Introduction To The Calradic Campaign

***A new beginning, a fresh start can get one to accomplish great things without previous pressure. It can be hard to get the past behind, but Calradia can be shaped from a fresh perspective, regardless of your sins from before. We take "new blood" here. Make of that what you will and welcome!***

# What is it?

The Calradic Campaign is a public Mount & Blade multiplayer event hosted by the r/mountandblade subreddit and community Discord. The campaign began in Warband, which ran from March 2016 to March 2020, totaling 50 main events and many other smaller ones. The Bannerlord Calradic campaign began in November of 2022, and is currently ongoing well into 2023. The Calradic Campaign is first and foremost a casual, friendly event with players of all skill levels welcome. It is an excellent opportunity to try out multiplayer in a more laid back setting for those who are intimidated by Mount and Blade multiplayer's traditionally competitive nature.

The Campaign is based on the lore and factions of Bannerlord: The Aserai Sultanate, the Grand Principality of Sturgia, the Khuzait Khanate, the Kingdom of Vlandia, the High Kingdom of Battania, and the Northern, Western, and Southern empires. Victories in events are represented on the overworld map, which dynamically changes over many months and events to give each distinct event an overarching storyline.

# How to join the event

There are no signups for the Calradic Campaign (CC), and anyone may join at any time during the event. The server is always called Calradic Campaign.

You will need our required module to play in the events, which contains many changes and fixes to both Bannerlord's stability and balance. It is also how we are able to deliver multiple custom, unique scenes every event. You can learn more about the module here. All you need to do is subscribe to the mod on Steam Workshop and enable it in the multiplayer section of your launcher (separate from the single player tab). If you are not a Steam user, feel free to reach out to us on the community Discord on advice for manually installation. It is a bit more complex, but doable. In any case, make sure "Calradic Campaign" is the only mod enabled in your launcher, and head to the server browser to join the server. We generally recommend joining 10 minutes before to ensure the module is working properly. If you are unable to join the server for any reason, your best first move is always going to be to unsubscribe and resubscribe to the workshop module. Sometimes Steam will bug out and not properly update.

CC events are announced on the subreddit around one week prior to the event. These posts provide the background lore for the event (driven by player interaction, more on that later) the stakes of the event, and meta information such as factions fighting and the format. An example event post is available here. Generally speaking, the event post will contain all must know information for an event.

Mainline Calradic Campaign events are hosted on the first and third Saturday of every month, at 4 PM EST (10 PM CET). These events are the large scale battles and sieges you may have seen videos about. The Campaign uses our Discord server for voice chat. While voice chat is not required, it is *highly* recommended that you at least be present in the channel muted if you do not want to speak, in order to coordinate with the leader's tactics. There are no rules that mandate you follow the commander's orders like you would find in clan or line battles, but generally speaking you will be in a much weaker position if you run off on your own.

Clans are welcome to participate, but they must first reach out to u/SuicidalCake on the community Discord. If a clan wishes to bring a large number of players, they will most likely need to split up among the teams to ensure they stay balanced. Clans are also not allowed to be in their own voice chat during an event if admins deem it necessary. Failure to abide by these rules can result in a clan being blanket not allowed at our events.

The server we host the event on is based in North America, in New York. This location ensures the a low ping for North Americans, while also giving Europeans and others around 100 ping, which many deem playable. The Calradic Campaign is an international event, and players from all corners of the world have attended. We welcome anyone concerned about ping to try it out once!

# How events work

The events represent a development in the Calradic Campaign map.

The announcement for each event will explain what factions are fighting and why, followed by what territory is up for grabs. The main event typically has two stages: a Battle stage and a Siege stage. (Occasionally, other gametypes and modifiers will be present, such as more than two factions or special gamemodes.)

First, a field battle is fought between the two factions. All of our scenes are made by our mapmaking team, and provide a unique experience every event. Battle mode is used for field battles, which is a one life per round mode where the last team standing wins. The rounds for battle mode typically last around 10-15 minutes, so there is not a long downtime one might expect from "one life". Generally at least 12 rounds are played in the field, so dying once early will not ruin ones enjoyment. Factions that are not fighting will choose one of the two who are to ally with, lending their players to support that team.

Following the field battle, a siege will take place, with the winners of the field battle attacking the losers in siege mode, which is similar to single player sieges and has respawns, meaning the action is typically faster paced and nonstop. If the attackers prevail, they take the territory under siege from the defenders on the campaign map.

To avoid bias, we use the same siege map for both factions, regardless of whether or not it is true to the faction or not. This explains why you may see Aserai soldiers sieging a desert castle from the Vlandians if they prevail in the field.

# Roleplay Elements

For those that wish to engage in the storied history and organized side of the Calradic Campaign, it is worth knowing how our faction’s hierarchies work. Factions are all led by a King: An experienced community member who has invested time both in events and roleplay, and is responsible for the day to day running of each faction. This gives each faction a bit of a unique feel to them.

Roleplay and organized strategy takes place in our community Discord, which you should certainly join if you enjoy your first event and intend to stay around for more. Choosing a faction role gives you access to the faction's text channel, where most roleplay and other social elements of the campaign take place. There is also the #calradic-campaign-events channel, which serves as a common hub for all factions to both discuss developments in the campaign and talk smack.

For each faction there are multiple "Clan leaders" who wield great influence in their faction, typically experienced community members but also with a few upstarts trying to rise through the ranks. They are permitted to have their own "clan" within a faction, which individuals can join in order to align themselves with other faction members who share their goals and ideals. Clans allow internal politics within factions to have more influence on events, with a long term rebellious clan potentially descending the kingdom into civil war. In the Warband Calradic Campaign, both Rhodoks and Swadia suffered rebellions that were entirely brought about by player choice.

Beneath the clan leaders are the Bannermen – these are simply individuals who wish to participate more in the community and events. They are given a role through which they may be notified of ad-hoc mini events involving their factions, such as skirmishes, feasts, and training. They may become more familiar with the Lords and Kings of the faction and adhere to their commands in the field more closely than a casual player. Unlike the Lords, there is no limit on the number of Bannermen a faction can have, giving it the lowest barrier for entry – if you wish to become more involved with the Calradic Campaign, requesting to be made a Bannerman of your favorite faction is where you should start. Bannermen of exceptional talent, discipline, and reputation are considered first and foremost if a clan leader slot becomes available.

While earning glory through mainline events is the most direct way to rise in a faction, mini events allow players the chance to interact on a smaller scale with both their own faction and enemies. Skirmishes, trainings, clan meetings, raids, and more have been examples of previous mini events, and faction leaders are continuously working together to organize unique and enjoyable mini events for faction members to show their strengths in. Mini events are an incredible opportunity for newer players to both make themselves known socially and improve in skill. Mini events can even end up influencing the lore of the main events, which are organized by the central event administration - we always seek out opportunities to reflect player choices in the overall story, which means anyone can genuinely rise in station and go down in Calradic legend.

If one is only interested in attending the main events for the gameplay, roleplay is optional and you will never be required to do anything to attend the main events.

# The Story So Far

All events will be documented on this wiki and is a continuous work in progress so check back regularly to see if new lore has been added. If you have participated in the CC before and want to contribute, please message one of the Mods or Admins on the wiki to get started.

# Donating to our Patreon

The Calradic Campaign server is our own, and we run it ourselves on a donation basis as we have for over 6 years. We have a Patreon that you can put in a monthly or one time amount to contribute. No special benefits in game are granted as a result of donations, and we ask that you only donate within your means. Patreon funds are used to fund server costs, and no individual collects any money from the account. All money goes back into the campaign.