#dnd helm

[davi-doo]

Zevlor's Helmite Oath

Zevlor was a Hellrider from Elturel and a paladin of Helm - the god of guardians - as you may already knew from the description of his "Hellrider's Pride" gaunlets. As someone who is not familiar with DnD lore, I did some digging to gain insight about the nature of Zevlor's oath and the circumstance around his oathbreaking. Might as well share what I found :)

Helm is a lawful neutral deity, whose principle can be seen as cold and rigid as he favors one's sense of duty and commitment as a protector, guardian and defender above all else. The dogma of Helm's faithfuls can be sum up as follows:

Guard perfectly, attentively, and with forethought; be ever vigilant. Guard what you are ordered to guard, including that on which your charge depends.

CREED OF THE HELMITE FAITH.

I was not surprised to learn Elturel was home to the strongest Helmite Church in the North. With the famous Hellrider as the citywatch and its strict rulings, Elturel is known to be the most efficient, secured and well-policed city in the region. It's natural for Hellrider to be among Helm's faithful, and I can imagine their paladin's oath is to safe-guard the city and its citizen to their last breath.

I'm not sure in BG3 timeline if the tieflings were forcefully evicted from Elturel, or if they left on their own accord to avoid violence and bigotry against their kind. But either case, Zevlor most likely broke his oath for simply leaving Elturel to lead and protect the tiefling refugees.

In principal, the church of Helm is to welcome whomever come seek their protection, even criminals. However, it's also their duty to turn them in to law enforcement if required, and see their trial to proceed fairly. That means, when the tieflings were deemed as a dangerous minority in the eyes of Elturian, Zevlor and fellow Hellrider must abide to the laws determined for them, or resist and face the repercussion:

All true warriors of Elturel were most likely Hellriders. Those who resigned were stripped of their gear, exiled from the city, and named a heretic in the eyes of Helm for abandoning their post.

Taken that Zevlor still had his gaunlets and his sword, I'm convinced he helped the refugee leave the city in secret. He sentimentally kept the gauntlet out of all the parts from his Hellrider plated armour, because you guess what? A silver gauntlet with eye is Helm's holy symbol. This proved he still held onto the Helmite failth, despite being stripped of the God's divine grace for his moral decision. He owned his choice by leaving the rest behind along with his title, but still took it upon himself to be the guardian of his people. That's why when you came along and protected them from the goblin, which allowed them to travel to Baldur's Gate, the Hellrider's Pride became yours. As for Zevlor, it seems to me he was ready to truly rest, which shows in his conversation with Tilly, too.

In Act 2, we see Zevlor seeking to restore his oath and fell victim to the Absolute; this is not the sign of him wanting to taste the glory again, but simply because the journey through Shadowcurse land has proven to be overwhelmingly dangerous. Zevlor might have viewed himself as a liability, not only due of his old age, but also his lack of dark vision despite being a tiefling. I believe whatever the watchful Helm bestowed on paladin Zevlor back in the day must have compensated nicely for his lacks. And ironically, with the innate darkvision that allows for better guard, the tiefling Hellrider were supposed to be valuable members in their unit. Until Elturian decided those with infernal heritage are somehow a threat to their hypervigilant society.

[phill-art]

Commissions open!

This is my art of a DnD Bugbear Paladin!

[thirtyskeletons]

i unfortunately have a disease and it’s called Can’t Stop Drawing Duck Team.

(inspo for callie’s tulip bantu knots from here!)

[oldschoolfrp]

From haircut to wrapped leggings, an accurate Norman knight circa 1066 (Jim Holloway, Dragon magazine 40, August 1980) -- OK the bearded axe is more "Viking," but maybe it's a battlefield trophy, or maybe it belonged to his grandfather.

