The Palestone Knights
"Lo! The knight of pallid stone, Caught in a shining web, His eyes aloft to gaze a throne, Unfettered by his dread.
Lo! The knight, arisen new, Speaks true his solemn words, And with his pallid brothers few, Take up their baleful swords.
Lo! The knights of pallid stone, Cast off the eldritch thread, They dream now of a conquered throne, On which they all have bled.
Lo! The knights of pallid doom, Across the riven lands, Defiant to the weavers loom, And those caught in its strands.
Lo! The knights of scorn and woe, Look to a grim frontier, Surrounded by their many foes, The sons of Eremyr."
— Leuth Kirincourt of Cormyr, 1367 DR
PLAYER ADVISORY — READ BEFORE YOU PLAY THIS CLASS
The Palestone Knights are not heroes. They are not a morally grey faction searching for balance. They are antagonists and zealots who, however personally sincere, have dedicated themselves to the destruction of the Weave (The fundamental force understood by scholars to be behind all magic in Faerûn) and with it civilization as it exists in present form. Countless professions, healing practices, governments, and the lives of ordinary people depend on magic. The Weave's disappearance during the Longest Year was widely experienced as a catastrophe. The Palestone Knights want that catastrophe made permanent.
If you choose to play a Palestone Knight, you are choosing to play a character whose ultimate goal is broadly considered unconscionable. They are considered by the informed and uninformed alike to be dangerous idealogues and an existential threat to the world. The most tepid among their number are extremists and the most fervent, bloodthirsty to the core. Even the most restrained among them pursue an agenda that the majority of Faerûn's population would regard as foolish in practice even if it can be sympathized with in theory.
Playing a member of this organization means playing someone who will largely be considered a villain and may be ostracized accordingly by the unsympathetic. Staff supports this kind of morally complex, antagonistic roleplay but wish you to be aware of what you are signing up for. Your character may believe they are righteous. That does not make them right.
Overview
Overview
The Palestone Knights are a coalition of anti-magic orders united by a single radical conviction. The Weave must be destroyed. Magic, in their eyes, is a plague upon the world. Although they see themselves as saviors, those willing to do evil in the name of the greater good, most of the world sees them as something between ideological fanatics and an existential threat to everyone and everything.
These orders, detailed below, vary in method and philosophy. While some operate within the law, others are outlawed across entire regions. While some may worship gods, others consider divine faith no better than arcane sorcery. Despite these differences, every Palestone Knight, regardless of their chapter, has sworn the same oath: To unravel the Weave no matter what it takes.
The detail that makes the Palestone Knights a sympathetic villain to some is that their nefarious end goals are grounded in a genuine grievance. The order was born out of the great suffering and death that resulted from the catastrophic disappearance due to what they believe to be society's over reliance upon magic. This in addition to the subsequent return of The Longest Year which is now widely considered hazardous by many throughout Toril.
History
History
The Aftermath of The Longest Year
Varghem Eremyr, their founder, was not a wicked man. He was a broken one. And that is perhaps the most dangerous kind.
Following the Longest Year, many faithful servants of the gods found themselves devoid of guidance and support. For some, such as the one-day founder Varghem Eremyr, a paladin of Torm, this was a shattering experience. He could not conceive that his god could simply vanish alongside the rest of the divine pantheons despite countless people dedicating a lifetime of worship and service to their names. Then, to find that the world did not come to an end; that people eventually adapter and society continued, however disrupted, resulted in a dreadful realization that his years of devoted service had perhaps meant nothing in the end.
Five painful years passed with Varghem wandering Faerûn aimlessly, trying to do good in a world that had, in many places, descended into lawlessness. Then as magic returned slowly and unevenly. Many civilians and innocents died in the first year of magic's resurgence, due in no small part to the reckless enthusiasm of those who had long awaited the return of magic. For Varghem, watching wizards cause death, intentionally or otherwise, in a pursuit for reclaiming their mastery of the art had hardened his hatred for magic.
He had seen a world that functioned and, in some places, flourish without magic. He came to the conclusion there was no longer any need for it. As he travelled, he spread the word of its evils and found, to his grim satisfaction, that many others felt the same. Many were unsurprisingly former clerics and paladins who shared his feelings of abandonment and betrayal.
