Branda's Sword Style and History

Today I'm working on the game because I have a day off from work. I have a day off from work because I took a day off. I have a broken upper molar and, being poor, American, and not having insurance, I cannot afford to get it fixed or pulled. Working creatively is relaxing and helps take my mind off of the stabbing agony of the tooth. When I get lost in the process of creation I forget my body exists. Thinking in detail about stories, technical aspects, and so on completely absorbs me. At least at home I can make things, apply a heat pad to my face, and take some of the  pain medication that makes me loopy and throw up in the comfort of my own home, instead of on a customer. (Said pain medication is in depressingly short supply. Once it is gone I'm down to Tylenol and Advil, and I am not looking forward to those days. Notably because I'm already taking those in addition to my little bottle of opiate medication and I still feel like I'm getting stabbed in the mouth.)

So I decided to spend today working on Branda, thinking a bit on her backstory and her actual sword techniques, reworking them in the system. So now she's a complete character.

Branda is from Chianina, a fact you'll know if you read a single specific bookshelf after capturing her in Sayda Palace. She's not native to Sayda.

Chianina is an expy of Italy, but it's also a joke that Italians will probably get. Notably Chianina is not a reference to China but is instead a variety of Italian cow. It's a nation famed for producing the best swordfighters in the world throughout history. It was once a vast empire that had conquered much of the known world before falling in a war with the Overmind. The graveyard you find Nanshe raising the dead in is actually a soldiers graveyard of the first Chianina empire. (He was slain in that war by the female Chianinan version of Cincinnatus during a bridge assault. The last time Chianina defeated him it was in another bridge defense with a female dwarven auxiliary, analogous to the nameless Norse soldier at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, who was herself slain by a monstergirl shortly afterward) It was successful in killing him and conquering other foes for a long time, but the Overmind always comes back. Although he is immortal, empires are not. Over time they became corrupt and decayed from the inside out; he just happened to be the barbarian at the gates at the time.

In the Modern Era of Overwhored, Chianina is militarily powerful but is hopelessly corrupt and divided between three different city-state powers who, in practice, fight each other more than anyone else. I haven't made a name for them yet, but they are a religious city similar to Rome (though it is NOT the center of the faith of the goddess, it is merely *a* center), a city of art, culture, and political power similar to Florence, and a military (mercenary) and maritime city similar to Venice. Despite each nation being quite strong and very wealthy, their nobles are paranoid about the dangers of large standing armies and anyone inside their nation taking over. They unite to fight outside foes, but in actuality even the most powerful nobles never have over 25 soldiers of their own. Instead, the city-states endlessly duel politically and, when conflict is necessary, with mercenary armies similar to the Condottieri.

Branda was born in the Venetian military city to a very minor noble family. Their family didn't have vast estates, standing military forces or a large number of servants. They were nobles of the class that would usually run a very small town of farmers, usually being only about as well educated. Moreover they are of mixed heritage; Branda is part Saydan, from a minor and now extinct branch of the Saydan royal family. Far from being destitute and living in a small farming village, however, the Stilka family are a military family that produces Condottieri. Of a family that lived for the blade and trained endlessly with it Branda was by far the most skilled and deadly. She was also a black sheep within the family, believing strongly in the concepts of honor and chivalry. While Condottieri are, as a rule, ruthless pragmatists who view warfare as a science, Branda viewed it as the power to fight for justice. She was heavily inspired by the stories of the ancient heroes of ancient Chianina, especially the gender-flipped Cincinnatus. She saw the corruption of her own nation as a kind of cancer infecting a legend.

Rather than be a pawn in the petty and incessant wars of the upper nobility, Branda became a Condottieri-Avventuriero, or Mercenary Adventurer. She made her name fighting monsters rather than men, defending those too poor and weak to afford to hire mercenaries normally.  As such she did not focus on the fast, light sword styles many of her countrymen did.

