Knights of Balmarrow Discord roleplay follow-along thread

The Game Room
1

A little more than two years ago, I met someone named Sean on a Discord RP server. He answered my want ad for someone to join me in a new original world of swords and shields, magic, war, and exploration called Knights of Balmarrow.

It’s just the two of us, and we post several times a day in a dedicated server.

So let me give you the details, since I can’t share the complete server with anyone else.

Sean’s character is named Sir Rhian Vangruhf, a High Human who’s a knight in the service of The Lady, the hedonistic goddess of the vulpine people. The Lady is the official god of the nation of Balmarrow, a peninsula nation in the mid-north in which Rhian lives.

Balmarrow has just reached the end of its long war with the neighboring feudal Japan- inspired nation of Jalaka, and after winning, they have annexed new territory that’s fresh and undiscovered by Balmarran eyes.

Rhian, a veteran of the anti-orc Northern Campaigns, has been ordered to report to his superior officer Dame Tennibrook Balmossie, and they have been instructed by head of state Lord Ti’a’ha to form an Expedition to explore the new lands. Tenni and Rhian are childhood friends and were each other’s first crushes, and meeting like this for the first time in years, there is unresolved sexual tension.

Rhian and a small detachment of men scout their way forward and south towards a new discovery: The Bok’Nor Clan Orc walled capital of Villanta, the gate of which is adorned with the bones of a giant sea creature called the Great Green Landross, which the city’s finest hunters vie for every year.

On his way towards Villanta, he encounters a 19-year-old green-skinned, red haired Bok’Nor Clan Orc woman bathing naked in a stream. Her name is Rila, and their hearts skip a beat…

To be continued.

Ask me anything. Feedback encouraged.

2

Rhian and Rila have a brief conversation while Rila is in the stream, and Rila asks one of Rhian’s female companions to bring her her clothes.

Rila is green-skinned and taller than Rhian at 6’6"; all Bok’Nor Clan Orcs range from six and a half to eight and a half feet tall. She has red hair, and two prominent tusks.

Rhian explains the purpose of the Expedition, and asks to be taken to the tribal chief to cut a deal for safe passage across their land. Rila is accompanied by two guardians, whom she recalls to her side now that she’s out of the bath. They agree to provide safe passage to Villanta.

Rhian is impressed that Rila has two bodyguards with her this close to the city, and wonders if it’s standard operating procedure for all maidens bathing outside. Rila assures him vaguely that there are reasons.

3

Rila tells Rhian that they’d heard about the Great War between the two mighty nations of Balmarrow and Jalaka. Rhian tells her that he had served in that conflict, on the winning side.

They reach the Great Stone Gate of Villanta, and Rila explains the skeleton: Every autumn, the city’s hunters compete for the right to team up and travel to Lake Kilinia (50 miles away) to take down the Great Green Landross, a massive sea creature that has enough meat to sustain the city for the hard and cruel winter to come. The Landross has similar biology to our world’s mythical Loch Ness Monster. The men and women on the hunting trip make the journey, sail out to the lake, fight the Great Green Landross, kill it, drag it to shore, take “selfies”, skin, butcher, and preserve a portion of the meat onsite for their own use, and leave the skeleton intact to return to Villanta. They proceed to have a three-day Landross Party to celebrate their achievement.

To hunt is a privilege, a grave responsibility, and a pure delight, as Lake Kilinia National Park is a protected paradise with beaches.

Rhian and Rila speak to the guards outside the city, and Rila tells them that the humans are there to speak with her father: Tribal Chief Trabul.

4

Rhian admits to Rila that her omitting certain details was appropriate, and asks about the proper protocol for greeting her father, Tribal Chief Trabul.

Between the Great Stone Gate and the inner Second Wall of the city of Villanta is a military staging area known as the Battlements. There they meet Rila’s older brother, Melo, who’s an army scout.

5

We’ve made a verbal agreement to start publishing the novels and audiobooks. So I’m going to stop spoiling the plot.