Blood Knights (2008 Edition)

Many years ago, the people of the Empire would have named the knights of the Order of the Blood Dragon amongst the noblest of warriors defending their lands. Their great fortress, Blood Keep, guarded the passes to Bretonnia and was famed for the strength of its walls and the valor of its defenders. As the Tome of Lamentations records, one night a man of great stature and noble bearing appeared before the gates and demanded entrance. He named himself as Walach of the Harkon family, and when the knights opened the gates, they sealed their doom.

Walach challenged the knights to combat. He slew them with ease, for he was a Vampire who had learned his war craft from the great Abhorash. Though no knight could hope to defeat the Undead monster, Walach spared those who fought bravely and with honor. To these knights he passed on his vampirism, the others he slew without pause and fed on their blood. Blood Keep became a Vampire lair, from which the deadly knights preyed upon those they once protected. Many decades later, the witch hunter Gunther van Hel discovered the truth and attacked Blood Keep with an army sent from Wissenland and Reikland, and supported by four Knightly Orders. The siege lasted for three years, during which the bloodshed was like nothing the men of the Empire had seen. Van Hel and his soldiers destroyed many Vampires when they finally stormed the castle, and hunted the survivors through the wilds for years to come. Blood Keep fell into ruin and its evil masters passed into myth.

The Blood Dragons may have been defeated, but some escaped, scattering across the Empire, Bretonnia, Tilea and further afield. Accomplished with lance and sword, these warriors became dark mercenaries, solitary duellists and fearsome raiders.

The Blood Knights are a macabre parody of the virtuous templars that Walach turned. Though they retain the dragon as their symbol, their armor is encrusted with images of death and slaughter. Their blades are fell weapons inscribed with dark runes, chased with precious metals and fashioned in the likeness of evil beasts. The blazons and crests of Blood Keep take the shape of dragons and dragon wings. The knights do not ride flesh-and-blood horses, but charge upon evil Nightmares with fiery eyes and fetid breath, clad in thick barding painted with disturbing icons of necromantic power.

Now, centuries after the demise of their order, there are whispers that Blood Keep is once again inhabited. Those who live near the mountains say nocturnal hunters perturb the folk of the Dwarf Holds. Gossipmongers claim that immortal knights once more feast on human blood in the ancient halls, and skeletal sentries patrol the ramparts. Some even say that dread Walach has returned, and that he is gathering his forces to wage war upon the lands of men that tried to destroy him.

They are the most fearsome knights in all of the Old World. Their training and discipline in life is married with the unnatural speed and strength of Undeath. The Blood Knights are nigh indestructible, and their bloodthirst makes them ferocious and implacable. Such is their honor that they will refuse no challenge, and will fight at the forefront of an army. It is said that even the fabled Grail Knights of Bretonnia cannot match the Blood Knights on the field of battle.