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[✗] [Playable CA Race Lore] - [Dreadknights]


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Dreadknights

Harbingers of the Blood





 

Brief History

 

With the extinction of the terrifying abominations known as Dreadknights decades before arriving at the lands known as Arcas. They had become nothing more than fabled, hollow beings that once towered over their foes to wreak havoc upon the mortal plane. Previous generations of blood mages that sought power through the use of such a ritual often tinkered and explored to the very brink of their limits. Some ancient mages that bent genus to their will had perfected the usage of creating semi-obedient slaves through crimes that went against nature itself. Though those who failed were consumed by the magic as it backfired and tore not only their bodies, but spirits asunder. With the coming of age a tome had been constructed to contain a listing of runes, similar, yet different from those known by the blood mages of today. Inside the withered pages resides instructions explaining the steps of shackling the spirit and binding the soul to a set of armor.

 

Although different forms of Dreadknights had surfaced in the past, those who had competed with other groups of blood mages argued that their manner of creation was perfected and solely their own doing. A supposed traitor known simply as K’lenro had been suspected of crimes, strung up, and picked apart for a vile ritualistic experiment. One that none of the other dark mages of ancient times had predicted such a creation could take root within itself. The Tome of K’lenro had been constructed and within the ritual of creating their masterpiece was implanted upon the freshly tanned, and magically aged hide of K’lenro. Part of his soul clung on, screaming silently within the pages as the sheer agony tore at the ex-spy’ shattered mind.

 

The pages quieted internally though in time, and eventually the book had fallen into a craterous explosion caused by one of the final acts of a defiant blood mage. It was swallowed into the genus-fueled flames and slowly, but surely was turned to dust by the ravaging torrent of fire as friend and foe fell around it, unknowing of what had slipped from time. The ashes and blood settled beyond view of the Betrayer, Ascended and others in Aegis, and so did the knowledge of K’lenro’ horrid fate. With the Blood mages of ancient times banished to death, and all knowledge of the tome being vanquished by one of its very creators, all knowledge of  the ritual fell away in the years to pass.

 

 



 

Tome of K’lenro

 

 

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It had been speculated that K’lenro was a spy who had originally been sent in to infiltrate a union of mages who dabbled in the dark arts. He himself being a man who served god fully, and had risked all he knew in life. Though this in turn was the his own downfall. K’lenro’ word returned to the ears of the blood mages after he attempted to dig too deep for info and they had skewered him the next time he arrived to pledge his loyalty to them. The man was slowly skinned alive as ancient runes were carved in place, empowering the flaps of skin with genus-bound potential.

 

The final act of sacrificing his broken body and soul had added together the effect of imbuing the pages and cover that were stitched together with inhumane properties. Though the book was destroyed years after its creation, a few scattered pages remained throughout time though. Scarring each mind as they were passed along through shady trades and theft. A single vile page remained with potent importance, awaiting to resurface and spread the knowledge of piecing Dreadknights together once more by use of blood magic’ sacrificial rites.

 

 

 

 

 

Appearance and Functionality


 

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Dreadknights stand between 6 and 8 feet in height, and weigh roughly five, through eight hundred pounds. This is due to the genus that had been bathed upon the armor itself, the magical essence corrupts the very metal into harboring a constant flow of empowered genus-bound energy to course over each rune carved upon the inside of the Dreadknight’ husk. The engraved runes themselves cannot be washed clean as the blood itself had been dried up long after the Dreadknight took shape, all that remains is a dull, low throbbing glowing runic markings that are colored depending upon the Dreadknight’ aura. The shape and design of the Dreadknights armor is completely decided upon their creator when conducting the ritual, or victim. Though, attempting to create Dreadknights of too large or two small in size will result in a PK of the attempted character being transformed.

 

(PK is consent-only on Dreadknight-to-be characters upon being created. If not wanting to PK the character resists the ritual and remains mortal.) Dreadknights carry with them an encumbering stance when it comes to moving, though their arms are relatively free of this problem, allowing the metallic harbingers to defend themselves at close quarters, though turning and spinning in place is brought to a slow march. If the Dreadknight is not made of a completely layered suit of armor, a crimson aura can be seen connecting the pieces of armor together by a rough outline of a humanoid shape. This gives them their scarcely known trademark of being creations bound to blood mages of ancient times. Dreadknights, when encountering fire in any natural form are unaffected by such, though the concussive force with enough energy can send any Dreadknight off their sabatons and possibly ripping apart their armor if having enough force.




