some stories are told about tricky fey creatures and dashing fey lords who seduce and take away maidens. They consider the Forests of Return especially wondrous and look at the elves with a sometimes simplistic sense of mystery.