History VideoGame / MountAndBlade

''Mount & Blade'' is an indie [[ActionRPG Action]]-StrategyRPG developed by [=TaleWorlds=] Entertainment and published by Creator/ParadoxInteractive. It is a [[WideOpenSandbox sandbox-style]] game, set in the [[MedievalEuropeanFantasy medieval-ish land]] of Calradia, where you begin with [[WithThisHerring a lame horse, a rusty sword, a bent crossbow, and some tattered rags]], and are then expected to impress a king of your choice and conquer the world for him (or whatever else you feel like, really). You can hire [[HiredGuns mercenaries]], train them, trade between cities, fight bandits, and even become a vassal to a lord and be granted a village, castle, or town.

An UpdatedRerelease called ''Mount & Blade: Warband'' came out in April 2010, featuring a significantly improved combat model, a revamped single-player campaign with more in-depth political system, new items and locations, and probably the most called-for feature, multiplayer.

Released in late 2009 in Eastern Europe and May 2011 in North America and the rest of Europe was ''Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword'', effectively a mod for ''Warband'' developed by the Ukrainian group [=SiCh=] Studio and Russian Snowberry Connection (former Snowberry Connection). It adds early guns, a [[Literature/SienkiewiczTrilogy historical (fiction) setting]], improves town-management and gives more options than just "[[ScrappyMechanic put a single ladder with room for 1 guy up the wall]]" in sieges as well as a storyline to follow.

In April 2012, an updated version (multiplayer-only) of the popular mod ''Mount & Musket'' was released as official DLC for ''Warband'', titled ''Mount & Blade: Napoleonic Wars'', which takes place, of course, during UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars.

The ''Warband'' engine has also been licensed out twice for games published outside Taleworlds, resulting in the pirate-themed ''Blood & Gold: Caribbean'' (from the makers of ''With Fire and Sword'') and the China-themed ''Gloria Sinica: Han Xiongnu Wars'', both released through UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}.

A proper sequel, ''VideoGame/MountAndBladeIIBannerlord'', serves as a prequel to ''Mount & Blade: Warband'' with an engine overhaul and gameplay improvements. After a very long development cycle, the game was released into Early Access on March 30th 2020, following a multiplayer beta in the latter part of 2019.

In addition to its modding community and the mods own pages, ''Mount & Blade'' also inspired ''Machinima/ThisNotchedAndRustedBlade'', a machinima made with the ''VideoGame/AnnoDomini1257'' mod.

** Majorly overhauled in ''Bannerlord'' due to player feedback - no longer is it only a single siege tower or ladder, now it can be by bombardment to make breaches, battering rams, multiple towers and ladders, or any combination thereof. Furthermore, sieges receive a VideoGame/TotalWar style deployment phase.

A proper sequel, ''VideoGame/MountAndBladeIIBannerlord'', serves as a prequel to ''Mount & Blade: Warband'' with an engine overhaul and gameplay improvements. After a very long development cycle, the game was released on March 30th 2020, and a multiplayer beta started in the later part of 2019.

A proper sequel, ''VideoGame/MountAndBlade2Bannerlord'', serves as a prequel to ''Mount & Blade: Warband'' with an engine overhaul and gameplay improvements. After a very long development cycle, the game was released on March 30th 2020, and a multiplayer beta started in the later part of 2019.

A proper sequel, ''Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord'', serves as a prequel to ''Mount & Blade: Warband'' with an engine overhaul and gameplay improvements. After a very long development cycle, the game was released on March 30th 2020, and a multiplayer beta started in the later part of 2019.

