The Dread Knights


Dread Knight Assassins

Motto: Fear conquers all...

Overview: Feared by many and understood by few, the infamous Dread Knight is an individual who has dedicated his strength and his life to the service of the order. They are always seeking ways in which to improve themselves and further the cause. The Dread Knight's are elite vampiric warriors; they are martial champions, master of body, mind, weapon, and will. They are regarded as exemplars of disciplined, well-trained, loyal soldiers.

Representing the ultimate in mounted warfare, the Dread Knight is the quintessential knight in black armour. The charge of the Dread Knight on their fiendish steeds is one of the most devastating offensive weapons any culture can hope to field.

To become a Dread Knight a warrior must be willing to drink from the chalice of Darkness. This chalice contains the blood of a Daywalker vampire, and upon drinking it the Dread Knight will become one as well.

Daywalkers also known as Half-vampires have many of the strengths and a few of the weaknesses of true vampires, but they are not undead. They cannot be turned and are immune to spells and magic effects that only affect the undead. In appearance they appear just as they were before they became a Daywalker, except they now have pronounced canine teeth. They are not immortal, but age at a greatly reduced rate. They also gain an increase in strength, speed, dark vision, and have a fast healing rate.

All Dread Knight's, regardless of background, recognize in each other an eternal bond that transcends culture, race, and even religion. The leaders of the Dread Knights are the Dread Lords, an order who develop uncanny skills related to coordinating and leading soldiers. The elite of the Dread Lords are the Dread Warlords.

Headquarters: The Dread Knights maintain a central headquarters, based in a flying superfortress called Castle Dreadnaught. The castle moves locations frequently to avoid detection and is currently located in an area called the Black Lands. The Dread Knights maintain two other flying superfortresses called Castle Darkstar, and Castle Dragonfyre.

Members: In total there are approximately 5000 Dread Knight's, and 200 Dread Lords/Warlords. They are split into 3 armies attached to each superfortress. Supporting the Dread knight's are 10 Apocalypse Dragons, 10 Blue Steel Dragons, 10 Red Steel Dragons, and 120 Wyverns. In addition Lycanthrope werewolf fighters, Lycanthrope werewolf lords, Minotaur berserkers, Deurgard dwarf engineers, and Black orcs support the Dread Knight's in siege, engineering, logistical, and armouring support roles.

Hierarchy: Militaristic

Leader: Supreme Dread Warlord

Religion: None, the Dread Knight's bow to no one.

Alignment: They consider themselves unaligned, but in D&D terms they can range from Chaotic Good to Lawful Evil. The latter being the most common.

Secrecy: Medium

Symbol: A Black fanged dragon, on a blood red moon. This symbol is displayed on Dread Knight armour and flags, on weapons it can be a black embossed fanged dragon with a red outline.

Motivation and Goals: The Dread Knight's believe that the world is in chaos, and that the chaos is caused because none of the races are capable of leading themselves. The Dread Knight's are vampiric Daywalkers and believe they are superior to other races, also on joining the order they give up all personal ambitions and work toward the goals of the order. They believe so strongly and completely in their goal, that they are better to lead because they are not corrupted like other rulers.

The Dread Knight's control the lands around their base of operations, and are extending their dominion to all nearby lands and peoples. They extend their dominion with many different methods and will consider anything as long as their goals are met. The most common way for Dread Knight's to conquer territory is by force of arms. However, they have been known to gain power from ruthless control of trade or smuggling. Or develop networks of spies, assassins, slavers, and thieves to gain control of an underground empire.

Once they have full control of a territory all underground activities will cease and the assets will be reused against other enemies or dispatched. Also they will not neglect the people of a defeated country who had managed to survive the initial onslaught. They established viable governments, often with local officials left in charge, and ensured the availability of ample food and security for all as well as allowing prevailing religious observances to continue without persecution. As caring in peace as they were vicious in warfare, the Dread Knight's left many of the occupied areas and defeated local inhabitants to experience an improvement in their quality of life.

