Legend has it that once, long ago, the most valiant and noble knights of Lyonesse banded together into a great brotherhood, naming themselves the Order of Chrysoaspides and swearing that they would conquer the very Kingdom of the Sun for the glory of the High King. So, marshalling their men-at-arms and their levies, one bright day they marched away to war, a glorious host the like of which has never been seen before or since.
For a year and a day they fought through lands so strange and wondrous that no person could even begin to describe the least bizarre of them, until they came at last to the Sun's realm. Although the soldiers of the Sun fought valiantly, they were no match for the men they faced; and one after another their cities fell to the swords of Lyonesse, until but one — the very seat of the King of the Sun — remained. By then the pride of the Order had grown exceedingly great, and so they drew up before the walls of that last city and bade it surrender before morning dawned, else they would surely destroy it.
Yet, while the host slumbered that night, the King of the Sun cloaked his radiance and crept out among their camp, and one by one slaughtered the men and women of Lyonesse while they slept. And when the next morning dawned, not a one of all that vast and glorious armament remained alive; and so ended the greatest brotherhood of knights in all the worlds.
From time to time, though, it is said that when their eyes fell upon the walls of that greatest of the cities of the Sun, the hearts of some among the Order of Chrysoaspides quailed — whether from fear or from wisdom — and before that last night had fallen, they slipped away from the encampment and rode instead for their home.
But they had come so far beyond everything they knew that they lost their way; and therefore those knights — few in number compared to the glory of their whole Order, yet still vast beyond counting as men are numbered today — wander still, in their surcoats of royal purple and their shields of gleaming gold, searching for the realm of Lyonesse, whence they departed so long ago. For, though they have traveled years past counting, yet the Sun remembers that once they took arms against His realm, and therefore leads them astray, so that they can never reach the home they seek.
