Twilight of the West

Characters

Status

Europe in the fifth and sixth centuries is far from a homogeneous place. With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the entire region has broken up into smaller kingdoms. The two great powers at this time are the Eastern Roman Empire, aka Byzantium, and the Christian religion. A rough estimate of relative Status is given in the table below.

New Disadvantages

Persecuted (varies)

Your civil rights have been denied, usually because of some cultural or social attribute. In extreme cases, the persecution may extend to torture or even death. In the least of cases, your property may be seized, you may be banished or confined without recourse, and injuries may be done to you without redress.

The cost of the Persecution is based on its effects and frequency. Loss of civil rights (including property rights and protection under the law) is worth -10, while torture is worth an additional -5. Death adds yet another -5, for a maximum base cost of -20. This should then be modified by the frequency with which you have to deal with the effects of Persecution:

New Skills

Christology (M/H), defaults to Theology (Christian)-3

You have studied the intricacies of various explanations for the nature of Jesus Christ, the central figure of the Christian religion. Christological debate was important to the early Christian church and indeed was the primary source of heresy and schism. The Nestorian and Arian heresies, both of which dogged the church for centuries, were based in Christological differences.

To understand the nuances of a cleric's position and determine whether his beliefs are heretical or canonical, a successful Christology roll must be made. Only clergy will be likely to learn this skill, and even among them only some will study it thoroughly.

Height, Weight

Substituting for the height/weight chart on p. B15 will be the following, which will hold for Italian Roman characters (see modifications for other races in the Races section, below):

To determine height/weight randomly, find base height via the table above, then modify using the table below. Then cross-reference final height using the table above again, and roll randomly once more on the table below to find final weight. This is the same method presented in the book, but the below table has a more rational weight-randomization methodology. Note that racial modifiers to height should be added to base height, while racial modifiers to weight should be added to final weight.

Although everyone in this game is human, there is a large variety of human racial groups in Europe at this time. Any of them is theoretically open to a PC. Note that much of the source material for this section was derived from the Peoples of the Dark Ages and Civilizations of the Middles Ages web sites.

Celtic Cultures

Essentially all of the German tribes that arose later in Europe were based in Celtic culture. While by the fifth century, nearly all true Celtic tribes have disappeared - absorbed or defeated by other ethnic groups - echoes of their culture reverberated for centuries. Thus, at least some understanding of Celtic culture is important to any other European culture.

The Celts were tribal and warlike. Warfare was a sporting affair, however, not a violent means to gain territory. There is no need for a nomadic tribe to gain territory. They did, however, raid neighboring tribes for cattle and sheep, the two primary economic goods of the Celts. Agriculture did not play a large role. The Celtic economy did not use money, or even barter. It was not based on trade at all, but rather on reciprocity, in which gifts are given based on personal relationships just as kinship or tribal membership.

Tribes were led by a king or queen, supported by an aristocracy of warriors and an intellectual class that included druids. Everyone else was below these classes. Woman played a large role in early Celtic culture, and there were many female warriors and queens, but later Celts adopted a patriarchical model.

Celtic religion was naturalistic. Little more is known of their gods, but they were polytheistic and believed that different areas were suffused with greater religious power than others. The druids - religious leaders who were also keepers of the law, educators, and oral historians - worshipped at these sites. There is some evidence that human sacrifice may have been practiced by the druids, but their religious rites were kept secret from the average Celt and so knowledge of their precise rituals has not survived.

Descended from the Celts were the Gauls and Germans (and many others that are not germane to this campaign). The Gauls lived in what is now France and were somewhat more organized than the original Celts, as their various kings would elect an 'over-king' during times of strife. The Gauls also developed agriculture to a greater extent than the Celts, but on the whole their society had the same class divisions of druids, nobles, and peasants (druides, equites, and plebs). Note that the Gauls were quite powerful in the fourth century BC and actually sacked Rome in 390, but were pushed out of Italy later and were conquered by Julius Caesar during his Gallic campaigns of the mid-first century BC. Remnants of Gaulish culture still remain, however, combined with the newer culture of the Franks.

