Medieval: A Thousand Years of People
In 476 AD, the Western Roman Empire crumbled, and barbarian kings established kingdoms on its ruins. A thousand years later, in 1453 AD, Constantinople fell to Ottoman cannons, marking the end of the Middle Ages. During this millennium—for the farmers, serfs, artisans, merchants, wanderers, and beggars who comprised over ninety percent of the population—life was a struggle for survival amidst plague, war, famine, faith, and the lord's whip.
You will play as an ordinary person, born into any era between the 5th century's turmoil, the 7th century's Islamic conquests, the 9th century's Viking raids, the 11th century's Crusades, the 13th century's Mongol hordes, and the 14th century's Black Death and Hundred Years' War. You will live the reality of the time you are born into.
- 🌾 Living by the Land: Spring plowing, summer tending, autumn harvest, winter storage. Miss a sowing, and you might starve for an entire year.
- ⛪ The Ever-Present Church: Baptisms, marriages, last rites, festivals, tithes, inquisitions—your soul and livelihood are in its hands.
- ⚔️ War and Raids as Routine: Lords' levies, Viking longships, Magyar cavalry, Mongol horsemen, mercenary bands—no one is safe.
- 🦠 Plague, Famine, and Pestilence: The Plague of Justinian, the Black Death, the "Great Famine"—a village wiped out overnight is not mere legend.
- 🏘️ From Village to Town: From guilds to markets—you might spend your life confined to a single county, or travel with caravans, crusaders, or pilgrims all the way to Jerusalem.
- 👨👩👧 Marriage, Inheritance, Debts, Lawsuits: Lords' courts, canon law, guild regulations—all decide the fate of you and your family.
- ⏱️ Time Marches On: Years, even decades, pass. You may not live past thirty or forty springs, but the wheels of the age will not stop for anyone.
Survive—raise children, endure lean years, hold onto your small patch of land. Thrive—if luck and skill favor you, perhaps rise from serf to freeman, from apprentice to guild master, or even join the ranks of minor nobility. Die—of plague, war, hunger, cold, the gallows, or simply because one year's harvest was not enough.