The Western Kingdoms

New Kingdoms, Towards Absolute Rule, Piety for God and Gain

The Western Kingdoms are in some way successors to the Roman Empire and relatively new foundations. Some, like the Spanish Kingdoms, have not yet emerged as stable and prosperous Kingdoms, and some, like France, are struggling to maintain the heady gains of the previous regimes and dynasties.

The appeal to nobility of new lands, especially far away in the Levant, are great. The forging of new kingdoms is a great desire among the more ambitious. The Kings and Queens of the lands are no less ambitious themselves, and strive to greater power. They are limited by their nobles and the necessities of their power and lands - winning more at the expense of either neighbours or uppity lords, is especially appealing.

And Crusading in foreign lands, wether to restore them to Christian hands, or to gain loot and profit, is the very beloved activity of the time.

The Westerners are a crude lot, new to Kingship and remembering little of learning and civilisation. They are barbarians, playing at nobility… but perhaps they are getting there.

• A Great Lord and General, holding huge lands under her King and commanding a sizeable portion of his army.
  
• A notable Bishop or Archbishop, risen to power both spiritual and temporal and commanding the monarch's affairs.
  
• A learned mage, learning old ways and new in solitude, to one day make a mark for himself.
• A Knight, yearning to go on a Crusade and win for herself fame, renown and land that her family has never had.

• Westerners are the subjects one of the Western Kingdoms and should pick a monarch (it is not impossible to play the subject of one of the minor monarchs - please consult GMs). They are Catholics and part of the Catholic States Faction.
• Westerners start with a +1 bonus to either their Strategy or Navigation skill. This means that the first rank of the chosen skill comes free - if you wish to have the skill at a higher rank, it simply costs one point cheaper.
• Westerners have access to Hermetic, as well as Hedge Magic and Witchcraft.

It is clear to any scholar that without the Western Kingdoms of the Latin sphere that the Crusader Kingdoms would never have been born and that this toehold in the eastern mediterranian is only held at the pleasure and support of the western Kingdoms. Men, Military and Money have all poured over the last century from the west to the east and only last year when the then King Baldwin IV sent out his patriarch to ask for aid it was noted by the West that even his servants came clothed in garments that only the richest of King's could afford. Many have said that the time has come to stop the flow of wealth to the east and that, while the protection of the Holy Land is important, it is time that the dues are paid back to the West.
This position is not aided by the conflict in the west at this time. The Iberian peninsula continues to struggle with the yoke of Mulsim oppressors, while battles have begun between Barbarossa and the Bishop of Rome, as well as between the King's of England and France. It seems all at each other's throats while the Crusader Kingdoms are being throttled also. And even prayer does not appear to be keeping the Sultans and the Emirs from eyeing up God's land of milk and honey.

Adam the Brave, former knight of the Kingdom of Jerusalem

The Western Kingdoms are all in some fashion successors of the Roman Empire, tracing their ancestry both to Roman Citizens and Barbarian invaders. Much has happened since the incursions of over half a millenium ago - Barbarian dynasties have lived and fallen and been replaced by others. The holdings of a tribe or confederacy have become the fiefdoms that make up Kingdoms and each has had its own bloody story.

The Kingdom of England had formed from the Saxon invaders into post-Roman Britain, and they themselves faced enroachment first by the Norsemen and then a new regime under the Norman William the Bastard. The Normans had been busy elsewhere and from the Norman county of Sicily King Roger II forged a Kingdom through luck and political manipulation. Unlike England, though of Norman origin, the ties with Normandy itself have now faded and ambitions have moved to the Holy Land. The Franks who had invaded the Roman Empire have since split and from wars have emerged France in the west and the German Holy Roman Empire.

The rule established by the Kings of the West has often been bloody, and even the smallest trace of benevolent rule has heralded grand epithets. And the wars between the Kingdoms themselves continue - the English Kings eyeing up French possessions, the Holy Roman Empire looking ever to expand and the smaller Kingdoms trying to make room for themselves.

The Western Kingdoms have some time ago converted to Christianity in one way or another and are part of the Catholic (or Western) Church. The Church and personal religion is treated very different across the Kingdoms and even within them. Some Kings are pious, others disregard the Church, or try to bend it to their mortal will. Their subjects may include both devout knights and corrupt bishops, or faithless barons and saintly nuns.

