Kyriaki
Dark Phoenix
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike.
Image Credit: Here. Here.
Role: Knights-errant.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Dominion of Light, Jedi Inquisition, Mace Windu Thought, Windian Jedi Order, Disciples of the Vader, Banite Sith, Prosperity Quarter, Inheritors of the Light Father, Covenant of the Piercing Flame, Castle Maysaf, KEC, Darth Eisen, The Valkyrie's Diary, Kyriaki, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Jedi Cassius, Nexus City, Ausrine Redoubt, Swamp of the Martyred Forsaken, Government of the Greater Sith Imperium, 'Light Sith', Adlerberg.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Unit Name: Knights of the Rising Dawn
Classification: Force Warriors
Affiliation: Tephrike, Illuminated Path of the Light Father, Inheritors of the Light Father.
Description:
"The Light should not be afraid of the Darkness. The Darkness should be afraid of the Light."
-An Inheritor saying.
"The Darkness is easy. Any coward and butcher can follow the Dark. To follow the Light is hard. Only one with courage and conviction can follow the Light. That is why we will prevail over the Darkness, because the Light drives back the Dark with the burning fire of the Sun."
- A Knight of the Rising Dawn
"A warrior of the Light never kills an unarmed opponent. Can you believe that was in the ancient Code? Foolishness disguised as honour. What if your enemy disarms themselves to avoid being slain by an obviously superior opponent in order to buy time for their allies? What if your enemy is only feigning being unarmed and possesses a hidden weapon? What if your strike removes their hands holding the weapon but doesn't leave them incapacitated and unable to harm you or your allies? What if it's an ambush? These are all possibilities such foolishness fails to realise. Never kill a helpless opponent without due cause is what it means. There is a grave difference between helpless and unarmed, apprentice."
- A Knight of the Rising Dawn educating an acolyte.
On Tephrike, the Dark Age never ended. The planet is in a state of economic, social and ecological collapse. Riven factions have torn the world apart, as the Dominion of Light, Republican Guard and the Disciples of the Vader war for dominance. All too often, innocents are caught in the crossfire, pressganged into service and slave labour or subjected to targeted, genocidal violence. Atrocities have become routine. Both the Dominion and the Vaderites seek to force a totalitarian system upon the world. The Republican Guard fights for freedom, but uses terrorist methods and persecuted Force-Sensitives for the evil both cults have done.
Sometimes, when a village is being laid to waste by soldiers, when innocents are dragged away for enslavement, deportation or mass executions, when marauders take advantage of the calamity to kill and plunder, grim, masked figures clad in battered armour appear seemingly out of nowhere to smite the wicked. It doesn't matter whether the perpetrators are Vaderites, Windian Jedi or Republican Guard partisans, the mysterious knights-errant will engage them in battle. True justice is blind.
They habitually turn down any reward from those they have saved except for a share of the loot. As soon as they have come, they vanish into the shadows that seem to have spawned them. Sometimes, it is said, one may be able to arrange a meeting with a hooded hedge knight in a shady cantina after showing the bartender, a dancer or another contact a specific token. Many are certain they are just a folk tale with no basis in reality. Perhaps even a cruel deception conceived by the planet's tyrannical rulers to compel enemies of the regime to reveal themselves. There are so many atrocities that go unanswered. The Knights of the Rising Dawn mourn those the many cannot save, for their numbers and resources are very limited. They have no corporations, no legions of soldiers, no labour armies toiling in factories to produce munitions and vehicles for them. But they have faith, grit and determination...and the certainty that they are living in the End Times.
As followers of the Illuminated Path of the Light Father, they adhere to the belief in the duality of the Force. Light and Dark are not abstract concepts or mere sources of power, but real metaphysical forces that influence this world. Both are engaged in a cosmic struggle...and the Light is losing, while the Dark Side is ascendant, for the balance of the Force has been tipped towards it. The galaxy's pain reverberates through it. The natural flow of the Force has been disrupted, tainting it. Every wave of tyranny and oppression pushes it further towards destruction. In the eyes of the followers of the Light Father, this calamity constitutes a cataclysmic wound in the Force. The Gulag Virus was not a xenos conspiracy, as the delusional, evil Vaderites claim, but a Bogan conspiracy.
