Crusades of Valour

René

Banded Mongoose
I found on this homepage a product called "Crusades of Valour": has someone used it and can give some info how it would work with CONAN?

I'm thinking of some Mitra-fanatics usurping power in a Hyborian Kingdom (directly or as power behind the throne) and starting a crusade against the Ishtar heresy that begins in the kingdom (against heretic barons & liberal towns) and escalates in a full war against one of the Ishtar-believing Hyborian kingdoms. Of course there are political and economical reasons, too (long cultivated hate against another noble, who is - fortunately - a Ishtar-believer; Kothian gold mines and trade routes are targets, that can be conquered under the veil of religious righteousness).

Surely some Shemitic cities will support the attacked kingdom, while others value their trade relations higher and stay neutral or will even lend their Ashuri to the best paying customer - regardless who it is). Stygian priests will try to play their own game covertly. And Turan will try to conquer parts of the weakened opponents in the end.

It could be interesting to have among the crusaders true believers and religious fanatics next to pragmatic nobles, who only want baronies for their own, and hired Ashuris or wild nomads, who have no other interest than loot.

Of course the word "crusade" would be inappropriate, since the Mitran symbol isn't a cross (Latin: crux, nece crusade).

O.K., back to my question: can someone tell me, if "Crusades of Valour" would be useful?
 
Maybe an Aquilonia just after Conan's rule would be good candidate: the religious liberality as ordered by Conan is over, the religious establishment strikes back and - like so often - the pendulum goes far, far in the opposite direction. Maybe it starts with hostilities against the Ahura-followers who went during Conan's reign into the public and were naturally heavy supporters of him. Now he's away / dead and the new ruler(s) try to stabilize their reign by eliminating the former king's friends (a normal procedure in ancient monarchies).
The situation gets its own momentum (in addition there is a poor harvest / food crisis / famine, for which are the non-believers blamed) and escalates into a "crusade".

Hopefully the upcoming module "Heretics of Tarantia" gives some ideas...
 
I can't really offer much help here. I haven't bought the book yet. But I can offer some advice on naming, if you're interested.


Jihad, the Muslim equivalent of the Second and later Crusades - actually just means Holy War. So you could use that as a base term.

Other terms associated with the Crusades but not with the Cross or the Christian Religion itself include:

Righteous Campaign
Journey
Pilgrimage
Holy War
Holy Journey


So you could say, for example, that the Aquilonians are Crusading against Stygia in order to defeat the power of Set once and for all. This would be a religious extermination, basically.

That would fall under Righteous Campaign. Aquilonia is faintly equatable to Rome - so look up Righteous and Campaign in both Latin and Italian - play with the results a bit, and come up with a term that might mean "Righteous Campaign" in Aqulilonian.
 
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