Homeless Knights of King Ambrosius Aurelius's Court

[Merlin Monroe et alia]

My GPC campaign has been in 480 forever, because my players and I love role-playing it all out.  We're finally getting around to King Aurelius's Pentecostal/Easter Court (started last session, continuing this session).  I was doing a wee bit of quick prep and realized that a handful of knights who will be part of Uther's court next year but are currently more free agents don't have any sort of home listed. 

 

I'm imagining this is intended to allow me to futz things as I wish to, but just to check with those who know more than I ~ does anyone happen to know whence Sir Eliezier the Strong, Sir Llywarch, Sir Caradoc the Thirteenth, and Duke Edaris hail? (that last one might just be me reading too fast, I admit)

[Morien]

"The Marche (Cambria border): Held by Sir Edaris, baron of Leir’s Castle."

Duke Edaris is the Duke of the Marche from Uther's coronation onwards, and is the son of the previous Duke. Given that Aurelius seems to have the tendency to raise up local leaders to Dukedom (Gorlois in Cornwall, Corneus in Lindsey), it would make sense that Edaris is a local lad, too.

 

[Voord 99]

If you’re using The Marriage of Count Roderick, there’s an advantage to flipping this and making Leir’s Castle (Leicester), Edaris’ ancestral seat and the place where he has the strongest local roots.  It gives Edaris a reason to have either a strong traditional affection or strong traditional hatred for neighbouring Bedegraine, which the knights will be invading later that year.  So one can make the two disjointed events flow together a bit better.  

This is what I did in my most recent game, and it seemed to work pretty well, although a lot of it was because one of my knights rolled a grandmother from Bedegraine in the Book of Sires, and I wanted to build up to him confronting his cousins in the battle.

Edited December 5, 2020 by Voord 99

[SaxBasilisk]

According to the Caradoc romance, Caradoc the elder was a king from Vannes. There doesn't seem to be a lot of overlap between him and the BoU Caradoc, but feel free to steal it if it helps. 

Edited December 6, 2020 by SaxBasilisk

[KungFuFenris]

After a LOT of research, I'm pretty sure that Caradoc is supposed to be:
Quoting Nightbringer.se here

Quote

Caradoc the Thirteenth
Carados

A giant knight from Uther Pendragon’s Old Table.

He ruled the Torre Vittoriosa and hated the knights of the New Table. He defeated Lancelot, Palamedes, Galehaut, and many others, and hung their shields on his tower. Tristan (Tristram), hearing of his prowess, visited his tower and conquered him after a day’s combat. Caradoc gave him the Torre Vittoriosa and retired to a hermitage in Andernantes. His character was probably suggested by Caradoc of the Dolorous Tower.

 

[Merlin Monroe et alia]

17 hours ago, KungFuFenris said:

After a LOT of research, I'm pretty sure that Caradoc is supposed to be:
Quoting Nightbringer.se here

 

 

OMGz thank you so very much!  That's super lovely to know, and I am humbled by your "LOTS of research". At the risk of kicking off another round, do you happen to have any idea where the Victorious Tower should be placed >.<

 

On 12/5/2020 at 1:22 PM, Voord 99 said:

If you’re using The Marriage of Count Roderick, there’s an advantage to flipping this and making Leir’s Castle (Leicester), Edaris’ ancestral seat and the place where he has the strongest local roots.  It gives Edaris a reason to have either a strong traditional affection or strong traditional hatred for neighbouring Bedegraine, which the knights will be invading later that year.  So one can make the two disjointed events flow together a bit better.  

This is what I did in my most recent game, and it seemed to work pretty well, although a lot of it was because one of my knights rolled a grandmother from Bedegraine in the Book of Sires, and I wanted to build up to him confronting his cousins in the battle.

Thanks for pointing that connection out!  Withe the speed of our plot, I'll have PLENTY of time to seed this into the campaign!

