Just before I leave the server fully and properly due to not being able to actually play the Wizard Blundermore anymore due to staff decisions it seems I have one piece of unfinished business, a creation of mine that still seems to have a lot of players playing them. I'm going to clear some things up about what they are, how they're made and what exactly happens when you attack one etc.
Dreadknights
"All is dust, Sir Knight, I walk a path of unending torture by my master, shackled to this shell of who I was, all that I loved taken. Never to be known again. Truly I am damned. All, is... dust." - The First Dreadlord Fablius Bile
What is a Dreadknight?
DreadKnights are essentially suits of rusted armour, usually battle scarred and heavily damaged, belonging to an old warrior of days past. It could be a teuton knight, a guardsman of Oren, an Elven Watcher whatever, the main point that remains between them is that it's a near enclosed piece of heavy armour that has been made animate.
How does this happen?
The First generation Dreadknights, AKA Fablius Bile, were created by the bloodmages, an antagonist I created back in Asulon for an event line that never happened due to staff issues, however a smaller group I created from this was the evil of Greywise wood, which was exclusively ran by a sadistic and crazed Dreadknight known as Fablius Bile, the first Dreadlord. A "Victim" is dragged off from the battlefield still alive by a dreadknight and presented before the bloodmages or later on, the dreadlord. Who preforms a terrible form of secretive magic that was only known to the Bloodmages in Asulon (not the current ones sorry) which involves runes being bound to the armour locking in the soul of the victim so it cannot leave it's mortal coil. Once this has happened, the victim is impaled in several places by large stakes, and left there for months. The stakes kill the victim in a few short hours however the soul endures, the pain unending as they feel themselves slowly decay inside the suit until nothing but festering flesh and bone is left, emotionally scarring the knight beyond any sort of Humanity they might've had prior. Once the process is finally complete, the stakes are removed, and the knight shall be nothing but an empty shell practically of their former selves. Their will completely broken and ready to serve their new master, the Dreadlord.
To be a Dreadknight is not a reward, it's the worse form of punishment imaginable, one that continues even after death forever more. The soul is bound to the suit and with it all hopes of ever passing on as well. Forced to walk as a corpse among mortals doing the bidding of their master until all is dust and their armour can no longer sustain them. Doomdriven to find any means to finally end this torment. For the only end a Dreadknight can hope for is death... there is no turning back from this fate.
How Does a Dreadknight Act?
They are relatively slow, and loud and clunky, they have an unnatural affinity about them to those who have life, due to their undeath state. Their souless barren armour's gaze can strike an icy cold fear into the hearts of those who look upon them. Generally they will fight with what they used in life, and wear the same armour as well, battle scarred and worn from the eternal war they wage. They loathe and despise both themselves and all manner of life due to what is denied by them by cruel fate, and are at best impossible to reason with. Nothing more than monsters in the night almost. Twisted ghouls that lost their humanity possibly hundreds of years ago. The oldest of the Dreadknights all but completely barren of any sign of compassion or sanity at all. The youngest Dreadknights still showing some sort of remorse even if they themselves cannot control what they do. They hate water, their rusted armour burns to the touch of it. Nor can they swim, due to being a hollow suit of armour... Thus they avoid it like the plague, making their homes in dry forests, caves and mountains. Places where they can carve out their illbegotten fortresses underground, away from the prying eyes from those who live to see the sky shine so brightly. However due to being forged from fire their armoured shells make them all but immune to the touch of flame and brimestone.
How do you kill one?
Technically you cannot kill a Dreadknight. only immobilise it for a period of time before it finally pulls itself together again through the foul magics that keep it going. Cut off the head and the body will continue to move without it, dismantling it is the only sure way of putting it down for enough amount of time that you can escape to tell the tale. They do "feel" pain, but this will not stop or hinder them. For it is only phantom pain, and the flesh that was once weak within no longer dwells there. Holy magic as of yet has not found a weakness within the runes that power the knight suits to release the souls trapped... a testament to Fablius Bile, who long searched for a means to end his pitiful existence, now resting upon the iron throne of the Dreadlords, encrusted with rust, lost in sorrow of his fate. However due to being undead in nature, holy magic does have an affect on them more so than other kinds of magic. However the Runes binding them makes them all but immune to the manipulations of necromancy when it comes to the soul.
Strengths:
Immune to Fire
Cannot be killed, only taken apart
Pain doesn't stop them
They're quite strong, not golem levels strong but strong enough to make an orc stop and think
Nearly always pissed off
Don't need to eat or sleep
Cannot be tampered by necromancers
Weaknesses:
Avoid water like the plague due to being rusted suits of armour, this includes rain.
Cannot swim... at all, attempting to do so results in them having to walk along the sea bed
Practically insane, little to no humanity
Cannot be reasoned with
Nearly always pissed off
Holy magic hurts them more so than normal magic due to being undead
Pretty slow and clunky, also quite loud, being a walking suit of heavy armour tends to make you pretty easy to spot whilst sneaking.
Cannot Preform magic, only the Ritual to create Dreadknights.
There is an outline of the Dreadknights as I originally developed them to be. I hope that has cleared up a few things, if you need anymore info I am willing to answer some questions on matters you have queries on.