Background

The Cult of Manann tends to keep its activities to the western border of the Empire. Manann’s cult concentrates its efforts on issues relating to the sea, shipping and navigation. Consequently, these cultists are sought out by sea captains to act as navigators, pilots, and sailors. Because having a priest of Manann with you, means your journey might have better luck.

Manann is a fickle god and his worshippers spend most of their time trying to appease him. Either through sacrifice, tithes or gifts thrown into the ocean.

Those interested in wanting to become a priest of Manann must always start as sailors and after proving their competence may be allowed to begin their priestly training.

Most of the Cult's temples are semi-autonomous, but all must recognise the leadership of the matriarch. As part of this, all temples must pay annual tithes to her and the Order of the Albatross.

Due to the tithes, the cult is extremely wealthy. However, this wealth is not distributed fairly amongst the orders, priests and initiates, which creates animosity between the sailors and the priestly orders

The Order of the Albatross This is the leading order and along with the Matriarch, have the most control over the organisation. Leader skill reflects this quality. They are also happy to charge liberally for services they give to the local seafaring communities, which creates more resentment and animosity. It is likely that when one of these players are removed from the pitch, a great cheer is heard, by all sides, across the whole stadium.

Knights Mariner These templars protect the high temple and the fleets who pay for protection. The knights are directly controlled by the matriarch. They are highly trained marines and sailors. They are proficient in combat, but Block is not the best skill to have on a ship (you may push your opponent into the sea and they may escape), wrestle seems a more appropriate skill. As they are are expected to work both on land and sea, they do not wear typical plate mail armour as expected with a Knight. Hence, they have AV8.

Sons of Manann They are the most common order of templars. They wear purple and white armour, and charge into battle armed with a cutlass. The stab skill represents their sword. They have Dirty Player as they do not care whether their opponent is standing up or on the floor.

Stormguard The Stormguard are the order who are dedicated to hunting down the followers of Stromfels. They wear hooded cloaks and often carry spears. This position clearly needs the right skills to take down a Son of Stromfel, so Block and Dauntless are reasonable addition to the player’s roster. As with the Knights Mariner, they have AV8 for similar reasons.

Sailor The sailors are the initiates looking to climb the ranks of the cult. Though they carry the resentment of their community towards the Orders. To reflect this, they have the Animosity trait. They have AV7 as wearing heavy armour onboard ship is not a wise thing to do.

Design Notes

The team is specifically designed to bring opponents down, which gives the Sons of Manann an opportunity to foul. They have a strong attack, but lack agility and passing skills. This hopefully creates some balance.