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Crusade
This Character Has Met His Final Crusade - Fare Thee Well, Old Sir Ray
Background
Raymund Langer was a man born four years before the turn of the last century. A veteran of the Thirty Years War and one of Galenthia most battle-hardened knights he ended that war as Commander of the House Guard and trained many famous knights, including Jaren Cassomir. Though Raymund Langer, or Old Sir Ray as he is more affectionately called is most well known for securing the Galenthian capital of Firen during the Succession War and keeping it neutral throughout the conflict.
Now relieved from his command these past two years, Raymund has been called back to service as one of the Queen's sworn protectors and stands among the few the Rose Queen trusts.
Raymund Langer was born four years before the dawning of the current century. The second son of Lord Langer, he would not be the ruler of his house, but like all the younger Langer men he had two courses open before him, the path of the sword or the path of the coin. Though to Raymund it was no choice at all, he chose the sword the first time he stole away from his ledgers to play at being knights with the servant boys as a child.
Still despite Raymund’s passion, he was never the strongest or fastest boy in the yard, but he made up for it in determination, burying each and every opponent regardless of age or skill by purely outworking them, when they ate, he practiced, when they slept, he practiced, until he was the best out of his generation of Langer boys.
His efforts were rewarded by being squired to his uncle Sir Dalton Langer, the Wall of Firen, commander of the Romante House Guard. He was a brutal taskmaster but one most men and boys of Raymunds age would have given their right hand to train under; though soon enough Raymund hated the man to the depths of his soul. Nothing was ever good enough for the man, and when Raymund did achieve his impossible standards set for him, the benchmark was set further. Eventually Raymund lost his patience with the older knight and attacked him in earnest only to be disarmed with a stroke of Dalton’s sword and punched into the mud with a single fist and the words “Ice not fire,” the keys to Dalton’s calm, rational style of swordplay.
The words stuck and why Raymund challenged his mentor a few times afterwards, keeping his cool, but never beating him, still, despite the difficulty of his training or perhaps because of it, he was knighted on his eighteenth year. Following his knighting he was wed to a woman of his father’s choosing, Ellara, who was fair enough to interest the hotblooded new night, but was retiring enough not to interfere with his first love, the pursuits of knighthood. In his twenty-first year Ellara bore him a son, but that moment was overshadowed by a greater one, his triumph at the royal tourney, where he unseated three of the Royal Lancers, and was nominated for Lancer training by King Stephan himself. Here as well Sir Dalton’s training paid off and Raymund breezed through his training as Lancer and was soon wearing the black and green.
A lancer and a tournament champion, Raymund hungered for a chance to try his hand at war against real foes, and when the king of Aequor died the following year it seemed he would get his chance. King Stephan, who had married an Aequorian princess, intended to take the throne of Aequor in his wife’s name, and the country was being readied for war. Raymund, was eager for the battle, despite the birth of his second child, a daughter, and the concerns of his uncle Dalton, who called the war folly, and spoke publically against it.
When Dalton’s public attempts to win over the King failed, he turned to more private ones speaking with some knights in private, including Raymund. Raymund was furious at his uncle and called him coward, and traitor, before steel was drawn and the two men battled, this time Raymund came out the victor, and while his uncle lay on the floor of his chambers bleeding, he snarled out ‘Fire not ice,’ before turning his back on the man. Those would be the last words he’d say to his uncle, because while Raymund was content to thrash him and leave the matter lie, others reported him to the king and he was charged, found guilty, and exiled for treason, spared the axe only because of his years of service.
Despite his uncle’s fall, Raymund was too excited by the prospect of war to give it much thought. His eagerness was noted and his fellow Lancers bestowed the name Ready Raymund on him, and for the first battle he lived up to that name leading a critical charge that turned the flank. Afterwards though, when he looked out over the corpses and felt the blood grow cold and sticky on his hands he begun to see the waste his uncle spoke of and understood why his house hammered duty into its scions. What else could carry someone through this horror?
Raymund continued to serve and while he was not as reckless as he had been, he did his duty and did it well. During the war he would befriend one of his frequent charges, King Stephan’s eldest son, Prince Lucas, the two men bonded over the shared danger of being cornered in a church that had been set alight. Raymund saved the Prince’s life but was horribly injured by the molten lead that had dripped from the belfry. He was taken to the healers and struggled to survive, but he did and when he returned to active duty he did so as the head of Lucas’ guard.
The war continued and what had begun as an eager campaign of conquest became a long bloody stalemate. Raymund lost his wife to illness while he was away at war and Prince Lucas lost brothers and children. When King Stephan passed, the tide had turned against Galenthia and as much as Raymund and Lucas both wished to see the fighting end, neither man could stand the thought of ceding territory to the enemy and so the war continued, in the stop and start fashion that it had in the years King Stephan had been in command.
Not long after King Lucas ascended the throne, he called on Raymund to take up the command of the Romante House Guard, an honour, but one that kept him from the front. Though by this time Raymund welcomed it, and spent the time he was given training the guard into the well-oiled machine that it had been under his uncle Dalton, who had long since passed away in obscurity. In addition to training the guard Raymund devoted this time to the training of squires, many of his students, cursed his name, but ultimately became knights with deeds recorded in song. Though none of them did so well as Jaren Cassomir, who came to Raymund late in the war, but proved to be his finest student. The boy had talent and brains and Raymund hammered that raw ore relentlessly to forge it into a sword for Galenthia, teaching the young son of the Baron Cassomir, the arts of war and knightly discipline. The training, as well as Jaren’s native ability paid off as the young knight followed Raymund into the Lancers, and would as the years passed become one of the most storied knights of the West.
