White-Shield Knights of Unauwen

The White-Shield Knights of Unauwen are the king’s knights, publicly identified by their white shields and bound to the defense of the realm. Their role comes into sharp focus when the king summons the shield-bearers, counselors, and magnates to hear news from the east: the knights’ emblem marks a body expected not only to attend the court but to act together when the kingdom is threatened.

Identity and Appearance

At the great assembly in the palace, the knights appear among counselors and other lords in a gathering that makes the realm’s political and military power visible. Those present wear shining helmets, carry white shields, and include men in rainbow-colored cloaks. The assembly is not complete: many knights remain elsewhere in Unauwen, including some still in Eviellan. The white shield thus identifies a wider body than the group assembled in the hall.

The King’s Assembly and the Threat from Eviellan

The king calls those who bear the White Shield to join the counselors and magnates in the great hall and hear what has come from the east. He then reveals that the Lord of Eviellan remains an enemy and that his concealed plan to murder the Crown Prince has been exposed. Two of the king’s knights have been killed to keep that plot secret; the fate of three others—Argarath, Marcian, and Darowin—is unknown, and the king fears the worst.

The disclosure changes the gathering from a hearing into a call for defense. The king warns that the Lord of Eviellan may turn to force now that deception has failed. In response, the knights draw their swords, and the hall becomes a forest of shining blades as they acclaim their king. The collective gesture answers the king’s appeal with a visible pledge of readiness; discussion of how to prepare the country for defense follows, though Tiuri and Piak are no longer present for it.

The White Shield and Tiuri’s Service

The emblem also carries a personal meaning through Tiuri’s knighting. King Dagonaut gives him a shield as white as snow and explains that, at the request of the King of Unauwen, it signifies that Tiuri will serve Unauwen as well as Dagonaut. It is also a remembrance of Edwinem, whose mission Tiuri has taken over. The white shield therefore links service across the two kingdoms with the continuation of a dead knight’s task.

Tiuri has not reached this status through the expected path alone: he has completed the mission and kept his promise to Edwinem before receiving the formal sword-stroke. Dagonaut recognizes that conduct as proof that Tiuri has already shown himself to be a knight, then performs the ceremony and gives him the shield. The episode connects the White-Shield Knights’ public, collective readiness to Tiuri’s individual commitment, making the shield both a sign of allegiance and a mark of inherited responsibility.