The Jedi who should have risen to counter the darkness have themselves fallen into evil. The taint is so strong that these false Jedi do not recognise their evil, for the dark side clouds everything. Even the Republican Guard, the defender of the people, has sinned. The dark is generous and it is patient and it always wins – but in the heart of its strength lies its weakness: one lone candle is enough to hold it back.
If the Covenant of the Piercing Flame is the poisoned dagger in the night that undermines the enemies of the Light through stealth and subterfuge, the Knights of the Broken Dawn are the broadsword of the Inheritors of the Light Father. They are warriors first and foremost, following a militaristic code. Some mistakenly call the Inheritors Light Sith, a name the members of the sect reject. As with their parent sect, the Knights revere Darth Vader, but not as the Sith Lord. After decades as the Emperor's enforcer, he turned on his master and creator and sacrificed his own life to save his son. In the eyes of the Inheritors, his penance continued in death, for he was charged with guarding the gates of Chaos for all eternity.
Without exception, all Knights are Force-Using warriors. Operating as wandering hedge knights, they stick to the shadows, emerging from the darkness to bring the judgement of the Light to the oppressors. When the Knights take to the field, the time for negotiation has passed. There can be no compromise with slavers and tyrants. The Knights are not a group that anyone Force-Sensitive on Tephrike can join. Forced to operate in secrecy, they monitor potential recruits carefully - Jedi Padawans and Sith acolytes who have realised the hypocrisy of their orders, refugees fleeing the devastation, partisans persecuted by the Guard for having manifested Force skills, escaped ghetto residents or concentration camp inmates. There are no racial or gender barriers. Those they do pick are trained very thoroughly, for the order will not waste the few recruits it gets. At the same time they undergo harsh trials to prove their commitment and dedication. These trials can be rather manipulative, but this is not motivated by malice. The risk of moles and double agents is very real, after all.
One trial entails a recruit being told that a family member, lover, companion or ally is actually an enemy agent or otherwise a traitor. They are given doctored evidence that seemingly proves it. They have to silence them to prove their devotion. So they complete a series of trials and reach a place where they have to strike a person down either on a bed or similar. It's a dummy, but it looks and senses real. If they can't do it they are thanked for their devotion and either reassigned or have this part of their memory removed and released. Not everyone has to undergo this specific trial, but every recruit will have pass one that is broadly similar in nature. There is a haunted cave the Knights like to bring initiates to. The nexus plays mind games on them. They have to face their fears and overcome the mental trials.
To test their prowess, an advanced recruit is assigned a target, such as a mercenary, a Vaderite or Dominion officer or government official, a corrupt businessman profiting from atrocities, or something impersonal such as a slavery or drug ring, brought to the land they dwell in, and told to eliminate the target. They are given information, but must complete the mission with minimal support, using their wits, resourcefulness and the Force. Significantly, they may pick any weapon before undertaking the mission...except their imbued sword (or the equivalent thereof). If they take one from a dead enemy or otherwise acquire one during the mission, that's fine. But they must start the mission without the emblematic weapon of a Tephriki Force-User. On first sight, the trial is somewhat counterintuitive since they are paladins of the light, but admonished to keep a low profile. The point is to teach the value of forethought and cunning, and that a Knight is more than their blade or their Force powers.
Each Knight swears themselves to the tenets codified in the 'Tome of the Light Father', forswearing worldly possessions and riches. They are also monitored for their adherence to the Knights' code of conduct. Having come into being as a schismatic Vaderite splinter group, the Knights do not tolerate members who commit atrocities. Nor do they, unlike certain Jedi sects of old, reject the death penalty. Lawbreakers will be Force-severed or executed. Yet many a Knight wrestles with the fact that, as easy as it would be to believe that all common people hate their tyrannical rulers and only a small clique is responsible for the regimes' evil...this is not the case. It is the ordinary people who commit horrible killings, denounce their fellows to the secret police and keep the machinery of tyranny going.
