The Order of the Lion

=Order of The Lion=

“Fortune Favors the Brave” -Order of the Lion Motto, Syr Robert Soleil, The Lion

Founding Knight
'''Syr Robert Soleil, The Lion Born 940 BS, Elentar Died 857 BS, Sihi'''

Robert Soleil was born around the year 940 BS to a middling noble family on Elentar. He was not of the richest or most powerful families, but the Soleil family served the Throne of the Elenti High Kings for Generations as guardsmen of the King. The Soleil’s were a Dynasty of Human+ individuals renowned for their strength and large stature, Syr Robert was no different.

A Jovial soul and one to never turn from a fight, the young Robert was the perfect candidate for a Guardsman Knight to serve in the Honor Guard of the High Kings. Squired from a young age he was trained to be proficient in Mech warfare, Hand to hand combat, melee weapons and firearms, he would be trained up until his eighteenth birthday in 922 BS where he would officially join the King’s Honor Guard.

While in the Guard he never met the King or Prince while he was there to witness the slow fallout between Father and Son. He would never speak to them but often times he was the Guardsman assigned to the room in which they would argue. When the King had finally had enough and Disowned the Good Prince, Robert had found himself agreeing more with the Prince’s line of thinking and immediately left to try and find the Prince to help him overturn the King.

From then on he became one of the Prince’s Knights, or The Twelve as they were known. Syr Robert was the bravest of the group willing to be put into situations that not even The Prince would dare to enter. Eventually earning the moniker of The Lion from his exploits in the war to overthrow the Prince’s father.

When they had won he would make sure that Sihi was built, that it had Ships to fly along side it should it need defense and the Court made it to the stars safely. He would serve the High King faithfully even well passed his eventual disappearance. Being one of the twelve he would go on to form the first orders alongside his Brothers and Sisters in arms. Working as a Knight in defence of Sihi and the Starlit Court up until his health failed him at the age of 83 in 857 BS.

Often remembered in Art as a giant bearded dark haired and tan skinned man he is always shown as the Biggest of The Twelve from the Original Order. Often depicted in his Mech, “King of the Jungle” or in his Power Plate. His most famous painting hangs in the Capital Ship he built the SCS Pride. A portrait in the Chamber of the Grandmaster of the Lion, the first portrait in a series documenting all the Grandmasters of the order.

Martial Focus
The Lions are Generalists, not specifically good at any one sort of combat, they have Syrs that specialize in any field of warfare but the order as a whole doesn’t have a theme except for being Exceptionally Brave. In Lion what matters most is the bravery to face any challenge whether it be a quest or a contract

Color Scheme
Black and Gold

Capital Ship
SCS The Pride - The Ship was constructed back when the High King gave the order that the whole of the Court was to be spaceborn. It was constructed as one of the many escort ships for Sihi to guard it on its voyage through the stars, it was one of twelve Capital ships that was to escort the Space Station.

The Pride itself was made mostly of parts from older ships and mechs repurposed into a new Capital Ship mostly because the Sihi Space station was taking priority on any newly forged metals.

Core Virtue
Bravery - In all aspects of life, but most importantly in the face of danger!

Tenets of the Order
We defend the Defenseless - Lions will go out of their way to defend those who cannot defend themselves, for this reason they are often sent on missions that require defending or escorting important persons Live with Honor Die with Glory - Lions are expected to Live by a high standard of Honor and comport themselves well. Dying with Glory means to die behaving yourself as you did in life, to die nobly. Never leave a Man Behind - There is great camaraderie amongst Knights and Men at arms within the Order, they are encouraged to bring all members of their teams back from any mission as long as there is a chance for someone to be saved it must be taken

Recruitment
Since Syr Robert, The Lionhearted Lion recruits are always chosen based on the bravery they show or the bravery that they possess yet do not show. Lion recruiters watch the Squire examinations very closely looking for prospective hopefuls they can try to bring into the fold.

After passing the exams Lion Order Recruiters give Squires who have caught their eye the choice to join them, their recruitment being so aggressive they will be likely the first order a Squire meets after the Examination if they have caught the recruiters eye.

Should a Squire instead approach the Order recruiters they will be given a fair chance to prove their bravery if the recruiters did not see it in the exams This test usually involves a Hunt in the Black Forest alone for a Cold One, this test shows both physical skill and the bravery to go after a predator.

