A History of Gunn's Mages

“…And lo you shall rain the fire and wrath of an arcane tempest upon all of the foes of Albion! ”

- Alistair Coleman-Gunn addressing new recruits at Esther.

In the autumn of 1103, son of Albion and mercenary of high repute, Alistair Coleman-Gunn returned to his homeland. After many years of fighting he was looking forward to spending his last years in comfort in the land he loved so much. But all was not well in the land of Albion. The Monarchy was no more and the true King dead. The thought of retirement had enticed Gunn home, but ever mindful of his duty to his homeland Gunn knew now was not the time to rest. Gunn was not without friends in the old court of Albion. Having fought alongside Carl Trueheart during the civil war he held the ears of a number of influential nobles. Quietly he called in a number of favours and arranged a private meeting with the Queen.

Little is known about the exact course or content of the meeting. Gunn left as he arrived, in the dead of night with nary a sound; only now Gunn carried a document signed by the Queen, a charter, granting Gunn money, land, and far reaching powers to recruit citizens of Albion into duty in the Queens name. However, his ideas couldn’t come to fruition over night, he would need somewhere to train and mould his recruits. He headed to the place he knew best - Santia, the town of his birth.

Placed precariously on a small island off the southeast coast of Albion to which it lends its name. Santia itself is the only major settlment on the island, although there are numerous other small scattered fishing villages and hamlets. The seclusion and varied terrain of the island were ideal for Gunn’s proposed training regime, but what made the location perfect was the presence of Ruth, Esther and Jennifer, three dilapidated coastal defence forts at the islands most northern, eastern and southern points made it perfect for Gunn’s needs.

Gunn needed people he could trust to oversee the renovation of the forts, and to help him search for likely training candidates. He started to call in old members of his mercenary corps. A handful set up camp on Santia to oversee the renovation of the 3 girls. As arranged with the Queen, money was siphoned from Albion’s coffers to the Santia Orphans Elysium (a charitable hospice providing shelter for lost children from all across Albion) to fund the re-construction works.

Meanwhile Gunn, accompanied by the rest of his men, sailed north to the mainland, here they separated and began the search. To fulfil Gunn’s vision they needed to recruit mages who could wield the devastating power of high level spell casting, but at the same time needed to be fitter and more disciplined than the average soldier.

It soon became apparent that most classically trained casters were of little use to Gunn, too many years cooped up with books left them ‘fragile’. So Gunn turned his attention away from the established wizards of Albion and began to look for Hedge mages, witches and sorcerers - born casters, whose powers came through intuition and a natural, inexplicable understanding of magic. Such people were in short supply, but eventually Gunn started to find his mages. From all walks of life they came, young, old, rich, poor, all tied together by a natural undeveloped talent for magic.

Those who passed the stringent entry tests set by Gunn were whisked away in total secrecy to Santia to begin training. Kept in strict isolation on the island, no recruit has had contact with the mainland for the last year. 50 recruits were selected in Gunn’s initial draft. Not all of them completed training, some washed out, a handful were killed in unfortunate training accidents, but by August 1106 Gunn had his first cadre of battle ready troops ready to be deployed.

“…It is always a pleasure to hear of the good work being done for all of Albion by the Santia Orphans Elysium. How are the girls? I understand Esther is growing at a phenomenal rate!”

- Extract from a letter from Queen Elisabetta to Alistair Coleman-Gunn dated 29th April 1105.

Training:

‘Now listen up you maggots’

The academy’s training is separated into 2 separate but interrelated doctrines. All of his mages had to be able to fight and act in the manner of the most accomplished soldiers of Albion. Military doctrine has been firmly implanted in the mages since day one at the academy. All of his mages are capable swordsmen. Likewise all have been trained in a variety of small and large unit tactics, after all the mages cannot affect the battlefield unless they understand the battlefield. A small number of mages have received further training to develop their wilderness survival skills, so that they may for fill a scout support role.

While the mages have been trained to follow orders, they can be relied on to act as autonomous units, roving the field attacking targets of opportunity, incapacitating enemy officers, casters and healers, and tying up larger units with their arcane powers.

The magical element of their training has concentrated solely on the use of magical force in a military situation. While Gunn’s Mages can cast the most intricate high level spells under the pressure of a battlefield situation, their understanding of the finer and wider utilisation of magic is vague at best.

Operations:

‘Well that’s one technique you could use’

The Arcane Tempest's first operational deployment to the city of Norovik in August 1106 ably demonstrated the battlefield utility of the Academy's techniques. Of particular note is the unique magic missile 'volley fire' formation, which has proved extremely powerful at breaking enemy shield walls.

Uniform:

‘Try not to get any holes in it’

Underclothes and equipment are the individual’s choice. All Mages are gifted a small amount of coin towards ‘additional uniform’, Gunn believes firmly that soldiers fight considerably better using personalised equipment, that they are comfortable with, than standard issue ‘jank’. Unfortunately the reality of the situation is for those who come from the lower echelons of society this money is only enough to buy a decent pair of boots. Those with access to money have a tendency to show it, proudly wearing the fashions of the day under their coats.

Mentality:

‘Mostly we just blow shit up!’

Haughty book taught casters have a tendency to look down on Gunn’s mages, regarding them as stunted and underdeveloped magical runts. Those who are stupid enough to say this to one of Gunn’s Mages, look up to them from the floor, where the mage has soundly planted them with blade or spell. Gunn’s Mages on the whole, hold no such issues with other casters; simply because they know that they could take them. They are elite and they know it and they’re not shy of letting others know it either.

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