Lord SolarsparQ

Grand Master

Heralds are the bards that comprise the Green Company’s most versatile assets, serving a variety of critical responsibilities through artistic abilities discreetly weaponized in the service of the order. To achieve goals unconventionally, bards combine musicianship with diplomatic skills, morale-boosting zeal, and even bare cunning.

Heralds begin their careers with the order as swift messengers, transporting correspondence and information between far-flung soldiers on campaign. Regular dispatches necessitate extraordinary physical endurance as they traverse enormous distances via difficult terrain. Eventually, heralds gather nuggets of rural intelligence during their travels and deliver it to appreciative audiences in command.

Those who demonstrate an aptitude for oral traditions and musical talent are mentored to develop their bardic abilities fully. Gifted novices learn subtle magical incantations that inspire courage and despair and the complexities of negotiation, oration, persuasion, and council that guide the powerful without drawing a blade. When allies demand support or foes seek terms from a looming disaster, heraldic diplomacy often proves invaluable.

When armies encamp throughout long campaigns, herald performances and tales cheer spirits weary of narrow victories, the horrors of war, and a longing for home. Silver-tongued diplomats acquire local allies among communities after winning hearts and minds, while espionage agents create stories undermining enemy resolve. Some heralds use restorative songs and rituals to assist chaplains in treating the injured. Others hex opponents with debilitating music and spells, making coordination tricky. Whatever the herald’s personal skill set, the command quickly finds use of their talents.

Some command elements are suspicious of the herald’s moral and tactical flexibility, just as with the scouts, who are also prone to violating stringent norms of conduct. However, when words, deceptions, and distractions are the most effective method for splitting opponents, wise commanders dispatch heralds to negotiate where knights could leave only retribution. Heralds serve as the tongue when diplomacy promises better outcomes than the sword alone.


Herald Professional Leadership Roleplay Scenarios

  1. Heralds carry sealed orders and reports between mobile field armies on deployment, building vast networks of frontier contacts during extensive travels.
  2. They assemble intelligence on local leaders, power dynamics, and secret loyalties, advising command on ideal diplomatic leverage to gain allies or assets.
  3. Bards compose rousing ballads and epic poems commemorating pivotal battles and immortalizing fallen heroes to inspire troops mustering for subsequent campaigns.
  4. Diplomats arrange safe passage through contested frontier zones by negotiating with local people and securing supply routes that enable invasion forces to advance without undo resistance.
  5. During extended encampments, they perform theatrics, comedic routines, riddles, and songcraft, alleviating boredom and boosting morale.
  6. Herald strategists suggest clever, unconventional operations better suited than brute combat for accomplishing certain campaign objectives through cloaked maneuvers.
  7. Provocateur agents covertly spread false rumors and manipulated omens among enemy camps to exacerbate existing tensions, distrust, and underlying desertion threats.
  8. They might converse with local peasants while scouting remote areas, gaining insights about emerging issues or threats from an everyday ground perspective.
  9. When invited to foreign courts or other commands as traveling ambassadors, heralds secretly assess defensive capabilities, supply levels, and leadership temperaments, then report back in detail to superiors.
  10. Beastmaster heralds often handle highly intelligent creatures assisting the order troops, such as messenger birds, attack canines, and monstrous animals capable of bolstering the fighting force.
  11. In cities and towns, heralds conduct musical acts as a cover occupation to obtain local intel from talkative clientele regarding news, gossip, and illicit activities.
  12. Counter-intelligence specialists rhetorically spar with captured enemy spies in secured tents, prying information loose through words that force, threats, and trickery cannot open from sealed lips.


Herald Mentorship Categories

  1. Senior bards teach proteges the fundamentals of musicianship, such as vocal control, chord progressions, keeping rhythm, and stage presence, which fascinate audiences during performances.
  2. Deception workshops teach novices the nuances of manipulation for infiltration, espionage, and provocation operations - disguises, spreading rumors, impersonations, and escape artistry. Bards not participating in the espionage aspects of the profession are exempt from this category.
  3. Diplomatic workshops develop negotiation skills by balancing honesty, sincerity, leverage, and demands when negotiating with different factions to reconcile or secure non-aggression pacts.
  4. Senior heralds tutor mystically inclined students with bardic enchantments such as courage hymns, soothing laments, nasty satires, and befuddling techniques that confuse opponents’ dependence on order.
  5. Healing heralds offer restorative songs, chants, poetry, instrumental pieces, or various magics to enhance natural regeneration in injured tissues and bones as needed for support duties. However, some may possess knowledge of conventional healing or from other magical sources and offer that as instruction instead.
  6. Bards looking for self-defense or warfare training may consult grimoires, training manuals, drills, or spars to boost supportive versatility through summoned entities, cast spells, or develop melee abilities. Bards without melee or ranged combat abilities outside of spellcasting are exempt from this category.
  7. Animal tamers share their knowledge of non-human connections, gaining compliance and developing clever talents to aid scouts, rangers, and other covert operators needing stealthy partners. Bards without animal taming are exempt from this category.
  8. Instruction in command hierarchy, suitable letter formats, passport vouching, etiquette, conventions, and critical thinking to facilitate smooth administrative operations across various forces.


