Warlock Knights

The Warlock Knights, also called the Warlock Knights of Vaasa, were the feudal lords of Vaasa in the late 15 century DR. They were notable for their brutality and for their aspirations of conquest beyond their borders. The Knights drew their power from an otherworldly entity they called Telos.

Organization
The Warlock Knights were a sworn order of knights in service to their own feudal state in Vaasa, of which they were both the lords and the elite military force. At the top of this political and martial hierarchy, the Knights were ruled by the Ironfell Council, who in turn served the Voice of Telos. Their political structure, as well as their deals with foreign merchants and politicians, often involved two or more parties swearing magically binding oaths, which were upheld not out of honor but out of fear of the repercussions of breaking the oath. The Knights took these oaths very seriously, and stressed that they held those in positions of greater power equally as accountable to a deal as those with less power.

Abilities
Warlock Knights were expected to be skilled warriors first and foremost, but all were also required to have some aptitude for arcane magic. The secret to their power, as their name implies, was from forming a kind of star pact with the comatose primordial Telos, although this was more akin to siphoning its essence rather than making a deal with it. When a Knight wielded Telos' power, it manifested as radiant and searing light and was often themed around meteors or shooting stars. The Knights' connection to Telos and to each other was solidified with a simple ceremony known as the Pact of the Iron Ring, and violations of their oaths could result in a fatal curse. Some Knights were known to have red eyes as a byproduct of this pact.

Activities
As rulers, the Warlock Knights were brutal taskmasters who had forced the Vaasan people into serfdom and slavery, conscripted them into their armies, and reserved the right to execute them if they resisted. As both a faction and as individuals, Warlock Knights were focused on accruing power. Within their own domain, this meant a great deal of jockeying for prestige and undermining rivals, while abroad, it often involved a combination of subtle manipulation of proxies and overt displays of raw brutality. They were an ever-present menace to their neighbors, especially Damara to the east and the Moonsea to the south, but also the giant kingdom of Kultaakarr to the north as well as The Ride and the rest of the Moonsea North to the west. More indirectly, they exerted influence and drew concern as far as the eastern Heartlands and the Vast.

While much of the Knights' focus was on military power, they also attended to matters of their nation's economy with similar ruthless efficiency. They aggressively established and laid claim to trade routes and mining resources within and around their borders. Additionally, they developed a sophisticated system of engineering that involved complementary mechanical and magical forces to achieve great feats of construction, such as the impressive fortifications at Telos City or the cranes that lifted trade goods from the Beaumaris River at the bottom of the Clefts of Razack up to the town of Kond at the top.

Tactics
The Warlock Knights valued patience. While they were dangerous combatants themselves, Warlock Knights preferred to engage enemies with squads or platoons of underlings and humanoid slaves. Their preferred front-line fodder was orcs, but their armies also contained goblinoids and gnolls as well as viscous, suicidal constructs called shardsouls. These would charge into enemy ranks, sowing confusion and madness, followed by the fodder and then the Knights attacking at range before closing into melee. These squads would be supported by arcane spellcasters called Bound Ones.

The Knights were also known to manipulate, tame, or enslave larger, more dangerous monsters for use in battle. These included wyverns, manticores, giants, dragons, and fiends. They were also known to make use of undead as part of their tactic to shock and horrify their enemies.

Base of Operations
The Warlock Knight ruled all of Vaasa, with individual Knights of high rank ruling over fiefdoms and controlling their own standing armies. However, the center of their power was Telos City, and specifically its central castle, the Citadel of the Iron Sky, which sat directly above the slumbering primordial Telos. This was where the Voice of Telos resided and where the Ironfell Council held meetings.

Possessions
Warlock Knights wielded weapons and equipment made of ironfell, a metal-like crystalline substance harvested from the body of Telos through which a Warlock Knight could channel the primordial's power. Their more subtle agents made use of ironfell daggers and shurikens, while front line fighters tended to prefer glaives.

Every Warlock Knight wore a simple ring made of ironfell as a symbol of their status and a focus of their power, and this ring could not be removed once their pact with Telos was completed. Higher ranking Knights were known to enchant their rings or to adorn them with magical jewels or runes. These rings could serve as the foci for ritual magic, such as the Pact of the Iron Ring or the raising of shardsouls.

Warlock Knights were also known to own distinctive black ceremonial armor with helmets adorned with ram's horns. This armor identified them as Knights, and it was customary to never be seen in public without it.

Relationships
The Warlock Knights had few allies and many enemies, but so confident were they in the powers they wielded that this did not appear to concern them. At home, their own subjects feared them abjectly, and did not dare to resist them in ways any larger than secretly worshiping Ilmater after the Knights had forbidden it. In fact, many of the Vaasan serfs had been so broken by their rulers that those of able body often preferred to join or be conscripted by the Knights rather than to continue laboring for them. Within their borders, the only ones who consistently dared to oppose them were the paladins of the Order of the Golden Cup and the Aurilites led by Amgrel Vlorund.

As of the late 15 century DR, the Knights were in a perpetual standoff with the armies of Damara at Bloodstone Pass. They had also begun to antagonize the titan lords of Kultaakarr and the port town of Hulburg, and were engaged in more subtle insinuations to gain favor with the tribes of The Ride and of Thar. Even neighbors with whom the Knights shared mutually enriching trade relations (such as Ilinvur in the Moonsea North) were distrustful of them. The Knights were further opposed in their various efforts abroad by a faction of Harpers who sought to blunt their expansionist goals.

