Rampart Order
If ever there was a noble, forthright, and devout guild… it wouldn’t be this one.
Hey, skald’s work can be a dirty job but someone has to do it...
The Rampart Order, or often just called Ramparts, is a semi-secretive organization of skalds and bards spread across the Edoyan continent on Elohey. Devoted to the preservation of history and fostering both balance and communication between peoples, Ramparts work to accomplish this through music, poetry, or outright knocking sense into people’s heads.
Often the latter is accompanied with an impromptu poetic stanza or two, just to commemorate the occasion. The tavern owner is usually compensated for the damages. Usually.
Once you see a skald or bard really at work, you’ll never forget it. It’s one thing to taunt some idiot mercenary with a rude song. But when a bard or skald does it, those hot words turn into an actual fireball…
Wandering the lands, Ramparts gather then exchange information and recent historical events. This most often takes place in a saloon or tavern. The ‘exchange’ is done as a duel. A battle of songs or impromptu poems. Ramparts do their best to keep from using their sharpest words, but sometimes… mistakes are made. However, the audience has a good time, even if the tavern owner does not.
If you ever hear a skald or bard start talking about sharp words… go ahead and duck.
This exchanged information in the songs, speeches, and poetic stanzas is eventually written down. It’s recorded, when someone remembers to do it, in the Rampart’s main guildhall, the Grand Chamber. It’s also where they say their best brewery and dance hall is located. However, this last has yet to be proven with any credible evidence. But at least the descriptions of it are always colorful.
Ramparts stock in trade is in stories, song, poetry and even insightful, yet bawdy, limericks. It's rumored that perhaps this occasional destructive debauchery of impressionable folk and tavern drink is just a ruse. A disguise or mask they wear.
Which is why so much of what has been just said… is possibly a complete lie.
Mask of Words and Song
Despite this occasional destructive debauchery, Ramparts take their job seriously. They always have.
The Rampart Order has secretly existed for over 1000 generations in one form or another. All Ramparts learn the reason for its initial founding: the corrupt, abyssal-cursed Empire of Thasilan. To the Order, that Empire is a harsh lesson in “History is written by the winner”. In the Empire’s unstoppable march of conquest, many cultures from the Samakarii elves to the Geldarian dwarves in the far north and more were ‘elevated to citizens’. A cheap phrase for ‘enslaved’.
Through this ‘citizenship’ process, the cultures lost parts of their heritage, language, magical traditions and more. They lost their true history. It was drowned in the golden propaganda of the Empire. Words that promised a better life for all, but really meant ‘a better for those in charge’.
A group of skalds, bards and alchemists formed the original Rampart Order as a defense against the abuse of history by the powerful. They gathered facts, observations on people and events, and copies of spells or formulas. In the eldest days, paper and writing was restricted in the Empire. Therefore, the Ramparts developed a method of communication using their own sign language and memory improvement techniques.
Your first words should be direct and sharp. Strike fast and hard to get the measure of your meaning rolling in a rhyming duel. Your opponent may not give you a second chance!
Ramparts are trained to observe and memorize. So when a bard or skald duel using spell song or impromptu insulting poetry, they are actually telling each other what recent events they have encountered. If the information is a spell or formula, ingredient measurements and timing are conveyed through rhyme and meter of the performance. If all that is not enough, the Rampart uses the sign language as gestures to ‘enhance’ the ‘drama’ of the duel. However, they are merely providing necessary details that cannot be conveyed otherwise.
The public knows these duels as ‘Cross Meetings’ or a ‘Cross Meet’, which comes from the phrase ‘A Meeting at the Crossroads’. Ramparts use the term as well.
All memorized information exchanged during a Cross Meet is validated and verified independently. Only after that will the members make their way to the Grand Chamber to make a permanent record.
Parts of the Order
The Grand Chamber
Rumors circulate about this place, yet as no one outside the Order has seen it, most believe it's just another fancy story. However, this is not the case.
The Grand Chamber is an ancient library. No Rampart knows who built it but they have estimated its age to over 15,000 years old. It is a combination of library, storehouse and temple of learning. So far as any Rampart has found, there is only one in existence. Therefore, they keep its location a secret. More than one Rampart has gone to their death without revealing the location.
Only a member of the Rampart Order may reach the Grand Chamber. As apprentices they are trained to look for the Kenning Runes indicating a nearby portal to the Chamber. These portals are established and maintained by Rampart Masters to allow their brethren access from even remote parts of the world.
Leadership and Structure
Ramparts maintain a loose structure, bound by their code and the occasional instruction from the Rampart Council. Each region, or major city, has a small branch of the Rampart Order assembled into a ‘fellowship’. These fellowships use taverns as their meeting place, preferring to ‘hide in public’. After all, having an actual ‘secret meeting room’ would never work. Ramparts know all too well that secrets have a way of getting out.
The governing and leadership of the Order is done by the Rampart Council. This council is comprised of ten Rampart Masters. They elect one of their members to be Master of the Prose, or Council governor, for a season. The Master of the Prose acts as the negotiator for the Council, only voting to break a tie or settle a debate.
