Knights of Velyshaa

The Knights of Velyshaa were the primary military force of the planet Velyshaa. Members of the order encountered the Doctor and helped fight against the Daleks.

History
In the 36th century, the Knights conquered a significant portion of the Milky Way Galaxy as the Velyshaan Empire, under the leadership of First Knight Sancroff. They eventually came into conflict with the Earth Alliance, who fought and defeated them around 3562. Sancroff was exiled for his war crimes.

In his exile, Sancroff came to realise that while at the time it had seemed like a great adventure, his career as a Knight caused much death and destruction, and he repented his crimes. When bio-engineered assassins from Calfadoria were sent to kill him, Sancroff surrendered to them. (AUDIO: The Sirens of Time)

After their defeat, the Knights were isolated on their planet, where they slowly recovered.

A few hundred years later, First Knight Praylaron sensed the coming threat of the Daleks, and surreptitiously worked to negotiate a new alliance with the Earth Alliance, sending Kalendorf to Vega VI as an envoy. Unfortunately, the invasion of the Daleks from the neighbouring Seriphia Galaxy halted the proceedings before arrangements could be made. (PROSE: Kalendorf, AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks) After the Daleks had established a new Dalek Empire, Kalendorf worked with Susan Mendes, who the Daleks were using as the Angel of Mercy, to sow the seeds of rebellion among the spaces of the Empire. The Daleks took them to occupied worlds across the galaxy where Susan would make speeches and suggest improvements to working conditions to improve slave morale and thus efficiency whilst Kalendorf, who Susan had told the Daleks was essential to her morale, telepathically contact the slaves and prime them to rebel against the Daleks upon hearting a trigger phrase. (AUDIO: The Human Factor) During these travels, Kalendorf once encountered the Seventh Doctor on Zaleria. (AUDIO: Return of the Daleks) After a decade of war, Suz used a broadcast on Yaldos to say the trigger for Kalendorf’s telepathic programming, instigating a rebellion across the galaxy which threw the Dalek Empire into chaos. (AUDIO: “Death to the Daleks!”) Kalendorf subsequently helped the Earth Alliance reorganise and became a commander. He led the unsuccessful attempt to stop the Daleks using Project Infinity. (AUDIO: Project Infinity)

When the Daleks of a parallel universe that the Dalek Emperor had used Project Infinity to contact turned on the Daleks and allied with the Earth Alliance, Kalendorf became a vital contact between the Alliance and their leader, the Mentor. After six years collaborating to defeat the Daleks of their own universe, Kalendorf became convinced the galaxy had just swapped one dictatorship for another, albeit a more outwardly benign one, and manipulated events to create an agreement between the Alliance and “Enemy Daleks” to fight the Mentor’s Daleks together. As part of the deal he surrender Susan Mendes to the Daleks, as the Emperor had taken refuge in her mind to escape capture by the Mentor. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three) After years of war, the Mentor summoned Kalendorf for an audience, to ask his reasons for the betrayal, and announced her Daleks would withdraw back to their universe. As the fragile truce held, Kalendorf travelled to Dalek-occupied Earth to meet the Emperor. Surprised to discover it had chosen to fully possess Susan’s body, Kalendorf grabbed it and reawoke Susan’s mind to trigger telepathic programming he’d left prior to surrendering her: “Victory or death”. This caused a signal throughout the Dalek command net, which Susan was connected to via the Emperor, ordering all Dalek technology to self-destruct. The resulting destruction became known as the Great Catastrophe, with Kalendorf being remembered by future generations as the “Dark One” or “Bringer of Death”. Kalendorf survived, (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter Four) and went on to have a career in politics. (PROSE: Museum Peace) Prior to his death, Kalendorf made a series of psychic recordings on Velyshaa warning about the Daleks, who he did not believe were truly defeated.

Approximately 2,500 years after the Great Catastrophe, the Knights had all died out. Archaeologist Saloran Hardew investigated Kalendorf’s psychic recordings on Velyshaa. She handed off the information to Siy Tarkov, who intended the information to warn the Galactic Union about the threat of the Daleks as another invasion appeared imminent. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter Four)

Alternate timeline
In an alternate timeline created by the Sirens of Time, the Knights were not defeated in 3562 due to the Earth Alliance never developing. They rescued Sancroff from exile and proceeded to build the Second Velyshaan Empire. They captured the Temperon and used the temperon particles it generated to gain time travel. However, prolonged exposure to temperon particles caused the Knights' bodies to slowly waste away. They conquered whole galaxies and extracted their life forces to sustain their decaying bodies. Their greatest triumph was the conquest of Gallifrey and the subjugation of all Time Lords to their life force extractors.

This timeline was destroyed when the Temperon locked the Sirens of Time in eternal combat, undoing the nexus points that allowed the rise of the Second Empire. (AUDIO: The Sirens of Time)

Skills
Knights of Velyshaa were skilled in "all the ancient arts. Telepathy, espionage, mortal combat..." (AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks)

Most notable of their skills was the ability to telepathically connect with others through touch, allowing private communication and channelling of psychic energy. They could also imprint psychic images onto artefacts in a manner that could be sensed by sentients thousands of years later. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter Four)

Legends
Kalendorf told a legend that all of Sancroff's lieutenants took a vow of "Victory or Death" and remained fiercely loyal to him, except for one lieutenant named Satiricius, who plotted to overthrow him. When Sancroff learned of her impending betrayal, he met with her in private. Immediately after that meeting, Satiricius returned to her castle and killed all of her fellow conspirators, then herself. It was rumoured that this was a psychic compulsion impressed on Satiricius by Sancroff during her vow. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter Four)

Notable individuals
Sancroff was the legendary First Knight of Velyshaa. (AUDIO: The Sirens of Time) Satiricius was one of his lieutenants who supposedly was going to overthrow him. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter Four)

Praylaron was another of Sancroff's lieutenants, cloned to be First Knight some six hundred years later. (PROSE: Kalendorf)

Kalendorf was a Knight of Velyshaa who assisted Susan Mendes in a rebellion against the Daleks. (AUDIO: Dalek Empire)

Knight Commander Lyena was a garrison commander of Gallifrey in an alternate timeline. Sub-Commander Solanec was her second-in-command. (AUDIO: The Sirens of Time)