Grimshield Battalion
The Grimshields are a well known and respected battalion. They are responsible for patrolling the northernmost reaches of the Lang Karag mountains, garrisoning the town of Grimval, and the small settlements among the foothills and along the mountain passage.
They are often faced by orcish and hobgoblin warbands, goliath raiding parties, Frost and Hill giants, yeti, duregar raids, and the general struggles of maintaining the peace in Grimval.
Their most recent accomplishments include:
Surviving a meteor strike and the following burning undead attack which destroyed a quarter of their town.
Defending Grimval's walls from a massive hoard of 200,000 burning undead
Recovering the ancient dwarven capitol city Feld Syltarn, killing the dragon which called the frozen city its home.
Reviving a lost company of their brethren who had been turned to stone for thousands of years
The battalion consists of 12 companies:
1st company - Thir’s Chosen is the oldest named company of Grimshields. As long as the organization known as the Grimshields has existed there has been a Thir’s Chosen. Thir was the first commander of the Grimshields and the original founder. He was the youngest brother of the Clan leader and a renowned fighter and general. It was said that Thir and his chosen defended the fledgling town of Grimval before it had walls or even permanent structures from an attacking horde of Orcs. The company was founded somewhere around 2500 years ago.
Previous Captain - Elric Valstone (KIA during burning undead siege)
Current Captain - Thorain Farkul
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 11, including Thorain who also fought the dragon
2nd Company - Silver Spines - The second company who’s name became a permanent fixture in the Grimshields. Was created when the company was the first to add the spikes to the front of their shields, testing it out for the rest and finding it to be supremely effective. Soon afterwards it became the standard for all Grimshield soldiers but they claim the pride of being the innovators of the idea.
Previous Captain - Rona (Deceased - murdered)
Current Captain - Dain Norhad - Decorated as one who fought the dragon at Feld Syltarn Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 14
3rd Company - Cask’s Clobberers - Was created and named for a renowned captain of the Grimshields. Real name unknown by most, everyone just knows that he was called Captain Cask. Because Cask was incredibly short even for a dwarf. And it was said that despite this he was a ferocious fighter. But when it came to fighting atop the walls his height became a problem. And it was said that during a fight he got so frustrated that he yelled for one of his soldiers to throw him a cask of ale to stand on so that he could see the enemy better. It supposedly worked very well and forever afterwards that captain was called Cask.
Previous Captain - Baz (KIA during burning undead siege)
Current Captain - Dagrum Ironbreaker
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 9, including Dagrum who also fought the dragon at Feld Syltarn
4th Company - War Eagles - It has been a tradition among the Grimshields for the garrison to have a pet eagle. They always have one and it is the job and privilege of the War Eagle company’s commander to host the bird in their own quarters. The bird is always named the same thing Fele (Meaning Mining Pick) Nobody remembers why the eagle is always named that its just the tradition, and it has long been a running prank of new recruits to try and steal Fele from the War Eagle’s barracks. It has caused a number of incidents over the years, many nipped fingers and clawed faces, and one time even a lost eye when Fele was a particularly vicious bird.
Current Captain - Marilla
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 15, including Marilla and Agala - both also fought the dragon at Feld Syltarn
5th Company - Bearded Bruisers - Long running tradition of the unit is to see who can grow the longest beard of the lot. And then who can effectively turn said beard into a weapon of some kind, all in the Bearded Bruisers are encouraged to let their beards grow as wild as possible. They scorn any kind of adornment or taming of the beard that isn’t intended to turn said beard into a weapon.
Previous Captain - Erah Dundel (KIA during burning undead siege)
Current Captain - Relster Mormek
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 10 including Jaznoth and Relster
6th Company - The Stone Guts - Mark of pride in the company was said that a former commander in order to win a drinking competition was said to have preemptively drank a modified stone skin potion. Said that he turned the skin of his stomach to stone instead of the outside of his skin. That way none of the booze would be absorbed and he couldn’t get drunk. The thing was he apparently didn’t think about afterwards as once the potion ran out the stone remained and he absorbed the results of around 4 hours of drinking all at once causing him to black out immediately and caused him to shit gravel for the next week.
Current Captain - Kored - Currently the #2 to Vada, as the captain with the most experience
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 12 that includes Kored
7th Company - The Jolly Boots - Longest running patrol company, has always been the company known for marching the longest and hardest of any of the Grimshields. It’s also said that being posted to the Jolly Boots is a punishment as you are only at the Garrison for 1/10th of the year and are marching and hiking for all the rest of it.
