Dawnbringers

Dawnbringers

The Dawnbringers are the faithful of Lathander the Morninglord — clerics, crusaders, and holy warriors sworn to destroy evil, drive back the undead, and carry hope and the light of the dawn into the dark places of Faerûn. Ancient and far-flung, the order keeps temples and chapterhouses across the Sword Coast and the Western Heartlands, but in recent decades its highest seat has come to rest in Elturel — drawn, the faithful say, to the one city where the light never dies. High Overseer Thavius Kreeg — though a priest of Torm himself — welcomed the order to the city, helped establish it there, and gave the Dawnspire its home beneath the Companion's light.

Beliefs

• Every dawn is a fresh chance; despair is the only true defeat.
• Evil must be opposed wherever it is found — and the undead, which mock true life, destroyed without mercy.
• To stand idle while evil prospers is itself a sin.
• Temper zeal with wisdom, and guard ever against pride.

Methods

• Hunt the undead, fiends, and the servants of tyranny — chief among them the Cult of the Dragon, whose founder's undying legacy the order has opposed since its earliest days.
• Greet each sunrise with the Dawn Song, and carry that hope to the fearful and the grieving.
• Shield temples, pilgrims, and the innocent; win with light what cannot be won with the sword.

Two Arms of One Faith

• The Priestly Order — the ordained clergy who tend the temples, greet the dawn, heal, and shepherd the faithful. Their titles ascend from Awakened (novice) through Dawngreeter, Dawnlord, High Dawnlord, Dawnmaster, and Morninglord to the order's supreme priest, the Sunrise Lord, seated at Elturel.
• The Militant Order — the Soldiers of Light, who take the fight to the enemy. Baelgrum serves in this arm.

To rise in either arm, a Dawnbringer makes pilgrimage to the seat at Elturel and is raised by the Sunrise Lord's hand, renewing a solemn oath of service with each elevation.

Devotional bynames

It is common practice in both arms for those who swear to set aside the name they were born with — or to add to it — and take a byname drawn from the dawn. Firstlight, Unshuttered, Morningward, Lastdark, Kindle, Everdawn. The custom is neither required nor universal, and the order makes nothing of those who decline it, but it is widespread enough that a Dawnbringer of rank still carrying an ordinary family name has usually either come to the faith late or thought carefully about keeping it.

Militant Ranks

Rank 1 – Kindler — You carry the first spark. Squires, fresh converts, and the newly-sworn begin here, tested on patrol, on the hunt, and in the tending of shrines while elders take your measure.

Rank 2 – Aster Knight — You are a full Soldier of Light, trusted to hold the line against the undead and the cultist, to bear the order's colors, and to draw upon its armories and healers.

Rank 3 – Banneret of the Dawn — A proven hunter. You lead a lance of your fellows on your own judgment, running down dracolich-cults, undead nests, and the servants of the dark without waiting on orders.

Rank 4 – Sunmarshal — You command the order's soldiers across a whole march or city, coordinate with allied temples and knighthoods, and train the Kindlers who come after you.

Rank 5 – High Aster — You stand among the order's foremost champions: a handful of tested commanders who lead its greatest hunts and campaigns and counsel its head. It is from among the High Asters that a Dawnbreaker is raised.

Above the ranks stands the Dawnbreaker, head of the militant order — one office, held by one Soldier of Light, seated at Elturel beneath the Sunrise Lord. Where the Dawnbreaker rides, dawn is said to follow.

Deeds done in Lathander's name — undead destroyed, hope restored, oaths kept — win a Dawnbringer favor toward their next elevation; despair spread, innocents abandoned, or the undead spared cost it. See the Renown Tracker for how the order scores the party's actions.

Baelgrum's Recruitment

After Deez Nuts annihilated a Cult of the Dragon undead force pursuing a Dawnbringer-escorted caravan at the Battle of Nuts Deep , the caravan's commander — Banneret Tamsin Firstlight — sensed Baelgrum's "strong connection to Lathander," heard his story — Goldenfields, the dragon, the years of cult-hunting in the Morninglord's name — and made the offer on the spot: "We would be honored if you would join our ranks." His answer: "Do it. As long as Squire Rogar can come." She sensed at once that Rogar too is a follower of Lathander, and both were welcomed.

Terms of his entry: given his deeds and stature, he will not start at the order's lowest rank; on his next visit to Elturel he is to call at one of the order's temples for the symbols and items fitting someone of his accomplishments, arranged with the order's head in the city. The order will also provide a quest — the in-story transition of Baelgrum's boon track from Alexios's frozen Athena legacy to the Dawnbringers.

Firstlight also revealed that the Dawnbringers and Elturel's Hellriders are jointly stockpiling supplies and magic items in the city for the coming battles against Tiamat — the secret cargo the party saved.

The Seat at Elturel

The Sunrise Lord's seat, the Dawnspire, stands within Elturel, and the city's Dawnbringers speak warmly of the Companion — the second sun that never sets — as a blessing that "feels like the Morninglord's own regard." Some quietly wonder whether it is a sign that the Morning is growing into the Noon; orthodox clergy in the north find such talk unseemly, but few who have stood in that unsleeping light care to argue.

Role in the Rise of Tiamat

The Dawnbringers are not one of the five great factions seated at the Council of Waterdeep, but their militant order has warred on the Cult of the Dragon since its earliest days — for the Cult was founded to raise dragons as undead dracoliches, the very corruption the Morninglord commands his faithful to destroy. Wherever the coalition needs undeath burned out of the dark, the Soldiers of Light are natural allies. Through Baelgrum, a cult-hunter drawn into the faith and now formally sworn, Deez Nuts carries the order's cause into the war against Tiamat — and the order, with the Hellriders, is provisioning Elturel for the battles to come.

Leadership & Representatives

• The Dawnbreaker – head of the militant order, raised from among the High Asters and seated at the Dawnspire in Elturel (as yet unmet)
• The Sunrise Lord – supreme priest of the order, seated at the Dawnspire in Elturel (as yet unmet)
• Banneret Tamsin Firstlight – caravan commander who recruited Baelgrum at Nuts Deep

Notable Members

• Baelgrum – Dwarf cult-hunter and warrior-cleric; formally recruited into the militant order in Session 53; entering above the lowest rank
• Tamsin Firstlight – Banneret of the Dawn; commanded the caravan saved at Nuts Deep and brought Baelgrum into the order
• Rogar – Baelgrum's dragonborn paladin squire, a fellow Lathanderite, admitted alongside him (see Squires of Deez Nuts)

Relationships

• Lathander – The Morninglord, the god they serve
• Cult of the Dragon – Their oldest and most-hated enemy
• Order of the Gauntlet – Kindred good faction; shared war on the Cult and the undead
• Hellriders and the paladins of Torm in Elturel – Allies in the field under Elturgard's law and the Creed Resolute; joint war-provisioning of Elturel
• Deez Nuts – Tied to the order through Baelgrum; saviors of the order's caravan at Nuts Deep

Appearances

• Session 40 – A Temple of Lathander (the Dawn Vault) is established over Wave Echo Cave
• Session 52 – Baelgrum, drawn toward the faith, is expected to take a squire from Elturel's light-temples
• Session 53 – The party saves the order's caravan; Banneret Tamsin Firstlight recruits Baelgrum and Rogar