Campaign Background

The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell

I’m planning on using Hordes of the Things for an Arthur of Britain Campaign, based on The Warlord Chronicle series of novels by Bernard Cornwell.

The Warlord Chronicles is a trilogy of books about Arthurian Britain written by Bernard Cornwell. The story is written as a mixture of Arthurian mythology and historical fiction is comprised of

·      The Winter King

·      Enemy of God

·      Excalibur

The novel is set during the Dark Ages. In the novels Arthur is not a king, but a Warlord and protector of both the child king Mordred and his throne. Set during Post-Roman Britain it depicts the British besieged from the Anglo-Saxons in the East and raids from the Irish in the West. At the same time, they suffer civil war and internal power struggles between the British kingdoms. An addition complication is the friction between the old Druidic religion and the popularity of Christianity.

The narrator of the series is Derfel Cardan (Derfel the Mighty). Derfel is a Saxon brought up as a Briton by Merlin, depicted in the novels as the greatest of all Druids. In the course of the story, Derfel becomes a great warrior and one of Arthur's lieutenants in his war against the Saxons. Merlin is attempting to restore the old gods of Britain.

One character given a significant change from the traditional Arthurian mythos is Lancelot. Despite his betrayal of Arthur due to his adulterous affair with Gwennivere, he is usually portrayed as a virtuous but conflicted character, torn by his love of Gwennivere and tortured by his betrayal of Arthur. In contrast, Cornwell’s Lancelot is arrogant, cowardly and ultimately self-serving: that is, human. Songs of the bards he cultivates, create his legendary feats and martial prowess. A thoroughly despicable character, he is hated by Derfel and Galahad, (Lancelot’s brother in the series), and most everybody who reads the novel.