The Disgracing of the Prince
Syr Robert would ride to find the Disgraced Prince after the King had publicly disowned his Son over a difference in viewpoints Robert believed this a cowardly act by the High King and he could no longer see himself serving as one of the King’s Knights He also had believed that some of the Prince’s Ideas were good for the Kingdom to adopt and hated that the King wanted to go through the lengths of taking his son out instead of learning better ways. Although he did not have much himself being a middling Knight he did have his Beloved Mech and the Skill to use it in Aid of the prince He would help to recruit others to their side as the group would travel in their initial days of the Prince

Fighting the Good Fight
As the Prince brought together his forces to oppose the High King, Syr Robert would be right beside him for every battle. During the final battle he held the line for the Prince to get his Superweapon off, almost killing him in the process, His Mech “King of the Jungle” was almost destroyed in the process. This is where he became known as Syr Robert the Lion, for his bravery in the face of almost certain death.

Building Sihi
Syr Robert would focus on building one of the many capital ships that was deemed necessary for their escape from Elentar after the ending of the War of Succession The Ship in question was the SCS The Pride He led the effort to acquire salvage to construct the ship as any virgin materials were being used for the space station Sihi, the Salvage would be likely the only place the Capital ships could be built from.

Among the Stars
Robert as well as the rest of the Starlit Court gladly follow the King into space Robert would Acquire a Sheath as soon as they were available

Reconstructing the Court (900-850)
When the High King disappears and it is determined that there would be no finding him, Syr Robert and the others of the Twelve decide that they will all need to train new Knights in the same way that the High King organized his Order. However none of the Twelve could Agree on what the chief virtue and core values of what new recruits should have, how the order should be organized Thus a compromise was reached they would all make their own orders and begin to train Knights in the ways they saw fit. Syr Robert begins to look for the Bravest Souls on Sihi to Train for his Order, the Order of the Lion After each of the Twelve organized their Orders they determined that they would need new leadership while the King was gone, thus they invented the Order structure that all Orders use to this day, they invented the Council of Grandmasters as a governing body and Elected one of the twelve to be the first Steward, as head of the Council to stand in for the King. Syr Robert did not vote for himself A time of peace is had for a few years as order is reestablished amongst the court although it does not last forever The Order of the Lion continues to train more Knights during this time of peace then mounting tensions, as the Starlit Court moves along the stars in search of Grail Syr Robert the Lionhearted steps down from Grandmaster due to his ill health and old age then dies in 857 BS The Order elects a new Grandmaster and pays its respects to its founder in a grand funeral. Syr Isabel de La Mer, takes over as the Orders second Grandmaster Elected into her Position narrowly only because the Order of the Lion had more first, second and third generation Sihians than Elenti in their ranks by 857 BS Many see her as too young to be taking over for the Lion, others view her as a Bright Young and Kind Knight who would lead the Order well

Civil Strife (850-825)
Syr Isabel would advise to go easy on the Rioters who wished to return to Elentar, being herself one of the Youngest Grandmasters serving on the Council at the moment she was sympathetic to those of her generation who had never seen the Homeworld and simply wished to return. The Council would Out vote her. The harsh and bloody response to the riots would paint the Grandmasters in a bad Light, Isabel was not spared for her youth and was seen as a betrayer by those in her age group thinking she did nothing to change the Older Grandmasters minds Syr Isabel is on the Baker Trial, siding against Syr Torvik as many of the other Grandmasters did, but also suggested a light punishment out of mercy to the Knight. This suggestion did not go over well with the populace. She would be depicted in political cartoons as Protecting Knights over the People of Sihi. And as a shady individual despite having the best intentions When the Mound Murders were proving too difficult for the Sihian Civilian Police Force, Syr Isabel and other members of the Council of Grandmasters suggested to have Knights Bolster the Police force, signing the Marauder Act into law. Syr Isabel’s intention was to provide safety to the People she wanted to protect however she would be vilified for seemingly taking away freedoms The Law was not Popular with the people and any of the Grandmasters who supported it and championed it were labeled as Tyrants, including Syr Isabel Knights of any Order including Lions would often be harassed by Commonfolk as the patrolled the same streets as the Civilian Police. Order of the Lion Knights were commanded to not respond to such harassment unless it turned violent. Syr Isabel was against the Seizure of the land of the Farmer Dave, however was outvoted by the Council When the protests began she had suggested that the Land simply be returned but the older members of the Council decided that dealing with the People through force would prove to be more effective This again predictably made the Grandmasters more unpopular no matter if they tried to prevent the Martial Law response or not to the protests From the threat of running out of weapons for the Orders the Grandmasters organized a Summit to fix the social issues that had been plaguing them for the past quarter Century. A year Long summit to discuss what could solve all the social strife that had been building up in the court. The Order of the Lion Agreed to the terms laid forth by the end of the discussions for a new Council to balance out the Grandmasters After the summit was over Syr Isabel at the young age of 52 retires from being a Grandmaster the past twenty five years having taken their toll emotionally and mentally on her and she wished to rest for the rest of her years. Syr Kudom, the Restless took over in her place as the first Zelvan Grandmaster of the Order

