"They may look like middle-aged, reactionary landowners, but the druzhina fight with considerable skill when their way of life is under threat."
- —Description of the druzhina of Kislev in Total War: Warhammer III.[3]
Concept art for a druzhina as created for Total War: Warhammer III.
A druzhina is a member of the lowest rank of formal nobility among the ethnic Gospodars of Kislev. Many atamans (chieftains) of ethnically Gospodarin stanitsas hold this rank, as do a significant number of rotamasters, the commanders of the rota or local garrison.[1a]
The rank is traditionally hereditary, but Tzarina Katarin Bokha has recently started making common-born individuals druzhina for life in return for great service to the crown, the Motherland or for financial contributions to the Kislevite treasury. Katarin often uses the rank of druzhina to reward influential Kislevite individuals who publicly affirm and support her power and authority as she seeks to further centralise the Kislevite monarchy to a hitherto unprecedented degree.[1a]
These rewards are almost always only for the life of the recipient, but she has occasionally granted a newly-minted druzhina the right to pass the title on to their heirs. She has even extended this privilege to some Ungols, which has created some discontent among both the ethnically Gospodar Kislevite population and other Ungols who remain uneasy with any cooperation with the state created by their conquerors.[1a]
Role[]
Concept art of the druzhina created for Total War: Warhammer III, showing their primary weapons of greataxe and bow.
The druzhina are lesser nobles that live beyond the walls of Kislev's great cities and tend to their own lands and people, often serving as the hereditary atamans of ethnically Gospodarin stanitsas. Ever ready to serve the reigning tzar or tzarina, the druzhina are well-connected to the nature that surrounds them and bring with them to war items that have been handed down generation by generation.[2]
Druzhina are drawn from minor Kislevite nobility, and consist of land-owning men of sufficient means that they can afford a horse, armour and weapons with which to defend the Motherland when called upon by the tzar.[2]
As is befitting of members of the Kislevite establishment, druzhina have great disdain for city-dwellers, and are keen on preserving the rural feudal hierarchy that provides their power and status, but are also self-sufficient, resourceful and have a healthy attitude to the very real likelihood they will be killed during their military service to the state.[2]
The druzhina's main weapon of choice is the two-handed greataxe -- a very nasty weapon when swung with conviction -- yet they also carry a bow.[2]
Sources[]
- 1: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Realm of the Ice Queen (RPG)
- 1a: pg. 24
- 2: Total War Blog: Patch 4.2 Shadows of Change Content Additions - Part 3: Kislev
- 3: Total War: Warhammer III (PC Game)
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