Death Knights

History

Centuries ago, the Great Kingdom of Aerdy enjoyed a level of peace and prosperity previously unknown to the Flanaess. From the Solnor shores to the Fals Gap, across the entire breadth of their empire, Aerdi culture and commerce ruled the day. In 198 CY, the sage Selvor the Younger proclaimed a coming time of strife and living death, but few in power wanted to hear such words during an unprecedented period of contentment. A creeping decadence was everywhere in evidence to those willing to peel back the veil and recognize it. However, few could have guessed that the seeds of centuries of darkness and destruction were even then being planted at the kingdom's core by those most entrusted to safeguard it.
The Knight Protectors of the Great Kingdom is widely regarded as the greatest order of knighthood in the history of the Flanaess. While their current incarnation is but a shadow of its former self, the knights were first christened by the kings of Aerdy centuries before the kingdom achieved its swell. Over the years, the Knight Protectors became the most preeminent defenders of the common weal in all Aerdy. Regardless of god or creed, all knights proudly shared this burden. As a congregation of the kingdom's best and bravest warriors, the Knight Protectors and their exploits became the stuff of fable and legend. The defeat of barbarian hordes, rampaging dragons, and the schemes of power-mad sorcerers became woven into their history along with the legends of heroes such as Sir Lasimon the Martyr, Prince Jophan of Ahlissa, Caldni Vir of the Shamblefield, and Sir Piqarn the Hammer.
By the autumn of 202 CY, during the reign of the Overking Jiranen, a vacancy emerged at the head of the illustrious knighthood following the death of the well-respected Knight Commander of the order, Lord Nidramon the Hextorian. Most Aerdi expected the Council Gallant, composed of the oldest and wisest knights in the kingdom, to choose the man widely regarded as the greatest knight of the day to succeed the office. This was Lord Kargoth of Mansbridge, a Torquann nobleman who cut a stunning figure in the imaginations of the Aerdi people and nobility. A paladin of Heironeous, accounts say he stood nearly seven feet tall and had the strength of a hill giant. His exploits were already countless and while no longer in his prime, none could deny his unmatched puissance. But time eventually claims all men, even the matchless Lord Kargoth, so the paladin viewed becoming the standardbearer of the Knight Protectors as a last opportunity to extend his glorious career and share in the power regularly entrusted to lesser worthies.
An eclectic faction had gathered around his banner, a band of fawning princelings, cronies, schemers, and other assorted ne'er-do-wells. They fully expected his elevation to the head of the order and began whispering to him that it was all but assured. When the Council Gallant announced Benedor Monlath of Chathold as the next Knight Commander of the order, shock spread throughout the land. The council proclaimed young Benedor the best living embodiment of the tenets of the Knight Protectors: some even suggested that he was touched by the spirit of the goddess Johydee. When word of the decision reached Lord Kargoth at his castle, Fharlanst, the mighty knight seethed. His proponents had assured him of the selection and he had become convinced that no one was more worthy. The apparent slight wounded him deeply. When a priest of Heironeous counseled against challenging the council's decision, Kargoth had him expelled from his castle.
Goaded by his supporters, Kargoth appeared in the capital the following month For the convocation of investiture held in the Court of Essences at the royal palace. There, before the Overking and assembled nobles of the celestial houses of the land, he challenged Sir Benedor to a contest of arms. The younger knight accepted the challenge, as honour required, despite the disquiet quickly spreading throughout the chamber. Though clearly weaker than Kargoth, the valiant young knight repeatedly parried his attacks successfully, refusing to give up the floor. The two battled to a stalemate until sunset fell upon the chamber, marking the end of the contest. Kargoth's humiliation was complete: according to the rules of Parslin, the code of the Knight Protectors, Lord Kargoth had been defeated as he had issued the challenge but failed to prevail in the allotted time. Sir Benedor reached out a hand of truce and friendship, as was the custom of the order. But Sir Kargoth could not hide his disgust, not in that special chamber created by the sorcery of the legendary Court Mage Schandor, which bade men to the speak the truth in all things. Knights of all stripes called foul, while Kargoth's faction sneered.
In his agony and shame, the great knight rode off, wandering the countryside for many days. He damned the fate that had brought him low and vowed somehow to exact a vengeance. His mood festered and he openly cursed Heironeous for his plight. The heavens looked down upon him in silence. Demoralized, Kargoth soon became lost in a rainstorm while riding up the coast back to Fharlanst. Within a day of his home, he stumbled upon a lost ruin, in which he took refuge. There, the paladin discovered a rubble-strewn stairway leading down into the darkness. Following it, he came upon a vast hypogeum located beneath the earth. An ancient shrine greeted the light of his torch in this crypt-like chamber, at the center of which stood a grotesque statue of singularly obscene beauty. Kargoth was transfixed.