[[folder: Additional Tropes found in ''Bannerlord'']]
* AncestralWeapon: The game features a robust crafting system, allowing players to design all sorts of weird and unique weapons, give them a name, and use them in battle. With ''Bannerlord'' featuring dynastic elements (if your character dies, you take over as someone else in your clan), these weapons your character crafted can pass down the generations.
* AnyoneCanDie: Unlike in ''Warband'' the player may freely execute enemy lords. Doing so has been indicated by the devs to be a bad idea, with how angry people will get depending on the lord in question; fewer people will weep if you kill a dishonorable piece of crap, but he was still part of the aristocracy and therefore supposed to be above such things. Especially given that (depending on settings) the player's OWN immortality card has been revoked. Wind up a captive of someone you've pissed off and you might find yourself on the executioner's block, and if you don't have anyone in your clan to take over, it's game over.
* ChokepointGeography: The map is significantly larger than the ''Warband'' map, expanding to new lands to the east and south, and the terrain as a whole (even in the area that matches ''Warband'') is significantly more mountainous to promote this.
* CivilWar: The Calradic Empire that was a prominent part of the original game's backstory is still around, however, it is currently divided into three separate chunks, each of which recognizes a different Emperor depending on who they think has the right to name the Emperor, and each of which wants to conquer the others to establish their succession method.
* TheClan: Each lord of a faction belongs to a Clan, which is their family; rather than fiefs being assigned to lords, they're instead assigned to Clans. Given that lords can die, either through battle or old age, the holdings remain in the family. The Player is not immune to this; they belong to a Clan of their own (you can start with siblings, and nieces/nephews), and can gain new family members through childbirth (your Companions are also said to be part of your Clan).
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: MUCH more than in the previous games, as Taleworlds wants players to know at a glance who belongs to what faction. As a result, this has led to...
** ColorCodedArmies: Soldiers who belong to a faction and wear heraldic armor will all wear the same color, with only the emblem of their leader's clan differing.
** ColorCodedCharacters: Unlike the original ''Mount & Blade'' and ''Warband'', where every nobleman had a banner that could be radically different from even other nobles of the same faction, every clan has an emblem instead, which is laid over a banner with their faction's primary color.
* CulturalPosturing: The Calradic Empire might be ruled by an Emperor, and yes, that person might have complete autocratic authority over them all, but they are NOT a monarchy. Let them repeat that: Not. A. Monarchy.
* DividedWeFall: The Calradic Empire has split into three, each viewing their Emperor as the sole legitimate one, and their succession method as the best. In canon, the Empire will fall; the player can strive to prevent it (or help it do so).
** The Kingdom of Vlandia is, on paper, one of the stronger factions, since they start with a significant amount of territory. However, their clans don't really like each other very much. While they have significant power, they have serious issues bringing their full power to bear, meaning smaller, but more united factions, can counter their punch. In the official ''Warband'' lore, once Vlandia becomes Swadia, these issues boil over and result in the southern portion of the realm becoming the Rhodoks.
* EarlyBirdCameo: One of the Clans that makes up the Khuzait Khanate is the Khergit Clan, who in canon ''Warband'' lore will apparently either split or take over from the Khuzaits and press westward deeper into the crumbling Empire and its successor states, becoming the Khergit Khanate that has been part of the game since the original ''Mount & Blade''.
** In a similar fashion, one of the clans of the Asarai is the Banu Sarran clan, which would probably take control over the Aserai Sultanate to form the Sarranid Sultanate we see in ''Warband''.
* ElectiveMonarchy: The Western and Northern segments of the divided Calradic Empire both want to practice this, of a sort; the issue that divides them is exactly who will be doing the electing. The Northern Empire is led by Senator Lucan, who wants the right to crown the Emperor returned to the Senate, while the Western Empire is led by Garios, who believes the Army should be the one to decide the rights.
* TheEmperor: Three, actually, but they all claim to be the only true Emperor, and the Calradic Empire has become divided between them in a civil war that has weakened the Empire against the greed of their neighbors.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Would it really be ''Mount & Blade'' without them?
** ''The Empire'': The Empire is three different factions, but all share the same troop tree and culture, inspired by Rome; both late antiquity and medieval history (more commonly referred to as the Byzantine Empire). Their currently divided state is basically an expy of the Crisis of the Third Century.
** ''Aserai Sultanate'': The people of the Arabian Peninsula from before the Islamic conquests.
** ''Battanians'': The Celtic peoples of Western Europe who opposed the Romans, specifically those of the British Isles (the Irish, Welsh, and Picts).
** ''Vlandians'': The Normans and other Viking states that established themselves throughout Western Europe.
** ''Khuzait Khanate'': The Huns and other steppe raiders of Late Antiquity.
** ''Sturgia'': The early nations of Kievan Rus and modern-day Russia.
* FeudingFamilies: The Clans of various factions are not necessarily unified; for example, Vlandia is a significantly powerful faction on paper, but is held back by the fact that there are significant tensions between their Clans, keeping them from being organized enough to bring their significant power against anyone else that well. Creating your own family and diving head-first into the ranks of feuding families is a significant part of the game.
