I'm trying to think of places to send young, "graduated" knights in a low fantasy setting as the final part of their training and initiation into an proper Order - They depart for exactly one year to somewhere particularly harrowing, and are expected to return on time.
The thing is, I'm having trouble deciding where. A neighboring civilization wouldn't be all too harrowing, see as it would just have the locals quite used to travelling warriors and things would get real damn boring.
A cursed area of land, rife with angry spirits and risen dead?
A place that's simply pretty inhospitable, that requires teamwork, survival skills, and determination to survive?
A lot of what makes an appropriate place depends on the order in question. What it does, what it's codes are, the kinds of people it recruits and produces.
>>43827902
It's all somewhat vague, and I was hoping to be able to piece more of it together as I go. The nation itself has an intense military tradition, to the point where a large chunk of the youth at least considers entry into an order. It is much less "knightly" in the chivalric sense, and more in that the title conveys one being respected, experienced, and at the very least, certified warrior.
Cursed land isn't all too bad of an idea. I hadn't thought much on the supernatural.
I have an order known as the Kalomear.
They used to hunt and kill the Elf analogue of the setting, but now that the Elves are known now to NOT be "the witch-crafty animated corpses of our countrymen", the order is now losing members while also shifting focus on nationalism.
The 'Arel' worship many Gods, but the local one is a God of death. One that hates undead. The Kalomear send new recruits into simple-sounding missions once inducted to kill Arel civilians and children. Leave nothing behind that can swear vengeance (killing soldiers doesn't mean kill their families, except in cases of doing so in down-time IN FRONT of them). These missions test the resolve of the inductee.
One of 3 things is expected to happen:
>Die, in which case you were not worthy of being a Full Kalomear
>Take to the orders with Aplomb, care not for the lives of the enemy and consider them less than you for being knife-eared death cultists. Become Sword Brethren who outrank all but Castellans in the field, but are low-rank officers out of it.
>Question your superiors. Opt out of being inhumane. Doing this is the only way a new inductee can hope to become a high-rank officer, let alone Castellan.
The lower ranks are soldiers, the higher ones are simply trying to strengthen the nation and is aware of the fact that they may need to draw steel on their old brothers soon.
Killing the inhuman is their ROLE. Cruelty is something that may be useful in the rank-and-file, but not for those in command. Questioning your absolutes is also a good way to show a strong sense of judgement and thus leadership potential.
>>43827796
If it's low fantasy setting a good place would be in to a near by mountains you'd have a place with harrowing climbs and cliffs savage bandits using the mountains as a staging ground wild and monsters beasts and as you get higher the weather gets colder the climbs higher and at the top a temple to a god or goddess that puts them through thier final test locked in a dark room were they suffer a hallucination that tries to devert them from thier code ether fear or temptation if the succeed thier given a symbol of the order and then must make the dangerous journey back.
>>43827796
That is such a good painting. Like, amazing technique and composition.
>>43831911
Artist's work can be found here, if you happened to want more
http://www.eve-ventrue.com/#/
>>43831556
This is more what I was looking for, with a few tweaks to be made. Thank you.
I'd fall back on some kind of underworld/supernatural as well.
Some kind of gate/portal/tunnel that leads to a truly harrowing place that is completely inaccessible by trying to climb over the mountain.
Bonus is that it is permanently sealed by a gate/boulder/wall of skulls, only opened once a year to welcome back the survivors and send in the next wave of hopefuls. Sounds like a great time for a festival too.
Could be that they are tasked with retrieving some magical flower/vine/favour from within the truly harrowing place, thus necessitating the wholesale slaughter of youth.
>>43827796
Think Diablo and make the appropriate adjustments.
>>43827796
Make it an unsettled frontier of hostile locals, like an exaggerated version of the New World or Siberia.
>>43827796
Somewhat related to your dilemma, in the setting where I'm playing in as a player my old character used to be a knight recruit-esque type of character for a military order. The fluff I gave it was that they'd train their recruits locally for a short time, then order them to explore to world helping villages along the way, slay monsters, stop any nefarious plans such as cults attempting to end the world, etc.
If you wanted to be a bit less descriptive and more lenient for where your graduated knights are going, then just make it a grand pilgrimage where they're only allowed to come back after getting some sort of proof for their deeds.
>The challenge consists of climbing a 10km long mountain through stairs and roads. In the travel the knight must surpass cliffs and rivers wearing heavy armor. Along the way the knight must fight and defeat 77 opponents in a serious fight to the death. Each of the 77 opponents carry bracelets on their arms and legs, which must be taken as proof of the knight's victory.
>Individually these "rings" aren't heavy, but together they can weigh over 100kg, making the knight struggle to even stand up and hardening his fights. It is because of these rings that most knights fail and are killed in the challenge.
Like others have said. Make it some kind of horror zone. Just rip off penance crusades like space marines do in 40k. They're sent to basically live and survive in hell for X years and if they come back alive and pure they're all good.
