A bucket of Mount & Blade ramblings, from Bannerlord art of my characters to first impressions, screenshots, a Warband sketch, and a journal of my Bannerlord adventures.
Mount & Blade introduction
Mount & Blade is a medieval action role-playing game franchise developed and published by TaleWorlds Entertainment, a Turkish game development studio (I love them). The franchise has been around since 2008.
The gameplay is centered around a combination of strategy and action in an open-world sandbox. Players engage in trading, recruiting soldiers, and completing quests. The core gameplay mechanic, however, revolves around battles and sieges, either as a warrior fighting on the front lines, or as a commander directing their troops.
You can interact with factions and make decisions that impact the game’s storyline. Since 2008 the franchise has a loyal community of modders. A mod is suggest is Prophesy of Pendor (one of my favorites for Warband.)
My experience in Mount & Blade: Warband
I find its combat intuitive and realistic, and it can be relaxing to simply roam around trying to make life as a trader or mercenary. You can use the mouse or controller’s D-pad to direct a weapon or shield swing direction.
At the time of Warband I also enjoyed how playing as a woman changed some of the gameplay features, like lords taking a little longer to favor you, but at the same time you had some advantages, like receiving a husband’s garrisons and troops if you managed to marry a guy.
My M&B Bannerlord journal and fan art
The Twitter Thread
I bought Bannerlord immediately at launch and was hooked by the new blacksmithing features, the nice, simple tutorial story, and companions. I love that there are also dialogues with charisma-based options and outcomes.
Whenever playing I like to make a Twitter thread or journal of my character’s adventures. It also served as a “quick impressions” (and long and full of jokes) review thread my friends could follow. It’s in Portuguese-BR.
The clan — “Popo”
Niasen and Nara are siblings from Battania. Their clan was born after an enemy lord killed a harmless family dog — Popo.
The gold & black crying banner is Popo, which also represents families seeing loved ones lost to petty fights or as collateral damage. The brothers are close-knit and somewhat popular in villages due to the appeal of their story.
Their weakness is to resist doing something reckless to enact revenge from the lords who harmed their loved ones — thus falling in the same unnecessary bloodshed cycle found so often in their world.
So far they’ve become:
• Local legends in tourneys, owning businesses, and saving peasants and caravans from their deaths;
• Sort of nomadic until they found a more permanent home in the snow of Sturgia.
Eventually they found a young and poor Sturgian clan and married their members.
Niasen’s fiancée is a warrior lady named Svana (white costume lady), and Yara’s husband (wearing blue) took a break from wars to form a caravan.
Both pieces were featured in Mount & Blade’s Instagram. Ty ♥
Sturgia
This in-game faction seems to be inspired by Kievan Rus (and some Norse) culture. I’ve used a painting of Olga of Kiev and an embroidered cloth called Rushnyk/Nabozhnyk in the background.
My main character is small and other NPCs from those areas are usually tall. It’s the funniest thing to see her among friends and enemies, tiny and heavily armored.
Sketch WIP
A bunch of Bannerlord screenshots
To show the in-game characters that originated the paintings above.
A Mount & Blade Warband fanart sketch
Rafarch was my bestie in Warband. He’d jump into any battle and was a complete danger to himself, his troops, and allies. A marvel to watch.
Bonus: Warband introduction video
A video I made for Bichos Geeks, my beloved co-authored Portuguese gaming portal, giving a quick glance of the game. ♥
Patreon (hi-res sketches, art insights and more ♥)
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