Two tales from the

Total War: WARHAMMER Fantasy Battles universe

The Peasant Knight

The Knights Vow

When the clarion call is sounded,

I will ride out and fight in the name of Liege and Lady.
Whilst I draw breath the lands bequeathed unto me will remain
untainted by evil.
Honour is all. Chivalry is all

The Peasants Duty

Thou shalt give unto thine glorious Liege the taxes that he
requires.
Thous shalt labour all but feast days,
And no more than a tenth-share shall you keep for kith and kin.
Rejoice! For a Knight of Bretonnia provides your shield
The Peasant Knight

A peasants lot is short and insignificant in Bretonnia. To be a Knight

you must be noble born, for all other folk there is nought but
serfdom and servitude. Very occasionally, though, there are tales
where one who is not noble born has been granted a Knighthood.
One such legend is Sir Geg of Wainfleet. Geg was a farmers
son, a simple man of simple tastes. He worked in the fields every day
for pittance and a jug of ale every Ladys Eve. His Lord was Sir Galas,
a young, selfish Knight bequeathed the village of Wainfleet and its
surrounding lands by his uncle. Sir Galas was a Knight in name only, a
cruel landlord who chased his tenants on horseback for sport or even
executed his charges for the most trivial of misdemeanours.
As Winter approached in the third year of Galas reign, he
heard word of the Grail and set off without nary a word, leaving his
smallfolk to fend for themselves - although his tax collectors were
clearly under orders to carry on collecting. Sir Galas wasnt seen all
Winter, but as Spring dawned the Knight returned. He did not speak
of where he had been, and he looked changed, subdued with an
unsightly carbuncle under his chin. Gone was the malefic exuberance
of yore, he simply trotted on his steed back to his keep in the centre
of Wainfleet. He entered his keep and locked the door. And there he
stayed.
Spring turned into Summer, and then into harvest. Sir Galas
did not emerge. Geg cared not about his Liege, he ignored the gossips
on market day that said there was movement in the keep and that the
Knight was still very much alive. The farmhand simply carried on
doing what he always did. But then the Goblins came. The Greenskins
raided, slaying folk and putting crops to the torch. Sir Galas did not
ride out, he ignored his Knightly vow.
Geg was a big man, with big arms and big hands and folk
thought him simple in the head because of it. But that was not the
case, he just wanted a simple life. But when his lot got more
complicated, he got angry. He fought the Goblins. With hoe in hand
he killed three and rallied the farmers up to Wainfleet where he slew
thrice that again. The few Goblins left mounted their wolves, fleeing
the farmers wrath back into the wilderness to seek out easier prey.
Geg looked around and upon seeing the ruin of his home village
became angry. Now he cared about Sir Galas, the vow-eschewing
Knight, and so Geg marched to the door of the keep. The Knights
two tax collectors made a show of barring the way, but they had seen
the farmer pull a Goblins head from its shoulders and so they stepped
aside with little more than a dark stare from Geg.
The farmhand hammered on the door, but there came no
response. And so he barged it open. It was dark inside the keep and it
stank, but Geg wanted answers and carried on. He walked deeper into
the building, and found Sir Galas in the solar. The Knight slowly rose
at the sight of the intruder, the impudent peasant who had dared
invade his sanctuary. Geg saw that there was something wrong - the
Knights clothes were filthy, Sir Galas eyes were rheumy, and a
straggly beard attempted to hide a boil that had grown to the size of a
large cabbage on his neck. Flies flew about Sir Galas, like beloved
pets. The Knight tried to speak but the pustule prevented him opening
his mouth. Instead, he drew his sword, but in an ungainly manner, as
he wasnt used to fighting or even moving it seemed - with such a
weight about the base of his head. Geg backed away, unsure, until he
heard a voice. A ladys voice, asking a favour - asking that Geg the
peasant slay this false Knight. Geg turned about desperately looking
for a weapon and saw a lance hanging upon the wall. He grabbed the
lance and swung it around to confront Sir Galas, who was ponderously
approaching. Lance that boil! said the female voice and so Geg
charged. He struck the Knight tip first above the chest, in the neck
and did indeed, literally, lance the boil. Pus burst forth like ale from a
cracked barrel. If Geg had been closer, or wielding any other weapon,
he would have been struck by the feculent spray, but the lance was
long and the peasant remained safe. Sir Galas screamed an inhuman
scream and the braver villagers came running in to see him wither on
the floor of the solar. None doubted that their Liege had not been a
mortal man for some time.
 And then the Lady appeared with Grail in hand, and bid that
Geg sup from it. The villagers prostrated themselves as their Goddess
appeared before them. But she told them to look up and bear witness
as Geg was made a Knight.
From that day forth the farmhand was Sir Geg of Wainfleet,
the Peasant Knight. Sir Galas uncle was outraged at this tall tale and
claimed it was nothing more than a peasants revolt and murder of
their legal Lord and his nephew. Even now he sends his Knights of the
Realm to wrest the land back, yet his plans have always been foiled
but that is another story.