The Code:

Through the Dread Knight's, we have purpose.
Through blood, we gain strength.
Through darkness, we gain advantage.
Through discipline, we gain power.
Through victory, we gain fear.
For we are fear incarnate, we are Dread Knight's.
For only through fear, can order be restored to chaos.
And only through the Dread Knights, can this be accomplished.

Key values:

Loyalty - a Dread Knight accepts that the survival of the Order and achieving its aims of defeating the enemy is paramount. One's own survival is secondary.

Self Sacrifice - a Dread Knight dedicates his life to the order, he will even risk his life to protect the people of a defeated country. The same people that he may have previously been slaughtering.

Logic - a Dread Knight will always make an assessment as to whether a battle can be won or not. It is acceptable to retreat from a superior foe, as long as the order comes from the leadership.

Cunning - the Dread Knights have survived by subterfuge and stealth. As such, cunning is a key value of the Order.

Discipline - the Dread Knights follow a strict framework of disciple and obedience.

Recruiting: There's no denying that the order needs fresh blood to replace those members who perish at the swords of enemies. And the more members the order has, the more quickly it can bring about the subjugation of its enemies. However, the Dread Knight's don’t actively recruit but acquire members that want to belong and have demonstrated exceptional ability.

Although it is within their power to transform most humanoids into Daywalker vampires, they prefer to do so only sparingly. From their point of view the transformation is a great honour, not to be given lightly. They bestow it only upon those they consider worthy to join the most elite segment of the Legion of Darkness.

The Dread Knight's order is for elite soldiers and increasing its numbers with too many fresh recruits would reduce it's effectiveness. In addition Dread Knight's are vampiric and require blood to survive. Having too many vampiric's in one place would quickly overwhelm the local populations.

Allies: The Dread Knight's have no formal allies, though they are not averse to forming temporary alliances of convenience with those who have something to offer that the Dread Knight's cannot or prefer not to obtain for themselves. Because they are composed of outcasts, the Dread Knight's find it easy to ally with surface dwelling Drow, Half-Elves, and Half-Orcs. They also frequently deal with the Duergar dwarves especially for weapons.

Enemies: Apart from the countries and territories they are attacking. Dread Knight’s consider religious fanatical groups and cults that force their religion upon the people or who are aggressive in nature, as enemies. Vampires are always attacked and eliminated, because they are considered an abomination by Daywalkers, and because they compete for food. Also because there are a lot of Surface Drow in the ranks of the Dread Knight's they are usually attacked on sight by Elves, or Drow from the Underdark. But their most dangerous enemy are the Golden Dragon's, this is because Dread Knight's have used Gold Dragon eggs in their experiments and to power their flying superfortresses.

Strengths and Weaknesses: The greatest strength of the Dread Knight's is their member’s loyal and fanatical devotion to the cause. They also have psionic and superior night fighting abilities with a strong spell resistance. They are also cunning and quick. They have strong spell resistance.

The greatest weaknesses of the Dread Knight's are their sensitivity to light, while they can fight during the day they lose a lot of their advantages. Dread Knight’s also tend to shun magical use, instead relying on magically imbued items.

Because their reputation precedes them, Dread Knight's are accustomed to being attacked on sight. This means the Dread Knights have to rely upon their own resources, putting them at a disadvantage compared to other groups.

Special Items: The Dread Knights have master Duergar smiths working for them in each flying superfortress. This means they tend to have the best equipment available, with a high incidence of masterwork items.

The Dread Knight's have created the weapon known as the sword of destruction. Many of these swords are in use among the Dread Lords.

Dread Knight Insignia - These metal tokens are normally worn on a chain or in a pouch tied around the neck. Each bears a symbol of a unit that the knight belongs to. These insignia's are imbued with antimagic fields and silence spells.

Supernatural Abilities: As a whole the Dread Knight's do not have any spell-like abilities, relying upon magically imbued items to augment their fighting skills. However, their Daywalker blood gives the Dread Knight psionic abilities, such as telepathy, and hypnosis.

Dread Lords are trained in the higer psionic levels and can lift large objects into the sky, and disarm enemies with a single thought. Although not capable of full telekinetic flight, they can use this ability to augment jumping.

