Highguard history

The founding

Seven centuries ago, the Highborn arrived on the Bay of Catazar. Seventeen great vessels carrying pure souls crossed the sea from the south looking for new lands. They left behind a land and people slowly being consumed by corruption and darkness. They were steered by the legendary Navigators, a pair of visionary twins named Atuman and Atun who were later acknowledged as an Exemplar of Ambition and a Paragon of Wisdom respectively.

Film: Lord of the Rings

Upon landing, Atuman founded the city of Pharos at the mouth of the river Couros. Atun – following a vision of her own – took only the flagship, bade her brother farewell and set sail, never to be seen again.

The navigators of the first vessels formed a council of Patricians to advise Atuman the Navigator. After his death his eldest daughter took the title of Navigator and ruled in his place while the Patricians also named heirs from amongst their offspring. The council ruled wisely for many years but as the generations passed the Navigator and the Patricians became more obsessed with preserving their power and their bloodlines and degenerated into self-interest and corruption.

During this time, trade with the Navarr introduced the Highborn to the drug liao, which was initially used medicinally and recreationally. However, the Scions of Atun, a group of ascetics and mystics, discovered a process of refinement that unlocked its full potential, not only in ceremonies of Virtue but in revealing other lives through the Labyrinth of Ages. This enlightenment, about the immortal nature of the human spirit and the power of virtue, sparked a period of time now referred to as The Revelation.

The Revelation stirred a spiritual yearning within the people and swept across the land, awakening many to a new and profound understanding of life. This awakening was further fuelled by widespread disillusionment with the venal ways of the Patricians. The Scions and other groups born of The Revelation left Pharos, sicked by the corruption that riddled the city. Along the borders of the nation they built their own communities, called chapters, each dedicated to teaching a profound way of living inspired by The Revelation and guarding against corruption.

As the chapters grew, the Patricians became jealous of their influence and passed laws to try to control them. Things came to a head in the time of the Navigator Permion, who later generations would call the Lawmaker – a Navigator who strove to serve the people rather than his own interest. Permion sought to reach out to the leaders of the chapters, starting with the most influential, Lepidus of the Seven Stars. Lepidus is now acknowledged as a Paragon of Pride. He taught Permion about the greatness of the Highborn, what they had been and could be again, and helped him find the will to oppose the wickedness of the Patricians.

Permion the Lawmaker's judgements and actions brought the Patricians into conflict with him and also with each other. Rather than allow the nation to fall into anarchy, Permion declared martial law and dissolved the Patrician Council. In its place, he invited the chapters to form an Assembly of the Virtuous to advise him.

The response of the Patrician Council was swift and bloody, and a bitter civil war ensued. Permion was assassinated, along with his wife and three of his four children. Various Patricians tried to claim the title of Navigator and the city of Pharos was burned to the ground by rival armies. Eventually the Assembly was forced to act. After mobilizing the military strength of the chapterhouses it crushed the remaining Patrician forces and assumed the governance of the nation. Today, the Lawmaker is recognised as an influential Exemplar of Courage.

The Assembly of the Virtuous elected to turn the ruins of Pharos into the Necropolis, a great mausoleum to house the bodies of all those slain in the war. They also ordered the construction of Bastion, a new city which would serve as a civic and religious centre for the Highborn thereafter and vowed that no Highborn would ever war with other Highborn again.

The horses of Highguard

The Highborn fleet carried with them a great herd of horses. These legendary beasts embodied noble virtues of loyalty, strength and dignity. Mounted on their mighty warhorses, the Highborn were unbeaten in battle and the creatures became the iconic symbol of the nation, reflecting the martial spirit of the people. The venal ways of the Patricians caused the herds to dwindle until none remained and since the dawn of the Empire they have passed into legend. Highborn parents tell their children the tale of the loss of their horses to teach them never to take blessings for granted.

The First Empress

The First Empress was Highborn, and the last to ride a legendary Highborn steed. After taking liao, she revealed that all human souls are re-incarnated on the same wheel, regardless of whether they were Highborn. Therefore, to preserve the future of Highguard and enlighten all worthy human souls, it was essential to unite all of humanity under a single banner, such that Highborn reborn elsewhere would still come to know their heritage and the Way of Virtue. From Highborn faith, the Empire came into being, changing the face of the world forever.

Archivists

Highguard looks to the past to understand the present and predict the future. Its scholars, priests and wizards thirst for tomes and artefacts that reflect on the Empire. There is a roaring trade in books, scrolls and tablets, the more obscure the better. While relics of the holy prophets or antique magical articles are valuable in and of themselves, high prices are also paid for tangible evidence of past life experiences.

Archivists collect the histories of Highguard, and of the Empire. They see history as a story that exists not to record dead facts, but to inspire the living. As a consequence, facts that undermine the central truth of an event or the life of a historical character are actually dangerous. A new fact that suggests a wise historical judge never existed, or that a brave general was actually a coward, could do irreparable damage. It could destroy the faith of the living in the individual hero but also undermine the very idea of learning the lessons from history. Destroying or discrediting such lies is as important as revealing the facts that encourage and inspire the living.

This means the Highborn archivists are often at odds with their counterparts in other nations, especially the Urizen seers and torchbearers. In recording and publicizing “facts”, without applying any moral judgement, Urizen historians deny the inspiration offered by history and its role in making the present and the future better. A common rumour suggests that Highborn archivists maintain hidden storehouses of knowledge deemed too dangerous for the common people. This rumour is baseless. If a piece of information uncovered is considered dangerous to the Empire, it is destroyed so that no future generation can be harmed by its rediscovery.

Archivists are romantic figures in Highguard. While the truth is that many of them are quiet scholars and scribes, the popular image is of them as active, energetic people who go to dangerous locations to retrieve valuable information or artefacts for the good of the nation and the Empire as a whole. They face danger frequently, and often have to work against those who want to foolishly spread dangerous information or unleash deadly magic.