Their only potential ally of note was the Church of Bane, as several Warlock Knights were Banites themselves. However, given the Knights' culture of individualism and backstabbing, having members with ties to a god like Bane may have been more of a vulnerability than an asset.

History
The Warlock Knights were founded sometime shortly after the Spellplague when Telos fell from the sky and crashed into the Vasaan tundra. The primordial was discovered by the one who would go on to be called the Voice of Telos, and it was quickly determined that ironfell could be harvested from the body and used to enhance magical and martial abilities.

Using the power of Telos, the Warlock Knights waited for the right time to seize control of Vaasa from the Kingdom of Bloodstone. They began subjugating small populations of peasants and humanoids, including wiping out out a settlement of minotaurs at Kond in 1453 DR to secure the site for themselves. In 1459 DR, they took advantage of civil unrest in Bloodstone to conscript and marshal an army, and began a war of conquest across Vaasa in the. Ultimately, they burned down the former capital at Bloodstone City in the, and declared their independence from the Kingdom of Bloodstone.

In 1470 DR, the Knights would also attempt to conquer the dwarves of the Galena Mountains, ultimately expelling them from Bloodstone Mines and driving Hillsafar Hall to seal its gates.

Under the Warlock Knights, Vaasa was restructured as a brutal feudal society with its capital at Telos City, which had been built on top of the sleeping primordial. The source and true nature of the Warlock Knights' power was kept a secret, and was obfuscated with an almost religious-like veneration of Telos that prohibited the worship of any gods with the exception of Bane.

Beginning in the 1470s DR, the Warlock Knights engaged in secret efforts to undermine the Moonsea region and the tribes of The Ride with the goal of expanding their influence. In 1479 DR, seeking to secure access to the Moonsea for trade, the Knights secretly brought together and equipped a horde of orcs, goblins, and ogres to exert influence over Thar and to seize control of the port of Hulburg, which was the destination for a new trade route which the Knights were constructing through Gramble's Climb. The horde destroyed the town of Glister, but was then defeated at the Battle of Lendon's Dike by the forces of Hulburg.

By 1480 DR, the Knights were the masters of Vaasa south of the Lugsaas Chain mountains, and were eyeing opportunities for expansion in every direction. They still held Bloodstone Pass with garrisons in the Iron Divide and in the ruins of Bloodstone City, and these forces were seen as an existential threat by Damara. Continued efforts to bring Hulburg into their orbit that year failed, and resulted in the Knights vowing to stay out of Hulburgian affairs for 10 years.

As of 1489 DR, tensions remained high between the Knights and both Damara and the Moonsea.

Members
Members of the Warlock Knights were predominantly human, especially among the higher status, ruling Knights. Hierarchy and rank were extremely important to their order. While all landed nobles in Vaasa were members of the Warlock Knights by the late 15 century DR, it was uncommon for their titles to be hereditary. Instead, most Knights earned their rank through hard work, raw power, or by undermining their rivals. They saw themselves as an elite fighting force, and only a few were considered worthy to join their ranks.

Ranks

 * Jack
 * Infantry. Members of this rank were forbidden to wear the Warlock Knights' ceremonial armor or to refer to themselves as "knights." Jacks were often conscripted from the Vaasan serf population.


 * Lancer, Halberdier, or Bombardier
 * Officers. Beginning with these ranks, members were referred to as "knights" and this designation could be added onto their title (e.g., Knight-Lancer, Knight-Executor, etc.). As true Warlock Knights, members of these ranks would have been expected to have at least some arcane aptitude.


 * Executor
 * Landless Knights and petty nobles. Knights of this rank served as emissaries, assassins, spies, and soldiers for higher-ranking Knights. Additional ranks of landless Knights included Myrmidon and Brigadier.


 * Fellthane
 * Landed Knights who exercised absolute dominion over their fiefdoms and who maintained their own fighting forces.


 * Vindicator
 * High ranking Knights to whom the Fellthanes served as vassals. Although they were the equivalent of politically powerful nobles in other realms, they were known to lead squads personally.


 * Councilor
 * Members of the Ironfell Council, made up of the twelve greatest Vindicators. This was the highest rank a Warlock Knight could achieve.

Bound Ones

 * Nishaadhri
 * These warlocks served similar roles in Vaasa as wizards did in other realms by advising high ranking Knights and supporting them in battle. As a rule, any arcane practitioner in Vaasa had to swear fealty to the Warlock Knights in exchange for the freedom to pursue their magical study.


 * Luminary
 * The greatest of the nishaadhri were recruited to join the Luminaries, an elite sect dedicated to venerating the primordial Telos which performed a function similar to that of priests in other lands. This sect was led by the Voice of Telos, but was technically independent of the Warlock Knights.

Notable Members

 * The Voice of Telos, the leader of the Ironfell Council
 * Mansard Kanaoth, a Knight-Vindicator and member of the Ironfell Council who claimed the title of Witch-King
 * Ivor Chernin, a Knight-Vindicator known as "the Grinder"
 * Kardhel Terov, a Knight-Fellthane active in the Moonsea region in 1479 DR
 * Kaggen Entreri, a promising young Knight-Bombardier deployed to investigate relics relating to Zhengyi the Witch-King in 1480 DR

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Swordmage • Corsair • Avenger
 * Short Stories
 * "Spin a Yarn: Jantharl's Surprising Journey"
 * "Spin a Yarn: Jantharl's Surprising Journey"