Idea and vision

Cursed Knights - is a gothic dark fantasy story set in an alternative version of Central and Northern Europe at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. A parable about human dual nature and that sometimes our dark side is hard to tame or control, that everything has its price and consequences. Since the calamity in Königsberg, the causes of which were far from natural, the Baltic Sea is frozen. Teutonic raids terrorize the coast and northern borders of the Crown. Strange and unatural things loom in the fog. The Versipellis - known in the land of Corona Regni Poloniae as the Varulvar or Volkodlaki, the primal guardians of the Great Mother Goddess - are close to extinction. Divided and weak. In Samogitia some of the last wild packs are now facing an ancient evil who has returned bringing fire and death carried by the armed might of the Teutonic Order. Others struggle to survive by living among humans, adopting a new way of life and new faith. Hunted down not only by demonic Teutonic Order but also by the church, mercenary witch hunters and knights-errant.

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As a huge fan of history, the middle ages, folk tales, and myths, it was one of my biggest dream to create my own alternative world and story ( maybe a graphic novel ) set in 14th/15th-century Central Europe in which werewolf-knights battle the demonic Teutonic Order corrupted by dark magic and an ancient evil being that they encountered during the Third Crusade. The Cursed Knights world is deeply rooted in and based on historical realities, events, places, and figures, but make no mistake - it is very much a dark fantasy setting, full of supernatural forces, with original lore, characters and story. Early work on this world and its concept began in 2015, but it wasn’t until now, a decade later, at the end of AD 2025, that I was able to seriously delve into worldbuilding, story and visual identity.
 

So, why are Teutonic Knights the primary evil and dark element of this world? Is there any anti-religious, anti-christian sentiment here? Absolutely not! Apart from the fact that the Teutonic Knights were far from being exemplary Christians, committed many terrible crimes and ruled by fear and terror, let's not forget that the Polish and Lithuanian knights fighting them at Grunwald were, mostly, also Christians. The fact that the Teutonic Knights are portrayed as demonic-villains of this world has absolutely nothing to do with any religion. If anything, Cursed Knights perhaps - indirectly - shows that those who shout the loudest about God are usually mainly interested in power, control and wealth.  It is fictional and fantasy world, only inspired by historical events and with historical elements. Without revealing too much, let's say that the issue of beliefs and religion in Cursed Knights world is not so obvious and is more complex than it might seem at first glance.
 

Sure, but why are Teutonic Knights the bad guys? Well, because most of my ideas and inspiration come from my childhood. As a kid growing up in a small village in Pomerania, I was fascinated by knights, middle ages and history, but also movies! Together with my younger brother we loved watching movies about knights, one of our favorites was 'Knights of the Teutonic Order' (1960) by Aleksander Ford. We watched this movie hundreds of times! Knowing it almost by heart and quoting lines from it during our knight-play games with friends. There was also an adventure TV series 'Przyłbice i Kaptury' and, of course, the original book by H. Sienkiewicz. It was the end of the 80's early 90's. All this formed a clear and very strong vision of the Teutonic Knights as super-villains in my youthful heart and imagination. All of that had a huge and unique impact on me; it has remained one of my main, core, most personal and important inspirations for my entire life and art journey. Although today my view of the Teutonic Order, the whole conflict and historical realities of that period is not quite so one-sided and black-and-white, I still draw my main inspiration and vision from these childhood memories and experiences.

I’ve alway wanted to combine the themes of tormented by their nature werewolf-knights, slavic pagan, northern crusades, ancient beliefs, folk stories and dark-demonic versions of Teutonic Order - into one, coherent world and lore.  After years of various experiments and concepts around this vision, I finally managed to create Cursed Knights - gothic horror and dark fantasy story set in the alternative medieval universe, which I now humbly present to you, with hope that you will find it interesting and intriguing.     
 

Mr. Werewolf

Forbidden books will soon be revealed...