Upgrades

"The next thing you need to note is where the magic of a mage is condensed so you can quickly eradicate it, rendering them useless. From what I can tell, it can be found in one of three places if not in all three. The Brain, the heart or around the stomach, the Dantian if you want to get the term correct. If one were to shatter the correct place, it would render the said mage heavily weakened if not kill them outright."

I took a deep breath before turning back to the frankly confused and scared guards, the old man's screams of pain and heavily damaged body were the perfect backdrop for my speech.

"You may be wondering why I'm telling you all of this?"

They all nodded at this, makes sense I guess, in their shoes, I would also be confused as fuck however the real test of their ability will be how quickly they react to the intense change.

"During my time as Lord of this place, radical changes will take place, I detest mages for many a reason, some of which you have no doubt seen as this old fool ran this hold. Rape, Murder, pillaging, experimentation, demonic possession and so much more. They keep the ordinary man down with their supernatural strength, you protest? They take your daughter. You refuse to be experimented on? They burn your family alive, well they did mine anyway."

Pausing to look each of them in the eye,

"I'm not going to start a mass crusade to kill off all mages, hell some are just as good as you and I. I'm aware that bandits, ordinary men as just as much of a threat if not more of one in the short term however I will bring about a haven for the normal man, where Mages are convicted of the same crimes, with the same penalties, there will be no favouritism. The 10 of you will have one hour to make a choice, I offer you the chance to serve a new order, one that will champion the rights of normal men or you will need to die. You have seen and know too much I'm afraid. I will make it quick; I promise. Do not try to flee, I own the only horses."

Myra had come back as my little speech had ended,

"Myra pull up the drawbridge and keep our guests entertained, if they show any signs of them leaving, you may kill them, I'm going to ask this kind old man some questions."

*An hour Passes*

What did I do for the last hour? Good Ol fashioned Templar torture, cut off a limb here, slice off an ear there, feed them to your prisoner, then beat them black and blue. You might be thinking, why go to that extreme? I need information, need to know about the holds surrounding mine, their loyalties, the reputation and personality of their lords. Defenses and army size, natural resources, trade goods, anything he could give me was extracted from him.

Am I evil?

I don't think so, is it evil for a hunter to hunt its prey? No, it's nature. Is it wrong for me to seek information that will save my troop's lives? No. Is the way I got it, maybe? I know I'm definitely not a Hero, I may do some good actions in the future but I know I won't be good. I guess it will be the history books that decide whether I'm a Tyrant or a Saint, the winners always go down as the good ones, I guess I only have to win.

As I walked back out onto the courtyard, I noticed 9 recruits kneeling, waiting for my return, one dead body lay off to the side on its own, I glanced at Myra who simply nodded in my direction.

Tried to escape I guess, later I will need to see where I and Myra stand, I can tell she is devoted to the old me, I need to know if I can transition that to the current me.

"So, my offer to you is, you all make vows of poverty, obedience and renounce the world. At the moment you say these vows, you will belong to my order. The Templar order. In exchange for your vows, I will grant you the power to defend the ones you love, to overthrow the tyrants that sent you to this place, I will give you a home where you can thrive."

A man that looked to be in his thirties rose from his kneeling position and began to sloppily say the said vows, as he did, I slowly pulled out a small piece of Lyrium. Myra looked at both it and me with a confused look, I smiled at her and as the man finished his vows, I placed the Lyrium in his hands and said "Eat it."

The man looked up at me, a large confused smile covered his face, looking back at the small blue crystal in my hands, he placed it in his mouth and swallowed. His body went into a fit almost instantly, his pained wails covered the courtyard, I believe they could hear them in the village.

His mouth began to leak a large amount blue coloured spit, then nothing, his body stopped shaking, the screams stopped. He simply lay at my feet, out cold, breathing calmly. I knelt, lifting his arm, I checked to feel his pulse, although slightly quicker than normal, he was fine.

