Valkan

One of the best documented Amaranthite Lords was an ancient known as Valkan. He was the leader of a sect of immortals called the Recreantheum who rebelled against their leaders. At one time, we had in our possession several books handwritten by Valkan himself.

According to documents stored in our Order's archives, Lord Valkan was one of the oldest and most unconventional Amaranthite Lords. It was believed until early in this century that he had been killed sometime in 900 AD by Catholic Knights in what is now northern Austria. Four of his books were obtained by the church soon after, and were eventually passed on to the Knights of St. Jerome in 1183. According to some sources, Valkan wrote as many as twenty books, though the Church has only ever uncovered solid evidence of five. The four books once held by our Order were considered so heretical by the Vatican that they were sealed and guarded from any who would seek to use them. In the early fifteenth century, however, when two of the books were destroyed it was decided that copies should be made. Unfortunately, whatever secrets Valkan recorded were destined to go undiscovered as the effort of transcribing them drove more than one monk into madness. Today, in addition to partial copies, only one of Valkan's original books is in our possession.

Most of what we have been able to piece together on the true history of the Amaranthites is based on research done by the Duke Heinrich Von Guellum before his death. Unfortunately, his main references were letters written between the Recreantheum, and obviously they learned little from the final Armere assembly, having not attended themselves. What Von Guellum did discover was that Thracio and his fellows revealed evidence of some impending peril, something that the Amaranthites were intimately linked to. Whatever the evidence was, we must assume that it was quite compelling, as the Allegiantheum agreed unanimously to destroy all evidence that their race ever existed.

According to Valkan's estimate, some twenty-seven thousand Amaranthites used the Armere Wards to take their own lives on that night, for reasons that he could not fathom.

Before the end of the council, it was decided that twelve of the most powerful of the Allegiantheum would stay behind and become Ordinates, or hunters. It would be their task to find each of the renegade Recreantheum and execute them. Once their duty was completed, or if they felt eternity pull to strong, they would take their own lives.

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