HYPERBOREA » Help design a Knightly Order/Cult

Brock Savage · 7/13/2018 12:44 am

I am asking for the board's help making a sword and sorcery knightly order/cult worthy of Hyperborea. My gf wants to play a force of righteousness and good in Hyperborea or as she calls it, the "hell world". Okay, no problem, I figure a level 1 character in starter gear would be a squire on her errantry to prove herself worthy of becoming a knight. So far, so good. Now all I need is an order of monastic knights or better yet, a cult that fancies itself one.

***If you play in my campaign, please stop reading now.***

Here is a brain dump of what I've come up with so far. I want to avoid a cut n' paste of the Games Workshop writer's bible for the Sisters of Sigmar and Adeptus Sororitas. I am not married to any of these ideas and would love to hear suggestions, criticisms, and advice. I'll throw it all in the trash and rework it from the ground up if a more inspiring idea comes along.

The Order is an obscure, nearly extinct cult known as the Order of the Crimson Cross.
The Order is based on the teachings of a mysterious female saint (probably a transmundane) who teaches a doctrine of Law. I am leaning towards the saint being a transmundane who callously uses mortals to thwart daemonkind but am open to ideas. I feel the teachings of a saint or holy man would work better than any of the Hellenic, Celtic, Norse, and Lovecraftian deities of Hyperborea.
Doctrine: Life in Hyperborea is hellish punishment for the wicked. Through discipline and virtue, one refines the soul to transcend this world.
Based out of a remote mountaintop fortress-monastery.
Iconography heavily inspired by the Knights Templar. The Order could have been seeded or inspired by a remnant of Old Earth's Templars flensed of Judeo-Christian influence.
New members are typically unwanted and homeless girls of Khromarium although some adults join.
Life in the Order is grim and disciplined but it beats starving or freezing to death. The Order gives purpose, hope, and meaning in a cruel and uncaring world.
The Order recovers daemonic magic items and secures them in a vault deep within the mountain.
Purging daemons, mutants, and undead is obligatory.
Most members are mundane acolytes who support a handful of clerics and paladins.
Members refer to each other as Novitiate, Sister, Sister Superior, etc.
A betrayal led to the near extinction of the Order's knights and it has never recovered.
The Oligarchy, Magician's Guild, and Xathoqquan Orthodoxy view the Order as a mostly harmless cult that is occasionally useful.

Chainsaw · 7/13/2018 8:37 am

If it's a force of righteousness and good in Hell World, I would roughly model it after the Jedi during Episodes IV, V and VI. A secretive remnant of an almost extinct organization, sort of a "thieves guild" for good guys.

gizmomathboy · 7/13/2018 9:15 am

Having recently read CAS' "The Monster of the Prophecy", why not have the cult be some alien race's religion? Maybe be even more twisted and have snake man or mi-go be at the root of it and either twisting it for some nefarious end (bringing forth some eldritch horror) or a long time plan that has gone horribly wrong from their point of view (used the good folks to open a gateway but it took too long and now the order protects the gateway but everyone involved has forgotten why or that it even is a gateway and it is now the symbol of their order).

Searching through the Bestiary it does seem that Transmundane are the best fit as a "foundation" for this cult. In a generic sense.

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/138/the-monster-of-the-prophecy

Brock Savage · 7/13/2018 12:18 pm

Thank you for the suggestions, gentlemen. I am in a work crunch right now so I cannot comment at length but I appreciate the ideas.

Blackadder23 · 7/13/2018 1:00 pm

gizmomathboy wrote:
Searching through the Bestiary it does seem that Transmundane are the best fit as a "foundation" for this cult. In a generic sense.

For whatever it's worth, as the creator of the Transmundane, I endorse the idea of a group of humans dedicated to serving as their "auxiliaries" (i.e., pawns) in Hyperborea. Since the Transmundane are (apparently) aliens of some kind, it would add a definite weird flavor to such a knightly order (although they might have posed as angels or gods when founding the order, of course). I see them communicating with the highest echelon of the order through a technological device disguised as a religious relic (maybe a crystalline holy water font that flashes unearthly light when they speak through it).

There would always be the awful chance that the Transmundane might actually send down orders for the PC to do something... and since most Transmundane don't care how many humans die, as long as they deliver a check to the plans of (other) aliens and daemons...

Last edited by Blackadder23 (7/13/2018 1:06 pm)

Blackadder23 · 7/13/2018 1:04 pm

I will add that I probably wouldn't have an outright nefarious entity (e.g., Thaumagorga) be secretly behind it. I say this both because a little of that kind of thing goes a long way, and because you might get put on the couch for it.

