The solution to Rowan not being of a noble house but being suspiciously good at warfare in a time when warriors needed to train constantly to maintain their edge is to have him be a man-at-arms for a knight or nobleman and then to have him show skill and leadership the likes of which make him an equal to Achilles or William Marshall.
Rowan demonstrates all the virtues of a warrior in an undeniable manner in battle after battle, but being a man-at-arms he is constantly overlooked by the nobility. His comrades notice though and find they tend to stay alive when the stick close to him. In an epic battle that could decide the fate of the entire campaign when all seems lost and most of the nobles flee the field Rowan rallies the men with a cool manner and firm hand saving the army from destruction and leading them to a stunning victory. The surviving soldiers give him the Rastedal equivalent of the grass crown. The knights and men-at-arms refuse to be led by anyone else but Rowan and threaten mutiny, so the nobility begrudgingly give him command. He leads them from victory to victory until they vanquish the demon king and his howling hordes.
This explains how he got his skill, why everyone thinks he is a hero and why the nobility don't like him.
It could be, but as far as i know during Feudalism was enforced the idea of Class or States in Society were in some form like sacred, so you wouldn't be allow to do another thing in life if your origin (were you were born, like family, social status...) isn't according to it, even the most low of the minor nobleman starving wouldn't be allow to work in the fields so the same for any commoner, none of them would have never the same rights and privileges as the noblemen. If it wasn't any mention of this in Seed of Chaos, it would be mostly normal that Rowan who came from a peasant origin could make great achievments during his service in the army during the War, unfortunately this isn't the case. Besides, the time Achilles lived was way long before feudalism, and he was the son of the King of the Myrmidons with a Goddess which make of him a Demigod, Rowan is good but isn't told so fucking good (yet because this is Act I ;v ). William Marshall was the son of a minor nobleman, so...
Is that an actual theory from players or your head canon? Because absolutely nothing in game hints Rowan is lying. Everyone would also have to be wrong from Jezera, Tue-Row to even Werden to the other heroes that seen him as a peer enough to fight Karnas, Rowans ability to get things done rarely seems in doubt. In game the twins recruiting him also well works. Bloodmeen is operational, they have an orc and soon goblin army, Rosaria falls and Rowan is an important part in it all. After a defeat he ended up in charge where he learnt to command and got very good at it very quickly. There isn't any ambiguity that I've seen that hints Rowan isn't a good war leader. His personal combat abilities are what shade is thrown at, he was not as formidable a combatant as the other heroes. That is literally the hold the twins have on him, they have Alexia and he can't kill them in combat. He can't even try without Alexia becoming a head shorter over it. They have him by the bollocks and he knows it he's options are suicide or service.
SOC seems medieval. Kingdoms for the majority of the dark ages and medieval times had no formalized structure to produce high level officers and generalship, that kind of system is something you mainly see in strong, very well organised and centralised states. From the fall of Rome it took Europe a long time to get back to that point. Rome especially the empire turned citizens whether city poor, farmers or nobles into skilled soldiers, centurions and generals regularly. Medieval Europe did not. Most medieval generals learnt to be good commanders during conflicts not before. They literally brought them to war young specifically to teach them how to command and get experience fighting. Someone learning how to command during a war is realistic. A peasant doing so also isn't that out there. It's not like been born a farmer means you're somehow incapable of learning war. That is quite literally the point, Rowan a common born man learnt how to command better than the nobles did which is the root of their dislike. A peasant doing that undermines the need for the nobility at all because if an exclusive warrior class can be matched by experience and training then why do it's privileges exist at all? Which is accurate, today's armies aren't commanded exclusively by knights after all.
If Rowan has a weakness and flaw it's Alexia and his willingness to be subservient to preserve her life. He should have let her and himself die but there's not much of a game if he does that
. If Rowan is a fake he's doing an extraordinary job because the two things he was set against Karnas and Rosaria didn't last very long.
