Conqueror's Blade News

To all Lords and Knights:
Winter has arrived, and the mire of war between the Red and the White Roses is poised to engulf all England. In this contest of power, old tactics are failing—the pike squares have cut off the cavalry’s glory, and the muddy, frozen ground has slowed the infantry’s advance.
Therefore, the War Council has urgently authorized a special levy: the Yorkist Household Knights.
They are the House of York’s last bastion, and the only blade in your hand capable of breaking the deadlock.



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I. Historical Archive
English knights were renowned for their skill fighting on foot: under the Plantagenets, the combination of dismounted knights and longbowmen shattered French armies again and again in the Hundred Years’ War. In the later Wars of the Roses, these dismounted knights once more became constant figures in battle, forming the core of many bloody clashes.
Around the king of the White Rose house stands a circle of Yorkist Household Knights: hereditary nobles who serve as his personal guard. Equipped with splendid arms and trained to a razor’s edge, they can break enemy lines with a mounted charge or dismount to hew down foes in the press. They often ride with the king at the head of sudden assaults that turn the tide of war; and when the horses fall and the king is encircled, they raise a final bulwark of flesh and steel around him. Even though the code of chivalry lay tattered in the age of the Wars of the Roses, these household knights still kept an unquestioning loyalty, fighting at their king’s side until the very last moment.

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II. Tactical Traits
Unlike mercenaries who fight for bounty, this elite formation holds hereditary privilege. Before you take them under your banner, know their three core doctrines:
- [Hoof and Heel]:
- The Unit begins in a mounted state.
- From mounted, use [Grand Descent] to enter foot-combat (dismounted) state.
- From foot-combat, use [Call to Saddle] to return to mounted.
- Form-switch cooldown: 21 seconds.
- [Household Guard]:
- As the White Rose Household Guard, they will remain close to the Hero while in Formation, Follow, or Free Attack.
- [Noble Discipline]:
- Even when dismounted, the Yorkist Household Knights cannot push siege engines.

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III. Tactical Orders
Lancaster still believes the square can stop everything. They forget that true knights are never bound by their horses. When their pikes brace for the charge, the iron descending at close range will teach them despair.
Lords and knights, relay the following orders to your Household Guard:
- Mounted State
- Order 1: Grand Descent — all knights dismount, ignore block arcs, knock down enemies, and deal heavy damage.
- Order 2: Iron Trample — charge at high speed to the designated point, then immediately charge again toward the Hero’s position.
- Order 3: Knight’s Resolve — enter Guard stance, ready to meet any foe who dares advance.
- Foot-Combat State
- Order 1: Call to Saddle — loyal wardens of House York, remount their steeds.
- Order 2: Bond of Blood — support the Hero and strike nearby enemies; a portion of damage taken by the Hero is evenly redirected to the knights.


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IV. Rally Order
Not every cavalryman dares to abandon the saddle, and not every guard will give their life wholly to the one they serve.
The White Rose has bloomed in the winter at Alnwick Castle. This Unit, combining mobility with resilience, is entrusted to you.
Are you ready to wield the blade that charges through ranks and trades life for victory?
Lords and Knights, take the field!

—The War Council
*War Council Notice: All armaments and descriptions are ultimately governed by front-line battlefield conditions.

To all Lords and Knights:
Cold winds carry rumors from the North. By the campfires of Alnwick Castle, debate over a new weapon has never ceased. Some claim it belongs only to ironclad heavy knights; others declare it the nimble blade of skirmishers.
By order of the War Council, the whispers are silenced and core intelligence is released: The Bastard Sword fights alongside every suit of armour. Whether you wear light armour for mobility or heavy armour to hold the line, this sword adapts to your tactical style.

I. The Inevitability of History
The Bastard Sword did not arise by chance; it is a direct answer to a brutal battlefield.
As steel hardened and metallurgy advanced, plate armour spread across the field. Against these moving fortresses, the old pairing of single-handed sword and shield rang with powerless clatter. The field demanded a new answer—and the Bastard Sword delivered:
The art of the thrust: its keen point precisely finds the seams of plate armour, striking under the arm and at the visor.
The power of leverage: a lengthened grip invites two hands, generating tremendous torque—able to parry mighty blows and, in the clinch, wrench an enemy disarmed.
A tactical wager: on horseback it may be wielded one-handed; on foot, two hands unleash its full might.
It is a dance that shifts between gathering and release—two hands to bank power, one hand to release reach. With agile thrusts, tear open the line; then with a two-handed, crushing stroke, smash the foe’s helm.
II. Motion Reconstruction: The Swordmaster’s Doctrine
To carry this epic weight into reality, the War Council consulted ancient texts and invited veteran swordmasters to assist with motion capture and reconstruction. We are not merely restoring techniques—we are restoring command of the body.



