The Joyous Guard

The Joyous Guard is the name given to a series of loosely knit orders of High Elven Lanciel knights that were once (and still may be) united. No people but the remaining Lanciels truly know the full strength of the Joyous Guard. Years of reunification and division of various factions of the Joyous Guard has left the forces that once made up its armies scattered and independent.

The Age of Lords and Heroes
Much of what is known from the Age of Lords is lost to time. Historians believe that the Joyous Guard originated as the personal guard of the Black Knight, although with all mention of the Black Knight's name stricken from the First Annals and omitted from subsequent writings this is a hard claim to verify. Toruk of Balderk in his record on the Wall of Coffins which chronicles the War of Floating Coffins tells of the first Drow being an offshoot of abandoned Lanciels from "the Great and Mighty allegiance of elvish Lords" and actually documents several questlines told from the perspective of proto-Drow Lanciels, although this writing dates from many centuries after the Age of Chaos. From this historians believe that in the time when Dragons and other Titans were hunted for honour and sport various Lanciel leaders held a tournament of champions to decide under whose banner they would follow. The "Great War Maker", believed to be the Black Knight who, by all accounts, was the greatest warrior of that Era, won the tournament and united the Lanciel people under his house. The Black Knight, who as Toruk puts it, "cared nothing of peace, and knew only the dominion of his own beloved Lord Arthure", returned the right of law to the Lanciel people and swore the army of elvish Lords to the service of Draco Arthure. He then handed over his own personal forces over to the people of Lanciel "for there was upon them now a great time of building for the people against the Tyrants and Gods". It is believed that these forces became the Joyous Guard.

After the Age of Lords when most organised Titan forces had been eradicated Draco Arthure declared The Age of Heroes. This resulted in many knights tasked with protecting the Lanciel people being overcome with lust for fame and glory and many became knights errant. Several knights errant founded outposts and forts in places of great magic that would eventually become the High Elven Cities of Palomides, Bohères, and Pel Anor. Gaining the title of Lords Errant, it was from the questlines of these knights, their retinues, and eventually their amassed legion of vassals and followers that the modern mythos surrounding the Joyous Guard, and knightly orders in general, are derived.

The Civil War
When the Black Knight betrayed Draco Arthure and started The Civil War nearly all evish Lords aligned themselves with the Black Knight, including those knights errant of the Joyous Guard who had amassed power during the Heroic Age. The Joyous Guard saw many great victories defending the Lanciel homeland from invading Orknish and Camelin forces, and the capital city was named in their honour. Few bardic tales tell of Joyous Guard involvement in the plains of man, and many scholars believe that the Lords Errant seldom left the Orknish front. As such, when both Arthure and the Black Knight's forces were eradicated in the Battle of the Three Kings most of the Joyous Guard was left intact.

Dissolution
After the destruction of the Black Knight and the heralding of the end of the Civil War many of the Lords Errant settled in the now expanded Lanciel borders they helped keep secure during the Civil War and allowed their forces to retire into the land. Several Lords took their most trusted knights and departed into the wilds of Logres never to be seen again. During the Age of Chaos when the Scourge sterilized and killed a huge portion of the Lanciel population and the High Elven Republic dissolved intercity communication between the Lords Errant was crippled. Although communication and trade routes would eventually be reestablished, the Lords Errant would keep their states independant, resulting in the dissolution of the Joyous Guard.

The Crescent Moon
The Crescent Moon, founded nearly two hundred years after the dissolution of the Joyous Guard in 419 P.C., would be the progenitor of the modern day Joyous Guard. When it was discovered that Lanciels infected by the Scourge were able to procreate with humans during the Age of Chaos huge groups of migrant Lanciels left their homelands on pilgrimage to human territories in order to save their dwindling species. Over the course of the next two century this would result in a boom in human-elf crossbreeding and the birth of a new race of the Half-Elves, Lannous in elvish. Although the majority of the Lords Errant were by this time either dead or missing, the remaining Lords saw the dwindling of the Lanciel people (by this time distinct from both the Elnorin and the Drow) as those remaining from the Scourge chose to breed with humans instead braving the dangers of mating with a potential Scourge carrier. Joining together under a single banner once again, the Lords Renier Anor, Leo Breudelle, and Claudas Gaunnes formed the Knights of the Crescent Moon. This particularly tyrannical order of knights would quickly gain favour in the Lanciel lands largely due to its hugely successful propaganda campaign. With the recent invention of magical message sending, the Knights of the Crescent Moon were able to quickly spread their message of xenophobia and religious injustice. Branding humanity as heretics, and blaming them as the cause of the Scourge, the Knights of the Crescent Moon were able to curry favour with not only the Lanciel people, but with the Drow and many Halfling tribes as well. Amassing a huge following and army, the leaders of the Crescent Moon lay siege to the collection of city states that made up the bulk of human territories. Many city states were exhausted financially from the numerous raids they conducted upon one another during the Age of Chaos, and after a few small successes on the part of the Crescent Moon many states surrendered upon seeing the ever growing army they would face. In this time, the only major city state that would remain free from Crescent Moon influence would be the canyon city of Bedivere.

As the primarily human owned territories fell, the Knights of the Crescent Moon found themselves governing huge unstable human populations which outnumbered their own forces a thousand to one. This necessitated a change in their propagandist ideology as many riots broke out in human cities due to religious atrocities committed by Knights of the Crescent Moon (named "Mooners" by their subjects). Gradually the leaders of the order changed their doctrine from xenophobic blame of humans to a religious redeeming of humanity. Histories were rewritten explaining the boom in Half-Elves to be an attempt on the Lanciels part to spread their wisdom to humanity through race mixing, and the continued capture of human cities was rebranded as acts of liberation from heretical regimes. Slowly under the guidance of the Mooners elements of the elvish pantheon were incorporated into human religious teachings and many religious leaders were supplanted via skullduggery with undercover members of the Crescent Moon. Over the course of the next century, the rebelling human settlements would eventually fall in line with Mooner dogma, and many humans were even allowed to join the ranks of the order.

