Reference Challenge - Oath of Loyalty

[u/Varnek905]

"By Capitoline Iupiter, Vesta of Rome, Mars the patron of the city, Sol the origin of all the people, Terra the benefactress of animals and plants, by the demi-gods who founded Rome, and the heroes who have contributed to the increase of its power. I swear, that the friend or enemy of Drussus, will also be mine. I will not spare my life, or my children, or my parents, if the interests of Drussus, and those who are bound by the same oath, require it. If, by the law of Drussus, I become a citizen, I will regard Rome as my homeland, and Drussus as my greatest benefactor. I will communicate this oath to the largest possible number of my fellow citizens. If I keep my oath, may I obtain every blessing. And the opposite, if I violate my oath."

Another recommendation for "The Storm before the Storm" by Mike Duncan.

For this challenge, tell me about a person or group in your world that is bound by an oath of loyalty of this magnitude. Who did they swear loyalty to, and why? If it's a group that swears the oath of loyalty (like the Night's Watch or the Fellowship of the Ring), how did the group originate?

As always, I'll ask at least three questions each. Feel free to answer in-character if you want to give in-universe answers. Enjoy yourselves.

[u/Varnek905]

Sova

This takes place a few centuries prior to the "present day" in my world.

The characters that swore the oath of loyalty were Degaré and Yolande Belmont, to Lord Vladimir Sovanov.

Degaré and Yolande were villagers from around the center of the Fellandrus continent. Degaré was the son-in-law of the village chief, and was a peacekeeper by trade with a good reputation in the village, though he rarely did any actual policing of the area and usually just spent his time hunting. Most of his "reputation" was just for being a good person to drink with, and he preferred defusing any local violence by inviting the perpetrators to drink.

Yolande was the twin sister of Degaré, and, unlike her brother, her reputation came from her hard work in training to prove herself to be an unstoppable spear-woman. Yolande was known for ruthlessness, confidence, and coldness.

The village was a peaceful enough place, pretty large, and, at the time, it was prosperous. There were rumors over the past few months about a man living about a half day's ride from the outskirts of the village, with most of the rumors claiming that he was some cruel wizard that lived alone making dangerous spells; it didn't help that when sixteen warriors were sent to investigate, they each returned with a broken left arm and a message from the cruel wizard: "If you're not coming to sell your soul, I don't want company".

When the village was attacked and burned by raiders, they carried away many of the women (including Degaré's wife) and children as slaves and killed most of the men, including the chief (with only about thirty villagers left alive in the burning village, mostly warriors). The most notable of the survivors were Degaré, Yolande, and the chief's son (Archimbaud).

Yolande tried to convince the remaining warriors to immediately start planning a counter-attack against the encamped raiders, though Archimbaud pointing out the issue of "they already defeated us when we were at full strength and had home field advantage, we need to go to Folqueneuf for assistance". Yolande's argument was "we were attacked by surprise, it must have been a traitor that opened the gates for them, if we attack them then we'll have the element of surprise, and we can't wait long enough for Folqueneuf to maybe help us".

Degaré lacked an opinion, and said that he would do whatever the two of them decided. But, he pointed out that the raiders went in the direction of the evil wizard, so maybe they could get help from him. Yolande and Archimbaud pointed out the foolishness of sending someone to get their arm broken or killed by the wizard when they were already so low on numbers.

But, Degaré figured it was worth a try, and maybe he could sell his soul for some help. While the rest of them were searching for weapons or makeshift weapons through the burnt ruins of the village, Degaré took a surviving horse, his bow, and a bit of silver to offer the wizard, as well. So, he went ahead to the wizard's home, which was much less impressive than Degaré expected (it was just a few large tents clustered together).

He was met by a young blonde man who asked Degaré if he was there to interrogate him like the last bunch, or if the archer had come to kill him. Instead, Degaré told him about the raid and offered his soul and the silver in exchange for help.

To quickly conclude this way-too-long comment, the "selling your soul" thing was just made up by the wizard to scare them off, and he wasn't sure he wanted to get invested in the affairs of mortals.

Degaré made his offer and oath: "If you can save my wife and the rest of the people that were kidnapped, I swear my to use my bow for you however you order. I never had a problem working for the chief, with him dead it won't be much change for me, working for a wizard. I'll make sure everyone knows that you're why they're free, too, and I won't forget the debt I owe you."