When the war finally ended, Raymund was pleased, but that pleasure did not last long, his friend and King, Lucas, was fully spent by the war and a year after peace was made with Aequor he passed on, all of his sons preceding him into the grave. The kingdom was split between his cousins, Arturo and Anton Romante, called the Rose and the Thorn. The kingdom, so fresh from one war began a new one. Raymund knew both men from his service to their house, but not well enough that his counsel to avoid the war was heeded. Determined not to see all the realm suffer more losses he went to Lord Langer, and the other members of his house in Firen, and proposed they not take either side, and more than that, that they along with the leading citizens of Firen, declare the city neutral in the war and hold it until the next king was decided. There was resistance from his house and indeed from the citizens of Firen, but in the end Raymund was able to rally support for his plan and in the end make it a reality.
The plan was not without costs, it cut him off from both Jaren who had sided with the Rose, and from his son, Elden, who had taken up with the Thorn. Still, Raymund was determined, and when each side came to him asking for him to turn the city over to them, he rebuffed them. When words didn’t work and it came to battle, he fought them off, even crossing blades with his son once, when the Thorn’s men scaled the walls. In the end though it was raiders from Whitehall and Parthians from the south that did the city the most damage, but each was defeated in turn. Management of the city was mostly left to Raymund’s banker kinsmen, but he insisted that Sunreach be closed to all but its garrison for the duration of the war, to be opened again when a king was to be crowned. The decision left the city run from a Langer manor within its walls, but a displayed clearly the Langers were stewards of the royal city, not would be usurpers.
The Succession War ended as the Thirty Years War had ended before it, but not without its cost. Raymund’s son Elden was killed in the fighting by the forces of the Rose Queen and his daughter Sara, died when her husband’s home was put to the torch by Thorn partisans. Still when the Rose Queen came to Firen, she found the city intact and waiting for her, and Raymund was pardoned and commended for his efforts. Though he stayed in Firen and on occasion advised the Queen he was no longer commander of the House Guard.
Retirement, such as it was, ill fit Raymund however and the years that followed were restless ones, so when the call came to return to royal service as one of the Rose Queen’s protector he accepted it with gratitude, determined not to put down his sword again until they put him in the ground.
On the Grid
To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far
To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause
And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest
And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star
The Impossible Dream - Man of La Mancha
Tall, white haired and bearded, Sir Raymund Langer looks old enough for death to be stalking close behind him, but still imposing enough to make death think twice about taking him. The old knight, may be past his prime but he still moves with the dangerous grace of a skilled swordsman and his blue eyes are lively and alert under expressive brows of snowy white.
For the most part Raymund Langer, the ever vigilant Old Sir Ray can be found in the black plate of a Royal Lancer, with its green cloak hung neatly over his shoulders and a sword at his hip. Though the rare times he is out of armour he dresses austerely, and usually in black, his clothing well-made and durable but without much in the way of ornamentation save for a sewn house crest above his heart. Though even at his leisure the old knight is rarely unarmed, and can be counted on to have at least a dagger on his person unless protocol dictates otherwise.
++Quirks
Assumed Quirks
Stern (House) - Raymund has always been stern and demanding. He holds himself to a high standard and expects the same of others. He has only become more so since he has aged after all he has less to fear now that death is close at hand.
Forward Thinking (House) - This has not always been the case for Raymond and he lost an uncle as a result. Now Raymond lives by his uncle's words, 'Ice not fire', meaning it is better to be cool headed and thoughtful than rash and hasty. This carries over to his swordplay, where he prefers to work his opponents into corners figuratively speaking before he goes in for the kill. This is not to say he cannot act quickly or decisively if the situation demands it but, it's not his preference when there's a choice in the matter.
Practical (House) - Raymond is no longer the glory seeker he was in his youth. Now he does his duty quietly, effectively and lets other men worry about the glory.
Well-Equipped (Lancer) - As a member of the Royal Lancers, Raymund has access to the horses, armor and weapons he needs as a knight. All of them are of high quality.
Chosen Quirks
Expert Trainer - Like many in House Langer, Raymund is a excellent trainer, perhaps one of the best of his house still living.
Respected - Raymund is legend and an exemplar of knightly behaviour for a generation of Galenthian knights. His accomplishments are many, but he is best known for keeping Firen neutral and whole through the The Succession War. Though he is also known for being the eldest living Royal Lancer, and for his many victories in Thirty Years War under both King Stephan and Lucas. Outside of knightly circles, he is well respected in the Court of the Rose Queen as one of the few men who has the Queen's trust, and in Firen as their hero, who kept the horrors of the Succession War from their doorsteps. As such in Firen and with Galenthian fighting man his name carries weight.
Nothing Left to Fear - Raymund has lived a long time and lost much. While he has not fallen to bitterness, he is ready to die and physical danger offers little in the way of fright. What he does fear however is failure, so he throws himself into his duty in hopes to stave off that final grim fate.
Veteran Combatant - Raymund may be the oldest living knight in the West. He has been a knight for fifty one years, and a Royal Lancer for forty eight. In all of those years he's never shied from battle and yet he is still standing more or less unscathed, it has made him a dangerous adversary both blade to blade and as a commander of men.
Weapons & Armour
Sword | Armour |
---|---|
Raymund's longsword | Raymund's Lancer Armour |
Falcon
Falcon |
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Bolt, a northern goshhawk |
The Thirty Year's War - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjLsUOrVVYI
Relationships
Galenthia
Kira Romante : Davin's girl. I've not met her. |
Lord (Sir) Eoin Arkanin : TBD |
Lady Claire Tarris; the Viscount Romante's betrothed : TBD |
Sir Lady Bethany Ashedown : TBD |