But then the Light is not the quick and easy path. Confession is a part of life for a Knight. Drawing upon the Dark Side is prohibited. They understand that in a world fallen to darkness, even the most stalwart will be tempted. But they to seek through that temptation. When someone teeters on the edge, they seek to bring them back. When they fall but are still redeemable, they will help them on their path to penance. Redemption is possible for those who have sinned and are honestly willing to make amends, but penance lasts a lifetime. The Knights recognise that some comrades who have turned to darkness are simply too far gone. It is always difficult to execute a fallen comrade, but it would be selfish to let them off the hook out of misguided pity and allow them to torment the innocent.
The Knights are a small, exclusive group who excel at ambushes and rapid strikes. Acolytes are not only trained in the use of the Force and of enchanted melee weapons, but also in ranged weapons, tracking, reconnaissance, demolitions, small unit tactics, basic slicing and so on. Necessity has forced them to be pragmatic, and so unlike certain sects they do not scorn the use of conventional slugthrowers and blasters as 'crude and uncivilised'. Indeed, some Knights prefer to use conventional weapons rather than rely on an enchanted blade.
Above all, a Knight is educated about the importance of patience. They have seen first-hand the good intent can be tainted and reckless fury is not strength. Wilderness survival is another skill they learn, for they will often have to live off the land in dangerous environments with little support from allies. Their training in this area is modelled on that of special forces, as well as Cathar and Wookiee hunting parties. A warrior of the order is likely to be knowledgeable in a trade that may seem odd at first, such as cooking, smithing, animal taming or weaving. This is also a way to earn coin in between missions. Besides, it helps them blend in.
Each Knight is taught to incorporate their preternatural powers and bladesmanship into an overall battle plan. Coordination and speed are key, for they are only a small force and easily outnumbered. If they fight on their lonesome, they will fall. Much of their gear has been taken from their enemies, acquired on the black market or manufactured in the few secretive workshops they possess. All this means is that they lack a regular supply train. As with their Windian Jedi and Sith counterparts, forging a Force imbued blade or similarly enchanted melee weapon is a rite of passage for a neophyte Knight, yet they do not limit themselves to such weapons.
In contrast to both the Old Jedi Order and the Windian Jedi, the Knights and the Inheritors as a whole do allow personal attachments and romantic relationships...to a point. Every Knight must be conscious of the fact that they cannot prioritise the wellbeing of their lover over the greater good. If a Knight places their own selfish needs over their sacred mission, there is no place for them in the order. The Knights form tight bonds, and each loss is felt keenly. They allow themselves to mourn brothers and sisters in arms who have been killed by the enemy and become one with the Force. But they steel themselves with the knowledge that death is not the final end. The worthiest souls will join the Light Father in his eternal vigilance. The dead are martyrs, for they have given their lives in service of the Light to cleanse the world of great evil. Like the Jedi, they cremate their dead. The Gonfalon of the Rising Dawn, a banner decorated with runes and a stylised white Vader helmet, is treated as a sacred relic of sorts. The words 'The Light will conquer the Dark' were written in runes upon the flag. Fashioned by Kallista, one of the founders of the Knights, it was thought lost during the Defence of the Gordian Pass when its standard-bearer perished, but later recovered. The flag has a small tear in it that has been deliberately left unrepaired.
When someone in need seeks their aid and manages to establish contact, the Knights will never sign a formal contract for thousands of credits or other forms of currency. But they will stipulate that they are allowed to seize leftover credits, weapons or artefacts they are able to secure from the enemy, and resources they find. However, they never demand much. They renounce property and wealth, so what they claim is supposed to ensure survival. Sometimes they settle for less than the bare minimum. Their creed dictates that they fight injustice wherever they are able to do so, not profit from it.
They may accept token payment from those of modest wealth, but they are not mercenaries to be bought. Should someone try to lie and deceive them in order to get them to accept a mission that turns out to be immoral, the Knights will retaliate with terminal force. Many a slaver, corrupt businessman and warlord did not heed this truth until it was too late, and their head was carved from their shoulders for trying to manipulate a Knight into supporting an immoral venture.