The Germans descended from two tribes of Celts, the Cimbri and the Teutons, although they also drew from other early European cultures. Geographically, the Germans originated in northern Germany and southern Scandinavia. Each tribe was led by a king, and each noble lord and king had a comitatus, which was a retinue of warriors that attached itself to the lord or king voluntarily.

Germans are typically larger than average - add 2" to average height and compute weight normally for their height. They often have blond, straight hair and blue eyes, but there is enough ethnic intermingling that brown hair and eyes are not uncommon. Hairstyles vary with the times - for example, beards were fashionable when the Germans first encountered Rome, but later, when beards became associated with Christian philosophy, many barbarians eschewed them.

Frank: The Franks are located west of the Rhine, in what is now France. The Frankish people appear to have developed out of groups of barbarian raiders attacking the lower Rhine frontier of the Roman Empire during the third century AD. They were subdued by Diocletian and became part of the Western Empire both as coloni and as barbarian troops.

After the fall of the Western Empire, Frankish power began to coalesce near Tournai. The Kingdom of Tournai, founded by Chlodio, eventually became the foremost power in Gaul under Clovis. Clovis not only united the Franks, but also defeated the Thuringians, Alamanni, and Visigoths and extended Frankish dominion throughout Gaul. Clovis also defeated the last Roman ruler, Syagrius, and established a Frankish empire throughout Gaul.

The Franks are loosely organized. Led by a centralized government, they left the older Roman institutions in place but make no effort to sustain them except for the taxation system, which is already falling apart to misuse. A roughly feudal system was born as Frankish kings granted lands to loyal nobles who took the title dux.

Gaul: (see above)

Ostrogoth: The Ostrogoths were separated from the Visigoths near the end of the third century AD by the Gepids, and settled east of the Sea of Azov. When the Huns arrived, they conquered the Ostrogoths and subjugated them. They remained under the thumb of the Huns for over a century, and even fought under Attila in the mid-5th century against the Visigoths under Aetius.

Theodoric the Amal (later "The Great") became the leader of the Ostrogoths after the death of Attila and the collapse of the Hunnic Kingdom. Seeking better lands for his people, he moved into Italy, which was ruled by the barbarian king Odovacar. Theodoric was unable to defeat Odovacar in battle, but he finally slew him in cold blood at a celebratory banquet. The Eastern Empire recognized Theodoric as King of Italy in 497. His reign lasted until 526, and was typified by renewed building projects and adherence to the rule of Law.

Vandal: The Vandals are currently situated in north Africa, but they originated in Eastern Europe. Pushed west by incursions of Huns, they crossed the Rhine in 406 AD, and engaged on a destructive rampage across Gaul. Within three years they had crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, where they remained until 428. They did not settle in Spain, however, preferring to loot and raid until the region was impoverished.

Once this occurred, the Vandals moved on into Africa, which fell quickly. Carthage fell in 439, and the Vandals gained a naval base from which to raid the Mediterranean. They sacked Rome in 455 and continue to make a general nuisance of themselves throughout the region.

The Vandals run the government in Africa, but little else. Roman institutions and culture continue there unabated. The only real conflict between the two stems from the fact that the Vandals are Arians while their subjects are Roman Christian.

Visigoth: The Visigoths were separated from the Ostrogoths near the end of the third century AD by the Gepids, and settled west of the Dniester river. When the Hunnic invasion of Europe neared their lands in 376, the Visigoths gathered on the banks of the Danube and begged the Roman Empire to let them cross the river and settle within the Empire. They ultimately were allowed to cross, but were treated quite poorly. They became a threat after the crushing defeat of the Roman general Valens and gained the lands of Thrace and Moesia, where they settled in 382.

