It's been a hard day's knight

When it comes right down to it, the Arthurian mythos that I'm trying to emulate is mostly about big men in shiny metal cans riding around and doing cool stuff -- in other words, knights. I never considered doing this game without having knights in it because they're the heart and soul of the whole enterprise, the men of noble heart and virtue who are willing to fight and die for honor, glory, a lady's smile or a wonderful idea. An Arthurian-flavored game without knights would be pointless.

However, I didn't want the same old take on knights that every fantasy game comes up with. I wanted something flavorful, unique, and interesting. I wanted something rooted in Slavic culture. I wanted something cool.

Fortunately, as it turns out, there was something ready to hand for me to get all inspired by: the Polish winged hussars.

Seriously, take a look at these guys. And another look. And another. Do these guys kick ass or what? They're knightly, they're colorful, and they're exotic, what with their wings and their leopard pelts and their way cool armor. I mean check out this son of a bitch -- he might be Earth's coolest guy not named Chow Yun Fat. And they really existed.

Now, I couldn't just lift them wholesale because they didn't exactly fit what I wanted. They were in the gunpowder age, for one thing, so they carried pistols and carbines but not shields. Can't have that. And historically they were more a standing army than a feudal body, and so I had to change that too. But when I made a couple of minor modifications, I would have just what I wanted.

And so I introduce you to the Kroviyan knight: the rycerz (same spelling singular as plural, with the singular pronounced "REET-sir" and the plural "REET-sirz." They're an entirely hereditary noble class, sometimes landed and sometimes serving as retainers for other nobles. They were developed by Krol Holleb I, first king of Kroviy Mir, as an outgrowth of the heavy cavalry of the Thegan Empire, which ruled Kroviy (among many other places) for centuries before falling and plunging Kroviy into decades of chaos. During the peaceful Kroviy Mir era they dedicated themselves to questing, fighting the occasional barbarians, controlling bandits and the odd monster incursion, and participating in the extravagant courtly life of the kingdom; these activities still continue today, but they are much...busier now that chaos has once more descended upon the land.

In addition to their swanky armor, they carry a shield, a 15-18 foot lance called a kopia, a sabre, a thrusting sword called a koncerz, a heavy mace called a buzdygan, a hand axe, and a pick-hammer called the czekan -- yes, all on one guy. Rycerz are walking armories. Historically they carried all that plus a brace of pistols and a musket!

Unlike traditional Western European knights, the rycerz relies on speed and maneuverability in battle much more than pure power and invulnerability. They're certainly heavy cavalry and better armored than anyone else on the battlefield, but they're not the horsebound tanks of Arthurian lore.

Historically the hussar's wings appear to have been for ceremonies and parades rather than battle use; theories about them making it hard to pull the hussar from the saddle with a lasso or making a terrifying noise in a charge have been disproven. However, I like those ideas and so rycerz wings will provide a DCV bonus vs. lasso and a PRE bonus for intimidation/fear Presence Attacks, giving them utility in battle -- they're just too fucking cool not to have them serve a useful purpose. In addition, they serve as a form of heraldry, with the feathers being dyed in colors of the Hala for quick identification of friend and foe in a dusty combat -- kind of like the flags worn by samurai. Wings are also the symbol of the rycerz, and they're conferred upon a young man when he attains that full rank; in other words, in a Kroviyan context Edward II would have said of the Black Prince at Crecy, "Let the boy earn his wings."

That's a quick overview. There will be a lot more about them in the game, of course. I'm really excited about these guys, and I hope they're as interesting to the players as they are to me.