Quake, a Cathar female, is one of their most prominent warriors. Her name is an alias she assumed during her life in the underground. She was a refugee who fled the tyrannical regime of the Vaderites. Lacking formal training, she was self-taught in the Force as a rebel and loner until she was recruited by followers of the Illuminated Path. Quake has a history with the Republican Guard. The vanguard revolutionary movement fought the tyranny of the Sith and the Dominion, so she tried to join them despite its harsh stance on Force Users. Initially this alliance worked out fairly well. The partisan commander she served under was wary of Force Users. But he came to trust her to an extent since she had not been tainted by Sith or Jedi teachings. Moreover, she was humble, brave and disciplined, and not showy when it came to Force usage. Besides, the situation was desperate.
However, a fanatical commissar discovered her secret. She was destined for the asylum, so she escaped. On the run, she lived a life as a wandering outlaw and vigilante on the fringes of society. For a while she was the protector of a column of refugees fleeing the war. Ultimately the Inheritors brought her into the fold. Quake is very much a crusading knight, who uses her imbued sword, heavy armour and a shotgun to relentlessly smash through the enemy. The Illuminated Path has given her purpose and acceptance, so she has embraced its doctrine with fervour. She follows the Light and believes that the Sith, the Dominion of Light, and even the Republican Guard have fallen from grace. Those who will not repent must be destroyed for the good of all life.
Jahangir is the survivor of a camp breakout. He had the misfortune of experiencing the horrors of the Vaderite regime. He initially had a job with the ghetto police, treading a fine line between protecting the community and obeying the demands of the tyrannical human occupiers. Secretly, he tried to protect people by warning them of round-ups. However, Vaderite terror against 'lesser beings' knew no bounds, and the entire Mon Calamari population of his village was deported to a camp.
Jahangir was selected to work in a special unit that was responsible for disposing of the bodies of the murdered. The experience left him deeply traumatised. But he took heart from acts of defiance, such as when a female Twi'lek prisoner managed to escape a guard and jump over the barbed wire fence. When cornered by a Gamorrean auxiliary, she wrestled his machine gun from his grasp and used it to shoot two guards before taking her own life.
Eventually the KEC learned that Jahangir had been trained as a carpenter, and gave him work constructing various camp structures. This included a mass killing facility where 'useless eaters' were murdered with poison gas. For obvious reasons, there was a shortage of prisoners who were both skilled construction workers and accustomed to the murderous process. Because he was a skilled worker he gained greater freedom of movement. This made him a valuable asset when a group of prisoners plotted an escape. It also allowed him to acquire tools and secretly sabotage structures. On the day of the revolt, he was shot by a camp guard, but killed his attackers with an axe.
A hundred prisoners made the bust, only a tiny fraction survived. The aid they had been promised by partisans never materialised, and they were pursued by KEC soldiers. Jahangir was wounded near to death in a ditch. As the guards closed in and it seemed like it was the end for him, a silent killer struck them down. They then offered a hand to the prisoner and say he would have a chance...a small chance...of bringing justice...if he survived. He did, and now is a Knight himself.
Ia'zonnu is a Twi'lek clone and a former Jedi Knight. Formerly a warrior of the Windian Jedi Order, she was trained to be a living blade of the light. After years of being thrown into the meat grinder, she was lost, shell-shocked and embittered by corruption, cruelty, waste and treachery when she was approached by an agent. She fought him, thinking it was her own side assassinating her. When she heard that he was a 'Light Sith' she continued her assault. Amazingly she managed to defeat her foe, but paused before striking. It felt like the first time she'd acted as a Jedi. The Knight offered her an alternative - a true path of redemption and the Light. Reluctantly at first...but with greater enthusiasm later, she accepted. Even then she was not sure whether it was a trap, and refused to let down her guard. The Jedi Inquisition put a price on her head after she slaughtered one of their death squads while defending a peasant village that had been marked for 'purgation to set a salient example'. Until then the Knights had been cautious about her. Ia'zonnu is one of the main strategists of the Knights, focusing on the larger picture and the ripple effect their actions create. She fights for justice, but above all she fights to heal the echo of suffering that travels across Tephrike.