Although what would come to be known as The Age of the Crescent Moon would be remembered for its tyrannical persecution of non-conformist religions in Crescent moon territories, as well as the several great eradicating hunts of unsanctioned arcane practitioners (see The Arcana Genocide), it would also be a time of great artistic revolution. Many elvish playwrights and artists would flourish under the patronage of the Mooners and great architectural wonders were built all over Logres as Lanciel and Elnorin art spread to the human lands. Dwarvish craftsmen would move their businesses to Lanciel held cities in order to meet the need for knowledgeable stonemasons, and Bedivere, not wanting to be outdone by its neighbouring rivals, would open its vaults to attract its own craftsmen and artist alike. With the strict regulation of arcane magic and the huge influx of craftsmen, artist, and inventors, the Age of the Crescent Moon would see a noticeable regression in magical practices and a boom in technological advances for the next three hundred and fifty years.

Eclipsing of the Moon
All in all, the Knights of the Crescent Moon would hold power for over three hundred and fifty years (426-790 P.C.) before their dissolution. The Crescent Moon would eventually be under the command of just one man, Lord Claudas Gaunnes. Lord Reinier Anor, one of the surviving members from the Age of Lords, would die of old age one hundred years after seizing power in the human territories, and Lord Leo Breudelle was assassinated by an unknown party at a play in her honor just fifty years before the dissolution of the Crescent Moon. As a result, the task of governing the entirety of the territory owned by the Crescent Moon fell to Lord Claudas Gaunnes. Known for his paranoia and distrust of others, Gaunnes would fail to appoint any replacements for his deceased compatriots, and as such without any governors of real power the empire that was the lands owned by the Crescent Moon would eventually crumble under its own weight. A Haelian hero by the name of Eidard Rael would eventually lead a band of five heroes of varying races known as the Daybreak in a guerrilla revolution against the Knights of the Crescent Moon. Killing many of the leaders of the order, the Daybreak would eventually make its way to Balin where Gaunnes held his seat of power and usurp the tyrant once and for all. In the vacuum of power created by the deaths of the governors and Lords Errant the varying city states of the plains of man would segregate once again along the provincial lines created by the Lords Errant, becoming modern day Farregid, Bercelle, Camelonia, Feynora, Orkney, Nanora, and Terrlaque. Many of the governmental religious institutions and branch orders created by the Knights of the Crescent Moon would survive becoming their own orders, some of which would eventually unify once again as the Joyous Guard.

Return of the Joyous Guard
When the Draconic Forces would cross over Ronin's Shield and invade Logres the divided and diverse people would unify for the first time since the Age of Lords in order to meet this new foe head on. The Lanciel hero Brènne Scoatelle, leader of the all but extinct Lune Jaune would lead a multi-racial band of heroes into battle against the Draconic Forces in the Battle of Bren Prairie where she and three of her fellows would slay the great green dragon Dorimex. Receiving much fame for their accomplishment, Brènnes and the Lune Jaune would become icons of a unified people of Logres. Obsessed with the idea of returning Logres to an era of errant knights and chivalry, Brènne would make it her mission during the war to reunite the scattered remnant orders of the once proud Joyous Guard. Many of the orders that remained from the Age of the Crescent Moon saw this as an opportunity to return power to the Lanciels and joined Brènne's new order, which she rechristened the Joyous Guard. Although her fame brought her many proud and loyal knights, the Daybreak, now the Order of Daybreak, which by this time had grown to be a very powerful organization, would stop the new Joyous Guard from ever rising to the same heights as the Knights of the Crescent Moon did.

The Joyous Guard earned great fame in the war with the Draconic Forces and would become one of the most influential orders of knights in Logres post invasion. After the war was ended, instead of remaining under the rule of one Lord, Brènne divided the Joyous Guard into unified errant factions each lead by a commander known as a Shogunate, marching her own forces back to Bercelle to serve as protectors once again. Organizing the errant factions as a respected advisor from her seat in Joyeux Garde, Brènne gave each new Shogunate the right to lead their faction as they see fit, and maintained a network of advisors and political connections to help guide and maintain a certain level of unity amongst the fragmented Joyous Guard. Each faction served as a pillar of stability in the recovering Logres, providing services that ranged from personal guards to Kings, to priestly healers and diplomats.

The Second Crusade and the Age of Gareth
When Gareth Arthure was born and heralded as the return of the God Emperor of Mankind the Joyous Guard helped immensely, along with their once enemy the Order of Daybreak, to maintain stability in Logres. Religious fervour took hold of the plains of man, and when Gareth Arthure declared a new crusade to reunite all the human territories the people of Logres took up arms to join his cause. The Joyous Guard would do all it could to suppress further violence in Logres, but with the crusades came a tide of insurgency against any non-human influence in the plains of man. The Joyous Guard would fight valiantly to defend the human cities that refused to join Gareth in his crusade, however, with the overwhelming force that Gareth had collected they were unsuccessful everywhere but the fortress city of Bedivere. In the chaos of the crusade many Shogunate stopped reporting to Brènnes in Bercelle, and a unified Joyous Guard once again crumbled away. When the crusades were over, Gareth declared amnesty to all those that fought against him, and many factions of the Joyous Guard resurfaced to act as advisors and mercenaries. Although many factions still accepted the blanket title Joyous Guard, it is unclear whether these ghosts of a once powerful knightly order are still unified under the network of the Lanciels that was the true Joyous Guard.