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Highguard

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<quote-right by="Freeborn proverb">“Look at our shiny hats!”</quote-right>
<quote-right by="Freeborn proverb">“The empire is our destiny.”</quote-right>


The Freeborn of the Brass Coast are travellers, traders, lovers and poets. They are exuberant and flamboyant; when they laugh their humour is infectious and without spite, when they love they do so with a passion that is without guile and when they’re angry, their wrath is like a summer storm – terrible to behold but swift in passing. To be Freeborn is to be driven by a hunger for life, to see the world, to taste every delicacy, sample every wine and tell every tale. Success is measured in wealth, family and influence, not out of greed, but for the joy success brings.
The Highborn are men and women supremely confident of their own manifest destiny. They revere the highest ideals, to epitomize Imperial Virtues, to reflect the noble obligations of leadership and thereby to embody the very spirit of the Empire. Their destiny is to drive the barbarians from the land and unite all humankind; they will accept nothing less.


Their wagons and ships cross the world bringing exotic goods that command the finest prices. While others see them as brazen and mercurial, their honesty is without arrogance, for to aggrandise the self is vulgar, while to praise the deeds of another is an art. Their tales are bawdy enough for a common tavern and grand enough for a lordly court alike and can fill a room with laughter, tears or gasps of horror.
The chapters, the great stone settlements in which most Highborn dwell, are scattered across the plains that lie between Orison and the Bay of Catazar. Many are built on ancient battle sites, scenes of triumph in the historic wars that wrested control of the land from the Barbarians. All are heavily fortified, with granite quarried from the southern mountains, for the Highborn will brook no expense to protect what is theirs. “Wood burns, stone endures” is an old Highborn aphorism that says much about their perspective.


The Freeborn prize individual freedom and responsibility. Although they are capable of serving a cause they have little respect for authority. Pompous or self-important individuals, especially those who think that titles and positions have made them important are ridiculed on the Coast. Respect is earned, it cannot be bought or appointed.
Although the First Empress put aside her nationality when she united the Empire, the Highborn consider their nation the proud parent of the Empire, and themselves to be its founders, tutors and guardians. They protect the Empire with their armies, guide its hand in the Senate and guard its soul in the Synod; perhaps most important of all, they keep the Imperial Histories to record and tell of the deeds that make the Empire great.
 
They are infamous for their corsairs who operate throughout the bay of Catazar. These daring privateers risk everything ensuring that the Empire's enemies are unable to threaten her shores and earning a fortune in gold in the process. It is a dangerous life but one that perfectly suits the Freeborn passion for high adventure.
 
They are the Freeborn and they believe that while life maybe short, it should never be dull!


===Five things to know about the Highguard===
===Five things to know about the Highguard===
* '''Their word is their bond.''' Freeborn traders possess an honesty that would put most priests to shame.
* '''We made the Empire.''' The First Empress was Highborn. She pulled the scattered human nations together and enlightened them to the true faith.
* '''They are notoriously candid.''' Brazen in person, and disarmingly frank in negotiation, they are never afraid to speak their mind when they want to.
* '''Only actions are virtuous.''' Thoughts and feelings are never virtuous or vile. It is only the actions that you undertake that demonstrate your worth.
* '''They will put a price on anything.''' The Freeborn believe the fairest way to reckon the worth of something is to put a price on it.
* '''The purpose of the past is ti inspire the present.''' We study history not to argue over the facts but to identify lessons that can inspire us today.
* '''They crave adventure and excitement.''' None more so than their corsairs who are the terror of the high seas.
* '''Virtue and vice are contagious.''' A virtuous life leads the faithful to further righteous action but vile behaviour spreads just as easily if not checked.
* '''They prize freedom and responsibility and disdain authority.''' The Freeborn philosophy is that society is best served when every individual is responsible for themselves and to themselves.
<label type="warning">Needs Work</label> * '''A fifth thing or change the title.''' We need either a fifth thing here, or a change to the title of this section.


===What the Highguard are not===
===What the Highguard are not===
* '''Desert-dwellers.''' Grassy plains, rocky mountains and shipboard on the ocean are where the Freeborn live.
<label type="warning">Needs Work</label>  * '''Lawful stupid.''' This is a Nation committed to the ideals of virtue that nonetheles slives in the real world.
* '''Dodgy Camel Salesmen.''' The Freeborn have no camels, and are scrupulously honest in all their dealings.
* '''Matriarchal.''' The Freeborn are matrilineal, they take their mother’s family name, but other than this their society is completely gender blind.
* '''Orthodox in Religion.''' The Freeborn poke fun at the pomposity of the structures of Imperial religion, keeping the faith in their own private ways.
* '''Fez, turban, or shemagh wearers.''' No Freeborn would be seen dead in a white patterned headcloth (white is the colour of the poor), headdress, if worn, should be colourful and vibrant.


==The Nation==
==The Nation==

Revision as of 07:58, 12 July 2012

This selection of articles can be downloaded as a PDF book (or as html only)

“The empire is our destiny.”

Freeborn proverb

The Highborn are men and women supremely confident of their own manifest destiny. They revere the highest ideals, to epitomize Imperial Virtues, to reflect the noble obligations of leadership and thereby to embody the very spirit of the Empire. Their destiny is to drive the barbarians from the land and unite all humankind; they will accept nothing less.

The chapters, the great stone settlements in which most Highborn dwell, are scattered across the plains that lie between Orison and the Bay of Catazar. Many are built on ancient battle sites, scenes of triumph in the historic wars that wrested control of the land from the Barbarians. All are heavily fortified, with granite quarried from the southern mountains, for the Highborn will brook no expense to protect what is theirs. “Wood burns, stone endures” is an old Highborn aphorism that says much about their perspective.

Although the First Empress put aside her nationality when she united the Empire, the Highborn consider their nation the proud parent of the Empire, and themselves to be its founders, tutors and guardians. They protect the Empire with their armies, guide its hand in the Senate and guard its soul in the Synod; perhaps most important of all, they keep the Imperial Histories to record and tell of the deeds that make the Empire great.

Five things to know about the Highguard

  • We made the Empire. The First Empress was Highborn. She pulled the scattered human nations together and enlightened them to the true faith.
  • Only actions are virtuous. Thoughts and feelings are never virtuous or vile. It is only the actions that you undertake that demonstrate your worth.
  • The purpose of the past is ti inspire the present. We study history not to argue over the facts but to identify lessons that can inspire us today.
  • Virtue and vice are contagious. A virtuous life leads the faithful to further righteous action but vile behaviour spreads just as easily if not checked.

Needs Work * A fifth thing or change the title. We need either a fifth thing here, or a change to the title of this section.

What the Highguard are not

Needs Work * Lawful stupid. This is a Nation committed to the ideals of virtue that nonetheles slives in the real world.

The Nation

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