References

The time period chosen to be the reference for the backstory would be the Early Medieval Ages (considered around 500 AD to 1000 AD), which means there weren’t much full plate armor (or panoplies), high feudalism, and such. The time period is also best known as the Viking Era.

This would be ripe as many things are in its infancy stages, such as tribalism, early feudalism, and development of many technologies, as well as being the age of dying empires.

Some may be confused as to why the lords of Rhankia would just blatantly go against royal orders, but lords going fully with whatever the king’s says was mostly a late medieval ages thing (and a fantasy cliche).

Let’s take France as example. Early medieval France was so divided that dukes would even join hands with the English to beat up the French king and his armies. It took France many painstaking and gruelling politicking (see: beating up opponents, beating up the English, beating up everyone) to centralize everyone, and that took many centuries. Remember that England was even supposed to be a vassal of France, guess how that turned out.

Another thing to note is that around this time, most people wouldn’t see themselves as whatever country they were in, but more like their region, which was why some Vyssians would rather see themselves first as ‘Sea’axian’ than ‘Vyssian’, which might also explain why some Rhankish lords might be unruly as the Rhankish king might simply be of different cultures.

I’ll cover the cultural differences later if it ever gets to that.

About Cultures (Sea’ax)

Vyssian culture would be similar to Anglo-Saxon culture with a bit of Frankish and Greek culture mixed in. Village life was simple, people wore funny hats, and there’s an evident warrior culture in some parts of Vyssia.

As one of the Marcher Lords (regions bordering Rhankia), Sea’ax has a strong military culture focused around heavy infantry and light skirmishers. Vyssian raiders would be in two extremes: either having little to no armor (which meant just wearing their clothes, having a spear and a shield), or being well-equipped as part of a warlord’s retinue.

Most Vyssian light infantry would be equipped with a light shield, a secondary weapon (usually an axe or a club), a spear, and some rocks to throw before an engagement. It is notable that these men were usually poor, having their roots as simple farmers or artisans.

Meanwhile, heavy Vyssian infantries would be armored, at a minimum, with a short chainmail vest. The richer and more veteran warriors would have a full hauberk, a half-helmet (a helmet which covers most of the sides of the face, but not the front), and javelins.

All warriors would most likely wear a long cape as is tradition to Vyssian warrior culture. It is said that the capes were imbued with the power of the ancestors so many men would try to make their capes as fancy and as expensive as possible. Still, the cape also serves a practical use as the fallen warriors would be wrapped in their own capes and buried honorably (or burned if they were valiant enough).

Spoiler: Spoiler

Eastern Vyssian isn’t as blessed as Rhankia when it comes to horses, so they suffer greatly from having poor cavalry in general.

One notable thing about Sea’axian Culture is how much they like the color green. Their tapestries and clothes are usually dyed green.

As for the specifics (such as how a typical Vyssian village life would be), those would be covered in another another misc chapter or in one of the regular chapters.

Etc

Many more battles are to come, and many more delve into the background of the world is to come. I’ll try to increase the rate of the chapters as much as I can!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned!