Dynasties Online

"My liege lord Duke Eirdun Muthrad is an enigma to most."

"Ostentatious yet devastatingly competent in his day."

"A skilled warrior and leader of men, he is best known for his close relationship with Raniar Lantier and his disdain for the court’s conflicts and factional strife."

"Many said that his sharpness left him with age, that it had turned him senile, for he sat in his castle, hosting tourneys and feasts as Nathia descended into chaos around him and to the precipice of a war that would define it for decades to come."

"Oh, how wrong they were."

Harrison Palmer, the Australian player, The Sword Of The Morning, and head of House Palmyrion.

.....

Viscount Titus Palmyrion rode through the southern gate of Nartook fortress, taking in the ancient stone fortress for the first time in his life, accompanying his liege lord, Duke Eirdun Muthrad of Croxx, whose banner of a black leopard on a field of green, as he rode his pitch-black destrier at the front of the procession with the other vassal lords who decided to accompany the old duke in his bid to defend the realm.

The lords of Croxx had mustered 50,000 men for the defence of the realm and the coming storm of swords, all well-equipped either in plate or mail armour and each bearing a tabard with the heraldry of the noble house they served, a full muster with not a single noble house daring not to heed the call or withhold their troops due to the duchy lying on the fastest trade route between the northwest and northeast of the kingdom.

They were joined by 15,000 men sent from the Marquisate of Vardin and 5000 men from the County of Qinzeli, who had met up with Eridun’s host as they made their way down the main kingsroad that linked the border fortress to the royal capital of Narthonia, having also contributed their full strength to this war as they brought the best their fiefdoms had to offer, with all being professional soldiers.

The three great nobles whose territories lay closest to Nartook Fortress and would suffer the most if it fell had come out in force, bringing 70,000 men to reinforce the Nathian forces, well aware that defeat in the coming siege would lead to their lands being raided at best and taken at worst, as no one thought that the Chavarians would be content with only Nartook Fortress.

No, as soon as the crucial border fortress fell, it would not be long before they found their own cities besieged or sacked, so these nobles, seeing the writing on the wall, were the most fervent in responding to the king’s call to arms of the nobility.