Herald Ranks

Herald Commander

Attaining the pinnacle position of herald commander denotes a bard with extensive operational and administrative experience, now in charge of all clandestine operations carried out by the specialist herald corps, as well as those connected to knightly lances and campaigns as magical support practitioners. Though they continue to confer with field captains on classified schemes and conventional conflicts, commanders now coordinate mainly from secure headquarters in New Magincia, where their visibility alongside senior leadership allows for more direct guidance in calibrating assets and larger strategy.

They sift through fragmented intelligence from rural contacts and embedded city operatives, turning it into actionable advice on regional instability, threats to order, and weaknesses in an adversary’s command circle. Commanders advise the grand master and scout commander on crucial machinations best engaged by cloak and dagger rather than open cavalry charges, for not all foes openly engage with chivalry and line units.

Herald commanders use their extensive reach to silently manage unseen forces and highly visible assets, typically in close collaboration with the scout commander in the former. They often work together to create fake support for corrupt enemy leaders. Once said support is canceled at an opportune moment, the visible tyrants dominating local domains suddenly find themselves without leverage, resources, or loyal minions to continue operations. Herald commanders rarely claim direct field credit, but their vision often results in the demise of villains that righteous power alone could never directly dislodge through noble combat.

Herald Commander Promotion Requirements

Special: A written treatise on a mentorship category listing

Professional Leadership: 32

Mentorship: 32

Commendations: 128

Herald Captain

Achieving the status of herald captain distinguishes one as a recognized bard with years of experience in subtle influencing high-stakes affairs beyond what direct military force could accomplish alone. Captains direct specialist teams in key skills ranging from diplomacy to espionage, coordinating assets and assisting objectives through unconventional means - frequently completing the task with minimal collateral damage.

Some herald captains command espionage and rural stabilization cells. They enlist senior heralds and scouts for surgical missions designed to demolish opposing forces through exposure, destabilization, and surgical strikes rather than direct, large-scale confrontation. Precisely orchestrating events often achieve intended goals while preserving life, avoiding disruption of agriculture and industry, and controlling cost and asset expenditure otherwise spent in unnecessary campaigns. This is not always the best or most efficient solution, and the wise senior herald will recognize the time for escalation and de-escalation.

Other herald captains continue to serve within knightly retinues, unleashing battle magic, beasts, bow craft, and songs to fortify entire formations. They conduct spells that impede adversaries, hasten healing with mystical chants, and secure flanks with deadly animal companions. Captains synergize perfectly with other assets, bolstering them to fight well beyond initial capabilities while debilitating the enemy.

Most begin the gradual transition from field operations to administrative responsibilities at this point in their careers, training apprentices, advising command on alternate solutions, and assessing intelligence flowing from embedded agents across the realm. Nonetheless, their profile as seasoned intelligence officers and their expanded relationships provide backchannel opportunities and a chance to further influence policy by access to influential circles outside of the order.

After decades of walking tightropes between shadows and spotlights, captains understand the complexities between the nobility, gentry, and low-born. Not all the order’s enemies are demons or marauding bestial monsters. There is often a mortal element involved in the conflict with darkness, and that is where the influential services of the herald are most valuable. With their unique perspectives and personal proximity to field operations, herald captains consistently play a vital role between the high command and the multitude of operatives working behind the scenes in secret to bring about victory for the greater good.

Herald Captain Promotion Requirements

Special: A written treatise on a mentorship category listing

Professional Leadership: 16

Mentorship: 16

Commendations: 64

Senior Herald

Elevation to senior herald designates a bard with prestigious credentials who likely leads specialized teams on covert missions over difficult regions deemed too sensitive for standard troops. Seniors report directly to herald captains, combining field observations into practical strategies that aid clandestine operations by coordinating talent and securing local assets.

