Bataar the Cloven
Saint of Valor, Chivalry, Honor, and Battle
Titles: Saint Bataar the Cloven, Savior of Belvan's Deep, Bataar the Broken, Bulwark Bataar, Champion of the Lower Quarter, Hero of the Helpless
Favored Weapon: Glaive
Alignment: Light
Elemental Lord: Amnasol, The Lambent Overlord
Obedience: Spend an hour vigilantly guarding your campsite, place of rest, or an otherwise important area. Stand vigilant, and write down the names of those under your charge on parchment, then affix it to your armor via wax seal once the hour is up.
Effect: Once per day, you may make a last stand as a full-round action - while this is in effect, all melee and ranged weapons deal minimum damage unless they score a critical hit. You cannot be killed by instant death attacks, cannot be moved, enemies cannot move through your squares even with skill checks, and your death threshold is multiplied by 3x. This ability has no effect on spells, environmental effects, supernatural abilities, or any other source of damage other than melee and ranged weapons. This ability lasts one round and each round you spend a full-round action maintaining it.
Divine Domains
Sun, War, Glory, Nobility, Protection
Holy Books & Codes
The Code of Chivalry
Divine Symbols & Sigils
Two helmets back to back, one with a red plume and one with a blue plume, with a glaive between them blade-up.
Tenets of Faith
Live with honor and for glory. Protect your comrades-in-arms, Never turn your back on honor nor its code, and always strive for glory greatest.
Never back down or back away. Each challenge from an equal must be seen to the end, and one's back must never be shown to the enemy.
Serve with valour and faith. Protect and serve whatever cause or liege you ascribe to without betrayal or cowardice, and unending bravery.
Shield the weak and helpless. It is the duty of those who stand tall to protect those who look to their backs for salvation with their lives.
Live the neverending crusade and fight the righteous battle. Right the wrongs of the world and tear out evil from its blackest roots.
Death before dishonor. Live an honorable existence in the pursuit of justice and uphold the holy code.
Divine Goals & Aspirations
Uphold the ways of chivalry, train honorable warriors, and see the legacy of justice and valour continue on.
Followers & Priesthood
Bataar's followers are, as one might expect, made up of various Knights, Warriors, and any who would subscribe to the way of the honorbound knight - but perhaps unexpectedly, Bataar also has a large number of noncombatant followers who simply believe in following his tenets so that they might live a better life and become heroes in their own way. And the faithful make no efforts to curtail this - they believe that anyone, no matter their skill with a blade, can have what it takes to serve in defense of others and that a heroes' spirit can slumber in any, be they man, woman, young, old, or otherwise. Because of this, his followers can come from almost any walk of life, but tend to come more from the ranks of the lower or middle class - those oppressed, those who witness oppression, or those who do not know great privilege are most commonly those who see the value in living their lives by Bataar's code of honor. The followers of Bataar are often incredibly well-organized, and often gather together in specialized fortresses often affectionately dubbed "Blood Hubs" by the ranks of the faithful. These enormous, well-defended and well-made fortresses are typically found outside and near cities, capitals, important trade routes, or near places in need of protection. They organize themselves into clear and well-distinguished hierarchies with clear displays of rank shown in their armor plumage or clothing color as well as small metallic pins on their lapels or breastplates. Mentorship is an enormous part of the faithful - the prospective people looking to join the ranks of the faithful are assigned a fully "knighted" member of the faithful to follow as a "squire" for a period of time that, at minimum, lasts for an entire year - and as such teaching others, comradeship, and standing by one's allies at arms is a huge part of Bataaran faith - their churches foster an intense spirit of brotherhood, and drill into recruits from an early period that success is only won together, or not at all. They are not likely to embellish their gear until they hit higher ranks in the faithful through accumulation of deeds and years of service, and getting one's armor or other symbol of acceptance into the ranks of the faithful is an enormous deal, with an elaborate celebration thrown by the faithful for the new candidates. Typically, any given "Blood Hub" of Bataaran faithful is divided up into three organizations: The Knights(In charge of martial matters), The Scribes(In charge of mundane matters), and the Elders(In charge of Magical Matters), which all serve beneath a central leader of that chapter of the faithful.Ethics
Perhaps the most predictable and iconic of all of the saints of Amnasol, The Lambent Overlord, the followers of Bataar are for the most part every bit the stereotypical heroic Knights most believe them to be - they believe that by living their lives by a strict code of honor, they achieve a naturally pure and transcendental existence. They believe that by abiding by rigid laws of heroism, honor, valour, and the like, their spirits are gradually purified and made brighter, and they become closer with their Patron Saint Bataar, as well as his liege, Amnasol, The Lambent Overlord, who saw fit to grant him Sainthood. They one and all admire the example laid down by their Saint Long ago, and believe that only by living in the way they do can they become as pure and mighty as Bataar believes that they can be - the potential that dwells within all people reachable only through a heroic and dutiful life. They believe in living their lives honorably, following a code of ethics and honor that can vary from person to person and Chapter to Chapter, but generaly emphasizes truthfulness, decency, protecting