Order of St Allard
The Order of the St Allard stand for:
Equal rights under the law and upholding the King’s Justice.
Protecting the innocent.
Showing mercy to all honourable peoples.
Promoting duty to Kingdom.
History
Founding
Founded in 1241, the previously known Order of the Sovereign Shield was formed by Grand Master Merd Steward after a battle field encounter with the Erayax where his life was saved by none other than King Allard Strongback himself. From that point on Grand Master Stewart founded the Order of the Sovereign Shield. Fiercely loyal to King Allard Strongback, they quickly became much favoured by the King during his reign.When Grand Master Merd Stewart died in 1256, a victim of the explosion that killed almost all or the royal family, the order past onto Grand Master Eòghann Macan-Ulty
Not long after the death of King Allard Strongback some months later from injuries sustained in the blast, a new religion formed known as Allards Guiding Light. It was then, that the order changed its name to the Order of St Allard and became devote worshipers of this new faith.
Merd Stewart's recollection of his first encounter with King Allard Strongback
“I remember the night when I first met him. I was a young lad, not older than 20… I was in the local garrison of the Ildres Teardrop, a sergeant in the ranks. I’d only been in the garrison for six months…I must have made an impression on someone close to King Allard.
I rose quickly at the time, everyone did… We’d been fighting skirmishes with brigands, outlaws, and pirates over the winter. As our officers died, we rose up in ranks.
It was a brutal time, and not just the fighting, but the winter. It was bitter cold. So cold your hands could freeze just taking your gloves off to take a piss.
You’re probably wondering why we were fighting in one of the coldest winters… We had no damn choice. The mungrel filthy heathens of the Erayax under the banner of Tallax one eye had been raiding villages in the area around Cedar Hollow. We were the nearest garrison with enough men-at-arms to help. It was my first real fight. A test that any warrior would find testing. Find out we did.
I’ve never shit myself so hard in my life. My bowels turned to water the moment we arrived in Cedar Hollow.
It was the smell that got me… The smell of burnt flesh and rotting corpses… By the time we got to the town the evil bastards had left. No one survived the slaughter. The whole town. All dead...
The men... what they did to the men was the worst thing I'd ever seen. The sight haunts me every night when I shut my eyes to sleep. It was… So inhuman. So… Dishonourable....
They’d rounded up the men like cattle and cut off their hands and feet. Their arms… Their arms were tied behind their back at the elbows. The deep cuts in their forearms and tops of their shoulders... The marks left as evidence that these men were alive when they were tortured and dismembered. The bodies were impaled on spikes, taller than the largest of the King's warhorses... It was a terrible sight... We quickly got the bodies down and burnt them as is the right thing to do.
Overcome with emotions of every type, we’d forgotten about strategy. The town was at the base of a large mountain more than 150 meters high. The mountain surrounded the town with only one entrance in, and one entrance out. A small bridge no more than 4 meters wide; it crossed a small creek, now known as “Holds Bridge”.
It was early morning when the demons returned, just before dawn.
Blessed Allard that the moon was shining brightly that night. Nothing worse than fighting in the dark. As the sun came up we heard calls to arms. Our camp awoke quickly to find burning torches of some two hundred meters off from the other side of the creek. The torches looked like burning hot embers in the cold winter morning. It was hard to tell exactly how many there were at that time, but we were certainly outnumbered Two to one buy my estimates at the time, some say three or four to one.
My Lord commander - William Pamfrey sent out an envoy to make terms with the invaders. Our terms were simple. Leave our lands in peace or suffer the wrath of the King...
Tallex cut the emissary down where he stood. With a swing of his ax, he cut our emissary from neck to navel. Tallex licked the blood from his ax and screamed out a bone chilling roar. His warriors ran headlong at us, across the rocky open field. We held them at the bridge. Our archers shot arrow after arrow into their ranks, but there were simply too many.
My platoon of men were the last to fight. We fought bravely. We all did. The heroes of that day were not the seven of us that survived, but it was those that never returned home to their families. Those were the true heroes...
I knew I wasn't going to make it home. I would die in this cold and miserable place. With my men, my brothers. I just hoped it was a quick death. I didn’t want to end up like the rest of the poor souls of Cedar Hollow. A fate worse than dying, is dying slowly in pain, inflicted by the offender. I’d just finished fighting an Erayax warrior. I cleaved his head from his shoulders with my sword. That's when I felt the hit to my back. As I fell to the ground, everything went dark.
When I opened my eyes, I saw the face of a giant hammer. A hammer that had taken many lives. As the hammer pulled away from my face, I could see the Erayax warrior was lining up his aim to flatten my skull. I closed my eyes, but nothing happened...
For a fleeting moment, I thought I was dead. I could feel no pain. This, if I was going to die was the way I wanted to go. Quickly and painlessly. But death never came.
It felt like hours had passed, but as I opened my eyes again, that's when I saw him. King Allard (Bless his name) He saved me. I lay there, not being able to move. It was him with his Knight’s fighting back.
My would-be executioner had he head split in two by King Allard. As King Allard rode into my view, a shimmer of light, like a bright star shone about him... As if he was a miracle placed on Ashnoor by The Ten themselves.
I watched the rest of the battle, wounded on the ground...
From that day forth I fought at his side. Out of the seven of us that survived, 3 of us who were able, joined his guard. He named us “Order of the Sovereign Shield”. As King Allard (Bless his name) we became close friends and his retainers. Sworn we were to assist in what ways he saw fit for us. But he taught us our three main tenets.
Duty, Justice, and Honour. King Allard is one of those leaders and monarchs that comes only every hundred years or so.
Serving him is my Duty.
Serving our people is their Justice.
Remembering our brothers, alive and fallen is our honour.
This is what we are. The Sovereign Shield”.
Written journal of Merd Stewart Grand Master, Order of the Sovereign Shield 1222 A.E. to 1256 A.E. written sometime in the 1230’s - 40’s before his untimely death in 1256.A.E.
Mythology & Lore
The Order of St. Allard are followers of “Allards guiding light, for he shows us the way”.
Tenets of Faith
- Honour (The faith)
- Duty (To Kingdom and King)
- Justice (For all)
Honour, Duty, Justice
Out of Character Moto:
Fairness, Fun, Flexibility
Our commitment to the Ashnoor Community and it's Committee:
- We will be a friendly and nurturing house.
- What is good for the Ashnoor Community will be our main priority, as such we will expect an elevated level of sportsmanship and fair play from our members and will not engage in activities and strategies designed to significantly overbalance the game in our favour or ruin our opponents game experience. We make this promise as we understand for the game to grow and thrive, all participants need to be enjoying themselves.
- We will play a role in bringing some battlefield command and passion to the Kingdom of Geldheim players.
- We will actively and genuinely seek to do our part to help grow the game.
- We will work collaboratively and genuinely with other House Leaders (regardless of their allegiance) and the Ashnoor Committee with the aim of growing the Ashnoor player base and keeping our game enjoyable for all.
- If during any given campaign game, there is an overwhelming on field advantage to the Kingdom forces that cannot be addressed by Red Company we will happily support any of our members to fight (out of character) for the other side if they feel comfortable doing so.
Founding Date
1241
Type
Military Order
Training Level
Professional
Veterancy Level
Experienced
Leader
Ruling Organization
Leader Title
Founders
Parent Organization
Deities
Location
Notable Members
