Hello,

Currently I am running a campaign set during Uther's rule. The current year we have reached in the campaign is in the mid 480s. The character have been adventuring independently and working as mercenary knights for many years now but recently have chosen to swear to the Duke of Lindsey, Corneus, and due to their past exemplary military performance have been accepted by the Duke.

Before I started the campaign I purchased the Book of Uther, and read through the first 20 years or so presented in The Great Pendragon Campaign. I've gone back looking for additional information about Corneus and what I have found in the Book of Uther is that Corneus has a fairly high Hate (Church) passion but in the description he is nicknamed "Hammer of the Church". This title implies to me a positive relationship rather than negative relationship. Unless he is called that because he metaphorically and perhaps literally enjoys taking a hammer to church doctrine and/or Christian places of worship. The only other possible alternative I can think of is that he Hates the Roman Church but protects the British Christian Church. So if he does hate the church, Roman, British, or both does anyone know why? Also, if he does hate the Church is he Christian (of any flavor, or fervor)?

Additionally, I remember reading somewhere that Coreneus's successor doesn't get along with Malahaut and mentions a long family history of problems between Lindsey and Malahaut. I can imagine that in the past the two have probably squabbled over borders and been on different sides of conflicts and perhaps due to their close proximity this may have left them with particularly hard feelings towards one another. However, I was wondering if there were any other more specific reasons I may have missed?

My question concerning Uther (and perhaps many others) requires some more in depth details about a specific PK in my campaign. The character is a warrior women who has managed to earn a decent amount of Glory (north of 3000). While I give her glory points for every thousand Glory like everyone else I have in general been halving her effective Glory for purposes of recognition and acceptance by NPC nobility/knights. It's a mans world after all. Presently, and when the character was created I used the old Women's Gifts table whether a women is a Lady or a Warrior and the character received a +10 APP. Additional modifiers were provided by her race. These partnered with a very, very good roll when determining the APP attribute gave the character a final APP score of 31.

It is very likely that this character may meet Uther in the near future, and even if they do not meet he'll likely catch sight of her. I read how Uther and the player knights are likely to react the first time they see Ygraine who has comparable APP which has caused me to question what Uther's and perhaps other NPC's reactions to this warrior women might be?

Thank you all ahead of time for any advice, suggestions, and information.

Before I started the campaign I purchased the Book of Uther, and read through the first 20 years or so presented in The Great Pendragon Campaign. I've gone back looking for additional information about Corneus and what I have found in the Book of Uther is that Corneus has a fairly high Hate (Church) passion but in the description he is nicknamed "Hammer of the Church". This title implies to me a positive relationship rather than negative relationship. Unless he is called that because he metaphorically and perhaps literally enjoys taking a hammer to church doctrine and/or Christian places of worship. The only other possible alternative I can think of is that he Hates the Roman Church but protects the British Christian Church. So if he does hate the church, Roman, British, or both does anyone know why? Also, if he does hate the Church is he Christian (of any flavor, or fervor)?


Edward I, Hammer of the Scots.
Malleus Maleficarum, Hammer of the Witches.

In both cases, the Hammer was for the hammering the group of people. Thus, Hammer of the Church seemed to imply the same relationship.

On hindsight, though, I kinda wish we had gone the other way. We already have Uther as a anti-clergy advocate. Having Corneus as pro-clergy would explain why he and Uther don't get along very well, and also drive another wedge between him and the pagan Sorestan Saxons. So I think that in my own campaign, I will change that Hate (Church) into Love (God) or something like that.

As for your follow-up question and the alternative, I think 'The Church' is referring to the Roman Christian Church, since the British Christianity tends to be much less authoritarian and more amorphous in its organization, hardly justifying the capital letter. In my humble opinion and all that.



Additionally, I remember reading somewhere that Coreneus's successor doesn't get along with Malahaut and mentions a long family history of problems between Lindsey and Malahaut. I can imagine that in the past the two have probably squabbled over borders and been on different sides of conflicts and perhaps due to their close proximity this may have left them with particularly hard feelings towards one another. However, I was wondering if there were any other more specific reasons I may have missed?


