Jump to content

[Legend] Gauld's Ashen Knights


Swgrclan
 Share

Recommended Posts

Your MCName: 

 

Swgrclan


Is this Legend a Player Character? (y/n) If so, list their MCName: 

 

They/he is not.


Legend Name: 

 

The Fables of the Ashen Knight(s)


Legend Race/Birthplace/gender/brief history: 

 

The Ashen Knights were a band of ancient human warriors that abandoned the homeland of Horen in search of glories to the north of Aegis. They discovered a ruin, read an eldritch text hidden within it, and then collectively assumed the mantle of acting as wardens over the accursed Far-North and all beings that passed into it.


RP belief about the legend (Why people view them positively/negatively. What people know in RP pre-events.): 

 

[ This is more of a legend iteration than an OOC explanation, just to forewarn. ]

 

Long ago, it is said there existed a lone figure who, after making pilgrimage from the homeland of Horen, reached a land said to exist to the distant north of Aegis. All this sole man was known by was the title of “Ashen Knight”, for he dwelled an age so far behind modern times that whatever birthname he held, if at all, had likely faded from the fables including him. The Ashen Knight, as per his place of origin and the mantle he carried, was a man of status and prestige, so when he dedicated himself to traveling the obscure expanse of the northern beyond, his odyssey was recorded akin to a holy pilgrimage in the annals of his people.

 

What the Ashen Knight discovered there, along the edge of the accursed realm to the north, was an isolated, ruined temple which bore scriptures of an occult and tales of what roamed the obscurity which the Ashen Knight sought to discern. These tales spoke of a greater evil; a malignant presence in that land known as the Far-North, which contained a dark, gelid force that if ever released upon the rest of the world, would likely lead to its early downfall. Thus the Ashen Knight came to know his true calling, and claimed the ruin temple’s spires as his watchtowers so he could keep guard over the north.

 

Those who made a similar trek to the accursed Far-North left only to return with eccentric stories of the Ashen Knight himself; how they were protected under his watch, and when they encountered the hordes of walking dead condemned to roam the bleak land, were saved by the stalwart knight. His visage was described as one coiled in wrappings of cloaks of red, wielding a blade stained dark with undead blood, with his aged plate’s shine hampered by the ashes which fell from the Far-North’s gloaming skies. Though he seemed grim by description, his deeds were spoken of highly, for each recorded encounter consisted of the Ashen Knight assisting wayward travelers, slaying countless undead and holding back the dark which roiled in that terrible, nameless realm beyond.

 

The Ashen Knight’s prowess was unmatched by all whom he opposed, and he threw himself upon the decaying masses with a reckless abandon not unlike that of a barbarian’s method of combat; and so frequent were his battles that his legendary sword became ever-drenched in the redness of blood, eroding its sharpness but gifting it the power to slay undead with ease. Through the ages, the Ashen Knight’s identity malformed from that of a chivalrous vigil of the north to a grim anti-hero whom fought the darkness of the beyond almost because it was simply his sole nature; implying the Far-North’s contained hordes were merely the unfortunate victims of his aggressive energies instead of the south, where the viable opposition was much more tactile and keen.

 

Perhaps his duty became a heavy burden, eroding both morality of the mind and the vigor of the body, for when tales of the Ashen Knight became macabre and chalk of ill-will, he simply seemed to disappear, for one day he left his watchtowers of yore to trek deeper into the Far-North, so he could either keep watch undeterred by wayward men, or simply to just die fighting against his eternal, undead enemy.

 

With his disappearance, the Ashen Knight’s tales had reverted to their goodly nature, and though his fables had been distorted by the passing of word-of-mouth, he had always been regarded as a chivalrous, just figure who devoted his very being to keeping back the shadows of the Far-North. The Ashen Knight’s aesthetics are what were truly preserved through time, with his sanguine cloaks, ash-riddled armor and weathered sword acting as defining features in every myth that spoke of him.


Brief OOC overview of Legend story (What actually lead to them becoming a legend. This may be the same as the RP belief, or it may be different.): 

 

[ This is a bit lengthy, forgive me mama lulu ]

 

It was not a single man who traversed the Far-North, but rather a practical small army of knights who had abandoned the homeland of Horen in search of glory and plunder in lands unbeknownst. They were led by a man by the name of Ser Gauld, and when the chivalrous band happened upon the ruined temple of the Far-North, they claimed it as their base of operations and took to discerning what it held within it immediately. The faith of these men were distorted by the occultist recordings preserved in these ruins, and after Gauld was the first to give up his Canonist faith in exchange for the eldritch beliefs of what they came to know as the “Old Truths”, the rest of the knights followed. It was not an opposition to the Far-North they would come to uphold, but rather an attunement to it - the Old Truths taught them godlessness, and it provided insight on the obscure beyond and the accursed nature it held.

