The Paladin Order Reformed - Chapter 2 Strengthened

After we finished the war game, we moved on to our history lesson. What a squire learns depends mostly on the knight they are assigned to. Although children usually finish some school before they are taken as a squire, since I am an orphan I chose not to go to school, but rather be assigned to Sir Richard soon as I was permitted.

Most of the knights that take squires to train are retired knights that are too old to fight or chose to retire early. I’m grateful Sir Richard allowed me to become his squire, supposedly when he was younger he was extremely skilled and was even offered the position of Knight Saint, which is the second-highest rank in the Order. But he’s an extremely demanding teacher, I wasn’t his first squire, I heard he had a lot of noblemen’s kids that tried to be his squire to become famous, but they all quit because they couldn’t meet his excessive standards.

I’d like to say I’m special for being able to withstand everything he’s thrown at me, but the only reason I was able to continue is because of my desire for strength, those images of amazing knights that Sir Richard depicted made me want to work this hard, I want so badly to become the kind of knight Sir Richard is.

The history lesson Sir Richard taught today was just a recap of the creation of the Paladin Order and the first demon war, or as it’s better known as, the First Paladin Crusade.

The continent that we live on has four different countries on it, the Lions Guard Kingdom to the northwest, the High Imperium to the northeast, the Dragerian Republic to the southwest, and the Lord’s Union to the southeast. Before the demons attacked, these four countries were plagued by infighting, they fought each other over land, money, and anything else. The demons waited until the countries were weakened by themselves and united all the tribes of demons and every other species of beasts on their continent and launched a devastating invasion. The surprise of the attack and the weakness and lack of coordination of each countries army caused many soldiers to be killed.

But even when the hordes of demons threatened humanity as a whole, they still fought each other. They sieged each other’s castles and towns and captured them for their resources while the demons came to claim whatever had been conquered. When all of humanity was on the brink of annihilation, and the countries were unable to repel the droves of monsters that roamed the lands they once owned, the Paladin Order was created.

The Paladin Order was created by the soldiers and men that saw the threat of the demons for what it was. Many of them defied the orders of their countries, banding together to make a single army to drive the demon army back. Many men died accomplishing this goal, but because of the sacrifice and selflessness of the Knights of the Paladin Order in two years, they were able to completely repel the demon army off the continent.

After witnessing the danger of annihilation that infighting had almost brought upon all humanity, the surviving founding members of the Paladin Order came together to institutionalize laws to prevent something like that from ever happening again.

The Paladin Order introduced a few things to keep the four countries from fighting against themselves again.

The first was solidifying the Paladin Order into each nation’s military as a separate branch. There are now two branches of the military in all four countries’ army, it is the nation’s regular branch of the military and the Paladin Order.

The Knights of the Paladin Order hold officer positions above each nation’s military, this first keeps the nations from being able to effectively command troops against another country’s nation. This second keeps the different nations in check since none of them have a complete military force that is totally loyal to them.

Of course, a member of a nation’s military can become an officer, but that is the final promotion they can receive and a Paladin knight that just got his rank still outranks a regular officer.

After this, the Order gathered all the countries kings and divided the continent as evenly as was possible between the four kingdoms. Making each country have an equal amount of land, therefore eliminating the need to conquer each other’s land.

This enraged all of the kings, none of them could stand for such a sudden and abrupt change. They tried to overthrow the Order, but since the Order was centralized in their armies and all four kings were being held at a Paladin Order stronghold for negotiations, there was nothing the kings could do but accept the conditions.

There were a few other laws that were institutionalized to keep humanity from being divided again.

They created what is known today as the King’s Council, this was an annual meeting between the four kings that let them negotiate problems, create trade agreements, and discuss anything that is needed to be addressed. This also served as a way to make sure issues were solved peacefully between countries, this was because the King’s Council meeting is non-negotiable, its attendance is mandatory and if it was missed then the king of that country would be immediately discharged unless there was a special circumstance. The reason this is significant is because it forces the countries to negotiate peacefully where they would have ignored each other previously. Also if there is an addressed issue that is not resolved during the King’s Council, the Paladin Order then has grounds to resolve it themselves.

After the demons were driven back, there was a holiday created that is celebrated on December fifth. This also served as a way to appoint another king and keep kings from ruling tyrannically by allowing the people to appoint a new ruler, something that was already practiced in the Dragerian Republic.

If 75% of the adult populace of a country submits a revaluation request to the Order during the course of the year, then the king will be put on trial before a jury and be tried. If he’s found guilty of misconduct, then he and his family will be demoted to barons and the people may choose someone from nobility to become king.

Anyone noble from barons up can become king, but people in the Paladin Order are unable to become king or participate in government outside the Order, this keeps the Order and the government separate.

The lesson took longer than it usually does and it left my head reeling, but somehow I was able to memorize most everything he said.

Sir Richard looked at my weary expression and revealed a small smile “Ok Christian, its time to move on to magic theory.”

At this, my expression lit up and I moved with renewed energy, magic is one of the best subjects to learn and the funnest to practice.