Order of The White Sun
The Order of the White Sun was founded centuries ago in Sunspire Citadel, a great fortress roughly two hundred miles from Blackclaw Mountain. The high priests and templars of the White Sun knew of The Magocracy Of The Black Star, and had long feared the power wielded by the nine archmages. During their crusade into the mountain, many heroes of the White Sun showed their valor in battle against the magocracy.
Structure
High Priest Maelin Avankor
The tenth high priest of the White Sun, Maelin Avankor knew it was only a matter of time before the order would be forced to confront the darkness taking root in Blackclaw Mountain. Yet he feared that inevitable confrontation, knowing that the terrible power of the archmages would be turned against his order. Only after receiving his apocalyptic vision of the coming of the Black Star did Maelin approve the crusade, and he helped train the forces who marched on the mountain.
Maelin died the day after the Order of the White Sun declared victory over the magocracy in Shadowreach, his body simply giving out despite any serious injury. He lay upon his small cot in an armory that had been turned into a headquarters for the order.
On his person was a parchment written in a troubled hand, which read:
All my life, I have served the Light. But now I see only darkness below. May the Light forgive me.
- High Priest Maelin Avankor
The Order of the White Sun commissioned a statue of the high priest, crafted by two dozen dwarf sculptors and standing watch over the great pit at the center of Shadowreach as a symbol of eternal vengeance. Working day and night, the sculptors carved the statue from a block of white marble painstakingly hauled in from outside the mountain. The statue shattered eighty years later, when the first spire of The Grendleroot tore through the ground directly beneath it, replacing the masterwork with a thirty-foot thorn of black metal.
My heart died that day; I knew in that moment that the darkness of the mountain would never be tamed.
- The Twelf High Priest of the Order
The exodus of the Order of the White Sun from Blackclaw Mountain began that same day
Lord Templar Alexa Avankor
Daughter of Maelin Avankor, Alexa fought with a stout heart, a stubborn will, and a single-minded desire to drive evil from the world. For much of her adult life, she tried to convince her father of the growing danger of The Magocracy Of The Black Star after learning of the archmages’ enslavement of sentient races and their defilement of thousands of souls. Over long years, Alexa led a force of some two hundred paladins, twenty of which became her knights templar. Through training and prayer, they prepared in secret for their inevitable assault on Shadowreach, sending in spies regularly to assess the magocracy’s power.
After the crusade and the death of Maelin Avankor, Alexa gave up her title as lord templar to her second in-command, a knight templar named Willam Renvar. With her leadership ended, she prepared a backpack full of supplies and strapped on her holy avenger longsword, Sunflare—a blade forged by the finest smiths and empowered by her father’s most powerful prayers. She stepped into the darkness of the mountain and was never seen again.
To this day, explorers in Blackclaw Mountain sometimes share tales of seeing an elderly woman in dented, patchwork armor. On an island in the middle of a vast black lake deep in the mountain, she fights off hordes of ghouls with a sword that shines like the sun.
Sylda Dawncaster, The Mageslayer
The paladins and priests of the Order of the White Sun knew that their righteousness alone would not be enough to quell the power of The Magocracy Of The Black Star. As such, before their crusade, the order trained bards and wizards in the art of abjuration, building shields of magical power, countering the spells of their opponents, and dispelling any magic that stood in their way. With such arcane experience unknown within the order, Maelin and Alexa sought out the mercenary bard Sylda Dawncaster. At first, they paid her handsomely for her experience and her training of this new force of Mageslayers. But after spending two weeks in Shadowreach as a spy, Sylda took their mission into her heart and joined the order.
One hundred mageslayers were trained under Sylda’s leadership—bards, fighters, rogues, and wizards specifically trained to counter the magic of the magocracy. Were it not for this force, the order would have stood no chance against the Nine. But with the mageslayers on their side, the priests and knights of the order were able to cut through the magical defenses and devastating attacks of the magocracy, turning the tide and winning the war.
Sylda Dawncaster led twenty mageslayers into the Ghost Tower of Ulon the Mind Dancer in the final days of the crusade. She and her warriors were never seen again, as the tower blinked out of existence with them inside. Some believe that Sylda and her mageslayers are still trapped in the tower, doomed to live in the torment of their own minds for eternity if no one can break the illusory bonds that hold them.
Spellsieve
Wizards and scalds loyal to the Order of the White Sun forged a weapon for Sylda Dawncaster—a blade befitting the leader of the Mageslayer unit, known as Spellsieve. This black-bladed weapon has five runes etched into its blade.Spellsieve is a shortsword of absorption—a very rare magic shortsword that has the same characteristics as a rod of absorption. As it absorbs spells, the glyphs on the blade begin to glow violet. As spells are cast from it, the violet glyphs go dark once again. Sylda used Spellsieve when she and a force of Mageslayers and Blades of Dawn fought and killed Vrathe of War. The blade then disappeared with Sylda Dawncaster when she stepped inside the Ghost Tower.
Lord Korva Vollok
The paladins, templars, priests, and mageslayers of the Order of the White Sun were backed by over a thousand armored troops and veterans led by Lord Korva Vollok, commander of the Swords of the Sun. These soldiers and veterans trained alongside their spellcasting companions in preparation for the crusade.
During the war, Korva’s vanguard smashed through the thrall armies of the magocracy. She battled and cut down Thorvum Raisewing, half-dragon warlord of the Claws of the Nine. During the battle, the archmage Grethel the Flame disintegrated Korva’s wife and second-in-command, Molly. In response, Korva drove her radiant sun blade through the archmage’s magical defenses and into her molten heart—even as Grethel broke her staff of the magi to slay Korva and hundreds more combatants. Korva’s sun blade was recovered by a monastic branch of the Order of the White Sun known as the Keepers, and was hidden in a monastery built to imprison a Black Star agent known as Mother Bloodstone.
1190 - 1400
Type
Religious, Holy Order
Ruins of Grendleroot by Slyflourish on Drivethru RPG