Friday 13 September 2013

The Kingdom of Glendragon (within the Borders of Bretonnia)


After my Summer Camp story went up on BoLS I've been asked a few times about the heraldry being kept the same since the true fluff behind a Brettonnian army is the same as any true Medieval army where each person has their own heraldry. I tried the individual heraldry before, all different color knights, heraldry, everything and found that it looked very haphazard sitting on the tournament table. So I started painting the red and blue with the original intention that I would be using the red and blue to make everything uniform but also to be able to individualize the various units. In some of my pictures you'll see slight variances between the different unit types. But while I was painting and doing up a couple of conversions I also had my youngest child (he was 2 at the time) see them and chime in "Mommy it's Mike the Knight"--Mike the Knight, for those who don't know is a very popular kids TV character. Following his lead my daughter asked "Mommy, which one is Evvy?" Taking the cue from them I then started to theme my army around the show with the main difference being that I'm still not confident enough with my freehand to accomplish the heraldry the real Mike has so I changed that and then built it into the Bret fluff so that it worked for me. Here's my tale.



To His Most Royal Highness King Leoun Leuncour,
Greetings and Salutations from your favorite nephew Mike.

Hello Uncle!

Mother told me of your letter to my dad and I was quite happy to hear that you have decided to allow Glendragon to continue as its own Kingdom within Bretonnia despite arguments from other noblemen in Bretonnia. We are happy here and as I am learning to be a knight like my dad I am happy to be able to go on missions and travel on adventures.

My dad  has been away for a long time travelling through Glendragon gathering the men of our kingdom to fight against the realm of Chaos at your side. Every day more peasants and nobles arrive to train and get arms to help with the fight and dad sends letters of his own skirmishes and adventures. My sister Evvy continues to practice her magic here and I have to say I wish the Lady would have taken her before now as her magic still goes...odd. I have tried to ask her to stop but she continues to cast her spells--maybe you could ask the Fey Enchantress to come and see her properly trained?

Do you remember my dad telling you about the last big spell she tried to cast? It went off in the armory and now my sword and several other weapons are magic'd in such a way that they do different things all the time. Yesterday when I was out with Sparkie and Squirt looking for a knightly mission I pulled my sword to chop through some vines and instead of a blade it was a feather. I wish she could reverse it so I could have my real sword back but every time she does magic something else goes wrong. 

A few weeks ago our mother asked Evvy to help inspect the work of Ms. Tailor to make sure that the uniforms for the knights was ready and all they had to do was add their coats of arms once they arrived. Evvy thought she could be helpful and cast a spell that would put the heraldry on BEFORE the knights arrived. It was a failure and even Mr Cuddles (the toad you sent for her birthday) hopped off and didn't want to come back. Now all the uniforms are the same, with the fleur de lis heraldry that my mom brought with her when she married father and you first told them they could reign over Glendragon as King and Queen. The knights were furious at first but my mom, Queen Martha, threw them a feast where Sparkie made his famous pie and Fernando--our Bard--sang to them about the unity of all wearing the same uniform. They were quite proud of the uniforms, though we have had Ms. Tailor add a few things to make sure the ranks of the knights were recognizable. Fortunately Evvy was too busy looking for Mr. Cuddles to try to "help".

We have made friends with the Troll family. Ma and Pa Troll even let Trollie train with me so that he can fight with the Villagers to protect from our enemies. The Vikings have even been convinced to work with us when we have had to go to battle. 

I hope all is well within the rest of Bretonnia. Mother will be sending some official reports with the messenger as well, but as I am a knight in training and looking after Glendragon while King Robert is away I will start writing and sending the reports myself, and I will always try to remember to "Be a Knight, Do it Right!"

Your nephew,
Mike the Knight


I'll post a gallery of pictures of all the characters I've converted and the other models a little later, my kids currently have all their art projects spread out on the table I need to set up my light booth on. 

1 comment:

  1. My kids would love this idea for an army. They love Mike the Knight. Your freehand is pretty damn good. Its great to see all of the different designes you have put into the models. Can't wait to see more.

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