Order of the Silver Gryphon - Founding

The Order of the Silver Gryphon is a chivalric group of knights devoted to upholding the honor and the safety of the lands of Elanthia.

The following is a copy of a post that was placed on the very old AOL BB's, many years ago. It provides most of the pertinent background information with regard to the founding of the Order of the Silver Gryphon in response to questions raised at that time.

Founding of the Order

The Order began in December of '95 when a Jantalaran knight named Sir Maldon came to the Landing. He had been sent by the Baron of Jantalar to re-establish his claim over an abandoned holding to the south and east of Wehnimer's.

With plans for a war of expansion against the neighboring Barony of Vornavis (south over the mountains from Wehnimer's), the Baron of Jantalar feared that once he blockaded Vornavis' seaport the barony would establish a trade route through a mountain pass to the Landing and prolong the war. Maldon's holding would give him a basis for claiming overlordship of the Landing and allow him to prevent Vornavis from finding a new source for supplies.

In opposition to his own lord's plans, Sir Maldon (for personal reasons) determined to found a chivalric order in the Landing. Since the baron's plan was to claim overlordship of the town based upon the existence of his holding and upon the absense of any recognized nobility in the Landing, the forming of such an order would create a counter to the baron's ambitions.

After speaking to some of the older folks in the town square, Sir Maldon sought out Metaboculous and Berr, purportedly the two most experienced warriors in the Landing. He asked them for the names of anyone they thought would be interested in becoming members of such an order. Maldon purposely asked warriors, because historically and "in other lands" knighthood and chivalry have been founded first upon the abilities of mounted warriors, secondly upon the qualities of courage and loyalty, and thirdly upon personal honor. Also, Maldon knew that when the Baron of Jantalar did invade the Landing he would do it with means to render magic useless, so it made sense to found an opposing order based on members whose abilities would be least hindered by the baron's tactics.

The Order was initially limited to twelve members, because of Maldon's estimate of his own limits on time, leadership, and organization. It was restricted to warriors only because some consistent basis for limitation was needed. Every member knew of several interested candidates, and without some clearly defined criteria the choice of who was or was not allowed to join would be perceived as a totally subjective and unfair process. As far as whether the Order will continue as a warriors-only organization or not, that is up to the members. Given the interest of non-warriors in RPing chivalric ideals I would expect that other orders will form, perhaps regardless of whether the Order becomes open to non-warriors or not. With the number of people in the lands these days I would be amazed if the Order was able to absorb all those interested in chivalric roleplaying, and still remain a manageable organization.

So that is when, why, and how the Order was formed. To date it has been used as a means of disseminating "world setting" information into the game in a sustained manner, and as a means of providing the kinds of RP situations that are necessary if the spectrum of chivalric conduct is to be demonstrable within the game.

The Order's holding is out past pumas, beyond a rockslide that is near the waterfall.

- GM Mikos