Zevlor's Helmite Oath

Zevlor was a Hellrider from Elturel and a paladin of Helm - the god of guardians - as you may already knew from the description of his "Hellrider's Pride" gaunlets. As someone who is not familiar with DnD lore, I did some digging to gain insight about the nature of Zevlor's oath and the circumstance around his oathbreaking. Might as well share what I found :)

Helm is a lawful neutral deity, whose principle can be seen as cold and rigid as he favors one's sense of duty and commitment as a protector, guardian and defender above all else. The dogma of Helm's faithfuls can be sum up as follows:

Guard perfectly, attentively, and with forethought; be ever vigilant. Guard what you are ordered to guard, including that on which your charge depends.

CREED OF THE HELMITE FAITH.

I was not surprised to learn Elturel was home to the strongest Helmite Church in the North. With the famous Hellrider as the citywatch and its strict rulings, Elturel is known to be the most efficient, secured and well-policed city in the region. It's natural for Hellrider to be among Helm's faithful, and I can imagine their paladin's oath is to safe-guard the city and its citizen to their last breath.

I'm not sure in BG3 timeline if the tieflings were forcefully evicted from Elturel, or if they left on their own accord to avoid violence and bigotry against their kind. But either case, Zevlor most likely broke his oath for simply leaving Elturel to lead and protect the tiefling refugees.

In principal, the church of Helm is to welcome whomever come seek their protection, even criminals. However, it's also their duty to turn them in to law enforcement if required, and see their trial to proceed fairly. That means, when the tieflings were deemed as a dangerous minority in the eyes of Elturian, Zevlor and fellow Hellrider must abide to the laws determined for them, or resist and face the repercussion:

All true warriors of Elturel were most likely Hellriders. Those who resigned were stripped of their gear, exiled from the city, and named a heretic in the eyes of Helm for abandoning their post.

Taken that Zevlor still had his gaunlets and his sword, I'm convinced he helped the refugee leave the city in secret. He sentimentally kept the gauntlet out of all the parts from his Hellrider plated armour, because you guess what? A silver gauntlet with eye is Helm's holy symbol. This proved he still held onto the Helmite failth, despite being stripped of the God's divine grace for his moral decision. He owned his choice by leaving the rest behind along with his title, but still took it upon himself to be the guardian of his people. That's why when you came along and protected them from the goblin, which allowed them to travel to Baldur's Gate, the Hellrider's Pride became yours. As for Zevlor, it seems to me he was ready to truly rest, which shows in his conversation with Tilly, too.

In Act 2, we see Zevlor seeking to restore his oath and fell victim to the Absolute; this is not the sign of him wanting to taste the glory again, but simply because the journey through Shadowcurse land has proven to be overwhelmingly dangerous. Zevlor might have viewed himself as a liability, not only due of his old age, but also his lack of dark vision despite being a tiefling. I believe whatever the watchful Helm bestowed on paladin Zevlor back in the day must have compensated nicely for his lacks. And ironically, with the innate darkvision that allows for better guard, the tiefling Hellrider were supposed to be valuable members in their unit. Until Elturian decided those with infernal heritage are somehow a threat to their hypervigilant society.

Helm

The Watcher, He of the Unsleeping Eyes, the Vigilant One

The god of vigilance and protection, Helm is seen as the epitome of the guardian, the watcher, and the guard. He is venerated by those who need to remain watchful for enemies or danger. Helm is a favourite deity of people who make a living by protecting someone or something, such as bodyguards, members of the city watch, and the guards of a treasury vault.

Helm embodies the spirit of watchfulness without regard to good or evil. In legends, he is honourable and keeps his word to a fault, such as when he guarded the celestial stairways during the Time of Troubles, preventing the gods from ascending them and continuing the chaos of that period, until the Tablets of Fate were found.

Although his faith has known dark days, worship of Helm never truly faded away. Most of his followers believe that the Watcher can never be vanquished utterly, and recent events have borne out that assertion.

