More from the 13th Age: Welcome to My Dragon Empire--Orders of Paladin

I am still in the early stages of planning my 13th Age game, but it occurred to me that another "blank" that I might want to fill in is the societal role of Paladins in my version of the Dragon Empire.  I was struck with a few ideas on my commute as I, ironically enough, listened to Dead Can Dance's "Chant of the Paladin."

So, here are a few ideas off the cuff to give myself some structures, while leaving enough blank space for my players to fill in their own ideas.

Notes from the Cathedral: On the Orders of Paladins
An exercise by a junior scribe

The wise have this to say of the Empire's Paladins:

In every age, extraordinary men and women have stepped forward to carry the battle flag of justice. By the will of the gods, paladins are both protectors and avengers whose campaigns of awesome justice serve as warnings to any who threaten those under their protection. The people depend on them, lords celebrate them, and monsters hate them. People have never needed paladins more than they do in the 13th age.
However, much more can be said of these holy warriors.  Many are trained by devoted and ancient orders.  Others are inspired by singular events, spirits, saints or the gods.  Some belong to secretive societies, while others are part of the glorious bureaucracies of the Dragon Emperor or the Archmage.  I will discuss some of these in what follows.

One of the most ancient and revered orders of the Paladin is the Golden Order who follow the Great Gold Wyrm.  Much has already been written of them.  Once they held court in the Golden Citadel, but since their stronghold fell to ruins after the sacrifice of the Great Gold Wyrm, they have dispersed through the known world to carry out their holy missions.  Chapter Houses of this order are found in every major city except Drakkenhall, though the Order is reputed to have safe houses for its missions even there.  The Order stands for the empire, but does its service to the Emperor at its own discretion.

A younger, though still well-established order, formed in response to the independence exercise by the Golden Order, is the Brotherhood of Imperial Guardians.  This order places the well-being of the Empire, the Emperor and its people above all.  They are a force for justice, law and order throughout the Empire.  When the empire is threatened, they form the vanguard of the Imperial Armies.

Often a surprise to some is the small order of paladins who serve the Archmage.  While it is certain that the August Supreme Magi of the Empire relies in the main on his colleges of wizards, his bureaucracy of magic users, and his councils of spell casters, he also patronizes a small cult of holy magic.  Though this would normally be considered the province of the Priestess, the Archmage has a higher tolerance for a blending of the Four Houses, such that the powers of Dawn, Twilight, Light and Shadow are revered in pursuit of magic and knowledge [n.b. for details on my campaign cosmology see here, here, here, here, and here].  It is said that some of the paladins of the Archmage also receive wizard's training, thus blending holy and arcane powers in pursuit of the mysterious ends of the grand wizards (though it must be said that they stand ever in support of the Empire and its peoples).  The order is known as the Arcane Defenders.

Many know of the dark order of paladins that follow the Crusader.  These were the champions who helped to establish First Triumph.  Now they are known, in the main, as the Order of First Triumph, or the Triumphal.  Commonly, they are called in hushed tones, the Dark Paladins.  However, two other shadowy orders also serve the Crusader.  While the Triumphal provide the shock troops in the Crusader's war against the fiends of the Abyss, he also dispatches his order of demon hunters, the Inquisitors to ride as dark knight's errant throughout the Empire.  For communities truly afflicted by diabolical forces, the Inquisitors can be their last true hope for deliverance.  However, many communities have suffered The Inquest at the hands of the Order, whose unwritten motto sometimes seems to be lay waste first and let the gods sort it out.  Finally, the most secretive order is known as the Shadow Fist.  These are no bold knights.  These are knights of shadows.  A holy order of assassins, to be frank, this order is the hit squad of the Crusader.  The Shadow Fist does not act with imperial sanction (the Emperor has his own agency for dealing with things quietly), and is routinely said to be "just a story" by the followers of the Crusader.  However, a number of imperial officials, found to be consorting with the Diabolist (or even directly with those of the Abyss) have been found slain under circumstances indicative of this secret order.  Reports of the deeds of the Fists show that they exhibit the powers of the paladin in executing their missions.

It is said that the Elf Queen patronizes an ancient order of Elvish paladins.  Little is known outside of the Elvish realms of these protectors, though the so called Knights of Concord, may be a branch of this order.

A curious and secretive order is that patronized by the quixotic Faith of All Light.  Because of the low regard in which this ancient religion is held in many parts of the Empire, their few paladins do little to advertise their background.  However, they are known to do just and good deeds throughout the Empire, and often appear in the darkest corners at the right time.  They have been called the Captains of Light by some.  Some say that they are closely allied with the Golden Order, and even that the Golden Order and the Captains of Light evolved as societies from the original Knights and Captains of Orobonos which existed during the time of the Wizard King.

Most glorious among all the orders of paladins is that patronized by our most sacred Priestess.  This young order, formed in the Temple of Righteousness in the great Cathedral of Santa Cora and blessed by the Priestess herself is known as the Shining Order of the Temple of Righteousness of the Cathedral of Santa Cora.  In short, the paladins are known as the Shining Templars.  Though relatively new, these warrior paragons spread the word of the goodness of the Priestess and smite evil wherever it may be found.

Other lesser orders have come and gone throughout the Empire's history, and even lonely shrines and impoverished communities have raised up holy warriors who have taken on the mantle of Paladin.  Their mark on history, however, has been negligible to this scribes reading, and thus bear no mention at this time.

