Crusade Realm Spell

[Neil Barnes]

On Fri, 7 Nov 1997, Adam Beard wrote:
> Glenn Robb wrote:
> > As for the Regent, the regent will do it willingly (a "summoning."). The Law
> > Holding Regent, however, has to hear the call. And he has to be lawful good, or he
> > won't even answer it edgewise.
>
> So you are saying that only Lawful Good regents may go on a Crusade?
> So a Neutral Good regent that beleaves the crusade is for the
> greater good can't answer this call. Hmmm that doesn't seem right.

Or the CE ones looking for a chance to kill, rape & pillage - they'd
probably be pretty likely to come along as well.

The First crusade (and it was only the First Crusade that was in any
way successful) was a mass movement. Thousands of people were on the
move - thousands of peasants following a demagogic priest marched from
Germany to Byzantium in expectation of the second coming. At the same
time noble families from all over France & Germany got themselves into
debt to support a single crusading knight. Pogroms went on all over
Europe as the Peasantry used it as an excuse to kill Jews and take their
possessions.

The whole thing was a result of several factors - firstly the medieval
christian obsession with sin; secondly the fact that the feudal society
existed to support a military class which could not fight itself (the
church was trying to prevent wars between Christian states) and finally
millenial tension - the people of that era expected the second coming
soon, and felt that they had to do something to absolve themselves of
their sins.

Are people familiar with the Childrens Crusade? Thousands of children
intending to travel to Jerusalem and ending up getting sold into
slavery.

The First Crusade actually took Jerusalem, and established a number of
Christian Kingdoms in the modern Israel/ Palestine/ Lebanon/ Syria area.
The second was a bit random, the Third was the one with Richard Coeur du
Lion & Saladin, the fourth was launched by the venetians to sack
Constantinople & the rest were pretty much irrelevant.

An interesting campaign could involve a crusade launched by various
Anuirean states into Khinasi for some reason. Imagine if El-Sheighul [1]
had conquered Aftane, Mesire & Zikala. The Prince of Ariya could invoke
the treaty with Anuire (signed by el-Arrasi & whoever that Emporer [2]
was) and all the Anuirean lords, eager to prove how well they fit the
mantle could respond. Well, and be looking for treasure.

It would give the PCs a chance to participate in a large scale war,
experience quite a bit of culture shock, and also give them a chance to
interact cooperatively with people who would normally be their enemies
(say Gavin Tael for example). Could be interesting.

neil

[1] Or the Serpent or the Magian or even Ghamoura. Insert powerful2bad
guy essentially.

[2] Me at Uni, books in Flat.

[voelkman]

>Well, this is not real life, it is fantasy. Also, when I posted the
>original 7th
>level spell, Holy Crusade, in Web RPG, I had another preparation factor.
>The high
>level priest had to pray for 7 days to his God.
>
>As for the Regent, the regent will do it willingly (a "summoning."). The =
Law
>Holding Regent, however, has to hear the call. And he has to be lawful
>good, or he
>won't even answer it edgewise.
>
>Voelkman, send me your changes and I'll make them when I have th time to
>write up
>the final version of the spell. I'll even include a duration.
>
>=97 Elton Robb
>"Your Generously Liberal GM."

Here are my suggestions:

1) The priest should have the opportiunity to cast the spell out of =
every holding he owes. If there is a holding of a lower level =
available he only recieves (level*10 percent) of the original =
fighters.

2) The spell may invoke chain reactions concerning neighbours and =
travelling mercenaries (DM's choice) depending on the situation. This =
may work like a Diplomacy action in the surrounding domains and =
agitation actions where official allies deny aiding the priest.
(e.g. a priest in Berhagen casts this spell to bring down the enemies =
threatening to overrun the domain to honour Belenik. If Muden is =
allied with this priest they may choose to take part or suffer from a =
agitation when a normal diplomacy check succeeds. When the diplomacy =
check fails, they do not get word early enough, so they can't take =
part.)

3) Any components missing weaken the spell, worsening any rolls =
concerning 1) and 2) (Treat any missing point as a RP spent by =
enemies, so 4 missing RPs lowers the chance for success by four =
points.

4) The priest may choose to give up points of his bloodline strength =
to improve the result. Each point negates 4 points of RP or GP =
missing.

Points 2) and 4) gives priests a chance to cast holy cursader when =
enemies raid the land or when they are not that mighty but need a =
cursade for a religious cause.

Hope that'll do

Best,

Manni