* TheFriendNobodylikes: Like in ''Warband'', some nobles are outright jerks, feeling nothing about raiding caravans, and like ''Warband'', honorable lords don't like them very much. This only goes so far, though; even if they are an asshole, if you execute them, even the honorable Lords will think less of you; however, they won't be quite as angry as if you'd killed someone less deserving of it. They're still a noble, after all.
* GameOver: Of the lineage of the original game, ''Warband'', and this one, this game is the first to actually allow you to game over. Depending on your settings, your player character may very well die, either in combat, executed by another lord, or just of old age. If you don't have another member of your Clan to take control of, it's game over.
* TheHeroDies: Depending on your settings, you can die from anything, in battle, executed, or of mere old age. If you have more family in your Clan, you can take over as that character; if you don't , it's Game Over.
* TheHorde: The Khuzait Khanate, much like their descendants of the original game's time, the Khergits.
* IntrepidMerchant: Your clan can start and send out caravans that will automatically trade with settlements, making you significant wealth.
* IstanbulNotConstantinople: Many cities on the northwestern segment of the map have familiar but different names, representing the linguistic drift that will take place in the 200 or so years between the era of ''Bannerlord'' and the time of ''Warband''. Praven, for example, has an extra D, Sargoth is Sargot, Shariz is Charas, etc.
* LostRomanLegion: Calradic Legion, and played with. The Legion is still around, but due to the decline of the Empire, the lords and Emperor moved away from the system of Legions and adopted a Byzantine-style Theme system. A sizable number of Legionnaires felt betrayed and broke away from the Empire, forming the Legion of the Betrayed. They're pretty much nothing but mercenaries now, and will fight for any faction (including the three Imperial factions) who can afford to pay them.
* TheLowMiddleAges: Calradia is still in its version of these, compared to the original game's High Middle Ages.
* MercenaryUnits: The game features several minor factions, each of whom can serve as mercenaries for the different major nations.
* OffTheRails: Being that this is a prequel, from the moment you start the game, history will almost certainly proceed very differently from how it does in canon.
* {{Prequel}}: Technically, the game is this to the original title, as it's set 200 years in the past during the last days of the Calradic Empire, part of that game's backstory. Of course, given the sandbox nature of the series, the moment you arrive in the land, history has become yours to change.
* PregnantBadass: The devs have indicated that female player characters will not be penalized or limited in any way when they are bearing children, as laying up a player for several months might be realistic, but isn't much fun.
* RegimeChange: For the first time in the main series, given that AnyoneCanDie, factions can and will change rulers without the player pressing a claim, or scripted events. The exact matter of succession is determined by that faction's laws. More interstingly, the player is not limited to being the monarch of their own, created faction; if the laws allow it, the player can take the reins of one of the existing factions.
* {{Retcon}}: The region of land called Calradia is significantly expanded (most of the territory still held by the Calradic Empire doesn't even fall on the section of the map that lines up with ''Warband''), and the terrain has been made a lot more mountainous in order to promote more tactical use of the geography (choke points and ambush sites and such). That said, most of the cities that we remember, usually under slightly different but recognizable names (Pravend is the future Praven, Charas is Shariz, etc.) to reflect ''Warband's'' 200 years of language drift, are pretty close to where they are in ''Warband''.
* SuccessionCrisis: The Calradic Empire is in one of these; by rule, they insist they are not a monarchy, and Emperor is only the most powerful position and succession has been decided by the Emperor nominating an heir, the Senate agreeing that the choice was worthy, and the Army accepting him as Emperor. But as the Empire has lost much of its strength and territory, after the death of Emperor Arenicos, it has divided into three separate factions, each with their own idea for how new Emperors should be crowned.
** Senator Lucan of the Northern Empire wants the power to crown the Emperor returned to the Senate.
** Garios of the Western Empire feels that the Army, as the truest representative of the people, should be the ones to acclaim the Emperor.
** Rhagaea, the Emperor's widow, wants hereditary succession, as her and the Emperor's only child, his daughter Ira, should rule.
* VestigialEmpire: The Calradic Empire once controlled much more of the map, stretching all the way west to the coastline; Pravend might have even been their capital. But as their strength has waned, their ability to keep their neighbors at bay has as well, and much of their territory has been lost, and now the Empire has splintered in three. Re-uniting the Empire and taking back their old lands, though, can be a goal of the player.
[[/folder]]

