“The Crocodile Knights divide into chap- ters, each with its own garish heraldry and winding, river-bound territory, answering to a regional Great Chapter led by a Saint. Entrusted with secluded bay- ou-shrines and the right to interpret Thuvarai law, the Saints lead yearly pilgrimages to the jungle temple where the Knights share business and rumor. This journey requires ritual precision, for the slightest misstep could violate an obscure convention and rouse the land’s elemental enforcers. Only the Ghara Hag sha- mans can soothe them, and those strange sorcerers sel- dom venture beyond the holy courthouse where they quiz and anoint each new Saint, except to dredge shat- tered crystal tablets from Thuvaraiyam’s sodden, haunt- ed archives. Their large, sunken eyes are golden with black sclera, a trait the Knights’ oldest families common- ly share. The Knights recruit from runaways and renegades around the near East, but every chapter plasters its boats and bodies with bright heraldry, taking pride in intri- cate tattoos, styled hair, and articles of crocodile teeth or hide. It’s customary for Knights to trade swaggering stories of how they valiantly won these trophies — and some are even true.”