From the Arsenal’s test footage, you can see: When the Bastard Sword performs light attacks, the lower body steps and shifts often, yet the torso remains as steady as a mountain—upright and unbowed. This posture is not for show; it preserves your centre of gravity. Only with absolute stability can you, amid the chaos, read an opening, turn the enemy’s force against them, and deliver a lethal riposte.
III. Frontline Call to Arms: Vanguard Trial
The Vanguard Proving Ground at Alnwick Castle now stands open. Words on parchment slay no foes. We invite the keenest Lords and Knights to take charge of this new armament ahead of the rest.
Click the Call to Arms below and sign your name on the muster roll.
https://forms.gle/RM5TAS9DpAe85UsR7
Go and feel, for yourself, the weight of steel meeting steel.
— The War Council

To the lords sworn to House Lancaster:
You and I have not forgotten Towton, 1461.
That blizzard shrouded the grimmest slaughter yet upon English soil. What flowed through the Cock Beck was no longer icewater, but the warm blood of twenty thousand brothers.
From that agony we learned a hard lesson: on the wet, cold, muddy moors of the North, when old square formations lose maneuver, when the militia's inferior steel curls and dulls, the infantry line is fragile indeed before the rebels' fully armored heavy Cavalry.
To keep that tragedy from ever returning—and so that the Red Rose may one day be planted upon the throne—the War Council has approved a comprehensive rearmament.
Effective immediately, the Lancastrian Billmen are officially mustered.


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I. Armament Dossier

Please study this implement well. Do not mistake it for the sickle your peasants use to cut wheat.
In recent months we have spent dearly to bring from the Italian peninsula masterpieces of Milanese craft.
Unlike the native bills we once wielded, the Italian design is exacting—and merciless:
- Spear point: keen enough to pierce the weak seams of plate in the crush of melee.
- Bill blade: broad and weighty, able to hew through light helms.
- Hooked barb: its most efficient and ruthless feature—hamstring a horse, drag a knight down. It exists to haul those lofty foes into the mud.
Above all, in the tight alleys of the northern castles, this bill will be the nightmare of every intruder.

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II. Equipment Traits

Clad in House Lancaster's deep-crimson surcoat, mail beneath, and spiked heavy plate without, this guard exists for one purpose: to be the thorns that shield the Red Rose.

- [Iron Thorns]
While in Brace stance, the Billmen's spiked plate grants damage reduction and inflicts Bleeding on melee attackers.
- [Blood Rose]
When dealing damage to Bleeding enemies, the Billmen restore their own Health.
- [Bill Hook]
When not Braced, the Billmen can turn freely; damaging Cavalry slows their movement speed.

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III. Tactical Orders

Intelligence confirms the rebels still worship the charge of heavy cavalry. Let the edge of the bill teach those Yorkists that hunter and prey have traded places. Lords, ensure every soldier receives these commands:

- Order I: [Rooted]
Command the unit to crouch and enter Brace stance. While Braced, they cannot turn, but inflict massive damage to fast-moving enemies.
Issue the order again to shift into the [Bramble] stance, regaining free turning; however, their damage against fast-moving enemies is reduced.

- Order II: [Thorns]
Trigger different effects based on current stance:
- Standing: Empowers the next attack.
- Brace: Max targets increase by 1.
- Bramble: Boosts the healing effect of [Blood Rose] by 100%.

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IV. Muster Orders

Upon the battlements, the Red Rose banner snaps in the cold wind.
These precious Milanese armaments have reached the quartermaster's stores. They are the House's last gold—and our hope to reclaim the throne. Spare no reward; arm your soldiers.
Victory to Lancaster.

—The War Council

*War Council Notice: All armaments and descriptions are ultimately governed by front-line battlefield conditions.

