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The Hechiceros Chapter in Girobalda | The Hechiceros Chapter in Girobalda in the south of the Archipelago, is a newer Chapter, created to act both as teachers to those who want to safely learn Magic, but also to keep a close eye on the proliferation (and repression) of Magic through Religion. They specifically know a lot about Religions to tackle the moral quandries created by the people claiming religious right to Magic, or claiming religious right to kill Mages. The Hechiceros Chapter is usually also called in to handle Limit-Breaking Mages so long as they haven't become possessed by a Spirit yet, able to bring a halt to their Limit-Break remotely, and guiding them through the process of shutting off their Magic so that they can calm down. Hechiceros Knights are often sagely and mentorlike, taking a more guiding approach rather than fighting, always attempting to convince any Renegade Mage to turn themselves in and allow themselves to be helped instead of death. | ||
* '''Hechiceros Mechanic:''' Hechiceros Knights can target one Ally in Emote Range, and make all their Sinistral Magic Radiant instead, both in and out of Combat. They can also prevent Limit-Breaking. | * '''Hechiceros Mechanic:''' Hechiceros Knights can target one Ally in Emote Range, and make all their Sinistral Magic Radiant instead, both in and out of Combat. They can also prevent Limit-Breaking. | ||
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Revision as of 10:10, 30 November 2023
| Aelrrigan Order | |
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| Order | |
| Pronunciation | Ail-ree-gan |
| Origins | Kintyr |
| Grandmaster | Ffiontirre of Wythwaite |
| Colors | White, Dark Gray, Sky Blue |
The Aelrrigan Order is a Knightly Order primarily occupied with fighting the negative effects of Magic on the world, though by harnessing and teaching as opposed to repressing and peaceful cleansing instead of eradicating. Among the Aelrrigan Knights, Magic usage is very common, and they even provide safe ways to teach responsible Magic usage to others. Inversely however, the Aelrrigan Order has some of the most ruthless Mage-Hunters who track down what they call Renegade Mages (sometimes also called “Goz” for the Breizh word for mole, or just Renegade). Beyond their enforcement of responsible and moral usage of Magic, the Aelrrigan also hunt down Artifacts of Magic in order to keep them out of the hands of the common people, and lock them up into a fortification called an Enemohér, which those who speak Common often refer to as a Magi-Vault or Mohér. The Aelrrigan ply their craft somewhere between the laws of the land and their own moral codes, never quite being fully recognized and legalized in the same way the other Knight Orders had been, but still finding ways to fulfill their divine mission. The Aelrrigan follow the Dydd y Farn, which is loosely translated to the Doomsday Prophecy in Common, an extremely rare instance of three religions all convening for a common goal and concept, to warn the world about dangers and instructing their followers on what to do about it. The repository of all played Knights can be found here. When you make a new Knight character, please file a ticket in the Discord Ticket Bot to have them recorded. You only need to provide their name and Order.
Design
Aelrrigan Knights sit somewhere between the typical fantasy medieval feudal Knight, and the spell-blade warrior. Their Knight Order still predominantly appeals to the Knighthood aesthetic of the heavy plate armor, capes, swords and shields, but many of their members also use Magic or combine their normal fighting style with enchantments and Magic. Aelrrigan Knights are more personable than most other Knight Orders, but are capable of the same stiffness and sticking to rules when it comes to Renegade Mages. The following design limitations are enforced on the Aelrrigans:
- Aelrrigans can be of any people or culture, though their members must have been born in the Regalian Empire.
- Aelrrigans should gravitate towards melee weapons and plate armor aesthetic, but can incorporate a lot of Magic.
- Aelrrigans can also be exclusively Magic users, or have zero Magic at all, but should always be heavily armored.
- Aelrrigans can never be criminals, Afflicted, Marken, Evolism worshipers, or hold Spirits (unless Suvial).
- Aelrrigans can never be Ordial Aligned, though Exist, Void, and Dragon or God Magic Aligned are welcome.