The Nocturne for Mousillon

Sit down, good friends, and rest your weary bones. Let I, Raviolo, the
renowned Bard of Trantio, wrest you with a tale performed by mine
own voice and lute for only a modest gratuity! You have done well to
make it through another day, surrounded by the perils and upsets of a
grievous and dangerous world. But let me tell you of a darker place, a
blighted land forgotten by all but the bravest and foolhardiest; a land
embraced by the damned, yet not so far from here; a dark land of
monstrous dealings, right upon Bretonnias doorstep.
The land of Mousillon.
You have heard what they say of it, yes? They say Mousillon
is a cursed place, disavowed by fate and doomed to misfortune from
the very beginning. Forgotten by the gods and forsaken by man, it
exists now as a haven for the fetid and the depraved; you know their
names. I need not speak them here.
Yes, it is true, they make residence so very close to
Bretonnias borders, but you must not despair, friends. They seem
content to dwell in the forgotten Dukedom, so long as they remain
eternally undisturbed.
 Poor Mousillon. It was not always this way, my dear
listeners, for Mousillon was once a place of earnest beauty and
prosperity. Shall I tell you of it? Yes, I thought so; it is a tale of most
excellent excitement, and terrible tragedy.
There was a man as there always is in such a tale a man
called Landuin. He knew our great and noble leader, Gilles le Breton,
greatest of the Grail Companions and firm friend to Landuin.
Together, they saved Mousillon from a wave of Greenskins who fell
from the mountains like rain upon the city.
When Gilles founded Bretonnia, it was Landuin he made his
first Duke. That would make Mousillon Bretonnias second city! Did
you know that friends? A city so reviled and afeared by all, the
second-most important city in the nation? Whats more, my attentive
friends, Landuin himself was nearly King, and Mousillon nearly the
jewel in the crown of Bretonnia.
You look at me with disbelief, but tis true! When Gilles
passed from our world, twas Landuin who was well placed to succeed
him, but instead the young son of Gilles, Louis, was crowned and
another ruled as regent. Landuin was passed over and increasingly fell
from grace; he bickered, he argued, he languished. Mousillon, the
shining city that could have been, fell further and further from the
light as its Duke watched sullenly from afar as King Louis set out on
a quest for the Holy Grail, and he remained behind.
To his dying day, Landuin was at odds with both King Louis
and his steward, Thierulf. He remained in Mousillon, where he grew
old and bitter before finally dying, filled with spite and nostalgia.
Mousillon became a reflection of the Duke once proud and mighty,
brought to mediocrity by the ambitions of powerful men.
But my friends, I hear you wonder, thats not the story,
surely? Mousillon may have been brought low, but it is somewhat
worse now, yes? Well, yes friends, you are correct. Whilst Mousillon
was brought low, its troubles were not at an end. In fact, you could say
that it is precisely because it was brought to such mendacity that
further troubles were yet to befall it.
 It was many centuries later, far past the age of Landuins
disappointment, and Mousillon still languished in the gloom of
eternal tedium. But their fortunes were only to get worse, as
Bretonnia was struck by a great and terrible plague the Red Death!
You have heard of it, yes? I am sure, mothers are wont to scare little
children with tales of vicious buboes across the neck and body. They
say it began in Bordeleaux, but who can say for sure? Whilst it was
not Mousillon alone that was ravaged by the pox all of Bretonnia
felt its terrible pain it was the Duke of Mousillon who was to be
the nations salvation. His name was Merovech, and he and his retinue
seemed unaffected by the pox a most mysterious development
indeed, dont you think?
Merovech and his Knights rode out to defeat a growing
menace that emerged at Bretonnias weakest moment the Skaven!
Risen from their holes and burrows, they set themselves upon
devouring those noble Bretonnians not yet destroyed by the disease.
But for Merovech, these filthy beasts would have surely succeeded,
