Defi never knew his parents; he was taken from a village left in ruins after a siege by the knight-monks of the Order of the Shining Dawn. Within the stone walls of the monastery he grew up not as a noble warrior, but as a stable boy and squire, cleaning weapons, patching armor, and scrubbing the cold stones of the temple. To the knights he was only “the orphan” who mopped up spilled holy water and listened from the shadows to tales of glory in the refectory at night. Yet, when he was alone in the darkened temple, Defi would often kneel before the altar of the Divine’s Sanctity and whisper: “If you truly watch over us, show me I was born for more than dust beneath the horses’ hooves.”

The chance came on a fateful day. A raiding host in service to a demonic cult struck the nearby villages, and the knights of the Order rode out to war. The monastery was left nearly undefended, with only a few elderly brothers and the servants – among them, Defi. When a small band of cultists broke away and descended upon the monastery, the old men were unable to protect themselves. Defi, clutching an abandoned, plain knight’s sword, stepped onto the threshold of the temple. Fear nearly paralyzed him, but then a blinding yet gentle light washed over him from the altar. It was as if the Divine’s Sanctity itself surged through his arm and chest: his movements grew light, and the blade struck with a precision he had never been taught. The attackers fell back, some lying dead on the flagstones of the courtyard. The old prior sank to his knees before him and said in a trembling voice: “You are the Chosen of the Light, boy… or rather, you will be a knight, no matter how you began.”

The returning knights listened in stunned silence to the tale, and though many still looked with doubt upon the former filthy orphan, the sign of the Divine could not be denied: that night, a glowing crack appeared on the surface of the temple altar, as if heaven itself had touched it. In defiance of custom and tradition, Defi was accepted as a full knight-apprentice, swearing an oath to wield his power not for his own glory, but for the protection of the innocent and the fulfillment of the will of the Divine’s Sanctity. Now, years later, Defi walks the world as a steadfast, classic knight: his sword flashes for the weak, his shield shelters the guiltless, and in every battle he hopes to feel once more that pure, searing light which lifted an orphan boy from the mud – and made him a knight.