A proper sequel, ''Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord'', serves as a prequel to ''Mount & Blade: Warband'' with an engine overhaul and gameplay improvements. The game has been announced to release into Early Access on March 31st, 2020, and a multiplayer beta started in the later part of 2019.

** Also - couched lance damage - a form of attack that in the original M&B would allow a starting player with a half-way decent polearm to solo entire armor-clad armies was sadly remved from ''Warband''.
*** Not removed from ''Warband'', just made more difficult to achieve. The player has to manually aim the lance whereas aiming was automatic in the original.

** UncannyValley: [[http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?topic=41538.0 Frodogorn is not an actor, but rather a render]].
*** [[OffModel Which becomes very obvious when you look at his face in high-res.]]

A proper sequel, ''Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord'', serves as a prequel to ''Mount & Blade: Warband'' with an engine overhaul and gameplay improvements. The game has been announced to release into Early Access in March 2020, and a multiplayer beta started in the later part of 2019.

In addition to its modding community and the mods own pages, ''Mount & Blade'' also inspired ''Machinima/ThisNotchedAndRustedBlade'', a machinima made with the ''Anno Domini 1257'' mod.

* ''VideoGame/{{Europe1200}}'' is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
* ''Videogame/StarWarsConquest'' is ''Mount & Blade'' literally RecycledInSpace

* CoolVersusAwesome: You want Viking Huscarls throwing down with Egyptian Mamlukes? Central European Knights tilting at Altaic Lancers and Horse Archers? A huge variety of cool swords, maces, axes, and polearms to equip yourself and your buddieswith? You got all of it. ''Mount and Blade'' is essentially a medieval UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny.

* AmazonBrigade: The ''[[https://www.nexusmods.com/mbwarband/mods/5935 More Women]]'' mod makes it so all village recruits are women with faction-appropriate tech trees (male troups are recruited at taverns as mercenaries), making it easy to assemble your own, and with much greater tactical flexibility than just running a bunch of sword sisters.

%% * ConstructedWorld: Calradia.

* CoolVersusAwesome: See the entry for "Acceptable Breaks from Reality" above.

* OneHandedZweihander: Averted with two-handed weapons on foot, but played straight when mounted. All weapons (except the Hafted Blade) are used one-handed when on horseback, but two-handed weapons will run off the two-handed skill and prevent the use of a shield anyway, in addition to suffering a penalty to swinging speed and damage per attack. Still, the trade-off may be worth it for the superior reach two-handed weapons may afford. [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in the case of the bastard (hand and a half) sword and other one-handed/two-handed weapons, which can be wielded in one hand while on horseback and always runs off the one-handed skill when mounted, but is can be switched between one-handed and two-handed use while on foot.

* OneHandedZweihander: Averted with two-handed weapons. [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in the case of the bastard (hand and a half) sword, which can be wielded in one hand while on horseback, but is always wielded ambidextrously while on foot.

** The player character. While getting between more than one enemy is almost always [[strike:death]] capture, it is quite effective to run ahead of your army and slaughter enemy troops by hit and run tactics (lightly armoured troops will normally die in one hit), often killing a platoon of enemies before they are in range of your men.

* OneOfTheseThingsIsNotLikeTheOthers: AI Nord forces rarely have cavalry. Which makes it especially easy to spot lords who are on horseback.

** Thanks to the semi-ProceduralGeneration of troop attributes and skills, certain troop upgrades, especially those where the unit's equipment loadout doesn't change much, may prove underwhelming, especially given the cost increase. However, cases where a promotion is actually weaker than what came before it as a result if this are extremely rare.

* PowerUpLetDown: Various recruited bandits other than Looters promote to the "recruit" unit from the same region they originate (eg. Steppe Bandits become Khergit Tribesmen, Taiga Bandits become Vaegir Recruits, and so on), which are usually 7-10 levels lower than the bandits were. This is especially pronounced with Sea Raiders, which are level 16 and are decently skilled melee and ranged fighters with decent armor and shields, while Nord Recruits are level 6, are melee only, have virtually no armor, and only might have a shield. Also, unlike the units they promote to, bandit units are "neutral", meaning that they don't lose morale when at war with their home country.

