Hey Its Dawnbringer here with another Skalahseh lore bomb Muhahahah!

If you've been keeping up with Skalahseh then you should know its a role playing scenario Ive been working on forever and a day. With a heavy christian undertones and awesome fantasy overtones. Well if your going to have a role playing scenario you need adventurers right? In most scenarios players are happy to meet up at a bar and start reeking havoc on the DM's handcrafted world slaughtering the DM's innocant NPC's and Qwest givers in rampant abandon. Theirs no sense of camaraderie, fellowship, and certainly no sense of responsibility. How do you introduce such things? Adveturers guilds can be surprisingly useful, Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the Bronze-Blades Mercenary Band.

In order to understand the Bronze-Blades your going to have to go back, way back to a time long before its founding.

The once Emperor Abohdi has renounced his crown and name as emperor taking instead a name in the old Monan tongue. Abohdi (Meaning My great Pride is Dead/Broken) has set about organizing the long separate and disjointed Tahlah (High Path, Christian) Religion on the Island of Tarfuth (The rock/Island of Faith) He separates the clergy into a number of orders each with slightly varying beliefs and special duties. Among those Orders their where three that stood out from the rest as they where did not take vows preventing them from carrying weapons. The Templars, Seekers, and Reapers.

The Templars where originally tasked with the duty of protecting holy places Churches, Temples, and Shrines however as time went on they began to take it onto their shoulders to protect the rights and lives of the faithful and later even those unbelievers. Truly they where the first Guardians. Overtime they became some of the most revered or warriors in Skalahseh.

The Seekers where originally tasked to act as a sort of police force for Tarfuth, eventually however their role began to encompass the duty of keeping the faith pure by bringing corruption in the faith to light, ensuring that any who abused their position in the Faith be brought to justice and ultimately stand trial for their crimes. Honing a unique skill-set encompassing diplomacy, stealth, forensics, and other sciences to ensure none could escape justice.

The Reapers where the most enigmatic of the three militant orders their duty was to ensure the dead may rest. This had many meanings the most notable where that they where tasked with banishing Deamon (Evil Spirits) from graveyards, making them the most talented exorcists in Skalahseh. The other duty was much messier as they where tasked with dealing with soldiers who had died on the battle field and in consequence the duty of ending the lives of those men found their wounded beyond known means of recovery. The reapers where not satisfied. Overtime the Reapers began to make advances in healing of the Body, Mind, and Soul of those they found on the battlefield. Eventually the name Reaper was no longer relevant as they had become the most renown faith healers in Skalahseh. Taking the name Hospitalers they became known as the greatest healers and exorcists within the faith.

The three orders joined into one organization during what is known as the War of Faiths then known as the Kings War. During this time the Holy City of Lionscrown (The place where Yahan, Jesus's Skalahseh Analog died and returned to life) was under the rule of the second Empire who where prominently adherents of the Kings Faith or Cult of Kings named as such do to their belief in Prophet Kings. Those seeking to make Pilgrimages their weather they be of the Faith or the Cult where not safe. Many of Tahlah's adherents in the Alliance to the east where not satisfied with this and made war with the Empire in hopes of claiming Lionscrown in retaliation the Empire decided to burn Tarfuth to the ground. Not the most brilliant move on their part. In order to defend the Evergreen Isle (Another name for Tarfuth, as the Island seems to remain in a constant state of spring) the three militant Orders decided to make a united stand. After drafting what would be known as the Guardian Pact the three orders and all their duties where joined into one and the Imperial Navy never stood a chance. In order to teach the Empire a lesson in humility the Evergreen Guardians as many had taken to call them single-handedly overtook and conquered Lionscrown for nearly a decade (A decade in which pilgrims from both faiths had no reason to fear travel and entrance into the holy city) until being ousted by the Cult of kings (Fun fact nearly a century later the city again fell under Tahlahist control after the Imperial schism that split the Empire in half based primarily on the religious differences of twin brothers and their followers). For years after the Evergreen Guardians or Greenguard where the most respected none politically aligned fighting force in Skalahseh much to the shugrin of the none militant orders).

The Bronzeblades where founded by Aben Cahl an aging Rahtan soldier who saw the slow decay of the Rahtans warrior cultre after the rise of the Stoic Tahlahism boom within Giant (The long ancestral enemies of Rahtan) culture. Know that Brohan (Giant) where mellowing out his people no longer had as many enemy to fight. However in recent years the Greenguard where declining in power as the other orders where slowly trying to tear the Guard apart. This meant that many of the Monsters and Maniacs the Greenguard had long fought against where left to reek mayhem and carnage throughout the land. Abens solution? The Bronzeblade Mercenary band. An order of honorable mercenaries who devoted themselves to facing criminals and Monsters rather than selling themselves out to fight in petty wars. They where a hit!

