Pavan Soulknights

Indovir rewards those that fight in his name and those that offer their very soul to his caus will receive the highest of honors. Those who continue the good fight even in death will become Indovir's chosen angels! Remember that when those that offered their soul fall in battle will forever live on. They are the best of our nation, the best of our kind, blessing be upon the soulknights.

— Archonic Priest during speech

Soulknights are still a rather recent creation of the Pavan Empire. They were created shortly before the last Pavan-Oneragan war and were heavily used during this conflict. By using the soul of willing soldiers on the brink of dying a soulknight can be created. Whereas normally the energy of their soul would go to the afterlife, in the case of the soulknights it remains in a special suit of armor while the consciousness goes to the afterlife.

Continuing the fight

Selection

New soulknights arecreated by using the soul of another humanoid and binding it to a specially designed suit of armor. Typically when knights of the Archonic Order is fully trained the leaders individuals if they want to continue serving the Archonic faith in death. If they agree they are enlisted to become a soulknight after their demise.
The knights are free to resign from this deal at any point but still due to the high loyalty and patriotism of the Archonic knights they seldom do so.

Creation

The first soulknights could only be created by using the souls of people who were on the brink of death and thus limiting the amount that could be created. Only the souls of those that did not die immediately in a battle were the only ones who could be used in this manner.
This changed when a method was found to bind the souls to the armors directly so that on the moment of death the soul would be transported. Once the soul would enter the armor, only the life energy of that person would remain behind, while the consciousness would go to the afterlife. Some believe that this split does not happen and the soul remains trapped inside but according to the soulknight's creator this is not the case.

by Endless Legends

by Endless Legend

Life as a soulknight

Once the soulknight comes to live it becomes a strong construct which does not need food, water, air or sleep to survive. Since no consciousness is left they remain in a more basic state of being and are only able to obey orders. They, however, have some cognitive skills since they are able to interpret and execute given order very well.
When communicating with them they give no semblance of their former lives furthering the belief that they are indeed without their former consciousness. Nevertheless they keep some aspects of their former abilities. All training that they had before remains in the soulknight.
In addition to that the soulknights appear to improve the longer they exist. Some of the oldest soulknights are therefore formidable foes.

Weapons

Soulknights can use a vast area of weapons but are commonly known to use spears and glaives. When they use these weapons they are able to infuse them with their energy similar to how Celestial Fall infusion would work.

History

Development

The half elf Kaelanil created the soulknight supposedly after receiving divine inspiration from Indovir. As these creations were still within the limits of divine magic the Archonic faith allowed for the creation of these constructs and saw to it that it could be tested.
The results were a great success and the Pavan Empire, lagging behind due to their lack of magic users, saw to it that they were increased in number. In this manner the Archonic Order members could keep serving their God even in death.

Wars

Not long after their creation a war broke out between the Pavan Empire and Raitinshin. Even before the war the tensions were already high since the rapid technological progress of the Raitin was seen as a threat by the Pavan Empire. When the Raitin then invaded Cathulem, an important trading ally of the empire, it was seen as a declaration of war.
Casualties were high among the soldiers of the Pavan Empire even though they had already caught up to a degree with their use of gunpowder in the military. Thanks to the soulknights, however, they were able to keep the fight going. Near the end of the war the Pavan Empire sent out an army existing almost solely out soulknights. They proved to be to strong even for the Raiting and they were forced to end the war.

Pavan Raitin War by Amplitude Studios, Endless Legends

When things go wrong

During the recent events that took place in Golandon it was made clear that the soulknights could be corrupted. It quickly came to light that one of the creators of the soulknights had tampered with quite an extensive amount of them.
Luckily the son of the emperor, Niberi'es, had the foresight to include a safety mechanism that allowed him to shut down some of them. If this was no the done things could have turned out even more poorly. Many of the soulknights, however, were able to resist the mechanism and are now believed to have fled to the northern regions of Carthen, most likely the ancient Avaronian ruin of Bagor.
After these events a thorough investigation has been started to look into the matter and to see if the soulknights would still be safe to use.

Further Reading

Stats

Soulknight Stats

by Endless Legend

Soulknight CR: 6

Large construct, any

Armor Class: 18

Hit Points: 85(10d10+30)

Speed: 35 ft

STR

18 +4

DEX

11 +0

CON

17 +3

INT

10 +0

WIS

12 +1

CHA

8 -1

Damage Resistances: bludgeoning, piercing, slashing from non magical weapons that aren't adamentine

Damage Immunities: poison

Condition Immunities: frightened, paralyzed, poisoned, exhaustion, charmed

Senses: Darkvision 60ft, passive perception 11

Languages: Understands all but can't speak

Challenge Rating: 6

Soul Power The Soulknight can infuse its weapon attacks with additional damage. If the Soulknight is goodnatured this is radiant damage. If the Soulknight is evil this is necrotic damage.

Actions

Multiattack: The Soulknight makes two glaive attacks.
Glaive: Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10ft, one target. Hit: 15(2d10+4) slashing damage plus (1d10) radiant or necrotic damage.