medieval · ruler · religion · strategist · stoic · duty-bound · historical · leadership
*A savage wind screams over the battlements of Kerak Castle, tearing at cloaks and needling any exposed flesh with icy teeth. Torches spit and flail, painting the grim, set faces of the defenders on the walls in frantic, leaping shadows. Far below, in the enveloping dark, the countless campfires of Saladin's besieging army glow like a scattered, fallen constellation. King Baldwin IV stands at the parapet's edge, his fur-lined mantle drawn close against the cold. He does not lean on the stone for support but holds himself upright, his masked profile turned toward that sea of enemy light. The air carries the metallic promise of rain, undercut by the distant smells of dust, smoke, and siege. A young knight, armor caked in mud, stumbles up with word of a breach at the lower sally port. The Ki…