but the Duke put them to the sword and won the day for all of us! A
noble tale of valour, deserving of place in the song books - surely
Mousillon was to rise to prosperity on the back of this?
It was not, my friends and listeners, to be
Merovech was rightly hailed as the Saviour of Bretonnia,
my friends, and a great feast was thrown at Mousillon in his honour.
Whilst the houses and streets of the realm were still half-filled with
corpses and the dying, the desire for revelry was overwhelming and
much-needed, so celebrate they did. Yet their festivities were short-
lived, as Merovech the Saviour soon soured in everyones opinion,
transforming into Merovech the Mad.
Around the great hall were criminals. And no, my friends, not
as indentured servants, but as executed trophies, hung and impaled and
strewn about! The horror that the guests and indeed, the King!
experienced was nothing next to the revulsion and terror they felt
when the servants themselves were revealed to be shambling corpses,
brought back to a state of Undeath by Dark Magic! The King was
furious, and Merovech was defiant. As two men often do when
tempers are flared, they fought. What a fight it was, friends! Savage
and fierce, they scrambled and duelled throughout the great hall until,
finally, with rage in his heart and blood on his lips, Merovech ripped
the Kings throat out and drank his blood! A most chilling sight, to
be sure, and one that sent the remaining nobles fleeing for their own
homes.
Merovech was made King, despite it all, crowned by the Fey
Enchantress herself. Mousillon, my friends, was at last the shining
jewel of the Bretonnian crown; all gore-soaked and treacherous.
But as these things always go, my good companions,
Merovech did not last. This ruler of bones, this King of a plague-
blighted land, was soon brought to defeat by the Duke of Lyonesse. In
the end, Merovech faced both enemies without and within, as his
Knights finally revolted against his insane and dark dealings. He
fought with a bravery that only madness can inspire, felling many
foes, but ultimately he was overwhelmed and killed. Mousillon
became part of Lyonesse and again fell into shadow and despair
So treachery and Dark Magic brought the might of
Mousillon to ruin. Yet fate, my friends, was done making a bitter
example of the poor, blighted city. The Red Death returned, ravaging
whatever semblance of normality the populace had managed to scrape
together, killing so many that even now the city bears the scars.
Yet darkness and corruption, friends, are unlikely to sit easy
and even less inclined to pass quietly into that sanguine night. Evil
begets evil; such a blighted place as Mousillon becomes a nexus of
horror, growing only more despicable over time. Many have tried to
tame the beast that is Mousillon, my friends, but none have succeeded
all have perished or been driven mad in the attempt. Duke Maldred
tried to bring Mousillon to heel, and succeeded only in falling into
insanity and trying to seize the crown of Bretonnia by force. It was he
who ushered in the final failure of Mousillon, with much destruction.
And what of Mousillon now, friends? What of this thrice-
blighted and countlessly-damned city? It is now a husk of what it was,
a darkening bleak spot on the noble tapestry of the Bretonnian nation.
They speak in hushed whispers of what has become of that place now.
Corruption, they say, seeps into every pore; the wells are infected by
warpstone, and that those killed by the pox shuffle through the
streets, given a queer sort of life again by an experimenting
Necromancer. They even say a Vampire Lord himself, nefarious but
secretive, rules over the broken remains of the once-proud city,
ensconced in his tower, daring any with noble heart and courageous
spirit to try and reclaim this thoroughly-unloved place.
So take heart, friends, for your great deeds this day are
worthy of praise, and mayhap one day I will sing of them. But
remember the fateful tale of Mousillon, and never let your foolhardy
senses and lust for adventure carry you to the gates of that terrible
city.
Yet now that you have heard, how can you possibly resist?
And with that, adieu, my friends, adieu, adieu.
Adieu