Krjarlek's diary. Iron Knight Order

Krjarlek Dretelborn is my name. I'am a professor at Raven University of History. I teach students about orders and organisations of the continent and their history. The date is 13. Bear 1052. Truly a boring day if I may say so my self. Nothing much happened today. I woke up, prepared my self for class, same old routine.

The only highlight of the day was that I was advised by Professor Rika to start writing a diary. She said it would help me whit my boredom. So i decided to start writing it, but the feeling of boredom still lingers. Well I will try my best. Ah I got it. I shall write about what I teach. I could use it as a reminder before class, so that I can teach properly. Yes this is a good idea. Today we talked about the Church. A difficult topic to talk about. Sometimes even dangerous.

We talked about it's creation and their change over time as the religion became more and more widespread. Not the change in their ethical behavior of course. I dont want to to get in trouble. Anyway at the end of the class I told the students that the next class we shall learn about an important part of the Church.

And that is the Iron Knight Order. Writing about this topic will help me not forget some details, so that I can teach my students properly. Lets start. Iron Knight order was founded in the year 897 of the Human age. The reason for the orders creation was an attack on All Father Peter the Fifth when he went on a tour of central kingdoms to spread the word of the Elder One.

To know how it came to this we need to look in some history. In the year 892 the religion was wide spread throughout the Imperium, but elsewhere on the continent it was unpopular and in some places hated. Most of the southern kingdoms believed in the Dark Ones or the Old Gods as they called them. As anyone could imagine that didn't sit well whit the followers of the Elder One. After all the Dark Ones were defeated by The Elder One and his Lesser Gods.

It is obvious why these two sides didn't like each other, and that what followed was inevitable, but when we come to the Central kingdoms, the situation changes. People of the Central kingdoms believed in many different beings. Lesser Gods like Tahindul, Mitrand gods of Moon and Sun. Dark Ones like Rantrila, Gargan, Crnobog gods of Lust, Rage and Darkness.

Then some believed in creatures like Hydra. A large being created by the Fallen One, that brought terror to the Central Lands during the Second Holy War. And some even believed in heroes who fought in the Holy Wars. Overtime they became Gods to the people who lived there.

Visyeldin the Dragon Slayer. An Elf who killed many dragons during the both Holy Wars, until he was killed by the Oserot the King of all Dragons. Devin the Brave, Esferata the Broken, Krjarlek the Thundertamer. I would give my self a better name if I was my parents, oh well nothing I can do about it. And finally The Smiling Knight. The person that founded the Sentinel Order. They all lived and died during the Age of Heroes.

No need to explain that to the students. Everybody knows that it was named in their honor. Their followers were considered pagans. And the Church wanted to expand their religion. So in the year 893 they started to spread the word of the Elder One all over the Central Kingdoms, let's say their first target. Of course it was tried before. Well it was always happening but never on this scale. So much so that it worried the leaders of various religions.

One of those religions, hated even by other pagan religions. Followers of Hydra or as we call them today, Hydra sect. They took it upon themselves to stop the Church´s expansion. They decided to do it by violent means. They started by attacking and killing missionaries sent by the Churh. They even found out about locations, villages and towns where Churches were being built and religious communities started to form.

They would attack those places, killing everyone in sight. After a year of attacks, kidnappings and killings All Father Peter the Fifth made his move. He sent groups of people who volunteered to protect the missionaries, communities and churches. To them it was an honor to protect the Church from violent pagans. Truly stupid if you ask me. Dying for a religion. Well I can see their viewpoints but I do things by logic. Dying in some foreign land for religion is stupid by all means.

Oh well. The amount of volunteers grew fast and militia was formed. They were trained and helped by Inquisition. A tactical branch of the Church, that mostly did undercover tasks. Combination of these two worked wonderful. Amount of successful attacks lowered by more then 70%. It was enough to make All Father Peter confidant in his safety.

