Canon:Death knight

This article is based on material by:  TSR, Inc./Wizards of the Coast

In Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy roleplaying games, a death knight (also known as a doom knight or demon knight) is a mighty warrior animated as an undead creature by the gods of death, evil deities, demon lords, or other malevolent forces.

Publication history

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977-1988)

Charles Stross created the Death Knight for the 1981 AD&D supplement Fiend Folio. In a review in White Dwarf magazine, Jamie Thompson referred to the Death Knight as one of the more interesting additions in the book.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989-1999)

By the time 2nd edition AD&D was introduced, the death knight had become an important figure in the Dragonlance campaign setting, with Lord Soth being a major villain for the setting. The death knight first appeared in this edition in the Monstrous Compendium Dragonlance Appendix (1990), and is reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993). The Tales of the Lance boxed set (1992) for the Dragonlance setting details the death knights of Krynn further, in the "World Book of Ansalon" booklet.

The death knight also plays a prominent role in the module Apocalypse Stone (2000), one of the final products of 2nd edition.

Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 edition (2000-2002)

As with other monsters from the early days of the Dungeons & Dragons game, the Death Knight was updated first for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, and then 3.5 Edition by Necromancer Games in their Tome of Horrors. This publication preceded Wizards of the Coast's own publication of the Death Knight in Dragon #290 (December 2001) and #291 (January 2002), and subsequent printing in Monster Manual II (2002).

Upon the release of the d20 SRD other publishers began to write books on various topics. Death Knights, along with most undead, have been a favorite enemy of heroic characters. Details on how to fight these creatures were included as part of the Lich entry in the Slayer’s Guide to Undead. Green Ronin later expanded this treatment in their Secret College of Necromancy which features role-playing notes for the Death Knight giving him more and unique spells, discussing other classes and races that the Death Knight may come from, and detailing the creature's background.

Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition (2003-2007)

The death knight is detailed in "The Ecology of the Death Knight", in Dragon #360 (October 2007).

The Dragonlance Campaign Setting (2003) details the Death Knight of Krynn.

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition (2008-)

The Death Knight is one of the creatures announced by Wizards of the Coast for the new Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition game. It will gain a significantly increased backstory and has been featured in the new 4th Edition preview book Worlds and Monsters.

The death knight appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2008), including the death knight human fighter and the death knight dragonborn paladin.

Ecology

Death knights are usually created by demon lord or evil deities. These evil undead warriors are most commonly raised from the ranks of blackguards, fighters, rangers, and barbarians, but a paladin who falls from grace near the moment of death may also become a death knight. Paladins who become death knights are subject to the same modifications as are presented for the blackguard in Chapter 2 of the Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide.

In Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition (and Version 3.5), a death knight has an aura of fear that will rout groups of low-level enemies, can channel powerful negative energy with a touch, and the ability to project explosions of fire and unholy energy.

Environment

Death knights are rare but may be found in any environment. They often choose fortified lairs such as old castles and towers.

Typical physical characteristics

The original Dungeons and Dragons Fiend Folio indicates that death knights are "lich-like". A death knight's physical form is that of its decayed body. The face is a blackened skull with patches of rotting flesh with two pinpoints of orange light in the eye sockets. The voice of a death knight is chilling, seeming to echo from deep within. Death knights were powerful people in life, and so they often wear expensive or magic clothing and armor. They are fond of wearing flowing capes to mark them as figures of importance.

Alignment

Death knights are (nearly) always evil.

Society

Though death knights rarely work with their own kind, they often have a variety of undead servants such as skeleton warriors, liches, and banshees. Death knights often ride nightmares into battle. Given the nature of their creation they are also often in the service of some demon lord or god of evil.

Death knights in various campaign settings

Death Knights in Dragonlance

The most famous of all death knights is Lord Soth, a disgraced Knight of Solamnia, from the Dragonlance and Ravenloft campaign settings. Loren Soth was cursed after he murdered his wife and child and failed to prevent the Cataclysm. He is attended by the skeleton warriors of his fallen troops and a cadre of ghostly banshees.

Soth is the most published Death Knight and is featured in all three editions of the Dungeons & Dragons game, the New York Times best selling Dragonlance Chronicles and Dragonlance Legends Trilogies, other novels of the Dragonlance mythos and outside of it, and various computer games.

The two Lord Soth novels for Ravenloft and the Dragonlance novel make Death Knights one of only five standard D&D creatures (Dragons, Vampires Elves/Drow, Liches, and Death Knights) to be the subject of a novel.

Death Knights in the Forgotten Realms

A similar type of undead warrior was seen in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. A paladin by the name of Miltiades was condemned by Tyr to exist as an undead knight for using dishonorable assassination tactics to kill his enemy Zarl. Miltiades retained his sense of good and fought by the sides of good heroes, helping to defeat the forces of Bane. He was eventually restored to life by Tyr after helping the heroes destroy a pool of darkness and a pool of twilight.

While Miltiades possessed an enchanted sword and armor, he did not have the ability to cast the magical spells mentioned above. He did still retain his "normal" paladin abilities like curing and turning the undead.

Shan Nikkoleth, a Death Knight of otherworldly origin, used to reside in Hellgate Keep (The Savage Frontier, page 42) but was blasted when the keep was destroyed.

An unnamed death knight, dressed like a vampire, also resides in Zhengyi's citadel (the Witch King of Vaasa) as described in module H4 "The Throne of Bloodstone". In that same adventure, an additional twelve death knights are also stated as dwelling in a city of liches in Orcus' realm.

Death Knights in Greyhawk

The first death knight identified by name in a Dungeons & Dragons product was Saint Kargoth, "King of the Death Knights," who first appeared in Scott Bennie's Dragon article, "Setting Saintly Standards" in 1983.

Kargoth appears in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting. Thirteen of Kargoth's fellow and contemporary Knight Protectors of the Great Kingdom join him in becoming death knights: Lord Monduiz Dephaar, Lady Lorana Kath of Naelex, Prince Myrhal of Rax, Sir Maeril of Naelax, Sir Farian of Lirtham (destroyed 209 CY, but soul now powers the deathblade Astrosus), Lord Andromansis of Garasteth, Sir Oslan Knarren, Sir Rezinar of Haxx, Lord Thyrian of Naelax, Sir Minar Syrric of Darmen, Duke Urkar Grasz of Torquann, Sir Luren the Boar of Torquann, and Lord Khayven of Rax. All are transformed by the power of the demon prince Demogorgon.

Four other death knights of Oerth are known by name. The first is Saint Ferrante, a fallen paladin of Heironeous. The second is Sir Loran of Trollpyre Keep, a former knight of Sunndi. The third death knight's real name is unknown, but he calls himself, Kas the Bloody-Handed. Oerth's newest death knight is Vanthus Vanderboren, a former nobleman of Sasserine and servant of Demogorgon. Sainte Ferrante appears in Bastion of Faith, while Loran and "Kas" appear in Die Vecna Die! as servants of Vecna. Other death knights also appear in the later adventure but are not identified by name. Vanthus Vanderboren appears in the Dungeon magazine's Savage Tide adventure path, but he does not become a death knight until late in the campaign.

Additional reading

• Bennie, Scott. "Setting Saintly Standards." Dragon #79 (TSR, 1983).
• Cordell, Bruce R., and Steve Miller. Die Vecna Die! (Wizards of the Coast, 2000).
• Gary Holian, Erik Mona, Sean K Reynolds, Frederick Weining (November 2000). Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. (3e) Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 0-7869-1743-1.
• Stark, Ed. "The Death Knight." Dragon #222 (TSR, 1995).

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