Order of the Gilded Eye
Among those stalwarts who saved Helm’s Hold was a member of the Order of the Gauntlet. This man was Javen Tarmikos, and seeing the horrors unleashed on the world in Helm’s Hold, he found his own order at fault. The Order of the Gauntlet doesn’t punish the criminal before the crime is committed. When evil arises, members of the order strike and strike hard, but they leave the orcs alone in their mountains and don’t disturb dragons in their slumber. After Helm’s Hold, Javen found this philosophy flawed. Evils unlooked for can breed in the shadows, growing stronger until they attack. This seemed particularly true of otherworldly threats, such as portals to fiendish realms, evil spirits that seek to possess the living, and the corrupting influences of alien planes.
Javen says he was ruminating on this when he received a sign of Helm’s return. In the main chapel, the faithful had erected a new symbol of Helm after the last had been desecrated. Javen says he was gazing at this symbol and meditating on his order’s failure when Helm’s unblinking eye wept tears of gold. Soon after, uncorrupted priests of Helm’s Hold, men and women who had remained ever watchful for Helm’s return, experienced their own divine signs. In response to prayers, some were even rewarded with spells. Javen took those priests and followers from the Order of the Gauntlet loyal to him and formed a new order, swearing them in under the watchful gaze of Helm’s still-weeping eye.
The Order of the Gilded Eye is dedicated to protecting the world and good people by rooting out hidden evils and severing connections with other planes. According to their members, it’s not enough to fight threats that arise. Many lives can be saved if the signs of evil and those who dabble in darkness are actively sought out and destroyed before they open the gateways to larger threats. Since its founding, the Order of the Gilded Eye has grown in number and its capacity to deal with threats, welcoming exorcists, abjurers, and spies, as well as paladins and clerics of Helm. I’ve even heard that assassins bear the order’s symbol — Helm’s eye upon a golden gauntlet curled into a fist — and it is a claim I can’t disregard. The Order of the Gilded Eye can be brutal in their pursuit of evil.
Did Helm’s symbol weep as Javen Tarmikos and others have said? If it did, was Javen’s creation of this order Helm’s intention? Is the Helm that has returned from death different from the god whose worship was familiar to me in my youth? How can we mortals know? Helm was ever a god of watchfulness and protection, but that didn’t make him a just god, nor a kindly one.
Whatever the truth may be, know this: The Order of the Gilded Eye controls Helm’s Hold now. If you hide evil in your heart, or if there is the whiff of something otherworldly about you, ride on. You’ll find no sanctuary there.
Javen says he was ruminating on this when he received a sign of Helm’s return. In the main chapel, the faithful had erected a new symbol of Helm after the last had been desecrated. Javen says he was gazing at this symbol and meditating on his order’s failure when Helm’s unblinking eye wept tears of gold. Soon after, uncorrupted priests of Helm’s Hold, men and women who had remained ever watchful for Helm’s return, experienced their own divine signs. In response to prayers, some were even rewarded with spells. Javen took those priests and followers from the Order of the Gauntlet loyal to him and formed a new order, swearing them in under the watchful gaze of Helm’s still-weeping eye.
The Order of the Gilded Eye is dedicated to protecting the world and good people by rooting out hidden evils and severing connections with other planes. According to their members, it’s not enough to fight threats that arise. Many lives can be saved if the signs of evil and those who dabble in darkness are actively sought out and destroyed before they open the gateways to larger threats. Since its founding, the Order of the Gilded Eye has grown in number and its capacity to deal with threats, welcoming exorcists, abjurers, and spies, as well as paladins and clerics of Helm. I’ve even heard that assassins bear the order’s symbol — Helm’s eye upon a golden gauntlet curled into a fist — and it is a claim I can’t disregard. The Order of the Gilded Eye can be brutal in their pursuit of evil.
Did Helm’s symbol weep as Javen Tarmikos and others have said? If it did, was Javen’s creation of this order Helm’s intention? Is the Helm that has returned from death different from the god whose worship was familiar to me in my youth? How can we mortals know? Helm was ever a god of watchfulness and protection, but that didn’t make him a just god, nor a kindly one.
Whatever the truth may be, know this: The Order of the Gilded Eye controls Helm’s Hold now. If you hide evil in your heart, or if there is the whiff of something otherworldly about you, ride on. You’ll find no sanctuary there.
Comments