[joenhead]

im coming out as a polycule duck team truther!!! those silly three dorks r in love !!!! (do they have a ship name?). as such, i feel as though it is finally time to share my corny self indulgent au where sol and callie r two theater nerds who try out for every show and started dating after their first one together and calder is on the stage crew and its a really corny and silly thing of “can two actors and a stage hand REALLY be in LOVE?”

simply because i think its funny for all three of them to fully be subscribed to the taboos of dating in theater. like it gets REALLY DRAMATIC. calder doesnt entirely get it but everyone else acts like its rlly important so he goes along with it.

[taritoons]

Designed some heraldic emblems and regalia for the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart, based on some background details from Baldur's Gate 2. The holy symbols and the Ilvastarr shield designs are taken from official material. All blazons composed by me.

☕ Support me on Ko-Fi ☕

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

On the left, Cambion. Half fiend, half humanoid mortal, known for corruption and often anarchy. Size based on whatever species the mother was, and known for putting thier all into whatever they do. They're also usually lonely, ambitious, and/or self confident.

On the right, Helmed Horror! Animated suits of armor with enough processing power to understand the intent of your commands, not just the words! They can also fly! Not really anything horrible about them though, just a magical AI built to serve. Probably named by spellcasters, terrrified because they're often immune to common spells like fireball.

[relentlessgrief]

if you hate mystra take delight that during the Time of Troubles, Helm punched Mystra so hard she died

[tomurakii]

Gale x Cleric of Helm is such an underrated dynamic.

"Yes my god killed your ex-girlfriend. She shouldn't have tried to disobey Ao. Plus he felt reeeaally bad for it."

-Two acts later-

"Do you think Helm would be proud or upset if I killed Mystra again?"

[luck-of-the-drawings]

THE ORDER OF PALMS An order of holy folk that serve The Helm, working to create powerful Aasimar Paladins for the purpose of protecting any who hire their help. [BACKSTORY UNDER CUT]

One day, Gjör and her peers were lead by their mentor Opheria, to a mission far from their home. On the peak of that mountain village, they saw upon the horizon, the castle of their home go up in flames. Horrified and scared, the apprentices sought to follow their mentors guidance, and followed her lead into a small barn. It was there, that Opheria proceeded to slaughter each and everyone of the apprentices. It seemed she somehow had a hand in this sudden attack on the Order of Palms. Gjör D'annevual survived a sword through the 'heart', on account of a rare condition, that places her heart on the other side of her chest. When she finally managed to bring herself back home, the Order was insulted by her survival. She had so many better peers, why couldn't any of them have survived? This runt was seriously the only thing that survived Opherias wrath? It was better to just wash their hands clean of this. Thus the Order decided to banish Gjör from their ranks. She now travels the land in search of a purpose.

[cleric-of-ilmater]

Helm is a really interesting god in that he doesn't actually care if his followers are good or evil. All he cares is that they're lawful.

Helm himself used to have an overwhelmingly positive reputation in Faerûn...until The Time of Troubles

Whil Ao forced all the other gods to turn mortal, Helm was the one trusted to keep them out until the stolen plates were returned. During this time, Mystra tried to force her way past Helm and was killed for it. Despite Helm doing what he was supposed to, and despite him feeling guilty afterwards, his reputation took a bit of a nosedive among mortals.

He is the embodiment of lawful neutral, following the rules for rule's sake. He wants his followers to protect the weak, but doesn't care what your motives for doing so are. A tyrant enacting strict laws in the name of protecting the people can easily still follow Helm's dogma, and even genuinely believe it's for the greater good, so long as said tyrant isn't sacrificing people or acting unlawfully for their goal.

[shannanigan-art]

Coping normally with the latest NADDPOD ep, may I offer some Helm Bros in these trying times 💪❄️

[operationslipperypuppet]

I apologize in advance for the person I become when Jaina finally gets freed from the Helm of Ultrus

[soup-child]

We haven't seen this much of a victory in battle since the crick in c1 and its making me feel some kind of way

[acidhydraart]

Cataphract clergyknight of the Eclipse Empire

[bugbart]

a page from my capstone zine project