Tomb Lord

Though the Sacred Order styles itself as the greatest bastion of order and justice in all Teleria, there are many who would disagree. For commoners especially, the members of the Order are not shining knights and saviors, but zealots and brutes. Membership is the preserve of the wealthy and the radical, neither of which have much of a history of compassion. Many are the hamlets and villages that have been ransacked by soldiers of the Order as they hunt for those they accuse of practicing forbidden magics, and many an honest and humble farmer has had his grain silos and winter stocks seized by knights looking to fuel their campaigns and crusades. There show little sympathy, and even less in the way of restitution. It is no surprise, then, that some have sought to resist the Sacred Order, or even rebel against it. Among such rebels, the name of the Tomb Lord is held in reverence. While no one knows for certain where he came from, stories have it that he was once a crusading knight who, after witnessing one act of brutality too many, abandoned his vows. Some say his name came to him for slaying members of the Sacred Order who were desecrating an ancient tomb, while others say his title derives from his secret stronghold somewhere in the catacombs of Narbuk. Regardless of the reasoning, his supporters claim that the Tomb Lord is a freedom fighter, a vigilante, and a force for justice for the common man. But these claims are half-truths at best. The Tomb Lord was indeed once a knight of Lumaya, but is now a member of a dark and secretive crusade. The Tomb Lord has always sought immortality and power, and has discovered that the Cult of K’Leth can provide both. It suits him to falsely pose as a hero of the people, claiming to be a minor nobleman who has been wronged by the Order, but who now wishes to force redress for the commoners. In doing so, he ensures lowly acolytes and new recruits to the cult revere him as their hero and freedom-fighter, while the higher echelons of the cult also make use of his false ideologies, posing the Knights Revenant as an alternative to the excesses of the likes of the Sacred Order. Wherever there is oppression or grievance, the Tomb Lord takes advantage, claiming to seek equality and serve the meritocracy of a cult that seeks to right wrongs and offer genuine advancement – even immortality – to everyone, regardless of their station. This is a lie. Very few recruits have been known to have undergone the promised transmutation ritual, and the optimism that the Tomb Lord inspires helps fuel the misguided hopes of the downtrodden. To them, he is the vagabond knight, the savior of the lowly serf, a figure of resistance organizing shelter and relief for the suffering and leading raids against oppressors. For many of those who go on to join the Cult of K’Leth, he remains an inspiration and a symbol of all that is good and just about the Knights Revenant. The Tomb Lord is never seen without his helm and armor for he knows that they have become a potent symbol, one that would lose much of its power if the face beneath were revealed, especially given how often that face – thanks to soul transmission – changes. In battle, the Tomb Lord inspires the acolytes fighting under him, but his efforts are not merely for show. In attack he shatters armor and bone with equal ease with his mace, while on the defensive his heavy plate mail and the strong sinews of the host bodies he favors ensure he can shrug off countless blows. That the Tomb Lord enjoys such a role meets the approval of many of the other Knights Revenant, all of them arrogant immortals who prefer to deal with their acolytes as little as possible. Whether the Tomb Lord enjoys this fantasy, or merely suffers it, is a truth known only to him.