The Great Split: Main IC Thread

*Meanwhile in Valonbray*

30 retainers, all of them Fierdsvain-bred, aseembled in the outskirts of Valonbray. Sebastien seperates them into groups of 3. Skirmishers, Warriors and Medics. With the exception of Medics, both the Skirmishers and Warriors must be good in wielding two handed weapons. Being retainers, they havent earned the right to have the Berzerker's customary Huscarl Shield. They would be tested in severals aspects, here.

Sebastien assembles the three groups and counts. Of the 30, 15 were selected in the Warriors group, including the former Valdis Huscarl, Gaskarth. 10 joined the Skirmishers while the 5 would be placed under Jeff, belonging to Medic group.

"Listen up! Today we will test you in terms of endurance and fighting skills. My target is different for each group, but as to be-Berzerkers, the standards are very high for close combat, even among the Dawn. If anyone desires to leave, please do so now. I wont tolerate brats." Sebastien yelled to the retainers.

None of them decide to leaves. Sebastien nodded his satisfaction and begins the training. The long road to being Berzerkers starts here.

Sir Rodrick reined his horse in, staring at the knights manning the walls to Avendor. "Are you gonna open or not?" The knight who had been peering at him suspiciously jumped when he heard his voice.

"Sir Rodrick, I trust? I've been told that you'd be coming soon." He turned to wave to the knights below, who must have been operating the gate. He turned back and shouted again. "The gatehouse is down the street. Trust me, its hard to miss." With that, he waved Rodrick through.

Rodrick rode through the gate, heading towards the place he had said. He had been right, the place was hard to miss. I guessed an order this large needed a large building, although most of it was probably much emptier because of the split. He spoke with the four guards who were standing guard. It wasn't long before they waved me through to, and I had entered the building.

I had seen Dawn knights all throughout the city, they must be nervous from all that had happened. Well, no matter. I entered the room where we were supposed to meet, ducking my head to avoid hitting it on the door top. On looking at the chairs, I decided to stand. If one of the chairs buckled underneath me, well, I'd rather keep away from that.

Blaze raises his eyebrows, when he heard Sir Roderick is here, , in Avendor.

Everyone in the room also received the announcement .

Aranor blinked his eyes when he heard the news
He sent a sergeant to go usher him in

"That was pretty fast, I must admit."

Rodrick ducked into the room, his shaven head almost scraping the ceiling. He surveyed the room, seeing Blaze and Aranor, plus a few others. He nodded to Blaze and then turned to Aranor. "I think we both know the main reason we are here, because of the Red Dawn..." He paused, organizing his thought before continuing. "Although both you are larger then the New Dawn," he acknowledged, "we probably play the most important role in this whole affair."

"You are both around equally matched. And so, whoever I play my cards with will be the one to win this battle, so I'd suggest keeping this in mind through this. I came here to discuss the matter of alliances, not be toyed with."

With that, he settled leaned back against the wall, levering his massive weight against the stone wall. "Humor me. What do you want?"

Now is a chance to let the Dawn redeem itself, in my eyes, he thought. If they can but except a difference, instead of trying to burn it, then Aranor had managed to change them. He signaled for Blaze to come closer, wanting to get informed on what had happened before he had arrived.

Aranor took off his helmet, letting his dark auburn ponytail hang out

"Sir Roderick, I wish for the reconciliation between the old and new dawns. I am prepared to accept all the policies and rules of the New Dawn and incorporate them into our order. You may question the minds and real faces of my knights, but know this, they stayed with me even after half of the order split and became the Red Dawn. These knights here believe in me, they follow me. I have tried my best to reform the order without splitting it, now that it has split, we can reform the true dawn in the image Sir Roland and Astrea would want. Please Sir Roderick, for the continued survival of Justice and virtue of the Dawn, we must unite and ally."

Shows the sun on his right hand

"I share the same motives as you, I once stroke my officer as he gave the order to burn a village, and was disgusted by the mispractices under Grandmaster Dalon Valchance. I have tried to fix them."

Stretches out hand

"Sir Roderick, if we don't unite, the Red Dawn will tear us apart one by one, and the skies will be filled with the smoke of burning villages, join with me in arms my brother, let us put away our past struggles and forge a new future together."

"Lord Roderick, I agree with Lord Aranor. Teaming up will be the only way to defeat the Red Dawn.Fighting a common enemy."

To Sir Aranor : " Lord Aranor, there is a chance that the New Dawn Knights will be......isolated or shunned by the rest of the Dawn. Can you ensure that wont happen?"

Aranor crosses his sun-branded hand in a fist over his chest

"I will ensure that all New Dawn knights are treated as equals, if anything, the bonds will be forged anew as we unite against the true enemy that is the Red Dawn."

*Blaze bowed.*

"Thank you , Lord Aranor. As Lord Roderick is also here, I am not needed here anymore as he have higher authority over the New Dawn. If you please excuse me...."

