The Blades
Most people believe that this fanatical prophet of the warforged is gathering an army in the Mournland. Stories abound of his zealous attendants and his apocalyptic speeches, promising death to the fleshborn and the ultimate ascendancy of the warforged. Little is known about his whereabouts, his movements, and his actual plans. Some even doubt whether this construct bogeyman even exists.
There are those who are certain of his existence, and draw strength from it. These fanatics call themselves Blades, and they view their charismatic leader as more than just a prophet. To them, he is a divine presence. Their worship sustains him, and in return, he provides them with a sense of purpose and inner strength.
The Blades are not a typical faith, for they place no special value on spiritual existence. They waste no time on questions about the nature of souls and whether warforged have them; they have awareness and free will, which is enough. They see no purpose to imagining spiritual energy that comes from a distant god; they receive a tangible benefit from proximity to their leader and increase his power by their own obedience.
Such materialism seems to be oxymoronic in a religion. Yet there can be no doubt that the Blades are a religious organization: All the ritual, the prayer, and the spiritual sustenance are present. Oddly enough, in the view of some outsiders, it appears to be worship without faith. Still, for those who have met him, their god’s existence is undeniable.
Everyday Life
To follow the Lord of Blades is to do so completely. Many warforged think about the movement, but few commit themselves to the rigors of membership. They might listen to a sermon from an evangelical Blade, or be drawn into a conversation by an agent, but they are not true worshipers unless they travel to their leader’s side. Invoking the name of the Lord of Blades sometimes serves as an imprecation, usually in a sarcastic and disrespectful way: “Tell it to the Lord of Blades!” or “Blades take you!” The life of a true believer is worship. The drills and recitations structure day-to-day (or, more accurately, moon-to-moon) existence. All is preparation for the glorious campaign to come. It’s ironic in the eyes of some observers that in championing freedom, the movement has as a practical result completely subsumed individual warforged to its cause. As with all faiths, it is not the dogma or the preaching that one should consider most carefully to gain full understanding—it’s the actions and, in this case, the interactions of the faithful.The Lord of Blades and Other Faiths
Thrane is particularly intolerant of religions other than the worship of the Silver Flame, and its high priests continually strive to enlighten the warforged. The Pure Flame sect has declared the Blades creed to be a heresy, and members of the Pure Flame call loudly for its complete extinction. Some few have taken matters into their own hands, exploring the Mournland for the warforged stronghold and dispatching any Blades they encounter there. Followers of Dol Arrah admire and respect the military fervor of the Blades, but they consider those warforged to be misguided in their reverence for an earthly being, as well as in their fanatical belief in racial superiority. The priests of the faith wish to bring these “lost” into the fold of their Lady to harness their passion for more wholesome causes.Specific Attitudes
For their own part, the Blades have no interest in the religions of flesh creatures, and they do not care what followers of those faiths might think of them. The Godforged: These worthy wanderers hold a curious and completely unnecessary belief in souls. If they are willing to follow orders and work toward our ultimate triumph, their potential as recruits is great. The Reforged: It is an offense of the highest order to deny one’s own nature. These fools must either recognize the truth of warforged destiny or die in ignorance.Worship
Prayers
Prayers as such are unknown to the Blades. One does not beg a commander-in-chief for succor or favor. Instead, they obey the Lord of Blades and his commanders, and return to him the assertion of warforged superiority. Ritual statements are not so much prayers as they are slogans or even battle cries. A typical example is, “We are the blade; you are the fist.”Minor Rites
Ritual sharpening of weapons forms the basic religious activity of the Blades. When not actively drilling, mobilizing, or preaching and being preached to, these militant warforged keep their blades bright and finely honed. Many have affixed arm-blades or additional weaponry to their bodies, and keeping them in top condition occupies much of their “downtime.” Those Blades who are away from their god on missionary or intelligence-gathering quests suffer from the separation. They are unable to share in the strength that comes from being at his side, and to compensate, they perform small acts to recreate a portion of that aura. These are personal rites, meant to bolster individual spirit, and take place at the same time each day.Major Rites
The major ritual activities of the Blades are large-scale military exercises. Unlike typical armed-forces war games, though, these are highly formalized. Group tactics are practiced over and over, until all members are performing exactly in synch; then larger-group coordination is perfected in the same way. The overall effect is more of a great dance than a military action. An opponent observing these exercises would quickly be able to memorize and predict the movements of the warforged army—thus, the Blades go to extreme lengths to ensure secrecy. They send out advance agents into the practice area to exterminate any living beings they find (other than warforged, who are forcibly recruited or taken prisoner). In addition, all the Blades engage in the Blade Communion, a periodic adoration of their spiritual leader. This is not some offering of flowery words but a physical communion in which all receive the Lord of Blades blessing and in return confer upon him some of their own strength, thus increasing his power.The Calendar
The Blades mark time according to the first appearance of the Lord of Blades, punctuated by his most evocative pronouncements. They care little for the calendar of the fleshborn, instead, they mark the moons with quotations, which change each year as determined by the scribes. For example, the rising of Therendor is called in the current calendar, “We endure.” The transition from one day to the next is less important for people who need no sleep and conduct no commerce. Each quarter, however, begins with a Blade Communion. Once a year, following the Blade Communion of Scribing, the official recordkeepers transcribe the Lord of Blades’s pronouncements for the year and also name the next twelve months. 998 YK corresponds to the First Year of Thirteen Blades, according to the cult’s accounting. This might refer to the number of blades on the body of the Lord of Blades, to the number of companies working within the Mournland, or perhaps even to the rising of the moons (though this last is unlikely).| Galifar Month | Blade Communion |
|---|---|
| Olarune | Sentinel |
| Dravago | Handling |
| Rhaan | Scribing |
| Vult | Warding |
Priesthood
The cult of the Lord of Blades has a simple but clearly defined hierarchy. It starts with the Lord of Blades himself. His followers have memorized his every word, repeating them over and over, and they see his pronouncements as unassailable fact. When the Lord says, “We were made to rule Eberron,” the Blades know it to be true. They await only his direction to make the future real.
