In fantasy literature and role-playing games, a death knight (sometimes referred to as a shadow knight or dread knight) is an undead corruption of a righteous warrior who broke his or her code of honor and embraced evil. Fantasy is a genre of art, literature, film, television, and music that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of either plot, theme, setting, or all three. ... This article is about traditional role-playing games. ... Undead is a collective name for all types of supernatural entities who were once alive in the normal sense, died, and then continued to exist in the world of the living, in forms spiritual (as ghosts) or corporeal (as animated corpses). ... A warrior is a person habitually engaged in war and/or skilled in the waging of war. ...

Dungeons & Dragons

In Dungeons and Dragons a death knight is a mighty warrior animated as an undead creature by the gods of death, evil deities, demon lords, or other malevolent entities. Death knights are created by these beings for various purposes, sometimes to lead undead armies. A paladin or lawful good warrior can also become a death knight after being cursed by the gods for committing a particularly evil act or betraying the code of honor they held in life. The original Dungeons & Dragons set Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) published by Gary Gygax and David Arneson in January 1974. ... Many cultures have incorporated a deity of death into their mythology or religion. ... ... St. ... The Media Centre at Lords Cricket Ground Lords Cricket Ground is a cricket ground in St Johns Wood in London. ... An entity is something that has a distinct, separate existence, though it need not be a material existence. ... Army (from French armée) can, in some countries, refer to any armed force. ... Roland is girt with a sword by Charlemagne; from a manuscript of a chanson de geste. ... In Dungeons & Dragons and some similar role-playing games, alignment refers to the moral and ethical perspective of the player characters, non-player characters, monsters, and societies in the game. ...

Death knights often have a variety of undead servants such as skeleton warriors, liches, and banshees. Death knights often ride nightmares into battle. In the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game, Skeleton Warriors are a more powerful version of Animated Skeletons: ones created from great warriors. ... The term lich comes from the Old English lic, (pronounced the same) which means corpse; an alternative spelling is liche. The word is cognate with modern German Leiche, meaning corpse; for the linguistic background see lich on the German language Wikipedia. ... The banshee (pronounced /ˈbænʃiː/) is a creature in Gaelic folklore, the word being derived from the Old Irish ben síde, modern Irish bean sídhe or bean sí, fairy woman (bean, woman, and sidhe, being the tuiseal ginideach or possessive case of fairy). The sídh are... This page is about a type of dream. ...

A death knight retains its personality from its former life. Some death knights are condemned to remember their downfall through song on any night when the moon is full. Sometimes the chilling melody is sung by musically-inclined servants instead of the death knight itself. Whilst the song is being sung, the death knight will ignore the outside world, unless the song is disturbed, causing the knight to attack with utter ferocity. Death knights still use the code of honor they held in life (never attacking from behind for example) and retain all of their fighting skills. They will never surrender and will only parley if their opponent possesses something they want (such as knowledge of the fate of a former family member). Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Music Look up Music in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikisource, as part of the 1911 Encyclopedia Wikiproject, has original text related to this article: Music Meta has a page about this at: Music markup MusicNovatory: the science of music encyclopedia The...

In Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition, a death knight has a number of powerful spell-like abilities that allow it to kill, paralyze, blind, burn, or cause fear or pain in its foes (the infamous Power Word spells). Death knights usually wield powerful magic swords. Look up Spell in Wiktionary, the free dictionary For spelling in linguistics, see orthography. ... The term magic sword refers to any kind of mythological or fictional sword imbued with magical power to increase its strength or grant it other supernatural qualities. ...

The first death knight identified by name in a Dungeons and Dragons product was Saint Kargoth, "King of the Death Knights," who first appeared in Scott Bennie's Dragon Magazine article, "Setting Saintly Standards," in 1983. Kargoth appears in the Greyhawk campaign setting. Other known death knights of Greyhawk include 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, Lord Khayven of Rax, and Sir Loran of Trollpyre Keep. All but Sir Loran were former Knight Protectors of the Great Kingdom who were seduced by the demon prince Demogorgon. Sir Loran was a knight of Sunndi who was given his powers of undeath by Vecna. In general, the term Saint refers to someone who is exceptionally virtuous and holy. ... Death knight of Oerth. ... The word king has many meanings: For the head of state, see Monarch. ... Chinese dragon, colour engraving on wood, Japanese Chinese school, 19th Century A dragon is a mythological creature, typically depicted as a large and powerful serpent or other reptile, with magical or spiritual qualities. ... A collection of magazines A magazine is a periodical publication containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising and/or purchase by readers. ... The cover of the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, published in 2000 by Wizards of the Coast. ... A lord is a male who has power and authority. ... A lady is a woman who is the counterpart of a lord; or, the counterpart of a gentleman. ... The term prince (the female form is princess), from the Latin root princeps, when used for a member of the highest aristocracy, has several fundamentally different meanings - one generic, and several types of titles. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Sir is an honorary title. ... The term duke is a title of nobility which refers to the sovereign male ruler of a Continental European duchy, to a nobleman of the highest grade of the British peerage, or to the highest rank of nobility in various other European countries, including Portugal, Spain and France (in Italy... Binomial name Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758 The Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) is the wild ancestor of the domesticated pig. ... The term prince (the female form is princess), from the Latin root princeps, when used for a member of the highest aristocracy, has several fundamentally different meanings - one generic, and several types of titles. ... Demogorgon, although often ascribed to Greek mythology, is actually an invention of Christian scholars, imagined as the name of a pagan god or demon, associated with the underworld and imagined as a powerful primordial being, whose very name had been taboo. ... Vecna is a fictional character from the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. ...

The most famous of all death knights is Lord Soth, from the Dragonlance and Ravenloft campaign settings, who was cursed after he murdered his wife to continue an affair with an elfmaid while at the same time failing to prevent the Cataclysm when he could, under divine orders. Lord Soth, the Knight of the Black Rose. ... Dragonlance Logo Dragonlance is a large series of fantasy books, and a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. ... Ravenloft is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. ... A campaign setting is a fictional fantasy world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame. ... A small forest elf (älva) rescuing an egg, from Solägget (1932), by Elsa Beskow An elf is a mythical creature of Germanic mythology which survived in northern European folklore. ...

Another, lesser-known death knight is Sir Lucius, about whom little is known.

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 his resorting to dishonorable assassination tactics to kill his enemy, Zarl. Unlike most of the death knights mentioned above, 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. The Forgotten Realms Second Edition logo. ... Miltiades Miltiades (c. ... Jeff Anonymous 2 July 2005 00:34 (UTC) Categories: Possible copyright violations ... In the Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting, Bane also known as the Black Hand and the Black Lord, is the god of hatred, strife, and tyranny. ...

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

References

• Bennie, Scott. "Settng Saintly Standards." Dragon #79 (TSR, Nov 1983).
• Cordell, Bruce, and Steve Miller. Die, Vecna, Die (TSR, 2000).
• Holian, Gary. "The Death Knights of Oerth." Dragon #290 (Paizo Publishing, Dec 2001).
• Holian, Gary. "Demogorgon's Champions: The Death Knights of Oerth, part 2." Dragon #291 (Paizo Publishing, Jan 2002).
• Holian, Gary, with Erik Mona, Sean K Reynolds, and Frederick Weining. Living Greyhawk Gazetteer (Wizards of the Coast, 2000).