The Orders:
The Orders have long stood a cut above all other military forces in the Hundred Kingdoms. They are recruited on a purely meritocratic basis, a claim few other organizations can claim. The admission processes and gruelling training regimes vary from order to order, but their logic is consistent: Purity of focus and strength of character are innate, skill at arms can be taught. Their equipment is uniformly of exceptional quality, the secrets of their forging taught to the order smiths centuries ago by dweghom masters. The smelting and tempering processes they use create alloys of surpassing quality and the skill and experience of their smiths ensures that all of the weapons and armor they produce are masterpieces. There might even be some credence to the claim that Order master smiths can forge Silubaster, a secret thought lost with the fall of the Old Dominion. These factors alone would make them an unstoppable force on the battlefield, but it is the secrets of their Initiation that truly set the Orders apart and push the boundaries of the human physique into unknown frontiers.
Secrets:
Deep within the Sealed Temple, hidden deep within the most powerful fortress forged by mortal hands, secured by the stoutest members of the Order of the Sealed Temple and warded by the most powerful sorceries of the Dweghom, lies the secret to the Order’s survival: Cleon yet lives.
Trapped in a mass of Silubaster, bound by sigils no man has yet deciphered Cleon and Hazlia yet endure, their essences locked in eternal combat through the conduit formed by Leander’s traitorous blade. Should the vestige of Hazlia’s ever break free of this containment and rejoin with the power that resides in the Pyre, the unGod would be reborn.
Initiation
This is the deepest secret of the Orders, and the main charge of the Order of the Sealed Temple, but it is also the secret to their survival and prosperity. Each Order Knight has a small shard of this mass implanted into their body using techniques developed and refined from the ancient Dweghom Steelshaper who first created this process in the aftermath of the Fall. This graft, the heart and soul of the Initiation ritual, creates a small but direct sympathetic link between the Initiate and their patron god’s power. With Cleon’s Will fully committed to the containment of his eternal foe, the Initiate can only draw power from his source of divinity when his mind and soul resonate with the ideals of Cleon: those of honor, duty and protection.
The deeper those ideals, the greater power he can call upon. Should an initiate not be pure of heart, his ideals not strong enough it is not Kleon’s benign power that he receives but Hazlia’s inimical power, which invariably proves fatal. This brutal but simple ritual has ensured that the Order remain true to their ideals for centuries, providing them with the personal power and unity of purpose no other organization can match.
Differences:
That is not to say that all of the Orders see eye to eye or have never come to blows (although there have been only a handful of recorded fatalities) as their ideals and commitments vary wildly. This is best reflected in the recruitment and initiation practices of each Order, which sees the Silubaster shard implanted in a different region of the body to different effect:
The Order of the Sealed Temple implants the shard in the chest, immediately below the heart. It makes Initiates tireless and drastically reduces their need for sleep, ensuring that their vigil never falters.
The Order of the Shield implants the shard through the eye itself, granting the Initiate incredibly sharp senses of sight, smell and sound. These gifts aided these roving Justicars in seeing through the lies of the accused,but these days these gifts have proven invaluable in keeping the few that survive alive.
The Order of the Sword implants the shard in the non-dominant forearm of its Initiates. From its source, hair thin tendrils of Silubaster slowly stretch across the arm, forming mesmerizing patterns that resemble tattoos, but protect the arm better than armor. It is theorized that these tattoos could extend across the entire body, but none have yet been recorded.
The Order of the Crimson tower implants the shard at the base of the spine. Here it seems to bond with the spine, granting the Initiate incredible resistance to pain and motor control, granting them the ability to compensate for any debilitating injury almost perfectly. Crimson Tower Initiates do not stop until killed.
The Order of the Ashen Dawn only recruits among members of the Other orders, and implants all Silubaster shards in its members. The massive influx of power swells their frame making them towering figures and grants them a heightened version of each blessing, but at a terrible cost. They are seldom seen in company, and almost never without their armor. None have been recorded to die of old age.
The Order of St Lazarus does not have a formal ritual, banned as they are from the grounds of the Sealed Temple and the secrets it holds. However they hold blood rituals which have passed Kleon’s blessing from master to initiate for centuries. The effects of this blessing vary wildly, but most Order of St Lazarus seem stronger and faster than they should be. The toughness they evince is more likely due to the disease passed along with the ritual than any supernatural effect.