The Round Table
“A hundred generations have lived and died in darkness. A thousand cities have fallen; there will not be another. Onadbyr is the world, and so the Round Table shall defend it. We stand together, or we die alone.”
For the most part, the people of Onadbyr govern themselves. The outside world is a dangerous and unforgiving place, and every resident knows that cooperation is the only way to survive. The different trades and crafts collaborate to ensure that the basic needs of the people are met, and different people’s committees regularly form and disband to address the most pressing issue of the day, week, or month. There is little in the way of permanent authority inside the walls of the town, as the people of Onadbyr find it inefficient and a waste of time to focus on power and politics.
But someone must handle the outside and brave the wilds, and so there must be a Round Table. The Round Table is the closest thing to a ruling body that Onadbyr has; the group is responsible for the security of the town against monsters, bandits, and threats of all kinds. The Round Table Council has final say on all matters outside the town limits, and in times of extraordinary crisis has the power to overrule the wishes of the people of the town. This power has yet to be exercised, and should the members of the Round Table ever use it they must all resign their positions at the resolution of the crisis; they may only rejoin the Round Table if a supermajority of residents approve.
The people of Onadbyr generally handle disputes themselves, but the Round Table handles violent crimes and treason. The punishment for severe crimes is almost always exile; there is no death penalty in Onadbyr. The population is too small to allow for an institution of capital punishment, and it runs against the central principles of the town. Exiles are considered outside the protection of the Round Table, however, and if they attack townspeople in the future their lives are forfeit.
The Round Table has two levels of membership. The first and lower rank is associate status (Player Characters), while the upper level is the Round Table Council. Associates are adventurers recruited and organized by the Council to travel out into the wilds for a myriad of purposes including security, salvage, and study. Associates are not generally considered “full” members of the Round Table; an Associate might have a completely different occupation or life inside the walls, and only adventure part time or on certain types of expeditions.
When people refer to the Round Table colloquially, they are talking about the Council. The Council is a small group mainly composed of retired Associates who are either too old, too broken or too valuable to continue to journey into the wilds on a regular basis. There are also a few notable non-adventurer members of the community who are on the Council. Any residents of the town may petition The Council to organize an expedition outside town, but The Council decides who to send and how they operate.
The Round Table’s rules and priorities change over time, but they have a few cardinal principles that never change. They are:
- Always act in the interest of the people of Onadbyr, or at least never against their interest.
- Always treat sentient life as worth preserving so long as it does not threaten other sentient life.
- Always respect your fellows in the Round Table, for we stand together or we die alone.
An association of warriors, wizards and wonder workers. The sword and shield of civilization. If the Round Table falls, none shall take our place.