Other Ideas--The Digger Paladins

(Dedicated to Jürgen Mayer)
The plague that created the Blessed and the Misbegotten lowered many men to the level of animals. It also raised some animals to the level of men.

The Diggers live far to the south. Once they were aardvarks, brought to Alyria by the Progenitors. Now they are something more, a hybrid created by the ravaging plague of the Rape. It is not safe for such as them to wander the land. Men are afraid of that which they do not know, and the Diggers are truly alien to the human eye. For their part, the Diggers are content to live in their burrows and hunt game, far from human lands. It was this way for many years. Peace reigned over the land.
But it could not last. One night the Weeping Moon rose above the lands of the Diggers, and the Outsiders rained down. That night, the Diggers rediscovered war. As the blood tide of Outsiders rushed through their burrows, they stood fast to defend their homes. Many Diggers died that night, which is now known as the Night of Blood. Yet they were victorious, and as they drove the Outsiders from their land, they discovered that they were strong.

They also discovered that Outsiders were quite tasty. After all, the Progenitors had neglected to import ants for the aardvarks to eat.

Soon after this, the visitations began. A Digger would awaken from sleep with a faraway look in his eyes. Taking a weapon, he would leave the burrows and vanish into the northlands. One by one, the greatest of the Diggers left the burrows. Each one spoke of having seen the same vision. A great city of iron burning with flame. The Blood Moon rising over a wasteland covered with Digger bones. Dragons circling in the sky. Then a voice calling out, crying for aid, and a unicorn galloping across the sky. And a feeling, an urge, a need, to follow that unicorn into battle.
Thus, one by one, the Digger Paladins left their homelands and journeyed into the world of men, where they did great and marvelous deeds that are still sung in the burrows of their people. But none of them ever returned to their lands in the soft green hills of the south.

Were the visions true, or were they a shared delusion? What sorts of deeds would Digger Paladins do? How would a Digger react to the “civilized” world? What does a sentient aardvark look like, anyways? Why didn’t the Digger Paladins return home?