Chapters
All Aelrrigan Knights are members of one single Chapter, which grants them a free non-Combat related Mechanic. Changing Chapters is permitted but only infrequently and only through a Staff Ticket where the request is reviewed.
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- Note: More background lore can be found about the Aelrrigan Mage Knights related to the Chapter Houses.
Internal Aelrrigan Code
The Internal Aelrrigan Code contains additional Honor and Behavior Codes for Aelrrigan Knights that are supplemental to the Common Code described on the Knights Page.
- Aelrrigan Knights must ensure no dangerous Magic teaching material exists by burning forbidden Dark Magic tomes, and teaching proper usage to those who want to learn.
- Aelrrigan Knights must protect the (legal) repressed occult from hate-crimes and bigotry, both with verbal defense, or with arms if they suffer unlawful attacks.
- Aelrrigan Knights must declare mages who use Magic for evil as Renegade Mages, and hunt them down to bring them to justice, or in last resort cleanse their Magic.
- Aelrrigan Knights must search and destroy the Artifactsparks of dangerous Artifacts, or Artifacts found in the wrong hands, and meet to determine these distinctions.
- Aelrrigan Knights must search and banish Spirits and Demons or Corrupted Souls by sending them back to the realm from which they came, and prevent their return.
- Aelrrigan Knights must aid and cover for Doomed Fates, making sure they are not enslaved by those who ensnare Spirits, and that they can work towards their purpose.
Aelrrigan Jobs
The Aelrrigan Order, just like other Knight Orders, has so called "Jobs" which are cornerstone occupations of the Knights. Any Knight can engage in these, but they are largely optional.
- Magic Investigations: When Aelrrigans run into unusual Magical phenomena, objects, or people, they should investigate, interrogate, and experiment as much as safely possible to learn as much as possible about it before compiling a threat level report. Ranking from F (low threat) to S (extreme threat), Aelrrigans should assess the danger to the world, stability, or the Aelrrigan Order (and indirectly, the good standing of Mage-rights in the Empire), before agreeing on a plan on how to deal with the entity. This should also be done for more routine threats, like Greater Vampires, Arken, Magical Events and so forth.
- Artifact Agents: The Aelrrigan Order controls who gets to use Artifacts, and who does not. They have an internal review process to determine what Artifact is too dangerous to own for anyone, and what Artifacts should be disabled when owned by the wrong people. If Aelrrigans have knocked down an Artifact Owner, they can perform the Artifactspark breaking ritual, which destroys the Artifactspark (but they cannot take the Artifact). Additionally, Aelrrigans may take Artifacts from their own internal Vault and use them in whatever way their conclave deems necessary, even if they just want to passively keep owning them.
- Doomed Fates: Doomed Fates are Primal Revenants who died before they could complete their mission (religious, or for the Regalian Empire), so not cleansed Spirits or Spirits who socially hang out without explicit purpose. Doomed Fates are considered "Good Spirits" in the eyes of Aelrrigans, and while they shouldn't outright and transparently help them by fighting with them, they should indirectly aid them by keeping those who would ensnare or banish them off their backs, and making their work easier to complete, for when they do, Doomed Fates can be at peace and pass on into the afterlife that is reserved for them, which is the fastest way to be rid of them.
- Magic Progress: Aelrrigan Knights are exceptionally politically active. Whether attempting to do so themselves, or urging and championing the cause of others outside of the Order, Aelrrigan Orders must ensure there is always some kind of pro-Magic legislation political party that aligns with their "freedom, but under order and control" policy towards Magic. This can be led by the Aelrrigans themselves, or by Noble allies in the peerage who look fondly on the Aelrrigans. The Aelrrigans should seek to reinforce such a political unity, and expand it by adding additional members or allies.
