The Tale of Sir Cearbhall Kingshield

Sir Cearbhall (pronounced Car-rule) was born in the year 1020 to his father Art and his mother Eadaoin (pronounced Aye-deen). He grew up a simple farm boy, working on the lands of Sir James Stout. At the age of eight, Sir James requested that Cearbhall begin training as his squire and so a great and wonderful new world began to unfold before the young boy’s eyes. During the years of training, Sir Cearbhall was taught the ways of swordsmanship, how to ride, how to fight with armour and all of the other duties required of a squire to attend his lord. The boy who grew into a man dreamt of being a Knight himself one day, but the life of a squire was all that Sir Cearbhall could aspire to it seemed as he was forever too poor to purchase a Knighthood of his own. But fortune smiled down upon him.
 
In the year 1040, during the fifth year of King Edward VII’s reign, Lord Ademere Longtail, The Dread Bobcat of the North, a noble and decorated soldier, hatched a plot to assassinate the King during the King’s own annual tourney. King Edward had spent the early part of his reign curtailing the criminal elements in his Kingdom and this did not sit well with Lord Ademere as he had had many dealings with these criminals. Lord Ademere managed to make it through to the final of the melee, opposite the King himself, who always took part in his own tourney, and it was then that The Dread Bobcat struck. Having sharpened his famous axe, Forlorn, Lord Ademere sought to end the King in one blow and cut through the King’s armour almost piercing his heart.
 
Lord Ademere’s followers suddenly sprang into action as they massacred the guards and nobles who came to the King’s defence. Sir James was one such noble but he managed to instruct the young Cearbhall to protect the King and it was this unknown but valiant squire who managed to stop the axe just before it struck the King’s head. Cearbhall then managed to hold The Dread Bobcat off as he bundled the King to the relative safety of the throne room. From there, the young squire defended the entrance against Lord Ademere and his assassins.
 
Cearbhall and Lord Ademere duelled and eventually the squire proved the victor, shocking everyone who saw and heard of the deed. He decapitated The Dread Bobcat before the King’s very eyes, the stroke of his sword actually causing a scratch on the Mithan Throne. For damaging the King’s property, the squire had his armour confiscated.
 
But for his bravery and valour, King Edward had the young Cearbhall knighted there and then by the Hand of the King himself, despite his poor background, making him a King’s Knight, granting him land and new armour to fit his station and he was issued one hundred men at arms to help defend his new holdings. As a King’s Knight, he had the power to knight others. Thus he became known as Sir Cearbhall Kingshield, Bane of the Dread Bobcat, for his actions in defending the King.
 
Sir Cearbhall would go on to become one of the realms most storied heroes as he was always brave, upright and just as he championed the people whom he once called kin. Upon taking lordship over his lands, Sir Cearbhall immediately set about personally improving the condition of his holdings. He built a new sewage system to improve sanitation and combat disease. He dug wells and ensured that everyone within his lands had access to clean, fresh water. Like his King, Sir Cearbhall also cracked down on crime so that the people could feel safe and secure under the watch of their lord. Sir Cearbhall also tried to introduce the idea of a minimum wage, where every worker would be paid in money, each man free to forge his own path, free of titles such as ‘master’ and ‘servant’ and become ‘employer’ and ‘employee’. But this policy was far too radical and extreme and even the peasants, whom it would benefit most, did not understand it. He was so fixated on his work that he never took the time to marry and have children. Nevertheless, Sir Cearbhall was loved by his people, his men and his King and became known as The Peasant Knight as he symbolised just how high an ordinary person could rise.
 
But the fog of war would soon loom over the land of Forte as the Simian Empire crossed the sea, seizing the Island of Akanowa and attempting to conquer all of Forte, Ardhi and Reman in one swift stroke. In the year 1052, King Edward tasked Sir Cearbhall and his men to ride to the small fort town of Berwich, just north of his holdings, with the express order to hold the fort against the oncoming Simian forces until reinforcements arrived. Sir Cearbhall did as commanded and with his hundred men secured the fort. Berwich was important for its strategic position as it ensured that Forte could maintain its supply lines in the south.
 