Helm's priests teach that one must be ever vigilant, ever aware, ever prepared for one's enemies. Patience, clear thought, and careful planning will always defeat rushed actions in the end. Those who favour Helm strive to be alert, clear-headed, and true to their word. These traits don't necessarily make them nice people, however, and as such many consider the faithful of Helm to be inflexible and merciless.

Suddenly the way Wyll's father behaved towards him made sense.

Q: I recently adopted a paladin from a shelter. he didn't have a breed label but they said they thought he was Helmite? He seemed pretty happy with guarding the stuff I put in his enclosure for a few days, but recently he's been escaping to herd the neighbor's children around when they get in the street. He also doesn't seem as alert as Helmites are supposed to be? I don't know if he doesn't like something about his enclosure or if the shelter misidentified him. Picture included. A: This actually looks like a paladin of Torm! People unfamiliar with paladin care frequently confuse them because of their similar markings. Like Helmites, Tormtar are a guardian breed, but they tend to be less high-strung and don't form the same attachments to their territory and toys. If your paladin is leaving his enclosure, he's probably bored and looking for more appropriate stimuli. Try taking him on a heroic quest, or giving him more active tasks around the house. Tormtar are also more social, so if you have the resources I would consider adopting another Triadic paladin. (Be careful not to keep him with an actual paladin of Helm. Despite their visual similarities, they have a tendency to fight, and since you picked this guy up from a shelter you don't know whether he's been socialized to get along with Neutral paladins.)

From haircut to wrapped leggings, an accurate Norman knight circa 1066 (Jim Holloway, Dragon magazine 40, August 1980) -- OK the bearded axe is more "Viking," but maybe it's a battlefield trophy, or maybe it belonged to his grandfather.

On the left, Cambion. Half fiend, half humanoid mortal, known for corruption and often anarchy. Size based on whatever species the mother was, and known for putting thier all into whatever they do. They're also usually lonely, ambitious, and/or self confident.

On the right, Helmed Horror! Animated suits of armor with enough processing power to understand the intent of your commands, not just the words! They can also fly! Not really anything horrible about them though, just a magical AI built to serve. Probably named by spellcasters, terrrified because they're often immune to common spells like fireball.

im coming out as a polycule duck team truther!!! those silly three dorks r in love !!!! (do they have a ship name?). as such, i feel as though it is finally time to share my corny self indulgent au where sol and callie r two theater nerds who try out for every show and started dating after their first one together and calder is on the stage crew and its a really corny and silly thing of “can two actors and a stage hand REALLY be in LOVE?”

simply because i think its funny for all three of them to fully be subscribed to the taboos of dating in theater. like it gets REALLY DRAMATIC. calder doesnt entirely get it but everyone else acts like its rlly important so he goes along with it.

Designed some heraldic emblems and regalia for the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart, based on some background details from Baldur's Gate 2. The holy symbols and the Ilvastarr shield designs are taken from official material. All blazons composed by me.

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Gale x Cleric of Helm is such an underrated dynamic.

"Yes my god killed your ex-girlfriend. She shouldn't have tried to disobey Ao. Plus he felt reeeaally bad for it."

-Two acts later-

"Do you think Helm would be proud or upset if I killed Mystra again?"

Coping normally with the latest NADDPOD ep, may I offer some Helm Bros in these trying times 💪❄️

I apologize in advance for the person I become when Jaina finally gets freed from the Helm of Ultrus

We haven't seen this much of a victory in battle since the crick in c1 and its making me feel some kind of way

a page from my capstone zine project

My collection of dnd characters grows

Big boobed siblings

On the left, Helmed Horror! Animated suits of armor with enough processing power to understand the intent of your commands, not just the words! They can also fly! Not really anything horrible about them though, just a magical AI built to serve. Probably named by spellcasters, terrrified because they're often immune to common spells like fireball.

On the right, Ultraloth! 6 ft (1.8 m) faceless creatures, powerful commanders of all yugoloth! They teleport, can hypnotize with a look, and have magic like mind manipulation and invisibility! Fun fact- they all look identical outside their fashion. So this is the rare case where the one in the picture actually is exactly what they all look like.

Does that helm have perma-protection from evil? Yea. It does. :)

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