High Kingdom of Battania

Ancient Authoritarian High Kingdom

Land of Glory and Devious Aristocratic Native Inhabitants of Calradia.

Mystical Tribal Despots Idolizing Valor and Mischief.

Masters of the Long Bow, Night Raid, and Wild Charge on Foot.

Possessing Deadly Efficiency with Two-Handed Weapons.

War, Battle, and Free-Minded Vigilant Loyalists to Tradition and Flamboyance.

High King: Caladog fen Gruffendoc

Backstory & History

The Culture

The misty hills of north-western Calradia are dominated by the Battanian clans, the original inhabitants of much of the continent. Their hilltop fortresses have born witness to countless wars fought to resist outside invaders: first the Empire's legions, and more recently the rising Sturgian and Vlandian kingdoms. They are masters of the longbow, the night raid, the sudden wild charge out of the woods. They idolise valour, but especially like it when mixed with a bit of mischief - the cattle thief who can whisk an entire herd into the fog; the champion who dines with a rival tribe, and, regaling his hosts with an anecdote of battle, produces from his bag the skull of one of their kinsmen that he took as a souvenir. [— spcultures.XML]

The Kingdom

From time immemorial there has been a High King of Battania, crowned with great ceremony on the sacred hill of Dunthanach. Ask any Battanian chieftain, however, whose ”kingdom” he lives in, and he will look around at his hall and his fields and his pastures, his flocks and his retainers, and answer ”Mine, of course.” Only lately, following the example of the Empire, have the High Kings made any effort to exert their authority. ”Such unruly cattle as my people require a strong herdsman's hand to steer them from the ravine and protect them from the wolf,” said one recent high king, just before he was betrayed by a jealous cousin and taken in chains to the nearest imperial outpost. [— spkingdoms.XML]

The Leader

The current High King of Battania is Caladog fen Gruffendoc, a brilliant war captain adopted by the prior king, Aeril, who then died in mysterious circumstances. Despite the doubts around his accession, Caladog has made himself popular among the lesser clans of the land who admire him, a man of no great lineage, for having discomfited the Battanians' traditional clan hierarchy. His clan is the fen Gruffendoc, a formerly obscure family now swollen with his comrades-in-arms with whom he has made marriage alliances. [— heroes.XML]

Their Policies

Cantons

Rulers have organized farmers into groups responsible for supplying troops. This makes recruiting easier at the cost of economic productivity.

Lawspeakers

Refers to the Norse practice of appointing independent elders to remind the council of the law and past precedents. This, however, tends to favor those with the education to make complex legal arguments. 

In Summary

The Battanians still remember the olden days when the woods stretched across northern Calradia, and the Empire and its cities had yet to violate their sanctity. The fierce warriors remain loyal to their traditional ways. They paint their faces when going to battle and even their noblemen prefer to fight on foot while using great axes and two-handed swords with deadly efficiency. [— (StoryMode) module_strings.XML]

Battanian Clans                                             Clan Members

Caladog, Corein, Mengus, Merag, Muinser, Rath, Beasag   Ergeon, Nywin, Alynneth, Sein, Ranaon, Ladogual   Melidir, Alcaea, Culharn, Wythuin, Eilidh, Tegan   Pryndor, Branoc, Seonag, Floraidh, Beitrin, Diarbhain   Luichan, Eabyr, Fiarad, Fenagan           Aeron, Liasin, Gawen, Siaramus   Aradwyr, Brighan, Carfyd, Beathag, Taorse           Maireas, Rodarac, Guaran                                            Aeril               Wife of Caladog                  Tasiel (maybe)                          Fairhair                Cynan the Brave     Ferionn the Ragged

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minor factions represent groups in Calradia that are not part of a kingdom. They may include criminal brotherhoods, mercenary organizations, religious movements and nomads. Typically they sustain themselves either by hiring themselves out to a fight for a kingdom or by collecting protection money from caravans and travelers passing though their territory.

 

Battanian Minor Clans

 Battanian Companions

Battania Territory

Battania's territory over the decades has slowly been shrinking due to not only their biggest threat, the Empire, but also their unwelcome neighbors: Sturgia and Vlandia. This could be a good theory for why Caladog may have usurped the High King mantle. The Momaers or Earls of Battania wanted revenge and Aeril was "too tender hearted" to give that to them, so Caladog gave them what they wanted. Still, Battania's remaining territories are rich with culture and Celtic influence.