Last edited by Blackadder23 (7/13/2018 1:04 pm)

Brock Savage · 7/13/2018 1:44 pm

Hey BA23, I had no idea the Transmundane are your creation, they are pretty cool. I'd love to learn your insights abd opnions on these mysterious beings. I imagined a female Transmundane that's heavy on the Lawful and light on the Good posing as a saint or angel to build a cult or order. I feel that making an unambiguously evil being like Thaumagorga behind the cult would be an unimaginative and unrewarding "reveal" that doesn't give the player interesting choices.

Blackadder23 · 7/15/2018 4:26 pm

Brock Savage wrote:
Hey BA23, I had no idea the Transmundane are your creation, they are pretty cool. I'd love to learn your insights abd opnions on these mysterious beings.

My opinion is that they are sincere in their efforts to remove daemons and (other) aliens from Hyperborea. The question is why they want to do this, and if it will be truly beneficial for humanity if they succeed. The fact that they are generally unconcerned with human casualties in their shadow war makes the latter proposition doubtful.

Brock Savage · 7/17/2018 10:52 pm

BA23, I have tons of questions about the transmundane but I will hold my tongue save for this- can you tell me more about the gems they use to reward mortals who serve them? My first thought was the green diamonds from Ghost Ship of the Desert Dunes but upon further reflection that seems unlikely.

mabon5127 · 7/18/2018 12:09 pm

I stole Mitras from Hyboria to scratch the itch of good and hope in the world. The fledgling church is mostly overlooked by the other gods. The cult is new but leans heavily on the code of honor embraced by the Cataphract. A xathoqquan priest in the party was given the job of killing a popular cleric of Mitras that had recently established himself in Khromarium, introducing the cult to the campaign.

In spite of the tendency toward mercy and healing the traveling knights aren't above the aggressive push back against other cults.

Brock Savage · 7/18/2018 1:16 pm

mabon5127 wrote:
In spite of the tendency toward mercy and healing the traveling knights aren't above the aggressive push back against other cults.

Gygax explained his interpretation of Lawful Good in a Dragonsfoot.org thread. It's brutal and hardass compared to modern takes on LG. It's perfect for Hyperborea.

gizmomathboy · 7/18/2018 2:38 pm

Brock Savage wrote:
BA23, I have tons of questions about the transmundane but I will hold my tongue save for this- can you tell me more about the gems they use to reward mortals who serve them? My first thought was the green diamonds from Ghost Ship of the Desert Dunes but upon further reflection that seems unlikely.

For my Heswor Vignettes I posited the existence of other diamond types. Why not some other crazy diamond or even gem types? Green diamonds are a good jumping off point as a "power" source for a variety of things.

Blackadder23 · 7/18/2018 3:51 pm

Brock Savage wrote:
BA23, I have tons of questions about the transmundane but I will hold my tongue save for this- can you tell me more about the gems they use to reward mortals who serve them? My first thought was the green diamonds from Ghost Ship of the Desert Dunes but upon further reflection that seems unlikely.

The easiest interpretation would be that the gems are unlike any earthly gems, but still only have monetary value.

Another possibility is that they are ioun stones, or possibly can serve as such if the owner learns a secret command word.

ETA: An advantage of the ioun stone interpretation is that you could use that table to randomly determine the appearance of a gem (of course, you could always use it anyway and not assign the stone any magical powers).

Last edited by Blackadder23 (7/18/2018 3:54 pm)

Brock Savage · 7/18/2018 3:56 pm

Nice. Extraterrestrial gems that act as Ioun Stones was something I had considered. That's a great idea. Thanks.

Ar'Pharazon · 7/19/2018 9:45 am

Chainsaw wrote:
If it's a force of righteousness and good in Hell World, I would roughly model it after the Jedi during Episodes IV, V and VI. A secretive remnant of an almost extinct organization, sort of a "thieves guild" for good guys.

As an add to Chainsaw's idea, maybe have it as an order based upon an ancient Hyperborian manuscript depicting a stout, pre-ashen worm order, that was a force of righteousness and good in the original Hyperborian empire.
Today's incarnation is attempting to build the order anew, while trying to understand the texts, ceremonies and rituals of the original.

Brock Savage · 7/26/2018 12:10 am

As usual, I was able to mine the thread for useful ideas. Thank you for the input, everyone.