Current Captain - Flintfoot
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 10, including Flintfoot
8th Company - The Cast Iron 8th - Was Vada’s unit when she was a Grimshield, is named so because supposedly when the second origin war started the Grimshield commander wanted to increase the number of companies in the Grimshields and therefore founded two new companies. Problem was they didn’t have enough shields for all the new recruits, and didn’t have enough steel in the stores to finish making all of them. So as a temporary measure some genius used cast iron to reinforce the framework of the unfinished shields and had them given to the new recruits. This made the shields incredibly heavy and ridiculously difficult to use. But the new company didn’t know any better and though they did markedly worse to begin with their training, eventually when someone realized what had happened and the company were given standard shields, their arms had been strengthened so much trying to use the incredibly heavy shields that the regular ones were almost too light for them. It’s now a mark of pride for the company to add cast iron weights to their shields, on the theory that more weight makes them hit the enemy harder. It is also common practice for brand new Grimshield recruits to be given the cast iron shields to begin learning with.
Previous Captain - Rodel (KIA) was Vada’s captain when she was a sergeant.
Current Captain - Teka Burhad
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 9, including Gimthal Medrak Vada’s former Hammer team partner and Teka
9th Company - Fiery Anvils - Story goes that years and years ago the company with a rather devious and intelligent commander were boxed into an old abandoned forge by a much larger company of Duregar. So the commander had his troopers lift the anvils of the forge onto wooden planks and set them above the entrance to the mine that the Duregar were gathering outside. The commander then had the anvils coated in oil and set aflame, knowing that it would take a good time before the fire would burn all the way through the beams. The commander then taunted the Duregar into attacking and committing the majority of their force into the tunnel where they were tightly crammed and bottlenecked. Then had his soldiers hold them for as long as they could knowing they couldn’t fight for long. But thankfully around 5 minutes after the fighting began and when the Duregar were crammed the thickest into the tunnel the beams finally burned through dropping the massive flaming anvils right into the middle of their force crushing and burning the majority of them, granting the company a win when the fight began as a sure defeat.
Previous Captain - Harika (KIA during the burning undead siege) Vada’s Cousin
Current Captain - Dain Urmak
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 16, including Dain
10th Company - Doom Axes - newest company name, intentionally dumb name. Started as more of a placeholder name until a new better one could be decided upon. Has at this point become a running joke with the troops. Which the Grimshields in the unit have fully embraced, all of them competing to come up with a more ridiculous name for their own battle axe, which they all carve into the blades and add more adjectives to periodically.
Names Like:
Current Captain - Fikgri Garek
Sergeant - Nalli
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 6, including Fikgri, and Nalli, who fought the dragon as well.
11th Company - OATH irregulars - After the burning undead siege of the city when so many of their number was lost, the clan recognized the adventuring party OATH who had fought alongside the battalion in that siege by formally recognizing the group as a new and irregular company within the battalion. This was the first time in history that non dwarves were given the shield badges. Tox, was given Harika’s shield - former captain of 9th company
Odo, was given Rakkas’ shield - former captain of 10th company who he had fought alongside for the whole battle
Hyrm - was given Rodel’s shield - Former captain of 8th company
Aurora - was given Elric’s shield - former captain of 1st company
Formerly 5th Company during the first origin war - Sigrid's Guard - This oversized company consists of all ancient Grimshields who have been brought back from being entombed in stone for thousands of years. There are 100 of them in total and they now live and protect the ancient ruined city of Feld Syltarn as it is slowly excavated. They got their name from the duty that they performed during the war. They had been the personal guard of Sigrid, the general and war leader for Clan Valstone at the time.
Captain - Korlim Reghardt - formerly the captain of Thir's Chosen, was given the command of the company by Thir himself on his deathbed.
Other notable information: Vadas father was a stone gut when he was alive, he died at the rank of sergeant fighting giants, he was a part of a hammer team and died bringing down a massive hill giant that was about to crush an anvil team. He overextended to get the killing blow and in doing so he protected the anvil team and his own teammate, but put himself in harms way for the hill giant’s companion. Vada carries the same shield badge that he did.