In time the Evergreen Guardians where labeled Heretics by the Faith for their "Brutal and Violent" Actions. And a new organization the Inquisition was formed to inquire about and exterminate the Guardians. Aben saw opportunity here as the Bronzeblades where unable to exterminate supernatural threats. What they needed where Exorcists and Faith healers and their where none finer than those who served in the Greenguard. So the Bronzeblades struck a deal with the Guard. The Guard would join with the Blades as a sub-faction granting them political protection from the Inquisition, And in return the Guardians would aid in the elimination of supernatural treats. "In the end its the People who win, and isn't that what both our organizations are about?" Aben argued. The Guardians where hard pressed to find any reason to object, so they agreed.

Questions comments or concerned?

Wow! That's a lot of info with a lot of depth! You've obviously thought this through quite a bit.
I'm glad you're aiming to press for Christian values, and I sorta see how you could use these groups for that, but could you explain how you're thinking it will play out? I don't want to put my thoughts in your words, if that makes sense.

In most scenarios people will be members of the Bronze Blades, If they are playing a Templar, Justicar (Changed from Seeker at my dads request), or Hospitilar (Classes in the Scenario) they will be members of the GreenGuard as well. The Bronze Blade will hand down contracts for the party to complete which will earn the party in-game money. In this way you can add a sort of monster of the week feel to the game while using a major long-term contract to introduce a overarching story plot.

However the Blades far more useful as a sort of punishment and reward system for players. The Blades are Mercenaries but their also Honorable Warriors, they have rules. Most are moral rules like 1.No senseless killing, 2.No Stealing, others are more flavor based like 3. All contracts must come from the Bronze Blades, 4. All contracts must be completed. When someone breaks a rule they are their entire party are fined for their misbehavior. If the party acts out to much they will be expelled from the Blades, leaving them to face the authorities for all the crimes they have committed. This is a sort of channel to keep players headed in the right direction while leaving some leniency should they only mess up once or twice. Other than getting paid the Blades can reword players by promoting members to higher ranks, giving them access to higher ranked contracts, as well as better issued gear.

Furthermore as a member of the Guardians A character will have to follow a stricter set of rules as they are still basically clergy. However role playing wise these classes would be better off acting good in the first place as behaving in an immoral fashion would strip them of their powers, But the Guardians are strict with their own and hold themselves to a much higher standard.

If your interested in the classes that aren't Guardians. Their are Fighters, Rangers, And Shapers (a sort of pseudo-magic scientist).

That makes a lot of sense! I want to play!
I am interested in the other classes and how they work. You've made it really interesting!

Well I have been wanting to see if I could get an online game going with people from holy worlds Ill see about it. Ill just be using 3.5 DnD if I do though which means Ill probably retrofit stuff like take paladin convert it to the martial rules and say hears the Templar. Same with Ranger. Shaper could be tricky But it basically by like a wizard with a few notable changes and an altered spell list. Then again GURPS would be better but its a little complex.

Templar would basically be a paladin with no spells and a few more uses of Lay on Hands, Smite evil, Bless and Rebuke evil (Turn undead would suck in Skalahseh as their are no undead). A bit more martial skill to.

Fighter is kind-of self explanatory.

Rangers don't have animal companions instead they'd get both Two-Weapon and Archery path feats. id also be using the Martial rules here so no spell list.

Shapers would make and use "Enchanted Items" instead of Cast Spells.

Justicar would be a stealth character with uses of Lay on Hands, Smite evil, Bless and Rebuke evil.
Hospitilar would have lots of uses of Lay on Hands, Smite evil, Bless and Rebuke evil at their disposal.

Maybe use Rouges, Swashbucklers, Knights, Samari, and Ninja too if I use DnD. (Ninja and Samari would be racial restricted as I have a race with a Japanese like culture) Warlocks would exist too but as a none player class.

That's if you understand what I'm talking about lol.

I've never played Dnd, just Wow, so most of those connections probably conjured up the wrong image for me lol. I think I got the general feel of each one, though. You've really got it well planned out!

Knah the connections should be fine. Templar=Pally with alot less golden light. Fighter=Warrior. Rouge=Rouge Ranger is not ganna match up to well to hunter though. And Shaper is so much its own thing it's hart to match it up.

Ah, I see
Keep up the good work!

Wow nice depth! I like what you're doing and if you'd like to look into more about guilds of this sort check out the Elder Scrolls games or their wiki and look under Mages Guild for the Shapers and for most of the others the Fighters Guild. I think the wiki also talks about in game rewards for quest completion.

Actually, Ive drawn lots of ideas from the elder scrolls. Like how I have different ethnic groups for each race. I always liked the depth of the Elder Scrolls series myself.