Ezekiel Kyzikos is a former Sith and one of the original members. He was Jahangir's recruiter. Growing up in the Imperial heartland, he was raised on Imperial ideals. He was eventually recruited into military intelligence. As an acolyte, he failed to prevent the execution of about ninety Mon Calamari children. He became aware of them after hearing the crying of children who had been locked into a warehouse. Their parents had already been executed. Both the KEC and the 'honourable' had determined they constituted a 'security risk'.
Ezekiel reported his concerns up the chain of command, but was rebuffed and told to 'close his heart to misplaced pity'. Ultimately, the children were taken to a pit, where a layer of convulsing bodies was already lying. They were forced to lie down on the murdered victims and shot in the back of the head by auxiliaries. Ezekiel managed to persuade one of his superiors to file an official report that criticised the killings as inhumane. However, the report was distorted because it focused solely on the demoralising effect it had on soldiers because the local commander ahd failed to carry out the execution away from Imperial soldiers, who had been disturbed by the children's 'whimpering'. The experience left him disgusted with the Imperial system, and with his own weakness.
Ezekiel became involved with oppositionist circles within the Imperial military, but found them to be cowardly and lacking in resolve. Few were motivated by ethical reasons to oppose the regime. He volunteered to kill Supreme Leader Hyperion by wiring up his special train with explosives. He was supposed to trigger the explosives when Hyperion went to his midday meeting. Ezekiel had managed to get access due to his job as a staff officer.
He wouldn't be in the car, but on the train so there was a good chance of death. However, Hyperion's train suffered a catastrophic engine failure, so he shifted to another. No one discovered the bombs because Ezekiel was able to recover them in time before anyone knew. However, shortly afterwards he was transferred to the frontlines, where he managed to avoid suspicion. Having grown frustrated with the dithering of his colleagues, many of whom just wanted to preserve the old system with some tweaks, he fell in with the Light Sith during the Netherworld Crisis.
COMBAT INFORMATION:
Unit Size: Medium
Unit Availability: Unique
Unit Experience: Elite.
Equipment: This is a list of what's available in general, rather than something every Knight would carry into battle.
Armour:
- Battle Armour, complete with a mask to cover their face and protect them from chemicals and toxins. The mask features a voice modulator and other basic systems. Their armour is often a somewhat battered and possibly mismatched collection of several different sets patched together into one, such as a plastoid chestplate salvaged from clone trooper armour.
- Outland Rifle (with optional scope)
- Scatter Gun
- Stouker Concussion Rifle
- Bolt-Thrower
- Verpine Shatter Rifle
- J-301 Pulse-Wave Saboteur
Sidearms:
Melee Weapons:
- Force-Imbued Blade. Alternately a similarly alchemised war hammer, axe, mace or polearm.
- Multi-Weapon
- Talon Vibrodagger
- Jedi Utility Belt
- Meditation Band
- Perception Gloves
- Grenades
- Monofilament Net, Razor Net, Land Mines.
- Orbak. Not meant for combat, but for transport, scouting and such.
Rather than raw power, they excel in blending their Force training and martial prowess with tactical forethought and planning. They will engage in misdirection, and feigned retreats, utilise sharpshooters, feints, demolitions and traps to gain an edge over their foes. Such an edge is definitely needed, for their numbers are low and each loss is difficult to replace. Moreover, the Knights will often have to engage enemies alone with support from allies. Sometimes they will receive support from other agents of the Inheritors or, for example, the peasant militia of a village they are defending from aggressors. But this is situational rather than the norm. On the battlefield, they will prioritise high-value targets such as Jedi and Sith, aiming to take them out to demoralise their minions. The Knights are tenacious defenders, and excel at rapid strikes and ambushes, but lack superiority in numbers or heavy firepower.
The Knights will make use of horses, though not for combat because cavalry charges are hopelessly archaic. Rather they use them for transport and scouting. An Orbak can live off the land instead of consume fuel and can enable them to cross difficult terrain that would be impassable for a vehicle.
