Disclaimer: This is a Hellknight order I just created about an hour ago; inspired by the new Hellknight splatbook. I thought about it for a minute and made the group's basic info, and then the words just flowed from my brain and through the keyboard. I want to emphasize, strongly, that I am ABSOLUTELY opposed to slavery and that these are meant to be cruel, merciless, EVIL people. This order is not intended as a player option for good or neutrally aligned characters, and anyone attempting to join it should have their alignment switched towards evil.
*****
Order of the Lash
Motto: “The cold eye watches, the slaver’s whip awaits.”
Symbol: coiled martinet in a spiral pattern with a reptilian eye at it’s center
Headquarters: Venomhold, northeast of Osteno, Cheliax
Leader: Viktor Kraul (LE male human warpriest of Asmodeus 8/Hellknight 2)
Members: Slavers, slaves willing to betray their own, torturers, Asmodean zealots
Armor Features: Reptilian patterns and designs; serpentine helms and snake motifs
Favored Weapon: Whip
Reckoning: Labor in a particularly intensive and painful fashion, and/or whip oneself’s bare back so that you may understand the suffering of slavery. Gain a +2 bonus to Intimidate and a +2 bonus on Will saves against fear effects.
Analogous Order: Chain
The Order of the Lash, while a relatively small organization, is feared and reviled across the empire of Cheliax as one of the cruelest and most evil Hellknight orders in existence. The Order of the Lash was founded after the ascendency of House Thrune, and it’s sole purpose is to promote, protect, and preserve the institution of slavery. To the order, slavery is an integral part of not only the Nine Hell’s system of laws but the societies of the mortal world, and that those with power and privilege in society should naturally be able to own and control other sentient beings. Just as commoners are expected to serve their lords, and just as their is predator and prey in nature, so too must there be master and slave. As an organization founded to support slavery, the Order of the Lash has a multitude of responsibilities and objectives: escorting slave caravans, putting down slave uprisings, serving as bodyguards for slavers, hunting escaped slaves, or thwarting abolitionists. Sometimes, the members of order may be contracted to serve as dedicated punishers or interrogators of slaves. While only representing a small percentage of the overall personnel associated with the industry of slavery across the empire of Cheliax, they are nonetheless some of the institution’s most fearsome advocates.
Based in their fortress of Venomhold near the city of Osteno in Cheliax, the Order of the Lash is currently headed by an Asmodean warpriest from Egorian named Viktor Kraul. He was an orphaned boy sold into slavery at any early age and languished in slavery for most of his young life. But rather then be morally opposed to slavery he became mesmerized with the power that slave-owners held over their captives and desired to possess that power for himself. Viktor worked diligently under his master, informed on his fellow slaves when they attempted to rebel, and offered to oversee and punish them. In recognition of his service, Viktor was freed by his master and became an armiger of the Lash. He rose through the ranks of the order and succeeded the incumbent lictor when the aging Hellknight was poisoned by rebels loyal to the goddess Calistria.
In present times, Kraul is concerned about abolitionist organizations such as Andoran’s Eagle Knights or the halfling-liberating Bellflower network. To these ends, he has offered his order’s service in crushing them and is coordinating with House Thrune and the Church of Asmodeus to make this a reality. In Infernal Cheliax, where slavery is a way of life, the Order of the Lash is never wanting for new work or contracts, but they are often stretched fairly thin as a result. Kraul understands that his order, while wiling and capable of combat, does not specialize in fighting in large battles or military campaigns. With the advent of the Glorious Reclamation, the order has not sent it’s Hellknights directly into battle against the Iomedan revolutionaries but has instead confronted the Reclamation when and where the knights attempt to interfere with their duties. There has been many a skirmish between the Order of the Lash and the Glorious Reclamation when the latter has ambushed slave caravans, disrupted slave auctions, and attempted to attempted to punish slave owners. In response, Kraul has ordered his men to capture crusaders of the Reclamation when possible and keep them as slaves so that he may have some leverage over the Iomedans, but the knight’s vow against allowing themselves to be captured by the minions of Hell has made this difficult. Viktor is confident that House Throne will win the war but hopes that Venomhold does not fall and that the order does not become one of the war’s casualties.
The Order of the Lash’s symbology is unique. They chose to use the serpent as a symbol to represent themselves for various reason: the long body of a snake and the sudden, painful manner in which it lunges forward and bites evokes the lash of a whip. The cold, lifeless stare of a snake is eerie to behold and provokes fear in it’s prey, and some snake’s methods of constricting their prey recall the manner a slave is constricted by his or her chains. Lastly, the serpent is the holy animal of Asmodeus and one of the devil-god’s most prominent symbols. When a newly-initiated Hellknight of the Lash completes their devil-slaying test, they receive a suit of armor with heavy snake motifs, featuring a scaly design, snake embroidery winding across their capes, and a helm resembling the head of a serpent through with the Hellknight peers through it’s open maw. Beyond their symbology, the Order of the Lash often uses fiendish snakes as a minions and has alchemically bred snakes with unique properties, such as venom that induces immediate paralysis or one that causes intense, burning, non-lethal pain. Every Hellknight of the Lash carries a whip with them regardless of what their primary combat weapon is. The reasoning behind their reckoning is that they must understand the toil and pain of slavery intimately and thus be able to truly know how to control and discipline slaves. It is also so that the Hellknights may not grow decadent and weak; for maintaining the institution of slavery requires constant ruthlessness and vigilance.