Introduction[]
Welcome, adventurer, to Mount and Blade: Warband. Before beginning the game you must create your character. Remember that in the traditional medieval society depicted in the game, war and politics are usually dominated by male members of the nobility. That does not however mean that you should not choose to play a female character, or one who is not of noble birth. Male nobles may have a somewhat easier start, but women and commoners can attain all of the same goals -- and in fact may have a much more interesting.
Father Background[]
You were born years ago, in land far away. Your father was...
- An impoverished noble
- A travelling merchant
- A veteran warrior
- A hunter
- A steppe nomad
- A thief
Impoverished Noble[]
You came into the world a (son/daughter) of declining nobility, owning only the house in which they lived. However, despite your family's hardships, they afforded you a good education and trained you from childhood for the rigors of aristocracy and life at court.
Travelling Merchant[]
You were born the (son/daughter) of travelling merchants, always moving from place to place in search of a profit. Although your parents were wealthier than most and educated you as well as they could, you found little opportunity to make friends on the road, living mostly for the moments when you could sell something to somebody.
Veteran Warrior[]
As a child, your family scrabbled out a meagre living from your father's wages as a guardsman to the local lord. It was not an easy existence, and you were too poor to get much of an education. You learned mainly how to defend yourself on the streets, with or without a weapon in hand.
Hunter[]
You were the (son/daughter) of a family who lived off the woods, doing whatever they needed to make ends meet. Hunting, woodcutting, making arrows, even a spot of poaching whenever things got tight. Winter was never a good time for your family as the cold took animals and people alike, but you always lived to see another dawn, though your brothers and sister might not be fortunate.
Steppe Nomad[]
You were a child of the steppe, born to a tribe of wandering nomads who lived in great camps throughout the arid grasslands. Like the other tribesmen, your family revered horses above almost everything else, and they taught you how to ride almost before you learned how to walk.
Thief[]
As the (son/daughter) of a thief, you had very little 'formal' education. Instead you were out on the street, begging until you learned how to pick locks, all the way through your childhood. Still, these long years made you streetwise and sharp to the secrets of cities and shadowy backways.
Early Life and Education[]
You started to learn about the world almost as soon as you could walk and talk. You spent your early life as...
- A page at a nobleman's court
- A craftsman's apprentice
- A shop assistant
- A street urchin
- A steppe child
As a (boy/girl) growing out of childhood,
Page at a Nobleman's Court[]
You were sent to live in the court of one of the nobles of the land. There, your first lessons were in humility, as you waited upon the lords and ladies of the household. But from their chess games, their gossip, even the poetry of great deeds and courtly love, you quickly began to learn about the adult world of conflict and competition. You also learned from the rough games of the other children, who battered at each other with sticks in imitation of their elders' swords
Craftsman's Apprentice[]
You apprenticed with a local craftsman to learn a trade. After years of hard work and study under your new master, he promoted you to journeyman and employed you as a fully paid craftsman for as long as you wished to stay.
Shop Assistant[]
You apprenticed to a wealthy merchant, picking up the trade over years of working shops and driving caravans. You soon became adept at the art of buying low, selling high, and leaving the customer thinking they'd got the better deal.
Street Urchin[]
You took to the streets doing whatever you must to survive. Begging, thieving and working for gangs to earn your bread, you lived from day to day in this violent world, always one step ahead of the law and those who wished you ill.
Steppe Child[]
You rode the great steppes on a horse of your own, learning the ways of the grass and the desert. Although you sometimes went hungry, you became a skillful hunter and pathfinder in this trackless country. Your body too started to harden with muscle as you grew into the life of a nomad (man/woman).
Adulthood[]
Then, as a young adult, life changed as it always does. You became...
- A squire
- A lady-in-waiting
- A troubadour
- A university student
- A goods peddler
- A smith
- A game poacher
Though the distinction felt sudden to you, somewhere along the way you had become a (man/woman), and the whole world seemed to change around you.