the weak and defenseless, and courage and valour - running away and presenting one's back with the enemy and betraying the trust and code of one's liege are both offences punishable by demotion at best and outright exile at worst, even if no deaths result from it. However, despite the extreme standards of ethics they hold themselves and others to, they also hold the ideals of "taking care of one another" very close to their chests - they believe in being incredibly open with one's issues and grievances, and helping one's allies out no matter if they need help with battle or mental trauma. They are thusly very open with their emotions, and speak their minds commonly - they are taught from a very young age or early period that holding in one's emotions or issues will only lead to problems later on, so to vent them as they appear. This ties into the history of their Saint - who was split in twain at the moment of his death due into his doubts and trauma that he had held in to perform his duties - one being of pure light, and the other of pure darkness, born out of the goodness and evil in his heart, respectively.History
The History of Saint Bataar is one that is well-documented in the history books - born as a lower-class peasant in the beginning times of the Age of Apostasy, Bataar was brought into this world by a mother who had him on accident during her time as a woman of the night, and whose father abandoned him at birth. Living a rough life on the streets where his mother berated him constantly and even took her own life while he was but 11, Saint Bataar might have become a much darker man, a Saint of Evil, had he not been saved by the grace of an unnamed Knight who, seeing a street urchin attempt to pick his pockets, saw in his eyes the spirit of a hero and took him in and under his wing as his squire. Learning beneath this unnamed knight for many years, Saint Bataar learned to turn his trauma into his power - to turn it into his motivation and reason for which he defended others. Taking to the martial arts and the ways of combat unnaturally well, he was naturally skilled with a blade, and wore armor like a second skin - much to his mentor's surprise. Even able to outclass senior Knights of his mentor's order at the tender age of 19, Bataar quickly proved a prodigy on the battlefield whose emotions and empathy beat so powerfully he could not help but weep for those he passed less fortunate than he, a veritable man among men who looked at the carnage wrought by the rising of the vile tyrant Cao Lu and wept for the broken lives left ruined in the wake of his rise. He yearned for a way to help every last being in existence, but wept at his own mortality - that he could not give his life to end the suffering of others forever. Chiefmost among these places oppressed by the rise of Cao Lu, future Tyrannical Ruler of Zheng-Kitar, was the city of Belvan's Deep - a veritable metropolis of the time which had stubbornly refused Cao Lu's advances for some time. Serving as one of the many knights of the city's lord, Saint Bataar would prove vital time and again to the continued defense of the city against the armies of Cao Lu who had come to destroy it, long since abandoning convincing it to join their side in favor of using it as an example of defiance. But, no hero could stand forever, and the great Saint Bataar's spirit, while unbreakable, proved much stronger than those of his lord and allies - who, after years of constant paranoia and fighting, wearily chose to surrender and hope for good terms from the tyrant Cao Lu. Furious but unwilling to disobey his lord, Saint Bataar thus watched as Cao Lu accepted the invite to peace talks only to slaughter the envoy to the very last man - then using the opportunity to invade the city and break down the gates. So it came to be that Saint Bataar single-handedly organized a herculean feat - fully evacuating the city of Belvan's Deep during a rampant enemy slaughter of its citizens. He fought on that day like a wingless angel of death, it is said - holding off Cao lu's soldiers by the dozen with his ever-dwindling subordinates so that the citizens of the city could escape using a network of underground tunnels to flee to safety. Though battered, he managed to retreat with them into the tunnels beneath the city, and made his last stand beneath Belvan's Deep as the armies of Cao Lu loomed on the horizon - standing alone against the infinite hordes of evil so his surviving men could escort the citizens to safety. It was said that, in the narrow confines of the tunnel, Bataar's soul shone so bright none could match him that day, and not even the combined hordes of Cao Lu could defeat him until nearly an hour had passed, and his body gave out from exhaustion as the very tunnel he stood in collapsed atop him, burying him and his enemies beneath a thousand tons of rubble. Slain and with his soul split in twain after his death due to the darkness in his heart, Bataar was accepted into the ranks of Amnasol, The Lambent Overlord's saints - canonized as the very example of valour in mortalkind as those he had protected spread his word and began his church not long after.
Let it be known, now and forevermore, that heaven and earth broke before Bataar did! Long live Bataar! Long live the savior of Belvan's Deep!
Armor and weapons don't make a hero. Anyone who can stand in defense of another without expecting reparations is hero enough.
Bataar stands!
Divine Classification
Elemental Saint
Alignment
Children
Example Divine Oaths
Oath of the Classical Knight: Always lend your blade to someone who needs your aid, where feasible. Always protect and respect the honor of a woman and hear out their requests where possible - never give a lady evil counsel married or not, and defend them against all.
Oath of the Downtrodden: Never let someone with nothing or someone at the bottom of society's ladder(Orphans, the homeless, etc) go without giving them some sort of assistance, no matter how small. Always look out for the "little guy".
Comments