Freelance Companies

There are few institutions as deeply ingrained into  Alvyrnian  culture as that of the Freelance Companies. Condottiere and mercenary companies are perhaps one of the oldest businesses in the Sunrise Lands, but Alvyrnian tradition holds that these companies are usually led by an unlanded noble. Should a commoner become the captain of a freelance company, he or she will style themselves as a Freelance noble, exchanging traditional noble holdings for the holding of the company. Their company will usually adopt their new coat of arms, though they may choose to adopt the old coat, or only slightly change it.

By contrast to the rest of the continent’s practices, the mercenary companies of the pointed men traditionally tend to be composed largely of cavalry, to the point where lesser Alvyrnian nobles sometimes disregarded raising their own riders. Hence the colloquial name for these sellswords- Free Lances, now conjugated to Freelances. Since the Empire’s conquest of the rest of the continent, their practices have spread across the southern countries, to the point where companies of Freelances are now a common sight from the  Lands of Blood  to Puchnya.

Nonetheless, the Companies have changed significantly over time. Once, they were a respected institution, raised by noble lords in the days when standing armies didn’t exist, to act as shock troops and heavy cavalry. Nowadays, they’re hired as little more than common mercenaries to end spats between rival merchants or quarrels between petty lords. The venture is no less profitable, even if the times have changed, but where their hands once held honor in high regard, now their hands hold coin.