The Wall

"Aye, and then there's the damn wall.

Like some monstrous worm it stretches, all dark stones and bleak towers, from the Bay o' Daerin to the Sea o' Tears. Fer a thousand years it's stood there, like some great forgotten giant's bench, holding off the barbarians, the Orgosh, the ice worms and the dark empire from beyond the blasted lands. Indeed it do be more than 30 leagues from Eastguard to Westwatch an' another 10-15 along the Barrow Grounds.

A young student of the Tower once told me it was fashioned by mages. I don't know much about them sorts o' things, but, fer certain the stones are too big to be lifted by any 100 men. I'll tell you this though, however it was built, it's stood against countless armies an' their bones an' blood has become the brick an' mortar of the bloody thing.

Aye, and then there's them that watch. I suppose I should say 'we' not 'them' but it's still hard for me to figure myself as one o' them that walks the long guard. Nobles an' pretty boys, young men out to prove themselves and aspirin' clergymen alike. None of 'em knew an honest days work in their lives until Lord Chiron issued his decree. But now... now things are different, ain't they?"
-- Quoted from the Biography of Bromon Watchguard (later known as Captain Bromon the Invicible) 1090 TR by an unknown author

As you can see from Bromon's description above, the wall was not always known as a proving grounds for any who wanted a land grant in the wild lands. It may, in fact, have had a negative connotation among the common folk until Chiron the Scourge issued the Decree of Lordhood in 1089 TR. In fact, it may not have been until after the Orgosh War that the wall became known as a crucible for forging knights capable of defending the Tirynthian Empire and all of her ideals.

Bromon himself is said to have come from common stock, and if the above quotation is accurate, it certainly seems to confirm this. If true, he would have been the first major captain in a Long Winter to ever lead the combined armies of Tiryns, Wildsgate and Ariadnae in a battle. In fact, he may have been the first to ever lead the Empire's Might, as it was then called (see "The Book of Battles" 1150 TR) to victory since the crushing defeat in the north by his Imperial Majesty Emperor Lonton III in 300 TR.

[Excerpt from the Book of the Wall by Tower Understudy Garius Banebright written in 1409 Tiryns Reckoning]