The Glorious Legions

The Templar Order started about a millenium ago in the attempt to horde the faithful in one united kingdom under Meirn. The large eastern kingdom of Ponferrada started the empire under pretences of direct order from Meirn started a holy crusade to take over an anex the smaller neighbouring human countries that had succumb to worshiping Sithis. The Empire rules a fairly vast domain to the far eastern shore in the burenar desert. The Empire in attempt to keep the loyalty of their newly found subjects has kept all of the cultures intact, really creating a cultural melting pot that Meirn himself smiles upon.
The original king of Ponferrada Henrick Carvel acted as regent over the newly founded empire for some 15 years until graciously stepping down and throning the angel Mendellas Regen as eternal Emperor of the Order. Meirn sent down one of his angels to oversee that his children follow the proper path in life. Mendellas Regen is a wise and far-seeing leader who fights Sithis out of fear of what he could do to the world. His Empire is a accepting of all peoples and races so long as they have no tainted soul, tainted sould being worship of Sithis. The main enemies of the Empire are the Vampire Lords of Mortulia, whom they have fought for countless decades (100). They have been enemies for the fact that the Mortulians have raided and desecrated their lands on multiple occasions while committing heathenistic acts in an attempt to defy Meirn.
The Citizens of the Templar Order believe that honour should be held above all else for without honour they are nothing. They work during the hours of darkness for the fact that they cannot bear the heat of day unless it is of dire emergency for the heat of the desert is so excrutiatingly hot that it could dry the bones of a dead animal in mere minutes, while the night air is cool. It is said that the ancestors of Ponferrada were outraged that the Gods did not fight the dread father and let so many of their bretheren die and in rage at their ungratefulness Meirn raised the temperature as a curse for their ungracious accusations. Where as if he had not rescued them at all they would have lived in a world of total darkness they now had the opportunity to live in such a world and combat as much as they like. So the people now devote their kingdoms to Meirn to appease him, and so long as the empire lasts, the curse shall dim until one day they may finally step out in the light of day.
The famed Glorious Legions of the Empire are renown for their extreme discipline and suave battle tactics aswell as their unrivaled skill with shield and sword. The life of the Empire's average soldier is one of grueling training and countless trials, at any moment you could be expelled from the army for a lack of decency or honour. All boys are trained from the age of 11 for a required minimum of 3 years, when their training is up they may decide to join the military and continue training or back to a life of normallity, the amount of those who join the army vs. civilians is a 63% burn out rate. Among the 37% that make it an estimated 2% make it into the BrotherHood Of Steel, an order of elite soldiers who are specially trained in anti-magic aswell as excorsisms and daemon slaying.
The warning of all this is, If you are in the desert, or northwest of it, you "You betta' watch cho' ass Mary." If you worship Sithis or any other evil god.

TANNER'S SUPER AWESOME MEGA ULTRA SEAL OF UBER ACCEPTANCE AND APPROVAL!

The Glorious Legions were created as guards during the creation of Castle Ponferrada and after the raids of the Mortuli started they simply bolstered their ranks from a local militia to a full blown army to crusade the desert against the Mortuli. The main battle tactic is the shield wall and luring tactics and they even used siege machines such as balistae and catapults. There has not been a recorded moment where a single man has broken formation or fled from the battle without being stabbed in the back from the man behind him. Oh? Did I mention they are ruthless? Yeah, they are Funk ruthless, that's kind of important. A Glorious legionaire would prefer a Tower shield and longsword aswell as a spear opposed to any other weapon. At the age of 19 those who chose to walk the bloody path of a soldier were granted rights into the Glorious Legions. The Legion is made up of the recruits, the legionaires, the optios, the staff sergents, the centurions prefects, the tribune, the legates. They enjoyed different troop types to have many different tactics, so they had many battle mages and cavalry, heavy infintrymen and siege engineers etc.

There is no other creature as powerful and dominant in the air than a dragon, which are untameable, the second spot is dominated by the magestic gryphons, these creatures have an average wing span of 30 ft. These massive creatures weigh about a ton and use their bulk and razor sharp talons to slice or claw prey or foe alike. Gryphons normally feed upon unluckey daemon and other Sithis followers alike, if you were to ask them why they simply reply "the weak of mind are the tastiest, that is why we love oblivion, it has a vast amount of stupid, stupid louts. There is one in particular that we cannot seem to catch, a stout one at that who constantly evades us. A reward is offered to the one who brings in the plump Origar the Last."
The gryphons are the chosen of Meirn aswell as man. Humans and Gryphons have a sacred bond often imprinting on one another from an early age. They are as wise and intellegent as humans in every way but simply lack the opposable thumbs that give the humans such an advantage. Often a lot of humans that have been made by humans have actually come from Gryphons inplanting the ideas into the heads of their human companion, such as the wheel. If a Gryphons human dies it will never find another and are usually shunned from Gryphon society for losing its' charge. But may find redemption in Army service.



I've come across many Gryphons in my travels infact I've had one imprint on me when I spent some time in the Templar Empire, he visits me in Axony every couple of years as I visit him. Gryphons are hands down one of the most Noble and Magestic creatures on the continent.

- Sincerely Cornelius Fischer

The Gryphon riders are an elite order of skilled men and gryphon who have mastered flying, ( the Gryphons doing all the flying that is,) managing to swoop down into the fray and scramble a shield wall or flank the enemy and soar back out of reach. The men riding the beasts are also very agile, being able to leap off a low flying gryphon in a drop'n'roll to keep running should splitting up and evasion become urgent. There are two diffent types of Gryphon riders, the skirmishers who use javelins, bows and spears and so as not to put their comrades in danger of a blow to the underside and move with blinding speed. Or there is the Gryphon knight, a gryphon who's belly is fully protected with mail and someone of nobility riding it who posesses a warhammer, spear, greatsword and usually are heavily armoured, not as agile as their skirmisher counter parts but the sight of them strikes fear into the enemy and hope to their allies