The Cataclysms

The Cataclysms are the gnomish order of eldritch knights within the Daragon Republic. They first came about during the initial rise of the Republic when the fighting with the Iyanian Empire was at its fiercest. To combat the highly disciplined and professional formations of the Empire, the Dwarves and Gnomes of the fledgling Republic sought an answer in the form of science and magic. After years of testing and research, the answer was found. They were able to set up a training program that took a soldier with even the tiniest spark of magic within them and turned them into a fighter of previously unheard of ability. To do this they learned to enhance their soldiers natural abilities with magical improvements. Through ritual, training, and determination these soldiers were taught to utilize what little magic they had in ferociously effect ways. This was even further improved when the gnomes sought out the secrets of the Bright Empire. Soon enough, the Cataclysms men were gifted magical enhancements upon their very bodies. 
The Cataclysms fight less as a cohesive force and more as a guerrilla force of line-breakers. The first time they saw combat against the Empire of Iyanus the professionally trained and coordinated block of Iyanian soldiers crumbled. Up until that point they were the masters of the continent of Krevna. Their slave forces of savage orcs charging the enemy, creating panic. Their slave auxiliaries of elves loosing death from massed volleys of arrows. Even if all this didn't break the enemy, their slow grinding advance of the true Iyanian heavy infantry would crush what was left. That all changed one fateful day. In the grand scheme of things it was but a skirmish. A single division of Daragon Dwarves stood upon a hill with a single division of Iyanian infantry marching towards them with death in their eyes. At first things looked like they would go as they always did. The orcs charged and died, though they temporarily shattered the Dwarven lines. Then the elves loosed their arrows, forcing the Dwarves to shield themselves instead of charging downhill at the infantry coming ever closer. Then pandemonium struck! The heavy infantry heard sudden shouts and screams from behind them. When they looked back, their auxiliaries were already gone. Seemingly from nowhere, the gnomes emerged from the grassy plains around their enemies. Leaping at them with speed to fast for even elves to react to, striking with blows so strong that no thin gnomish arm should be capable of, loosing magic upon the elven archers which decimated their forces. Suddenly the men of Iyanus were alone. Their enslaved meat shields gone, themselves surrounded, and for the first time in a long time they had defeat staring them in the face. With no other option, their commander put his men in a circular shield wall halfway up the hill. Normally this would have been enough, no enemy had yet to pierce an Iyanian shield wall once it had formed. This was what the gnomes had waited for. With no supporting forces and an unmoving enemy, the gnomes earned their name of Cataclysm. Their newfound speed and naturally small size saw them slipping right through the shield wall. Suddenly the Iyanian formation was broken. Men were dying left and right as the line-breakers of the Cataclysm went to work. Then, the hammer fell and the Dwarves charged. With their shield wall broken and their men scattered, the Iyanian division had no chance. The dwarven strength cleaved through the armor of their ancestral enemy. Only a couple of minutes had passed since the Gnomes had broken their lines. Yet as the Dwarves crashed into the Iyanians like a thunderbolt, the Gnomes were gone. They had disappeared just as fast as they had risen like shadows. The fear and confusion they left behind was all the advantage their Dwarven allies needed and they were quickly destroyed. In the Empire of Iyanus it was officially a minor defeat brought about by the incompetence of their commander, and with his body dead on the field he couldn't exactly say otherwise. A neatly wrapped up story with a nicely sacrificial lamb who had the decency to be already dead. As they say, dead men tell no tales......but living ones do. Within just a few short months the story was out. The few survivors spread the REAL story throughout the army. Few believed these far fetched tales of two foot tall demons in the guise of tiny men. Fewer still believed that an equal force of Dwarves could possibly break the backs of the Iyanian shield wall. It was too late though. The seed was planted, no matter how hard the upper chain of command tried to stamp down on these rumors. Over the next year, the stories were retold in other locations. The Iyanian army was being decimated all across the continent. The Cataclysm had arrived, and it was here to stay.

Type

Military Order