Order of the Ribboned Red

I bind you in fate, in life, in soul. You shall cleave together, life through life, soul through soul, until the death of your existence.

— marriage ceremony

The Order of the Ribboned Red are a little-known organisation that formed in the first millenium post-Worldrend. They exist on the periphery of most people's understanding as a surprisingly cult-like group that aid those seeking love, but the truth goes a little further than one might expect.
In truth, they are only part-time in the love business. The majority of their work is done with the paranormal - the Ribboned Red are one of the few groups that willingly deals with the Ethereal Plane, and the foremost investigators of hauntings across the Aletheian Empire. They take a somewhat different approach to dealing with haunts to most adventurers or exorcists; instead of seeking methods of destroying the restless dead, they open their minds and empathise with the lost spirits, usually seeking ways to stabilise the ghosts so that they are able to finally move on.
This is, of course, excessively dangerous. The Ribboned Red have cultivated a number of techniques for handling spirits, quite often drawing on the expertise of their own not-so-mortal allies. The necromantic links these techniques often have is supposedly why they keep their paranormal investigations and affliations to only their most trusted friends, though obviously, over the course of milennia, word has gotten out to those willing to look. Notably, the Keepers of Divinity have put out an order demanding that any members of the Ribboned Red be questioned thoroughly.

Public Agenda

Have you suffered without love, or do you wish to send a message to one you have lost? Seek out the Ribboned Red, located in the red-patterned tents in all the Empire's main cities!

To the public, the Ribboned Red masquerade as matchmakers and soothsayers. They dress in long robes belted at the waist by a thick red ribbon, and set up scarlet tents in the most populous market districts of the Empire. Some, too, travel in wagons with groups of travelling merchants - maintaining a near-perfect guise the entire time. They use crystal balls and talk of divination to lure in the public, and promise them luck and love - even going as far as to offer the Ritual of the Red String to determine whether a couple are soulmates.
This neatly ties into their more secretive roles. As embedded members of their local communities, the Ribboned Red can work on a generational scale when it comes to romance. They develop deep insights into their local communities, forming close bonds that allow them to easily predict who a given townsperson would be happy with. Additionally, if something terrible happened - a murder, for instance, or a terrible accident - then the Ribboned Red would already have most of the lore necessary to confront the nascent ghost and lead it to the afterlife peacefully.
The group's samsaran members claim that their membership is soul-deep; that when they die and are reborn, they shall return to the Ribboned Red. They claim that this is true for the mortal members, too, and that it is this soul-deep knowledge that lends them an edge in both their ghost-quelling exploits and their forays into the realm of love.

Ethics

Ethics? In this group? Are you sure you're on the right article?

The Ribboned Red have a dangerous habit of assuming their ways and knowledge are superior to that of any other individual or group. Whilst this is often true when referring to ghosts and other undead - as they do have some of the most impressive ghost-fighting techniques known to man - it is far less applicable when it comes to considering what might be right or wrong in love, and where it might be inappropriate to interfere.
Otherwise-stable relationships have been slowly broken apart by the insidious meddling of Ribboned Red members who have greater plans for the hapless humans. Regardless as to whether they are right in the end - is this truly right? The organisation is currently discussing whether they should - after four thousand years - finally institute some sort of code to guide them. The idea is unlikely to pass muster.

In Sickness and in Health

Founding Date

1352

Type

Secret, Occult

Demonym

the Ribboned Red

Parent Organization

Aletheian Empire