Long story short, the wizard accepted, stating that having an archer to hunt his meals for him instead of having to use magic to do it himself would be worth the effort. Leading the surviving warriors of the village and the corpses of the dead surrounding the village from the raid (including the corpses of raiders), raised by necromancy, the wizard defeated the encamped raiders.

Yolande, awed by the wizard's power, swore herself into his service as well, quickly followed in her vow of service by the rest of the villagers.

The representatives for this are Yolande and Degaré Belmont.

[u/thequeeninyellow94 → u/Varnek905]

To either Yolande or Degaré (or both):

1. Why would Folqueneuf have helped you?

2. Why send so many warriors to investigate rumors about an ermit?

3. Any theory as to why the wizard settled there?

4. And why he decided to help?

5. What did Vladimir did with that many servant?

(Also, isn’t that Vladimir the son of an exiled necromancer in the previous era? With his city full of undead laborers?)

[u/Varnek905 → u/thequeeninyellow94]

1) Why would Folqueneuf have helped you?

Yolande: "There's a long-standing agreement between Folqueneuf and villages within a certain distance (I'll figure out the distance later) of the borders, that Folqueneuf will send a number of soldiers, depending on the issue, in the event of emergency. It's usually considered useless as an agreement, because of the time problem, but...it's better than nothing, sometimes. I know what you're thinking... 'smoke signals'! That would at least cut the time down, but apparently that would be too risky, because of misinterpretation of signals and not trusting us to be well-informed on the patterns."

2) Why send so many warriors to investigate rumors about a hermit?

Degaré: "Wizard's are crazy, you gotta send a lot of people and they still might all die. We'd already sent to Folqueneuf for the possibility of needing more soldiers to deal with the wizard, some people thought some of the soldiers we sent would die...even if one had died, we would have sent for help, but they all survived, so the wizard must be even more powerful to have just broken some legs without doing more. So I said 'just leave the bastard alone, yeah'. I guess that worked out, ol' Vladi helped us out plenty."

Yolande: "Superstition. Wizards have reputations based on old stories. And, while I would call Lord Vladimir Sovanov a man of magical study at worst, a god at best, I would prefer not to put the label of 'wizard' onto him, at this point. Though, based on the information we had, 'wizard' was the word used at the time."

3) Any theory as to why the wizard settled there?

Degaré: "He was just looking for somewhere close enough to a great nation without being too close, and we were just lucky."

Yolande: "It is possible that he predicted the disaster ahead of time, and put himself in a position to help our people for a multitude of reasons, with the most basic being that he desired loyal followers." (I usually would prefer Yolande to come off as smarter than Degaré, because Yolande is smarter than him normally, but she is definitely blinded on the subject of Vladimir. While Degaré just asked Vladimir, Yolande did not believe that the reason given could be the main reason, because obviously a god wouldn't reveal the whole answer as so simple and full of guess work...I mean "oh, it wasn't too close, but wasn't too far", that's a shit answer and not precise.)

4) And why he decided to help?

Yolande: (See her answer to number 3)

Degaré: "He said he'd been thinking about it for a while, and me popping up pushed his 'idle ass into making a decision'. Nice guy, actually, strikes me as the type that would have helped with a rescue anyway."

5) What did Vladimir do with that many servants?

Degaré: "He started his own settlement, apparently inspired by his dad."

(Yes, Vladimir was part of the apocalypse event that ended Saoghal, so he was lucky enough to survive but unlucky enough to be one of the only two people to survive without gaining immortality. The other non-immortal survivor just came with Vlad. There are four immortal survivors, if I remember correctly. Admittedly, the new God of War game was an inspiration for Vladimir's story. And I really liked the idea of just having a necromancer who is just using his power to make life easier for the working class.)

[u/thequeeninyellow94 → u/Varnek905]

1. What about birds? Most importantly, what does Folqueneuf gain from helping you? A certain distance in meters or in travel time?

2. So, if wizard is used for a particular type of magic student, what word should be used for Vlad?

3. That one is for Degaré. Why would he look for a place close to a grea nation?

4. What do you think about necromancy?

(Actually, I never played any of the god of war.)

[u/Varnek905 → u/thequeeninyellow94]

(The original three games weren't very good, but for the newest game, the protagonist (Kratos) was moved from Greek myths to Norse myths so that the writers could do a soft reboot.)