Nope, the above is pretty much it. There is a lot of history of Malahaut invading or trying to invade Lindsey, and raids happening on both sides, even prior to Uther Period. Also, in 494 the Saxons invade Lindsey, and it is implied in 493 that they are in alliance with Malahaut. So in my campaign, Malahaut would be using this opportunity to pillage Lindsey, too. Later, during the Anarchy, Malahaut tries to conquer Lindsey outright, but is thwarted by Nanteleod in 503. In 510-512, Malahaut is in the side of the Rebel Kings against Arthur, while Lindsey is backing Arthur. So there is plenty of bad blood there, as you noted, and I don't think there needs to be much more to explain it.



My question concerning Uther (and perhaps many others) requires some more in depth details about a specific PK in my campaign. The character is a warrior women who has managed to earn a decent amount of Glory (north of 3000). While I give her glory points for every thousand Glory like everyone else I have in general been halving her effective Glory for purposes of recognition and acceptance by NPC nobility/knights. It's a mans world after all.

Fair enough. I tend to allow for 'acceptance' once the Female Knight reaches 4000 or so. After that, she has proven herself better than most men, so apart from some diehards (good for a duel encounter), I treat her Glory the same as a male knight's. But it is you campaign. :)



Presently, and when the character was created I used the old Women's Gifts table whether a women is a Lady or a Warrior and the character received a +10 APP. Additional modifiers were provided by her race. These partnered with a very, very good roll when determining the APP attribute gave the character a final APP score of 31.


Yeah, I much prefer that result when it is rolled +1d10 rather than a flat +10 APP, which is way too much, IMHO. Of course, the chance of rolling high is still there, but still. Well, pretty much first thing I would have done would have been to warn the Player that with APP 31, the character is one of the Great Beauties of the Age, spoken in the same sentence with Ygraine, Guinever and Isold. It becomes her defining trait, and most men become drooling idiots around her and many see her as nothing else than something they need to have and to own, and have hell of a time trying to see her as a knight rather than an extremely beautiful woman. If the Player is fine with that, game on, but if not, I'd give a chance to reroll something else. (Also, I adopted a habit of a Female Knight using the (Male) Family Characteristic table to keep things 'even' for the second campaign.) Now, that doesn't mean that you have to play it in a similar way in your campaign, of course, but yes, I would be using similar 'roll Lustful' -rules for her as I would for Ygraine, whose APP 32, as you point out below, is comparable. But I would make sure that the Player is fine with this and if it is not the way they wish the world to react around them, I'd even allow them to retroactively trade that +10 APP for a reroll on the Woman's Gift / Family Characteristic table.



It is very likely that this character may meet Uther in the near future, and even if they do not meet he'll likely catch sight of her. I read how Uther and the player knights are likely to react the first time they see Ygraine who has comparable APP which has caused me to question what Uther's and perhaps other NPC's reactions to this warrior women might be?


I kinda replied to this in the above already. Assuming that the Player is fine with the premise that the character is one of the Great Beauties, she would be swamped in feasts with male attention, flirting, dancing, marriage proposals, kidnapping attempts... I don't think Uther would fall as head over heels in love with her as with Ygraine, since that would derail the GPC a bit too badly for my tastes, but he certainly would be trying to make her his mistress, and if rebuffed, she might do well to avoid his court and Uther's attention after that. Unless, she opts for the Red Sonja opinion: tell Uther in private that only a man who can defeat her in a duel can claim her. Uther is appreciates combat prowess, and I'd allow the character to use Honor passion in this duel, too. A private duel, and if Uther loses, he would be constrained by his word not to pester her anymore, and the respect for her prowess would negate any humiliation of being bested by a woman. Since it was in private and all. That's how I'd GM it.

Of course, it would be possible that the character would leap at the chance of becoming a King's mistress, in which case she would be in for some cushy ride while it lasts, showered with gifts and such, maybe an estate to keep her in style and so forth. And if she gives Uther bastards, well, Uther has been grooming Madoc as his successor, and rather than being commoner bastards, these are bastards of noble blood, and Uther would likely arrange something for them. Grants of manors (or more) would not be out of place to ensure their future. Oh, she might take a honor hit for becoming a king's mistress (see Greg's webpage for rules), but this is a rather minor thing: he is the king, after all!