** Straddling the line between this and BladeOnAStick, the [[SinisterScythe Shortened Military Scythe]] is a scytherblade facing upwards.

* {{Cap}}: No attack can ever do more than 500 damage. Considering that 80 hit points is an exceptionally high amount for a human character and 175 is the most a horse can have in an unmodified game, and that doing so much damage is nearly impossible without an extremely fast horse and delivering a couched lance charge to a lightly armored target, it isn't really a hindrance.

** Averted for horses: they become progressively slower as they are injured, and a knockout can leave them permanently crippled.

* AmazonBrigade: The [[https://www.nexusmods.com/mbwarband/mods/5935 More Women]] mod makes it so all village recruits are women with faction-appropriate tech trees (male troups are recruited at taverns as mercenaries), making it easy to assemble your own, and with much greater tactical flexibility than just running a bunch of sword sisters.

* ChainmailBikini: Averted, armor looks similar on women as it does to men. However, in training fields and arena melees, men wear knee-length trousers and women wear bikinis.

** The Steppe Bandits more so than the actual Khergit lords themselves, as they're always hostile.

* KeepTheReward: An option in quite a few quests. Though it only gets you honor, which is a mixed bag (Lords have a higher default disposition if your character has a similar honor score). [[note]]i.e., high honor is ''bad'' when talking to someone with low honor[[/note]] Most of the quests that give you a choice in reward, especially if you got them from a village, don't give very big monetary rewards. They do, however, give increased relations, and letting the villagers keep the reward, increases the relations even more. This is essential to keeping a large and well trained army, as higher relation villages give 5x as many troops, often times two or three ranks higher (which is just about the gap between RedshirtAmy and just strong enough to not get killed.

** Swadians: Generalist, elitists. (Most powerful Heavy Cavalry and overall balanced force)
** Rhodoks: Technical, elitists. (Most powerful Defensive force in the game, but requires carefully organized formations of their Sergeants and Sharpshooters to excel (which is why the computer controlled Rhodoks tend to get rolled easily when not defending castles). Sergeants counter heavy cavalry (spears) and keep arrows and melee(huge shields and heavy armor)away from the sharpshooters, who kill everything else easily. Slower then a pack of huscarls or swadian knights at winning, but basically unstoppable with no real weaknesses if used properly).
** Nords: Brute force, elitists, huscarl specialists
** Khergits: Rangers, horse archer specialist
** Vaegirs: Rangers, technical (their top-tier infantry and cavalry are shock units and lose in prolonged melee)
** Sarranids (''Warband''): Technical; the faction requires a fundamentally different mindset from the others[[note]]They tend to have light armor on their melee units, and less range on their ranged units, but as a whole, they hit much harder and tend to move somewhat faster than other factions. That being said, they tend to eschew horses (with the exception of high level units), so cavalry is a uncommon. They are extremely powerful if used carefully, but easily overwhelmed if not.[[/note]].

** Just escaped capture? Well, you can try not reloading a save, but you will have likely lost valuable and rare equipment, a sizable chunk of money, and all of your soldiers and companions. And your companions could be waiting for you in any tavern on all of Calradia.
*** Gets nastier if it happens to be bandits who captured you in an isolated area, thats a long walk back with likely even more of the bastards spawning to rob you of your dignity. And then we get Steppe Bandits in and near the Khanate who make the above a walk in the park.

** Downplayed, its's easy and profitable to do "dishonorable" missions, such as assassinations, kidnappings, and starting wars, with little consequences aside from ticking off the victims. However, dishonorable acts such as pillaging villages or kicking around the local peasantry will draw the ire of the local Lord, who can usually (at least early-on in the game) kick your tail pretty soundly.
** In ''Warband'', you also have to take into account the opinion of your companions: many come from the peasantry and aren't too fond of watching their kind get murdered and looted, especially as they are supposed to take part in the pillaging.

* SetSwordsToStun: Practice weapons knock opponents out instead of killing them. Mounted sword users can deal non-lethal damage with a pommel strike. Also, a handful of weapons like spears or poleaxes have one way of attacking that is nonlethal (as long as it deals blunt damage its fair game).