*Mission completed; Found the Order! Rewards: Templar armour x6, A system granted Blacksmith and 3 skill points. *

*Hidden Mission completed, Convert someone into a Templar Knight. Rewards: Command Skill tree unlocked, 1000 Templar Points (Used in templar management screen). Class has evolved into Knight-Vigilant*

Smiling at the notifications, I turned to the remaining eight guards and asked

"Who is next?"

*6 hours pass*

All of the would-be recruits have been turned into knights, including the 4 that came with me here, we now have 14 active Templars, Myra's conversion was a little special so I will note that down in a bit. Right now, all of the recruits are passed out in the main keep, I have left them in some run-down rooms, all except Myra who is currently lightly snoring to my left.

Her conversion spawned a unique ability within her, I was made aware of it by my proxy, specifically the Templar management screen which showed me her status.

Name: Myra Telso

Level: One

Class: Titan Touched Templar

Title: Divine Knight

Stats; Strength: 8 Constitution: 9 Magic: 12 Intelligence: 10 Dexterity: 12 Agility: 12

Skills: Flaming Shield (no Boost unlocked), Flaming Circle of Sacrifice. (No boosts unlocked)

Artefacts: None

Equipment: Standard Guard equipment.

What was truly shocking were what these abilities could do;

Flaming Shield: The shield of the knight is engrossed in flames, any enemies that touch the shield will be set alight, doing massive fire damage over time. Any fire magic that touches the shield is absorbed.

Flaming Circle of Sacrifice: a large circle made from Primordial mana is burned onto the floor, any hostiles that walk on it are dealt extreme amounts of fire damage, once dead, their souls are sacrificed to the titian, strengthening the bond between the Knight and Titian.

I mean it was only an educated guess that Lyrium was connected to something else, I never expected it to be true. Do you know what this means? If these Titans can be trusted then we will gain a massive power increase, is the power dormant in everyone who ingests Lyrium or is it just a select few?

Imagine a corps of Elite templars that could master the elements, fight on equal standing with mages at range. While absolutely destroying them in close ranged combat, this would change the battlefield for every Templar, truly bring balance between mages and mortal man...

I'm getting ahead of myself here, there is nothing to show that these abilities will manifest in other Templars, so far Myra's a unique case, one I need to keep by my side so I can study her. I will need to know the limits of the Titan's influence on the girl, is it just the powers or do they form some sort of mental link? That shouldn't be possible as far as I know we are in a separate dimension to Thedas, would such a link go through the gaps in dimensions? Does it depend on the strength of the Titan?

So many questions and next to no answers, proxy do you know something?

*I can't tell you that, you will need to speak to the Lady herself. To do that, I suggest you pray. *

Maybe later, open up my skill trees. specifically, the command tree.

Put a skill point in Unity.

Unity- Grants a Loyalty Equilibrium for all Templar Forces at 60%. Erases Memory loss caused by Lyrium.

Also, put one in battlefield commander and ability gain.

Ability Gain- This allows the user to select an ability for all the Templar Forces to inherit on their conversion into a Knight

Battlefield Commander- Troops gain +50% attack and defence boost when the Lord is present on the battlefield.

Open the sword and Shield tree.

Put one in Shield wall.

Shield Wall- You stand firm and block incoming attacks at the cost of stamina. Each block adds to your guard. You move much more slowly while sustaining this ability.

Open the Templar tree.

Put a point in Blessed blades and Maker's will.

Maker's will- Your party's attacks have a chance to weaken their targets. Weaken Chance: 5%

Willpower +3

Blessed blades: You rally all of your nearby allies to fight with greater strength, especially when facing demons. +15% damage.

Exit the skill tree interface.

*Please note that you will feel extreme pain as the abilities are thrust into your body, enchantments like the +3 willpower will break you. *

Hahaha, break me? I'm already broken, bring it on.

*3 hours pass*

Ahhhhhhhhh

My lips then slam shut as the pain subsides, that was refreshing, haven't felt pain like that since I tried to fight a pride demon barehanded. Those were the good old days, rampaging through the fade, killing demons.