The Lutrian War (800-799)
Syr Kudom was the most Hawkish of the Grandmasters to start the war with the Lutrian’s slavers. Wishing to both fight an injustice and to save the suffering Lutrians he fought day and Knight to get the Court involved. The Court However did not want to immediately get into a conflict they had no stakes in. This is how he gained his Moniker the Restless One of the Orders Chief tenets is to Defend the Defenseless this was one of Kudom’s and the Orders driving factors for simply fighting the slavers War would not be initially declared as the Council of Elders and other grandmasters were a bit more cautious. But when diplomatic insult came from the Slavers, many historians agree it was Kudom who lead the Grandmasters when it came to call for War to save the Lutrians.

The Najan Adoption (635-632)
The Grandmaster at the time Syr Leoric was a bit mistrusting of the Najan and their ways, while their faith was similar in ways to the Path the High King had shown their three deities were not of qualities that the Order of the Lion nor the Court agreed with. Hydros and Dracos being Deception and Savagery were a bit a hurdle to get over letting their people into the court in Leoric’s mind The Order was divided on this issue, some siding with their Grandmaster others Siding with saving the Najan Citing the Tenet of the order to Defend the Defenseless. Eventually Leoric would be convinced by the majority of his order who believed that the Najan were a People in need of saving from a dying world The Order would be the first to deploy to the Dying Planet to save those Najan that wished to be saved. Defeating the opposing Najan Faction that wished to stay on the dying planet dooming their race.

Encountering the Light and the Soul Schism (581-574)
The Order of the Lion was firmly on the Spiritualist side of the Debate of what the Light meant. From the Grandmaster Draxxos on down the Order would believe wholeheartedly that this was a sign from the High King of the Location of the Holy world, Grail Members of the Order would ardently try and argue to secularists that they should trust in the Light and that The Lady would come back to them, for she had to let them know that the Light was truly a Message from the King. They hoped in these tense years that they could deescalate the situation with their arguments Ultimately however it would only anger many Secularists despite their good intentions. They would also Champion the new existence of Sidhe as another sign that the Light was the King’s message, but ultimately Syr Draxxos and the Order would fail to stop the war.

The Civil War (574-572)
While the battle in Hangar 38 didn’t initially involve the Order of the Lion, noticing the fighting going on tried to break up the fight in hopes of getting the two sides to calm down and avoid war. The Knights who went in to mediate eventually ended up joining on the side of the spiritualists attacked in Hangar 38. The Order of the Lion would fight valiantly throughout the Civil War. The great carnage the infighting caused takes a great toll on the Order. Reducing its membership in half by the end of the conflict. Many of the members of the Order took on the philosophy of not backing down from any fight due to it being a matter of survival of the court, they needed to win to preserve the High King’s Vision no matter the cost to themselves. This lead to there being more casualties from the Order of the Lion in the Civil War than there would be on normal quests, and to eventually The Nemean Order being founded with this exact Philosophy in mind as their way to deal with all situations. The Order of the Lion had mostly been near Sihi through the turbulent years before the Civil War, Syr Draxxos did not trust the Secularists not to start something despite he himself wanting to end the conflict peacefully before it ever began, because of this he had kept the majority of the Order near or on SIhi. Letting his Knights come back a bit slower than other orders. When the Order tried alongside other Spiritualists to take Camlann and Castle Sihi to be their base of operations they alongside the Secularists were beaten back by the Castles automatic defenses. The Knights of the Lion that had gone in only half of them came back out as the automated defenses tore through them. In the Final battle where The Lady reappears to the Order Syr Draxxos the Grandmaster of the Order is Killed before she is revealed to the court. He dies protecting injured Knights and Men at Arms trying to make their escape off of the battlefield. Syr Guillemaque Syr Guillemaque, The Vigilant is selected when the fighting and repair effort of Sihi dies down as the next Grandmaster of the order, the First Najan Grandmaster of the Order of the Lion

The Crystal Men (565)
As the crystal men are adopted the Order of the Lion accept these massive beings a home in their ranks, while they could not be knights due to their strange silicon biology, they serve The Lion’s well as Engineers and Men at Arms.