Dread Warlords can lift massive objects into the sky, fly telekinetically, and mindscan enemies from great distances.

Dread Knight

The four Dread Knight classes: A Dread knight can choose from one of the four Dread Knight specialties

Dread Knight
Dread Knight-Arc
Dread Knight-Dragonrider
Dread Knight-Assasin

Dread Knight's
Heavy cavalry warriors who ride cauchemar nightmares into battle, and make up almost half of the army. They are heavily armoured in lamellar or plate armour wear helms. In addition to crossbows, these warriors carry a long shield and lance. They use a sword or mace for close-in fighting.

Dread Knight-Arc's
Lightly equipped cavalry archers, who ride nightmares into battle. They are armoured in light half plate armour. Their main weapon is the crossbow and they carry a sword. The Dread Knight-Arc's carried two crossbows, a repeating crossbow for artillery attacks, and a more powerful sniper crossbow for long range attacks, and their quivers might hold as many as 600 bolts. There were many different types of arrowhead, some designed to pierce armour, others perforated to produce a shrill whistle when loosed into the air. The latter were used for signalling and intimidating the enemy.

Dread Knight - Dragonriders
Some dream of soaring through the clouds atop a mighty draconic steed, feeling the wind on their faces, afraid of nothing. The dragonrider doesn't simply dream of this life - he leads it. Matched with a Dragon at a young age these specially trained soldiers ride the mighty beasts into battle. They wear dragonscale armor usually taken from their mounts first dragon kill. They also carry a Dragonlance, a crossbow, and a sword for use when dismounted.

Dread Knight - Assassins
To support their operations, the Dread Knights employ an extensive network of spies and scouts who report enemy strengths and locations. They also infiltrate underground organisations, and assassinate key individuals in preparation for an invasion.

Dread Lord

The two leadership classes: Dread Lords and Dread Warlords.

Dread Lords
Dread Lords are chosen from among the Dread Knight Superiors in each class. Dread Lords retain their class specialisation. So there will be:

Dread Lord's
Dread Lord-Arc's
Dread Lord-Dragonriders
Dread Lord-Assassin

In battle, the members of this order are the most formidable. They also have some immunities to magical attacks. For a Dread Knight to become a Dread Lord, besides proving his merit and completing the quests the Dread Lord's request, he must successfully complete Psionic training. The Dread Lords are considered to be one of the greatest assets of the Dread Knights.

Dread Warlords
Dread Warlords are chosen from among the Dread Lords. Dread Warlords are the highest rank in the order. They have proved themselves in peace and battle, and are tasked with leading the armies and fighting the enemy. Due to the great requisites for becoming a Dread Warlord, they are the smallest branch of the order and are rarely seen in battle except in command roles.

Hierarchy: The Dread Knight's hierarchy is entirely based on merit, an unusual aspect for the times. Courage and ability are promoted whilst dire punishments were meted out for cowardice. Discipline, a crucial element sorely lacking in most contemporary armies, is very strictly enforced. Leadership is strongly supported by subordinates and usually only changes on the death or promotion of the leader.

The Order is ruled by the Supreme Dread Warlord and a council of 3 Dread Warlord Commanders, and 9 Dread Warlords. The council are reunited during certain times in a year to discuss matters concerning promotions, guidelines, information gathering, war councils, talk with allies, etc. The council may have extraordinary sessions if the situation is exceptional. When a Warlord dies, the new Warlord is chosen between the members of the Council.

Dread Adepts are potential Dread Knight’s, they must first train and reach an acceptable level before they can petition to enter the order. Also extensive testing is done to determine the personalities and motives of the adept, undesirable qualities are weeded out. When an adept petitions they must approved by a Dread Lord, it is then that they drink from the chalice and become a Daywalker and begin their career as a Dread Knight.

The ranks are as follows:
Dread Knight
Dread Knight Superior
Dread Lord
Dread Lord Commander
Dread Warlord
Dread Warlord Commander
Supreme Dread Warlord

The military formations are as follows:

The most basic formation of Dread Knights is a squad, comprised of 5 Dread Knight’s with one of them being a leader, who takes the title of Dread Knight Superior.

