Here begins the Prologue to the Rule of Saint Gregorios the Great.
The following passage is a mytho-historical account of Saint Gregorios the Great and how the Order and Fellowship of the Knights of First Landing was first established.
In the name of the Divine Order [Ib. pantes theoi (Πάντες θεοί)], we hereby inform all who now are or who are to come by whom, when and how the Royal Order of the Knights of Saint Gregorios the Great was established. In the ancient times [Ib. aiônes (αἰῶνες)] of the Age of Anguish, not long after the time when the world had been broken and the peoples [Ib. lāoí (λᾱοί)] of the Kardaji Bay had begun to gather anew, there arose an Iblydan human named Gregorios [Ib. Grigόrios (Γρηγόριος)], born neither to a throne nor to a great inheritance, but who possessed a strength of body and character uncommon even among the heroes [Ib. ἥρωες] of the age. In his youth, he wandered among the cities [Ib. póleis (πόλεις)] and colonies [Ib. klirouchíes (κληρουχίες)] of the Iron Coast and saw them being divided against one another, preyed upon by tyrants [Ib. tŭ́rănnoi (τῠ́ρᾰννοι)] and raiders [Ib. lēistaí (λῃσταί)], and threatened by the remnants of the old Ninshaburian empire. Taking pity upon them, he gathered about himself those who would follow him, not as mercenaries [Ib. misthophóroi (μισθοφόροι)] seeking plunder, but as companions [Ib. hetaîroi (ἑταῖροι)] bound by oath [Ib. hórkĭon (ὅρκῐον)] to one another and to the mutual defense of their people.
With these companions, Gregorios crossed the Obari and brought good order [Ib. eunomía (εὐνομία)] where there had been only lawlessness, defeated tyrants who had made themselves masters by their own strength of arms [Ib. brăkhī́ones (βρᾰχῑ́ονες)], and broke the bands of raiders that had preyed upon the meek [Ib. prāótētes (πρᾱότητες)]. And when the armies of the Hukarian and Khattibi dominions turned against the Aishmayar peoples, he alone stood against them and drove them from the lands they had claimed, winning victories against forces many times his own and freeing city after city from their rule. Yet, he did not make himself king [Ib. despótēs (δεσπότης)] over those whom he had just liberated. Instead, he established a set of foundational laws [Ib. nómoi (νόμοι)] by which the strong [Ib. iskhuroí (ἰσχυροί)] were to become guardians of the vulnerable [Ib. ăstheneîs (ἀσθενεῖς)]; the Few [Ib. oligoi (ὀλίγοι)] were compelled to provide for the Many [Ib. polloi (πολλοί)]; the warriors [Ib. măkhētaí (μᾰχηταί)] would be reorganized into a single military [Ib. súntagmă (σύνταγμᾰ)]; that rulers [Ib. ắrkhontes (ᾰ̓́ρχοντες)] would be bound to obey the rule of law therein; and that every citizen [Ib. polī́tēs (πολῑ́της)] would be obliged to obey their civil obligations [Ib. polīteîai (πολῑτεῖαι)] as subjects [Ib. ărkhómenoi (ᾰ̓ρχόμενοι)] thereof.
In time, Gregorios’ fame [Ib. kléos (κλέος)] spread throughout the whole region, while vassal kings [Ib. satrapeía (σατραπεία)] sought after his counsel [Ib. sunesis (σύνεσις)], clergies [Ib. klêroi (κλῆροι)] sought to study his precepts [Ib. hupothêkai (ῠ̔ποθῆκαι)], and poets [Ib. poiētaí (ποιηταί)] began to style him as Gregorios the Great. Yet for all the victories that they attributed to him, those of whom knew him best remembered him not for the glories [Ib. aîglai (αἶγλαι)] of his campaigns [Ib. străteîai (στρᾰτεῖαι)], but rather the mercies [Ib. eléi (ελέη)] and humilities [Ib. sōphrosúnai (σωφροσύναι)] that he showed along the way. He spared enemies who surrendered when they had been defeated, and gave his own provisions [Ib. sitḗseis (σιτήσεις)] to the hungry [Ib. peinôntes (πεινῶντες)]; he ransomed captives when his companions would have otherwise left them behind, and refused crowns [Ib. dĭădḗmătă (δῐᾰδήμᾰτᾰ)] and treasures [Ib. keimḗlĭă (κειμήλῐᾰ)] that were offered to him as rewards for his deeds.