Previous Captain - Elric Valstone (KIA during burning undead siege)
Current Captain - Thorain Farkul
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 11, including Thorain who also fought the dragon
2nd Company - Silver Spines - The second company who’s name became a permanent fixture in the Grimshields. Was created when the company was the first to add the spikes to the front of their shields, testing it out for the rest and finding it to be supremely effective. Soon afterwards it became the standard for all Grimshield soldiers but they claim the pride of being the innovators of the idea.
Previous Captain - Rona (Deceased - murdered)
Current Captain - Dain Norhad - Decorated as one who fought the dragon at Feld Syltarn Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 14
3rd Company - Cask’s Clobberers - Was created and named for a renowned captain of the Grimshields. Real name unknown by most, everyone just knows that he was called Captain Cask. Because Cask was incredibly short even for a dwarf. And it was said that despite this he was a ferocious fighter. But when it came to fighting atop the walls his height became a problem. And it was said that during a fight he got so frustrated that he yelled for one of his soldiers to throw him a cask of ale to stand on so that he could see the enemy better. It supposedly worked very well and forever afterwards that captain was called Cask.
Previous Captain - Baz (KIA during burning undead siege)
Current Captain - Dagrum Ironbreaker
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 9, including Dagrum who also fought the dragon at Feld Syltarn
4th Company - War Eagles - It has been a tradition among the Grimshields for the garrison to have a pet eagle. They always have one and it is the job and privilege of the War Eagle company’s commander to host the bird in their own quarters. The bird is always named the same thing Fele (Meaning Mining Pick) Nobody remembers why the eagle is always named that its just the tradition, and it has long been a running prank of new recruits to try and steal Fele from the War Eagle’s barracks. It has caused a number of incidents over the years, many nipped fingers and clawed faces, and one time even a lost eye when Fele was a particularly vicious bird.
Current Captain - Marilla
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 15, including Marilla and Agala - both also fought the dragon at Feld Syltarn
5th Company - Bearded Bruisers - Long running tradition of the unit is to see who can grow the longest beard of the lot. And then who can effectively turn said beard into a weapon of some kind, all in the Bearded Bruisers are encouraged to let their beards grow as wild as possible. They scorn any kind of adornment or taming of the beard that isn’t intended to turn said beard into a weapon.
Previous Captain - Erah Dundel (KIA during burning undead siege)
Current Captain - Relster Mormek
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 10 including Jaznoth and Relster
6th Company - The Stone Guts - Mark of pride in the company was said that a former commander in order to win a drinking competition was said to have preemptively drank a modified stone skin potion. Said that he turned the skin of his stomach to stone instead of the outside of his skin. That way none of the booze would be absorbed and he couldn’t get drunk. The thing was he apparently didn’t think about afterwards as once the potion ran out the stone remained and he absorbed the results of around 4 hours of drinking all at once causing him to black out immediately and caused him to shit gravel for the next week.
Current Captain - Kored - Currently the #2 to Vada, as the captain with the most experience
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 12 that includes Kored
7th Company - The Jolly Boots - Longest running patrol company, has always been the company known for marching the longest and hardest of any of the Grimshields. It’s also said that being posted to the Jolly Boots is a punishment as you are only at the Garrison for 1/10th of the year and are marching and hiking for all the rest of it.
Current Captain - Flintfoot
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 10, including Flintfoot
8th Company - The Cast Iron 8th - Was Vada’s unit when she was a Grimshield, is named so because supposedly when the second origin war started the Grimshield commander wanted to increase the number of companies in the Grimshields and therefore founded two new companies. Problem was they didn’t have enough shields for all the new recruits, and didn’t have enough steel in the stores to finish making all of them. So as a temporary measure some genius used cast iron to reinforce the framework of the unfinished shields and had them given to the new recruits. This made the shields incredibly heavy and ridiculously difficult to use. But the new company didn’t know any better and though they did markedly worse to begin with their training, eventually when someone realized what had happened and the company were given standard shields, their arms had been strengthened so much trying to use the incredibly heavy shields that the regular ones were almost too light for them. It’s now a mark of pride for the company to add cast iron weights to their shields, on the theory that more weight makes them hit the enemy harder. It is also common practice for brand new Grimshield recruits to be given the cast iron shields to begin learning with.
Previous Captain - Rodel (KIA) was Vada’s captain when she was a sergeant.