 

In truth, it was these knights whom guided mindless undead into the gelid lands, not kept them in; they feared a pair of force they came to known as the Harkening and the Kismet which their Old Truths spoke of, for they masterless powers which roused the dead from their sleep, and then led them all northward so they would disappear into its nameless, broken expanse. This did not make the knights malevolent, however, nor had their godlessness corrupted their minds, for the half-truths of the singular Ashen Knight had been correct in the fact that travelers were protected by the cold undead that the knights were oathed to shepherd. These Ashen Knights, whom took their title in honor of the Old Truths, were perceived collectively as an individual - they hunted undead that had sought to escape their realm of containment, so when hapless travelers were lucky enough to be saved by an Ashen Knight and ushered back toward the south, they returned with tales all speaking of men of similar appearance and nature - knights adorned in sanguine cloth, whose forlorn forms were tattered by the blood of unruly undead and the ash which fell from the skies.

 

It was through the Old Truths that Gauld’s knightship came to learn of the beings known as the Old Lords, or the first of the godless undead - so they chose to honor them by forging blades identical to those wielded by the forgotten heralds of occultism and wearing shrouds stained with the blood of the arisen.

 

And this indeed was their true visage; their service as undead guides made them grim and stole their shine from them, and plucking from their souls the humanity they once carried in abundance. It was in the later ages that Gauld’s Ashen Knights were confronted by a timeless sage known as the Gloomgazer, and after being promised a power known as Lifereign, Gauld accepted immediately; and thus his trusted legion followed suit. This dark, ancient power allowed them what its name implied; reign over life, and by extension the walking dead they guided. But the Gloomgazer, whom absconded after surrendering his gifts so swiftly, did not speak of the magics effects; and thus the Ashen Knights were cursed.

 

The magic of Lifereign is what is known as “proto-Necromancy”; it is the ancient, progenitor equivalent to what is known as Necromancy in modern times, for the power of Lifereign allowed for the manipulation of Lifeforce and all effects this encompassed. In truth, Gauld and his loyal men only practiced the eldritch art enough to drain the raw essence of the living and the undead, and used this power to put down greater threats which sought to escape the Far-North and incite bedlam in the mainland south. But the power of Lifereign was not easily tamed, for when they begun practicing it, their very own quintessence experienced an “imbalance”; the result of using Necromancies of both the new age and of yore. This is the cause of the bodily erosion of Necromancers, and with no way to understand this affliction, the Ashen Knight suffered dearly for it.

 

Eventually, Lifereign distorted them and brought them closer to the broken, decayed creatures to whom they acted shepherds of. But no matter how close they seemed to become to the undying, they were still mortals - and thus, with no way to keep stalwart with their Lifeforces constantly escaping them, the Ashen Knights began to succumb. It was the greatest among them, Ashen Knight Gauld, who feared death not because he would fail his mission, but because his corpse would be willed to raise back up to roam as a mindless shadow of himself and as a threat to his fellow brothers. So upon feeling the chill of death creep near his soul, Gauld abandoned the knightship’s ruin known as the Cemetary Temple without spoken reason, and made pilgrimage into the Far-North, never to be seen again.

 

The Ashen Knights “disappeared” because, after they all stayed behind, they all died by the very power that allowed them to keep absolute vigil. It was one among them that raised as an equivalent to a Ghoul some time after their collective deaths that realized that, if they were to all raise once more, they would merely accompany the mindless ranks whom they once guided. This arisen Ashen Knight who went by the name of Admetus gathered the bodies of his fallen brothers, and buried them all within the temple soils with the fragile hope they would not awaken from death as the monsters that their tales said they fought against.


But such was the nature of the dark force known as the Cursed Kismet - that strange power that caused the dead to eventually rise again, so in due time the Ashen Knights came to rise, wherein they would continue to stalk the border of the Far-North for an eternity onward, slaying both trespassing man and wayward undead who heeded the occasional Harkening.


How the Legend would be proliferated in RP (If this involves books/stories, you may wish to write them with the submission. Once the Legend is fully accepted you may RP knowledge of the legend, however you may only RP the RP BELIEF of the legend, not any OOC overview knowledge. Otherwise, the ET will do our best to introduce the Legend in-game.): 

 

Versions of the Ashen Knight fables can be scattered about the maps as books or scrolls that can be said to have been dated several centuries ago, as their recorded histories are quite old. As the common tradition was to pass their tales down by word of mouth, however, there could be some kind of elderly sage who could share knowledge of the Ashen Knight and give insight on where the tales originated.


What events would you like to occur around this legend? (ex, discovery of the Legend’s gravesite, retrieving of the Legend’s body, discovering something the Legend created/did): 

 

As the Ashen Knights are currently either dead and buried or walking around as mindless undead, there may be expeditions held where the mainlands surrounding the Abyss can be sailed/traveled to, where a trek to the edge of the Far-North could be initiated so the hunting grounds of the Gauld's legion could be found and scoured for these warriors of yore. The undead remnants of the Ashen Knights can be fought and the graves of the others found so their mystery can be discerned. The last, sane Ashen Knight, Admetus, may be met and sought as a means to generate quests regarding his fallen brothers and the truer histories surrounding them. 


Relics Associated:

 

Tomes recorded by the old living Ashen Knights, their swords (broken and intact) gathered from graves and after defeating them, their ashes that can be used as some kind of alchemical or ritualistic components and their mythic red cloaks are all things of value that would be directly relevant to them. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.



×
×
  • Create New...