The Pale Stone
One day Varghem and his recently formed magic-hating militia found themselves journeying through the Dalelands, a land that was noted to have prospered in the absence of magic. They came across a large grey crater near Essembra. It smelled faintly of something sickly-sweet. Sound was attracted towards the crater and became swallowed by it like a void. Varghem found himself drawn to the crater as well, as if by instinct.
There at the bottom lay the mangled corpse of a man styled as a practitioner, betrayed by their ostentatious robes and accoutrements one might expect of such a man. Curiously, they had all become warped and dismantled presumably by whatever force had killed them. A grey rock pulsed and churned beneath the body. Varghem took it as a sign that the world had answered reckless magic with a retributive violence of its own. He gathered a handful of grey dust and coated the blade of his sword with it, a gesture of defiance against magic and the Gods. Unexpectedly, dust seeped into the metal, dulling its luster entirely.
It was in that moment that he named his himself as the Palestone Knight.
His companions followed suit, coating their armor in the pale dust until no glint or shine remained. These pallid, colorless warriors would come to strike fear into the hearts of magic practitioners across Faerûn. Arcane or divine, it no longer mattered, any misuse of magic that harmed the innocent or defiled the natural world would be met with their cold judgement.
The Splintering
By 1365 DR, cracks had begun to form in Varghem's crusade. Many felt he was too restrained whereas others found him too extreme. A few began to return to their gods while remaining true to the anti-magic cause as a whole. Others continued their abandonment of all faiths but pursued other restructuring to how they approached the cause. Some even argued that use magic and magical equipment could be justified as a means to an end. Many among them considered this rank hypocrisy. These many disagreements led to continued in-fighting and ultimately a fracturing of the order ending in a cascade of departures.
These splinter groups soon grew in number. Some became de facto auxiliaries to be deployed by regional governments while others became hunted outlaws. Many fell between these two extremes. As the Palestone Orders spread across Faerun, they began to become more widely recognized. By 1368 DR, it was no longer unusual to have heard of, or been threatened by, at least one of the Palestone orders.
The Palestone Knights today are not a unified force. They are more akin to a loose coalition of zealots who, despite sharing an oath and aesthetic, frequently despise one another sometimes as much as they despise the mages they hunt. Their shared conviction makes them dangerous. Their disunity makes them unpredictable.
Why the World Fears Them
Why the World Fears Them
To understand why the Palestone Knights are so widely regarded with apprehension, contempt, or outright horror, one must understand what they are actually asking for.
Magic is not merely a tool in Faerûn. It is woven into the infrastructure of civilization as a whole. Healing, communication, governance, travel, trade, and other fundamentals of society are dependent upon The Weave, which was absent for the Longest Year, leaving devastation in its wake precisely because so much depended upon it. The Palestone Knights look at that devastation and see it as a necessary prelude to a paradise that they might one day bring about.
Even the most moderate orders work toward an endpoint that, if achieved, would be an apocalyptic upheaval for virtually every living being on Toril. The more extreme orders, of which there are many, are willing to murder priests, burn scholars alive, and execute spellcasters without trial or any evidence of wrongdoing. They are, in simple terms, a population of feverous zealots with a deluded near-apocalyptic agenda that attracts the disillusioned and the cruel in roughly equal measure.
Some are truly convinced they are protecting the innocent. Some are forever haunted by real losses caused by either the disappearance of magic or magical catastrophe that followed its return. These sympathetic origins do not make them less dangerous. In many ways, it makes them more so.
The Code
The Code
Whilst divided across splintered factions, each and every Palestone Knight adheres to the same foundational code without deviance. They vow to never break from it nor directly engage in practicing the art themselves. To do so is to become an enemy and subject to being hunted with the same fervor they reserve for mages.
"Til the Weave be unraveled,
We shall wear this veil of gray.
Those bound by the web,
We shall free.
Those snaring the weak,
We shall hunt.
By this vow we are bound;
Pale-clad, resolute,
Til the Weave be unraveled."
Palestone Knights are sworn to defend the helpless against harmful magic and to hold those who misuse magic accountable. However, the definition of "misuse" varies wildly between orders. For some, any use of magic is misuse. For others, only harmful or reckless use qualifies. This disagreement is not academic; it has sometimes led to violent confrontations between factions despite their shared oath.