There is the flipside, though. Madoc would likely see her as a danger of sorts; what if she tries to get Uther to name one of her bastards as the heir (assuming Uther lives long enough)? Not an immediate worry, i'll grant you, but there is always the evil stepmother angle that SHE might be plotting against Madoc, and he would do well to take that possibility into account. Once Uther's passion shifts to Ygraine, Ygraine might see her and her bastards as a danger to her children, especially if the female knight is involved with helping Merlin steal Arthur away. There would be a high chance of her paying for that mistake with her head. And after Uther dies in 495, her bastards would have a claim on the throne, and thus be the target of every baron in the land, either to 'guard and nurture' or to do away with ASAP as a potential rival for kingship of Logres or the high kingship itself (bastardly might not be a huge barrier here, since Madoc had been accepted as the heir presumptive despite his bastardy). Just see what happened to Alexander the Great's son after he died or in GPC, how the Dowager Queen Ygraine was in the middle of several marriage offers to give legitimacy for would-be claimants for high kingship.

In other words, it will be a game of thrones for her and her children... and I seriously doubt that she would have the power to withstand it alone. She'd end up picking sides, etc. But if she manages to survive, her children might be half-brothers/-sisters to Arthur, and would go far in post-510 world. Just see how well Arthur treats Morgan Le Fey at first. Marriages to minor royal families (Escavalon, for one) or to Ducal ones (Lindsey is an obvious choice, of course) for the daughters would not be out of place, and surely Arthur could scare up some heiresses for the half-brothers, too.


EDIT:
Of course, another idea occurred to me, which would save me some trouble as the GM. Make Madoc fall for this female knight. Heck, even to marry her (Madoc's Lustful is no where as high as Uther's). Uther would be kept at bay: he doesn't mind fooling around with married women, but cuckolding his own son is a step too far even for him. Especially given what a wreckage that would make of Uther's plans to have Madoc as his successor. This would make her children Arthur's nephews and nieces, kinda like the Orkneys, and potentially set-up a nice little rivalry going between the family lines. Also, as they are a step removed from Arthur, you don't have to go as overboard in showering the kids with land and titles. The eldest son would inherit the barony of Wynchbank (Windsor; I term it a barony since it comes with a real castle and is described as a huge gift), given to Madoc in Winter of 486-7. Assuming that the character has time to give birth to some children, before Madoc's death in 491. Most of the stuff in the previous suggestion would still apply: her children would be seen as the legitimate (if they marry) successors of Madoc and through him, Uther, and thus be pawns in the subsequent scramble for power during Anarchy, especially immediately after Uther's death.

Some informations on the family of Corneus?

Some informations on the family of Corneus?

I think his son (or at least heir) is named Derfel but that is it as far as I know. So feel free to go wild in your campaigns.

As for Jaymuse's campaign, hopefully he will chime in at some point and gives us an update how it is going! :)

Thank you for your quick answer Sir. I know that Corneus is also the father of Sir Lucan and Sir Bedivere. Does anyone have information about the father and grandfather of Corneus?

Thank you for your quick answer Sir. I know that Corneus is also the father of Sir Lucan and Sir Bedivere. Does anyone have information about the father and grandfather of Corneus?

Actually, in Malory, Corneus is explicitly stated to be only the father of Sir Lucan the Butler. It is possible that he and Sir Bedivere are full brothers, but this gives enough wiggle room that Bedivere could be just a half-brother to Lucan, from the maternal side.

I also found a mention (albeit I was unable to track it down in Malory) that Griflet would be their cousin. This is almost certainly from the maternal side, too, given that BoU gives us Sir Do the Royal Forester, Sir Griflet's father, but does not say anything about him being the brother of Duke Corneus, which would be a familial link worth mentioning. Sir Do's 'de Carduel' hints that he is associated with that area, making it even more likely that his affiliation with Corneus is via a marrage, not by blood. (Incidentally, the comment about the infant son, Griflet, should be taken to refer to 495, since Griflet is knighted in 512 as a young man, rather than being 30-something veteran knight by that time.)

From BotW, we get Duke Derfel, who is obviously the eldest brother and the heir of the Dukedom. Given that Lucan is later called a Duke, too, he either inherits after Derfel's bloodline dies off, or Arthur gives him a Duchy of his own. However, Derfel is missing in Malory, so this could be why Lucan is called a Duke there and in KAP it could go otherwise.

Thanks again Sir Morien!