Many knightly orders play lip service to women, but few take it seriously, and even fewer would allow women to join their order and ride in the ranks with them as equals. Yet the Knights of the Lady, it seems, truly do think of women as equals and have done this.
Sing a song of sixpence
Pocketful of rye
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie
Mercenary companies are usually little more than bands of low-level thugs. This one is a much more sophisticated organisation, with its own history, regulations and culture.
The deployment of the Lord of the Waste’s army.
The Ambassador’s bodyguard quaked at the sight of the uniformed skeletons guarding the main gates of the royal palace. "Don’t be afraid," the Ambassador said. "They are King’s Bones, the monarch’s personal bodyguards, and are no threat to us unless we were to do something stupid like trying to attack His Majesty."
Exiled from their home this elite military force is adrift in a foriegn land. All these people have ever known is war so they put themselves for sale as mere mercenaries at the same price as any other sword slingers. But these men have brought a new type of type of warfare to the northern lands and the fields of battle will run red with their enemy’s blood.
‘‘Is not the emir himself a slave of the Allmighty? Everyone should be a slave. Unchecked freedom is a terrible curse and burden that will destroy us if we are not subject to the will of our natural superiors that have it in themselves to elevate all that is noble and proud in their slaves, while stifling that which is head-strong and foolish. Unfortunate is the free man who has no master to rule over him’‘.
Seen by some as warriors for the gods, and by others as mere mercenaries drapped in a priests robes.
And now the day was here, and the people had gathered for the spectacle of my punishment for show throughout the arena the bodies of those about to perish had led off a procession of their own death. My master was sitting there piling up favor derived from our blood. Although no one could know my fortune, my family, my father, because I was separated from my homeland by the sea, among certain spectators nevertheless one thing made me pitiable, that I seem inadequately prepared; truly I was destined to be a certain victim of the arena, no one had caused less expense for the giver of the games than I. One thing they do not know, while I may be inadequate in preparation, the fear of a cornered man knows no bounds.
-Agustine, prisoner of war and Gladiator
“...And you, Human, must follow our words, lest we summon up every curse that lies buried beneath these sands and pour them upon you and your children, and their children, and in turn their children, for so many generations that your blood will surely never survive.”
Also known as the Oathbreakers Legion, or the Forsaken, this company is often the last stop for criminals, vagabonds and vagrants before the headsman’s ax.
Many noble lords offend people of equal or greater rank as themselves. In the kingdom of Aoh Chiane, these offenses are dealt with in duels. But, of course, the nobility of Aoh Chiane do not fight their own fights…
The Gryphon Knights are the commanders of the Sovereign’s Finest, the King’s loyal advisors and bodyguards.
The Sovereign’s Finest is The Crown’s Personal Unit. They are not only elite fighters who have distinguished themselves in service to the Country (Caladania), but they are trained to be envoys of the crown and capable of special duties.
This is an unofficial order of the King’s Guard, those charged with protecting the castle, the king, and any holdings. The Red Hand are the elites of the prisioner guards.
The Order is a stanch defender of The Crown, despite that he has turned his back on traditional ways. They try to council him in “proper ways” to handle things. They are known for their motto “Tradition is my Shield”.
The children of some of the murdered City Guards formed the “White Knights”, their stated aim being to help the City Guards crack down on crime.
An elite unit dedicated to The Queen.
The Society of Blood is much more benign than its name sounds. Initially created as an award of valor for common foot soldiers, membership. The SOBs decided to make themselves a benevolent, protective order for all veterans. They quickly united informally and, without any bloodshed or even any overt threats, restored order and fairness for veterans through all the lands.
Castoria was once a thriving and prosperous nation, a rich trade center for the surrounding lands. This all changed when, on one fateful night nearly a century ago, the Mist of Eternity rolled in and surrounded the land, obscuring more of the outside world as days and nights passed.
By the time the Mist blocked out the sun, a new light shone during what was assumed to be daytime: The Starpoint Spire, a mysterious place atop Castoria's highest peak in the northern-central region. Some say that there is some sort of building atop the mountain shining the dim "sunlight" onto the land, but it is only ever too bright or too dark to fully make out any structure, not to mention the mountain's immense height.
Not a month after the Spire's light lit up, the stars fell. Flaming rocks and debris from far-flung edges of space plummeted downward onto the eastern region of Castoria. Once the shower subsided, a strange energy from within the fallen stars transformed the eastern lands in what are now known as The Voidwastes, a barren gray land littered with craters and strange alien creatures (these can vary, but I had Pathfinder's Akatas in mind).
To the south, strange mechanism of eldritch origin are again at work after aeons of rest in the Ruins of Kchuthngnl, an ancient city of non-human creation that is estimated by scholars to be no less that five millennia old.
To the west, the once peaceful and serene forest, now known as The Plagued Woods, has been experiencing corruptions of the wildlife and humanoids living there. Some humans have reported creatures that appear not unlike a halfling, except that they can open their mouths to massive proportions to swallow creatures the size of an ogre.
When adventurers and citizens alike try to make an escape from Castoria, they are never seen again, and it is utterly unknown whether they found hopeful sanctuary or agonizing death withing the Mist's depths.
What is unknown to all residents of Castoria is that all of these events occurred because of the actions of a secret but powerful cult loyal to the Elder Gods who call the space between the planes their abhorrent home. The cult still lives on, larger than ever, and their plan is for the alien horrors to incubate and thrive within the dome of mist that now envelops Castoria, so that when the Elder Gods return as the cult's prophecy foretells, they will have an army of blasphemous creation at their disposal that they will use to make war with and enslave the denizens of the Material Plane.
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The Knights of the Holy Sun are the militant arm of the Jovian Church, dedicated to His Glory, and are well known and admired by many for their bravery in battle.