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A half empty chug of ale hit a wooden table at a far end of a tavern. The hand that used to hold it was now gripping the hand of a thief. A shriek escaped the criminal as his wrist began to squish under the pressure of its captor. The sound of breaking bones could be heard, the thief was now on his knees, screaming at the top of his lungs. The dark stranger who was tormenting this criminal did not even look in his direction; he was busy using his other hand to drink the remaining of the ale in the chug. By now, most of the tavern patrons were looking at the strange scene, partly curious and partly disturbed by the noise. It seemed like the dark stranger had no intention of either letting the thief go or doing any action besides drinking ale, the whole situation seemed to be perfectly comfortable for him. The thief began to turn and twitch as the sensation in his hand slowly faded away, it was not healing, it was just going numb from the damage to it. It was finally time to look at the thief. The dark stranger rose, his hand tightly holding a hand that was limp by now. His eyes were fixated upon the criminal. Whatever pain was caused by the damage to his hand was now gone, the thief went completely silent and motionless. A dead silence fell upon the entire tavern; everyone knew that something was going to happen. The stranger looked around at everyone; he knew that they expected something major to happen, perhaps the death of the thief, or maybe another broken body part. They were going to be disappointed. Lucimorth had already punished this thief by crushing his wrist; there was no longer any more reason for another punishment. He let the thief go and calmly exited the Tavern.

Lucimorth was headed to Armada; this was simply another one of his stops in random cities that were on his way. He was headed towards the largest ever gathering of knights under his command. As he made his way, thousands of knights were trained,  over a hundred every day.

Lucimorth often was deep in thought when traveling alone. This time he was working on a strategy that was unheard of before him, he hoped it would surprise his enemies, catching them off guard and uprepared. For that, he had to amass a great number of knights, greater then even the council of Armada was planning on.

Caught offguard, Lucimorth was stratled by the approach of a knight, even more so when the stranger asked of his destination. There was no shortage of enemies in Lucimorth's life and he was not going to make it easier on them by revealing his plans to every stranger. He looked at the stranger with suspicious eyes, his mind working through countless scenarious of events for every possible move he should make.

"Why should I tell you anything about my plans?"

The words were cold and impersonal, they ended sharply and Lucimorth was expecting a reply. There was no knowing what could happen next.

This kind of an answer left as much suspicion as he had before asking, perhaps even hightening his distrust towards the stranger. Lucimorth looked at the stranger, his thoughts now racing from leaving immediately to luring this man to a place from which he wont be able to follow Lucimorth.

"Gathering a huge amount of knights? Where did you hear such a thing, and why would you want to join it anyways?"

Lucimorth was getting rather concerned by now. He did not talk to anyone about his plan, much less a thief. Those he had caught, ended up with broken wrists, he did not talk to them while crushing their wrists, however.

"You are lying. I haven't said a word about this plan to anyone besides my council. And there is no way anyone fo them leaked it, aspecialy due to the magical seal that was placed for extra safety. Now, tell me how you got this information!"

"The plan means the gathering of knights." Lucimorth said. The location of thousands of knights couldn't be kept a secret in any case, so there was no point denying it to someone who obviosly know's of it.

"The knights are all trained within Armada. If you wish to take part you will have to go there and pass all the steps of the training the rest of the knights go through."

Lucimorth wasn't going to make any decisions or conclusions yet, he was convinced that keeping the matter neutral and impersonal would be the best option for the time being.

After a bit of traveling Pelagius arrives at his destination, Armada, and after a bit of searching, he finds the Knight's training center. He approaches a knight trainer.

"Excuse me, but I would like to join the Knight's ranks, I've already been knighted before...but I heard these knights have a different training protocol."

"Hmmmmmm, doesn't hurt to try...or does it?"

Pelagius walks off to the testing grounds.

The sound of clashing swords is interupted only by the loud roars of the Knight Commanders. It seems that hundreds of knights are being tested all at once, there are supposed to be knightings every day, which could only mean that each day brings a hundred more knights, at least.

The tests consist of several parts; the first is a mental and psychological test. Knights are pushed to the limits of their sanity. Those who fail to remain in control of themselves are deemed unfit to be part of the knights. The second test is of tactical and physical ability. It happens right after the first test in order to keep the knights on edge and in extreme conditions.

Finally, each of the tested knights must duel one of the existing knights. Wooden swords are used for the duel in order to not injure the knights too badly. Finally, only those who manage to survive over thirty minutes in the duel without being clearly outplayed are knighted in a mass ceremony that is held by the head of the knights each day.

The registration table is set up by the northern tower, outlooking the training grounds.

The psychological test consisted of several steps. The first one was drinking a glass of halucinogenic drink. The drink made the person hallucinations and become startled and distracted. A knight had to be able to quiet his mind and negate the hallucinations. The next step of the test was a rather harsh one. The kngiht was to be pushed head first in to a barrel of water for 30 seconds ten times with intervals of 1 minute. Immediately after that, a set of complex questions that require a clear mind were asked of the knight in order to detemrine his condition.

Pelagius then allowed himself to be pushed into the water. After being dunked 20 times he awaited the man's questions.