Templars of a Radiant Dawn

"By the time you see the glow, it’s too late."

-Recent Local Saying

Overview

The Templars of a Radiant Dawn are paramilitary dedicants who claim allegiance to an allegedly-heretical (at least if you listen to the Darwins out of The God Yard) Church of Darwin sect known as the Temple of a New Dawn. The Temple is headquartered in the J. Andrews Technology Enclave, though the Enclave itself denies any knowledge of the group’s activities. Despite this denial the Templars seemingly have access to a never-ending stream of experimental rad-tech that they deploy with brutal, calculating efficiency.

Resources and Tactics

The Radiant Dawn do not appear to have a fixed base of operations, instead maintaining a floating support infrastructure wherever is secure and convenient. Once established in a theater of activity their Templars launch sudden and overwhelming assaults to cripple their opposition and achieve their goals, often before anyone is even aware of their presence. The objective of these strikes varies, encompassing everything from livestock rustling to industrial espionage, but one component remains constant: there are no survivors.

Accounts of their attacks come almost exclusively from those that have returned from the Mortis. Perhaps more disturbingly, a number of their victims have never returned. Even those not lost to the Mortis sometimes disappear, forcibly transported by the Templars to parts and fates unknown. In the face of such a threat a growing group of settlements have determined that parlaying with the Templars is wiser than potentially becoming their next target, supplying the Radiant Dawn with a regular tribute of whatever they request in exchange for the security of being off their radar.

Organizational Structure

In addition to a number of more rank an file soldiers, several leadership figured have been observed going by specific designations. While their faces and genders are obscured by masks and heavy filters, the designations and general appearance of these individuals remains relatively consistent. Whether these designations are ranks, names, or call-signs is not made clear even when asked directly by inquiring townsfolk on the end of whatever recent injustice they have been subjected to.

Most negotiations are conducted through an officer known as Vox, who appears to be the Templars’ tasked point person for dealing with outsiders. Vox has been described by many as quite personable, perhaps unnervingly so given the implied alternative to the friendliness they offer. Beyond their diplomatic duties Vox is also rumored to oversee the Templars’ interrogation and psychological operations team, duties which Vox sees little dissonance between.

If negotiations break down in a particularly egregious way Vox’s counterpart could be said to be Caliban, the designation for the Templars’ chief compliance officer. Even that banal title belies the severity of Caliban’s remit, as their team is responsible for carrying out the Radiant Dawn’s most horrific sanctions. Radiation, poison, disease, every technique of terror and devastation is a weapon in Caliban’s arsenal. An arsenal that they will pitilessly bring to bear on targets deemed either too recalcitrant or threatening to be permitted continued existence.

Where Caliban is extremity, Ariel in turn is subtlety. The designation for the officer in charge of the Templars’ more clandestine activities, that any even know their designation is a wound to Ariel’s pride. That the Radiant Dawn is able to move through The Bailey with as much stealth as they do is no small feat on the part of Ariel and their operational security. One should not mistake softer footsteps for a softer touch, however. Where other teams might leave witnesses as a warning to others, Ariel abides no loose ends of any kind.

Overall command of the Templars of the Radiant Dawn is in turn the purview of Prospero, the designation for their leader. Visual accounts of Prospero are few, though they have been referred to as the source of orders and the recipient of reports by individuals who have overheard Templar communications. All the officers within the Radiant Dawn seem to have at least a begrudging respect for Prospero, though some have also appeared to chafe at the commander’s instructions when they conflict with their own prerogatives.