Templars exist in every corner of known world. Their purpose is to defend the honor of the gods, both as individuals and as a a collective. No act of sacrilege or desecration can be forgiven by these earnest, sectarian warriors. To become a templar requires intense training that would ideally allow one to hold their own against any of Comalan's superpowers, whether they be from Tanis, Heron, Resta, Midania, or Galeon. To a templar, the ability to put down anyone who makes an enemy of the gods is the highest calling. As such, they are especially hostile to blood mages and warlocks, who practice their arts in open defiance of the gods' condemnation. While separate orders of templars exist in each country, they are all united in the mission of enforcing the Fadalians' highest commands.
The templars of Resta represent one of the crown's three knightly orders, the Blackstone Order. They were founded in the First Age as the military of Necros, a long-since perished country that now composes the southern province of modern Resta. Their founder, a warrior named Karla Blackstone, mobilized a group of soldiers to secure the Pledge River when the Brokamac clan of Pyris invaded the land of Coronos to their immediate north. With a secure foothold against further Pyrisian expansion won, Karla held her defenders together for the length of the occupation of Coronos with inspiring words that preached the value of the continental east, where mortal life was said to have begun. It was this dogmatic attachment to the eastlands that allowed the first spellwarrior, Hem Maloran, to convince her to bring her soldiers to Coronos and aid in their revolution. With the Brokamac clan successfully routed, the Blackstone Order returned to Necros as heroes who helped to secure the chosen lands.
With Necros now secure to the north, Karla Blackstone took her troops back to the capitol of Necros and garrisoned its newly constructed castle, which was named for its newest hero. When the Plague of Suffering wiped out many citizens of both Coronos and Necros and compelled their leaders to join houses, Blackstone Keep became the Blackstone Monastery, a center of training for both clergy and new generations of Restan templars. It is in Blackstone Monastery that Resta maintains a reputation of excellence in all things divine.
Among all of the world's templars, the Blackstone Order has the highest standards of both strength and religious zeal. This causes them to produce the least fully recognized templars of any country, but the most powerful by far. The majority of their templars are followers of the Doctrine of Rage. This means that most Restan templars, including one of their most famous, are anointed in the faith of both Chaos and Salica. The knights of the Blackstone Order also particularly despise the spellwarriors of the Hem Order on a systemic level. While many outsiders assume that this is because of a historical rivalry between the two knightly orders that resulted from the merging of Coronos and Necros, the truth is that the templars distrust the Hem Order's undisciplined experimentation. For their part, the spellwarriors are proud of their heritage and consider the Blackstone Order's stigmatization of the power that allowed Coronos to liberate itself to be an insult to Restan history.
While the average duties of a Blackstone knight involve dispensing justice to those who desecrate something divine, the dogmatic, sectarian nationalism of Resta makes defense of the kingdom a part of their duties. In times of conflict, the Blackstone Order is called upon to serve as Resta's naval forces. With a resource-rich kingdom behind them, and many years of hard discipline drilled into them, the templars of Resta can expertly sail ships that eclipse mariknights in power. Despite this, the Blackstone Order envies Midania's navy for their magically-enhanced speed and secret navigation techniques.
Out of a sense of necessity, Restan templars focus on mirroring the versatility of their counterparts in the Hem Order. Whether they are serving their country at sea, or their gods on land, you can count on the knights of the Blackstone Order to carry out their duties with practiced excellence.
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