Inspired by 13th Age: Part Five--Notes: The Faith of All Light and brief information on Demihuman Pantheons

Today I post my fifth and final (for now) post in a series of posts about my brief cosmology and pantheon for the game 13th Age from Pelgrane Press.  The first post can be found here, the second here, the third here and the fourth here.

 

I close with a few notes of further elaboration on my version of the Dragon Empire.  The world is dominated by the religion of the Four Houses.  Woship, however, is by no means uniform.  The deities are remote enough that no one gets a good read on what is the "true" way to worship (or, often enough, two diferent interpretations are both given signs of being "true").  It is a wide mysterious world, and the way an Elf, a Dwarf, a Human, etc. look at the deities often sharply contrast.  Further, faith is often very local, and even personal.  I see villages and families having shrines wherein they venerate, propitiate, or at least acknowledge a broad spectrum of deities from the houses.  Just to throw out ideas, I would say you would find in many homes things that fall into (or between on a continuum) the kind of personal, often ancestor centered shrines, found in China, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia, or, also, the kind of collection of devotional figurines and amulets found in a Roman home in the family's Lararium.  While game play is often going to simplify questions of religiosity (cleric prays to the gods, gets spells and powers, kicks some holy butt), I want to give the sense of a wider and more mysterious world, and to allow that to possibly fuel some interesting and compelling stories.

 

That being the case, here are some notes to further complicate the neatly defined descriptions left to us by our Journeyman Sage writing about the Four Houses.

 

 

Notes on The Faith of All Light

Orobonos Lord of Life and Keeper of Creation

Hiktharos The All Death

The Faith of All Light holds that there are but two deific forces in the Universe: Orobonos, Lord of Life and Keeper of Creation, and Hiktharos, The All Death.  The Believers in the Light hold that, in the beginning, the Universe held two siblings, one light and one dark, one keeping the house of Life and one the house of Death, and between them they held the power of creation and balanced the Universe.  However, The Void consumed and possessed the dark sibling, and though the light sought to take in all that was good to save the balance, the dark ever held the evil and destruction with which it had been tainted.  The light sibling thus became the sole possessor of what was good and right, whereas before it had been shared.  Then began the eternal struggle between good and evil, Orobonos and the Void possessed sibling, Hiktharos.  In the end of all things, the Void shall be cast out and Orobonos’ lost sibling will be restored.  Until then, all creatures must serve to fight and defy The Void that is Hiktharos.  Believers do not disdain the worshippers of the Four Houses, per se, but they do believe that, in the main, the world is tainted such that most beings only perceive fragments of Orobonos and seek to understand them through the Houses.  Also, many, say the Believers, are led astray by Hiktharos and when they seek to perpetuate Life they are actually giving in to the All Death.  It is dangerous to worship to ardently any of the gods of the Houses, because while each may be a fragment of Orobonos, each also can be tainted by Hiktharos.

The Faith is generally not suppressed, but it is sometimes ridiculed.  There are small temples in hinterlands, and some scattered communities keep to the Faith.  Enclaves can be found in every major city.  The Priestess has surprised many by giving over a small chamber to the Believers in The Cathedral, giving some pause to think that there may be some kind of truth to the Faithful’s strange beliefs.

Notes on the Masks of the Void

Devourer who consumes all; vulgarly called Eater.

Destroyer who bring annihilation; vulgarly called Breaker.

Pain Bringer who delights in torture; vulgarly called Hurter.

Corrupter whose touch taints everything; vulgarly called Friend.

Notes on Some Demi-Human Pantheons

Gods of the Elves

All elves hold five deities in high regard and build their temples to venerate these five patrons.  Though they acknowledge other gods, they typically have little to do with them.  Some Sages have called these the Elven Five.  The Five are:

Urvonobos, called The Absent.  Revered as the Dragon Origin of the World. 

Maya Zo, the Sun Goddess.

Cipanec, Deity of The Wild.

Sendowa, called the Moon.  Revered as a Secret Messenger, and Messenger of Secrets.

Tzendras, the Dark Empress.

High Elves elevate Maya Zo above all.  Wood Elves revere Cipanec before all.  Dark Elves follow the path of Tzendras first.

Gods of the Dwarves

Here are the gods that the Dwarves hold in esteem.  They have little to do with other deities.

Thar, whom they call The Foe Hammer

Raathay, whom they call Earthblood

Khelebeth, whom they call Hearth Mother

Urfestos, whom they call The Forge Captain

Osiahn, whom they call The Brewer

Duronatos, whom they simply call The Mountain

Urvonobos, whom, when they remember the Dragon of Light, they call Master Builder

Gods of the Gnomes

Maya Zo          Sun Mother

Ptahluran         The Beautiful

Bastash            The Fortunate

Osiahn             The Mad

Pillizoro           Joker

Gods of the Haflings

The mysterious Haflings appear mainly to revere the domestic deities, largely Ptahluran,  Khelebeth and Urfestos, but they are sometimes tricksy and always surprising, and usually their house shrines have a wide array of the members of the Four Houses represented.  When a Hafling steps onto the path, one never knows where he or she might end up, and what deity they might call upon.

Thank you for reading.  If you found any of this interesting or useful, please feel free to leave comments.  As the 13th Age team says, Be Legendary.