 

 

Strengths:

 

The strength of a Dreadknight equals to that of a healthy Uruk

 

Hardened suit of a Dreadknight’ armor is extremely resistant to strikes performed with slashing weapons and weaker attacks

 

Dreadknights have no need of food or water, do not age, although they gain a thick coating of rust in time that does not dissolve their strength or durability

 

Dreadknights have no real sense of bodily harm when damaged, though suffer an intense, dull throbbing pain when pieces of armor are pried from its entirety, or come in contact with aurum

 

Dreadknights are immune to exhaustion

 

Those transformed into a Dreadknight can mimic that of a set of armor on display, their crimson aura vanishes as the armor freezes in place (This cannot be done with partial pieces of armor making up a Dreadknight form.). A Dreadknight, with enough cover in place can sometimes pass as a man, although their posture and walking speed may give them away in certain circumstances.



 

Weaknesses:

 

Vulnerable to piercing and bludgeoning attacks with sufficient force behind an attack

 

If a Dreadknight is vanquished their form will slowly remanifest at either a random location upon the mortal planes, or near a blood mage who aided in their creation. This process though takes four elvish days to complete,(4 irl days to remanifest) and after such time passes. The Dreadknight erupts back into the mortal world with the ringing of grinding metal and anguished screams as their form seemingly rips into existence out of thin air, a reverse side of what would be a suit of armor being crumpled up into a tiny ball

 

Dreadknights struck by Aurum would be exposed to immense pain even if not having any actual harm inflicted upon their suit. The feeling subsides after a few seconds (One emote of pain)

 

Dreadknights suffer from bouts of rage seemingly at random when around crowds of mortals who are unattuned to the rites of blood magic as the untapped genus within the region triggers their damaged psyche

 

Dreadknights are bound to a slow march when moving and turning in place

 

Dreadknights are incapable of feeling any emotions besides pain, anger and sorrow. For this, they are hardly seen at events or gatherings intent on spreading good, cheerful feelings. This making Dreadknights more on the side of anti-social creations

 

Fi magic, Shamanism, malflame, and any type of holy magic that targets the soul negatively affects Dreadknights

 

 

 

 

Mindset & Mental State


 

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The mental state of the Dreadknights is a complex one, varying slightly in between each. Though they revolve around the same effects placed upon the broken soul of every single one when created. Every Dreadknight is stripped of their emotions, besides pain, sorrow and anger. Those remaining are left in place by usage of certain runes that allow the remaining emotions to fester and breed a merciless killer as time passes. Having said this, the Dreadknights are not incapable of thinking for themselves, each one is their own self in completeness. They may have ‘hobbies’ or past work they may continue on from beyond death’ grasp, examples would be a blacksmith, or a shipwright. Because of this many Dreadknights of the past had preoccupied themselves with such things as to prevent themselves from going crazy in isolation from mortal kind.

 

Genus also acts as a magnet to these creature, and the blood flowing within the veins of mortals also brings about a slowly building essence of rage and hatred whenever they’re around. Stories spoke of those turned into Dreadknights returning to their families, attempting to blend in with them by all means. Only lost control to watch as they themselves had torn their own family members limb from limb, their screams and suffering only fueled the Dreadknights into utter destruction over a course of spanning years. This is a reason why many Knights of Dread stay

away from the ones they knew in life for the thought of losing their minds and recklessly smashing the ones they once loved into a bloodied meat-paste.



 

Dreadknights gain an unnatural hatred for all mortals as they harbor life, something they can never experience again. Their own unnatural state of mind having compulsions of anger and rage at random times that can result in violent outbursts

 

Dreadknights can only feel anger, sorrow and pain, all other emotions had been stripped away after becoming one

 

There is no such thing as a happy Dreadknight, to RP such is powergaming

 

Dreadknights are beings that have souls, corrupted as they may be. A Dreadknight is fully capable of going off on their own and doing as they wish, though if summoned by their creator. They’d feel compelled to return, or risk having their soul rune torn to shreds unless possessing their own.