Notable Orders
Notable Orders
The following are the most recognized sub-factions of Palestone Knights active across Faerûn. This is not an exhaustive list and many Knights operate alone or in small cells that are often unnamed and unaffiliated with any notable orders.
The Palestone Order
The original order, led by Varghem Eremyr himself.
Operating primarily around the Sea of Fallen Stars and based in Varghem's native Impiltur, this is the closest thing the Palestone Knights have to a "mainstream." They forsake all use of magic in any form. Worship of gods is not prohibited, though few members practise it. Despite being the originators of the Knights, they are not large in number. Their ranks are largely comprised of seasoned former paladins and clerics with decades of combat experience. Varghem's personal restraint keeps the order from the worst extremes but their goal remains the annihilation of the Weave.
The Blades of the Waning Gods
Extremists. Outlawed across most of Faerûn.
The Blades view the Longest Year as proof that Toril can flourish without gods or magic. They hunt and execute mages and priests alike whether or not they are guilty of any wrongdoing. They consider this to be necessary work and most of Faerûn considers them black-hearted murderers as a result. They are outlawed in most regions and must disguise themselves to trade or travel. The largest enclave of Blades have established itself near Cormyr.
The Pale Judicators
The bureaucrats of anti-magic extremism.
The most strictly regimented of the recognized orders. The Judicators travel from region to region, aggressively recruiting and establishing forward bases. They are sometimes employed by regional governments to police magical misconduct on their behalf due to their proclivity towards following the law. In fact their strict adherence to local law has made them something close to legitimate in some areas. They are also one of the few orders that sanction limited magical aid for their own members when facing overwhelming threats. Other orders consider this hypocrisy. The Judicators consider it pragmatism.
The Stewards of Eremyr
Purists who believe Varghem himself has gone soft.
A splinter faction that considers itself the truest inheritor of Varghem's original vision with one key difference: they still completely forsake the gods, which Varghem no longer requires of his Palestone Order. They named themselves as his "stewards," believing that he will eventually return to his senses and founding convictions, at which point they will welcome him back as their rightful leader. Until then, they regard his current stance as a compromise that dishonors the cause. They operate primarily around Impiltur, in uncomfortable proximity to the man they claim to revere.
The Moonlight Chosen
The most approachable of the zealots.
All of the Chosen are worshippers of Selûne, undertaking a near-constant pilgrimage between holy sites, detouring to assist those harmed by magical incidents. They are broadly considered the most humane of the Palestone orders. They prioritize protecting people from evil magical creatures and undead over hunting spellcasters, and they are known for a relatively compassionate disposition. These characteristics are best not mistaken for a lack of zeal, as they remain brutal combatants who show no mercy to those they have identified as enemies.
The Inquisitors of the Forsaken Art
The ones who burn people alive.
Alongside the Judicators, the Inquisitors are among the most populous and widespread order. Unlike the Judicators, they are possibly the most feared. They are led by a former Kelemvorite with a particular hatred of necromancy, and are mostly easily distinguished by the red fabric offset against their pallid armor as well as by their enthusiastic use of fire as both an interrogation method and an execution technique. They burn alive those they have judged guilty. They are paranoid, prone to torture, and regard almost any confession, coerced or otherwise, as sufficient evidence of guilt. Even other Palestone Orders widely regard their methods with horror, believing them to be extreme and needlessly brutal in their execution of the oath.
The Order of the Unblinking Eye
Traitors to the cause, Despised by their own.
Worshippers of Helm that operate almost exclusively in Neverwinter, the Unblinking Eye have made a choice that the rest of the Palestone Knights consider a betrayal. They have accepted practicing paladins and clerics under their banner, if not as proper knights, on the condition that these divine practitioners vow to eventually abandon magic entirely. In the meantime, they frame divine magic as "fighting fire with fire." They are technically compliant with the code, as no ordained Palestone Knight in their order uses magic directly, but they are reviled by virtually every other order for this compromise. Despite all this, they are deeply embedded in Neverwinter's law enforcement, operating in parallel with local guards although without boasting any official recognition from Lord Nasher.