To Be a Rampart…
Despite its appearance, the Rampart Order is a guild. Anyone can apply, but they are put through a strict evaluation process. Can they think on their feet? Do they have a talent for words, music, instruments, or formulas? Most important, how good is their memory?
Recruits that pass the initial evaluation are then taught the basics of the craft from the local fellowship. This is yet more evaluation as to how trustworthy the recruit actually is. Over the generations, shrewd rulers who suspected Rampart legends were more truth than fiction have tried to infiltrate the Order more than once.
If that recruit has proven to be trustworthy, they then begin their real apprenticeship. They are given the rank of Apprentice and assigned to a Master Rampart to learn the depth of their preferred craft. After several years, an Apprentice must prove their skills, a test called ‘Turning the Tables’, where they compete in a series of three Cross Meetings against Rampart Legates. If they succeed, they graduate to join the ranks of the Rampart Legates.
See what Rampart Master Irvik Draugar has to say on the subject…
'Turning the Tables' is the accepted test for a member of the Order to advance in rank. To do this, the character is expected to think on their feet and communicate clearly yet under the guise of song or poem without help of the written word.
In terms of game mechanics, a character must succeed in a contest of skill against an opponent of higher rank in the Rampart Order. A character being tested will compete in the following ways:
The DC for each check is the level of test giver (the person of the higher rank than the character) + the test giver’s charisma bonus. A character taking the test of Turning the Tables must succeed in all four skill checks to advance a rank. This represents a character both communicating a message and memorizing another oral tradition, historical event, or formula.
A character may only attempt this test once every three game months.
Those Ramparts that head out to adventure with other adventurers, or Pathfinders’, are almost always the rank of Rampart Legate.
Now, this isn’t to say all skalds and bards everywhere are members of the Rampart Order. This is far from the truth. The Order has such strict requirements on honor, loyalty and trustworthiness that only a few bards or skalds are accepted.
A Sour Note in the Chord
Over the generations, a rare few people and organizations have ever deduced some of what the Rampart Order’s true nature actually is. One of those would be the Ministry. The Rampart Order is also well aware of The Ministry and suspects they are to blame for many of the world’s great disasters. To say they are rivals is putting it mildly. Members from each group will take great pains to undermine the other’s work.
Symbol of the Rampart Order by CB Ash
Type
Guild, Professional
Alternative Names
Ramparts
Ranks
Game Mechanic Note Only characters that are a skald class or bard class may join this organization!
A character that has the Rampart Learner rank gains the following:
Linguistics+1
A character that has the Rampart Legate rank has the following:
Bonus Language: Rampart Sign LanguagePerform +1 in one of the following: Oratory, Sing, String, Wind
Knowledge (History) +1
A character that has the Master Rampart rank has the following:
Knowledge (Engineering)+2Acrobatics+2
Perception+1
They also have the following traits.
Summon Grand Chamber Portal The character may summon a portal or door to the Grand Chamber a number of times per day equal to their Charisma bonus (minimum of 1).
Scribe Kenning Rune The character may scribe a Kenning Rune that is both indicator and ‘key’ to open a portal to the Grand Chamber. A character may do this a number of times per day equal to their Charisma bonus (minimum of 1).
Rampart Code
- History is the lamplight in the darkness. It should be free for everyone to learn. It helps people to know where they might go and who they might become.
- Listen, not just hear.
- Teach, not just talk.
- Allow your reputation to fall how it may. That is just a tool. Guard your honor, defend peace, and promote communication.
- Ramparts take care of their own. A Rampart should never turn away from another member in need. If a Rampart falls prey to greed or personal power, they no longer hear the honest drums of history. Therefore, they die so freedom may survive.
Not Just Pretty Words or a Fancy Tune
All members of the Order are skalds or bards with no lack of poetic or musical talent. However, this may not be their actual specialty in the Order. Many are also skilled alchemists, linguists, fighters and more.
In Defense of History
The predominant professions of the Order are skalds and bards. However, they cross train in physical combat, magical and tactical skills as well. It's said that highly accomplished skalds of the Order can defeat any opponent in three moves after just observing them for one minute. Likewise, accomplished Rampart bards learn to sing songs that bend the hardest stones to their will, among other more miraculous magical feats.
However, Ramparts know that storing knowledge away doesn’t do any good. The best way to help defend history is for it to be shared. As part of their duties, Ramparts are often working as teachers, diplomats, or advisers in some regions using music and poetry as a teaching tool. The rowdy reputation they gain in the local tavern or school helps distract the suspicious if what the Rampart is teaching might undermine a local ruling tyrant’s authority.
There are also times Ramparts are recruited as spies, however their patron never realizes that the information brought back to the patron also goes to the Grand Chamber.
They sound like a lot of fun. I love how they have their public front, and then their true intentions. You do have a small typo in the sidebar. Under "About Apprentices" you talk about Rampart Legates instead of Apprentices.
Necromancy is a Wholesome Science.
Oh, I had a lot of fun writing about them! And thanks about the sidebar. Got snared in my own styling! Fixed!