Blaze starts to turn to the door.

Blaze thought " The ale in Avendor is not as good as in Fierdsvain lands, but the quality is good enough.

"The fact that you took precautions to try to prevent the split does not mean that it didn't happen in your time as grand-master. If you cannot put together the mess that has been the Dawn, then we will leave. Forever. That being said, let me continue." He paused to take a breath, staring down the bridge of his crooked nose at Aranor.

"Over the past years, I have observed the Dawn become corrupt to the core, which was I left in a most outspoken manner. Most of those that were like that have left with the madman of a priest on his mad quest, but the fact remains that many of your men are overzealous when it comes to certain matters like witch-hunts and the like. May I remind you that the Dawn should protect the innocent followers of Astrea, not kill every other man who sticks his nose out of his house in the grounds that Astrea will sort them out."

He turned towards the window, surveying the city streets. He indicated the buildings in front of him with a sweep of his hand. "Tell me, how many of the men in Avendor are heretics? Very few, very few... And yet the men you used to command didn't care. I received a report from a half-dead man who came to us a few days ago, and told us that the Red Dawn had attempted to burn a child, and he had attempted to stop them. Those men that were going to burn this child were commanded by you. I will expect you to never let atrocities like that happen after the Red Dawn are taken care of. Any and all who do that deserve to be burned at the stake also, for they have gone against the sacred oaths they took on knighthood to protect Astrea's will."

His eyes were stormy, and he looked as if he would walk a path of broken glass to save but one innocent from death.

Aranor takes a step towards Roderick

"Sir Roderick, I admit that my men do become overzealous, I realize my mistakes, from now on, I will enforce those rules with an iron grip, any who commit injustices will not only be stripped of their knighthood, but executed, I will make sure that the knights of the Dawn become what we were meant to be, and be worthy of Astrea's name. I will speak to my men and they will listen to me, they have absolute faith in me to steer them true. In fact, right before this split I was planning to set up a court system to try heretics accused by my knights, with Sir Varis here as one of the judges, I was going to make it that burnings would only be allowed under my direct command and any who disobey would stand a good chance of being burned themselves. The knights who stand with me now completly went along with it and were willing to make it work, the ones who didn't are now in Javiksholm and Windholm."

"Roderick, there are innocents being burned in Javiksholm right now, we need to act and formulate a plan to stop them."

Aranor rubbed his eyes and waited for an answer from Sir Roderick

While Blaze went outside to take a break, Pierre was still inside, listening intently.He decided to speak.

"Excuse me, my lords. I agree with Lord Aranor that the Red Dawn must be dealt with, uniting briefly with the Dawn to stop them. After they are defeated, we can talk about the re-merge slowly. That's my suggestion."

"So long as you control your men, then this will go well. So, now to the Red Dawn. Things are bad where they rule, and we need to liberated the Pendorian people from them. We should send large patrols to the outlying villages, and advance inwards..." He trails off, giving Aranor time to voice over it.

Blaze somehow heard that the committee inside have begun planning on the war on the Red Dawn.He quickly went inside and managed to hear Lord Roderick's words.He replied :

"With no offense, Lord Roderick, I think we should storm the cities they control first. Tear their leadership apart. Without Hurting the civilians. My Berzerkers and my newer recruits there are better suited to take it by storm..........Then, we can send patrols to the villages while we are already sieging or near the cities."

He let all of them digest his words.

Varis, staying quiet the entire meeting, ushered down the overly excitable Blaze,
"We can deliberate our plans for attack later Brother."
"For now let us finalize in bringing our halves as one, at the leave of Sir Roderick and Master Aranor," he said turning to his Grandmaster.

Blaze raised his hand and said

"I Disagree. The Red Dawn problem must be done with first and foremost. Innocents are dying as we speak at the hands of the Red Dawn.People lives are much more important than just finalizing it. We already agreed with it so lets set our sights to the threat.I am still sticking with my suggestion."

Pierre requested to leave to Blaze, which Blaze allows.

He expected such a response from someone so young,
"Then I bid you Blaze to lead your company to battle for the innocents," a twinge of sarcasm in his voice.
"Before you go I ask what you want on your tombstone, lest it say 'I go with impetuousness'."

Varis elaborated on his reason for hesitancy,
"Yes, there is a need for action. Yes, there are the commoners who are in need. Yes, they are being torched while we speak.
But we are not here looking to back a village or city from the traitors, we are here to thoroughly rid ourselves of them once and for all.
This is not a battle we are fighting, but a campaign. In game of war, you sacrifice what needs to be done to deliver the decisive blow."

"So we gather our forces together, holding the line. Then, and only then, do we strike. On our terms."

Blaze immediately interrupted.

"This isn't a bloody campaign.This is a direct threat!!Yeah, probably a couple of commoners lives means nothing to you all, like most nobles think, but that's you and I bloody disagree!You may think that I may have no right here, seeing Im no noble, but so what?!"

