N A M E / A L I A S Sir Otto Oddmund Ormsson (though his name has long since been forgotten), instead he is known as simply as the Green Knight
M Y T H O L O G Y Some of the oldest remembered legends of Ansus tell the story of the Green Knight, a valiant martyr whose name is said to have been lost even to the gods themselves. In each form of the ancient tale that are still told, he is a different man, a different sort of hero (or even villain), and his ultimate fate inevitably varies depending on the whims of the storyteller. However, in all the stories, some common threads of truth can be found.
Once the stories say, the Green Knight was but a man of flesh and blood, a brave knight returned from decades of fighting in a lengthy war that few care to remember. Little is known of the Green Knight's origins, but he is remembered most frequently as a knight of the southern lands, with a number of stories suggesting that he was a Nalmorian noble. Traditionally, it is thus claimed that after his return from the war, he guarded the forests near the once great Kingdom of Nalmar. For years, it is said that he tested and judged all those that dared to pass through the wilderness that he claimed and more than one heroic story involves a hero facing the Green Knight in honorable combat. In time, the Green Knight was said to have become a favored servant of Tavra, the goddess of nature and legends tell of his travels in service of this powerful deity.
Many years later a blight spread across the lands, the dead were rumored to arisen from the grave and dark things took hold in the hearts of men. The legends say that Tavra, troubled by the disruption of the natural order sent the Green Knight from his ancestral lands on a mission to cleanse the troubled lands and restore balance. The truth of the matter is less than clear, but the tales suggest that the Green Knight purged the lands of an undead horde.
Yet, no good deed goes unpunished, and the Green Knight supposedly fell in the final battle against the responsible necromancer Ustgar.
A P P E A R A N C E In the ancient stories the Green Knight is depicted as a giant of a man, a towering figure adorned with armor of metal and wood, his face always hidden beneath a great helm decorated with the antlers of a strange beast.
However, the heretical writings of the infamous scribe Athust offer the following description: "At the behest of the king and with little ceremony the Green Knight removed his helm. His black hair was long and ragged, reaching to his shoulders, his beard equally unkempt and the man seemed to have lost himself to the wilderness. Calm green eyes looked at our party with only a polite hint of amusement, lingering on each of us as if in judgment, and a broad mouth shifted into a modest disarming smile. His noble features and the antiquated, exceedingly formal manner in which led me to conclude that he must have been a member of one of the ancient Nalmorian houses."
A B I L I T I E S / E Q U I P M E N T The Green Knight is blessed with the five boons of Tavra:
- Mastery of Nature - As a servant of Tavra, the Green Knight is able to create, shape, and manipulate various forms of plants.
- Gift of the Sun - As patient as his patron deity was, the Green Knight was granted some traits otherwise exclusive to plants (photosynthesis, yo).
- Will of Nature - Unmoved by opposition or danger, the Green Knight has ability to heal wounds that might be fatal to a normal human being (think plants being able to regrow/repair severe damage over time).
- The Armor of the Forest - The Green Knight is always depicted as wearing a green robe and a strange set of armor crafted out of a wood and metal, that defies many of the conventional qualities and attributes of armor working.
- The Arms of the Forest - The legends describe the Green Knight as wielding the Heartwood Spear (a long spear), the Bow of Swift Judgement, and a fearsome two handed blade, known only as Foebane.