The Dawnwatch

The Dawnwatch is the lance of the Dawnbringers given to Baelgrum on his elevation to Banneret of the Dawn. They sanctify ground against the unquiet dead, keep watch for what walks where it should not, and carry the light to people who have run out of it.

The commission

The packet came up from Elturel with the Dawnbringers' supply carts, sealed twice and wrapped in oilcloth against the weather. The formal commission is written in a clerk's even hand on heavy paper. Sunmarshal Cesta Lastdark's own additions are crammed into the margins in a heavier, faster hand, sometimes sideways where he ran out of room.

To Baelgrum of Goldenfields, Aster Knight of the Order, greeting.

By the hand of the Sunrise Lord and beneath the light that does not fail, you are raised to Banneret of the Dawn, with all duties and liberties pertaining to that rank, your oath renewed and deepened at the Dawnspire on the day appointed.

(in the margin: "Nine days after Firstlight's report reached me, which is fast, and I want you to know it was fast.")

To a Banneret the Order commits a lance, led upon your own judgment and answerable to you in the field. Five are named at the foot of this commission and are already dispatched to your seat at Nuts Deep. Their number shall increase as your standing in the Order increases.

The Order charges you with three duties, and commits the lance to their performance.

First, to consecrate. Where the unquiet dead have walked, or where the Enemy would work a rite, the lance shall sanctify the ground so that such things find no purchase there. This is the labour of days and not of hours.

Second, to keep watch. Set upon a road, a march, or a country, the lance shall bring you word of the undead and the infernal before such things arrive, that you may meet them rather than answer them.

Third, to carry the light. To the frightened, the grieving, and the beset, the lance shall bring the Morninglord's hope in whatever form the hour requires.

(in the margin: "The third one is not decoration. I have held more ground with a hymn than with a wall. You will find people remember who came.")

Reckon their travel as any other: hours within a town, three to five days within a region, ten days and upward across the coast. Upon the road they neither watch nor consecrate.

(in the margin, sideways: "I have four bannerets for a march that wants seven. You can see my difficulty and you can see why I am glad of you.")

Given at the Dawnspire, beneath the Companion, in the Morninglord's service —

Cesta Lastdark, Sunmarshal of the Elturgard March

(and below the seal, in the same heavy hand:)

Baelgrum —

Four things the paper will not tell you.

Ovid does not leave the flame. Thirty years he has kept it and he will not be moved to a more useful posting, so do not spend a season trying. Everything else about him is worth having.

Torvin never took a byname. He came to the faith late and kept what he was born with, and he has never once explained it. Do not ask. Cielle sings, and she also put a ghoul through a door at Berdusk, and both of those are true.

Now the part I dislike writing. They will not withdraw. It is not that they are brave, though they are — it is that the oath does not make room for it. Send them somewhere they cannot hold and they will consecrate it anyway and stand on it, and they will believe to the last that this was correct, and I am not certain they would be wrong. That judgement is yours now and it is a heavier thing than the rank.

Come to the Dawnspire when the road allows. There are things owed you that do not travel in a saddlebag.

The lance

Brother Ovid Morningward — the anchor, and not counted among the four. Lamplighter-priest, resident at Nuts Deep, where he keeps the flame and has not let it go out in thirty years. Slow, deaf in one ear, and entirely immovable on the subject of the lamp.

Four stand under him, and the Order adds a fifth as Baelgrum's standing grows, and a sixth after that.

Most Dawnbringers take a devotional byname when they swear (see Dawnbringers). One of these four did not.

Sworn	Bears	Currently posted
Perrin Unshuttered	Young, newly oath-sworn, and uses his byname at every available opportunity. Will get better.	The Elturel road — keeping watch
Ysanne Everdawn	The other young one, and the quiet one. Notices things Perrin talks over.	Nuts Deep — consecrating the ground where the Cult's dead fell
Sister Cielle Dawnsong	Hymnodist. Better in a fight than she looks, which is a thing people establish once.	A village on the eastern road — carrying the light
Torvin Reeve	Grave-warden, old, and has buried more of the order than he will discuss. Took no byname and does not say why.	The field outside the walls, seeing to the dead

What you can order

Order	What it does	How long
Consecrate	Sanctify ground where the unquiet dead have walked, or where the Enemy would work a rite, so that such things find no purchase there.	Days, not hours.
Ward	Set on a road, a march, or a country, they bring word of the undead and the infernal before it arrives — so you meet it rather than answer it.	Indefinite, while posted.
Carry the light	Bring hope to the frightened, the grieving, and the beset, in whatever form the hour requires. People remember who came.	While posted. Felt in your standing.

Standing rules.

• Complement: four sworn under Brother Ovid, who is counted apart. A fifth as your standing in the Order grows, and a sixth after that.
• Moving them: hours within a town, three to five days within a region, ten days and upward across the coast. On the road they neither watch nor consecrate.
• They will not withdraw. The oath does not make room for it. Sent somewhere they cannot hold, they will consecrate it anyway and stand on it, and believe to the last that it was correct. That judgement is yours, not theirs.

See also

• Dawnbringers — the order; standings are tracked on the Renown Tracker
• Tamsin Firstlight — the Banneret who brought Baelgrum into the order
• Nuts Deep — where the lance keeps its flame
• The Anvil · The Nightingales · Talonfall · The Broken Latch · The Hearthwardens — the other companies' cells
• Baelgrum