Blaze is evidently pissed.

"We can take them. Our combined forces can easily storm Javiksholm. I assume that most knights are either out patrolling or are here. The New Dawn can sweep the villages on the way from Valonbray to Javiksholm as we are more popular among the villagers.After taking the area of Javiksholm, we can proceed to Windholm. And I, will personally make those Red Dawn Knights feel ten times more pain than they did to the commoners!"

One of the sentries approaches from the door and speaks to the Grandmaster
"Grandmaster, the knights led out by Brother-Captain Rufus have returned, he is not among them ... and a cloaked stranger rides with them"

The doors are pulled back and three ragged figures enter the hall, saddened and dirty from their long journey. The leading figure is shorter than the other two, he is cloaked and hooded, and only a small breastplate serves as his armour. One of the meeting knights breaks his silence, he is old and grey and barely manages to stand:

"Where is my Brother? Squire? Where is he!!??"

His voice was broken and dusty, and choked with the news he knew was coming, the knight begins his tale:

"We tracked the heretic party from Avendor to the steppes ... but we were to late, they had used the Maleficarum to summon a demon ... we found it in the process of killing this foreigner." He paused and glanced towards the stranger, he still wished for him to have traded places with Sir Rufus "We could only manage to wound it, before it fled, in the battle ... Rufus was mortally wounded, and his squire was killed. His orders where to return here and inform you Sir Aranor, but it seems we have returned to find a worse crisis... the stranger has accompanied us here, he exchanged final words with the Captain, and wishes to speak with you”

The stranger steps forward now and lowers his hood, short blonde hair ran down from his head, and his empty green eyes locked with the grandmasters. As he speaks the surrounding council strain to understand the grating voice

“Grandmaster the bravery of your captain is unparallel, he no doubt saved my life with his and his mens actions, the knights of the Dawn saved my life, you saved it…but a squire and a great knight died to do it. He told me a few things..among them that his order would empower me to defend the common man, and that you, Grandmaster, were leading your men towards that goal…his death, sealed the blood debt I have with you, I beg for you to accept my service, in no word or deed, nor in battle or in death will I ever desert you, Grandmaster Aranor”

With this the traveller knelt down to the floor, and bowed till his forehead rested on the steps leading up to the dais.

Wolfarmin looks to Blaze and calmly says

"Blaze please fall silent, you are embarrassing your master and I do not think mine will suffer you much longer."

Sir Aranor looks at Blaze with a twinge of disdain

We cannot act rashly, you should listen to Sir Varis, he is your elder. We cannot defeat the Red Dawn in a single glorious battle like we did the Veccavians. I understand your feelings, but it would not be smart to go off right away.

Sir Aranor looks to the stranger

Rise, we need every man we need.. I accept your service into the order, but you will be a retainer, a squire first. I assign you to Sir Wolfarmin, my second-in-command, I am sorry if this offends you but we cannot just accept all those who ask. When our problem is over I shall ask Wolfarmin if he thinks it would be wise to knight you yet.

Sir Aranor stretches out his hand and lifts the man up

But do not misunderstand me, you must be blessed by Astrea to survive a demon attack, and must be good of heart to come here in an effort to repay her for her gift.

Sir Aranor looks at the knights who came with the stranger

You too, are also blessed, you all embody how knights of this order should behave like . Go rest, I shall think of a reward for you later, and I shall schedule a prompt funeral service for Rufus when I have the time.

"Hell not Im listening to another old knight" Blaze said sarcasticly.

Blaze just leave, not toward the tavern but to the stables.

Varis had a few more colorful words for Blaze, but fell once back in to silence and restraint. However, news from the two strangers was unsettling.
"Your grace, this is but one of a new handful of incidents involving the heretics of Erida Occisor," spitting on the name of the Dark Goddess.
He brought a hand to massage his temple, as his head began to throb. He continued,
"I do not presume to know the mechanisms of the heretic, but these recent events leave much to do Master Aranor.
First,civil war and the rapture of the chapter. Then heretics assassinate a champion of the Kingdom, now whispers of Fel-Daemons returning to the land?
Not since the days of Chaos and the armies of Eyegrim, have the forces of evil wandered brazenly. Now at our most darkest of hours since the schism. There is no such thing as coincidence your grace, not in my years.
We must take to the field in force soon before evil is allowed to transplant itself unto Pendor once again."

Wolfarmin has a look of shook on his face, he can't believe the disrespect Blaze just showed

"If I where just a man of savagery I would chase him down and end his life, but I have a bit of a civil side to me yet, but still I would love to cross steal with Blaze"

Wolfarmin looks to Varis

"I agree with you, we must make a move before we are cornered and destroyed, I suggest we push the Red Dawn patrols back to Javiksholm and take it back fast so we can destroy any heretics before they get a chance to raise more demons."