CCL September Top 4(5)/Round 4
"Ladder of Hierarchy"
"Ladder of Hierarchy"
Banner based on art from Swords to Plowshares, Citadel Castellan and Kenrith, the Returned King, by Wizards of the Coast and respectively by Jeff A. Menges, Anastasia Ovchinnikova and Kieran Yanner.
Welcome to the Card Creation League! Everyone is free to participate in either or both of the first two rounds. Come join us!Theme
It's Knight Month here in the CCL! We will focus on more realistic approach to these type of warriors and on some of the diffrences that put them apart from the other fighters.
The feudal system, in practical approach, was based on providing land for services. Peasants got their own part of land from the landowners at the bottom of hierarchy, in return for either part of their crops or for working during week for some time on landowner's field. Likewise, knights became landowners in return for military service to protect their liege's goods and safety of land. The higher we go in this ladder of feudal dependency, the more distant from peasants the nobles become. The knights of poorer lineages were a bridge in relationships between those two groups, coming from higher birth, yet interacting with common folk on more regular basis.
The peasants could be drafted into military in times of need as well. Moreover, in later centuries of middle ages the proffessional soldiers started to apear en masse, a herald of the new age of warfare. Between twentieth and thirtinth century, due to conscribing many fully-equipped cavalrymen in France, there had to be made a distinction in naming convention to diffriente between those of common birth and those of high birth. From this stems the 'homme d'armes', which was then adopted to english as a Man-at-arms. The knights usually took a rank of officer among low-birth soldiers, commanding them and fighting with them.
Change from the knights toward the nobles was gradual, just as the change from warriors to knights. The process was complicated and it was dependent on many factors, which were not always the same across the diffrent countries. But the few most important were the practice of issuing beneficial laws and tax exempts for feudal landowners by the rulers, as a form of return for mobilisation to war, which allowed accumulation of wealth and more independence from the ruler; the increasing economical prominence of cities and crafts, which lead to a change of both market and power structures; the increasing allowance for using hired troops in place of oneself during battles, which shifted the focus in nobles' lifes from combat training to other things. While those changes would be seen more direclty in the modernity, they nonetheless started to take hold in late medieval period. The poorer knights, whose main job continued to be fighting, fell in use between renaissance and baroque and since they commonly had no land at this point, they were stripped of noble's rank in many countries.
One of the most characteristic qualities of knights that stood out from other high-skilled warriors that doubled as a governing force on low level were knightly orders tied with a Catholic Church, which spring into existance with popularity of crusades. Unlike monk orders they contituted of both priests and monk-knights, who while not a clergy, were expected to keep vows of purity and obedience. Their religious character were a problem for many local jurisdictions and rulers, since those orders were held responsible before Church officials first and laic laws later. Some of those orders went even to create their own countries, nominally under the authority of pope. Even those knights who did not join any knightly order were close-knitted to faith, either Roman Catholic or Orthodox, with knightly rites and codes of honour in many countries invoking the faith, kings in later centuries being seen as a God's choosen and constant efforts od churches to ban warfare during the holidays.
Challenge
Design two creature cards that do not share a color, with one being Peasant or Soldier, and the other being Noble or Cleric.
Clarification
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- Colorless creatures do not share a color with anything, other colorless creatures included.
- Peasant Soldier and Cleric Noble would technically fit a challange, just as Cleric Peasant and Noble Soldier or any combination you may come up with; one card hat to include at least a Soldier type or a Peasant type, the other a Noble type or a Cleric type.
- Make sure to include rarity.
@Henlock
@Raptorchan
@slimytrout
@void_nothing
@MonoRedMage
Your submissions are due Thursday, October 1st, 12:00 EST.
- Round 1 — Open to Everyone (September 1st–9th)
- Round 2 — Open to Everyone (September 9th–16th)
- Rounds 1 and 2 Critiques (Due September 21th)
- Top 8 — Open to top 8 finishers (September 21th–25st)
- Top 8 Critiques (Due September 28rd)
- Top 4 — Open to top 4 finishers (September 28th–October 1st)
- Top 4 Critiques (Due October 3rd)
- Final (October, winner determined by public poll)
