The Skysworn

By the light of the kilg, Comalan's sun, there is a cabal of warriors who swear to uphold the values of Tanis' Serene culture. Based in Fort Kieransgard, the elves of the Skysworn are a counterpart to Resta's templars, differing primarily in their solitary focus on Doctrines of Serenity. All Serene Doctrines are represented, namely Tranquility, Love, Dreams and-- to a much lesser extent-- Shadows. Those who join the Skysworn are taught to live by a particular ideal; all life in Tanis is to be protected. This informs various responsibilities including nature conservation, hunting for casters of dark magic native to the Bog of Anguish, offering safe harbor to Restan and Galean pilgrims, and collaborating with rangers to protect the land from their Heronite enemies.

This order owes its origins to a Restan templar by the name of Kieran Hawke, who once saved Tanis while escorting a group of pilgrims from his monastery in the year 2E87. He was unaware of the dangers of the Bog of Anguish, and so attempted to lead his people through it to Boggarde so that they may pay homage at a Serene temple there. This might have ended in the death or corruption of his entire group if not for a chance encounter with a ranger from Medear named Nalan. It was she who led the Templars safely through the bog, skirting known locations of sinister magical activity. Upon reaching their destination, Kieran bestowed a gift of prayer beads engraved with the markings of the Shadow Doctrine. Nalan initially rejected this gift for its association with Chaos, but a long and respectful discussion ultimately convinced her that the Shadow Doctrine was just as much a part of Serenity's wisdom as it was the war god's.

With the acolytes' charge to pray at the Boggarde temple completed, Kieran would thank his new elven friend once more before setting off toward Medear on a journey that would lead them back to Resta. Along the way, they would encounter an army of demons that bog witches had been cultivating in secret for over three decades. Although the rangers expected him to escape in order to protect his charges, Kieran led the acolytes to join the rangers in defense of Boggarde. While many acolytes would distinguish themselves as strong candidates for priesthood and knighthood in the ensuing battle, Kieran alone suffered a mortal wound from the horn of a crazed fever morph that took the form of a human-bull hybrid.

Understanding that this wound would finish him, Kieran surrendered his body to the gods for a powerful blast of divine energy that eradicated the remaining demons and rent a massive hole in the forest canopy. Elves who studied this miracle would find traces of Serenity in its aftermath as it opened up the sky not by harming the treeline above, but shoving thee branches aside. This exposed part of the Bog of Anguish to the sky for the first time and inspired many rangers to declare the site of this battle holy land. They would build a tower in this spot that reached beyond the treeline and swore to honor their newfound hero by adopting some virtues of his order. The Blackstone Order would send a commendation to the garrison of this new tower fifty years later, declaring them the Skysworn, Tanisian allies of the Blackstone Order. Nalan accepted this honor as the Skysworn's first Grand Master, pledging to uphold the honor that Kieran Hawke showed as a templar.

The Templars of the Blackstone Order

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.