A chattering began to buzz in his ears as a voice spoke to him from out of the din. It seemed to emanate from the monstrous icon, which the paladin immediately recognized as that of a prince of the Abyss. The ancient Aerdi called this demon Ahmon-Ibor, The Sibilant Beast, a fiend known more commonly as Demogorgon in modern vernacular. Kargoth knew his cult was widespread among the decadent Flan natives of the northeastern coast who practiced dark rites and human sacrifice and had been prevalent in the central lands before the native Flan there had been pacified generations ago. The Beast praised Kargoth's might and heralded his exploits. Before morning, it had completely seduced him, making promises of power and vengeance, filling the gaping hole in his wounded pride. The Beast bade Kargoth to prove his fealty in exchange for the awesome powers that would be his to command.
Kargoth and Demogorgon swore a pact that must be sealed in blood. The fiend's request surprised the paladin, but the twisted nature of the plan brought a smile to his face. Kargoth marked his words carefully, pledging himself completely to the dire path that lay before him. And then, with the suddenness of a thunderstroke, tentacles emerged from the darkness and tore out his eyes. In a single moment dominated by what seemed like a year of pain and torture, Lord Kargoth became the first, most powerful death knight of Oerth, The following morning, Kargoth returned to Fharlanst, donning a helmet to mask his disfigurement and new form. His assembled servitors and allies, though somewhat taken aback at his menacing demeanor, were eager to speak with him. An internecine skirmish had broken out between some of the Knight Protectors over the ascendance of Benedor, whom some considered weak and unworthy. Other longtime grudges, having little to do with Kargoth, came to the fore, and many knights overtly ignored the tenets of Parslin in their haste to gain revenge for past slights. Some spoke openly against the Overking. Turmoil had begun to spread throughout the kingdom, and some of the grumbling knights begged Kargoth to lead a coup of the order with their support. Much to their surprise, the behelmed lord knight agreed to do so. The plan he proceeded to lay out perplexed them, but the eager renegades listened on.
Instead of riding out to confront their rivals at Morshaldin Castle, ancestral headquarters of the Knight Protectors, Lord Kargoth's plan called for a raid on the obscure Temple of Lothan near Rel Deven. Kargoth informed his conspirators that the temple was the secret hiding place of the legendary Orb of Sol, a holy artifact of great symbolic importance to the Aerdi people. Its theft, he argued, would force their opponents into the open, where they could be crushed on the field of battle thanks to the Orb's legendary powers. Kargoth ultimately convinced thirteen of his fellow knights to place their trust in him and take up his plan. Though Few of them truly understood its dire intentions, they agreed to support him and rode for Rel Deven the following dawn.
The hell-bent troop made quick work of the guardians of the temple and easily pierced its inner sanctum, the secret resting place of the Orb. Kargoth worked according to his own plan, however, and he bade everyone to stand aside as he approached the Orb himself and studied its rune-covered surface. The other knights displayed open apprehension. The culmination of the pact Kargoth had made with his new dark master was at hand. The other traitors were no longer of any concern to him. The Beast had taught him ancient words of power, aledictions so profane they could bend the rumoured powers of the Orb to his will and cause it to open a crack between this world and Demogorgon's personal layer of the Abyss.
Without further warning, Kargoth traced the surface of the Orb with his fingers and spoke the words of power. Smoke rose from his digits as a crackling nimbus sent the dark knight hurtling to the walls of the chamber. An earthquake rocked the Temple of Lothan, and the floors and walls began to crack. Great tongues of unearthly fire began to shoot out from the Orb in all directions. The other knights began to run for their lives, but they were quickly and unmercifully struck down where they stood by the relentless flames. Their flesh caught fire as they collapsed onto buckling flagstones. Lord Kargoth writhed on the floor in agony, but he had succeeded in his task. He had delivered up the traitors to his master, and he had unleashed a horror upon the world, a great demon beast named Arendagrost, Maw of the Abyss. According to accounts at the time, the beast vaguely resembled an immense wingless dragon of gargantuan size. Instead of legs, it moved upon a sea of tentacles. In place of scales, it was covered in coarse black fur and had three heads that resembled monstrous horned fiends that breathed bloody acid, fire, and frost. Its six-fold eyes offered instant death to anyone catching their hideous gaze. The monstrous fiend began to cut a swath of destruction from the outskirts of Rel Deven on'a direct path to Rauxes. As reports reached the other Knight Protectors, they mobilised in the defence of the kingdom. Sir Benedor. new commander of the order, bad been en route back to Chathold, but quickly rode for Rel Deven upon hearing the terrible news. He arrived to discover the Temple of Lothan a smoking ruin. What he found in the Chamber of the Orb shocked him to the core of his being.
The smoking bodies of thirteen Knight Protectors were strewn about the inner sanctum, which now resembled a charnel house. Their eyes had been cut from their faces, and Kargoth was nowhere to be found. Sir Benedor immediately suspected dark sorcery and moved quickly to examine the Orb in the center of the room. The young knight barely glanced at its rune-covered surface before the chamber began to stir. A sudden coldness tore at his skin. One by one, the smoking, scorched bodies of the dead knights around him began to rise to their feet and fix their gaze upon him. Their armor and clothing were seared to their charred flesh. A preternatural glow emerged from their faces, where once had been eyes. Sir Benedor recognized instantly that these were no longer men, but fiends. These were the dreaded death knights, newly sired into the world.

