The Lady’s Blessing

The Bretonnians revere the Lady of the Lake as the embodiment of chivalry and knightly virtue. She is the very spirit of Bretonnia, who rewards the brave and destroys the craven. Those who go to battle with her blessing will triumph over their enemies even if they are outnumbered hundreds to one!

To the Bretonnians this is a just and natural state of affairs. Were they to consider the matter at all, they might say that the magical forces that flow through the land are drawn and concentrated by the faith of the people who love and protect it. The land's spirit is formed from the magical energy that flows through it, and that spirit is nothing less than the Lady of the Lake herself. This sacred power flows from the Lady's chalice, the grail to which all chivalry aspires.

Just as an individual Knight can gain the favour of the Lady of the Lake, so an entire army can be blessed so long as its leader is virtuous and his warriors pure of heart. When so many honourable Knights go to war, swearing to fight to the death to uphold their ideals and defend what is right, no matter what the odds, then very great amounts of virtuous magic are attracted to them. This can manifest itself as a shimmering mist rising from the ground, like the morning mist of a summer day. The Lady of the Lake may even appear as a vision before the entire army, glimmering in the hazy ether to bless the warriors of Bretonnia.

The Prayer of Battle

Before a battle the Bretonnian Knights kneel and pray to the Lady of the Lake, avowing to fight to the death for honour and justice. It is an awesome sight to behold the mists of magic seep from the ground in response to the Bretonnians' affirmation of faith. The enemy can but watch with dread as rays of sunlight break through the clouds, glinting on the armour and dancing upon the lance tips of the Bretonnian host, stirring an otherworldly chorus from the very earth itself. The foes of Bretonnia know that they face divine as well as human forces, and uncertainty gnaws at their resolve and their hearts sink within their quailing breasts.

Vows of Bretonnia

The social order of Bretonnia is determined by a series of creeds and tenets laid down hundreds of years ago in the time of Gilles the Uniter, and formally recorded by his son Louis. Each stratum of Bretonnian society rigidly adheres to their particular code. However, due to the antiquity of the original documents, much can be misconstrued by the opportunistic or the foolish.

The lower orders of Bretonnian society, very few of whom are literate, will gather on the first day of each month to have their credo read to them by a squire or chamberlain. The peasants of Bretonnia live hand to mouth, toiling in the fields day in day out in absolute, destitute poverty. Most will not survive to see middle age, and theirs is a thankless role - yet without their produce and taxes the knights could ill afford to live in the manner to which they are accustomed.

The knights themselves are given to copying out their vows in painstaking illuminated scripts that they treat with reverential care. The knights recite these vows before an image or token of the Lady which, depending on the knight's status, can range from a candlelit sketch to a gilded triptych. To break any aspect of their vows is the worst crime imaginable to these noble warriors.

No knight would willingly bring dishonour on his name, but should he be forced to betray his creed by foul circumstance he will often immediately take up the Questing Vow. The ascendance from one rank of knighthood to another is of the utmost import to the knights of Bretonnia. As such, no Grail Knight would willingly be led by a mere Questing Knight or, Lady forbid, a Knight of the Realm. Exceptions are rare, and in other matters a knight will generally bow to one of a more senior order.