I can't tell if it is shared by other players of this game or just me, i can't even talk for the people that like my post here pointing this, i just can talk for myself, i unfortunately didn't search for other post with similar critics, but from time to time there are post with critics or praise for the character. So in a way, if you need to classify if this theory is shared or not by others, you can at least known that is in your words my "head canon". With that established, the game not, the story, the narrative, the how it's build, Rowan live in a society that enforce Feudalism, during that period, all the people known well their rights according to their social status, no one would just slip from commoner to nobleman or vice-versa just easy, this was a way of thinking of the society as a whole and was enforced. Rowan in that condition would just had a bad time if he were catch doing something not according to his status.
With a social systems like that, it would just be impossible for a commoner to command any army of knights, even if his words in the battlefield just make sense for them of what to do against the enemy. And was told of Rowan during the war, isn't exactly according to a commoner, it would have much sense if comes from at least a minor nobleman house because being a commoner trying to learn by just seeing and acting while fighting, surviving taking orders wouldn't exactly enough to understand details of how weapons are used, the way of fighting with them, how to defend a position, how to attack under some conditions, you know, that would overwhelm anyone without any knowledge at all about the ways of war, and even the best generals through history became overwhelm, just think in a peasant trying to learn that in the battlefield without any guidance at all while do other things, like not being killed.
Yes, there wasn't formal structures to teach military knowledge, that's another point against Rowan the peasant in a Feudal fuck up society, many of military knowledge was just passed or instructed by the noblemen to their sons or the sons of others noblemen by instruction or tutelage, not only during a real war, that was for experience, but not all nobles was just thrown into a war without any formal instruction. Thanks to the plague, the print, the America discovery and destruction of Lisbon the people left far behind that way of thinking about a warrior class making the war and the only ones that can protect the society.
About your last comment, well, that's another issue in game, because in all those weeks (iirc like 60 weeks that are like 1 year and two months) the noblemen in a practical sense did nothing and they appear to known nothing about the villages and churches being conquered, raid, destroyed, burned, with people enslaved and raped, and a plethora of etc.
And how do you imagine he should've obtained this information without entering the place to scout it?
...
How? Knock on the door and ask, "hey guys, i just happened to be passing by this evil abandoned castle in the middle of nowhere, that no one had any sane reason to visit for decades. Apparently, it's not abandoned anymore, are you guys hiring?"
There is no movement of the enemy for Rowan to see from the outside. The enemy uses teleport gate to leave and enter the castle, and you won't see any of that until you're actually inside.
Do you really think that all the time Bloodmeen had visitors, recruits, arrival of resources and other merchandise was by just by the use of The Portal?. Let me refreshed memory:
* In Bloodmeen there were new orc recruits, ok that pass, to get them without noticing they have need to make use of the portal.
* In Bloodmeen there were traders selling slaves, how would they know how to get to the portal and make use of it without notice?.
* In Bloodmeen there were a human that was noticed by Cla-min by his potential, being new in the Castle, how he get there?.
* In Bloodmeen every week that pass it gets the income of the villages and mines taken by Rowan and his orcs, how all that tribute pass to the portal without being noticed?.
* During Rowan's expeditions, there was one i remember were he can recruit some bandits, Rowan need to fulfilled his expedition before get back to Bloodmeen, so, how this bandits get into the Castle?.
* We can't forget that in some villages, the orcs are in charge, as happened during the quest were an Orc was fighting for his right about a village he owns by the rights of conquer in Bloodmeen by Might Makes Right against a human mercenary who born in that village and could just served to improve the peasants in working for the Twins without the use of force. So, in essence, they not only send the tribute but at the same time they enforce The Twins Laws and as any other administration, do reports, there is a way to do all that without being noticed?.
* I almost forget, near all what left of Liurial kind get into Bloodmeen, all of them knew about the portal too?.
What i mean is, some of the vital things for Bloodmeen were entirely obfuscated, but some others were completely unexpected, and difficult to think that all of them pass just by the portal. So, The Twins were very carefully to be in low, but wasn't precisely like an abandoned place that no one visited doing the travel by road.
