“The angels, though sturdy and true to their original purposes and long alloyed to the corrupting influence of infinity through reincarnation, experienced a profound sundering with the Universal War. The Shattering, as it came to be known, broke the long compact the angels had with the races of the omniverse to uphold the Law, and the Law itself was splintered and broken. The oldest and most holy among the warrior monks of the Concordant knights were shattered during the war, not to reincarnate for millenia more, leaving many young angels, still in their vapor or liquid states. Seeing the broken, burning remnants of the Universe, and the subsequent rule of the Seven destroyed what confidence many of them had in protecting reality, and still more came to the conclusion that reality itself was better purged, better purified through bloodshed than left to rot.
Now, the Concordance is a shattered, corrupted remnant of its former self, and rogue angels wander the worlds and the king’s road, selling their extreme skill in the ways of annihilation.
And through the void and the kings road atop steeds of glass and fire ride those terrible steel figures with their spined carapaces – the Holy Thorn Knights.”
– Preem Payapop Pritrum, introduction of 5th Treatise on Aeons – what to expect of the Pact