Force Abilities (Force User Units Only): All Knights are Force-Users. They have a potent grasp of telekinesis and its various sub-applications. Moreover, they are adept with auxiliary skills such as Force Resistance, Control Pain, and physical enhancement abilities, allowing them to boost their resilience against the dark side, numb their pain receptors, or boost physical attributes such as strength or speed. Force Weapon allows them to imbue an otherwise mundane weapon with the Force for a period of time. They can utilise Force Meld, boosting their individual and collective strength, resilience and coordination.
Strengths:
- Iron. The Knights are warriors of the light, combining cunning intelligence, brutal physical skill, potency in the Force and above all faith.
- Well-coordinated, they fight as a unit rather than as lone wolves seeking personal glory on the battlefield.
- The Force meld works both ways. Pain can be transmitted through the bond and it suddenly being severed is painful and potentially disorientating.
- Small unit and forego heavy integrated support. They lack heavy combat vehicles, gunships and heavy weapons such as anti-tank missile launchers, rotary cannons and the like. While potent, they are a strike team, not an all-out assault force.
The history of the Knights of the Rising Dawn is closely tied to that of the Inheritors of the Light Father. This is no surprise since the assassins are the sect's paladins. They operate on the war-torn world of Tephrike, where the Dark Age never ended. When the Gulag Virus ravaged the Galaxy, Tephrike descended into chaos. Millions died from disease or factional infighting. The nominally democratic federal government proved incapable of resolving the crisis, so the Jedi staged a coup. What started as a temporary, emergency regime soon degenerated into a repressive, totalitarian dictatorship.
The Jedi were corrupted by their power and the horrors of war, as they were forced to make increasingly ruthless choices. They became the very thing they sought to destroy, while still believing they served the greater good. The Disciples of the Vader arose to counter them. The Disciples are an extremist, human supremacist Sith cult that worshipped Vader as a Dark God and preached the inferiority of non-humans. The Vaderites built a human supremacist slave state.
The Inheritors came into being as a schismatic off-shoot. There had, of course, always been resistance to the Vaderites' tyrannical rule, but the Inheritors posed an internal ideological challenge. A lost tome from the pre-Dark Age had come to light, telling the true story of Vader's redemption. The Inheritors were born out of a faction of 'Light Sith' who took the tome's words as gospel and rose in rebellion, promising freedom to the non-human slaves.
For a brief period, this faction held power. Their leader was Lord Salus. But they soon became embroiled in a war with the Dominion of Light and were overthrown by orthodox Vaderites. Not going far enough in removing the Vaderite cancer was the sect's undoing. An uprising in the Prosperity Quarter ghetto was brutally crushed by the forces of reaction after several days of fighting. But not all renegades were killed. A masked being called the Illuminator, clad in an all-white variant of Vader's armour, challenged the Supreme Leader. The Illuminator was reported to have been killed several times, but seemed to resurface each time.
The Knights of the Rising Dawn claim to act at the Illuminator's behest. However, they trace their origins back to a small group of Sith acolytes and knights who renounced the Dark Side of the Force and were the first of their kind to defect with Salus. Their names were Ezeziel, Azazel, Photius, Anastasios, Arios, Telephoros, Adrienna, and Kallista. What made them such intense fighters was that they believed that dying in battle against evil would cleanse them of their sins. The worthiest would join the Light Father guarding the gates of Chaos to hold back the abominations of the abyss. War, betrayals and the brutal Vaderite purge caused their numbers to dwindle. Azazel, who was their leader, fell in the defence of the Properity Quarter ghetto. In their campaign to once again chain the oppressed, the Vaderites systematically burnt down houses block for block with flamethrowers, and gassed dugout hideouts and sewers civilians and resistance fighters had fled to. When faced with certain death, Azazel had gathered explosives and flammable materials in the bunker he was defending. Gas cylinders, explosives, fuel etc. And when all seemed hopeless he set it off detonating not only where he was, but a block around him, caving in the ground even into an inferno. Many Vaderite soldiers and Sith perished in the conflagration.
