Lore · Cities & Peoples
Lucan D’Lere & the Freeport Militia
Every new Freeport character learned two things fast: the militia would kill you, and the Knights of Truth could not stop them. This is how that happened.
A street child
Lucan D’Lere was a poor child of Freeport’s streets, taken in by the Temple of Marr. The priests found him agile and strong and wanted him squired. They could not spare trainers, so the Knights of Truth took him, and Sir Valeron Dushire became one of his mentors. He grew into a formidable knight.
The Crusade of Tears
In the year 3150, Erollisi and Mithaniel Marr called the Knights of Truth to cross the Ocean of Tears and purge Faydwer of the undead. Freeport and the knights who stayed behind were left in Sir Lucan’s care. He was proud of the job, worked himself hard and grew popular. But he began to doubt that the crusaders would ever return, and he began to enjoy the power.
Deals and mercenaries
Then it slipped. Afraid of failing, Lucan made new deals with the Coalition of Tradefolk Underground, letting them work openly near the docks as long as they left the wealthy alone. He hired mercenaries to keep the walls manned, and paid them from the Knights’ treasury and then from the temple’s.
The death of Sentry Dilius
At last Sentry Dilius, a paladin of the Priests of Marr, confronted him and demanded he give up the city. No one knows exactly how it went wrong; Lucan was exhausted, and Dilius was no diplomat. Lucan killed him in a fit of rage and fear, and his gods stripped him of his paladin powers for ever. The knights turned him out and demanded his Testimony of Knighthood. He refused. Only one servant of Marr, Brother Jentry, stayed loyal to him.
The Militia and the Dismal Rage
The knights held the Hill but could not drive out his mercenaries, so Lucan made them official: the Freeport Militia, which grew baser over time and filled with thieves and former prisoners. Officially it protects ordinary people, formed after the Marr orders “abandoned the city to its enemies.” In truth it is his private army. To survive the crusaders’ return he made a devil’s bargain with the Church of the Dismal Rage, Innoruuk’s worshippers, letting them work in the sewers and the poor eastern quarter. A Rage agent knows exactly what that makes the Militia: “They trust us. How unfortunate for them.”
A tyrant who is afraid
He plans for the Militia to outgrow the independent guilds, take the Hill, and make him “King Lucan.” For now he lives in constant fear of assassins, rebellion, invasion and failure, knowing that if he misses his mercenaries’ monthly pay even once they will probably turn on him. The Dismal Rage proved they could preserve a spirit after death and bound his soul to his body, so even if his flesh dies he will rule on as undead. Many believe something darker has already happened to him: people have seen him die, only for his body to re-form from the earth.
Voices in the city
Freeport is full of his enemies. Sir Valeron Dushire calls the Knights of Truth the might that will “free this city from the tyranny of the Freeport Militia.” Tholius Quey says Lucan “never was no true Knight of Truth,” and that without the Crusade of Tears the city “would still be united in valour.” And Lucan himself learns that Antonius Bayle and the Knights of Truth have begun an alliance, and that he may have a traitor among his guards.
The Overlord to come
EverQuest II built on the story. Its developers claimed the crusade the knights rode off on was a trap Lucan had set for them at Befallen, and that the Dismal Rage helped him rise as supreme commander, though “Sir Lucan was not so appreciative.” Whether he became a lich is left open; he “has certainly been introduced to some form of necromantic rituals.” In EverQuest II he demands to be called the Overlord, and has the old Freeport symbols replaced with his own.
Where the sources disagree
The 2009 official guide spells the murdered paladin “Sentry Dillius”; the RPG text spells him Dilius.
The same guide names the Knights of Truth leader both Valeron and “Veleorn” Dushire.
The guide says Lucan’s militia controls the eastern parts of Freeport, but also calls Western Freeport “the epicenter of Lucan’s control.”
Sources
[1] EverQuest.com: On the Town of: Freeport (2009) · [2] Library of Erudin: The Freeport Militia (from the EverQuest RPG) · [3] Library of Erudin: Lucan D’Lere (Realms of Norrath: Freeport — The Freeport Militia)
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Retold in our own words from the sources listed on this page; short quotes are marked and sourced. The illustration is an original AI-generated painting made for this page alone, not from the game.