Below is an illustration of Battania in 1084 - where the game starts.

Click on the towns, castles and villages in the table below to learn more about them.

Dev Diaries:

About Battania's Faction Banner (old version below)

Battania lay claim to the misty hills of north-western Calradia. They are inspired by the Celtic peoples of Western Europe and we felt that an earthy, woodland type of green would be the best choice of colour to represent this faction. We went through a few different design choices for their banner, focussing on animals like boar, deer and rabbits, stylised in a Celtic art style. However, we wanted a more encapsulating image for the faction and decided to go with a design from Celtic culture which is more iconic and recognisable.

 

Dev Diaries:

About Battania

The misty hills of north-western Calradia are dominated by the Battanian clans, the original inhabitants of much of the continent. Their hilltop fortresses have born witness to countless wars fought to resist outside invaders: first the Empire's legions, and more recently the rising Sturgian and Vlandian kingdoms. They are masters of the longbow, the night raid, the sudden wild charge out of the woods. They idolise valour, but especially like it when mixed with a bit of mischief - the cattle thief who can whisk an entire herd into the fog; the champion who dines with a rival tribe, and, regaling his hosts with an anecdote of battle, produces from his bag the skull of one of their kinsmen that he took as a souvenir.

As readers have probably guessed, the Battanians are inspired by the Celtic peoples of Western Europe - in particular, the Picts, Irish, and Welsh of the early medieval era. So we'd like to take this chance to discuss how history influences our design. Mount and Blade's Calradia is a low-fantasy setting that we think gains from cleaving fairly closely to history. Our physics-based combat system, for example, gives a well-balanced sword or a hard-hitting axe the characteristics that you'd expect by looking at it. A murderous-looking ascent up a cliffside to assault a fort should be murderous in the game, thanks to an engine that gives defenders the ability to rain down rocks and arrows on attacking forces.

Because of this design philosophy, we try not to introduce any social institutions that would be impossible to find in the technological and economic setting we describe. But we also don't mind borrowing a bit from other times and places outside our core setting, the 10th and 11th centuries. For example, the Dark Age Celts built some mysterious and majestic structures, like massive roundhouses and complex concentric fortresses, but did not build major cities. By then, they'd been pushed back to the margins of Europe, where big cities were hard to sustain. Back in Caesar's day, however, the Celts still lived closer to the economic heart of the continent and created impressive towns known as oppida on key trade routes. So you won't find an exact archaeological antecedent for our Battanian settlements, which mix later Celtic architecture with earlier Celtic town layout. But we think the result will be both visually impressive and credible, sort of an alternate version of how Celtic settlements could have evolved had history been slightly different.

Lots of our characters, too, are based on history - or legends, at least. For example, the Battanian king Caladog is partially inspired by Gruffydd ap Llywellyn, who dominated much of Wales in the 11th century. He was a very colourful figure, ruthless yet possessed of a wicked sense of humour. He is famous for quipping, when accused of having killed off all his competitors for the kingship, "I merely blunt the horns of Wales' sons lest they injure their mother." The charismatic silver-tongued rogue, who'd steal your cattle and then extemporise a poem about it: this was a bit of stereotype of Celts among the English at the time. It's actually a common view that inhabitants of peaceful but despotic kingdoms held of tribal peoples who had a strong oral tradition and enjoyed freedom but little security. Boastful, cunning, resourceful, but perhaps a tad too cussed and individualistic for their own good -- the Battanians aren't an efficient conquering machine like some of their neighbours, but no one makes war with more flair.

Bannerlord gives us some new features to bring out the uniqueness of its cultures, but we're especially excited about minor factions - mercenaries, nomads and outlaw leagues that have their own agendas that aren't part of the struggle for power. One of the Battanian minor factions is the Wolfskins - a society of young warriors who have left their clans to live a life of freedom (and violence) in the woods. So long as they live 'as wolves' - eating no cooked meat, sleeping under no roof, and wearing no woven cloth - they are exempt from the laws of men. The Wolfskins are inspired by the Fianna, a fighting brotherhood who were the stars of a major Irish saga. It treats them as heroes, but they also have a dark side, extorting money from clans who are interested in mundane things like marriage and crops and don't have time to fight all the time. Simon Young, a historian who wrote a brilliantly entertaining reconstruction of "darkest Britain," AD 500, suggests that the Fianna may in reality have given rise to legends of werewolves. The Code of the Wolf however is our own invention.

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