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Description
During the last decades of the 45th and early 46th Century, Revrovia was in the middle of a heavy commotion: the race for Noder and Yacata was at its highest, the Varian Kingdom has just been formed, nomadic tribes from the East start to settle in Engher and Vavotia, the Ladian sea was more and more bloodied while the Odussian Byganzs were breaking from their Alagudi overlords...
In the middle of all of it, a new warrior class from Varian and Hotecke was forming and thriving: the "Enknageknaf".

As their name implies, Enknageknaf or "Knight-less Squires" were member of lower nobility or high middle-class, often employed as "squires", a term that indicate the usual retinue of a knight: personal squire, professional guards, provisioners and servants. With all that was going on, and the slow but steady fall of the feudal system for a centralized state, many of them simply found themselves unemployed, either for the death, capture or fall of their knights.
These professionals would have become just mercenary, if the new queen of Varian, Franzezka of Ottengau, didn't intervened. She thought Varian needed a new army, a professional one on the likes of the Ladian one, as the Landwhare could do so much. With the aid of veteran mercenaries under her service who fought with her late sister, manage to form a united and loyal mercenary army.
Made by all kind of people, from serfs to fallen nobles, from criminals to merchants, the Enknageknaf was renowed to be very professional and with a strong espirit-de-corps, unlike many feudal levied armies still present.
But a mercenary army remain only if payed. With Varian mostly rebuild, some of them were incorporated as state's army, the other found employment in all corners of Revrovia and beyond, even in the New World. A large number of them were hired by the rising Kingdom of Norig, so many that later they become an ethnicity of Norig, suriving up today.

Trough their existence, the Enknageknaf was organized into self-sufficent regiments of around 1000 soldiers, each divided into 6 companies:
1 of Totschwadre (Death's company), assault soldiers, armed with two-hand weapons as greatswords, axes and hammers, tasket to break enemy's formation.
2 of Alemberen (Halberdiers), the standard troop armed with halberds or polearms.
1 of Arkebuseren (Arquebusiers), standard ranged troops, initially with crossbows and later with arquebus or muskets.
1 of Obereiten (Workers), as smiths, grooms, carpenters, surgeon...
1 of Drusseinen (Luggage's Keepers), camp followers, provisioners, nurses, cooks...

Within the Enknagenaf, the Alemberen were considered "the standard", as polearms didn't required much training or skill (arquebus were another matter), so more focus were given to their squad tactics and manouver. This "standardization" treatment was often suffered from them, as reminder of the time when noblity treated them as "levy mass". To distinguish themsevles from the other, a sort of "style race" began within them, to who fashion the most colorful or eccentric clothing and armor on the field, showing off both its style and wealth.
The Alemberen are considered the istigator of the wild fashion that started to rise in Revrovia from the 46th Century onward.

A thing that went way overboard in the holds of Lower Varian and Alden...

An Alemberen from the Alden holds, carring a Mützerne poleaxe (46th Century).

Description
During the last decades of the 45th and early 46th Century, Revrovia was in the middle of a heavy commotion: the race for Noder and Yacata was at its highest, the Varian Kingdom has just been formed, nomadic tribes from the East start to settle in Engher and Vavotia, the Ladian sea was more and more bloodied while the Odussian Byganzs were breaking from their Alagudi overlords...
In the middle of all of it, a new warrior class from Varian and Hotecke was forming and thriving: the "Enknageknaf".

As their name implies, Enknageknaf or "Knight-less Squires" were member of lower nobility or high middle-class, often employed as "squires", a term that indicate the usual retinue of a knight: personal squire, professional guards, provisioners and servants. With all that was going on, and the slow but steady fall of the feudal system for a centralized state, many of them simply found themselves unemployed, either for the death, capture or fall of their knights.
These professionals would have become just mercenary, if the new queen of Varian, Franzezka of Ottengau, didn't intervened. She thought Varian needed a new army, a professional one on the likes of the Ladian one, as the Landwhare could do so much. With the aid of veteran mercenaries under her service who fought with her late sister, manage to form a united and loyal mercenary army.
Made by all kind of people, from serfs to fallen nobles, from criminals to merchants, the Enknageknaf was renowed to be very professional and with a strong espirit-de-corps, unlike many feudal levied armies still present.
But a mercenary army remain only if payed. With Varian mostly rebuild, some of them were incorporated as state's army, the other found employment in all corners of Revrovia and beyond, even in the New World. A large number of them were hired by the rising Kingdom of Norig, so many that later they become an ethnicity of Norig, suriving up today.

Trough their existence, the Enknageknaf was organized into self-sufficent regiments of around 1000 soldiers, each divided into 6 companies:
1 of Totschwadre (Death's company), assault soldiers, armed with two-hand weapons as greatswords, axes and hammers, tasket to break enemy's formation.
2 of Alemberen (Halberdiers), the standard troop armed with halberds or polearms.
1 of Arkebuseren (Arquebusiers), standard ranged troops, initially with crossbows and later with arquebus or muskets.
1 of Obereiten (Workers), as smiths, grooms, carpenters, surgeon...
1 of Drusseinen (Luggage's Keepers), camp followers, provisioners, nurses, cooks...

Within the Enknagenaf, the Alemberen were considered "the standard", as polearms didn't required much training or skill (arquebus were another matter), so more focus were given to their squad tactics and manouver. This "standardization" treatment was often suffered from them, as reminder of the time when noblity treated them as "levy mass". To distinguish themsevles from the other, a sort of "style race" began within them, to who fashion the most colorful or eccentric clothing and armor on the field, showing off both its style and wealth.
The Alemberen are considered the istigator of the wild fashion that started to rise in Revrovia from the 46th Century onward.

A thing that went way overboard in the holds of Lower Varian and Alden...

An Alemberen from the Alden holds, carring a Mützerne poleaxe (46th Century).