Unlike captains, whose tasks begin to shift toward administration, senior heralds stay active in both mission preparation and execution. They think in unconventional ways, exploiting opponents’ weaknesses and misguided trust. Most senior heralds subscribe to a worldview that believes pragmatic outcomes serve justice best, even if the paths adopted are sometimes morally dubious.

However, not all seniors are covert operatives. Many still aspire to support roles, bolstering lance-scale forces and the articulated formations of large-scale conflict—some entertainers direct teams of performing bards dedicated to conventional service to the community and order.

When they aren’t secretly operating beyond the frontlines, spreading mayhem and mischief, the stealth-inclined seniors teach apprentices the delicate arts of disguise, coded signals, diplomatic manipulation, combat disorientation, and other strategies that impede hostile targets toward adverse outcomes. Their operatives learn how to convey high-value fugitives to safety, set up hidden supply routes into hostile territory, and even sew superstitious dread within the minds of brutal despots already ruled by irrational fear.

Senior Herald Promotion Requirements

Special: A written treatise on a mentorship category listing

Professional Leadership: 8

Mentorship: 8

Commendations: 32

Herald

The promotion of herald denotes considerable diplomatic aptitude, which now combines a messenger’s wilderness knowledge with nuanced talents that aid in talks, such as the stabilization or reconciliation between divergent frontier contacts. While still assigned with courier tasks when armies scatter, heralds directly use conversation as a pliable instrument upon the social fabric present within their zones of activity.

Often attached to scout operations, stealth-inclined heralds provide clandestine support and frequently suggest creative methods to achieve goals that brute force would only complicate. Other talented bards embedded with knightly lances take a completely different path, chiefly serving to unleash spells, songs, beast companions, and armed assistance, skillfully filling particular gaps and energizing entire formations to synergize, emboldened with enchanted might.

When troops are encamped along the marches and deployed battalions need morale lifted, herald performances can provide temporary relief through laughter, awe, and escapism’s short-term comforts. Equally important, continued excursions conveying command instructions enable the opportunity to foster friendly acquaintances with remote populations that would otherwise be suspicious of foreign troops nearby. Wit and empathy build partnerships with local assets far more easily than gloomy visages marching forth wrapped in steel, bristling weapons in hand.

Herald Promotion Requirements

Professional Leadership: 0

Mentorship: 0

Commendations: 16

Messenger

Elevation to messenger honors a courier, demonstrating the ability to convey correspondence between dispersed units consistently. Due to familiarity with rural villages and growing accommodation possibilities, they can now supply intelligence that other order operators lack.

Messengers identify optimal routing while conveying reports, balancing speed, security, and sustainability as seasons turn once-ideal highways into hazardous passages. Some now deviate from their planned routes to engage in impromptu contacts with scouts and spies to trade details, thereby introducing them to espionage.

Their visibility gradually creates rapport and ties among hamlets during engagement with visiting sites. Messengers gather current events drifting over the locations they pass through and become intimately acquainted with local affairs. Several return visits and performances in exchange for evening dinners and warm stables provide more bonding opportunities to gather local news.

Messenger eyes and ears notice things that the unfamiliar do not, such as the in-between restlessness and fatigue opaque to lofty lords amongst the commoner masses, a phenomenon exploitable by friend and foe alike. The messenger’s preparations frequently smooth the way for a larger order force, quelling uneasiness, gathering prospective allies, and dissuading resistance long before the knightly retinues and their banners arrive.

Messenger Promotion Requirements

Professional Leadership: 0

Mentorship: 0

Commendations: 8

Runner

Aspiring heralds join the Green Company as runners, relaying messages between disparate soldiers stationed around the realm. Despite being apprentices, their service through rugged terrain and distance is critical in establishing administrative cooperation. Even at this stage, many have enough skill and ancillary abilities to support a lance during the campaign and are assigned to a knightly retinue, as most order forces while they are abroad.

Outside of direct knightly authority, they return to their duty as messengers. Some die while traveling the isolated routes, victims of brigands, monsters, beasts, or hostile forces. Most survive, their bodies and minds growing ever conditioned to rigors that other youth will never experience.

Unexpected gains develop throughout these early trials. Runners organically receive intelligence from rural folk, who find interested ears in order command. Their familiarity with local regions allows them to provide first-hand knowledge to allied forces. Those with suitable mental acuity and interpersonal skills may eventually undertake formal training as spies, diplomats, or councilors. Until then, runners walk alone over countless, thankless miles, quietly laying the groundwork for an extraordinary career.