 

 

 

Rune of Siphoning


 

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When a Dreadknight is in the process of being created, a complex rune is engraved upon either palm of the gauntlet. This rune, once applied to an open wound allows a Dreadknight to increase blood flow from the victim and store away a portion of useable genus that can later be channeled outwards and offered in various manners to aid in blood rituals, or amplifying the use of blood magic, and void-based spells. The one affect that mentally effects a Dreadknight has after finishing the spell successfully is the unquenchable anger felt within their frames is quelled for a short time. (30 IRL minutes) Usually allowing the victim to live with a horrific experience, their wounds seal up by the unnatural touch of blood magic, which can be a subtle blessing if the victim had taken a grievous blow in battle and were bleeding out. Ancient bloodmages hadn’t blinked twice when allowing their ‘pets’ to heal wounds and seal them back together, for a price. Even now this can be the harnessed to ones painful advantage.





 

Emote 1:

Grasping a victim that is bleeding, making sure to target a wound that is bleeding. Firm pressure must be kept to the wound where the rune of siphoning is located.

 

Emote 2:

Activating the rune of siphoning that is upon the gauntlet of a Dreadknight. The gauntlet must be in contact with a bleeding victim’ wound, otherwise it will not function as genus is used to spark the rune’ properties of draining a portion of genus from the victim.

 

Emote 3:

The Dreadknight then begins to draw out genus from the victim, causing excruciating pain upon contact of where they’re bleeding. The Dreadknight must remain stationary to drain a victim properly, if attempting to move, the Dreadknight loses focus and fails to continue in using the rune of siphoning.

 

Emote 4:

The victim is drained of ⅓ of their entire genus pool, the Dreadknight gains no benefits from storing the genus within their suit of genus-fueled armor. The victims wound also stitches back together after the process is completed. The stored genus can remain for 1 IRL week, after it is not used the stored genus leaks out and must be refueled if needing again.






 

Soul Rune

 

 

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The process of creating a Dreadknight in this manner starts with specific runes being firstly carved into each part of the armor that will be used, preferably the interior. Then the Dreadknight-to-be has the same runes carved into a spot on their body sufficient in offering enough space.  A final rune is carved upon the back of the victim, this rune is known as a Soul Rune, which draws power from the very genus coursing through the mortal, and links it to the rest placed upon not only their own body for a short time, but the runes mainly carved upon the armor to be used in creating the Dreadknight. Afterwards, an incantation is spoken that is passed along by the tome of K’lenro’ passage, or by mouth of another who had experienced such. When this is done correctly, the genus throughout the victims body will empower the runic markings on the armor, an invisible tether will then be created to the victim and soon to be metallic prison.

 

One must then carve the hunk of flesh from the back of the victim that contains the Soul Rune used to house a bridge for the soul to link to. Instantly after it is seperated, the hunk of flesh dries up, becoming leathery and weathered with faint glowing runic markings where they were originally carved. This allows an anchor for the soul and blood contract signed by genus itself. The creator and Dreadknight having a passive bond that allows a common understanding, though nothing else between the two. Although the Blood Mage may offer out a few drops of blood when creating the Dreadknight, which can strengthen the bond between the metallic being and genus wielding mage. This only aids in making the Dreadknight more malleable when it comes to persuasion and nothing else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

General Redlines


 

 


 

There may only be 3 Dreadknights bound to each blood mage T3 and above.

 

Pain, anger and sorrow are the only emotions that can be felt by Dreadknights.

 

Dreadknights can only be 6-8 feet tall, and range from 500-800 pounds in weight.

 

Dreadknights can only have the strength equaling to that of a healthy Uruk.

 

Dreadknights may not move faster than a basic walking speed while in combat or roleplay.

 

The creation of Dreadknights can only be performed by anyone who has had evident RP with a parchment from the Tome of K’leno, or those who had prior experience with those who had

 

A Dreadknight whos Soul Rune is destroyed is instantly PK’ed can unable to be reconstructed to role play as a Dreadknight, or any other type of undead other than a Ghost.

 

A Dreadknight must remain stationary when attempting to use the rune of siphoning, if attempting to move the spell will end prematurely.

 

The four-step process must be followed when using the rune of siphoning to drain genus from a victim.

 

The sealing of a mortals wound by use of the rune of siphoning cannot bring the dead back to life nor restore blood loss as the victim will suffer this still.

 

A Dreadknight can only store an amount equal to that of three full genus pools from mortals (9 full drains within a week.) which when harnessing the genus after siphoning, only one full genus pool can be offered per spell, although the full amount of a stored genus pool within a Dreadknight can be given to rituals at once.

