The Paladins

“We walk into the impossible so no one else has to.”

The Paladins are widely considered the top-ranked Agency in the world. They are recognized for their elite combat prowess, rapid deployment efficiency, and unmatched track record for clean Warp Field dissolutions. 

Named for the reightous personalities of their members, they inspire admiration from civilians, envy from other agencies, and dread from hostile forces. The top members have become celebrities in their own right, starring in movies, commercials, and even documentaries, donating all of the extra proceeds to disaster relief and construction efforts.

Most that join the Paladins tend to want a fast track to fame and fortune, but only those with the best intentions ever last. This agency is not one for the selfish or lazy. The higher you rise in the Paladins, the more likely it is that you are a goody two shoes that knows the value of hard work and self sacrifice.

History

Originally established as a joint military and scientific task force, the Paladins were created in the aftermath of the first major Field Collapse Event since the Great Break. Recruitment was left wide open, supported by bold slogans and heroic speeches, but the truth was far more pragmatic. They needed people willing to walk into the Warp Field, fully aware that most would not return.

In their earliest operation, four squads of expendable recruits were sent into four separate Fields. Each squad should have been wiped out, yet all members were brought back alive, a single individual in each respective group handling most of the hostile forces alone. These individuals displayed startling capabilities that put the rest of their squads to shame. The Paladins had, without meaning to, attracted four extraordinarily capable beings into their ranks. From then on, the Paladins were a force to be reckoned with.

Where other factions hesitated to interact with unstable anomalies, the Paladins pressed forward. Their early successes earned them military funding and eventually an exclusive technology partnership with Nanite Forge Innovations and Technologies. Over the past five years, they have grown from a desperate experimental strike team into a disciplined force of field dissolution specialists, reshaping how every other agency approaches anomaly response and the recruits willing to face it.

Philosophy

The Paladins see themselves as stabilizers of chaos. They do not study anamolies, they confront them. Where others debate theoretical timelines or metaphysical outcomes, the Paladins act with surgical precision.

Their doctrine revolves around:

“Order in All Things” — Disruption is inevitable, but it must be countered decisively.

“We Are the Shield” — Civilian safety comes before understanding.

“No Delay, No Doubt” — Indecision is more dangerous than a wrong choice.

They consider hesitation, compromise, and over-analysis to be luxuries that cost lives.

Methods

Paladins operate in elite, highly coordinated squads, most often deployed as four-member strike teams. Missions are meticulously planned, with every operation including layered contingencies and multiple extraction routes to accommodate the unpredictable nature of Field incursions.

Their most defining feature is their exclusive use of NFIT’s nanite-based Ascension Armor, a system designed to amplify a Paladin’s natural capabilities rather than replace them. Beyond the listed special equipment, Paladins avoid excessive high-tech or anomalous equipment. They rely instead on reinforced conventional weaponry built to withstand the immense stress of their own abilities. To a Paladin, disciplined training and tactical clarity matter more than gadgetry.

At the highest ranks, some Paladins undergo a specialized Nanite Injection procedure. These injections do not grant additional power; instead, they remove the biological ceiling that limits personal growth, allowing the Paladin to continue advancing through pure training and effort alone.

Special Equipment

Ascension Armor (Type I–IV)

Offers great defense and the ability to enhance the wearers attributes. Customization allows for tactical transformations and power boosts.

Voidcleaner Lance

A metaphysical energy weapon. Emits a destabilizing field that severs the anomaly’s connection to the anchor reality, dissolving the Field. Comes in Halberd, Spear, and Twinblade forms.

Notable Members

Selene Bloodcurse

Age: 36

Role: Squad Captain of Paladin Team Aurelia; battlefield medic; harmonic specialist.
Reputation: A calm, luminous presence known among the ranks as the squad mom. Recruits say that when Selene is nearby, the field itself feels less hostile.

Overview:
Composed, intuitive, and unwaveringly protective, Selene carries an aura that heals others, both literally and figuratively. Her voice remains gentle even under fire, and many Paladins swear she can sense danger a half second before it happens. Though serene in demeanor, she becomes immovable when defending her squad, especially Damon.

History:
Selene was once a Celestial Emissary diplomat assigned as a neutral mediator between two warring planetary superpowers. She traveled with her fiancé, her reality’s Damon Bloodcurse, on what was meant to be a peacekeeping mission. Instead, the two walked into a trap. The rival powers united long enough to launch a devastating strike on the Celestial Emissary base, killing Damon and scattering the survivors.

When the Warp Field tore open her reality, Selene was pulled through and deposited on the fractured Earth of the current timeline, where another Damon, one who had lost his Selene, found her in the aftermath. Witnesses described their reunion as “either a cosmic accident or a divine correction.”

