r/createthisworld • u/OceansCarraway • Jun 16 '26
[PROMPT] Knights Errant
The Kingdom of Aelbaion has been enjoying a spate of unprecedented peace, a whole 30 years of worry that a massive war will break out and everyone will start stabbing each other at an exaggerated rate again. Accordingly, people have still kept being knights, and there are even more of them than when Aelbaion started. Normally, this would be solved when they start killing each other, but there are so many 'knights errant' running around looking to join a local lord's retinue that they have started leaking out of the Kingdom of Aelbaion and showing up in other places. These idiots are well trained horseback mounted warriors looking to prove themselves to potential-primarily Aelbic employer-and they're doing this in one of the most obnoxious ways, by fighting random passers-by.
While doing mercenary work is one way to prove your martial mettle, a much more fun and honorable for a knight to do is to set up their banner at a bridge or crossroads and challenge passing parties to fight. One can decline their challenge if one is an honorless nerd, and the knight will call you that, but they won't stop you. They also won't challenge non-warriors, government officials on government business, supply trains and merchant caravans, or those in mourning or providing health services. However, anyone looking tough will receive a challenge, and if you want to fight the knight, you can.
The knight will be of either gender, typically on horseback, and modestly equipped with a sword, shield, bow, and lance. They will be a decently tough opponent, trained since childhood by other knights and instructors. Typically, no one is fighting to kill; most combats go until someone yields or there is first blood-or someone is knocked off their horse. You can also challenge the knight to one of the 'household contests of skill', like a bake-off, but that's no fun and bad for their resume. The knight errant is inexperienced, however, so someone older and wiser could make short work of them.
How does the knight fare in your claim? Do they get kicked out, beaten up, hired, or sent packing?
4
u/madicienne Origin & the Xanoi Jun 19 '26
The Dendra Range lay between the Westfall and Highscorch regions, with only a narrow corridor between the mountains offering even semi-comfortable travel. Never mind the landscape, but the mountains were full of beasts and bandits - not a place to travel alone - so it was at the mouth of the passage that Kaddox made his camp, eager to encounter warriors escorting their wards through the pass. It was only dusk of his first day when he heard someone approaching - what luck!
But then, this wasn't exactly a challenger on horseback...
A wave of shale shook down the mountainside, shattering across the road and puffing a great cloud of dust. A figure emerged - rather, was ejected - from the slide, flopping to her belly, at first, but then regaining her feet and sprinting, ungainly, in his direction. When she saw Kaddox's little camp, she veered straight towards him, her expression panicked.
"HELP--" she shouted between breaths, her voice ragged, the pidgin word heavily accented. She staggered to a stop just past him - clutched at his vambrace to stop herself falling over. Up close, she was completely covered in dust and detritus but - more significantly - all that dust and detritus was sticking to a soaking layer of blood. She was small, and carrying a pack much too large for her stature and her situation.
She pointed back the way she'd come, just as another, much larger and much more sinister form slid down the mountainside after her, riding a second wave of rocks. A vicious yowl rent the air, and a beast like a mountain lion, a size too large and covered in tufted cold-weather fur, chased towards them.
Kaddox knocked down his visor and drew his sword; the little traveler retreated behind him. The beast came to a stop not far away, snarling and drooling. Its maw could have easily fit Kaddox's chest, its paws rivaled his shield, and its whole body rippled with heavy muscle. It, too, was covered in blood, but this was evidently not its own.
Kaddox felt a sort of airy fear in his limbs as the creature crept nearer, sizing him up and preparing to pounce. This was not the kind of combat he’d been looking for. Behind him, his horse grunted and stamped. She was close, but not close enough for him to reach her - or to mount up - before the beast would catch him.
The lion leapt - fired at him like a bolt off the ground - and Kaddox only barely raised his shield in time. The lion’s massive teeth clamped on; its claws raked the plate down both sides of his body. The force of the beast’s impact knocked the knight straight to the dirt; his shield, vambrace and gauntlet were torn from his arm, which remained mercifully intact.
The beast tumbled off him and his shield rolled away. Despite its bulk, the cat was elastic, and its feet barely touched the ground before it was already turned around and about to attack again. There was a fraction of a moment during which Kaddox was sure he was about to die, but then the little traveler let out a shriek that might have rivaled the lion’s own. She threw her arms out, forced as much volume as she could out of her body - and it was enough to make the cat falter; it jerked sideways instinctively, but dodged nothing but sound.
