Catherine

Castle
Knights
Christian
Edric
Lord Haart
Orrin
Sorsha
Sylvia
Tyris
Valeska
Catherine
Roland
Sir Mullich
Beatrice
Clerics
Adela
Adelaide
Caitlin
Cuthbert
Ingham
Loynis
Rion
Sanya
Towns

Catherine the Knight
Basic information:
	Class:	Knight
	Gender:	Female
	Race:	Human
As the reigning queen of Erathia, Catherine continues to wage war to secure her homeland's borders and restablished the peace built by her father. However, support for her position is faltering as the country grows weary of war.
Specialty: Swordsmen
Increases the speed of any Swordsmen or Crusaders by 1 and their Attack and Defense skills by 5% for every 4 levels (rounded up).
Starting Level:
Level
Starting primary skills:
2 2 1 1
Starting secondary skills:
Basic Leadership
Basic Offense
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Starting troops:
Pikeman 10–20 Always  Archer 4–7 88% (Always )  Griffin 2–3 25% (Always ) [[File: Creature portrait {{{troop_4}}} small.gif|{{{troop_4}}}|link={{{troop_4}}}]] [[{{{troop_4}}}|{{{troop_4}}}]] Always [[File: Creature portrait {{{troop_5}}} small.gif|{{{troop_5}}}|link={{{troop_5}}}]] [[{{{troop_5}}}|{{{troop_5}}}]] Always [[File: Creature portrait {{{troop_6}}} small.gif|{{{troop_6}}}|link={{{troop_6}}}]] [[{{{troop_6}}}|{{{troop_6}}}]] Always [[File: Creature portrait {{{troop_7}}} small.gif|{{{troop_7}}}|link={{{troop_7}}}]] [[{{{troop_7}}}|{{{troop_7}}}]] Always
Starting movement points:
1560

Catherine the Knight is a Castle hero.

By default, Catherine is not playable, but she may be enabled in custom scenarios in the map editor.

Story

Queen Catherine Ironfist of Enroth is the eldest and only surviving daughter of the late King Gryphonheart. She returned to Erathia upon learning of her father's death, discovering only then that the nation of her birth was being torn apart by its enemies. ― Catherine's portrait and biography in Restoration of Erathia

Queen Catherine Ironfist (née Gryphonheart) is the daughter of King Nicolas Gryphonheart and is married to King Roland Ironfist.

She appeared in Restoration of Erathia campaign For King and Country first, but was unavailable in a single scenarios. Her look/biography changed in Armageddon's Blade to what is shown on this page.

Queen Catherine

The following is a short story that was written by a New World Computing employee and published on the now-defunct fansite "The Nether Gods".

"Earlier this week I was asked about Queen Catherine. I, too, wonder about the well being of the daughter of our King, Nicolas Gryphonheart, especially now, since I am sure she has heard the news of her husband's demise that Xanthor's attempted assassin spoke of.

Catherine has not so much as set foot in Erathia since her marriage to Roland Ironfist, King of Enroth, ten years ago, though she left quite an impression in her twenty years in Erathia. Catherine is the first daughter of Nicolas and Gwenllian Gryphonheart, born less than one year after their marriage in 1133 A.S. Catherine had one sibling, a sister named Beatrice, who was born, strangely enough, on Catherine's seventh birthday. The event was heralded across the land as a good omen, and a nationwide celebration was held for seven days - one day for each year that separated the sisters.

On her sixteenth birthday, and against the wishes of her father, Catherine enlisted in the Erathian military. It was completely unheard of, and King Nicolas nearly ordered her daughter brought to the palace in shackles, but the endorsement of Queen Gwenllian ended all disputes. However, Catherine's first few months in the military were anything but routine, as she quickly outlearned, outfought, and simply outclassed even some of Erathia's best officers.

