Knights of Demmazon

The Knights of Demmazon were the order of paladins devoted to Demmazon prior to the Fall. They survived the Fall, but the catastrophe left the order fractured and disordered. In the centuries that followed, the Knights struggled not only with the loss of their former position, but with a crisis of faith concerning the nature of Demmazon himself.

The Knights remained committed to the older understanding of Demmazon as a benevolent god. This increasingly put them at odds with the Church of Demmazon, whose leadership had developed a much more authoritarian and unforgiving interpretation of Demmazon's faith.

After the Fall

The Knights' reputation suffered badly in the aftermath of the Fall. Many people believed that the Knights had failed to protect them during the chaos and destruction that followed. Some consequently came to regard the order as corrupt or ineffective.

Within the Knights themselves, the crisis was more complicated. The growing belief that Demmazon might actually be Neutral rather than the wholly benevolent god remembered from before the Fall had infiltrated the order. The Knights therefore became divided over what exactly they were supposed to be upholding.

Despite this disorder, the order continued to exist and remained active throughout the Under the Bus era.

Conflict with the Church

The Knights were increasingly out of favor with the Church of Demmazon. The Church claimed to represent Demmazon's true faith, but the Knights believed that some of the Church's practices were fundamentally incompatible with the benevolent god they served.

In particular, the Knights opposed Church-sanctioned activities such as slavery and espionage.

This conflict left the Knights isolated and frequently persecuted. They could not simply rely upon the Church that had once been their natural religious ally, while their reputation among ordinary people had also deteriorated.

Military Role

The Knights remained an armed organization and continued to operate in the lands surrounding the Church's territory. During Under the Bus they were actively fighting the orcs and attempting to recruit additional forces for their campaigns.

Their recruitment could be aggressive. The party encountered multiple patrols of Knights while traveling, and one patrol attempted to recruit the party for a crusade against the orcs at Trondhammen.

The Knights were sufficiently desperate for manpower that, later in the campaign, another group under a knight named Halsten attempted to compel the party to accompany them to the front lines despite the party's existing commitments.

This did not necessarily reflect the beliefs of every Knight, but it demonstrates the increasingly desperate circumstances under which the order operated.

Brale's Patrol

The party's first known encounter with the Knights occurred while escorting Jayme toward the Tower of Plinth.

The Knights were recruiting volunteers for their campaign against the orcs at Trondhammen. They strongly encouraged the party to join them, invoking both the good of the world and the glory of Demmazon.

The party explained that they were already committed to their contract to protect Jayme. The Knight leading the group, later remembered by the party as Brale, accepted their lawful argument and allowed them to continue their mission.

The encounter established that the Knights were not simply hostile to travelers, but were actively seeking anyone who could strengthen their forces against the orcs.

Halsten's Patrol

The party later encountered another group of Knights while traveling toward the capital.

Their first instinct was to avoid the group, knowing that the Knights had previously attempted to recruit them. After the Knights caught up with them, the party identified the men as Knights of Demmazon by the symbols on their shields and armor.

The patrol was led by a Knight named Halsten. Unlike the earlier encounter with Brale's group, Halsten was unwilling to accept the party's existing obligations as a reason to refuse recruitment. The Knights were apparently desperate enough for additional manpower that they were taking people despite other commitments.

The party ultimately agreed to accompany the Knights rather than risk a confrontation.

Relationship to Other Faiths

The rise of the new gods fundamentally changed the religious landscape. Paladins and clerics devoted to the new gods operated around the edges of territory controlled by the Church of Demmazon, where worship of other gods was forbidden.

These followers sometimes assisted people persecuted by the Church and attempted to establish themselves in communities willing to accept them.

The Knights occupied a different position. They remained followers of Demmazon, but their opposition to the Church's practices meant that they could themselves become targets of the Church's hostility.

Legacy

The Knights of Demmazon represent one of the remnants of the religious order that existed before the Fall.

They preserved an older conception of Demmazon's benevolence even as their own faith became uncertain and their organization lost much of its former unity and reputation. During the Under the Bus era, they were therefore neither the unquestioned champions of Demmazon they had once been nor simply another arm of the Church.

They were a diminished, divided order attempting to continue what they believed the Knights had always stood for while fighting a war against the orcs and struggling to survive in a world transformed by the Fall.