The Creation of the Knightly Orders

The Order of Dimor was founded about 50 years after the death of Dimor, the first Emperor. In that time the Empire had grown immensely and various powerful fubarnii had laid claim to the newly liberated territories. The great armies that had been created to expel the devanu had been split up and were being held as personal armies for the provincial lords. Those lords had taken to bickering and fighting over territories, safe in the belief that the devanu threat had been eradicated.

But the devanu had not been eradicated. Small hunting packs still lived within the Empire, struggling for survival while trying not to draw the attention of the armies of knights. A powerful devanu named Jark Atarl was however looking beyond simply surviving, building up his tribe in a remote region close to Larigal in the south of the Empire. He was careful never to draw attention and when he finally struck he attacked a settlement with a huge hunting pack. He efficiently slew or enslaved every last fubarnii, claiming the land as his own. Jark Atarl forced the slaves to rebuild a mighty tower that he might look over his domain.

It took the disruption of trade routes and the loss of trade caravans before the wider Empire became aware of Jark’s attack. The local lord who ruled over the province raised his army of knights and rode to oust the devanu. His forces were however woefully outmatched by the devanu, and he had truly underestimated the size and skill of Jark’s tribe. The lord himself was killed, the remains of his shattered body left displayed at the edge of Jark’s territory. The neighbouring lords were afraid to send their own troops, for fear that the losses would leave them unable to defend their lands, while also looking at the potential for expanding into the weakened province once the devanu moved on.

But Jark did not move on and over the following months the province was given up for lost. The neighbouring lords believed they had an unspoken truce with Jark Atarl and simply avoided the region. However, Jark was not satisfied with his small territory. devanu packs from across the lands gathered to his call, the tribe growing ever stronger, until it once again struck out, coordinated hunting packs laying waste to the nearby provinces, killing and enslaving entire villages and building more towers on the ruins.

News of the fall was slow to reach the Emperor and by that time a vast region was under the complete control of the devanu. The lords were terrified, fortifying some towns and abandoning others as the devanu hunted freely across vast swathes of land.

The Emperor raised a levy across all the Provincial lords from across the Empire, demanding troops and supplies. It took months to raise the army pulling together a vast force of knights and soldiers as great as those of Dimor. The army rode south to the fallen lands and under the leadership of Tomaan, a powerful commander, the knights eradicated the devanu, burning the towers and freeing the surviving fubarnii.

After Jark had been destroyed, the Emperor decreed that the Order of Dimor would be formed from the army that had gathered. These knights would no longer be under command of the provincial lords and would instead serve to ensure the devanu could never rise again. There was great uproar from the lords, but the Emperor worked with the trade families to ensure the provinces supported the Order, building barracks across the Empire, providing a regular levy of young jenta to train as knights and furnishing them with weapons.

Several generations on, subsequent Emperors have created new Knightly Orders and military forces, but the Order of Dimor is still the largest and has become a powerful tool for holding the Empire together. Every member of the Order is initiated at an early age and takes a sacred vow never to spill fubarnii blood. Their remit has grown over time and they are now dedicated to controlling other beasts that threaten the Empire as well as the devanu, assisting clans with removing dangerous grishak nests or trapping kelahn that stray too close to villages. The Knights of Dimor do not fight bandits and they are expressly forbidden from getting involved in conflicts between clans.