In this village, control shifts between the council of Warlords who’ve lain claim at the time. Often the Warlords serve the good of the villagers. But on other occasions, the Warlords hold power for the sake of it.
In this village there is a Guild of Knights and a Guild of Mercenaries.
The Guild of Knights uphold their oaths to the village, for that is where their loyalty lies. Their service is to the people and their swords and armor glow true and glorious. They uphold truth and honor above all.
The Guild of Mercenaries are different from the Knights. The Mercenaries often serve the village, but that isn’t entirely where their loyalty lies. They wish to spur competition amongst their benefactors. The Mercenaries are rugged and don’t have a uniform. They fight with a different honor. Their means may be bloodier than those of the Knights, but the Mercenaries too serve the truth in a way.
The two factions would often wage war amongst one another. The Knights would challenge the Mercenaries’ integrity, and the Mercenaries would tell the Knights they were wound too tight. But during these times, the village found itself at odds with their ruling body of Warlords.
But nowadays, the Knights and the Mercenaries don’t fight. They’ve realized that, though they are so different, they are very much the same. But the Warlords these days, they bred an agitation that the Knights and Mercenaries could not ignore.
Before these times the Warlords would often be benevolent- at least by Warlord standards. Their council chamber doors were open and they would welcome members of the village to engage in the affairs of the village. Even the Knights and the Mercenaries found themselves in the service of the Warlords. They were welcomed openly as honorable assets to the village. During these times there indeed was conflict amongst the three factions, but it was an open conflict which was addressed without concealed blades and secret plots. These conflicts were held in transparency.
But Warlords have come and gone in this village, as have the Knights and Mercenaries. In these times when the Knights and Mercenaries stood alongside one another in battle it wasn’t only out of newly forged alliance, but out of common enemy.
This newest reign of Warlords would begin to close their doors to the people of the village. They saw no need for the Knights or the Mercenaries. They considered the two guilds to be a pestilence upon the village that hindered their strength as rulers.
Before their time, council chambers were a place of criticism and addressment. They served the better of the village. This is what the Knights and Mercenaries were honored for. They would serve the villagers when the Warlords didn’t and the Warlords took this service to heart, for they too served the villagers.
But the council chamber doors have since shut. Only the Warlords are welcome. No longer are there villagers or Knights or Mercenaries present. The council chamber went from a forum of constructive criticism to an echo chamber of boasts and revels. They only peer out from the upper windows in order to catch a glimpse of what happened in the village below. The Warlords reveled in their greatness and shared tales of their battles with the Knights and the Mercenaries.
During their time of great boasting, they grew fat and mad with their obsession with themselves. They stayed sealed in the council chamber of echoes. They began to develop strange behaviors. One of the Warlords was known to spend an extended period of time in the latrine. Some say this time was particularly spent between defecation itself, and wiping. This brought great concern to the villagers; this was their ruling body! The Knights and the Mercenaries would attempt to battle them, but they could not breach the gates of the council chambers. They wanted to show the Warlords how grotesque they had become.
But in time, there came an era of new Warlords. The old Warlords who would lock themselves up in the council chambers as they writhed in their own grandeur were forced to move on. Little is known what has become of them. Typically when Warlords leave, they join the other Warlords in foreign lands. But never have the Warlords grown as grotesque as this particular lot. It is wondered if they were accepted by the other Warlords. Perhaps in this distant lands, these Warlords had at least become aware of their own grotesqueness.