The Visigoths were united under King Alaric near the end of the fourth century, who invaded Italy to try to find a permanent home for his people. The Western Roman Army resisted, but could not ultimately prevent the sack of Rome at the hands of the Visigoths in 410. Alaric died soon thereafter, and the Visigoths migrated into Iberia, where they settled in Aquitaine and founded the Kingdom of Toulouse, with status as Roman federates. By the end of the fifth century, the kingdom included nearly all of Iberia and southern Gaul.

The Visigoths have settled in Iberia and southern Gaul (Toulouse). Their kingdom there is threatened to the north by Clovis' Franks, but the Vandals and Alans which previously held southern Iberia have moved on to Africa. The Visigothic kingdom in Iberia is (Arian?) (Roman Christian?) and has many Roman attributes.

Classical Cultures

Byzantine:

Greek:

Roman:

Other Cultures

Hun: The most feared warriors of the fifth century, the Huns erupted into Europe in the middle of the fourth, conquering the Ostrogoths and pushing the Vandals and Alans ahead of them. Unlike the other cultures in Europe at this time, the Huns were not Germanic at all. They were Asian, having originated in China some five centuries earlier. The Huns looked different, spoke a strange language, and practiced a lifestyle that was barbaric even to putative barbarians such as the Goths.

Hunnic warriors were almost entirely light cavalry who fought with horse bows. Until the time of Attila, they never coalesced as a group and, while their military prowess was legendary, they were never a serious threat to the Roman Empire. They were more likely to raid and harry, or hire themselves out en masse as mercenaries. When Attila arrived to lead the Huns against the Romans, however, they were a fearsome force, composed of Hunnic horse-archers and Germanic heavy cavalry.

Attila extracted tribute from the Eastern Empire until, in 450, he turned his attention to the West. In a brutal battle against the romanized barbarian general Aetius at Catalaunian Fields, Attila was defeated, but Aetius did not press the attack and let him and his ruined but still dangerous army escape. Then Attila crossed the Alps, devastated northern Italy and reached the walls of Rome before turning back to face a possible threat from the Eastern Empire. Attila died in 453, not in battle. His Hunnic Confederacy did not survive him, quickly breaking up into roving bands of warrior tribes.

Currently, there are many of these bands of Huns strewn across northern Italy, southern Gaul, and the Eastern lands. There are also many Huns fighting as mercenaries in Western armies, but they have no cohesive empire holding them together.

Moor:

Berber:

Persian?:

By the late fifth century, Christianity was the primary religion of Europe. The old Roman pagan beliefs (see Celtic culture, above) and even older Greek pantheons still survived, but only in pockets. Judaism was primarily focused in Palestine, although there were a few Jews living throughout Europe. Islam was yet to be invented, although within a scant two centuries it would already threaten the Eastern Empire.

Christianity

Christianity was torn by schism and heresy throughout its early centuries. Much of its early history is fraught with dissent, as the implications of this radical new belief system were debated. What may seem today to be minor issues were elevated to the status of (thesaurus check!). Christological debate may have inflamed the bishops and kings, but it is not so clear that the common folk were as zealous. Certainly many peasants had found it easy to convert their family gods over to the Christian system, and early Christianity had encouraged this, not least by setting Christian holidays to coincide with pagan festivals.

According to the Catholic Church, "heresy", "schism", and "apostasy" are distinct and separate states of belief. A heresy is a belief that is in contradiction to Catholic canon, but is still Christian in the sense that it holds Christ to be the savior of mankind. Apostasy is any non-Christian belief, including Judaism, paganism, or atheism. A schismatic, on the other hand, is one who refuses to submit to papal decree. A follower of an unpopular schism or heresy may have a Social Stigma at the -5 or -10 point level, or may take the new Persecuted disadvantage.

Catholicism: The canonical belief system of the Roman Christian church. The Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) is considered three aspects of the same deity, all equal.

Arianism: Founded by Arius in 306. Arian belief is an offshoot of Gnosticism as applied to Christianity, and reasons that since Christ was a created being, He could not be a deity at the same level as God and was therefore placed in the pantheon as an inferior. Thus it denied the absolute divinity of Christ.