The next formation is called a unit, comprised of 5 squads which is 25 knights in total. The leader of this group is a Dread Lord.

The next formation is called a column, comprised of 4 units which is 100 knights and 4 lords in total. The leader of this group is a Dread Lord Commander.

The next formation is defined as an army, comprised of 6 columns which is 600 knights, and 24 lords in total. The leader of this group is called a Dread Warlord.

The next formation is defined as an army group, comprised of two armies of 1200+ knights, 48 lords, 2 warlords a flying superfortress, and approximately 400+ supporting troops comprised of knights-arcs and knight-assassin’s. The leader of this group is called a Dread Warlord Commander.

Overall there are three army groups and they are controlled by the Supreme Dread Warlord.

Battle Tactics:

All members of the army are mounted on flight capable steeds, and the flying citadels carry sufficient supplies and equipment needed for protracted campaigns. The Dread Knights were notorious for the speed at which they could cover ground. Most warriors had at least one spare mount, swapping mounts as each grew successively tired. There are records of Dread Knight detachments covering 300 kilometres a day using this method. These innovations and adaptations produce an extremely mobile army far superior to any other.

Militarily, the more-mobile Dread Knight's had enormous advantages in scouting, concentration, and surprise, and they did not have to defend cities and farmland in their rear. The Dread Knight's are comprised of a large percentage of Nocturnal races, in addition they are expert night fighters. Because of this they fight at a disadvantage during the day so they will mainly do battle at night when they have the advantage over most of their enemies.

Most Dread Knight armies are outnumbered by the foes they fight. They are masters of ambush and surprise, conducting feigned retreats, stinging the foe with vicious storms of arrows, luring them onto ground of their choosing until they were strung out from exhaustion and a ripe target for the lances of the Dread Knights. This tactic might sound simple but a feigned withdrawal requires exceptional discipline, leadership and coordination - once troops start retreating, it is difficult to get them to overcome the natural urge to continue running.

The Dread Knight's didn’t just charge into battle: they possessed a vast intelligence network, using spies, traitors and merchant caravans to gather information before a campaign. They were adept at exploiting natural cultural and political rivalries within their foes. People who resisted were summarily slaughtered: the Dread Knight's had a reputation for calculated cruelty, massacring entire urban populations. Terror was perhaps the most invaluable weapon in the Dread Knight arsenal.

When advancing through enemy territory, the army split up into separate columns. They maintained contact with each other by using messengers, smoke signals, flags, burning torches, and telepathy. What makes this feat remarkable is the fact that most contemporary armies found coordinated movement between separate columns almost impossible.

When reconnaissance detects a weakness, the Dread Knight's mass their force of as many as 3,000 men and attack, with the heavy cavalry leading the way and the archers supporting from the rear. Columns of horsemen could divide into smaller groups and exploit weaknesses or pass through each other and surround strong points. This bold, rapid attacking strategy has been unmatched thus far.

The army, however, did not remain static, rather, it constantly evolved as the situation demanded. Despite being a mobile army, the Dread Knight's are masters of the siege. When Dreadnaught faced the fortified cities in the Dwarven mountains, he added siege machines that his men could disassemble into sections and carry on pack animals. When needed engineer and medical skills were not available within his own ranks, They use captured or conscripted artisans and engineers from other races to construct and operate siege engines - indeed, educated men were often the only people spared when the Dread Knight's annihilated a city. Other captives were spared for the express purpose of acting as human shields: they would be forced forward to fill moats and absorb the brunt of the defenders efforts.

Terror, both as a psychological tool and as a characteristic of the warfare of the time, plays and important role in the Dread Knight's tactics. The army rarely took prisoners, often butchering civilians as well as soldiers when they captured cities. So fearful did the Dread Knight reputation become that potential enemies often fled rather than attempt to stand against the "barbaric hordes".

History:

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Battle Between the Dread Knights and the Order of Light.