Dragon Knights of Tallarax
Knightly Order of the Duskscape Regent of Secrets & Truth; Elite Extradimensional Monster Hunters
Also known as the Knight-Sages of Stargrave, the Dragon Knights of Tallarax are the elitemost knightly order of the Duskscape Regent of Secrets & Truth, Tallari-Anaviri-Irallat. They are thought to be headquartered in the bizarre dimensional anomaly known as Stargrave, located on the planar outskirts of Waking Materia.
The Knight-Sages specialize in the tracking and elimination of powerful extraplanar and interdimensional threats. They also monitor the stasis of the extraplanar, draconic god of calamity, Elir-Otrinax, whom Tallari trapped deep within Materia's crystalline heart aeons ago, thus ending the catastrophic Dragon Wars.
Though they were celebrated heroes in the First Age Age, when Tallari was a more present god in humanoid affairs, they are now largely forgotten, or thought to be mythological. Much of the information around them was destroyed by The Deluge, which suits them just fine (in fact, they have been moderately successful in collecting or destroying the rest).Appearance & Heraldry
See also: Dragon Knights of Tallarax Image Gallery (External)Among Materia's most elite warriors, the Dragon Knights are often bedecked in unique, powerful and often storied arms & armour, won from past heroics. Motifs of tiam-anzu and sphinxes are common, as well as of creatures naturally good at hunting umbral monsters, like spiders and direwolves. Most Knight-Sages are skilled in both physical and magical combat to some extent; eldritch knights, greyguards, wizards, monks and rangers are common.
Modus Operandi
Aside from monitoring Elir-Otrinax's hibernation, the Knight-Sages may be tasked with missions of multiplanar importance by their God-Queen. They are monster hunters of the highest order, possibly recruited from various cultural equivalents such as the Baneslayers of Aios, the Dreadnoughts of V'Shaat, the Pale Vigil of Overshepherd Rom or others. Despite the fact that previous worship of Tallari is not a prerequisite, the Dragon Knights are by all accounts genuinely loyal to their God-Queen, happily giving up their lives to protect their master's secrets.
The Knight-Sages are also known for their extraplanar scholarship: much of the surviving First Age knowledge on sentient Duskscape societies, for example, can be found in the Tallaraxian Umbral Encyclopediæ; some Knights were even known to have secondary residences in more cosmopolitan demonic cities like Epitaph and Sarkoldu'un-Imathratep.History
In the First Age Age, Tallari was known as Nanatsusaya or Tallarax-Apsasu, God Queen of the Tiam-Anzu. They were regarded as an inscrutable, highly eccentric but largely benevolent god, carrying out ambassadorial duties between humanoids and the feathered dragons, as well as dispensing the occasional piece of coded wisdom to worthy petitioners. There was also strong suspicion Nanatsusaya meddled in the wars between the Colonial and Insurgent Gods, usually but not always in favour of the Insurgents.Principles of Non-Interference
Even at their height in the First Age, Tallari's Dragon Knights would almost never conduct military interventions in Waking affairs; they seem to have strong principles around political & cultural non-interference. Indeed, even in Antiquity they were rarely seen at all, usually off dealing with extraplanar threats or seeing to their God-Queen's enigmatic affairs in the impenetrable floating towers of Stargrave. On the occasion Tallari would bring one or two out for a ceremony or ritual, they were treated with nearly as much celebrity as the Sphinx God itself, drawing crowds from sometimes hundreds of kilometres away. Different storytellers had different favourites among the Knight-Sages, and though their exploits are indeed impressive, many of their tales were likey exaggerated or invented whole-cloth to feed insatiable readers and minstrels.The Dragon Wars
The major exception to the Tallaraxian non-interference principle were a brutal series of conflicts known as The First Dragon Wars, marked by the arrival of the Duskscape Regent of Apocalypses, Elir-Otrinax. Against God-Killer Otrinax and its draconic armies, the Knight Sages had no choice but to aid Materia's defenders with any means at their disposal.Notable Dragon Knights
The earliest known attestation to leadership of the Knight-Sages (below Tallari) is from the ancient Alanthian Ada'an'imhullu ("Chronicle of Imhullu", the First Empire's term for Stargrave), dated to about I.M. 526. It describes the "First Captain" of the newly created Queensguard as Falkor'atru, or Falkor the Wise, said to have once been a bodhisattva and greyguard of Uhrmazd.
The surviving demigod of vengeance, Ababakar Octoflea, briefly joined the ranks of the Knight-Sages during the First Dragon Wars, but later abandoned the order after Elir-Otrinax was defeated.
Waltrud van Toth, "The Lioness of Laoisterre", was a Gormengaster Sagasinger before joining the Dragon Knights, and remains a celebrated hero in V'Shaat's church to this day. The Lioness was known to be quite stupid, however the ways of the Sagasingers—the hatred of guile, the celebration of life, the swordsmanship, the mental readiness, the never-say-die attitude—all of these things flowed from her naturally and effortlessly, like the breath from our lungs. A master demonslayer known for her brutally simple philosophies on life and justice, she was a widely-beloved hero whose death was mourned by the hundreds of thousands across the plane.
Hrafnagaldr Fistpoetry was a dwarven monk, student of Tong Deum under Galadnock mac-Kenzie and early member of the Material Sagasingers, who later became one of the most storied members of the Dragon Knights. Some would say 'Fistpoetry' is a tad melodramatic for a given name... until they saw him in a fight. The old dwarf was among the greatest geniuses at unarmed fighting that Materia has ever known.
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