The Knights of the Bloodguard are an old and mysterious order of evil warriors. Quite who these terrible warriors are and why they seem to appear throughout history is unclear. In the earliest days of Penacor rule, King Arcus had vanquished a band of reavers operating under such a name, and the murder of King Daqan has also been attributed to them, among other atrocities.
When King Daqan was killed on a diplomatic mission in 513, it was whispered that the Bloodguard Knights had been hired to waylay and murder the king by none other than Baron Ulon Heronglade. Led by Waiqar, the Council took resolute action: it had Castle Heronglade razed to the ground and the baron seized. Ulon Heronglade never stopped protesting his innocence, even as he dangled from a cage from the gates of Archaut and slowly starved to death.
The mysterious Bloodguard Knights also reappeared during the Third Darkness, lending their lances to the dragons’ cause. Whether the Bloodguard Knights who harried Terrinoth during the Third Darkness held anything more than name in common with the ancient order is not known. It is safe to say that they were committed to wickedness, equipped in the manner of elite heavy cavalry, and happy to fight for the reward of magic runes.
By 1029, the armies of the dragonlords were greatly diminished. Those cities of Terrinoth that had not been burned to the ground were now ringed with so many archers and artillery emplacements that no dragons dared approach them. The Bloodguard Knights at this time vanished as mysteriously as they had appeared.
The Bloodguard Order has reappeared and disappeared many times in recent history. Their activity in Terrinoth seems disparate and random, but there must be some cause behind their terrible evils. Perhaps the answers are written in the secret Bloodguard Codex.
References
- Realms of Terrinoth
- Heroes of Terrinoth