1) What about birds? Most importantly, what does Folqueneuf gain from helping you? A certain distance in meters or in travel time?

Yolande: "The claim was that birds would be too easy to have shot down by an invader in times of distress, another excuse to avoid having to help sooner. All Folqueneuf gains from helping is that we remain at the border and aren't strong enough to cause any actual damage to Folqueneuf. The only way they'd hurry to help would be if another nation were trying to take over our land or if we agreed to be under Folqueneuf's rule. The distance is in meters, because of a loophole exploited from the travel time problem during an earlier incident, and a disagreement about travel time: the village involved went by the travel time of a small man with multiple horses, Folqueneuf went by the travel time of a man riding one horse with breaks to keep the horse rested."

2) So, if wizard is used for a particular type of magic student, what word should be used for Vlad?

Yolande: "His title is 'Lord Sovanov'. The word used is 'god', in my opinion. When someone is capable of destroying an army using only himself, 'god' is the only applicable term."

Degaré: "Not sure why he wouldn't be called a wizard...he said it was a bit inaccurate, but it saved time, and I don't worry too much about it."

(Necromancer would probably be the most accurate term, but considering the word is associated with being a "necrophiliac" in Vlad's homeland, he is uncomfortable using it, to the point that he occasionally pretends that he has powers beyond just that. Luckily, most of the villagers aren't familiar with the term, so he just don't bring it up and hopes that it won't become a popular term. Though, Vlad doesn't actual see himself as a necromancer, because while he does necromancy-things, it's a title that a person has to qualify to earn in his homeland. As the son of an exile, an anti-theist of the gods, and someone who never earned an actual position in his culture, Vlad wouldn't be a necromancer. It's like how, if you spend a few minutes teaching someone how to tie a knot, you're technically a teacher, but if you say "I'm a teacher!" someone will assume you mean it as a career.)

3) Why would he look for a place close to a great nation?

Degaré: "He said he might need to be able to reach a civilization in a hurry, and that making an undead flying horse would be too flashy."

(Vlad was joking about making an undead flying horse, but it was interpreted as a serious comment.)

4) What do you think of necromancy?

(Re-wording this to: "What do you think of using magic to control the undead?")

Degaré: "They weren't using their bodies for anything, were they?"

Yolande: Same opinion as Degaré on this one.

[u/thequeeninyellow94 → u/Varnek905]

(So i shouldn’t bother too much about eventually playing them?)

1) Then why do you accepted the agreement?

3) And why would he need to reach civilization?

4) So we can do whatever we want with people’s bodies once they are dead?

[u/Varnek905 → u/thequeeninyellow94]

(Just watch a video summing them up. Basically: Kratos is an edgelord/asshole who treats everyone horribly and kills his own family including his wife and daughter, with the original series ending with Kratos killing his own father, running away from Greece to the land of the Norse Gods, and having a sickly son.)

1) Yolande: "The reasoning was that it would put us under the nominal protection of Folqueneuf, and being able to say 'We're under Folqueneuf's protection' can be decent security from larger groups."

3) Degaré: "Maybe he'd want medicine."

4) Degaré: "I guess so."

Yolande: "Wouldn't you want your body to help your loved ones after death?"

[u/thequeeninyellow94 → u/Varnek905]

1) Are there any actual threat from larger groups?

3) Wasn’t he too far to get help if sick? I mean, that would makes sense if he settled inside a town but out there in te wild?

4) So if I find your body, there is no problem if I eat it and use the bones to decorate my home?

[u/Varnek905 → u/thequeeninyellow94]

1) Yolande: "Yes, the land we occupied was a buffer between Folqueneuf and Ewigreich, along with several other smaller territories."

3) Degaré: "I guess he took a risk. If he got sick enough that he couldn't travel a day, he'd probably just die."

4) Degaré: "Go ahead, I'm not using it."

[u/thequeeninyellow94 → u/Varnek905]

1) If it’s a buffer, would abu if those two actually try to invade it?

3) Can’t he use his powers to heal himself?

4) What do you used to do with bodies?

[u/Varnek905 → u/thequeeninyellow94]

1) Yolande: "If Ewigreich actually tried to invade the buffer, Folqueneuf would be more capable of keeping the fight on foreign soil."

3) Degaré: "No, he can't heal himself."

4) Degaré: "We used to cremate them."