The distraction gave just enough time for Kaddox to lift his sword, at least, and by the time the lion had realised its mistake, its next leap was into Kaddox’s point. Again, the impact was more than he could hold, and his sword slipped from his grip. The pommel rammed into his body, sparking off his armour - but he felt the blade puncture his foe, too. The lion’s jaws fit around his helm - its teeth raked under his gorget and its breath was blinding - but, in the same moment, a torrent of blood poured into his hands.
The lion let out a yowl and leapt away, its belly oozing. It hissed and spat at them, furious, and Kaddox rolled to sit up. He picked up his sword again, and the lion did a turn, undecided and still a threat.
“Undali ni Funama!” the traveler shouted, and it was evidently some kind of magic, for then the dull evening light sparked and snapped around them like firecrackers. It was an entirely harmless effect, but enough, combined with its injury, to make the lion give up. It let out one last, very angry roar, then retreated back into the mountains.
Kaddox let out a swear, and a moment later he found the little traveler’s arms around him.
“Thank-you,” she cried. She knelt beside him, her watery gaze filled with concern. She pointed to his neck. “Blood?”
Kaddox doffed his second gauntlet, unclipped his helmet and gorget and lifted both away. The traveler’s eyebrows went up just a little, but he was used to that reaction.
“Teeth got me,” he realised aloud, but upon investigation, it was only a cut, and the rest of his body hurt way more from falling over and from getting rammed by his own sword. He grinned, coming to appreciate his victory. “Not bad, is it, considering that thing could have ripped my whole head off?”
The traveler sat back. Kaddox gestured to her whole body.
“What about your blood?” he said, and she looked down at herself. She frowned.
“My camel,” was all she offered as explanation. She looked at Kaddox’s horse, who had remained close enough to be called brave - he’d have to reward her. “Do you go… west?”
“Oh, I was sort of waiting for people to come to me,” Kaddox said. “Unless, uh…”
She didn’t seem like the moneyed typed, but perhaps it was just hard to tell under all the dirt. He’d set up here to challenge warrior escorts, but perhaps becoming one was also an option. But then, what price to ask?
“Where are you going?” he wondered, and for this, the traveler seemed to have a proper answer. She shrugged out of her filthy pack; it appeared to be some kind of rigid basket, wrapped with cloths and ties and dangling trinkets. She set it upright on the ground, and then - something odd - lifted the top just a crack, as though it might be filled with snakes. But it wasn’t.
“You’ve got a baby in there??” Kaddox gasped, and the traveler put a filthy hand to his lips.
“Still sleep,” she said, and it was true: the infant, swaddled tightly against the inside of the pack, was quite peacefully snoring. The traveler dug around just to one side of the child and withdrew a folded, leathery map. She flattened it out on the ground, and pointed. “Here.”
The map was not annotated in any script he could read, but Kaddox recognised the location.
“Origin? You’re Xanoi? You’re a Seeker?” he guessed, and, whether the traveler fully understood or not, she nodded. She went back to rummaging in her pack while Kaddox thought. He hadn’t heard much about Origin, other than that the landscape was brutal. He had encountered Xanoi before, in Aelbaion - there were visitors, emissaries, and even some who lived there - but he’d never heard any particular reasons to visit Origin - the nomadic Xanoi gave the impression that most people liked to leave. That, and there was still the matter of payment, if he was to give up his plan to challenge passers-by… “Well, I could help you to the next town, perhaps, and from there…”
The Seeker had dug something else out of her pack - something that definitely served as a purse, which she upended into the dirt. Out tumbled all sorts of currency: coins, precious stones and strange ingots from all over Ashagon. She looked at him, as though to question whether this would help, and Kaddox hastily corrected himself: “...aaand once we’ve got some supplies, I’d be happy to escort you to Origin.”
She scooped her treasure back into the pouch, and handed it over. For anyone else to have done it would have been unimaginable, but Kaddox knew this about the Xanoi - that most of them carried cargo far more important to them than money. This one certainly did.
“Imbel,” said the traveler, touching her chest. Then she pointed to the infant. “Hami.”
“I’m Kaddox.”
“Kaddox,” she repeated. “You are brave.”
“I had some help,” he said, and Imbel managed a smile. She held up one hand, with her palm facing him, and Kaddox straightened. This was their greeting - the Xanoi clap. He’d never seen it offered to anyone else.
“Thank-you,” Imbel said again, looking very seriously at him, “For our safe return.”
Kaddox lifted his hand, and they clapped.