Cupidus Champion Lore
The Crimson Savior; the Arbiter’s Rose; the Rescuer. By these names and many more is the legendary knight of the Sacred Order best known as Cupidus widely called. Unnumbered are the tales sung of his history and exploits, and though most hold a kernel of truth at their core, most are little more than vague allegories or fanciful romances.
The most widely spun fable of Cupidus is the ode Liberation of Venus, one that has inspired many a young soul to join the Sacred Order. A thousand versions of this tale exist, but all begin with a woman of unimaginable beauty, best known to posterity as Venus. No mortal man could look upon her and not be consumed with lust and longing, and none became more besotted than a depraved sorcerer who had long sworn his allegiance to Siroth. Knowing he possessed not the charm or wit to rightly win Venus’ hand, he wove a dark enchantment to ensnare her – the details of its casting he took from a molding Skinwalker-leather tome, which had to be chained down to be read. The sorcerer’s efforts were successful. He lured Venus from her palace home and into his hilltop stronghold. The spell could not make her desire him, however, let alone induce feelings of genuine love.
Word rapidly spread that Venus had gone missing. Thousands of knights pledged their swords and steeds to finding her – many in the hopes she would marry them, others with no such expectation but no less determined to see her safe. But the sorcerer had concealed his route well, with numerous spells that threw packs of hounds into disarray, befuddled the minds of experienced trackers, and terrified war-scarred destriers. He had not counted on Venus’ faith, however. Few knights’ shared the strength of her conviction, and only one possessed the purity of heart to see and follow the invisible trail Venus’ unbreakable belief left in her wake. Cupidus. A warrior of peerless renown, prodigious bladesmanship, and pious humility. He found the sorcerer’s stronghold.
Ice-cold rain fell in sheets as Cupidus picked his way through clumps of razor-sharp rocks and tangles of tough, thorny vines to reach the stone keep in which he knew Venus was kept prisoner. Overhead soared dozens of three-eyed blackbills – the sorcerer’s spies. They saw Cupidus’ crimson plate armor gleam whenever a terrible lightning bolt shot down from the heavens and reported to the sorcerer, who realized he was discovered. He moved to kill the interloper knight. Hundreds were the beasts and servants the sorcerer had bound to his will, and he demanded the knight’s head. And so before Cupidus even reached the castle’s walls he was assailed by the sorcerer’s followers. With his sword, known to legend now as the Heart of Lumaya, Heartbreaker, and the Crux of Valor, he slew them all. Caked in gore and ichor, he reached the keep’s gate after filling the ditch before it with the corpses of those he had slain. He smashed the sealed entrance open with the head of a decapitated Skinwalker.
Within the stronghold were yet more of the sorcerer’s followers. Wolverines, poison-spitting death-adders and magically engorged rats. As the rain lashed down, blood flowed even faster. Some of it was the knight’s. Finally, Cupidus came to the sorcerer himself, though in this fight he would not stand alone. Venus, who had escaped her shackles and cell, was with him.
Dark magic swirled around the sorcerer, his black cloak billowing in the evil energy. He unleashed every ounce of his Siroth-given magic at Cupidus as more of his servants plunged into the fray. In the titanic clash that followed, the knight’s armor was rent by terrible claws. He was engulfed in violet flames and jagged blades pierced his flesh. But eventually Cupidus drove the Heart of Lumaya into the sorcerer’s chest. In the seconds that followed, the knight’s strength finally abandoned him, and he collapsed. Venus rushed to his side. As she knelt over the broken, dying form of Cupidus, tears streaming down her cheeks, the Rescuer swore his love for her would last forever, even if he could not. Venus promised the same.
The Arbiter saw and heard everything, so the bards sing. She could not bear to see such love be lost forever. After affixing the wings of a slain three-eyed blackbill to Cupidus’ helm as a symbol of his victory, she used her power to save the Crimson Savior and preserve him in a Shard. He has since earned his title on innumerable battlefields, his rose-colored armor a symbol of hope to the desperate and the lost.