Overwhelmed by an initial force of two thousand Simians, the odds of survival looked slim, but the Kingshield stood firm and held the line as he and his men repelled attack after attack after attack as they endured the siege. Simian reinforcements arrived and so Sir Cearbhall set about training all those within Berwich who could fight to do so, thus forming a militia of two thousand men, women, children and elderly. All were put to task in assisting with the war effort.
 
But the siege continued and there was no sign of the King’s reinforcements. The pressures of command and the ever increasing loss of life began to take a heavy toll on the Kingshield. He took to drink to drown out the voices and the screams of the dead and dying around him, to block out the faces of all those he’d killed, the Simian masks haunting his every waking moment. Yet still Sir Cearbhall, his men and the good people of Berwich endured.
 
Finally, after the siege had reached just over a year in length, King Edward arrived with reinforcements and drove off the remaining Simian troops. The Siege of Berwich Fort was over and Sir Cearbhall was hailed as a hero and saviour of the people. King Edward embraced him as they raised the King’s banner together to mark the victory.
 
Though to Sir Cearbhall, the victory felt hollow. A mere nine of his hundred men remained and more than two thirds of the population of the town lay dead. His own squire had not survived the siege. The voices could not be silenced, nor the masks of the enemy removed from sight. And the drinking persisted as the only means of coping.
 
In the year 1054, the war ended as the Simian Empire was driven from the Island of Akanowa. Sir Cearbhall had continued to demonstrate his prowess in battle, living up to his name’s meaning- “one who is fierce in battle”. A champion of the people and now a war hero, Sir Cearbhall Kingshield; Bane of the Dread Bobcat, Defender of Berwich, Slayer of Simians, Champion, Hero and Saviour of the People, The Peasant Knight became a much talked about man as stories of his deeds in battle, wielding his famed blade Foe Slayer, became more and more widespread.
 
The King rewarded Sir Cearbhall by making him an official King’s Shield and bringing him back to the capital. The Kingshield accepted and looked to his only four remaining men to watch over his holdings whilst he would be away in the capital. He knighted each of them for their loyalty, their bravery and their valour throughout their time in service to him.
 
But the capital for all its delights and splendours could not ease the mind of Sir Cearbhall and his drinking habits became more and more severe. This lead to many an incident where he brought shame, dishonour and embarrassment down upon himself, the Kingsguard and the King himself. The final straw came in the year 1056 when, at a banquet in the Royal Court, Sir Cearbhall got so inebriated that he lost complete control of himself. He made advances towards the Queen, defecated on the Mithan Throne and, when the King confronted him, he uncontrollably urinated on the King’s legs.
 
There was no turning back for Sir Cearbhall for these offences and so, with a heavy heart, King Edward exiled the Kingshield, taking away his lands. Sir Cearbhall refused to be addressed as such from that point on and personally relieved himself of the title of Kingshield. He abandoned his armour but could not bring himself to part with his sword as he left the capital and wandered into the mountains.
 
There atop a glacier, Sir Cearbhall returned to his roots and built himself a small farm but conditions made it tough and all he was able to grow was potatoes. These were his only source of food and from them he also brewed vodka to quench his alcoholic thirst. He took a local girl for his bride, but her star struck gaze would soon morph into a furrowed brow as her life was turned to misery as all she had to live on was potatoes, vodka and drunken rants from her husband.
 
Sir Cearbhall continued with this existence for eight years, his famed blade Foe Slayer tarnishing as it lay idle next to the fireplace, used as nothing more than a farming tool as all else Sir Cearbhall had was a huge scythe.
 
But fortune would smile once more upon this favoured son of Forte as King Edward himself called Sir Cearbhall back from exile to aid in a quest of the utmost importance…