Role

Chapter 4

It didn't take long from the split of the two elven races for the wood-elves to
start to lose both their original purpose and their ancestral traditions.
Even information that is valued enough to be passed from father to son can
mutate over time as each generation adds and subtracts based on their own
experiences. It is the most natural thing in the span of a society, and so it
may be ironic that it was this process was the very thing a secret society of
wood-elves formed to prevent.

Their purpose was twofold: first, work in secret to serve the turning of the
great cycle of magic even when others had forgotten, and second, to preserve
the ancient knowledge and traditions of the undivided elven race, including
their histories and knowledge of bladesong and softer arts alike, but notably
not including non-theoretical applications of magic.

In the first goal, they had mixed success over the ages. They were largely able
to prevent wood-elves from taking up the arcane arts again. Enough mysterious
deaths and freak building fires ensured that. On the other hand there were
several big marks of shame on their record, such as the eventual establishment
of wizard guilds in even the great city of Evermoon Hollow.

In the second goal they were as successful as anyone mortal could hope to be.
They did not preserve what they sought to preserve flawlessly, but did so much
better than other, less reactionary wood-elves. Still, they could not help but
mold the traditions into their image slowly over the ages, and so it was that
there came to be an order within the Equinox calling themselves the Knights of
Winter who were strictly schooled in the ancient bladesong fighting style.

The Knights of Winter were, in theory, a force held in reserve for the last all-
out war to wipe magic completely from Thera and turn the cycle to its lowest
ebb. They never saw open action, because despite themselves the Inscrutable
Equinox had picked up an unspoken third goal over the ages: Stay hidden and
don't rock the boat any more than you have to.

This is the story of a prospective Knight of Winter without either the sense to
understand that unspoken third goal or the patience to serve it.