*** Any spear-like weapon has that effect in Warband, not just pikes...the pikes are just REALLY long, so it gives more room to work with. Also any spear or lance can be foot-couched by pressing X while unmounted. This causes tremendously magnified damage to any unit who runs into the tip while couched...not quite as OP as a mounted Couched lance, but way more then you'll likely do otherwise (greatly increases the speed-based damage bonus), and can even take out a charger in 1 hit, if they're coming at full speed.

** Dark Knights in the Warband "Native Expansion" mod. You can control when or if they show up, but when they do, their force is one to be reckoned with. They will probably dish a CurbStompBattle on you if you're not leading a massive force yourself against them due to their heavy armor, heavy-hitting weaponry (even with high defense on easy they can probably knock a quarter of your health off in one hit), and most of them are mounted. Encountering them with an insufficient force will certainly make you understand how the enemy forces you fight against feel when you steamroll through them.

** In the original and Warband, attack options were fixed to a single siege tower or ladder, quickly creating chokepoints for the defenders.

* AnyoneCanDie: Unlike in Warband, the player may freely execute enemy lords. Doing so has been indicated by the devs to be a bad idea, with how angry people will get depending on the lord in question; fewer people will weep if you kill a dishonorable piece of crap, but he was still part of the aristocracy and therefore supposed to be above such things. Especially given that (depending on settings) the player's OWN immortality card has been revoked. Wind up a captive of someone you've pissed off and you might find yourself on the executioner's block, and if you don't have anyone in your clan to take over, it's game over.
* ChokepointGeography: The map is significantly larger than the Warband map, expanding to new lands to the east and south, and the terrain as a whole (even in the area that matches Warband) is significantly more mountainous to promote this.

** In addition, the Kingdom of Vlandia is large and powerful, but for the fact that its constituent Clans do not like each other, and because of that they don't work together that well, meaning they have trouble reaching their full potential. In-lore, after the Vlandians become the Swadians, these disagreements are not solved, resulting in the southern chunk of the realm splitting off to become the Rhodoks of the original game.
* EarlyBirdCameo: One of the Clans that makes up the Khuzait Khanate is the Khergit Clan, who in canon Warband lore will apparently either split or take over from the Khuzaits and press westward deeper into the crumbling Empire and its successor states, becoming the Khergit Khanate that has been part of the game since the original ''Mount & Blade''.

* TheFriendNobodylikes: Like in Warband, some nobles are outright jerks, feeling nothing about raiding caravans, and like Warband, honorable lords don't like them very much. This only goes so far, though; even if they are an asshole, if you execute them, even the honorable Lords will think less of you; however, they won't be quite as angry as if you'd killed someone less deserving of it. They're still a noble, after all.
* GameOver: Of the lineage of the original game, Warband, and this one, this game is the first to actually allow you to game over. Depending on your settings, your player character may very well die, either in combat, executed by another lord, or just of old age. If you don't have another member of your Clan to take control of, it's game over.

* IstanbulNotConstantinople: Many cities on the northwestern segment of the map have familiar but different names, representing the linguistic drift that will take place in the 200 or so years between the era of Bannerlord and the time of Warband. Praven, for example, has an extra D, Sargoth is Sargot, Shariz is Charas, etc.

* {{Retcon}}: The region of land called Calradia is significantly expanded (most of the territory still held by the Calradic Empire doesn't even fall on the section of the map that lines up with Warband), and the terrain has been made a lot more mountainous in order to promote more tactical use of the geography (choke points and ambush sites and such). That said, most of the cities that we remember, usually under slightly different but recognizable names (Pravend is the future Praven, Charas is Shariz, etc.) to reflect Warband's 200 years of language drift, are pretty close to where they are in Warband.

* AnyoneCanDie: Unlike in Warband, the player may freely execute enemy lords. Doing so has been indicated by the devs to be a bad idea, depending on the lord in question; fewer people will weep if you kill a dishonorable lord, but he was still part of the aristocracy and therefore supposed to be above such things. Especially given that (depending on settings) the player's OWN immortality card has been revoked. Wind up a captive of someone you've pissed off and you might find yourself on the executioner's block.