For he planned to tour the central kingdoms to promote and spread the religion. At the start of the year 897 he started his journey.But he did not expect that Hydra sect was on his tail. Hydra sect saw this as their last and best chance to stop the spread of this unholy and foreign religion. So they sent out assassins to kill All Father Peter.

After leaving Burdia he went west towards Elivat. They intercepted him at the small town of Sevt just 2 days from Elivat´s capitol Toregor. All Father Peter had only a dozen hand picked men to defend him. This was a way to show the people of the central kingdoms that the Church is peaceful and wants to spread their religion by peaceful means.

Of course All Father was not stupid. He made a deal whit King Huren of Burdia. Huren sent a hundred men to escort the All Father through his kingdom. But when the All Father crossed the border to Elivat his escort had to turn back, and he and his bodyguards continued their journey alone.

He tried to make the same deal whit Elivats king. But King Bron refused because more then 50% of the population believed in many various religions. Around 20% were followers of Hydra. So not wanting to anger the people of his kingdom even more, he refused to send the escort. As everyone can imagine, All Fathers visit to Elivat was not accepted well by most of the people.

In his situation I would do the same. I wouldn't want to cause a mayor political crysis in the kingdom, that was already unstable at the time. The All Father was told many times to turn back and head straight to Sleibia, but he refused. His argument was that if they got in trouble they could always make a run the closest Church in the kingdom. Militia will be there to protect them.

I don't see how that would help in a kingdom whit so many Haydra followers. But still they went whit his plan and made a route that goes through every town whit a Church. So that in a case of an attack, safety wouldn't be to far away. The new route would take them 5 days longer then if they followed their old one.

That gave Hydra more time to plan out their attack. And on the third day of the journey they attacked All Father and his guards in the small town of Svet. All Father and a few of his guards managed to break through the enemy , and escape to the small church sitting on a small hill outside of the town.

It was build there in case of an attack. It would minimize lose of life and damage to the property of the town people. When they reached the church they were met by 20 men of the militia , under the command of Erick Yarevok. Militia together whit what was left of the guards fought back and held back the Hydra cult for half an hour until the town garrison came to help.

They were forced by the governor of Svet. I can imagine what would happen to him if All Father, one of the most powerful men in whole of the Imperium died under his watch. He would most likely lose his title and rank. Maybe even his life. By the time the guards arrived only one man of the militia stood alive. Guards finished what was left of the attackers and saved the All Father. The lone survivor of the militia lived to surprise of everyone. After the incident All Father Peter turned straight back to Imperium.

The incident made it clear that the church needed a military presence in the region. To protect their properties and destroy their enemies. That´s at least what the All Father and the Church elite thought. And in the year 897 Iron Knight Order was formed, whit Grandmaster Markus Teretrus leading them. The lone survivor who held back the Hydra Cult.

They are a young order compared to the other orders like Sentinels but in recent times they grew more powerful. Now they are a military force capable of overthrowing Kings. They number in tens of thousands. It's speculated that there is around 35 to 40 thousands Iron Knights spread throughout the continent. Whit additional 5 thousand in the city of Albarak on the Red Continent fighting the Karafet Sultanate.

Their armies are highly organized. The smallest units are 100 men battalions, commanded by a Knight-Captain. Then there comes a 1000 men brigade. They are commanded by Knight-Commanders. A legion comes next, consisting of five brigades or 5000 men, commanded by Legion-Commanders. Then Knight-Admirals come. They command two legions or 10000 men. Regional Commanders are next.

There is three Regional Commanders in total. One in the north command in the Imperium and the Emerald forest. Second in the central command in the Central kingdoms, in city of Raven. And the last one is in the south command in the southern kingdoms. Three of them answer to the Grandmaster and the Grandmaster answers to the All Father.

Although sometimes a gap between the Order and the All Father forms. Depends on who is in power. Well I believe that´s all. Well there is more history to all of it. But it does not matter. Im happy whit the results. Writing a diary helped me whit my boredom problem, well at least for now it did. I should thank , no I will thank professor Rika next time when I see her. It worked well and I will use it more in the future if I find my self bored.