Aftermath

The rest of the history is well known, as the remaining Knight Protectors united to first waylay, then destroy the demonic abomination heading for Rauxes. However, this victory came too late to save some of the royal family, which was decimated near Carnifand. The attack cost many additional lives along the path of destruction, and a wave of terror gripped the kingdom as word quickly spread throughout the land of Kargoth's betrayal. As his infamy spread throughout the kingdom, the other Death Knights escaped the ruins of the Temple of Lothan and scattered throughout the lands under the cover of this confusion. They cursed the gods and Lord Kargoth for drawing them into the same dark pact he made with the Beast. The cult of Ahrnon-lbor began to rise in the eastern cities, gaining a foothold in the Great Kingdom once more. Sir Benedor, now bearer of the Orb of Sol, launched his quest to bring the traitors to justice and dedicated the order to this mission. But there would be few victories in his dauntless struggle, as passions soon faded and decadence gained a handhold among the Aerdi. 
In 213 CY, the Royal Astrologers at Rel Astra confirmed a coming Age of Great Sorrow. The new Overking Zelcor distanced himself from the Knight Protectors, and the attention of the Great Kingdom was drawn progressively inward as provinces began to win their independence, decade after decade. A century later, the death knights were so powerful it was they who began hunting down the Knight Protectors. Few came to their aid, as the monstrous knights gained the upper hand. Kargoth's depredations were so great that his infamy spread far and wide. The Great Kingdom, once a beacon of order and justice in the Flanaess, was never again the same.

Members

The first death knight was Saint Kargoth, "King of the Death Knights". Thirteen of Kargoth's fellow and contemporary Knight Protectors of the Great Kingdom joined him in becoming death knights:

• Lord Adromansis of Garasteth.
• Sir Farian of Lirtham (destroyed 209 CY, but soul now powers the deathblade Astrosus).
• Lord Khayven of Rax.
• Lady Lorana Kath of Aurix.
• Sir Luren the Boar of Torquann.
• Dame Maeril of Aurix.
• Sir Minar Syrric of Dalmen.
• Lord Monduiz Dephaar.
• Prince Myrhal of Rax.
• Sir Oslan Knarren.
• Sir Rezinar of Haxx.
• Lord Thyrian of Aurix.
• Duke Urkar Grasz of Torquann.

Type

Secret, Military