At last, though, when another, much larger war host of Althameri tribesmen arrived from the northern deserts now known as Ayyarad, seeking to conquer the very peoples he had sworn to defend, Gregorios the Great would meet his final end [Ib. télos (τέλος)]. Knowing that he could not survive the battle that was to come, he ordered those of whom had followed him thus far to instead retreat and seek refuge in the isles of Iblydos, while he himself and only a select chosen few would stay back to hold the enemy at bay for as long as they could. And there he fell, in the valley green [Ib. leimṓn (λειμών)] between the realms of Midea and Thieron, having sacrified the last of his strength so that countless others might survive and remain forever free. Thus did Gregorios the Great die as he had lived: a pre-eminent [Ib. kăt’ exokhḗn (κᾰτ’ ἐξοχήν)] example of courage; of mercy; of justice; of generosity; of nobility; of hope; and of faith. Moreover, because he had given his life so wholly for those of whom he had been entrusted with protecting, the peoples of the Iron Coast would not remember him as just a mere conqueror who had subjugated them, but rather as a hero who had truly fought and died for their salvation [Ib. sōtēría (σωτηρία)].
After his death, the funerary rites [Ib. tắphoi (τᾰ́φοι)] were carried out in the Iblydan city-state now known as Pol-Sylirica, where Gregorios the Great was to be commemorated for his bravery [Ib. thársos (θάρσος)] and his heroics [Ib. hērōĭ̈kắ (ἡρωῐ̈κᾰ́)] memorialized with the construction of an agora [Ib. ᾰ̓γορᾱ́] that would bear his namesake etched in marble and stone. Later on, though, during the early years of the Age of Destiny, the Iblydan Oracle [Ib. mắntĭs (μᾰ́ντῐς)] Dersios [Ib. Dhersios (Δέρσιος)] had a vision [Ib. hórama (ὄραμα)] that he would share to bring attention back onto his legend once more, declaring that he had fulfilled the makings of a true hero-god and needed to be sanctified [Ib. hagiázō (ἁγιάζω)] as such at once. Rightfully so, the people doubted Dersios at first, fearing that he was secretly trying to placate [Ib. hiláskomai (ἱλάσκομαι)] the Divine Order for his own personal gain. However, after one of their cyclopean allies also proclaimed that his deeds had indeed carried him beyond the measure of an ordinary man, it was irrefutable that he was worthy of being granted divinity. Thus he was posthumously received among the Iblydan Hero-Gods as a saintly [Ib. hắgĭos (ᾰ̔́γῐος)] champion [Ib. ărĭsteús (ᾰ̓ρῐστεύς)] of the Seven Virtues [Ib. heptắ ăretaí (ἑπτᾰ́ ᾰ̓ρεταί)] with which he had come to be embodied. His name thereafter became a standard by which the lives of rulers and warriors alike were to be judged; the laws he had established became known as the Rule of Gregorios; and those who wished to follow in his footsteps would henceforth call themselves his most faithful Knights [Ib. hĭppótēs (ῐ̔ππότης)].
And so it was from these traditions [Ib. părădóseis (πᾰρᾰδόσεις)], preserved throughout the ages by generations [Ib. genéseis (γενέσεις)] both past and present, that there would eventually arise a most regal [Ib. basilikós (βασιλικός)] Order of Knights [Ib. Tágma tôn Hippéōn (Τάγμα τῶν Ἱππέων)]; one whose members would swear not only to remember the life of Gregorios the Great, but to also live as he did: to show that strength might serve mercy, courage must support justice, nobility must promote generosity, hope must sustain faith, and that the life of every knight must be held in honor and servitude towards the betterment of all others — in times both here, now and forevermore to come.
Thus concludes the historiography of the Order and Fellowship of the Knights of First Landing as it was previously constituted.