Defeated at the Council of Nicaea (325), Arius was excommunicated and branded a heretic. During the reigns of Julian the Apostate (361-363), and Valens (363-378), Arianism flourished - it had no political opposition under the former Emperor and active support under the latter. The Arian Ulfilas translated the doctrine into Gothic and spread its teachings to the barbarians during the fourth century. Thus the Goths, Vandals, and all peripheral tribes became Arian.

Arianism was expunged from Western doctrine after the death of Valens, as the Second Council of Nicaea (381) re-established canonical doctrine and was accepted by the papacy and the Emperors Gratian and Theodosius.

Manichaeism: Manichaeism professed to be a religion of pure reason as opposed to Christian credulity; it professed to explain the origin, the composition, and the future of the universe; it had an answer for everything and despised Christianity, which was full of mysteries.

The doctrine was founded in Mesopotamia in the third century AD and comprised a combination of Zoroastrianism, Babylonian folklore, Buddhism, and Christianity. It never gained major political importance, but did attract a wide following at various times. Manichaeism was also persecuted specifically during the late fourth century and its followers were often denied civil rights or even condemned to death. Because of the persecutions, much of Manichaean history is shrouded in mystery as it was practiced in secret.

Monasticism: Begun primarily in Egypt, monasteries were a place for the devout to prove their faith. Monks would retreat to isolated desert locations for years at a time to pray, meditate, and reflect. They might not see another human being for this entire period. Later on, even remote monasteries could attract large numbers of followers, and problems such as homosexuality often arose. Women also entered monsteries, although they were kept apart from the men.

Saint Anthony, the first Christian monk, was a Copt, as were many later monks. After the Coptic Schism at the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon in 451, monks who were uncomfortable with their nearness to the Copts spread throughout Europe, starting new monasteries in Gaul, Ireland, and other remote locations. This process was hastened when African tribes began attacking and destroying monasteries in Egypt. While some monks stayed and fortified their abbeys against these incursions, many fled for gentler locales.

Judaism

Paganism

The gold solidus is the main coin of Europe. There are 100 in a pound. The semis and tremis are worth one-half and one-third of a solidus, respectively, and weigh 1/200 and 1/300 of a pound. There are a variety of silver and bronze coins of various weights, but the largest ones weigh about 1/87 of a pound and contain 3.5% silver, while the smallest weigh only 1/175 of a pound and contain no silver. Silver is about 1/20 the value of a similar weight in gold, while copper or bronze is worth about 1/50 the value of silver.

The copper piece, often known as the follis will be used as the standard unit of currency for all price lists. Thus 1000 folles are worth one solidus.

Weapons

Knife (pugio): Has an 8-10 inch blade; treat as a large knife.

Spear (spiculum): Has an iron head with a triangular section, roughly 8 inches long, on a wooden shaft 5-6 feet long. Treat as a spear.

Spear (verutum): Has a head about 5 inches long on a 3-foot wooden shaft. Treat as a javelin.

Spear (plumbata): Has a barbed head weighted with lead on a 5-6 foot shaft. Treat as a spear, but double cost, and removal of the spear causes 1d-3 damage.

Shortsword (gladius): No longer commonly in use, this blade is 18-22 inches long; treat as a shortsword.

Sword (spatha): Derived from Celtic swords, has a blade from 24 to 33 inches long. Treat as a thrusting broadsword.

Armor

Soldiers wear mostly metal armor, but only over the torso, waist, and head. Arm and leg armor is not common, although some cavalry troops wear knee-length body armor (see "long armor", below). Helmets are considered essential. All armor is made of iron unless otherwise noted.

