[H] Warsong Blades

Basic information

GUILD: Warsong Blades
WEB: http://warsongblades.myfreeforum.org
CONTACT: Katalmach, Nazrug, Torgadon, Wulfe, Galdrek
FOCUS: RP and RPPVP
RACES: Orc / Troll / Tauren / Goblins
SUMMARY: Horde military group with Warsong traditionalist themes as well as a focus on modern orc imperialism, pro-Garrosh politics, and puritanical shamanism.

Guild Concept and information

1. Who are the Blades?
2. Organisation and structure
3. Goals and ideology
4. Themes
5. Contact information
6. Recruitment information
7. Events and activity

1. Who are the Blades?

The Warsong Blades is the name given to a military service order led by the Warlord of the Hall of Blades. Dedicated to Garrosh Hellscream even before his advancement to throne, the Blades are veterans of multiple tours of duty and decades of warfare.

Once an order of orc warriors of the Warsong Clan, the Blades have changed to suit the times. Orcs who are not of Warsong Clan lineage are eligible to dedicate themselves to the Blades, as are tauren and Darkspear trolls. Even goblins are permitted to associate themselves with the order as Followers. Every race of the Horde that holds a district in Orgrimmar has been represented in the Blades.

The Warsong Blades are currently led by Katalmach Banefang, who holds the title of Warlord of the Hall of Blades, and his brothers, Warbringer Nazrug Thunderfang and Warbringer Krusg Thunderhowl.

2. Organisation and structure

The Blades are a small military service order based in Orgrimmar. They operate from the Hall of Blades, a small keep in the Valley of Honour that serves as an arena, armoury, barracks, and feasting hall to those who are permitted a place within it.

Members of the Blades serve in the mainstream Horde military, often being posted in other divisions of the army abroad, or defending the Horde’s home provinces from external and internal threat. A mere few handfuls of soldiers, they endeavour to enforce Hellscream’s will and vision.

A prospective member of the Blades who is accepted into the order is given the simple rank of Enlisted. From recruits, to transfers from another military regiment, to conscripts, these prospective Blades remain mere grunts and sentries until their evaluation ends. This evaluation process involves training the Enlisted and testing his mettle in trials until such time that his worth and his loyalty have been proven.

When a member of the Enlisted has overcome his evaluations, he is given the opportunity to take his oath. This oath is a more stringent version of the Blood Oath of the Horde, and requires the oath-taker to swear his ultimate loyalty to Hellscream. Any other tribal, political, or ideological affiliations the oath-taker has become subordinate to his commitment to Garrosh and the Warsong Blades both, thereby establishing the candidate’s loyalty and patriotism. Once his oath has been taken, the Enlisted is formally given a seat in the Hall of Blades, which marks his advancement to the rank of Blade and full membership in the order. Upon gaining this rank, the Blade is held to a higher standard, and is expected to serve as an example to others.

Associates of the order who lack the skill at arms and military prowess required of a Blade are given the rank of Follower. The Followers are honorary members of the order who perform in important support functions for the Blades. They consist of armour and weapon smiths, engineers, healers and surgeons, and other non-combat personnel.

Veteran Blades who distinguish themselves are risen to the rank of Reaver, which denotes their seniority. Other Blades are expected to defer to the Reavers, who lead patrols and oversee their Blade brothers and sisters during training. They are the eyes and ears of the Warlord among the Blades, and are held to a higher standard of discipline. This is the highest that a non-orc can rise in the Blades, as the order’s leadership triumvirate is exclusive to those of the blood of Draenor.

The Blades are led by the Warlord, who holds ultimate authority over the order in the Warchief’s name. Alongside the Warlord are the Warbringers, who speak in the Warlord’s name and command in his absence. Over members of the order, their word is held to be binding law.

3. Goals and ideology

The Warsong Blades represent a union of old, traditional orcish culture with newer politics founded in Garrosh’s imperialistic dogma.

The Warsong Blades are so named not simply to denote clan heritage, but to honour and glorify what the Warsong Clan always stood for. The Blades follow the Warsong way; the hard, Spartan way of life that prevailed on Draenor. They are devoted to the shamanistic faith of their people, but follow an older and more puritanical interpretation of shamanism than that of the Earthen Ring. This older interpretation of the shamanistic faith has been bolstered by the union of the Mag’har and their shaman into the Horde, which restored lore and history once thought lost.

But even though the Blades hold fast to many of the traditionalist aspects of their culture, Garrosh’s leadership has brought them to adopt new and progressive politics. The old way of autonomous clans living independently from one another is no more. In their place, the orcs have been unified into one nation with one ruler. Orcish civilization has changed a great deal in the last few decades, and now Garrosh sits the throne; demanding patriotism and preaching that the world should be remade and united under the Horde’s banner. The Blades have rallied to Garrosh’s cause, and support his ambitions of building a centralized empire with Orgrimmar at its heart. The Blades wish to ensure that their spartan, Warsong way is dominant in this vision of the future, and they support Garrosh as the champion of their ideals.

As a military service order, the purpose of the Warsong Blades is threefold; military, political, and spiritual.

