Records: the Torchbearers

## **The Arms of the Commonwealth**

The original idea was communal defense – each of the polities of the Commonwealth would contribute their Royal Army when arms were needed in their area. With a stout Royal Guard seeing to the defense, they'd be safe to deploy. That was largely true, but there were areas that not only a heightened sense of threat, but political sensitivities about sending their own flagged armies over the border.

While they would follow orders if push came to shove, there was enough of a call for a regiment that was flagged directly from the Commonwealth. Hence was born the *Arms of the Charter*, and there would be nominal oversight from the Commonwealth Senate, but this would be directly under control of CrownCom.

The Commonwealth of the Magna Carta, under the direction of CrownCom, now certified their own regiments: *the Arms of the Charter*(AoC). This would be the tip of the spear, the primary interface for CMC military action. Behind it would be the support Regiments of the component countries. The AoC would come to be known as the Torchbearers, bringing the light of the Magna Carta to the far corners.

## **The Evolving Arms**

The AoC was primarily based in Aquitaine, and with portals, had logistical advantages that eluded even the armies of the alternate 21st century. Still, a single Regiment was a comparatively small force that would be operating far from home.

For the worst-case scenarios, the OM produced a different class of firearms. Essentially mechanically actuated wands, they required neither powder nor ammunition, simply an arcane crystal as a power source.

### **Looking to the future**

The realities of logistics were now the lifeblood of the Plantagenets. They made it work to their advantage, but with the small size of the defenders, the firepower they carried was that much more important. As were the lessons of not outpacing the supply lines, don’t let them be cut off, don’t pick a fight when low on ammunition, and so on. There would be modifications to this, like bringing massive supplies along for the march – and the Royal Company war wagons were legendary all by themselves.

It was these lessons that drove Rick to push hard for magic to replace gunpowder. Chemistry went in incremental steps, a solid evolution, but he'd seen how long that took – and he he shadows of what unearthly forces he faced – and he needed a revolution. What felt unstoppable to the world may well be swept away by the approaching shadows.

### **Weaponized Wands**

Magic wands tuned and amplified magic that already present in wizards. That was great for a small force, cross-trained as wandists, and was exactly what they did with the SA, but it wasn't practical for infantry soldiers. In the thick of it, they needed to keep heavy gauntlets on if they expected to keep their hands attached.

A pre-tuned wand, with a particular level of power output, represented the next step. The first examples were weapons that were designed to mimic the force and impact of gunpowder weapons, but without ammunition or the hazards of gunpowder. This was very close to what many might call a "Wand of Magic Missiles."

They still required power, and for that, there were arcane crystals – which gave a very deep magazine capacity.

There were a dozen variations already on the OM drawing boards and a thousand more in the imaginations of the ARA, including wands that shot actual fire (wand of fireballs).

### **The Trigger**

The key actuators were rugged mechanically switches that anybody in gauntlets could operate. The first models had a firing trigger and that was it. This was actually an advantage for the average foot soldier. The key points, however, were that any soldier could lift a weapon and fire it. It fired instantly, straight, in the rain (even under water), took a quarter second to recharge, could deliver a lethal strike, and had a 100+ round magazine for a single crystal.

The overall shape of the final designs housed the wands as an element within a protective casing. The casing was a thin metal tube – essentially a gun barrel that acted a health and safety sheath for the soldier utilizing the weapon. The barrel protected the wand from damage, and further protected the soldier from being harmed by his own weapon.

The barrels were steel and were extremely durable. The basic categories of the gunpowder weapons were recreated in magical form, with direct-fire LOS cannons, swivel guns, “shotguns” (CQB magical firearms), rifles, and hand weapons (pistols).

The biggest differences came in the biggest weapons, where the cannons and swivel guns could be much smaller and lighter, but still pack enough punch to blow a hole through a castle wall. This meant hauling and aiming the cannons in battle was far easier for the magical weapons. As big a difference as the Royal Arms cannons were over the cast iron pipes, these new cannons were a larger step forward.

The recharge on the weapons was similarly orders of magnitude faster than gunpowder-driven weapons.

### **The Sons of Excalibur**

It wasn’t just about the firearms. The blades of the Royal Arms *were already enchanted*. Beyond the lightweight metal, with an enchanted balance of edge-retaining hardness and malleable strength, the RA blades now had a kind of magical high-speed vibration, increasing the damage.

For some of the front-line soldiers, they were given heavier swords. These took additional practice to master, but carried what dryly described as the *Butter Knife +1 Effect*. The was a mass-momentum effect, activated on a swing, then took effect on the connect: *with the blade becoming 4-12x heavier.* The momentum would push the blade *through the target*. This was the effect on then-Prince Rick's swords and it had cut dozen of full-plate knights literally in half, creating terror on the battlefield.

It made the only sword that somebody would ever want to use to chop down a tree.

Further, the effect worked on parries as well, giving a knock-back to the opponent and often shattering their weapon. It worked even if parried with the flat of the enchanted blade.

When the Sons of the Commonwealth held the Sons of Excalibur, the effect would be devastating.

## **The First Deployments**

While most areas of the CMC had their own Regiments, there were only *so many* Regiments – and a great deal of territory for ork raiders to hide and conduct devastating raids.

The AoC was immediately deployed to dozens areas where orks were still rampaging. While a force like the AoC can destroy orks (and anybody else) quickly and efficiently, orks were discovered have a gestation of 2 months and a rapid, accelerated maturation of another mere two months.

Driving that quick growth, orks were found to carry over the swine habits of eating most anything and everything, including humans – *though not each other*. In that respect, the hordes were better than some cannibalistic tribes. Further, the orks were surprisingly adept naturalistic fighters. While they tended toward brutal recklessness, they weren't suicidal. They had the ability to withdraw, learn from their mistakes, and with that fast gestation, quickly recover from losses and mount a follow-up attack long before an equivalent human recovery. This made them a near-insurmountable challenge to most human cultures.

The AoC respected the extraordinary threat, but between their own magically-enhanced training, mobility and firepower, tilted the combat scales far back into the advantage of the humans... *where they were deployed*.

The AoC were in a constant, frenetic operational tempo against a foe that was absolutely hellbent on the destruction of humanity.