How Dreadknights Work And Such And Such

[Blundermore 2733]

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. 

 

[excited 10834]

I don't want you to leave tbh, but hey. Uh, lots of this seems like you're pissed off in it. Though this lore did need to be written up I suppose. +1 

[Blundermore 2733]

Don't exactly have a choice to be honest, the character I play doesn't work with the mechanics of the server anymore, and rather than marring the story of Blundermore by letting the continuity get screwed by a few choice members of the staff team I choose to just let the story of Blundermore remain unchanged. 


The lore did need to be written up. I suppose being the creator of the Dreadknights I owe the players playing them that much

[Fitermon 667]

I'll miss you Blundermore, or as Glacio would say Mr. Blundy. Inspired him to become my first mage character <3

[Tsuyose 3283]

Which decisions have we specifically made which prevents you from playing your character?

[Swgrclan 2635]

I would debate current generation Blood Mages are able to at least raise an adapted variation of a Dread Knight, though there really isn't much of a Blood Mage presence anymore to debate the matter. Though, what does "being tampered by necromancers" mean? A long while back it was surmised Dread Knights could be drained of their lifeforce, though I suspect this is a flawed prospect as lifeforce isn't a driving point to Dread Knight existence.

[Blundermore 2733]

To Swgrclan:

 

I am under the impression that necromancers could manipulate the soul, twist it, bind it, turn it to their will etc. Normal circumstances allow this to happen, but the Runes upon the armour bind the soul to the armour instead, effectively locking it there and not allowing it to leave the vessel for any reason. It would make sense in this case that the soul would be "locked off" from any "tampering" by necromancers, it's the same story for clerics as well, there isn't actually a way to put them to rest properly, that's the point of the characters, damned warriors. That and well, does it really make sense to be able to drain "life" from something that is dead. What are you draining exactly? The dust in their armour that was their bones and flesh? it's all a matter common sense really given the situation the Dread knights find themselves in.

The Bloodmages of Asulon and the current Bloodmages have always been two separate entities with two entirely different forms of magic, their only resemblance was practically the name. They have different backgrounds and cultures entirely secluded from one another that wouldn't make much sense really if they were to cross over. Basically your Blood mages are more like Dragonage ones from what I gathered whilst my Bloodmages are more like an Undead parody that collected large amounts of blood to harvest its power to generate massive amounts of magical power to create insanely powerful creations such as this permanently bound soul runes, a creation of their infernal magic given true form. A power only the Dreadlord truly wields now. Like DnD warlocks and the like. 

 

 

To Tsuyose: 

 

My Character was an Ascended, has been for over four years now. Recently the staff team ruled a new "rewrite" for the ascended that basically makes Blundermore completely incompatible despite being apart of the history of that group and nearly doing everything he has done through the aid of Ascended magics. The new lore essentially depowers the Ascended to the point that they're worse than Clerics and cannot even use void magic to aid in their skill, practically limiting their ability to holy flames (which Blundermore never really used, he used shafts of light instead), healing (which blundermore couldn't do) and warding (which he was the resident master of the ascended in). He can no longer access ascended magic, meaning he can no longer be apart of the order that practically means everything to him due to OOC reasoning which makes it entirely impossible to make the story continue from that in a way that makes sense. Not only that but it practically makes all of the history of Blundermore also impossible as well according to this. 

 

It's annoying really because of the fact that behind the scenes it was me who kept the Ascended alive during Asulon, stopped it from fracturing in Athera etc etc, watching over it and making sure everything was working fine through all the ups and downs it came upon. Making many good friends along the way. And now the staff have effectively said I can no longer be apart of a group I practically helped keep alive for three years, and that I can no longer RP the character that is the culmination of four years worth of RP with the friends I've grown used to being around. And that the RP pertaining to my character is now effectively a null point. 

 

As an RPer, it is the most stupid thing the staff has ever done to me personally. And as an RPer I valued the story of my character above anything else about him. Thanks to the staff team, that story is effectively ruined. So forgive me if I sound a little bitter to you Tsuyose, but you can probably imagine I'm not exactly happy currently with the way the staff is conducting itself. 

Edited August 15, 2015 by Blundermore

[thaddeus11 75]

Dont go! We shall miss you!

 

If you do, i shall always remember you in my dwarven wizard heart!

