She is persistent, unscrupulous and very, very angry

I bought the latest edition of HârnMaster – Roleplaying in the World of Kèthîra (HMK) in early November last year and loved every single page of it. It is very well written and easy to understand, given how crunchy the system is. The layout and design of the book is so lovely and fitting for the setting and theme that it hurts.

My background (Hârnic: báckgròûnd)? I know HârnWorld and HârnMaster since my very early days of roleplaying in the mid to late 80s, but let’s be honest … it might be a bit intimidating for a group of German 12-year-olds figuring out the rules of a beast like HârnMaster, when the only edition they have at hand is the imported US version. Most importantly, the guy in your LFGS says: “Look, I only sell it … I can’t possibly know each and every of the 3 systems I have in my store.” Thanks a lot Mister, expect a 5 star rating as soon as Goolge Maps and Yelp are invented! Hârn went on our pile of shame for a few years.

Luckily, the amount of good Hârn related stuff on blogs, YouTube and podcasts is piling in recent days, so it was easy to find some content to dig into on the search for more infomation about the new edition. There is even a German YouTube channel talking about it. One YouTube creator to feature here is Mind Your Manors who did some great videos about HMK with the author Walt McAtee. In the most recent video, they discussed the character creation and I really loved the way Walt approached the generation of the character’s backstory.

Guess what I did? Oh boy … that was a wild ride! The resulting character and its backstory is purely based on random rolls on different tables within the rulebook and some fate questions I asked my Mythic oracle to refine some parts further. There are only three factors to this character which are not rolled but picked by me: the place of birth, the gender, and the fact that the character is ambidextrous like me.

Let me introduce you to what will become Essryd of House Gehwær, daughter of the late Llewellyn, Baron of Nurien Keep and Lady Myfanwy. (Gehwær seems to be the Gaelic translation of Ueberall, engl. everywhere)

In the birth phase I rolled for a young, human character, born on 23rd of Laránè in the year 699. The sunsign Angberélius (Flame Sword) and its providing trait “persistent” were already an omen of what to come.

I decided that her birthplace should be in Rethem on the Ilse of Hârn, but more on that later. Originating from Hârn means that she lives in a feudal society, speaks Hârnic and Járin and that she most likely worships the West Venârian pantheon. With the brithplace being Rethem, she surely has a soft spot for Agrik, evil god of war and breeder of violence for its own sake. She is now a young woman of noble rank with dark tendencies. YAY!

With some very lucky rolls, a double 98 on class and parental occupation, she was born to a Noble family who bears the title of Baron. Oh wait a minute?! That is to good to be true. I quickly referenced my copy of “Kingdom of Rethem”, my favourite region on Hârn, and checked for all estates that are not held by a named NPC. I love the lore of the world and would not want to break the canon under any circumstances. Nurien it would be! Essryd’s birthplace is now Nurien in the Saffeld Hundred of Techen in the Kingdom of Rethem on the island of Hârn. Great! What next? Her estrangement is popular … that is odd … shouldn’t the daughter of a Baron be favoured? Ah ok, there is her older brother Pryderi, 27 … and he is … dead?! Why on Kéthîra wasn’t she made the favoured child after his demise? Let’s check on her parents: father Llewellyn (dead), mother Myfanwy (dead). That is suspicious, isn’t it? I asked my Mythic oracle if all three family members died on the same day, and the answer was an exceptional YES! But at least there is her uncle Ynyr, an officer in the Agrikan Order of the Copper Hook, to look after her.

I quickly rolled her characterstics and decided to do it in batches for physical and mental stats and allocate them manually. STR 10, END 12, DEX 15, AGL 15, PER 14, COM 16, AUR 11, WIL 12, REA 15, CRE 12, EMP 13 and ELO 16. She is a nimble beauty who is good with words. PERFECT!

Then it all went downhill for a while. I rolled a 7 for her morality and made her unscrupulous, followed by a psyche check that gave her one trait: angry. She has no talent for the arcane and zero grace. I then applied all her skill DPs and her highest rated skills are Command, Discourse, Intrigue and Melee. She became a manipulative schemer who likes to dance and stab you in the back while doing so. I LOVE HER!

I was extremely lucky when I rolled for the wealth value and gained a 97. That made her extremely wealthy and … oh wait … the title. I failed all rolls for inheriting the title and the land and so everything goes to the favoured child, her brother. Her DEAD brother! Title, check! Land, check! Happy Essryd!

At that point I worked on the appendix section and gave her a little bit of details. She is tall (180cm/71″) and light (67kg/147lbs), has light skin, dark brown hair, grayish-green eyes and she is ambidextrous like me.

And now to the really interesting part. Within a few minutes and some books, I was able to connect some strings and weave a backstory.

The fact that her parents and brother died on the same day is suspicious af. What could have happened? Probably an accident, or an “accident”? I decided on the latter and so her family was assassinated by an unknown party. But that raises the question why she is still alive. I thought that it would be logical that she was spared because she left the manor just before the assassination. Probably going for a walk in the nearby forest, shopping in the village or tormenting local cats and children.

But who did it? Maybe someone with political ambitions or for financial reasons. I mean it wouldn’t be the first time that a noble was eliminated in Rethem just because they lived in a fancy manor. I checked on what current intrigues are there in Rethem and … what a coincident: Nurien belongs to Techen and the Earl Lenesque of Techen has a feud with Earl Lynnaeus of Tormau who also opposes King Chaffin III of Rethem. Given that Earl Lynnaeus was a good friend of Essryd’s father could be the reason someone, King Chaffin III or that dog Lenesque, wanted her family erased from map tile E7 of the Altas Hârnica.

Probably Essryd’s father and the Earl of Tormau conspired against one of them. That seems to be plausible, because the Earl of Tormau tries to keep good relations with the Kubora barbarians and there is the rumour that House Gehwær originates from the Norlind Kubora with roots on the island of Akova. They must have planned a coup involving the manpower of some Kuboran tribes.

And why was Essryd able to keep the Keep? (lol) Simple, King Chaffin III and Earl Lenesque were too hesitant and feared retribution from Tormau and Essryd’s uncle after the failed attempt to cleanse Nurien from the House Gehwær. Not even the rumour that Essryd and her family are not exclusively worshipping Agrik, but have a secret shrine to Crador the Blind was enough to strip Essryd off her land and title.

But who exactly ordered the death of her family? Who ever it was failed rule #1 in the book “How to eliminate a whole Family” … never leave someone alive. Even less when the sole survivor is Essryd Gehwær. I gave her three additional traits to further flesh out her personality: coldblooded, arrogant and vengeful.

I can’t wait to investigate what really happened and figure out a way to get revenge (bloodstained, diplomatically or even both) in a solo campaign using Mythic.

Sources used:
– HârnMaster Kèthîra (Keléstia Productions Ltd.)
– Kingdom of Rethem (Columbia Games Inc.)
– Hârn Barbarians (Columbia Games Inc.)
– HârnManor (Columbia Games Inc.)
– Mythic GME 2nd Edition (Word Mill Games)