Squire[]
When you were named squire to a noble at court, you practiced long hours with weapons, learning how to deal out hard knocks and how to take them, too. You were instructed in your obligations to your lord, and of your duties to those who might one day be your vassals. But in addition to learning the chivalric ideal, you also learned about the less uplifting side -- old warriors' stories of ruthless power politics, of betrayals and usurpations, of men who used guile as well as valor to achieve their aims.
Lady-in-Waiting[]
You joined the tightly-knit circle of women at court, ladies who all did proper ladylike things, the wives and mistresses of noble men as well as maidens who had yet to find a husband. However, even here you found politics at work as the ladies schemed for prominence and fought each other bitterly to catch the eye of whatever unmarried man was in fashion at court. You soon learned ways of turning these situations and goings-on to your advantage. With it came the realisation that you yourself could wield great influence in the world, if only you applied yourself with a little bit of subtlety.
Troubadour[]
You set out on your own with nothing except the instrument slung over your back and your own voice. It was a poor existence, with many a hungry night when people failed to appreciate your play, but you managed to survive your music alone. As the years went by you became adept at playing the drunken crowds in your taverns, and even better at talking anyone out of anything you wanted.
University Student[]
You found yourself as a student in the university of one of the great cities, where you studied theology, philosophy, and medicine. But not all your lessons were learned in the lecture halls. You may or may not have joined in with your fellows as they roamed the alleys in search of wine, women, and a good fight. However, you certainly were able to observe how a broken jaw is set, or how an angry townsman can be persuaded to set down his club and accept cash compensation for the destruction of his shop.
Goods Peddler[]
Heeding the call of the open road, you travelled from village to village buying and selling what you could. It was not a rich existence, but you became a master at haggling even the most miserly elders into giving you a good price. Soon, you knew, you would be well-placed to start your own trading empire...
Smith[]
You pursued a career as a smith, crating items of function and beauty out of simple metal. As time wore on you became a master of your trade, and fine work started to fetch fine prices. With food in your belly and logs on your fire, you could take pride in your work and your growing reputation.
Game Poacher[]
Dissatisfied with the common men's desperate scrabble for coin, you took to your local lord's own forests and decided to help yourself to its bounty, laws be damned. You hunted stags, boars and geese and sold the precious meat under the table. You cut down trees right under the watchmen's noses and turned them into firewood that warmed many freezing homes during winter. All for a few silvers, of course.
Reasons for Adventure[]
But soon everything changed and you decided to strike out on your own as an adventurer. What made you take this decision was...
- Personal revenge
- The loss of a loved one
- Wanderlust
- Being forced out of your home
- Lust for money and power
Only you know exactly what cause you to give up your old life and become an adventurer.
Personal Revenge[]
Still, it was not a difficult choice to leave, with the rage burning brightly in your heart. You want vengeance. You want justice. What was done to you cannot be undone, and these debts can only be paid in blood...
Loss of Loved One[]
All you can say is that you couldn't bear to stay, not with the memories of those you loved so close and so painful. Perhaps your new life will let you forget, or honour the name that you can no longer bear to speak...
Wanderlust[]
You're not even sure when your home became a prison, when the familiar become mundane, but your dreams of wandering have taken over your life. Whether you yearn for some faraway place or merely for the open road and the freedom to travel, you could no longer bear to stay in the same place. You simply went and never looked back...
Being Forced Out of Your Home[]
However, you know you cannot go back. There's nothing to go back to. Whatever home you may have had is gone now, and you must face the fact that you're out in the wide wide world. Alone to sink or swim...
Lust for Money and Power[]
To everyone else, it's clear that you're now motivated solely by personal gain. You want to be rich, powerful, respected, feared. You want to be the one whom others hurry to obey. You want people to know your name, and tremble whenever it is spoken. You want everything, and you won't let anyone stop you from having it...
Become an adventurer and ride to your destiny.
Arriving in Calradia[]
You hear about Calradia, a land torn between rival kingdoms battling each other for supremacy, a haven for knights and mercenaries, cutthroats and adventurers, all willing to risk their lives in pursuit of fortune, power, or glory... In this land which holds great dangers and even greater opportunities, you believe you may leave your past behind and start a new life. You feel that finally, you hold the key of your destiny in your hands, free to choose as you will, and that whatever course you take, great adventures will await you. Drawn by the stories you hear about Calradia and its kingdoms, you...
