MORE PHOTOS  HERE!
 
This project was spearheaded by the Freeblades player community, with the amazing and generous support of DGS Games. It is our desire to see our passion for Freeblades shared with a greater audience, and what better way to do that than by supporting an amazing charity. This is a battle set which faces the Traazorites against the Eclipse Sisterhood!
 
The models were painted by Jason Gibeault of Splintered Brush Studio in Ottawa, Canada and Andrew Weber. The display board was designed, built, and painted by BJ Lamure. Kevin Armitage provided the bulk of the admin behind the project, as well as being the contact point between all parties involved.
 
Freeblades is a fantasy skirmish game set in the exciting and dangerous world of Faelon. A freeblade is an adventurer for hire who operates under a warrant from one of Faelon’s many factions. A freeblade warrant allows the holder to do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission, so long as they are willing to accept the risks. Freeblades gather into freebands to accomplish the tasks their patrons set out for them. In return, the freeband receives a share of any plunder or profit and can expect protection once back inside the faction’s borders. If they make it there…
 
Freeblades is a fantasy game because its setting is one of swords and magic, of dire creatures and perilous landscapes, of selfless valor and vile treachery. Freeblades is set in the world of Faelon, which provides the perfect backdrop for exciting adventures. Faelon, its history, its geography and its people are described on our website, www.dgsgames.com.
 
Freeblades is a skirmish game because each player commands a freeband of six to eighteen individual models representing the members of the freeband. These models are masterfully sculpted 32 mm miniatures. Freeblades is also played using any convenient surface as a battleground and tape measures and dice for determining success or failure.
 
Gather your freeband and set off to recover the lost treasure, rescue the prisoner, explore the ruined city, or attempt any one of many exciting tasks. Track your freeblades as they gather experience and gain new skills, talents, and gear. The Freeblades rulebook has many dangerous quests and more will be added to the mix all the time.
So, strap on your greatsword, string that longbow and commit that one last spell to memory. Adventure awaits!
 
Traazorite Empire:
The Traazorite Empire is the result of the relentless conquest of all the peoples of Ryshael, Faelon’s southwestern continent. The Traazorites rose from barbarism out of a small land on Ryshael’s western coast to methodically consume the ancient Krai-jan Empire, which had begun to fall in on itself through laziness and decadence in the 700’s BK. Prophets of the Sun entered into league with rebels teaching swordsmanship in hidden schools to forge an irresistible combination of religious zeal and combat prowess. To make matters worse for their overlords, the Traazorites solved the riddle of steel and used it to cut a murderous path through the bronzed-armed phalanxes of Krai-jan spearmen. Once the Krai-jan had fallen and the Traazorites were firmly established as their successors, they began to expand to conquer the lands outside of the traditional Krai-jan provinces.
 
The Empire succeeded in annexing all of the Ryshael, with the exception of the Mershael who remain too problematic for conquest. From Isarchael, the Traazorites have been completely expelled, both by inexorable pressure from Faeler migrations and by the rebellion of their last unconquered province and the formation of the Kaliphate of Koronna. The Traazorite Empire remains the single most powerful nation on Faelon, and its continued thirst to return to Isarchael in force creates great tension among the peoples bordering the Shining Sea.
 
Horses are not indigenous to Ryshael. Instead, the continent is home to a variety of dinosaurs that did not die out as they apparently did on the northern continent. These saurians serve as the Traazorites’ beasts of burden, carrying men, goods and weapons of war.
 
Eclipse Sisterhood:
The members of the Eclipse Sisterhood are in rebellion against the patriarchal Traazorite Empire. Women cannot hold political office, run a business, or serve in the military. The time has come for that to change! Across the Empire, a clandestine rebellion has formed of women who oppose the Empire of the Sun’s treatment of them. Naturally, they have taken the Eclipse as their symbol and inspiration. From a small core of disaffected noblewomen living in the great city of Shanadad, the Eclipse has spread like a plains wildfire across the Empire. Cells exist in virtually every city or town of any size. There are places where Traazorite merchants, nobles, officials, and officers cannot move about in less than a large armed group without fearing for their lives.
 
The cells themselves are highly compartmented. In the rare instance a sister is caught alone and has her back to the wall, she fights to the death. In the even rarer instance of capture, none has ever revealed the details of even her own cell, let alone another. The central authority of the Eclipse is a mysterious figure known only as the Blademother. Possibly no secret in all of Faelon is so well kept as her identity and location. She is a rumor swathed in ambiguity. Does she exist? Who knows who she is or where? Does she move about? Is that Secret Sister in the local cell actually commanding the entire rebellion?
 
The Eclipse does not advocate for the death of all men, although some members might not find that such a bad idea. Instead, they call for equality on the model of places like Koronna and Falkaar. And while some Traazorite men, especially some out in the provinces, may not be adamantly opposed to some change along that line, the Emperor, the Senate and the Legions resist any such change with their full might. Many observers outside the Empire believe it is only a matter of time until the Eclipse Sisterhood succeeds.
 
They also believe that the final battle in the rebellion will be the one for the souls of the Empire’s female Chosen. It is not lost to those who think about such things that everywhere else in the world, those with the gift of magic are equally represented among both boys and girls. Where then are all of the Empire’s female casters who have not joined the rebellion? Few doubt the Eclipse seek to answer that question once and for all.