"I spent two or three more years adventuring with Master Gren, learning and practicing field arts and helping defend border towns from goblin and orc raids. Still, nothing prepared us for what came soon after.

"The king's paranoia overtook him. He was convinced that if the Paladins ever allied themselves with another kingdom, they could overthrow him. He refused to give them that chance, and he mobilized a full legion against them.

"They weren't stupid, and they had a source of information that could not be outclassed: divine insight itself. Gren came for me himself, urging myself and the other Warriors to take the squires and pages, and leave the fortress. We didn't understand then, but we would later. The king's soldiers wiped them out to a man. We were all that remained of the Paladins of Tyr.

"Neighboring elvish nations took us in. The young ones stayed and studied, but we Warriors needed experience. We needed skill and power to overthrow the king and finally end his mad reign, before he sought to expand his rule over the entirety of the world. I was among the eldest Warriors, and so I was one of the new Masters. Barely out of my own apprenticeship, I now had pupils of my own. The following years were difficult, and I often--" Khel leaned forward, the glowing motes that served as his eyes dimming with grief for his long-lost friend and teacher.

"I often missed Gren. I did my best, we all did, but we Warriors were not masters, and we feared that Tyr's faithful had finally been extinguished."