There are few limits to how Catholicism is interpreted, but few stray outside its bounds. There are pagans left, and indeed paganism may be practiced in a Christianized form by peasants across the land. There are but a few select figures higher up who cling to the older ways.

Also known as Curtmantle, is the King of England, Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine, Anjou and Lord of Ireland and the founder of House Plantagenet. Strong, athletic and aesthetic, Henry is an energetic and active ruler, choosing to personally involve himself in the Kingdom's matters, and while having a healthy disregard for the commoner, has overseen the beginnings of legal reforms.

Having come to rule through a short and bloody conflict, he has now settled into a more comfortable rule. Not free of war and bloodshed of course, but with a keen interest in peace-time government.

King Philip II, the God-given, is a counterpart of Henry of England and just as energetic in the pursuit of his Kingdom's ends. He looks set to make a dent in the English hold on French territory and strengthen a France sorely needing unity.

With a great love of the Church and following the events in the Holy Land, the King of France would make a great Crusader, indeed many suppose that he would lead another Crusade to take even more of the Holy Land from the infidel.

Known as Barbaross, the Red Beard, Frederick has worked to rebuild the Holy Roman Empire as King of Germany and Italy, encompassing huge territories in Germany and Norther Italy as well as expanding further east.

Both a General and a Manager, Frederick has had to keep the many nobles and lords of the German states in check, whether by war and diplomacy, and has, against the odds, suceeded so far.

It is well known that trying to wrestle this man would be ill-advised.

William the Good has continued Robert's policy of strengthening the Sicilian Kingdom. As a child he succeeded William I and spent his early reign under the protection of a regent, and even in his adult rule has shown little interest in expansion.

Thus, ruling from Polermo, he has relied largely on agents of the Crown to do the work and initiative, with an active foreign and domestic policy.

Since the wars back in Western Europe are complex, the pursuit of gains in the Holy Land has attracted much attention. Indeed, the Crusader Kingdoms were founded by Western Kings and Generals and the chance to carve out a Kingdom of their own is increasingly attractive to those missing out on Kingships in the West.

Self-interest is not the only driving motivation for Western involvement in the Holy Land. Though far away, the prestige to be gained from fighting the infidel or making a pilgrimage to Jersusalem garners much prestige for one's liege back at home, and may even help smooth over relations with pious Popes, Kings and Lords.

Because of the distances one must travel to reach the Holy Land, the concerns of the conflicts back in the West become lesser when compared to the mission here and envoys, representatives and generals of far-away Kings come with the power of their King to the land.

A Bear of a man, hailing from the furthest reach of the Holy Roman Empire in Stettin, and one of the fiercest fighters to have been made by the Empire. Commanding his armies with the steel of a Grandmaster and the charisma of a Holy Man, General Otto drove himself to the most difficult of challanges. Killed by a boar on a hunt when he attempted to wrestle it bear-handed. The boar didn't live to relish its victory.

A notable English traveller, she became and invaluable resource for the armies travelling to the Holy Land in the First Crusade. Captain Black guided them through the often unco-operative or hostile lands of Europe, before returning by ship to England. And adept sailor of both Mediterranean and Norther European vessels, she became renowned for her ability to safely get an armed host of warriors from one place to another with merely a fraction being mauled by weasels.

Also known as Robert the White, was a prominent Norman Bishop and eventually warleader, when he participated in the First Crusade. A great leader by example, he would wander, in plain white robes, through the army, whether at rest, in travel or in battle, and instill courage in all.

Candidate for canonization.

The Westerners have significant resources to devote to a place far from their homeland, and that is an advantage. After all - their own homeland is not underthreat when on campaign in the Holy Land. Or rather it may be, but that's not much of your concern.

Though all different Kingdoms, they do share common goals in the Holy Land, and it is much easier to gather all the different armies togehter into one fighting force for purpose of defeating the enemy.

With the homeland far away, an emmisary of a King can do much to her own benefit and gain riches, favours and power that could not be possible at home. Played right, the ambassador of a King is, in the Holy Land, as a king himself.