Selene joined the Paladins soon afterward, quickly proving indispensable. She has hauled squads back from the edge of annihilation, cementing herself as the faction’s benchmark for harmonic mastery and defensive field operations.

Appearance & Presence:
Selene moves with celestial grace, her silver and gold armor shimmering like the pearly gates. Her irises glow gold beneath pale lashes, and a single braid of black within her white hair honors the Umbral Warden version of herself that Damon lost. Whenever she uses her harmonic abilities, the air sings like a distant angelic choir.

Damon Bloodcurse

Age: 33

Role: Frontline breaker for Paladin Team Aurelia; close-quarters enforcer.
Reputation: Among recruits, Damon is whispered about like a living natural disaster, silent, unstoppable, and terrifying. He has a large fanclub among females and his power has gained him the nickname “Star Breaker.”

Overview:
Stoic, disciplined, and quietly intense, Damon speaks frankly and acts decisively. He carries a constant tension beneath his calm exterior, as though every moment is spent holding back something powerful and dangerous. Yet around Selene, his rare warmth surfaces; she is the one tether strong enough to keep his shadows steady. If you ever see him angry... run!

History:
Damon comes from a warrior society, his past written in loss. In his original timeline, he watched his wife, Selene, die to a hostile force of alien insects, an event that pushed him into years of relentless training, forging him into a weapon of pure focus.

When the Great Breaking merged fractured realities, Damon encountered a still-living Selene from a different reality. Their reunion was instantaneous and overwhelming. He proposed immediately, kneeling amid the fracturing debris of merging and collapsing realities.

Damon joined the Paladins soon after and rose with brutal efficiency. His control over umbral forces and his martial prowess has made him the faction’s spearpoint, sent to open paths where none exist and to break entire armies momentum before it starts.

Appearance & Presence:
Pale, lean, and wrapped in shifting shadow, Damon’s silhouette feels carved from the dark itself. His silver-and-black Ascension Armor gleams along its edges, the white Paladin uniform vest clashing against his dark persona. Enemies describe his presence as suffocating; allies describe it as reassuringly immovable.

Alicia Mathews

Age: 29
Role: Paladin Team Aurelia’s infiltration specialist; scouting and stealth; formation destabilization
Reputation: Recruits call her the Blur, the Ghost, or the One Who’s Probably Behind You Right Now. She has the highest solo-mission success rate in the entire organization and the longest list of reprimands for “unauthorized improvisation.”

Overview

Clever, adaptable, and sarcastic, Alicia treats missions like a game that are meant to be won. Every battlefield is a map of angles, pressure points, and escape routes, reacting faster than most can think. While she comes across friendly and approachable, there’s always a hum of calculation behind her eyes, a constant assessment of the next three moves. She thrives in complexity, dances through danger, and delights in unraveling any opponent who underestimates her slight build or easy smile.

History

Alicia was engineered as a next-generation Synthoid scout, designed for high-risk wilderness navigation, sabotage, and rapid-extraction missions. Her mobility and environmental analysis capabilities far exceeded expectations, and she quickly gained a reputation for slipping into places no one should be able to reach and returning with everything the brass didn’t even know they needed.

When the Paladins started open recruiting, Alicia joined immediately due to her curiosity of Warp Fields. Her ability to read terrain distortions, detect anomalous activity, and exploit warped space made her their premier infiltration expert.

Alicia has conducted more Warp Field dives than any operative her age, usually solo, and has never failed a dive. She’s recovered lost tech, rescued stranded teams, and even located a missing Paladin squad whose coordinates were fracturing across three simultaneous layers of reality.

Despite her ghost-like effectiveness, Alicia is surprisingly personable. She jokes mid-mission, sticks close to her squad between deployments, and is fiercely loyal to the few she trusts. (Seems to have romantic interest in Ex-Paladin, *REDACTED*.)

Appearance & Presence

Alicia moves like liquid. Silent, precise, and gone before a hostiles can catch her outline. Her ascension armor adapts to her optic-camo and adapts color at her whim. Platinum-blonde hair frames a keen, perpetually analyzing expression, often hidden behind a HUD visor.

Threat Level & Rivalry

The Paladins are not hostile to other agencies, but their presence can create friction:

• They demand field dominance. If your party is on a joint op with the Paladins, be prepared to follow orders or face tension.
  

• They refuse to delay missions for theory or experimentation. Saving lives is more important.
  

• If another agency fails to contain a Warp Field, the Paladins are often sent in to clean up and they remember who caused the mess.

In a hostile encounter or factional conflict, the Paladins are considered Elite or Boss-tier threats, often operating with coordinated group abilities.

Even a single high ranking Paladin can be a formidable match for an entire enemy squad.