In June of 1151, Catherine was ordered to take a small force to near the Contested Lands, where she was to put down a rebellion of citizens who claimed to be descendants of the Phynaxian Empire and were demanding their independence from the Kingdom of Erathia. As it turns out, the rebellion was a setup by one of the Generals of Erathia's military, a man by the name of Connel Traxton, who intended to bring an end to Catherine's rapid rise through the ranks of the army.

Catherine's force was ambushed two days before her scheduled arrival in the Contested Lands by an army nearly twice their size, comprised mostly of goblins and orcs. Keeping her wits, and using apparently a natural ability for tactics (though some claim it was merely a miracle), Catherine was able to not only defeat her attackers, but she managed to capture the opposing commander, who through a bit of "persuading" confessed to his involvement in General Traxton's plan. The man was dragged back to the Erathian capitol, where it is said that General Traxton actually fainted when told the news. The enemy commander was immediately executed, and Traxton would have followed, but Catherine demanded that she be allowed to duel the now former General. According to the records of the event, Catherine had slain Connel Traxton before either of them had broken a sweat.

For her miraculous (there's that word again) victory, Catherine Gryphonheart, barely seventeen years old, was given the Erathian Medal of Courage by her (now very proud) father.

Two years later, Queen Gwenllian and Catherine's sister, Beatrice, were killed by marauders while travelling along the northern coast. It is said that the King nearly destroyed the palace when he received word, and that Catherine nearly destroyed the barracks. The funeral and the days which followed were perhaps the most somber time in recent memory, disturbed only by the news of the swift and complete punishment dealt upon the marauders who were responsible for the murders. Rumor has it that Catherine blamed herself for not being there to protect her mother and sister, and as a result she resigned from the military and swore not to let the same thing happen to her father, becoming his personal guard.

Fearing for his daughter's well-being, in May of 1154 King Gryphonheart made arrangements for the marriage of Catherine to King Roland Ironfist of Enroth, who had earlier that year defeated his brother, Archibald, in a pitched battle for the Throne of Enroth, which came to be called the Succession Wars. Though at first she did not wish to leave her father's side, Catherine eventually agreed to the marriage, and on the first day of August, 1154, she married King Roland, becoming Queen Catherine Ironfist of Enroth. The ship that carried her from Erathia was renamed the Queen Catherine, and she has not returned to her homeland since.

The following year the proclamation was read in every city, town and village in Erathia. Queen Catherine had given birth to a son. The child was called Nicolai, which the Queen chose to honor her father.

I'm sure King Gryphonheart is to this day still filled with pride. I just pray that the Queen does not blame herself for the loss of her husband."

Appearances

Song for the Father

For King and Country as a player hero.

Armageddon's Blade

Catherine's Charge as a player hero.

To Kill A Hero as a player hero.

Oblivion's Edge as a player hero.

Specialty

The in-game description "Increases the Attack and Defense skills of any Swordsmen or Crusaders for each level attained after 4th level." is erroneous in "each level attained" moment, and lacks the speed bonus information. (Description is fixed in HotA ).

Unlike the native terrain speed bonus, the creature specialty speed bonus can affect the hero's movement points in case the creature is the slowest one in the army.

Level	10	12	12	12
4	+1	+1	+1	+1
8	+1	+2	+2	+2
12	+2	+2	+2	+2
16	+2	+3	+3	+3
20	+3	+3	+3	+3
24	+4	+4	+4	+4
28	+4	+5	+5	+5
36	+5	+6	+6	+6
44	+6	+7	+7	+7
48	+7	+8	+8	+8
56	+8	+9	+9	+9
64	+8	+10	+10	+10
68	+9	+11	+11	+11
75/88	+11	+14	+14	+14

Official Renders

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User commentary

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Queen Catherine is an exact copy of Sorsha the Knight.

See also:

• List of campaign heroes
• List of heroes
• List of heroes (HotA)
• Hero class
• Hero biographies
• Hero specialty
• List of hero specialties
• List of hero specialties (HotA)