 

Dreadknights cannot learn magic, besides what their abilities allow them to do

 

Any mortal attempting to put on a section of Dreadknight armor will slowly have genus yanked from their body as a vacuum of invisible energy radiates from within any section that has been disassembled from a Dreadknight.

 

 



 

 


 

Purpose

 

 

With the preexistent Dreadknights that had been shelved for being nothing but killing machines, I aim to base this lore upon having this generation of Dreadknights to be more akin to servants more than slaves to blood mages, giving freedom to them and bringing down the ability to simply crush every person in their path without a single drop of resistance. They will be walking batteries for genus in some sense. Allowing a Dreadknight to aid in rituals or spells cast in the heat of battle by wizards and sorcerers alike. Dreadknights will still have the essence of being skilled warriors who can sustain great amounts of damage in combat, but not nearly as much as their previous counterparts potential. With abilities that have balanced mechanics to them and the potential to offer diverse role play and fun on LotC, I hope to see Dreadknights become a part of LotC’ current lore for players and staff alike to enjoy.

 

 

 

 

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Just now, Tato said:

Imo

 

pointless. 

 

You could accomplish the same thing with an orc in armour.

Being titled ‘servant’ rather than ‘slave’ isnt a very compelling difference.

 

So too: I thought Beserkers were supposed to be the replacement for this in the current iteration of Blood Magic?

 

+ locking the knowledge to a tome promotes circle-jerking: something that, in the current rewrite, was to be eliminated through the Blood Shards/Malghourn (which this also disregards as the knowledge source: and could work better as being available through communion/tasking from Malg)

 

Also, blatant locking to emotions and characteristics restricts these from being means to promoting narrative and character development (which imo is what lore pieces should strive to do) for both others and the character itself. Its actions, as I sorta said above – in fighting and assistance and whatnot (what I see its main and almost only purpose is) – can be driven by an armoured uruk, or like... an armoured man

 

It is fine to think such.

 

I am sure one can accomplish the same with an orc in armor, but it defeats the purpose of bringing back the old style of Dreadknights for the sake of role play and possibility of expanding the same with blood magic.

 

The tome itself was destroyed in the history written, a page remained with the teachings of the dreadknight ritual, which once learning, another blood mage of sufficient power can teach another the ritual. So I really don’t think it’ll be completely cut off to one group of blood mages per say.

 

Their emotions being cut off is from runes put in place to restrict the Dreadknight from having pity, or remorse, which can back fire in certain situations to bring diverse, interesting role play.

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I love the lore but I have one issue that is when whoever created the Dreadknight leaves, all the Dreadknight can really do after a while is just head out and kill random living people with the sole reason of ‘I hate life’

 

Other than that I do enjoy the lore and what it brings, but there seems to be some methods to prevent it so I shall still give yu a  +1

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immortal inexhaustible emotionless murderhobo creatures will forever make my blood boil

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lordy lordy. lore guys ought to stop gimping lore for the sole reason of 'people will abuse it'. honestly i'll +1 anything if it means getting a chance to experience creatures/magic which i otherwise took for granted. don't really get the hateboners for DK's, all of my interactions with them in the past were positive.

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Sincerely don’t mean to be rude, apologies if so, but was this intentionally written to be stereotypical, LotC-archaic, or one dimensional? 

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God, this was really a cool read, and well written. I don't know much about magic but I'd like to see more fantasy elements in the server again. This is a fat +1

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please keep them dead, we haven’t been good since 2.0 

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I have seen dread knights in action when the still fell under blood magic. And when the shifted to there dread lord. over that time, what I have been shown of dread knights I loved. Yet I can see where the point of @Zarsies comes in to play. with it seeming a bit basic, then again this can be fixed over time, Rome was not built in a day after all. this is that part that grows on lore, the additions in this case the blood mages make.

 

+1

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So if they are killed with one final purpose they cannot become graven? I still support this but id just like the questioned cleared up. Looks super fun and exciting!

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Nah, keep them dead, thanks

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Just now, Ajax said:

So if they are killed with one final purpose they cannot become graven? I still support this but id just like the questioned cleared up. Looks super fun and exciting!

 

That is a touchy subject, it mainly relies on how the current rewrite of ghost lore comes out to be, if this lore is passed and ghost lore is altered. A small addition can be put in place for mechanics dealing with being PK’ed as a Dreadknight and coming back as a spectral being.

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