Heavy mail (lorica hamata): No better at protection than medium mail, heavy mail was much cheaper due to its simpler construction. It was popular among barbarians who did not have access to well-developed armouries. PD 3, DR 4 vs cutting; PD 2, DR 3 vs impaling; PD 1, DR 2 vs crushing. Torso armor covers 9-11, 17-18, weighs 19 lbs and costs $230. Each arm weighs 4.5 lbs and costs $55; each leg weighs 8.5 lbs and costs $100. Long armor was sometimes used for cavalry; this was equivalent to mail torso armor, extended to cover the thighs. It weighs 30 lbs and costs $350 and protects on hits to the legs 50% of the time.

Medium mail (lorica hamata): A heavier mail than light mail, below, affords better protection but weighs more. It is also somewhat easier to manufacture, so actually costs less than light mail. PD 3, DR 4 vs cutting; PD 2, DR 3 vs impaling; PD 1, DR 2 vs crushing. Torso armor covers 9-11, 17-18, weighs 13 lbs and costs $450. Each arm weighs 3 lbs and costs $110; each leg weighs 6 lbs and costs $200. This type of armor is fairly common. Long armor was sometimes used for cavalry; this was equivalent to mail torso armor, extended to cover the thighs. It weighs 20 lbs and costs $650.

Light mail (lorica hamata): Very rare, light mail could be made with high-quality iron and smaller links. This explains its high cost. PD 2, DR 3 vs cutting; PD 1, DR 2 vs impaling; PD 0, DR 1 vs crushing. Torso armor covers 9-11, 17-18, weighs 7.5 lbs and costs $840. Each arm weighs 2 lbs and costs $200; each leg weighs 3.5 lbs and costs $400.

Scale armor (lorica squamata): Made by sewing small iron plates onto a leather or heavy cloth backing, lorica squamata was easier to produce and maintain than mail or plate and thus was popular in areas without strong armouries. PD 3, DR 4; covers 9-11, 17-18. Weighs 17 lbs and costs $340. Arm and leg armor of this type is very uncommon. If anything, articulated plate or mail was generally used instead.

Articulated plate armor (lorica segmentata): Separate iron plates attached with leather straps to allow flexibility. Worn over a military tunic. PD 4, DR 5. Torso armor covers 9-11, 17-18. Weighs 14 lbs and costs $1,200. Each arm weighs 3.5 lbs and costs $300; each leg weighs 7 lbs and costs $600. Shoulder guards that weigh 1.5 lbs each and cost $125 protect against hits to the arm 1/3 of the time, and are equivalent to full arm protection for the shield arm (while the shield is in use).

Muscled cuirass: No longer in common use, but might be found in a few places. PD 4, DR 5. Covers 9-11, 17-18. Weighs 24 lbs and costs $600. Arm and leg armor must be purchased separately.

Leather and cloth armor: It is uncommon to wear light leather armor, but rigid leather is available. Use stats from Basic book for leather armor. Winter clothing qualifies as cloth armor with PD 1, DR 1.

Helmet: Most helmets are similar, with a head covering, long neck guard, and cheek pieces. PD 3, DR 4 over areas 3-4; PD 2, DR 3 for area 5. Thrusting attacks may target the unprotected face at a -7 penalty. Weighs 4 lbs, costs $120.

Shield (scutum): Older Imperial shields were curved rectangular devices and should be treated as large shields. Recently made shields used by barbarians are oval or round and should be treated as medium shields. They are generally made of wood with an iron anchor piece for the handles.

Barding: Heavy cavalry sometimes deck their mounts with armor. Made of mail, barding covers a horse's head, neck, and chest. Normal barding provides PD 2, DR 3 vs cutting; PD 1, DR 2 vs impaling; PD 0, DR 1 vs crushing, and weighs 100 lbs. Heavy barding gets +1 PD, +1 DR and weighs 150 lbs.

Other Equipment

For all other equipment, use stats as per the Basic book.

I have a GCA file for use in creating characters for the game. The file required is TOTW.GDF. Note that this file contains the entire rule base from Basic and Compendium I, modified to include my house rules and to exclude anything that obviously wouldn't fit the setting (such as high-tech skills), so you should use only the TOTW GDF and no other data files.

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