Supernatural Organisation Data
Files: The Holy Orders
Summary: The Holy Orders are a group of
highly interlinked organisations that utilise ‘holy magic’. Although their
origins are independent they have grown over the years into a unified group of
many faiths (and in some cases, faithless individuals). Their members are
mostly clerics, however, almost every single paladin is a member of one
organisation or another. Their total membership is around two hundred clerics,
and a few dozen paladins.
Although
the strongest and primary defence of humanity against all forms of supernatural
threat for millennia, in the past couple of centuries they have been in
decline. This decline seems to be roughly in line with the rise and development
of our own psychic abilities – one of the many reasons we believe that we are
the successors of the Holy Orders in their duty to protect humanity.
The
Holy Orders are the only organisation we consider to be a ‘true’ ally, unlike
the Meander Corporation.
Structure: The Holy Orders are a hierarchical
group based on age and experience. Paladins are excepted from this due to their
rarity, value, and immediate gaining of great power – they are the sword of the
Orders, perhaps, rather than a true part of them. For clerics, however, power
comes with age and learning. Initiates learn how to channel holy power until
they are around thirty-five years old, at which time – if they can channel holy
magic at all – they become clerics of the Order they have trained with.
Following
this, they may teach initiates or work at hunting down evil – but only as
assigned by the elders of the order. A cleric may be chosen to become an elder
upon reaching sixty years of age, and will serve as an elder if chosen until
they die – guiding the Orders through the modern world, and in seeking out and
destroying evil.
History: The first of the Holy Orders
were formed by clerics around the same time evidence emerges of curse magic –
roughly four hundred B.C. These Orders followed pagan gods of the regions they
formed within, and had powers comparable (likely equal) to those of modern
clerics.
Around
two hundred B.C. the first paladins emerged. These individuals used powerfully
imbued holy weapons, and wielded them against those who used curses to great
effect. Of the armour made so long ago only one set has survived to the present
day – and its magic has long since faded.
For
a long time, the only threats faced by the Holy Orders (which were still separate
from one another, and in fact occasionally clashed) were individuals or small
groups who discovered, and utilised, curse magic. During this period, many more
Holy Orders emerged, and those of different religions and regions began to
co-operate somewhat – enabling them to hunt down fleeing curse users over great
distances.
The
true test of the Holy Orders – and the reason they grew large and more unified –
was the emergence of the curse-smiths. The history of the Holy Orders indicates
several clashes with them and their early creations – including some terrors that
have not been seen since those times (thankfully). The organised foe the
curse-smiths presented required the mobilisation of multiple Holy Orders to
drive them out, time and time again – yet the curse-smiths kept escaping and
re-establishing themselves for hundreds of years.
For
a time it seemed like the fighting would be unending, yet in the end the Holy
Orders were victorious (unfortunately after the creation of many of the
curse-smiths most terrible curses, including the creation of vampires and
lycanthropes). The curse-smiths were wiped out, and blighted the world no more.
Notably,
this is the history as the Orders tell it. We have very good reasons to suspect
that they, in fact, failed: that the curse-smiths succeeded in turning
themselves into the aristocrat form of vampires. The Orders have said that even
if this is true, and is the real reason for their disappearance, that no aristocrats
from that time survive to the modern day – something we have no means of
proving, despite the fact that we have never encountered an aristocrat older
than roughly one thousand years.
Regardless
of the reason, the curse-smiths were gone. The efforts of the Holy Orders moved
onto the elimination of the creatures the curse-smiths had created: vampires
and lycanthropes. Records indicate that many of the less virulent forms of
lycanthropy were wiped out completely, as well as at least one vampire variety
and several less definable creations. Still, they were not wholly successful –
many vampire types persist to the modern day, as do werewolves.
When
elemental magic emerged, the Holy Orders were cautious. It seemed… Unnatural to
them, but also to not be a threat to humanity. They made peace with the early
mage schools; until the emergence of necromancy and its dark power. After
seeing what necromancy could do, they cut ties of friendship with the mages and
warned that anyone found practicing necromancy – and any necromantic creatures –
would be destroyed without remorse.
Despite
several exterminations and many burnt necromancers, the Holy Orders were unable
to fully prevent necromancy from rising. Worse, unlike the random independent
practitioners of curse magic, the necromancers quickly formed organisations
much like the curse-smiths had: incredibly hard to fully destroy and capable of
rapidly replenishing their numbers with curious souls. The times had moved on
as well: cities were more common, and most necromancers worked within normal
society in secret rather than obscure, hard to reach places. And their
creations – zombies and worse – were far more numerous than the rare guardian
creatures of the curse-smiths.
Though
they faced many threats, the Holy Orders stayed strong as protectors of
humanity until the mid-eighteenth century. Around this time – for reasons unknown
(but suspected) – holy magic entered a decline. At the start of the nineteenth
century, even the most powerful clerics could not imbue the armour of paladins.
By the twentieth, they could no longer repair armour that had been damaged. The
knowledge had not been lost – just, somehow, the ability.
The
decline continues to the present day, and is the reason for the current low
numbers of clerics and paladins in the world (in their heyday, there was at
least ten thousand clerics and hundreds of paladins active). We are unsure if
the decline will continue indefinitely or will reach some kind of limit. It is,
within our organisation, generally hoped that not only does the decline cease,
but that it reverses itself. Though we have some minor differences the Holy
Orders are, like us, true defenders of humanity.
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