04 Night's Watch.pdf - Chaos Bleeds

CHAPTER 1: The NIght’s WatchUsing Desertionin your SIFRP GamesGared’s execution, the King-beyond-the-Wall Mance Rayder, Jon’sflight south, and his deception to join the wildlings—with its repeatedmention in A Song of Ice & Fire, there is no question that desertion andoathbreaking is an important thematic element both within the Watchand to Westeros as a whole. Desertion themes lend a sobering air of lossto a story, and careful use of them can reinforce other storytelling elementswithin your campaign.In addition to the overt themes of loyalty, honor, and trust, desertioncan reflect tales of shattered morale, of inhuman living conditions, of constant,crushing stress and even themes of madness (the desertion of thesenses). With careful use, desertion can become a recurring theme thatadds greater depth to the stories you narrate. This section looks at waysyou can bring these themes to your own campaigns, whether you’ve chosento run a standard game or one centered on the Night’s Watch.For a noble House game, desertion becomes an underpinning; it isbest as foreshadowing of a greater level of deceit or oathbreaking, torepresent the tattering fabric of society, or to warn of greater terrors inthe North. For a noble house in Westeros, the deserter is not likely to bea family member returning home but rather the brigand preying uponthe smallfolk the house has sworn to protect. Houses in the North mayhost parties of Sworn Brothers that are pursuing the deserter, or theirsmallfolk may capture the deserter themselves and contact the players’house directly as the representative of the King’s Justice.For a game that centers on the Night’s Watch, desertion becomes amuch different theme. Although it is possible to work with a story thathas the players as Sworn Brothers sent to retrieve an unknown oathbreakersouth of the Wall, there are opportunities to make the themes moreurgent and more immediate to the players. One way to do this is to havethe deserter be a member of the players’ cohort. It is possible to even playout the “race” between the players and their fellow as they try to intercepthim before he goes too far and is formally declared a deserter. Such a storymakes a good opening adventure for a Night’s Watch game, as it allowsfor flashbacks to training, and defines each character’s relationship bothwith each other and with the would-be deserter.Another way to approach desertion in a Night’s Watch game is to havethe players build desertion into each of their characters. By defining eachcharacter’s “breaking point” where they would rather desert than remainat the Wall, it helps the Narrator define the themes for his or her game,and provides an insight into what each character holds important. It isimportant, as a Narrator in that situation, that you challenge the playerswithout feeling like your only goal is to drive them to desertion. Rather,the player’s chosen desertion point should be used as a recurrent themein your stories. If the player holds freedom important, and chafes at theabuses of the Wall, then require them to imprison another brother. If thecharacter’s family is important, then present them with stories where theysee family undoing another member of the Watch.While not discussed in the book in more than a few brief sentences,there is also the possibility of a commander and his entire castle becomingdeserters of a sort: the Nightfort once went to war against Snowgate(now Queensgate), for example. While more of an oathbreaking thantrue desertion, the two themes parallel each other nicely. A situation onthe scale of the example would obviously involve more than the playercharacters, though a similar idea might see the players as part of a groupsent to hunt down a renegade ranger who took a band of his followersand turned against the Watch.On a similar topic, the characters can be used to recover knowledge,rather than a specific person—a far more delicate task, as it requiresconvincing the deserter to help the players, who must make their ownpromises in return.The History ofthe Night’s Watch“T he holdfast has a golden crown, see? Queen Alysanne sleptthere, so they painted the merlons gold in her honor.”—Bran Stark, A Storm of SwordsThe black brotherhood is defined by its traditions and shaped by its history.New recruits to the Watch learn its past alongside their swordworkand marksmanship, but some events—like Mad Axe slaughtering hisSworn Brothers, or the gruesome story of the Rat Cook—are heard byevery child north of the Trident as morality tales to keep them on theirbest behavior.The history of the Night’s Watch permeates every rock and stone ofthe Wall and the forts along its length, all the way back to its founding.The black brotherhood swore their first oaths at the end of the LongNight, when the Others invaded Westeros. When the White Walkerswere finally defeated and driven back into the Far North, Bran theBuilder—the first King of the North—built the Wall, and created theSworn Brotherhood to man it and keep the rest of Westeros safe.The first and largest of the castles along the Wall, the doomed Nightfortwas built at the same time as the Wall itself, and housed the firstbrothers. To allow sorties into the Far North, an ancient weirwood wasplaced in the Wall during the Nightfort’s construction. Known as theBlack Gate, the enchanted wood only opened when a Sworn Brotherrecited the oath in front of it.To help sustain and support the Watch, King Brandon (traditionallyBran the Builder, though possibly one of the later Kings in the North)granted the twenty-five leagues south of the Wall to the brotherhood.Known at The Gift, this land became a network of farmland and watchtowersthat slowly fell into disuse as fewer and fewer brothers wereavailable to maintain it.According to legend, it was the 13th Lord Commander of the Night’sWatch who fell to temptation and became Night’s King. With the aidof a wildling woman and dark sorceries, he took control of the mindsof the Sworn Brothers and turned the Night’s Watch into his own personalarmy. In the first great alliance with the wildlings, the King inthe North joined forces with Joramun, the King-beyond-the-Wall, todefeat their mutual foe and restore honor to the black brotherhood.When he was finally destroyed, and his chambers searched, it wasfound that he had been in league with the Others and making sacrificesto them. For this first and greatest sin, his name has been struck fromall the records and he is known only by the appellation given him in thelands south of the Wall.22