Beyond Gotham’s immediate orbit looms another storm: the Bane Mercenaries, a colossal barbarian horde whose name has become synonymous with unstoppable sieges and shattered walls. Drawn from harsh steppe-lands, frozen norths, and broken empires, the Banes are less an army and more a moving cataclysm.
Their hallmark is raw power and disciplined brutality. Siege towers hauled by monstrous beasts, rams tipped with dragon-bone, and war-drums that echo for miles announce their coming. When the Banes commit to a contract, fortresses crumble and cities burn. When they march without a patron – as a migrating war-host in search of plunder – they leave ghost kingdoms in their wake.
Whispers suggest that Gotham’s enemies have begun courting the Bane Mercenaries. A distant duke ruined by Falcone trade blockades, a zealot order aghast at Gotham’s corruption, or even elements of the Court seeking to break and rebuild the city might attempt to buy the Banes’ services. The prospect of Gotham’s already fragile defenses tested against a Bane siege sends shudders through the nobility.
For Grimhollow, the Banes are both threat and opportunity. A Bane siege would ravage the countryside, weakening goblin and human alike. But in the chaos, the Redoubt could strike at isolated camps, steal siegecraft secrets, or even negotiate strange pacts with warlords who respect any who survive their onslaught.