Set: Ordo Aurorae High Warden

The Highwarden of the Ordo Aurorae

The Highwarden is the armed hand of the Ordo Aurorae and the commander of its paladins. He does not hunt necromancy the way one hunts an enemy: he judges it, as a crime against the living. Where he declares the ground sealed, no crown dares contest the line. The one who holds the title today is named Lothar. No one has ever heard him threaten anyone, and when he fights, he destroys in good order, without haste, the way a sentence is carried out.

The office comes with its pieces. On his head, Lumendor, the helm whose aura never leaves its wearer: the living feel nothing, the undead come apart within it. In his hand, Mandëor, the Grave Breaker, an ancient morningstar borne by the commander alone: what it strikes does not rise again, and when the great dead draw near, its head wakes with a light that does not flicker. With it passes a secret, from commander to commander, that no one has ever written down. On his shoulders, the Cloak of the First Light, reserved for the highest ranks and for soldiers of honor, for in the Ordo, you do not salute the man, you salute the cloak. And beneath him, Aldris, a skymane of an ancient, nearly extinct line, stronger, braver, and sharper of mind than any of his kind, able to understand "get him to safety" or "take him to the castle." He is called the Dawnbearer because he carries the Highwarden, and when he is seen descending from the sky above a city, everyone knows the Ordo has made a decision.

For the GM, the Highwarden is neither an opponent to be fought nor an ally to be called. He is a verdict that arrives. Bringing him on stage tells the table that the matter has grown beyond the players, or that they are the ones being judged. And should a reason ever be needed to make Lothar doubt, it sleeps in his own hand.