Ser Ecbert and the Davistan Line

uring the Age of Legend, the Isle of Ban Elsir was home to a small fishing community that lived off the bounty of Lake Lumelor under the shade of the Gods Willow. In a dark moment of Avlar's conquest of this world, the The Gods Willow and this community were destroyed by a general of Avlar's armies known as Moracen the Red.   Few survived the rampant bloodshed that saw this once-great place of power of The Green Knight reduced to little more than ash. One of the survivors of this tragedy was a boy named Ecbert - the son of a priest who spent his years caring for the pilgrims that would travel to visit the great tree, many of them arriving from the capital of Eá-galwen, Carrag Nuine.   As the events of The Breach swept across Daënfel following Avlar's ascension, the world was pulled into an era of darkness known as the Great Displacement, with monsters spewing forth from the great gates of The Maw, very nearby to Ban Elsir.   In the years that followed, the boy Ecbert brought his light to the struggling communities of the world as a cleric of The Green Knight. One of the few Men that would willingly traverse the ancient danger-filled roads of Eá-galwen, Ecbert faced the monstrous creatures of The Maw countless times to protect the innocent and defenceless.   He accrued some measure of fame, gathering a small following of once-Galweni knights that led the first trade caravans that connected civilization following The Breach. This deed saw the warrior-priest knighted by the High Prelate of Trinity at the time, Selwyn of The Chevalier.   Many decades and hundreds of storied encounters later, Ser Ecbert gathered a contingent of knights - the largest seen in half a century - who would lay down their lives and venture to the great gates of The Maw to seal the doors once more.   His band of gallant men and women fought fiercely on their ascent towards the great gates, each foul creature that they encountered and defeated more ferocious than the last.   On the eve of their arrival, with the sun and moon almost joined in the sky, Ser Ecbert's party visited his home of Ban Elsir once more. With his company numbering half as many as they had departed with months prior, Ecbert visited The Gods Willow and beseeched The Green Knight for strength in the coming battle.   The Green Knight - inspired by the strength and will of this mortal - offered Ser Ecbert much. The patriarch of the Avanís reached within the burnt stump of the Gods Willow and produced his legendary axe - the Heartwood - offering it to the priest.  

"Should you succeed at your quest, my Son..." the Green Knight said, "then I offer you the mantle of leadership which you so rightly deserve; a blessing of the Avanís from which your line would rule the people of Daënfel to the end of its days."

  Ser Ecbert pondered this offer overnight, and in the morning woke with his mind made up. He declined his God's offer, wishing instead for the crown of his people to be worn by his eldest son - one of the valiant souls that stood by his side and formed the company that would banish the darkness to the Depths Below.   The stories tell of his reply to The Green Knight, his words still reverberating across society today:  

"My Lord you would do me an honour that would shine beyond all that our people have experienced these many years of Darkness. Yet I am old. My bones ache and my body tires. The Light that we fight for will never cease to burn, but it is a warmth that I will not live to share in. I cannot accept your offer, oh generous Lord, for I am not the soul who is fit for this charge. Should your benevolence know no bounds, I beseech you to grant this boon to my eldest son, Valeran, who would see through your will with his line until the end of days. Tomorrow the Great Doors will be shut, and after my final breath is drawn I will finally rest. I am old. I am satisfied. And this was my Purpose."

  The Green Knight, so moved by his words, granted his Chosen blessing to Ecbert's son Valeran, who would become Emperor Davistan I. Ser Ecbert charged his son with building a city on the isle of Ban Elsir around The Gods Willow, where The Green Knight would protect his people from a Darkness that he had foreseen at this same isle half a century before.   That day, under the light of a great eclipse, the grimly determined knights fought their way to the immense doors of The Maw, which had stood open since the mysterious events of The Breach. The greatest knights of this world fell around Ser Ecbert as he incanted the last words of his powerful Wish, willing the doors to close.   While the doors of the Maw did move to close, even such powerful magics could not unbind whatever will had opened the titanic doors in decades past. The mountains shook and trembled as The Maw closed, leaving a gap no wider than a man between the two ancient doors. In a final act of sacrifice, Ser Ecbert and his last knights surged forward amongst the torrent of creatures that erupted from The Depths Below in response, making their way within the crack of the doors and never to be seen again.   Valeran Davistan I rallied those surviving knights across the land and pushed back the flood of monstrous hordes that swarmed the valley around Lake Lumelor after that fateful day, and ten years later he was crowned Emperor to the newly founded Dawning Empire.   Davistan I founded the Knights of the Eclipse in memory of those who had stood with his father, who have been the eternal guardians of The Maw to this day. Hope, the city of Dawn was established soon thereafter, watching over the valley where his father gave his life. Ever since, the Davistan line of Emperors have ruled over The Dawning Empire with the Heartwood axe at their side - the relic remaining as their symbol of office to this day.