Branda's fighting style is unique to her and designed entirely around two things: brutal, overwhelming power and incredible speed. She focuses on heavier one-handed blades and two handed swords, but uses them with the speed and accuracy of fencing swords due to her lightning-fast footwork. Unlike those who train to duel and end a fight at first blood, Branda's style is practically designed so that she trades taking minor hits for dealing lethal blows with her powerful blade. Far from being an arrogant light prancer, as many italian-type soldiers in fiction are (I'm looking at you, League of Legends Fiora) Branda is a tough, fast semi-berserker combining the best of heavy blade sword techniques with quicksilver swift battle-fencing footwork. Unlike modern sport fencing, the soldiers of ancient times did not suffer under a number of pointless rules or work with needle thin epees. Branda does not fight in straight lines, does not adhere to rules about unfair places to strike or ways to strike, and does not have any romantic notions of fairness in war. She's an idealist, but one raised by brutal mercenary pragmatists. As she is the heroine of Temperance, it is only fair to say that her unusual love of fairness and honor has been cruelly tempered by experience.

She has the self-discipline to train herself brutally, endlessly, and harshly, ignoring pain and fatigue that would fell normal soldiers. Her training of her soldiers in Sayda is by no means hypocritical, as she is doing precisely what she'd expect to be done to her if she failed, including breaking the arm of a soldier holding his arm too stiffly. Indeed, she once had her own arm broken by her father in the same way when she was twelve to teach her the same lesson, and was given the same amount of time to recover. (Of course, the in-game sequence is actually a reference to a line in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, and I tend to borrow a lot from Colonel Santiago when I think about Branda. Santiago is hooooooot. Though the woman needs more eyebrow. Attractive women have actual full and real eyebrows; the thicker the better provided they're not unibrows.)

Her ability to move swiftly in a tactically intelligent manner and strike with brutal strength made her an extremely effective monster slayer, and during the early years of her career she became famous and much beloved by the common man, and equally disliked and hated by the nobility and Condottieri. She survived numerous ambushes and assassination attempts, some of which were carried out by members of her own family. She met the other heroines during this period and began to adventure outside of Chianina, fighting briefly in The War of Scale and Fire (which is a different subject).

It was at this point that a figure who was the Chianinan equivalent of Cesare Borgia, (Now with more extra-double-evil!) later called The Tyrant came to power. A supremely adept general, politician, and statesman, he promised to finally bring order to Chianina and see the nation rise as a unified whole again. Branda was driven by her desire to see Chianina be cleansed of its incessant corruption and remade in the image of its ancient empire. She believed she might find a kindred spirit in him. When his messenger came and found her she agreed to serve him as a soldier, leaving the other heroines in their adventures for a while. (Extra note: The Tyrant managed to gather many people of talent, and Branda came to personally know her world's gender flipped equivalent to Leonardo Da Vinci, who will show up in-game at some point if I can figure out a good spot for her to show up.)

Unfortunately the man was not all that he pretended to be, secretly being perhaps the most corrupt of any noble in the empire. He quietly began to enforce his rule with a kind of horrifying brutality and harshness - especially against nobles who might oppose him and those who brought up his status as a bastard son of a high noble.

Branda was not entirely aware of his actions early on and became his strongest soldier, defeating the champions of other armies, monstergirl mercenaries, and siege-monsters in single combat. She was almost always on the battlefield and so did not know the horrifying brutality with which he managed the cities he conquered. She only saw the ordered places that came after his 'justice' had been instituted.

The two had a quiet love affair during this period. For his own part the tyrant had no love for her and used the affair as a means to keep her blind to his actions. Branda was never stupid but was in love, and believed what she wanted to believe - that he was the noble soul who might finally return glory to Chianina. And if she saw cruelty to some powerful noblemen - well, harsh measures were sometimes necessary to deal with corruption.

The other heroines were not blind, however, and saw him for what he really was. They came to Chianina in secret and began a campaign to discover the depth of the secret atrocities he committed and undermine his power, while at the same time trying to rescue Branda.

