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`Apr. 25, 2025` · [[Horseapple]] · #Fragment #Characters #Warband
> [!custom-callout]- All mentions, including keyword *“npc3”*
> *Pulled from* [[2-strings-(Warband)]]
> - “{playername} Bahadur -- I overhead what you told Ymira. But I wonder -- if the lords who live from farming, and the merchants who earn from trade, are allowed to determine what taxes will be leveed, then who will be taxed? Those who live from flocks, of course -- my people, the people of the steppes. I would have nothing to do with these councils, Bahadur -- all free men should be one, under the khan, and that is the end of it.”
> - “Good day to you!”
> - “A good question, and I shall tell you!”
> - “My father, a well-known merchant {s19}in {s20}, decided that I should be married to one of his business partners, a man well past the age of 30. I have been an obedient daughter all of my life, but it was a ridiculous and horrid proposition. So I ran away!”
> - “ I shall marry whom I want, when I want. Moreover, regardless of what my father might think, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I was thinking that I should perhaps join a band of gypsies, or perhaps a troop of mercenaries!”
> - “I hired myself on as a cook for some passing caravans, and that at least keeps me fed. But it is rough company on the road, and I grow weary of fighting off guards and others who would try to take liberties. I was thinking that if I could find work as a warrior, men would know to leave me alone.”
> - “Do you? Well, I am in no position to be picky! I would be pleased to join you.”
> - “I think you would find I would be a most valuable addition to your ranks. I am well versed in the classics of literature and can declaim several of the epic poems of my people. I play the lute and am a skilled manager of household servants.”
> - “Perhaps it is not my place to say so, {sir/madame}, but I confess that I am somewhat shocked that we {s21}. Of course I realize that war is cruel, but there is no need to make it more cruel than necessary.”
> - “{Sir/Madame} -- I think it was a brave decision you took to {s21}. There is no shame in finding a way to avoid the spilling of blood.”
> - “Captain -- in my opinion, {s11} is a hard and cruel man. He speaks of nothing but the need to flog, beat, and hang his fellow soldiers.”
> - “I know that an army is not a nursery, and that strong discipline is important, but I do believe that man enjoys cruelty for cruelty's sake. I hope you do not mind me saying so.”
> - “{Sir/Madame}. Since I have joined your company, I have tried hard to learn how to live like a soldier, and how to honour the warrior's code. If I occasionally make mistakes, I would hope to be forgiven.”
> - “After our last victory I was picking through the slain, and availed myself of one of our foe's purses. No sooner had I done so then {s11} came up behind me and struck it from my hands, saying that it was she who had made the kill, and thus she deserved the spoils. My lord, I could not tell in the heat of battle who had struck whom. If {s11} had simply told me that she deserved the purse, I would gladly have given it to her.”
> - “Hello, {sir/madame}! I had just wanted to tell you that {s11} is a most gallant knight. Did you see him in our last battle?”
> - “I also confess that I find him a truly delightful companion, a man of both wit and manners. Perhaps, perhaps... Ah, but I say too much. Good day, {sir/madame}.”
> - “I am afraid I have something to tell you. I have decided that the warrior's life is not for me. I think it is probably too late for me to find a good marriage -- no one of my people would take a wife who had served with a company of soldiers -- but I may have enough money to start myself up as a merchant. I hope you will not be angry, {sir/madame}.”
> - “Well, hello {sir/madame}! It is very good to see you again. I have not fared so well since we parted, I am afraid. My mother's family. whom I hoped would give me a start in trading, have not been as welcoming as I have hoped. I receive nothing but lectures from my aunts, on how I have ruined my prospects for marriage by taking service in a mercenary company. Perhaps I am better suited to war than to commerce, to share a meal over a campfire with rough fellows than to drink wine with the burghers of Veluca. {Sir/Madame}, I must ask you -- will you take me back?”
> - “Can you smell that? Lemon trees, apples and crocus flowers, it's the scent of Veluca. I spent many a happy summer here when I was a girl, playing in the gardens of my mother's family while my father was away trading.”
> - “Veluca has wet winters and hot summers, but the people here build great cisterns to water their crops. They grow grapes -- Velucan wine is famous, {sir/madame} -- and those who can afford it make walled gardens, where fruit trees grow in abundance, and we sit at night listening to music, or playing chess, or merely sniff the night air.”
> - “The poets call Veluca a paradise, and I think for once that they do not exaggerate.”
> - “I used to live in my father's house in {s20}, but I spent much of my childhood in {s21}.”
> - “Well, my lord -- I would worry for you. Our histories tell us that power tends to corrupt. But in the end, I am comforted by the mercy and judgment you have shown as captain of this company.”
> - “I would, {my lord/my lady}. But I would strongly recommend that you reinstitute an old Calradic imperial tradition -- the council of lords and commons, drawn from both the nobles of the land and well-educated men of property, with the power to overrule any new taxes or other tyrannical measures that might tempt you. It would be for your own good, {sir/my lady}.”
> - “If you were to make such a pledge, {sir/madame}, I think that it would help many of the lords of this land overcome any reluctance that they might have. If your aim is to restore the old Calradic system, then arguably you are a more legitimate {king/ruler} then any of these come-lately usurpers. Give me leave for several weeks, {sir/madame}, and I will let it be known in the noble courts and merchant houses of this land that you intend to restore their ancient rights.”
> - “Captain -- Deshavi has set off on some sort of expedition, which she says that you countenanced. She says that she will go about the villages of this land, telling the poor villagers that once you are {king/queen}, you intend to hang all thieves and bandits. {Sir/Madame}, I am a merchant's daughter, and know well the scourge of banditry. I also know that Deshavi has suffered great wrongs. But surely you do not intend to hang men indiscriminately. There must be some place for mercy in your kingdom”
> “Captain, although I cannot return to my father's house in {s17}, I still may make contact with my sister. She will be privy to the councils of the great merchant houses, and may tell us much about the state of the {s18}.”
> - “{Sire/My lady}, it is most generous of you to offer me {s17}. I would be pleased to hold it, and dedicate myself to the moral and material uplift of its inhabitants.”
> - “My lady, if you don't mind me saying -- I think by now you have proven yourself to be one of the great warriors of this realm. Yet strangely, no king has come forward to offer you a fief. Perhaps it is because you are a woman. No matter -- I personally believe that you will take your place among the great lords of this realm, even if you have to fight twice as long and twice as hard to receive your due!”
> - “Oh {playername} -- what a tragic turn our lives have taken! I can only hope that the tides of war that have made us enemies, will one day allow us to be friends.”
>   <br> ![[encyclopedia_calradica.gif|center|300]]<br>
>*“A massive `Mount & Blade` wikipedia.”*<br>About [Encyclopædia Calradica](About-the-Encyclopædia.md)<br>About the [Project](Project-(Pillar).md)<br>About the [Author](Horseapple.md) <br>