[Charlemagne] Bishop Giselbert's Four Vassals

[Lev Lafayette]

Initial Scene
-------------

It's 772 AD, and a personage of no less than the Roman Catholic Bishop
Giselbert gathers the young player-characters together at the Cathedral of
Tournai to send them to Frisia. There has been stories of the dead walking
at the nearby Frisian village of Kolven (which translates to "The Flask",
on account on the fine beers).

The PCs include:
- Eric, an acolyte (1st level Cleric) of the Church.
- Merd, a knecht (1st level Paladin) of the Church.
- Rebecca, an astrologer (1st level Wizard) from Cordova who is allowed to
travel because of his scholarship.
- Rainer, a guide (1st level Rogue) from Hleri (Leer) who has knowledge of
the Frisian lands.


Charlemagne and the Franks
--------------------------

Your King!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne

And this is the mighty Empire, and indeed what it will become (unless you
break things)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Frankish_Empire_481_to_814-en.svg

The heartland is Austrasia and the Charlemagne was coronated at Aachen.

The most important legal code is Salic Law

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salic_law

Oh, and this is the Pope

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Adrian_I

Languages
---------

A character's language skills, both spoken and written, are a function of
their intelligence.

All the languages in the region are West Germanic. That means all
character can understand each other with a -2 modifier to INT at worst.

The Ingvaeonic languages (Old Frisian, Old English, Saxon) are related to
each other with a -1 modifier.

The Istvaeones language (Frankish) will eventually become Old Dutch (yes,
arguably Charlemagne is Dutch or Belgian)

Outside these groups there is:

The Irminones language (Elbe) and Old Norse which is related to the West
Germanic with a -4 modifier.

Vulgar Latin (also known as Sermo Vulgaris, or "common speech"). This is
the most common language of the people of western Europe. Among the
western Franks however is already being significantly transformed by
Frankish words and will become Old French. Even know the Franks understand
Latin with a -4 modifier to INT, and vice-versa (unless of course, the
speaker has Frankish)

Religion
--------

The primary religion in Roman Catholic Christianity, although the degree
that this followed is imperfect at best. In the countryside, as the name
implies, many are "pagans", associating themselves with local
superstitions. Germanic aboriginal polytheistic paganism is in direct
conflict with the Christianisation of the area, and is pushing in an
eastwards direction into the Saxon lands. In addition there are many
monuments to Roman and Celtic polytheism.

There are small populations of Jews in the region who do their very best
to keep to themselves (and, indeed, they have to). They are barely
tolerated at best and for any excuse the "Christ killers" will be
targetted.

Gender roles are designed and enforced by religious edict. Those who don't
follow them will be treated with suspicion, at best, and heresy at worst.
Broadly speaking, the pagans are somewhat more tolerant of women taking
public roles.



-- 
Lev Lafayette, BA (Hons), GradCertTerAdEd (Murdoch), GradCertPM, MBA (Tech
Mngmnt) (Chifley)
mobile:  0432 255 208
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