History
Aelrrigan Order history is closely linked with Breizh cultural history, as its founding location was the Kintyr lands in the Regalian Archipelago. Its foundation is linked to the Dydd y Farn, a term that is loosely translated to Doomsday Prophecy, but rather than a set of tenets and beliefs, it actually refers to a highly unusual meeting and the events that came as a consequence of that meeting. To understand the event however, it is important to understand the context in which it took place. Kintyr at the time was one of the most divided but also populous regions in the Regalian Archipelago, which was nonetheless troubled by the Elven slave raids in the surrounding lands. Kintyr was unable to properly unite a common force against the foreign invaders because their land was so bitterly divided over religion. In almost equal numbers, the Breizh people were Draconists of Regulus, Fornoss followers of both pantheons, and held a unique religion called the Weards of Eirlys, with all three religions making up roughly a third of the total population and splitting it three ways. An often unspoken about topic that also bothered them, were the Void Conduits. A Conduit happens when a large amount of Void Magic or Exist Magic converges in an area to saturate it to such a degree that it becomes cancerous to anything living in the area, and rots anything that comes in contact with it. Void Conduits happened more and more as the world came closer to the Void Invasion, though obviously the denizens of the world did not yet know it was coming. These Void Conduits manifested all over the Regalian Archipelago but also in Kintyr, because of the rampant Magic usage halfway across the world in the Allorn Empire.
The Dydd y Farn refers to a meeting of the three Religions in the valley called Meysydd Siarad in Kintyr. First came the Dragon Regulus assuming Ailor form with long black hair, silken robes and purple eyes. Second came Eirlys, white feathered wings with songs of the fae from the clouds, and third came a pairing of Fornoss gods, riding a long thunderous strike. Which pairing of gods this was is probably the only unclear part of this legendary meeting, but guesses range from Bard and Svol to it instead being two Arken acting on behalf of the Fornoss pantheons as representatives. The meeting is well recorded, because the faithful took effort to announce this coming meeting ahead of time, meaning hundreds if not thousands of people were present to witness it from all faiths. During the Dydd y Farn each divine representative of their Religion made a verbal agreement and demand of the Kintyr people to set aside their religious differences, and unite against the threat of the Void Conduits, which were causing a plague on the land called the Black Mold, a high contagious disease that was caused by inhaling Void corrupted spores, with guaranteed fatality. The divine entities made it abundantly clear that this unification was necessary, to prevent utter calamity. This event is exceptional for each Religion even, as Dragons were not known to interact this much with their own worship which they often disregarded, and it is also the only recorded time in history when gods of different religions were present in the same area, let alone preaching a common goal.
Each of the divine beings demanded a unified effort on the part of the Breizh people, to form the Aelrrigan Dathonair, the forerunner of the modern Aelrrigan Order. Each of the royal houses (which would later become the Ducal houses as petty Breizh royalty wasn't the same as Imperial royalty) swore fealty to the Dathonair, giving their second born sons up to the Order to be guided by the Gods. In return, the Gods taught the Dathonair the complex and dangerous rituals involved in cleansing the Void Conduits, calling upon a mixture of Dragon, Fornoss, and Wearden powers to bring a halt to the Black Mould plague that was sweeping the region. It is mostly this event and subsequent formation of the Dathonair that modern scholars credit as the reason why nobody really remembers just how awful the Void Conduits were, as they were so successful, that after 200 years, there were no Void Conduits left. Some even dare speculate that because the Dathonair cleansed the lands, by the time Cataclysm happened (which in itself was a very destructive magic-caused event) there wasn't enough magical energy on the Archipelago for the Cataclysm to erupt like a catalyst, thus preventing any major natural disasters in the area and setting up the Regalian Empire with an easy start five years later.
The Dathonair continued their work even into the founding of the Regalian Empire. The Wearden of Eirlys as a standalone Religion would soon cease to exist, as the Concilly Council incorporated the Wearden into Dogmatic Unionism during the first schism, after which the second Emperor of Regalia re-confirmed the commitment of the Everwatcher to uphold the pact made by Eirlys during the Dydd y Farn. In essence, Unionism took over the responsibility of the Wearden of Eirlys, as Unionism replaced said Religion, while Draconism and Fornoss worship remained in place, with various priests of both Religions also ratifying the succession of Unionism which holds more or less to this day. With the Empire's somewhat loose attitude to Magic early on, the Dathonair were able to continue doing their work, but also found because of their efficiency, that little work had to be done. This in turn invited complacency among Regalian officials about the need of the Dathonair. This came to a head roughly 70 years after the first Unionism Schism, when anti Evintarian sentiment and the concept of magical mutations and evolutions gave rise to strong purist sentiments.
