The Order of the Bloody Dawn

Heavily armoured Knights reforged from shattered orders, the Bloody Dawn is the Empire’s immortal shield - sworn to the Empress, blessed by the Unconquered Sun, and bound to a single vow.

The Order of the Bloody Dawn was forged in a crucible of desperation and ruin. It arose from the shattered remnants of several ancient knightly orders, each laid low by the ruthless enemies of the Empire. Bereft of their ancestral rites and oaths, and scattered by defeat, these knights were bound together not by lineage or heraldry, but by an unbreakable oath to the Empress and the survival of the realm.

In these cataclysmic times, as the gates of High Imperia splintered under violent siege from the savage, the fledgling Order swore to hold the breach. Defiantly they stood, for months unending, shoulder to shoulder upon the blood-soaked ramparts. This defiance cost them dearly, each hour of civilian safety purchased by the sacrifice of countless lives. On the final day, as the last invaders were driven from the walls following the bitter siege, the surviving knights beheld a blood-red sun on the horizon. Its crimson light spoke of a manifestation of a divine covenant, the knights falling to their knees in reverence. The bloodsoaked battlefield became consecrated as hallowed ground. 

In the years since, the Order has risen anew. They have embraced worship of the Unconquered Sun, whom they believe sanctified their stand, blessing them and their holy Empress with glorious purpose. Their most sacred of relics is the Goblet of the Last Vigil, borne by their Grandmaster on that final day. Though no hand replenishes it, the blood of the fallen still fills its depths, a solemn testament to their righteous sacrifice.

When new initiates are sworn to the Order’s service, they partake of this chalice, binding their fate to the memory of those who came before, and sealing their oath to the Empress and to the Unconquered Sun. Those who have joined the Order from distant hosts or disbanded companies often retain a token of their former allegiance - a brooch, a scrap of heraldic cloth, a necklace - worn discreetly upon their person, a silent remembrance of the paths that lead them here.

In the chaotic miasma that constitutes the Wargrounds, the Order of the Bloody Dawn stands ever at the Empire’s vanguard. Beneath their crimson standard, emblazoned with the sun of a new dawn, they hold the line without falter, sustained by their conviction that no step must ever be taken in retreat. They are her Majesty's crimson wall sworn forever to her service! 

Upon their hearts is inscribed the covenant of which they swore:
Ne Unum Gradum Retrorsum.
Not One Step Back.