Rowan has no duty to report anything; he's no active soldier, just a guy whose wife was kidnapped. Furthermore, he already reported the presence of demons. He wasn't believed. What makes you think he would be believed if, after a year or so, he repeated he's seen demons and they're sitting far away in evil castle?
I'll put you in perspective, if you see the army of the neighbor country next to you assault the city were you lived, they take hostage your wife, will you not report that to the authorities of your country and just trow out to save your wife Rowan's Style? In my case i'll just report, later, if the authorities move, i join them to search for her, but going all alone is in a sense madness and desperate, more considering the lack of any preparation. Moreover, Rowan isn't exactly loved by all the nobility and i don't remember he could just prove his words to them, as far i can remember, the kingdom was apparently in a very poor condition, just think about it, villages and churches conquered in a year and they nobles did nothing, there must be something we can't see or there is another issue.
That's an absolutely silly simile. Commanding armies in medieval times was nowhere near level of open-heart surgery, complexity wise. As evidenced by zero such surgeons in that era while there was plenty of (often clueless) military commanders.
The point is, most people in these times didn't touch any proverbial skill book, because there wasn't anything like that for them to touch. They all largely made it up as they went, on individual basis. In such environment a peasant wasn't handicapped to the point where he could never catch up and/or excel, provided they're smart enough.
Pal, the reality for Rowan in those times he was in the low food chain in contrast to the nobleman, no other army of knights would follow him knowing his origin for sure, not even if his words during the very same course of a siege and the need of regroup or armed a defense position would just make sense to them, and even this last thing would just be difficult to achieve by a man, specially a peasant without any formal education most than how to use properly a bow (that was the most common knowledge to all the commoners that serve during a War), if we take Rowan as a mercenary that was part of a mercenary army, he would just still lack in combat training and any strategy.
You are massively overthinking this. The answer to Rowan's status as a commoner who somehow became a man with advanced knowledge in military tactics, combat, and so on is the fact that this is a fantasy game. It does not have to be accurate to how things work real world, it is not intended to be accurate to the real world. Rowan showed natural talent when fighting against Kharnas' forces, he was elevated to higher ranks over time, he learned as he went, and became a legendary hero. It does not need to be any more complicated than that and as far as we know it isn't.
It's truth, but that doesn't stop people with some knowledge to give their tiny insignificant non monetary support for this game, because independently of all flaws it's still still enjoyable, just there are things that could help in getting the game more immersive.
"massively overthinking this" sounds about right. By the way, it should be reminded that the starting point of the game was the idea of exploring 'what happens after': you are a hero after defeating the boss, you came back to your normal life, now what?
In this optics, the details on how Rowan got his hero status are not that essential (although for me they are pretty clear, all things considered). Rowan is basically
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after he went back to be a farmer. The focus is the next step, not what happened before.
It could be said, yes, if you enjoy the game as it is there's no problem. But there are people like me or like the other user far before me who explain to us in this thread how Raeve Keep must be constructed and how the handle of Rowan's Sword must be, because that help in the immersion. It's like remember GoT and the famous scene were the sword of Valyrian Steel just blend while John Snow mount a horse. Hilarious, yes, but kicks you out of the immersion. Another thing, Cincinnatus was more like nobleman of his time, he was in opposition to make the laws equal for all the people, specially for the commoners. While Rowan was a peasant that works in the land of a nobleman, Cincinnatus was a nobleman of his time who owns a farm in which he worked. What both have in common is about being great generals and both after the war came back to their normal activities, but Rowan did not by choice.
Most of gear/soldier/castle management is either broken or not implemented at all. Am guessing since it's not actually used for anything (other than one of possible paths early in the game, and to minimal extent, i.e. the broken upgrades don't make any difference) there's little incentive to fix this mess.
edit: for the equipment production specifically, iirc it can initially take a few days for the equipment to make it to the soldiers, after the forge is built. Perhaps it's intentional, hard to tell.
I had experimented that and others bugs without advice, i remember a time were i just had to replay because something goes wrong every time i successfully make a village to trade with Bloodmeen instead of conquer them or destroy them, the panel never update the number of villages and resources...