[Samsan99 274]

We are no more rusted now than any other suit of armor a warrior would have. Rust would just weaken the plate and the whole knight himself with more than a single smith among their ranks it is not hard to maintain the current knights as near prefect when they are not fighting. This may be the original but they have been though a few changes since than as well.

[Blundermore 2733]

We are no more rusted now than any other suit of armor a warrior would have. Rust would just weaken the plate and the whole knight himself with more than a single smith among their ranks it is not hard to maintain the current knights as near prefect when they are not fighting. This may be the original but they have been though a few changes since than as well.

Who is repairing your armour? You? You seek death, why would you repair the prison that binds you here. Not only that but also you're not exactly in a position to ask to be repaired either. You don't "repair" rust and battle scars. Parts like that have to be replaced. Which you can't do because those parts keep the suit bound together.

Finally you're treating a dread knight like it is any run of the mill swordsman character.

It is not.

Dread knights are monsters at best, they don't care for reason or the lives of normal men. They just want Death, if it means they need to drag many more down into the pit to stand a chance of freeing themselves then so be it. I'd ask you respect the character of the dread knights as it was intended to be not treat it as a buffed version of any old knight character. Which completely ruins the point of the character.

Also the rust isn't negotiable anyways. It is in fact a major defect within the dread knights. A weakness if you will to help balance the fact they're practically invulnerable to being killed. What do you think you got your buffs with no downsides? That's not how my monsters are written. It's a package deal. You get your buffs but you also get the weaknesses as well.

It's called being fair. Blundermore might be some all powerful wizard but he is still just an old man. Not a ripped strapping young lad. You're a suit of rusted metal armour, you also happen to be nearly immune to being killed the normal way anyone else would be. This buff comes at a cost.

[GloriaPreussens 798]

Current blood Mages do the same thing in concerns to gathering blood to make things. As well they have the knowledge to make dread Knights last I was aware.

[Blundermore 2733]

Well that's pretty dumb, considering it was ruled by staff a while ago that the blood mages in asulon used an entirely different form of magic to the blood mages that were accepted for normal player use... only the Dreadlords have the knowledge to make the dread knights now. The only actual blood mage character from asulon still living being urasept. Any other bloodmages unfortunately are not legitimate when it comes to making dread knights.

It's not really a secretive form of magic if some group of "bloodmages" not even associated or using the same magic somehow happen to discover the secret through no effort of their own simply because they happen to bare the name bloodmage. By that logic I can gain access to all the druid secrets by calling myself a druid

[Arkelos 1027]

Current blood Mages do the same thing in concerns to gathering blood to make things. As well they have the knowledge to make dread Knights last I was aware.

 

This is actually wrong, Raptor and i have come to an agreement that the blood mages do not have the ability to make knights.

 

Yet down the road they may have a form of ability to do something to the Knights.

[Swgrclan 2635]

They actually don't have the means to create them yet - only able to create a shambled, lesser variation. Awhile back an old Dreadlord approached the Blood Mages with the intent to recreate them with his knowledge on their creation, but the prospect never pulled through for one reason or another. That's the closest that the Blood Mages have gotten in terms of understanding Dread Knight fabrication magics.

I like to think of current Blood Mage ability regarding the making of thes knights kind of like how a normal man is able to smith a fine blade -- he can do it, but the skill to do so is beyond him unless he finds a legitimate means to learn blacksmithing.

[Arkelos 1027]

I'm going to clarify this Blundermore. I was looking to talk to you a LONG while back about Dread Knight Lore, because it was needed to clarify its "Hidden" state. You never answered any of my messages and I had to rework the lore.

 

In my lore revision it states that they can be repaired and fixed, and general upkeep can be done on themselves to keep themselves from rusting. Yet the general wear and tear from being in water would affect them at a much greater rate then any other suit of armor submerged.

 

I worked with Soresan on this lore update, and submitted it to Jistuma, my general consensus is that it has been accepted as the standard for the Knights as of now.

 

With that said, I understand what you mean by changing in lore screwing up characters. When Creator Clerical was removed I wasn't happy either, I had to change my entire character to fit the new mold. That is what this server is about, change, it can come from lore or in RP. The best way to deal with it is to take a few steps back and find a compromise, not just leave.

 

As it stands though, through the lore I submitted, which I can share with you via skype, Dread knights are capable of self upkeep. Due to the rust and decay being something that players will underplay for an advantage, some will RP it, some will not.