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An Excerpt from The Compendium Militaria |
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Written by Mac Coxhead & Steve Blease
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Thursday, 17 January 2008 00:00 |
I have travelled the Middlelands, and beyond to the plains of the Wendii and the vast grasslands further still. I assure you that there are horrors in these lands beyond our understanding, as well as vast clan armies of the vile Un-men. They may come in many differing guises - Orc, Hob-goblin, Dog-soldier, Goblin - but they are alike in their rapacity, spite and senseless love of slaughter. The danger to the Middle lands from these marauding bands has never been greater. Do not listen to those who tell you that the Un-men are too stupid to pose a serious threat; it is their irrational, spiteful purposelessness that makes them so dangerous.
Ekchardt, Compendium Militaria
The great traveller Augustus Eckhardt provided the Princes of the Middlelands with an invaluable document in his celebrated Compendium Militaria, and even to this day it is still widely read and admired, not just by scholars, but all by those wishing to put its information to more practical use. It should be noted, however, that the infamous Compendium Militaria (Second Edition) was not authorised or sanctioned by Elkhardt in any way, as by the time it began to be circulated Eckhardt himself had been missing for over two years, presumably killed in the sack of Budapesh. Indeed it appears that much of this (admittedly well-written) extra material may have been added by Cornelius Spung, the original distributor of Eckhardt's masterwork solely as a method of selling extra copies of the book. Whilst many of the newer entries are as reliable as the older, original information, several pieces are of distinctly dubious provenance, and at least a dozen are blatant fabrications (it is even rumoured to have been the cause of the failure of Wallisan Grommitz' ill- fated assault on the horse-herds of the Upper Vulga).
Nevertheless, here are a number of entries giving the flavour of the books...
On Goblin Raiders…
Goblins travel light, living off the land. That gives them strategic mobility. On the battlefield they rely on the Wolf Riders, to provide them with shock troops. These can cut out a small troop of men just like a pack hunts the weakest in a herd of deer. And once they have them isolated, wild and un-men eat together...
On Horsemen…
The Twelve Cities are the heart of the Human Dominion, but there are other great warriors of this race elsewhere on Valon. On the plains traversed each year by the Orcs en route to attack the Middle Kingdoms, a few disunited tribes of Horsemen wage endless war upon the Un-men. They live in the saddle, attack with the sudden shock of a spring storm and burn everything they cannot carry away. Their emblem is the pall of smoke they leave behind them. What a pity it is that we cannot gain their allegiances.
On the Crystal Elves…
The Battle of Lake Glass has proved a shock to many of the so called military experts who predicted the failure of the Crystal Elves as a military force. The fine generalship of the Crown Prince Mordred ensured that his 9,000 elves defeated a force of 75,000 Un-men, slaying 60,000 of them. This writer has always had much admiration for the prowess of the Crystal Elf military and the noble Crown Prince of the Crystal Elves.
On the Doomgarde…
They are the finest warriors on the continent, trained hard in the unending wars between the Princes of the Middlelands. They are mercenaries, men without a cause - that is why they style themselves the Doomgarde, as if they served a greater purpose. Truth is, they have been a bulwark between the Republic and the Un-men for three centuries - but who now can say whether they do not serve a darker purpose and bring themselves against the Republic?
Webmasters Notes
The above article was first printed in the original Dresda rulebook in 1996 and is included here with the kind permission of the authors. |