But who is the Lord of Blades? History tells of the warforged Bulwark, an outstanding servant of King Boranel of Breland, who was thought to have influenced that man’s thinking in the matter of warforged freedom. After the Treaty of Thronehold was signed, Bulwark headed east and was never seen again. Not long afterward, stories of the Lord of Blades began to circulate. Many warforged (and others) believe that the two are one and the same. This is but one of the many origin stories told about the Lord of Blades, however.
Wherever he came from, the devotion of the Blades to their Lord is clear. This might simply arise because their Lord is the most charismatic of his kind. Alternatively, he could have something extra—some divine authority or even supernatural ability that sets him apart from the rest. Perhaps this power derives from an ancient artifact, or even from an all-consuming obsession with finding such an item.
The cult’s organization is military, as befits the warforged mindset and the religious war espoused by their leader. The entire cult is the Legion, with the Lord of Blades at its head. Below the Lord himself, are his captains. Each captain is responsible for a company of followers, each company containing several hundred warforged. Below the captains are lieutenants who direct squads of around fifty followers. The chain of command is enforced rigidly, which warforged find comforting and familiar. Insubordination does not exist among the Blades—the very concept cannot even occur to them, for the orders of their Lord are absolute.
Religious Duties
The clergy—really more the military hierarchy—of the Lord of Blades has the primary duty of transmitting their master’s words to all members of the Legion. This takes the form of long harangues, which followers memorize and repeat as a mantra. Such repetition is typical of any warforged worship, and indeed of all warforged daily routine. The captains and lieutenants also lead their followers in military exercises, honing tactics and devising group maneuvers to assure victory when the holy war finally begins. Some among the high-ranking Blades are tasked with evangelism. These individuals are dispatched in all directions from the Mournland to warforged enclaves across Khorvaire. They have been focusing especially on Karrnath and Thrane, which have large populations of indentured warforged to whom the promised freedom of Thronehold never came. Among these downtrodden folk, they find their most zealous converts. The most passionate of these heralds spend many years as evangelicals in their adopted lands, to better awaken and lead others to their destiny. They do not tire of their self-imposed exile from their lord and god; they know that when the signal is given, all will gather in the Mournland to begin the conquest of the flesh-ruled lands.Quests
The militaristic nature of the Blades does not lend itself to individual growth, and the personal quest for discovery has no place within it. The missionary function of high-ranking clergy is questing of sorts, but with a purely practical function. Being tireless and built of durable materials, a warforged can undertake no meaningful test of physical endurance. However, strength of spirit (though the materialistic Blades would scoff at such a word) is valued. Warforged do experience mental fatigue without sufficient stimulation, and in such a state cannot function most efficiently as soldiers. Their ability to conduct repetitive activity nearly endlessly is used by the cult leaders to condition Blades to better follow the Lord’s orders. Thus, trials and drills form part of a follower’s regimen. These might entail support tasks, such as hauling materials back and forth, or tests of individual development, such as standing watch for a week without relief (and making regular reports to prove the time was actually spent in watching). Those who perform the most strongly usually end up being promoted to the higher ranks. Good intelligence is vital to any military operation, and those Blades who demonstrate the keenest powers of observation and analysis are sent on missions to gather information about the activities of their fleshly neighbors. Such missions might also scout out suitable areas for battle or seek contact with potential allies among the unenlightened warforged populace.
