Knight of Niðhögg
A Knight of Niðhögg is a member of a militant order affiliated with The Church - more specifically, the Church in the North. Their duties center on the detection and elimination of cults devoted to eldritch beings from Beyond.
The Knights are a secretive order, adherents of an esoteric theology not shared by most of the faithful. Their beliefs have led them to form an alliance with the wyrm known as Niðhögg - though they do not worship it. This pact grants them access to powers on par with those wielded by the cultists they hunt. They insist, however, that this does not make them cultists themselves.
They operate much like an intelligence agency, gathering information and infiltrating their enemies in secret. A Knight may spend years embedded within a cult, quietly mapping its hierarchy, rituals, and intentions. During the Dragon Wars, the Order provided crucial intelligence to the enemies of the Cult of the Leviathan, working tirelessly to sabotage its operations from within. Their actions directly contributed to several lost battles on the Cult's side, and played a major role in its eventual downfall.
Even now, the Knights continue to hunt those cultists who escaped justice after the war - alongside the many other worshippers of eldritch beings who still hide in the dark corners of the world. Ultimately, their goal is to prevent the cults from ending the world - at least until all who can embrace God in Heaven have been saved.
An Ancient Order
The Order of the North was founded in 1190 ID by command of the Hierarch of the North, and has operated ever since - though not without great change. In its earliest form, the Knights were precisely that: mounted warriors clad in armor, riding from town to town in search of those who would rip open the world and welcome the powers of Beyond.
But the centuries taught them subtlety, and the Church Wars drove them from the light into shadow.
Today, a Knight of Niðhögg could be anyone - a bookseller, a priest, a vagabond. They no longer reveal their armor, but their purpose endures, and their convictions are as strong as steel.
Many believe the Order extinct - a relic of an age when the Church ruled Elbid without rival.
They are wrong.
Becoming a Knight
The Knights are highly selective in their recruitment. In the modern era, secrecy and trust are paramount - many Knights spend their lives embedded within the very cults they will one day dismantle. A candidate may be watched for years before being approached, and even then, they must endure a series of trials before induction.
Central to this process is the Litany of the North, the theological foundation of the Order. Some candidates will already have encountered it. Others will be offered a copy by their recruiter. Either way, the Knights test not just comprehension, but belief.
Through their pact with Niðhögg, the Knights possess a means of discerning the truth of a candidate's conviction. This is not a comfortable process. Like all powers drawn from eldritch pacts, it leaves marks - mental, spiritual, sometimes physical. But that discomfort serves a purpose: it is a test of endurance, of resolve, and of the soul's capacity to face horror without turning away.
Only those who endure - and believe - are welcomed into the shadows.
The Litany of the North
All Knights are taught the Litany of the North, a text that reveals the world as they believe it truly is - and the core purpose of their calling. It is not well-known outside the Order, but neither is it hidden. Those inclined to believe it will, in time, find it in their hands.
Some suspect there is intent behind this. Others know there is.
And now, it has come to you, reader.
Will you read it?The Litany of the North
There are things that press against the skin of the world.
We do not know their names, nor their hungers.
They reach in with cilia of power and will
threading themselves through the cracks in reason and dream.
They find hosts among the broken, the desperate, and the foolish
shaping them into cults and congregations
whose prayers are knives against the world's skin.
But the skin is already scarred.
Long ago, the world was breached.
Beneath the roots of all things lies a sleeper.
It is the Wyrm.
It has been called Niðhögg, and Apophis, and Typhon, and Satan.
It has swallowed the soul of Gaia,
and coils now at the heart of the Earth,
sated and torpid after its vast meal.
And it dreams.
In its dreaming, it looks into Beyond
the vast and hungry dark that gnaws upon the edges of all creation.
It knows what lurks there, eager for helpless prey.
So it delays.
Its agents move through the marrow of the world,
not to save it, but to keep it from ending too soon.
They will fail, for that is their design.
They were not made to triumph
only to postpone the unmaking,
so the Wyrm may digest and awaken and act.
One day it shall wake.
And when it does, it will cast off the corpse of the Earth
like an old skin.
It may flee the dark.
It may fight it.
It may become it.
We shall not live to see it.
For our world died when Gaia's soul was swallowed,
and we are the maggots in her flesh.
When the Wyrm stirs, we shall be scattered like chaff in storm -
our minds unmade, our bodies ash.
Only those who have surrendered utterly to God in Heaven shall be drawn upward - not as selves, but as tones in His eternal chorus.
The flesh is fallen.
The soul may yet be saved.
We do not fight to win.
We fight to delay the end.
What Is Your Name?
Officially, they are known as the Knights of the North. But in their hearts, they know the truth: they are the Knights of Niðhögg. The pact they made with the Wyrm has marked them irrevocably, and they do not expect salvation when they die. Their souls are forfeit - which is why they labor so fiercely to give others the chance to save theirs.
Allies Against the Dark
The Knights are not alone in their war against the cults of the world. Over the centuries, many other organizations have risen to oppose the cultists - some who have endured, while others were lost to death, despair, or madness.
Most recently, the vigilante group known as the Orphans of Kemet has entered the struggle, and has fought alongside the Knights on multiple occasions. You can read more about the Orphans here.
But They Are All Of Them Deceived!
There are those who claim the Knights have been misled - that the Wyrm is not what they believe it to be, and that the world is not yet beyond salvation.
According to these dissenters, Niðhögg is not inside the world, but has pretended to be. It is the most cunning of the devourers - a serpent more subtle than its rivals, that has ensnared the Knights in a grand deception. In this view, the Order serves not as defenders of humanity's last hope, but as unwitting agents of its end.
The Knights do not accept this possibility.
The blend of religious duty, clandestine operations, and the moral ambiguity of forming pacts with eldritch entities creates a rich narrative. The Litany of the North adds depth, offering insight into the Knights' worldview. This profession challenges traditional notions of knighthood, presenting a darker, more introspective path that is both compelling and thought provoking. I really dig this.
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