The Paladin Movements

## The Movements/Phases

The Paladins are divided into 3 main movements, they are:

* Paladins of Justice
* Paladins of Zeal
* Paladins of Order

All of them agree with each other's views and many scholars do not consider it movements, rather they call it "phases" of a Paladin. For most Paladins would switch from a phase of focusing on spreading Laws of Justice to a phase of Warfare or bringing Stability depending on the environmental factors.

### Main Differences

The only difference between the Movements is the thing the Paladins held as their main concern. For example, a Paladin of Justice has as his main concern to spread the laws of Anum, whilst a Paladin of Zeal is mainly concerned with fighting evil forces and waging war on them to defend his homeland. A Paladin of Order on the other hand would mainly be concerned with the wellbeing of the people and the order in their settlements, thus he'd take the position of authority over them and focus on implementing the laws to keep his region of authority stable and in balance. A misconception would be that a Paladin of Justice was a worse fighter than a Paladin of Zeal, or that a Paladin of Order was a worse conveyer of the Anumic laws than the Paladins of Justice, but this is false since they all had excellent fighting skills and in fact all would fight the forces of Evil, the only thing is that one would place a focus on it whilst the other saw it as a duty that would apply when a situation arises and that as long as there is no news of it, he could focus on spreading the Laws of Anum, or keeping his settlement stable. Likewise one would place a focus on spreading the Laws of Anum, whilst the other would not put a focus on it but would still do it if he saw a need for it. All shared excellent skills in these traits.

### Individual Differences

Paladins are known to have had individual differences in their methods of applying the Laws of Anum. A good example would be the difference between the Code of Azraban and the Code of Adumrakhab. Azraban had laws that had different levels of harshness depending on the severity of the crimes, whilst Adumrakhab's laws practically had no mercy and would punish any crime mercilessly. Since all Paladin codes were based off the Laws of Anum, both of these methods were praised by Paladins, even by those who ruled with their own codes or followed that of another Paladin. And just like the difference between Azraban and Adumrakhab, many other Paladins had these individual differences. There have been people in the time of the Paladins and after them who have tried to combine some of these Codes into a perfect law book, but in fact all they did was make a new Code of Law, the most famous of these people nowadays is Zaryarez.

### Consensus upon the Anumic Laws

Regardless of the individual differences of the Paladins, never did one of them lose respect for the other. All of them saw the other as the representative of Avzaya and the possessor of the great Anumical magic of Light, and all their codes were seen as valid since they were based off the Laws of Anum and were made by the representatives of Avzaya, the originator of the Law of Anum. Thus all Paladins of all time had an agreement and consensus upon the validity of the others' codes and methods of fulfilling their Paladin duties.

## Paladins of Justice

The Paladins of Justice are often called The Conveyers of the Anumic Laws. Like all other Paladins, they follow the oldest Paladin codes and hold a balance between War and Peace. They see the spreading of Justice and the Anumic laws as their main concern.

### The First of the Paladins of Justice

The Paladins of Justice are claimed to be the ones who travel the lands the most to spread the laws of Anum, their focus is not to fight evil directly. Many of the early Paladins adopted this method, in fact it is the first phase the earliest of Paladins were in, fighting evil and keeping order were stages that developed later on. The first to write on this method and on their codes were none other than the first Generation themselves. The most writings that survived however, are from the 3rd generation and after, one of these writings is from Ashtumashem (330 B.E - 199 B.E) the son of Azulmadar (370 B.E - 208 B.E) the son of Akhtenayush (440 B.E - 260 B.E). Ashtumashem's grandfather, Akhtenayush, was among the grand ones of the Paladins who had exited the Garden during the War of Magic, they are commonly referred to as: The First Generation of Paladins, The Grand Ones, The Great Forefathers, or simply The Ancient Forefathers. Akhtenayush was the fourth person to be made Paladin at the hands of Avzaya.

### The Letter of Ashtumashem

An example of the writings the Paladins of Justice wrote is the following letter of Ashtumashem which he sent to one of the Kings of Azaria, In it he stated some of the Codes of the First Generation. It read as follows:

> *"Per the order of Avzaya, and the oath we have sworn to keep, I order you to surrender your crown to the laws of the Paladins. You mustn't allow any Injustice on your land, nor leave the perpetrators unpunished. You must teach your people the ways of goodness, and train them to defend against evil. Desecrate not an oath and cut the tongues of those who do such, and if you did such on your own, then cut your own tongue with an unsharp knife so you may suffer. Let harm befall only the unjust ones, and do not let the innocent suffer from it. You must strive to aid the innocent needy for it is only Just to aid a fellow Azarian. You will obey us with any law we order you with, for disobedience will be punished. Indeed this is an invitation for the wise who seek not to destroy themselves."*
>
>

By the time Ashtumashem sent this letter, the Paladins of Zeal and Order were already numerous in number since settlements kept being made and the forces of evil became a threat. The letter shows that the method of these Paladins is to spread their laws to the people and to enlighten them with these rules of Justice which create a perfect balance. A side point regarding this specific letter is that it shows the personality and character of Ashtumashem. It's apparent that he was a strict man who was harsh on those who are unjust. Unsurprisingly, during the later years of his life, he was more of a Paladin of Zeal, and at the end of his life he was a Paladin of Order, ruling over 20 settlements in Western Azaria.

