[Christopher VaughnStrever]

Disclaimer --- Ok, this is completely fictional and not in any way historically accurate.

What I would like to do is create a “Medieval Blacksmiths Wars!”

This will become a series that I am making, and any involvement to help project the Historical Accuracy surrounding the story would be greatly appreciated and credited, Just let me know if you would like to join the team. This is meant to be fun and constructive that can take up some of your leisure time with something you love.

Here is a brief intoduction without the begining of the actual story.
In the year 1399, at the turn of the century; Blacksmiths were becoming the greatest of all Craftsmen. The word greatest in our sense of thought… equals power, riches, popularity, influence, and envy. As each blacksmith would work to craft a superior piece of armor, these blacksmiths also employed Mercenary Knights to capture armor from other blacksmiths in other countries. Through war on the battle field these Mercenary Knights would target certain Knights on the opposing side in order to take their Armor from them and ultimately take the captured armor to their employer: The Blacksmith. If at all possible these mercenary knights would allow the targeted knight to be set free once the suit of armor had been acquired.

At this point the Blacksmith would examine the armor in every detail and facet in order to see if this was in fact a superior armor than the armor he himself produced. When the discovery of a stronger and lighter armor would be found; the Blacksmith would perform certain tests and then would begin to fabricate armor trying to replicate what has been made by the other Smith. A race for advanced Armor had begun anew with aspects never seen before!

Fractions such as the English Blacksmiths, French Blacksmiths, German Blacksmiths, and Italian Blacksmiths arose late in the year 1399. Blacksmiths had a wealth beyond that of which even Knights could even imagine. These smiths could even influence and at times dictate wars in manners that not even a King could control.

And then, when rare circumstances arose and two opposing fractions of the Smiths Mercenary Knights came onto the same field… war ceased and a true spectacle of a fight of dominance began.

Thus in the beginning of the year 1400… The Smith’s Guild Wars began!

Comments welcome.

[Yuri Serebemnick]

Great idea.
For more inspiration, give a try on those musics: http://www.aranyzoltan.hu/the_last_of_the_troubadours.htm
They helped me a lot with my drawings.

[Joel Minturn]

This sounds like it could be a good book. I like the premise at least.

So is it blacksmithing guilds fighting other blacksmithing guilds with individual blacksmiths fighting for and stealing secrets from there own "friends" in the local guild? So with all the politics going on when do they find time to get work done? Or is it done by apprentices who are waiting to take the mantel of blacksmith by any means?

But good luck and can't wait to read it.

[Christopher VaughnStrever]

You gave me an idea Joel, Thanks.

I was not planning on local guilds competeing, more of a collaboration of guilds seperated only by country... though to make things get interesting.... yes at some point down the story a small fraction of smiths could break off from the main countries of their orgins...


And Yuri! Thank you my friend what a nice collection of ready music!

[Chad Arnow]

[Christopher VaughnStrever]

Thank you Chad this was the exact type of info I was looking for...

Chad Arrow:

[Chad Arnow]

[Christopher VaughnStrever]

My goodness, my hat is off to you Chad, instead of shoot me in the direction I was headed (Wrong direction) You helped me understand a bit more of what I was really shooting for. I will look into the said information above, thank you.

[Craig Johnson]

Hi Christopher

I would agree with chad that you need to delve into the history of the period as it will be far more inspiring and amazing than ideas generated from us today. I would recommend looking at it more in the frame work of city states, principalities, craft regions and very constrained Guild systems with in these larger structures. The idea of any organized craft sub culture that is larger than a day or twos journey by foot is probably a good frame to start with. The people of the period did not identify themselves as we do today by nationality. They where local identities that may be ruled by a national system but they thought of themselves as beings of their local.

As Chad says this is a huge topic, idea, concept to flesh out. But one so rich in historical detail and structure that you would not have to manufacture much of this info on your own.

Best
Craig

[Gottfried P. Doerler]

[Christopher VaughnStrever]

I have done a tad bit of research thus far (Not as much as I'd like to up to this point) Though i know at the least "internet reads" are questionable in the least...

Does any one know what key words would be best to search under (not for this website alone) to get into this subject matter at hand?

Or perhaps any good books that I may be able to delve into?

I have had ideas in the past for this sort of thing, but I want these future writings to be as spot on as I personally can. So alot of research is "comming soon" to me.

[Lafayette C Curtis]

Book recommendations? I was going to say the New Cambridge Medieval History, but I'm not sure it's anywhere within your budget. The online edition might be a bit more affordable, but I wouldn't know since I've never made a pricing inquiry to them.

In any case, for the military side, I can't recommend J.F. Verbruggen's The Art of Warfare in Western Europe during the Middle Ages strongly enough. It's probably the most up-to-date single-volume general reference work on medieval military history that's still well within the purchasing abilities of the beginning enthusiast. Some people have said that it's a tough read; I'd beg to disagree, but then I'm used to reading academic stuff (a lot of which are much harder to read than this one) so your mileage may vary.