Legendborn

“Though I may fall, I will not die, but call on blood to live.” - Awaken

“Legends are dangerous” - Nick

Legendborns are the highest-ranking member of the Order, they are either Scions or Squires.

Description

A Scion is more than a descendant of King Arthur and his Knights, they're an heir. The knight's inheritance, their enhanced abilities and affinity for aether, lives in one person at a time. And that inheritance is only transmitted by an Awakened Scion, one who was Called to power. The heir goes through line of succession, whoever is in line must be eligible. A Scion must be between the ages of six-teen and twenty-two. The Lines follow the original Round Table's chain of command, and that rank determines the order in which the Scions are Awakened. When a Scion takes a Squire, they're choosing a battle partner to join them in the Warrior's Oath, which the Squire will share the Scion's bloodline's power.

Spell of Eternity

During the Shadowborn Wars, the fight with the Cysgodanedig, cut that number down until only the thirteen strongest knights remained. Merlin and Arthur feared what the world would become should the Table fall, and so Merlin devised the Spell of Eternity: a powerful casting to magnify the remaining knights' abilities and bind their spirits to their bloodline so that their heirs could forever stand against the darkness. So that the Table would live on, immortal. When the kights' heirs Awaken, their spirit lives again.

The magic holding Merlin's Spell of Eternity together, and the engine behind the entire Legendborn cycle, is preserved in the spirit of Arthur. As long as the king's spirit remains dormant, the spell is safe. This is why Arthur's Scion is Called last, and only when "the demon scourge" becomes so powerful and rampant that the Round Table must be reunited under his leadership to fight it back.

Bloodcraft

Legendborns are Bloodcrafters, they call their magic aether. Scions and Squires are limited by their knights' inheritances. The only weapons they can cast is their knight's chosen weapon. This inheritance includes an affinity for aether, and the abilities of their ancestor knight. Abatement is the payment for a Legendborn, their descendants would be cut off their life spans, to the point where most didn't live past the age of thirty-five.

Rank	Bloodline	Inheritance	Weapon	Current Legendborn
				Scion	Squire
1	King Arthur Pendragon	The King's Wisdom and Strength	Longsword	Bree Matthews
2	Sir Lancelot	Speed and Enhanced Vision	Dual Longsword	Nick Davis
3	Sir Tristan	Marksmanship and Speed	Bow and Arrow	Victoria Morgan	Sarah Griffiths
4	Sir Lamorak	Preternatural strength (enduring)	Axe	Felicity Caldwell
5	Sir Kay	-	-	Alex Hanover
6	Sir Bedivere	-	-	Hannah Mather
7	Sir Owain	Aether lion familiar	Quarterstaff	Peter Herbert Hood	Greer Leighton Taylor
8	Sir Erec	-	-	Un-named
9	Sir Caradoc	-	-	Un-named
10	Sir Mordred	-	-	Un-named
11	Sir Bors	Agility and Dexterity	Longsword	Beau Baldwin
12	Sir Gawain	Enhaced healer abilities; preternatural strength at midday and midnight	Dual Daggers	William Jefferson Sitterson
13	Sir Geraint	-	-	Un-named

Limits

Aether is mutable ambient element manipulated by will, but that manipulation is somewhat defined by the user. Bree’s mage flame is something the Legendborn cannot do, because their limited by their knights inheritances. They can cast armor — not the exact sixth-century variety, no plates back then — but it most be a variation that works with their knights gifts. With Cambion demon heritage, they can cast anything they wish: a staff, a hound, a protective barrier.

Line of Lancelot

Scions are taught that the bloodline Scions of the Round Table are methodically Awakened one by one in the order of the knights and magical abilities best suited to keep the demons at bay. Scions and their inheritances are Called by need, beginning with the Scion of the lowest-ranked knight and continuing up the ranks. Eligible children learn that the moment a Scion is Called, their abilities arrive instantaneously. But what the Line of Lancelot knows, and have kept secret for centuries, is that their bloodline-is the only one whose inheritances arrive staggered, rather than all at once. The speed comes first, always, but the visions, if they come at all, arrive later. And only after a very specific trigger, for a very specific reason. The visions only begin once the Scion of Arthur has been Called. Lancelot's power are linked to Arthur's Scion, because the heirs of Arthur and Lancelot are not typical Scions. Rarely does the fighting become so dire that the Scions of Lancelot and Arthur are ever Called, and rarer still that the former is Called without the latter. In many ways, Arthur and Lancelot were a court of two.

Arthur and Lancelot approached Merlin in secret to ask him to connect their ablities within the spell of Eternity, and Merlin agreed. The three of them understood that each Scion of Arthur in the Legendborn cycle would be a different kind of king. A different leader born with different needs and skills, born in different eras, fighting a different version of Camlann, So Merlin embedded within Lancelot's application of the Spell the seed of a power. A seed that requires the presence of Arthur's Scion to come to full fruition. But the Scions of Lancelot who inherit visions gain access to a unique, unprecedented magical ability that no one else truly knows about. They can use that power however and whenever they like, even if that ability only first manifested itself in response to the king. Because each king requires different insight to win the war. The link between the Scion of Lancelot and the Scion of Arthur is a type of prophecy. A promise older and deeper than an Oath. Donovan's father says "the visions are 'a holy weapon in an earthly hand". The Line of Lancelot has always believed that the visions are tailored to the nature of our Awakened king for a tactical reason, not an emotional one.

Lancelot was the most powerful knight of the Table, second only to Arthur Pentagon. Perhaps Merlin knew that there could come a day when the Scion of Arthur's leadership had gone astray, and that a power should arise not to support the king but to oppose.

Lieges

Lieges are former Scions and Squires, after they age out of eligibility. They are adept in battle, and have more experience than the current Scions and Squires. They don’t have access to aether. Some Lieges were never Called and others were. Those that were Called have about thirteen years before Abatement takes them.

Lineage

Arthur Pendragon

Lancelot

Tristan

Lamorak

Kay

Bedivere

Owain

Erec

Caradoc

Mordred

Bors

Geraint

Jonathan Davis

Un-named

Stephen Morgan

Robert Davis

Samuel Davis

Paul Michael Reynolds

Selah

Samuel Martin Davis Jr.

Mary

Regina

Corinne

Emmeline

Jessie

Leanne Charles

Faye Ayeola Carter Matthews

Martin Davis

Cestra

Un-named

Gillian Hanover

John

Un-named

Un-named

Un-named

Un-named

Owen Roberts

Reese Sitterson

Un-named

Bree Matthews

Nick Davis

Victoria Morgan

Felicity Caldwell

Alex Hanover

Hannah Mather

Peter Hood

Un-named

Un-named

Un-named

Fitzsommons Solomon Baldwin

William Sitterson

Un-named

Beau Baldwin