The Avenger

An avenger, sometimes also called a dark knight, is an agent of one or more gods who seeks to bring divine wrath unto the enemies of their divine patron. It is also the name given to paladins who followed the Oath of Vengeance, swearing to hunt down and punish those who had committed grievous sins.   Some avengers serve as well-crafted weapons of their deity. Invested with traditions both ancient and quite often secret, they hunt the enemies of their faith and strike them down. Of all a god's agents, they are the most deadly, marked and empowered by rituals of investiture similar but not identical to those that which mark the training of a cleric or paladin. They are most often tasked with the duty of being an instrument of divine justice, wielding it to root out enemies and to defend the innocent.   Other paladins take up the oath of vengance in response to witnessing great evils or injustices, committing themselves to punishing those responsible even at the expense of their own purity or righteousness. The tenants to which these vengeful knights ascribed varied, but they always swear to exterminate the targets of their oath of vengeance without mercy and by any means necessary. These paladins often believe that evil deeds only occurred because warriors like them failed to stop the evildoers, and as such, they tend to keep their focus always on the greatest evil that they can thwart.   The nature of the targets of an avenger's enmity vary based on their religion or their oath.