They didn't go unnoticed, as The Tyrant of Chianina was quite brilliant in his own right and was a master of the ancient and terrifying intelligence network of that nation. Nonetheless, the heroines managed to escape several ambushes and fight of others, uncovering a great deal of evidence. At that point The Tyrant had no choice but to gamble on Branda, showing her the dead bodies left by the other heroines and blaming a number of his own atrocities on them. Though she didn't want to believe it he was extraordinarily persuasive, and she left to confront them.

When she found them they attempted to show her the evidence of his atrocities, but Branda refused to look. She was ready to fight a hopeless battle against all six other heroines, but was instead challenged by to a duel by the leader of the Heroines: Joy, the Angelic Queen. If she won they would leave the country; if she lost she would look at the evidence they had brought.

Branda was the greatest sword-fighter in the world, but Joy was almost as good (if in a very different way) and backed by incredible divine and arcane power. Though she fought bravely and with skill enough to shatter demigods, Branda never stood a chance.

Upon her defeat she held to her end of the bargain, and allowed them to take her to a gravesite filled with  a mountain of dead noble children, murdered by the soldiers of The Tyrant to end the family lines of those opposed to him.

Horrified to find what she had been supporting, she rejoined the heroines and began a campaign to liberate Chianina. However, even they were no match for The Tyrants vast armies on their own. Quietly, Joy infiltrated the holy city and managed to use her status as a divine champion of the goddess to turn the leadership against him. In a daring strategic maneuver she arranged for the forces of the holy city to turn on him during the battle to capture Branda's home city, and publicly made it seem as though Branda had died.

The Tyrant was taken by surprise by the betrayal, but fought viciously. With righteous fury Branda fought at the head of the holy army cutting through men and monsters; slicing through them like a scythe through wheat and reaping a grim harvest. Nothing would keep her from exacting justice on the one who had betrayed her and shattered her dreams of a reborn Chianina.

She finally tore her way through his private guard, many soldiers giving way before their former commander and not wishing to face her - while others met her and were cut down.

Bleeding from a hundred cuts, armor in tatters and blade dull and dented, she faced The Tyrant in single combat. Skilled and brilliant, he was one of the best swordsmen in the world. But Branda was the greatest swordsman in the world, and at the end she had won. Before the final blow was struck, ( HE TORE OPEN A PORTAL IN TIME  ) he attempted to compare himself to her, saying that deep down they were the same. She responded with a vow that she would never be anything like him, followed shortly thereafter by the removal of his head.

The fall of the Tyrant returned Chianina to its shattered state; no one was capable of taking command of his conquest. It remains corrupt and internally divided, unlikely to ever regain its ancient glory.

For her part Branda sought absolution through battle, throwing herself fiercely against anyone she saw as a tyrant, or as a force of evil and corruption.

When the Overmind revived she saw him as the greatest tyrant of all and gladly joined the quest to defeat him, always at the forefront of any battle striking down his most powerful generals and monsters.

What happened after his defeat that led to her reign in Sayda was SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER.

At her core Branda is an idealist, but one who has seen that her ideals are ultimately impossible to realize. She dreams of and fights for a perfect world, but knows full well that it is a world she will never get to see. Rather than giving in she has only ever fought even more fiercely. Every taste of despair or defeat only makes her fight even harder with even greater intensity. Should the whole world stand against her she would stand against the whole world and go down fighting, holding herself up unbroken to the very last for what she believes in.

You turned her into a cow. For sex and evil. You monster.

(Final Note: I'm no expert on Italian History or the Italian language, which I don't speak. If some of the terms are wrong here point 'em out, and I'll fix 'em. Obviously I've taken some liberties with various historical figures here - I wasn't trying to be accurate in that regard, nor are the figures in the game exactly the same as those figures. Consider the comparisons a swift means to get an idea for what the in-game characters are like, instead.

The names of the three cities are going to end up as Italian cow-puns, so feel free to suggest some if you speak Italian.)