The Order of Knights Flagellant
The Knights Flagellant are a militant penitential order of the Church of the Divine Diurnity devoted to the destruction of unholy forces and the protection of mankind from spiritual corruption. Wandering endlessly between plague villages, haunted ruins, battlefields, and monster-ridden wilderness, the order fights demons, undead, ghosts, monsters, heretics, and other manifestations of unresolved death and supernatural evil.
The order believes suffering possesses sacred value. Through acts of penance, self-mortification, prayer, fasting, and relentless service, the Knights Flagellant act as living indulgences for the sins of mankind. They reject comfort, wealth, and even absolution itself, believing their suffering may lessen the torment of souls in Purgatory. Because of this, the order is regarded with both reverence and discomfort by much of the faithful world.
Knights Flagellant are easily recognized by their grim and penitential appearance. Most wear enclosed helmets which they swear by oath never to remove publicly, symbolizing the abandonment of worldly identity in service to suffering and duty. Their armor is commonly weathered and adorned with tarnished brass, unpolished steel, spikes, devotional relics, chains, bells, prayer cords, and instruments of mortification. Gold and silver are traditionally forbidden to the order, viewed as symbols representing the Divine Diurnity and unworthy of a wretch such as a Knight Flagellant.
Though commonly associated with the destruction of the undead, monsters, spirits and other evil creatures, the order’s duties extend far beyond simple monster hunting. Many Knights Flagellant escort bell bearers through dangerous regions, recover corpses from battlefields, search for holy relics or destroy cursed ones, investigate hauntings, defend monasteries and cathedrals, and grant funerary rites in isolated settlements where no clergy remain. To the order, the destruction of the undead is considered an act of mercy as much as warfare, for the undead are viewed not as monsters alone, but as souls imprisoned within corrupted flesh.
Among the order exist specialized paths and disciplines. Most notable among these are the Knights Severant, Knights Flagellant who dedicate themselves specifically to unresolved death and failed Divine Severance. Severants specialize in combatting the Undead and performing Divine Severance to the unfortunate souls.
The presence of a Knight Flagellant is rarely welcomed. In the minds of common folk, they are omens of plague, haunting, famine, war, or spiritual catastrophe. Yet despite the fear they inspire, many still view them as necessary protectors in a world where death itself no longer functions as it once did.
See the Theology of Death and Divine Severance sections in the Universal Truths page for more information on death, undeath, unresolved death, and the afterlife.
Left: Sir Alistair. A Knight Flagellant who specializes in killing Undead. Also known as a Knight Severant.
Right: A Knight Flagellant who specializes in killing monsters.