## Paladins of Zeal

The Paladins of Zeal are often called the Paladins of Glory. Like all other Paladins, they follow the oldest Paladin codes. Their distinguishing factor is that their Zeal for fighting the forces of Evil is unmatchable. Unlike the Paladins of Justice and Order, they share a common trait of being angered fairly quickly by the news of Injustice. As a result they put a focus on Warfare to defend the territories of the forces of Good and to destroy the forces of Evil. The First Generation of Paladins were all considered to be Paladins of Justice, i.e their focus was to spread their laws to the people. However, among them was Zamun, a valiant warrior Paladin.

### Zamun and the Plague of the Wind

The story begins with the Plague of the Wind. In 385 B.E, 15 years after the War of Magic, a plague affected the horses of some eastern Azarian villages. They resolved to bringing their horses to the top of a mountain where they'd rot to death. Zamun happened to pass by these villages, and he wanted to investigate the matter, so he watched the lands for 3 weeks and noticed an odd behaviour. The people initially claimed that the plague was brought by a great storm and thus they called it the Plague of the Wind. But Zamun noticed that whenever their horses would eat from hay which was extracted from fields near the mountains, they'd be affected by the plague. So he climbed the mountains and discovered that the horses they had brought were all rotten to death and from their bellies emerged black substances, their eyes were pure black and their tongues as well. He stayed on the mountain for a few hours until he noticed a Black dragon emerging from behind it. Zamun didn't hesitate and fought the dragon, killing it. He found that the feces of this dragon is what caused the infection of the hay. What followed is that he informed the other Paladins of the emergence of the forces of Evil in the land, and this marked the beginning of the Paladins of Zeal movement in which many Paladins made their main duty to defend Azaria from the forces of Evil. Azaria was left with two types of Paladins; The Paladins of Justice, whose main focus was spreading the Laws of Anum, and the Paladins of Zeal whose main focus was ridding and cleansing the land of the forces of Evil. One travelled to spread the Paladin influence, and the other travelled to defend and cleanse the land. Among the notable Paladins of Zeal are: Zamun, Adumrakhab, Zarkhayush, and many others.

Subsequently, due to the rising amount of Paladins of Zeal, order had to be kept, and so slowly but surely The Paladins of Order rose to ascertain their dominance over the settlements.

## Paladins of Order

The Paladins of Order are often called the Emperors among the Paladins, or simply the Paladin Shahs. They are Paladins who have excelled so much that they have total dominion over a large group of settlements and have crowned themselves Shahs over it. The movement emerged when the Paladins of Justice were busy spreading the Anumic laws whilst the Paladins of Zeal were in the mountains and caves fighting the forces of evil, which often caused unease and unrest with the people, and even the Kings of their settlements were often unsure what to do. Some Paladins saw this as an opportunity to get these settlements under their control and impose their laws as Shahs, and to have direct dominion over the people which would ensure balance (i.e civil rest and comfort) and the imposement of the Anumic Laws. Thus they entered the settlements and crowned themselves Shahs, with no one going against them for two main reasons:

1. They were Paladins, and thus everyone loved them
2. They were the highest among the Paladins, and had achieved glory in either one of the two movements (spreading Anumic laws or fighting fiercely)

The three Paladins movement were an excellent coordination and balanced approach to fulfilling the duties of being a Paladin. The Paladins of Justice would put their focus on spreading the Anumic Laws, making the people aware of Goodness and Evil, whilst the Paladins of Zeal would focus on waging war on the forces of Evil, defending Azaria and its inhabitants and showing the duties of the forces of Goodness, and the Paladins of Order would ensure that these people kept to these laws and lived under a law of Justice.

### Azraban, the greatest among the Paladins of Order

The greatest and most well known Paladin of Order was none other than Azraban, the builder of Asyhan. It is said that he was a valiant Paladin of Zeal for the most part of his life and that a few years before he built Asyhan, he focused more on spreading the Laws of Anum when he eventually had a dream and Established Asyhan, thus becoming a Paladin of Order.