Current Captain - Teka Burhad
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 9, including Gimthal Medrak Vada’s former Hammer team partner and Teka
9th Company - Fiery Anvils - Story goes that years and years ago the company with a rather devious and intelligent commander were boxed into an old abandoned forge by a much larger company of Duregar. So the commander had his troopers lift the anvils of the forge onto wooden planks and set them above the entrance to the mine that the Duregar were gathering outside. The commander then had the anvils coated in oil and set aflame, knowing that it would take a good time before the fire would burn all the way through the beams. The commander then taunted the Duregar into attacking and committing the majority of their force into the tunnel where they were tightly crammed and bottlenecked. Then had his soldiers hold them for as long as they could knowing they couldn’t fight for long. But thankfully around 5 minutes after the fighting began and when the Duregar were crammed the thickest into the tunnel the beams finally burned through dropping the massive flaming anvils right into the middle of their force crushing and burning the majority of them, granting the company a win when the fight began as a sure defeat.
Previous Captain - Harika (KIA during the burning undead siege) Vada’s Cousin
Current Captain - Dain Urmak
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 16, including Dain
10th Company - Doom Axes - newest company name, intentionally dumb name. Started as more of a placeholder name until a new better one could be decided upon. Has at this point become a running joke with the troops. Which the Grimshields in the unit have fully embraced, all of them competing to come up with a more ridiculous name for their own battle axe, which they all carve into the blades and add more adjectives to periodically.
Names Like:
- Bloodthirsty murderous Orc Splitter
- Swinging Vengeance the choppinator
- slicey dicey the death dealing hacker of all things vile and evil
Current Captain - Fikgri Garek
Sergeant - Nalli
Decorated Veterans of The burning undead siege - 6, including Fikgri, and Nalli, who fought the dragon as well.
11th Company - OATH irregulars - After the burning undead siege of the city when so many of their number was lost, the clan recognized the adventuring party OATH who had fought alongside the battalion in that siege by formally recognizing the group as a new and irregular company within the battalion. This was the first time in history that non dwarves were given the shield badges. Tox, was given Harika’s shield - former captain of 9th company
Odo, was given Rakkas’ shield - former captain of 10th company who he had fought alongside for the whole battle
Hyrm - was given Rodel’s shield - Former captain of 8th company
Aurora - was given Elric’s shield - former captain of 1st company
Formerly 5th Company during the first origin war - Sigrid's Guard - This oversized company consists of all ancient Grimshields who have been brought back from being entombed in stone for thousands of years. There are 100 of them in total and they now live and protect the ancient ruined city of Feld Syltarn as it is slowly excavated. They got their name from the duty that they performed during the war. They had been the personal guard of Sigrid, the general and war leader for Clan Valstone at the time.
Captain - Korlim Reghardt - formerly the captain of Thir's Chosen, was given the command of the company by Thir himself on his deathbed.
Other notable information: Vadas father was a stone gut when he was alive, he died at the rank of sergeant fighting giants, he was a part of a hammer team and died bringing down a massive hill giant that was about to crush an anvil team. He overextended to get the killing blow and in doing so he protected the anvil team and his own teammate, but put himself in harms way for the hill giant’s companion. Vada carries the same shield badge that he did.
Structure
The battalion is a very organized military company. The battalion takes its general orders from Clan Valstone but as a rule the battalion has the sworn duty to protect the people of Grimval and the surrounding area from all dangers.
It has a classic militaristic chain of command. The leader being the Commander, generally a member of Clan Valstone who is appointed to the position by the clan leader.
Beneath the commander each of the companies has a captain, and within each company there are up to four sergeants who command a squad of 4 to 6 soldiers.
History
The battalion was commissioned by Thir Valstone, he was a general who led the forces of Clan Valstone during the first years of the first origin war. He created the first company Thir’s Chosen and gave the army he led the name Grimshields in the year 1255.
Over the course of the first origin war and its 394 years the battalion gained in prestige and skill, becoming the anchor for the northern forces. When the city of Feld Syltarn fell a large portion of the Grimshields were lost, half their number staying behind to hold the city, the other half retreating into the mountain passage protecting the retreating civilians.
As it was believed by all that the four companies that had stayed behind had been completely wiped out the companies were later reformed. The only one that wasn’t reformed was Sigrid’s Guard, the name was therefore lost to history.
Kem do sgiath ard - "Keep your shield high"
Founding Date
1255
Type
Military, Army Battalion
Capital
Training Level
Professional
Veterancy Level
Decorated/Honored
Demonym
Grimshield
Leader
Leader Title
Parent Organization
Location
Notable Members
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