- join a caravan to Praven, in the Kingdom of Swadia
- join a caravan to Reyvadin, in the Kingdom of the Vaegirs
- join a caravan to Tulga, in the Khergit Khanate
- take a ship to Sargoth, in the Kingdom of the Nords
- take a ship Jelkala, in the Kingdom of the Rhodoks.
- join a caravan to Shariz, in the Sarranid Sultanate
Praven[]
You came by caravan through the heartland of Calradia. Green shoots of wheat, barely and oats are beginning to push through the dark soil of the rolling hills, and on the lower slopes of the snowcapped mountains, herds of cattle and sheep are grazing on the spring grass. Occasionally, too, you catch sight of one of the great warhorses that are the pride of the Swadian nobility. The land here is rich -- but also troubled, as the occasional burnt-out farm bears witness. You keep a wide berth of the forests, where desperate men have taken refuge, and it is some relief when you crest a ridge and catch sight of the great port of Praven, its rooftops made golden by the last rays of the setting sun.
Reyvadin[]
You have come through the Vaegir highlands, a plateau exposed to the bitter winds from the north. The land here is frozen for most of the year, but the forests are rich with fur-bearing game, and the rivers are teaming with fish. The riches of the land draw the traders, but the traders in turn draw bandits. You saw the occasional dark figure mounted on a shaggy pony, watching the passage of your caravan from a snowy ridge, and were glad when the spires of Reyvadin came into view across the wide valley of the Boluk river.
Tulga[]
You came with a caravan crossing the mountains that border Calradia on the north and east, bringing spices from faraway lands to trade for wool and salt. The passes were still choked with snow, and it was hard going, but at last you crested a ridge and saw before you the Calradian steppes. On some hillsides the thin grass of spring was already turning yellow, but the lower slopes of the mountains were still a vibrant green. Herds of sheep and tawny steppe ponies drifted across them like clouds, testifying to the wealth of the Khergit khans. From time to time small groups of horsemen would follow your caravan from a distance, perhaps sizing up how well you could defend the wealth you carried, so it was with some relief that you saw the towers of Tulga rising up from the plains.
Sargoth[]
You took passage with a trading longship, carrying gyrfalcons from the furthest reaches of the north to be bartered for linen and wool. It sailed early in the season, but the master reckoned that the risks of drifting ice and later winter storms could be justified by arriving ahead of the Sea Raiders, who by April would be sailing forth from their island lairs to ravage Calradia's coasts. It was some relief when your ship came in sight of the delta of the Vyl and Boluk rivers, and a short while later, rowed past tidal flats and coastal marshes to the city of Sargoth, home to the Sea Raiders' distant kinsmen, the Nordic lords, who a few generations ago had carved themselves a kingdom in this rich but troubled land.
Jelkala[]
You came by ship, skirting the cliffs where the Rhodok highlands meet the sea. Much of the coastline was obscured by tendrils of fog that snaked down the river valleys, but occasionally you caught sight of a castle watchtower rising above the mists -- and on one occasion, a beacon fire burning to warn of an enemy warband. You knew that you were relatively safe at sea, as you were too far south to risk encountering the sea raiders who trouble the coasts of the Nordic lands, but it was still a relief to reach the Selver estuary, gateway to the port of Jelkala, and see a Rhodok galley riding at anchor, its pennants fluttering in the evening breeze.
Shariz[]
You came with a caravan, crossing the great desert to the east of Calradia. The bedouin guides chose your route carefully, leapfrogging through treacherous dune fields and across empty gravel plains to low-flying oases rich with orchards and date palms. Your great fear was that the caravan might lose its way and perish of thirst. The small bands of raiders who hovered just out of bowshot, waiting to pick off stragglers, were oddly a comfort -- at least water could be no more than a day's ride away. it was a great relief when the mountains came into view, and on the evening of the following day you crested a rocky pass and in the distance could make out the sea, and the towers of Shari silhouetted against the sunset.