In their military capacity, the Blades are much like any loyalist Horde regiment. Their goal is to see to the enemies of the Horde cast down and ruined, that the Horde may thrive in strength and dominance. The Blades are bound by oath and honour to fight for the Warchief.

Politically, the Blades serve another function. They are enforcers and advocates of Hellscream’s vision of the Horde’s future. To that end, the Blades are vigilant against internal threats as well as external ones, and seek to bring about Garrosh’s will as well as bring others to support it.

The third function of the Blades arises from their shamanistic spirituality. The sons of the Warsong clan know well the seductive power and bitter aftertaste of demonic corruption, and as puritanical followers of shamanism they despise anything which causes spiritual corruption. The Blades are mandated to seek out and destroy artefacts of fel influence, and remain vigilant against the subversive encroachment of profane power and those who wield it.

Themes

Our guild's rp deals with a few primary themes; the dissonance between the old ways of the orcs and the newly emerging Horde imperialism of the current regime. The tension between a spartan and puritanical interpretation of shamanism and the other faiths present on Azeroth and in the Horde. The political differences between Warsong and other orcs, and between Garrosh and Thrall as Warchief. The nature of the relationship between orcs and the other races beneath the Horde's banner. The ongoing war between the Alliance and Horde, and the motivations and ideologies behind it. These are some of the commonly recurring themes that we tend to touch on in our roleplay.

Contact information

Our recruitment officers are Galdrek, Wulfe and Torgadon. Contact them for recruitment related matters, such as questions or organising IC interviews. If they are unavailable, myself and Nazrug can answer any questions you might have. For cross-guild matters and other miscellaneous things, contact myself or my 2IC, Nazrug. I also welcome people to contact me on our website if they are of a mind to do so.

Recruitment information

People who are interested in applying to our guild must please visit our humble forum (warsongblades.myfreeforum.org), read up on us, and post an application in our recruitment section. On occasion, we might ask questions or make suggestions for an app before we accept it. Once we accept an application, all that remains is for one of our recruitment officers, by default our Reavers (Torgadon, Wulfe, Galdrak) to conduct your IC interview and joining.

As a Horde military guild, we naturally look for characters with a Horde military focus.

Races we currently accept:

Orcs: Orcs are our guild's primary race. We have a particular focus on Warsong orcs, but we will accept an application from any Horde affiliated orc.

Trolls: We accept Horde-affiliated Darkspear trolls who are not opposed to the Horde's new regime.

As a military guild, we encourage a certain amount of military conformity. The more your character conforms to what one would reasonably expect of an orcish soldier – of any class – the more he’ll fit in and the better I would expect your RP to be.

We do have certain class restrictions. They are they following;

Warlocks:We do not accept applications from warlocks. Puritanical shamanism, and a hatred of all things demonic, is a large part of our concept. There will never an IC warlock RPing as a member of this guild, without exception. If there ever are warlocks in our guild, which I’m not expecting just now, the circumstances will be such that the warlock character is not representative of our guild IC.

Mages: We do accept applications from orc and troll mages, but we’ll go over these with a fine tooth comb. While these mages are as plausible as any other mages, how they fit into their own culture is a tricky thing to handle. Any mages in our guild will be orcs/trolls first, mages second, and such applications will likely require a bit of give and take between the applicant and our officers before we’re content with it.

Death Knights: We do accept applications from death knights, provided that the death knight character is at maximum level. Death knights in our guild will suffer very extreme restrictions so as to properly fit into the guild. Our death knights are required to leave and denounce the Ebon Blade, swear themselves to the cause of the Horde, and take very stringent oaths to limit their use of their powers.

Events and activity

To start with, we’re trying to kick off with three planned events – including meetings and patrols – per week, while encouraging spontaneous RP and use of our IC channel. As we’re newly reformed here, we’re not fully up to strength yet, but our officers are going to make an honest effort to keep things as active as possible. Whether we have a slow start or an explosive one, we’ll stick around until we find our rhythm here.

We are keen to see about some joint events and meetings just to get to know our neighbours and start building relationships with the established guilds.

Aye, i've seen a few of your lads about. Would be nice to Rp some time!

RPed with them thursday evening, was fun. Seem like a bunch of nice chaps!

This could be a bump...But the Blades do not view it as such.

Guild still going strong? I am interested in joining on one of my characters.

Which reminds me, are you still only recruiting Orcs and Trolls?

We're doing very well at the moment, and our months are getting busier and busier.

Our orc/troll restriction is technically still in place, but my commitment to it is slowly waning. We're not quite as tauren heavy as we were when we decided on the restriction though, and I do have some inactives to clean out, so exceptions are possible based on how enthusiastic and convincing an applicant can be.

Love stalking your reavers in Ashenvale!
See you on the Battlefield!

Just an update. Our racial balance has shifted to a more comfortable place, and I've decided to reopen our tauren and goblin recruitment. WSB is back to accepting all Horde races who are based in Kalimdor and are represented by a district in Orgrimmar.

As of now, here is our updated Recruitment Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_wTPkNSNXU&feature=feedu
Credit goes to Sulgha for this