About the Retinue of House Walker

The Retinue of House Walker is a storytelling and performance project built from original fiction, narrated tales, historical swordplay, handmade props, costumes, ren faire fieldwork, and behind-the-scenes worldbuilding.

We create free-to-read written works and related media for readers and viewers who enjoy historical-fantasy-inspired fiction, swordplay, tavern humor, ren faire atmosphere, handmade craft, and small creative projects as they grow.

The Retinue’s work includes free written fiction, downloadable PDF releases, project field notes, and narrated tales.

Our first written releases are part of a growing library of stories and creative experiments shaped by historical fencing, ren faire performance ideas, and the practical details that make a fictional world feel lived in.

Why is it free?

It is important to me (Matthew) that at least a version of all of my written works is available free-of-charge. I do that for accessibility but also because I believe there is room for a different model. Instead of asking someone to purchase a copy of a story, I give it away for free and instead, ask that if they enjoy it, please share it with someone and follow us on one of our social media platforms. That way ads and programs such as YouTube's partner program can fund our project through content interaction without asking anyone to spend a dollar. It is already rough enough for everyone out there.

How will it stay free?

Ideally through content interaction. Someday in the future website ads, Youtube advertising, maybe even other creator programs on platforms like TikTok. We create, or at least of what I create, I will make a free-of-charge version available. For example, the novelette, Three-Blade Will is available as a downloadable .pdf file. Then our community members are free to read and share the link for others to enjoy the content as well. That hopefully will someday drive passive ad revenue if we ever qualify for a program like Google's Adsense. That ad revinue will support the project and allow us to develope more content to make available for free.

That does not mean that all content is free, just that a version is available for free. I do fully plan on offer additional paid versions of projects for those that wish to more directly support the project.

However, for those that may not have the extra money to support the project, still enjoy the free version. The story is the same. Paid versions may contain additional artwork, notes in the front or back matter, but the story will always be the same.

How do I support the project?

Right now, while we are in our infancy and our library is shockingly small... Subscribe!

Follow us on YouTube so that we can hit 1000 subscribers and work towards watch hours. Enjoy our content and watch us there so that in the future we qualify as a partner and then by enjoying our content you can also support and fund the project to develop more.

We are also on other socials. TikTok, and Bluesky. We post weird videos revolving around HEMA, martial arts training, crafting, sewing, woodworking, ren faires and cosplay. The full activities of the retinue can be found there and we have a lot of passions to share.

For more official releases, join our Mailing List. We use substack where the notes are smaller update posts similar to what we put out on Bluesky, but the primary posts function as our mailing list where we will only post when something important is happening like the release of a new tale for our library or dropping a narrated audio version on YouTube.

So how do you support us? Interact with our content. Follow the retinue and subscribe to our socials and then watch, like, and share our content with anyone you think might enjoy it.

Support Roadmap

Subscribe on Youtube

Join our Substack Mailing List

Goal #1.- Someday qualify for YouTube Partnership.

For that we need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours.

Help us reach this goal by subscribing to our YouTube channel and watch and interact with our content there as we produce more videos. (We are working on narrated audio versions of our stories so those will be coming in the future!)

Goal #2.- Someday qualify for Google Adsense.

For that we need to create a website worth visiting and content that provides value. Our supporters do not have to do a thing for that, but if you enjoy something, please feel free to share the link to it with others. Also consider subscribing to our mailing list to stay informed of our new releases.

Goal #3.- Build a community.

We love creating things. Jewelry, leatherworking, watercolor, etc. We also enjoy HEMA, historical fencing and other martial arts. Roworth for British military saber, and Sir William Hope for smallsword specifically. We are all also performers at heart so you might also find cosplay, stage reading, maybe even theatre performances in the future.

If any of that is your jam, come follow along on any of our socials or maybe even bump into as a ren faire somewhere.

Goal #4+.- Whatever, and Whimsy!

Some of our written content was first thought of as a theatrical performance for a ren faire. For exapmle, Three-Blade Will was a multi act series of mini performances that could be put on throughout the course of a day in multiple spots to create a running story. Someday, we would absolutely love the opportunity to perform, so if you are a ren faire creative department or theatre, HIT US UP!

We would also like to grow our TikTok, and be able to showcase other authors and artists than just myself so that we can really embody the 'retinue' concept.