Lords and Knights:

In our last dispatch, we buried our gaze in trenches and mire; now, raise our heads—face the throne and the crown.

Through this thirty-year winter, some, clad in rust, fell in the trenches, while others, robed in brocade, vied within the court.
The War Council has unsealed the long-shrouded Royal Armory Vault; the armor within will accompany you along the thorn-strewn road to coronation.

They are the ruthless sundering of red and white, and the golden rebirth through fire.

https://www.conquerorsblade.com/en/news/1640/

To all lords and knights who still grip their blades in this bitter winter:

Thirty years have passed. Since the day the crown first cracked, England’s snow has never been truly white. Brothers draw steel at opposite ends of the long table; fathers and sons clash in mud-choked trenches. The oath we once shared has been torn into two stark colors.
In the North, there are only two kinds of men now: those who seek only to survive this winter, and those who intend to master it.
The War Council has just intercepted two urgent missives from the front. Through parchment soaked with rain and blood, you may glimpse the truth of this Rose War.


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First Missive: The Wolf’s Howl in the Blizzard
— Intelligence on the “White Rose,” House of York

In the North, the storm is sovereign. And the knights of House York are as cold and unstoppable as the blizzard at Towton.

Behold the man standing steadfast in the sleet and snow—no pampered southern lordling. He wears heavy plate of midnight blue, the color of permafrost beneath a polar night. The gilded rose upon his pauldrons is no ornament; it is the arrogant proof of his conviction in his lawful claim to the crown. The white wolf pelt trailing from his shoulders is a constant reminder to every foe: here, winter belongs to the pack.

At his back rides the fearsome Yorkist Order of Knights.
Do not judge them by the measure of common cavalry. These elites, scions of hereditary nobility, possess the resolve to cast aside dignity for victory. In open ground, they are a steel torrent that sweeps all before it; and when chargers scream and fall, or when the line grinds to stalemate, these proud knights dismount without hesitation.

“Yorkist Knights, never yield!”

On foot they become a moving wall of steel, carving an absolute kill zone into the snow with their longswords. For House York, honor lies not in the saddle, but in driving the enemy’s head into the snow.



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Second Missive: A Whisper from the Brambles
— Intelligence on the “Red Rose,” House of Lancaster

If the North is iron-cold, the South is blood aflame. House Lancaster needs no cover of storm and snow; they prefer to strangle foes in mud and chaos with thorned vines.

Within the scarlet pavilion, the true power-holder gazes upon this shattered realm. She wears a velvet gown vivid as fresh blood, yet at her waist coils a bramble-girdle—the sign of pain and power. Upon her brow sits a crown of red gold, every spike leveled at those who would challenge her authority. In her creed, kingship knows no mercy—only deeper rooting and more ruthless thrusts.

Guarding this thorned rose is a cadre of silent reapers—the Lancastrian Billhook Household Guard.
They wear no gleaming plate, only dark-red woolen surcoats, like ghosts stained with rust. The billhooks in their hands are a nightmare to all who stride about in costly armor.

“For Lancaster! For England!”

In the mire they call the Bloody Meadow, it is these soldiers who, with brutal hooked blades, drag high-born knights down into the dust. In close order they form an impenetrable thicket of thorns; any who dare to charge are hung upon their hooks, becoming the Red Rose’s most fearsome sustenance.



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[Top-Secret Annex: Frontline Outpost Pass]

Ink on paper is cold. To ensure you can master these killing instruments before the decisive hour, the War Council has ordered the early deployment of the two 4-Star elite units at the Frontline Outpost.
Whether it is York’s dismounted heavy cavalry or Lancaster’s death-dealing billhooks, only the most seasoned lords and knights can prove their edge.

Pass Issuance Point: https://forms.gle/M875rZzfi2KDQjXj6

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A Final Word: On Choosing

Lords and knights, the age of neutrality is over.
The iron portcullis of Alnwick is rising. On one side, a howling blizzard and a pack of steel wolves; on the other, spreading thorns and a deadly mire.
In this age of chaos, armor is not merely protection—it is a declaration. The moment you don your colors, you cease to be a bystander and become the hand that moves the pieces on a red-and-white board.

Make your choice.
Whichever field of snow you decide to stain red, the War Council will record every charge you lead.
“Winter heeds no tears; it yields only to the blade.”




— The War Council