A brief history of the Purple Helmets guild

The formation of the guild

The Purple Helmets guild was formed on Jhelom many years a go, by a young, talented warrior, El Hoggo. It was formed as a means to give direction and encouragement to young men and women, who were still discovering where their talents lie, and who were in need of some guidance and assistance to achieve their potential.

Lord El Hoggo

El Hoggo himself had trained as a warrior on Jhelom, progressing through the fighting pits and seeing off challenges from many expereinced warriors - losing to others, but always learning and improving. He quickly recognized that the inflexible, single minded Jhelom way of life was brutal and favoured the dedicated and talented few. Unfortunately it failed those who were not able to come rapidly up to standard, and many who started their training too early were left broken and forgotten, with talents untapped. It was too late for those who realized they had made an error to change track. his boyhood friend Thomas Covenant was a case in point.

El Hoggo had needed to fight all his life, from when his family were murdered by Liches when he was small, and he had been sent to live with relatives in Jhelom - where he met the young Thomas Covenant. They played together all the time - El Hoggo standing up for the weaker boy on many occasions - but never being really accepted by the locals as one of them.

When he and Thomas joined the warrior's guild to train as fighters - Thomas struggled, but it was expected of him, his father and his grandfather had been warriors - he would be the same. But El Hoggo saw something else in the moody, lonesome youngster.

When Thomas was struck by leprosy, and it was clear he was not able to pursue his warrior training, he was dropped and shunned as a failure by almost everyone - except El Hoggo. Thomas became melancholy and bitter, until he and El Hoggo were in an inn one night, and a strange, dishevelled, foul mouthed and grumpy man in dirty blue clothes approached them. He introduced himself as Lucas Blunt, a traveller and rogue, and said he that he recognized, in Thomas, the fire of arcane ability. He told the boys wondrous tales of magick and mages, and told Thomas he should seek another path. Thomas went with Lucas to Magincia, where he trained under some of the great mages of the land. He soon showed himself to be an exceptional mage, and progressed rapidly. El Hoggo visited his friend many times, and it was this episode that made El Hoggo realize that an individual's worth could often lay dormant, or even completely undiscovered, unless nurtured and trained carefully and sympathetically.

Thomas Covenant

Over the next few years Thomas and El Hoggo trained hard in their chjosen paths - and El Hoggo left to explore the World, spending some time in Yew, where he trained his archery to exceptional levels, and also becoming involved in a search for the fabled Purple Helmet of Aas - an artifact of ancient times, possesed of great mystical powers and forged from the now unkown metal - Merkite - which was purple in hue.

Lord Halfhitch

On his return to Jhelom, El Hoggo decided that he was ready to fill the void that left people who had undiscovered talents without proper training. He formed the guild to help young warriors, artisans and mages to learn at thier own pace, with expert guidance. He first recruited some grandmasters in their fields - Thomas was sent for and came from Magincia to train the mages, the famous Jalon Dezerin a grandmaster blacksmith, Halfhitch - having met El Hoggo some time earlier, came to help in the arcane arts, Ra - a great swordsman and Explorer and Nogbad, a monster hunter of great reknown also joined. Even the miserbale old Lucas Blunt joined - he adopted the guild as his home between his wanderings, and spent a lot of time recounting tales of the "old days" and his explorations and passing on many a wise word to the young members. The guild's work had begun.

The legend of the Purple Helmet of Aas was used as a goal towards which new recruits could work - it had never been discovered, and it formed the basis of many quests for the guild, as it still does to this day. It also served as a talisman, and an object of study for all classes of recruit - were the legends accurate? Did it even exist? Could it be found? It became a focal point of many philosophical and practical excercises.

The guild has shrunk from the large numbers of it's heyday, as active recruiting gave way to more adventuring and exploring and the model was adopted by other guilds in other towns across the world, providing alternatives to the Purple Helmets. Many members have passed through and on, remaining loyal friends and finding a way in life thanks to the training received under El Hoggo and his senior guildmembers. Some have sadly passed from this world - Ra was killed in the depths of Hythloth dungeon, Nogbad disappeared whilst on a quest to find a Phoenix, and Jalon Dezerin died in a mining accident.

In many ways the guilds primary task is now complete - now the guild moves into a new phase. With a loyal core of experienced members, the Purple Helmets will once again pursue the goal - the search for the fabled Purple Helmet of Aas.

The guilds charter "Honesty, Honour and Valour" and the ethos that all are equal and all have unique abilities to offer has led many to question the processes that place those in power over others by birthright, opression or wealth, rather than virtue. It is this view that has led the guild to view sympathetically, those who propose the creation of a free state, and the dissolution of the monarchy. Whilst the Purple Helmets does not believe in anarchy, it's members are committed to the view that standing in society has to be earned rather than inherited, and that only a fair, democratic state will serve this end and breed respect for those in authority.

Stories of Adventure and bravery >>