The Age of One Thousand Quests (565-250)
In general members of the order would spend these years doing work to aid the Order and Starlit Court or spend time Grail seeking. Just like every other order during the Thousand Quests period In 560 BS Syr Guillemaque the Vigilant Dies of old age Despite his short time as the Grandmaster of the order he was able to swell up the ranks almost to pre Civil War numbers During the Day of Dead Suns fiasco the current Grandmaster of the order, Syr Richard, the Wise was against the rescuing of the Civilization that was next to a supergiant star about to supernova. He was chastised for being a coward and uncharacteristic of a Lion before the council out voted him to help the poor sods stuck in a dying Solar system. “Discretion is the better part of Valor! Throwing Sihi into the line of fire of a supernova puts all the citizens of this station at risk!” Syr Richard was quoted saying this during the final vote to save those stuck on the doomed world. The Order of the Lion would not shirk its duty to aid in the evacuation efforts, even though Syr Richard was against even trying he also did not want to slow the effort down because of the threat of a Supergiant about to Supernova. When Sihi took nearly catastrophic damage in the rescue attempt the other Grandmasters stopped calling Richard a coward. Especially since the Court had lost a great deal of priceless information in the resulting explosion such as the rumored Location of Grail and the originating point of the Light.

The Great Meandering (250-150)
With the loss of all the data from the Day of Dead Suns the Order as a whole tries to rebuild the data lost on the location of Grail by exploring the cosmos to differing amounts of success. Most of this exploration was in previously covered ground in which the order had lost information on. Focus on Contract taking diminishes greatly as the loss of the information hits the court and many orders hard.

The Era of the Path Less taken (150-101)
Due to change in how the Council’s thought of the loss of information from the Day of Dead Suns the Court and Order of the Lion started to look forward from here on instead of wallowing in what they had lost in the past. Same level of exploration of the Meandering but not in a backwards direction. Increased amount of Contract taking as confidence returned.

The Great March (100-Present)
The Order has some knights looking for Grail, while other members are tasked with scouting work for the Court amongst the many different factions of Beacon Space Notable Members

List of all Grand Masters:
All order of the Lion Grand Masters are elected by the Masters from one of their own ranks. Every Grandmaster except for The Lion Syr Robert himself have been chosen by their peers to lead the Order. A Super Majority of the Masters must ne reached to get a new Grand Master when one dies or retires.

Key:

D Left Office by death

R Left Office by retirement

Syr Robert Soleil, the Lion - Human+ The Founder of the Order 900-857 BS R

Syr Isabel de La Mer - Human+ Second and Youngest ever Grandmaster in charge during the Dark times 857-825 BS R

Syr Kudom, The Restless - First Zelvan Grandmaster Most hawkish to rescue the Lutrians 825-770 BS D

Syr Davion, Dragon Slayer - Human+ 770-737 BS R

Syr Chen, The Pious - Zelvan 737-700 BS D

Syr Sven, The Strong - Human + 700-651 BS D

Syr Leoric, the Vast - Human + Only Grandmaster Larger than Robert, Opponent to Najan joining the court until Convinced by members of the Order. 651- 614 BS D

Syr Draxxos,The Bold - Zelvan Grandmaster during the Civil War 614-572 BS D

Syr Guillemaque, The Vigilant - First Najan Grandmaster rebuilt the Order after the Civil War 572-560 BS D

Syr Ghislaine - Human + 560-530 BS R

Syr Drictus, the Small First Lutrian Grandmaster smallest Grand Master 530-490 BS R

Syr Aurel - Lutrian 490 - 466 BS R

Syr Lydia - Lutrian 466 - 444 BS D

Syr Valora - Human + 444 - 410 BS R

Syr Daryl - Zelvan 410 - 391 D

Syr Lanaya - Human + 391 - 367 BS R

Syr Guibor - Najan 367 - 331 BS D

Syr Renier - Human + 331- 299 BS R

Syr Remi - Najan 299 - 270 BS R

Syr Richard, the Cautious - Human, Advised against the Day of Dead Suns Rescue 270-243 BS R

Syr Gregor, - Human +, 243 - 220 BS R

Syr Marion, - Najan 220 - 190 BS R

Syr Xix - Zelvan 190 - 168 BS D

Syr Nortom, The Silent - Zelvan 168 - 139 BS D

Syr Karrok, Beast Wrangler -Zelvan 139 - 97 BS R

Syr Mogul, The Axe - Lutrian 97- 65 BS R

Syr Bradwarden, The Warrunner - Zelvan 65-40 BS D

Syr Karyl, The Technomancer - Zelvan First Bleed gifted to become Grandmaster 40-3 BS R

Syr Mirana Soleil, The Lunar Lion - Human+ Current Grand Master, Distant descendant of Syr Robert and second time his family has been grandmaster of the order 3-Present BS

Masters and Below.

Syr Reinauld, Champion of Sihi - Human + One of the Greatest warriors of the Court, granted the title Champion of Sihi for his heroics in defending its people. 30-Present BS