 

On 12/5/2020 at 3:56 AM, Morien said:

"The Marche (Cambria border): Held by Sir Edaris, baron of Leir’s Castle."

Duke Edaris is the Duke of the Marche from Uther's coronation onwards, and is the son of the previous Duke. Given that Aurelius seems to have the tendency to raise up local leaders to Dukedom (Gorlois in Cornwall, Corneus in Lindsey), it would make sense that Edaris is a local lad, too.

 

Thank you!

[Voord 99]

A very quick skim of the relevant section in La Tavola Ritonda indicates that the Victorious Tower seems to be in a wilderness (diserto) called Spinogres (not the same as the knight Spinogres, who, confusingly, is also in the work).  This all follows the Hard Rock tournament, which the GPC places in Clarence, so I’d cautiously* suggest that one could locate the Victorious Tower somewhere not too far from there.  Perhaps up in the Welsh mountains.  

Incidentally, this makes Caradoc the Thirteenth somewhere about 85 in KAP when Tristan encounters him in (presumably) 543, if we suppose that he has to have been born about 460 to be a famous knight in Uther’s reign.    

*Cautiously.  It was quite a quick skim, and my Italian is far from perfect.  La Tavola Ritonda can be read for free in a 19th-century edition on Google Books, if someone with better Italian than mine would like to correct me.  The edition has a useful index of names.

Edited December 8, 2020 by Voord 99

[KungFuFenris]

21 hours ago, Voord 99 said:

A very quick skim of the relevant section in La Tavola Ritonda indicates that the Victorious Tower seems to be in a wilderness (diserto) called Spinogres (not the same as the knight Spinogres, who, confusingly, is also in the work).  This all follows the Hard Rock tournament, which the GPC places in Clarence, so I’d cautiously* suggest that one could locate the Victorious Tower somewhere not too far from there.  Perhaps up in the Welsh mountains.  

Incidentally, this makes Caradoc the Thirteenth somewhere about 85 in KAP when Tristan encounters him in (presumably) 543, if we suppose that he has to have been born about 460 to be a famous knight in Uther’s reign.    

*Cautiously.  It was quite a quick skim, and my Italian is far from perfect.  La Tavola Ritonda can be read for free in a 19th-century edition on Google Books, if someone with better Italian than mine would like to correct me.  The edition has a useful index of names.

My current in-game lore is that Caradoc the Thirteenth at that point is going to be an evil weird spectre at that point.
He's noted as being 44 in 480, so when he died in my game in 496, he was goddamn 60 years old. Clarence sounds like a very well selected place, as the Cotswold Hills are pretty rugged terrain good for having a strange tower in.

Caradoc was a bit of a villain in my game, but also the father of one of the local knights at Sarum, Sir Bar the Tall. Bastardson, in any case.
Perhaps, I might use his grandson as a robber knight who decided to pick up his grandfathers much more famous shield and become a terror up there.

 

On 12/8/2020 at 7:05 AM, Merlin Monroe et alia said:

 

OMGz thank you so very much!  That's super lovely to know, and I am humbled by your "LOTS of research". At the risk of kicking off another round, do you happen to have any idea where the Victorious Tower should be placed >.<

You're welcome. I wrangled with the exact same thing when I read Book of Uther for the first time.
Btw. do yourself a favor and don't start researching the de Brun family. Just go by the books, because, boy howdy, I spent an entire day trying to make heads or tails of their family tree, which has way too many people either named Hector or Brunor.
This was my result. I felt like a damn conspiracy theorist after this was done.

 

Edited December 9, 2020 by KungFuFenris

[Voord 99]

And let us not forget that “Hector” is “Ector,” for more possible confusion.

But that’s a very impressive family tree.  I’d definitely like a thorough Book of Families that went through a bunch of these (choosing between the many conflicting versions, obviously).

 In some ways, I think it’s more important than maps.  Geography is very vague in the source material, but while the specifics of lineages vary between works, it’s usually pretty explicit and precise how people are related within a given work.