Valdorian Age - Rising Power on the Frontier
A hetman governs most villages. Some larger villages and most towns have a council of elders instead. All men are equal, because there’s little to elevate one man above another – no one in the Amyklai is wealthy. Resources are communal, because only by working together can a community survive the long winter.
The army is a rigidly structure organization composed of the best trained warriors in Sarth. Of all the known lands in Il-Ryveras, only Valdoria could challenge Amyklai with hopes of winning a war, but that’s because the Valdorian army outnumbers the Amyklai twenty to one. And even then the Valdorian army would be hard pressed to win because of the training the individual and units of Amyklai receive. Man to man the average Amyklai warrior is more capable than two or three Valdorian warriors. As units the Amyklai are worth any five units in the Valdorian army.
The Amyklai are unique in their fighting style and weapons choices. They are known for using very large and specially designed shields. The shields are made of layers of steel, wood and leather. The Amyklai shield is used both for protection and as a formidable weapon. The Amyklai also use javelins, short spears and short swords.
The tactics of an Amyklai unit revolve around the entire unit locking shields together and moving as a unit to attack their enemy. In this formation they can charge as a unit – almost as formidable as a medium calvary unit charge. They can also defend against a calvary charge by locking shields, “going turtle” and having their spears poking out of the “turtle shell”. “Going turtle” is a maneuver that both individual and units (of all sizes) will employee by using their shield for maximum protection and ‘hunkering’ down to the ground for maximum protection. When am Amyklai unit has to ‘stand and fight’, their shield wall, the stabbing attacks of the short swords from the first row of men, and the stabbing spear attacks from the second and third rows, causes there to be a killing field in front of Amyklai unit.
Both men and women fight in the army and by the age of 16 years old they are masters of the Amyklai weapons. At the age of sixteen the warrior is given a choice: leave the Amyklai and wander the world or remain at home and assume his duties immediately. There is no shame in leaving, and if he so chooses, he takes the surname “Alone” and leave Amyklai. He may return home at any time and most wanderers do – those who never come home have often found their death in their travels. If the young warrior chooses to stay the commander of the young warriors fort assigns the warrior to a company and and the warrior takes the first name of his immediate superior as his last name.
There are five ranks in the Amyklai: Lord Marshal who commands the entire army; Marshal who commands a fort which holds between eight and ten companies of fifteen men and takes the name of the Lord Marshal as his surname; Captain who leads a company and takes the name of his Marshal as his surname; and Warrior, the lowest rank.
The armor that Amyklai where is a combination of a sturdy helm, breast and back plate, a metal ‘skirt’, arm bracers, and leg bracers. Both under and over they wear layers of protection against the cold. It is said that the Amyklai have ways to keep their armor warm even in the most frigid weather.
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