The dark times for the Dathonair truly set in when anti-Magic Regalian sentiment peaked in 100 AC with the creation of the Azure Order, allowing Grand Vigil Nicholas to implement his anti-Magic reforms. A true purge followed where many non-Magi signed up to the Azure Order and spread out across the Empire to hunt down Magic users, including Dathonair Mage-Knights. Many of the Dathonair Sanctuaries and Chapter houses were burned, with the Knights slain or imprisoned in the Azure Spire in the City of Regalia. Few of the Order survived without being captured, and most of the Bayor tapestries recording the history of the order were lost, or hidden away and soon forgotten as their protectors were slain elsewhere and taking their location with them to the grave. In 140 AC, the Azure Order declared the Dathonair destroyed, with the burning of Grandmaster Robwyn of Coltyr, being the last captured Dathonair who hid away in the mountains of Alstyr in Kintyr.
The spirit of the Dathonair was kept alive by those proud Ducal families who had once been the first to pledge their allegiance nearly 1200 years prior, hiding their bayor tapestries that recorded the codes and conduct of the Dathonair. They even kept alive knowledge of the rituals and artifacts used to cleanse Conduits, even though none of them were actually trained how to use them. It is during this time that some Fornoss and Draconists blame Unionism for radicalizing and breaking the Dydd y Farn, but reality is far more complicated. By this time, Draconists had also soured on Mages, with the notable Gray Witches in Anglia becoming extremely xenophobic towards Magic users and infected, refusing to even cure simple magical ailments. Similarly, the Fornoss worshipers in the region had been dealt a heavy blow by Magic-using Solvaan who supported the Regalian Empire in the Skagger Wars, thus increasing anti-magical sentiment (also because Elves were very popular among the Dathonair, and commonly lived in Kintyr also). With the death of all Dathonair and the loss of know-how to destroy Conduits, the Azure Order that once hunted the Dathonair now turned their destructive means on the Conduits, causing a lot of collateral damage in the process as they started appearing more and more as time passed further since the death of the last Dathonair.
It was however Unionism that also breathed life back into the compact, during the reign of Emperor Justinian II. Emperor Justinian along with the succeeding Kade dynasty, would later be known as the People Realists, or ruling entities that were more aligned with the needs of the people, than the needs of the Nobility. In doing so, Emperor Justinian II became acutely aware of the effect of Azure cleansing on the people. Far from the Dathonair cleansing rituals of old and the healing of the local population, the Azure Order would call down an extermination order on areas which housed Void Conduits, using cannons and explosive barrels to turn the area into a massive crater, thus denying the Void any matter to hold onto, while also hunting down any person who would have come close to the Conduit and putting them to death as a precaution for Void Demon infestation. This had a huge toll on the local population, and turned sentiment against the Azure Order at large.
Despite severe protests from the Azure Order, the ban on the Dathonair was rescinded by Justinian II in 270 AC, which immediately resulted in the Conclave of Coltyr, where all the major Ducal families brought the remnants of what they had hidden of the Dathonair together, and re-founded the order. This time, to distinguish it from the past, it was referred to as the Aelrrigan Order, leaving the history of the Dathonair in the past. The struggle over influence between the Azure Order and the Aelrrigan would continue until the former's destruction at the hands of the Deathling Occupation. Emperor Alexander I simply never renewed the charter for the Azure Order, and as such, the Aelrrigans had essentially outlived their foe, and were free to formally exist as a Knightly Order without organizational enemies, who would nonetheless later re-appear as Lothar Knights.
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