Sentinel Orders

The Sentinel Orders, also called the Sentinel Knights, Sentinel Brethren, March-Wardens, or Castellan Orders, are a group of several militant-monastic knightly orders dedicated to defending Orithea and frontiers of human civilization against the threat of orcish invasion from Ulthark. The Orders differ in the details of their organization but are bound together by a common mission and shared traditions. Many of them are also Kothaurite templar orders (in which case their main stronghold will be a temple-fortress), or are sworn into bonded union with Kothaurite or Tefranite orders, in which case the Sentinels function as a brother-order or secular adjunct to the templars. Each is governed by a Master (some may use different titles for the position), elected by a council of the Order’s senior commanders and officers.

The Orders have their roots in southern Vastemar and, to a lesser degree, southwestern Sularia. Prior to the conquests of Gol Garga, they were based in those regions, where they held a sizable collection of territories (called commanderies) on or near the old Ulthark Marches. They typically exercised sovereign authority over these commanderies, governing them as they saw fit and enjoying exemption from the laws and taxes of the kingdoms within whose borders they lay. In the few places where Sentinel Orders didn’t exercise full sovereignty over their enclaves, they at least had considerable autonomy from local rulers and enjoyed various special prerogatives. Each commandery was centered around a major fortress, garrisoned by the Order and positioned to protect a part of the Ulthark Marches against orcish incursion (this role is the source of the alternate moniker ‘Castellan Orders’). Some orders controlled but a single commandery with its fortress serving as their headquarters, but others had many.

The oldest of the Sentinel Orders had defended Vastemard borders against orcish incursion for more than a thousand years. However, Gol Garga finally succeeded in breaking through the frontier, overwhelming the Orders along with the other defenders of Vastemar. Some were destroyed completely over the course of the fighting; the remnants of those that weren’t annihilated have now mostly reconstituted themselves in Dranuria, the Sornele, and southern Kelimaria. In Dranuria and especially the Sornele, they have close alliances with the Kuzul-Kadrinu army of occupation, and local rulers have been pressured to grant them sovereign rights and landholdings along the frontier-line of the new Ulthark Marches. Those that have been granted such concessions now preside over new commanderies, each again centered on a fortress that guards and controls the surrounding area, although in some cases these 'fortresses' are more like temporary fortified encampments while proper castles are being built to guard the new border's vital points.

The ranks of these martial brotherhoods are open to any fit fighting man who is willing to swear their oaths and accept their discipline; the massive losses they sustained over nearly twenty years of constant fighting have been balanced out by a heavy influx of bitter, vengeful, and desperate new recruits. For every Sentinel brother who fell in battle, there’s a teenage boy whose family was wiped out by the orcs; a bitter and dispossessed Vastemard knight driven off an ancestral estate; a hard-bitten old veteran who knows nothing but fighting orcs and will join on with anyone who offers him more of it.

Of late there has been some talk of reinstating the position of Grand Master or Supreme Master of the Sentinel Orders, a single leader chosen to command all of their brethren under one authority. The position of Grand Master was first instituted several years ago during the final dark days of Vastemar’s conquest, as a desperate attempt to more effectively coordinate the Orders' fighting forces. Obviously it failed, and the Grand Master chosen then died in battle against the orcs and has not been replaced since. However, some now argue that the leadership of another Grand Master would hasten the reconstitution of the Orders along the new Ulthark Marches. This has caused some friction with the so-called Free Margraves, the last remnants of Zanbalik, who likewise play a role in guarding the new frontier and are wary of being subordinated to the Sentinel Orders and the Kuzul-Kadrinu.