The Heldannic Order - Vaults of Pandius

HISTORY AS THE IMMORTALS KNOW IT
inspiring performance rapidly spread
among the Thyatians, and Vanyafascination
became entangled with the
collective conscious of the citizens.
At the behest of her Imperial Consort,
Rudolfus, Empress Olivia legalized the
Cult. By the time Olivia’s grandson,
Gabrionus III, inherited the throne,
Vanya had been incorporated into the
pantheon of the Church of Thyatis and
adopted as an ancestor to the imperial
line.
The Soldiers of the Storm had long
vanished from the concerns of Hattians
and had been kept alive solely by a small
line of drunken cranks and minor thugs.
As the Vanyan Cult grew and became
adopted by the wider Empire, the
Soldiers were suddenly inspired and
radicalized. The group rededicated itself
to Hattian nationalism and committing
crimes and acts of terror against other
groups. Though the historical Vanya was
Kerendan, the Soldiers also spoke of
Vanya as a Hattian patron.
The Cult formalized into a Church
shortly after the murder of Ledeia.
Increasing numbers of current and former
Soldiers of the Storm filled the Church
pews. Their influences were countered
by orders such as the Brotherhood of the
Grey Lady, which already had been
securing goodwill in the capital.
Gabrionus IV was a strong adherent of
Vanya, and he led the Empire into its
greatest period of expansion since its
founding. The Thyatian presence was
felt as far away as the Savage Coast and
the lands west of Norwold.
In 913, Emperor Gabrionus IV died and
was succeeded by his bookish son.
Realizing this signaled the end of
imperial conquest, the Church of Vanya
formed the Order of Vanya, a holy
military society governed by the Church.
The Heldannic Order
The second Grand Master of the Order,
or Hochmeister, was Klaus Stamhoffer.
Not long after his elevation, Stamhoffer
received two dreams which he ascribed to
Vanya. The first inspired a decade-long
quest by Knights of the Order to find the
grave of Vanya. The second brought the
Order to Heldann, the true home of the
Vanyan faithful.
In 950 AC, with permission from the
Emperor, the Order invaded the
Freeholds. Haldisvall was the first to
fall, and the ruling Haldis clan was
massacred. The Knights renamed the
capital Freiburg, while the Order of
Vanya became the Heldannic Order.
It was a decade before the Heldannic
Knights subjugated the Freeholds and
established the Territories. They
conquered first the coastal communities
and then Altendorf. Fighting for
Torgsdal and Skolgrim, modern
Hockstein and Grauenberg, respectively,
was exceptionally brutal. At the close of
the invasion, Haldis partisans and
independent settlements still controlled
the Altenwald and parts north. The
barbarians of the central Sudbergen
remained scattered and also independent
of the Knights.
Space: Above and Beyond
As the Order secured its hold over
Heldann, the quest for Vanya’s Rest
concluded successfully. Argo
Tannengrub had discovered Vanya’s
body in a coastal cave along Davania’s
southeastern shores. The miraculously
preserved body was actually a
simulacrum created by Vanya and placed
upon the artifact that would later be
known as the Star of Vanya. Word
reached the Grand Master, and soon the
Order constructed a citadel about the
grave.
5
The Knights discovered the Star in the
building process, and its telekinetic
powers facilitated the Citadel’s
construction. The Knights also
developed the first Heldannic Warbirds –
flying ships whose propulsion originated
from the Star.
The early warbirds explored the
southern continent and other regions of
Mystara, but their existence was kept a
secret from the Known World, even
through the Alphatian Spike.
After the Spike (when Alphatia nearly
conquered Thyatis), the Knights began to
explore the airless void beyond the
Skyshield. They encountered the hidden
moon of Patera with its Myoshiman
rakasta and entered the Hollow World,
establishing a presence at Stonehaven and
Oostdok.
The secret of the Heldannic flight
program was nearly blown when the
Alphatian noble and scoundrel, Haldemar
of Haaken, stumbled upon Vanya’s Rest
and the warbirds in orbit beyond the
Skyshield. Sundsvall was incompletely
informed of events before Haldemar
disappeared into the Hollow World and
subsequently vanished. Unable to defend
himself, the Alphatian prince became the
first of many diplomatic imbroglios
between the Empire and the Order. The
Order maintained a standing capture-orkill
order against Haldemar, but after a
decade of no sightings, he and his crew
were presumed destroyed.