After the Vaderites took back control, the Knights suffered one of their first alien martyrs. A Sith Lord called Darth Imperius was eager to prove his supremacy over a 'weakling' Light Sith Umbaran female called Zophiel. She was one of the few alien Knights and had been trained by Azazel. The Sith Lord had captured and tortured her, but wanted to show off his power for a fight in the arena of the still badly damaged Adlerberg. It was supposed to be a show against a weakened and weaker opponent to prove that only pure humans could master the power of the Vader. But though he was more powerful his arrogance and malice was his downfall as he spent too long taunting and torturing that the Light Sith managed to get a fatal blow in, even though she perished shortly after.
After they were driven out, and forced underground, only a fraction of their original numbers remained. But those who still stood true to the Light swore a sacred oath that they would continue to fight against the darkness, come what may. They forever renounced their Sith titles and tossed Vaderite artefacts and relics into a volcano. It was the bonfire of vanities. Kallista fashioned a banner for them decorated with runes and a stylised white Vader helmet. The words 'The Light will conquer the Dark' were written in runes upon the flag.
They would fight for the forgotten and helpless and pass on their knowledge to them. They became the core of efforts to rebuild the Knights. When the Illuminator appeared from the shadows, the Knights stood with them. Whereas the assassins of the Covenant of the Piercing Flame acted as the silent dagger in the night, the Knights were a broadsword. They raided Vaderite and Windian Jedi temples, fought to protect poor peasants from abusive warlords and attacked prison transports and concentration camps. Over time they became a roaming war band of knights-errant, striking quickly before returning to the shadows. Their numbers were few and there were many they could not save from genocide and tyranny, but they became a folk legend among the rural folk of Tephrike.
When the Vaderites pursued fugitives who had escaped a death train with the help of the Knights, the light side paladins used their intelligence contacts to spread the rumour that the Illuminator was among them and a large number of 'Light Sith heretics' had assembled at Gordian Pass. In truth it was just a very small force. But the Vaderites committed a large force to crush the 'heretic conspiracy'. A dozen of the Knights with the aid of the Force, traps, weapons and some allied peasant militia held up to a thousand Vaderite troops for a couple hours before being overcome. Kallista fell during the battle, supposedly holding on to her banner with one hand after holding back a cloud of poison gas. Using the Force, she pulled down a rockslide to bury Vaderites and block the pass. The bodies of the Knights were mutilated by the Sith. But their comrades recovered their remains to burn them on a funeral pyre in recognition of their valour and celebrated them as heroes. Kallista's 'blood banner' was thought lost but eventually found, and continues to be treated as a relic by the Knights.
As the Vaderites cracked down on the Inheritors' rebellion, the Knights moved deeper into the borderlands between the Dominion and the Imperium. It was a veritable no man's land, devastated by war, and still constantly fought over. Ia'zonnu, a Twi'lek and former Jedi who was a recent convert to the sect's cause, led the defence of a peasant village the Inquisition had marked for purgation to set a salient example. A Miraluka Jedi called Nomiki was assigned to investigate the activities of the Knights but ended up sympathising with them to an extent. Not to the point of joining them, but enough to let one evade the Dominion's grasp. While on the run from the Dominion, the Knights discovered the Swamp of the Martyred Forsaken. Recognising it as a holy site, they petitioned the gestalt entity of the spirits and the pilgrims who dwelt there for permission to use it for training and as a place of remembrance. Their request was granted, though they would be guests, not the master of the nexus.
The Knights clashed with the Republican Guard, taking casualties fighting the partisans and would come to the aid of peasants suffering from partisan banditry as well as fugitive Force-Sensitives. However, orders from above dictated that they not engage the rebels too much. This was a cause of discontent among some Knights, who believed the Republican Guard had fallen from grace as well. The reasoning of the Illuminator was strategic though. The Inheritors were a small sect and the Republican Guard, while a brutal insurgency, was not as much of a threat to sentient life as the Windian Jedi and the Vaderites.
When unknown starships appeared in Tephrike's orbit, the Covenant took notice. The Inheritors - correctly - concluded that this meant there was life outside Tephrike that had survived the Darkness and - wrongly - assumed that the 'star people' had to be a light sided power after they went to war with the Dominion and bombed the Vaderites' headquarter. With the resumption of full-scale warfare between the Republican Guard and the Dominion and internecine strife among the Vaderites, the Knights have returned from the shadows to step up their game.
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