Consummate warriors, renowned for their unmatched skill and graceful prowess in battle.
All the nobility's pride, cruelty and avarice, concentrated within a diminutive and vicious soul.
Militiamen and trained soldiers, charged to protect their Lord and his meagre holdings.
To stand above your fellow man is to invite all manner of scrutiny, the tightrope of Lordship offers all manner of pratfalls.
Contains 1 PDF Booklet, featuring 5e Statblocks and Lore for House Lionheart. Languishing in the twilight of its old glories, House Lionheart stands as an empty vessel, a hollow effigy of nobility, it’s empty centre a vessel for pride, cruelty and avarice. Led by the current Lord Lionheart, a core of ornate knights are supported by militiamen, and the bearer of the House’s Dark Legacy.
One of the smaller noble houses of the Empire’s Western Diocese, House Lionheart has fallen on hard times. Once one of the mightiest of the noble bloodlines, tracing their lineage all the way back to a place upon the Emperor’s own court. Through centuries, even in the wake of the cataclysm, their authority stood unyielding, a bulwark against even the influence of the Azerai Church.
That time is long past though, House Lionheart now languishes in the shadow of its former grandeur, besieged by a succession of calamities that have ravaged their once prosperous domains. The initial blow came some decades past, as a great host of revenants sallied forth from the long-silent Castle-Calden, descending upon House Lionheart’s holdings with cold iron and dark ritual, their scourging touch left the lands scarred and their people broken.
Since then, a relentless onslaught of misfortune has plagued them, transforming what was once a beacon of nobility into a desolate wasteland of despair, a realm of diminished significance.
Presiding over this sorry state is the current Lord of House Lionheart. A small man, not just in stature, but deed, he is renowned for his insatiable greed and venomous spite, clutching fiercely to his dwindling holdings. Desperation fuels his every action as he schemes and connives, seeking any opportunity to salvage his tattered reputation. Yet, his machinations have wrought a legacy of distrust, driving away even the most intrepid merchants who dare travel the perilous roads from Bryxford to his dilapidated Manse.
Whispers and murmurs abound among innkeepers and mendicant friars alike, foretelling the imminent collapse of House Lionheart. In the cursed land of Doaden, where misfortune lurks in every shadow, the specter of disaster looms ever closer, casting a pall over the once-mighty House Lionheart.
While the Azerai Church serves as the paramount ruling authority of the Empire, the day-to-day affairs are largely managed through a system of Lordship and Vassaldom, petty states whose governance doesn't directly concern the Church. As long as they deliver their tithe and tax punctually and in the agreed amounts, these states are often allowed to govern themselves, the Church intervening only in the direst of circumstances.
This feudal arrangement is most evident in the Western Diocese. Here, noble houses trace their lineage back for generations, each possessing unique traits and traditions. The noble houses of the West fiercely protect their borders from each other, maintaining forces comprised of landed knights and their militiamen, poised to respond quickly and violently at any competing house that encroaches upon their borders.
