The Illuminated Order

Nestled within the small community of ramshackle dwellings in Olive Branch is an unassuming stone complex that houses this order. There are no signs or markers that set it apart and it is masterfully designed to drive attention away from it. The people that reside there are friendly and welcoming, if a little wary. Many refugees find a permanent home here.

Structure

The Burdened One

Assets

The Haven

Tenets of Faith

Nothing is free
Every gift must be honored in return
The Radiant Path is the only path
The Order will provide
Do not doubt the Order's wisdom
Outsiders are not to be trusted

Ethics

They use their location and collect exiles, stragglers, and the lost and damaged. By letting the Benevolents think they are providing a haven for wayward stragglers, exiles, and lost travelers they escape unwanted scrutiny.

Worship

Upon joining, a follower makes a decision to start a family once you are firmly inducted and trusted enough to be privy to the tenets and way of life within the Haven, but they are always taught to understand that there is always a cost in all things, and that nothing is ever granted freely. From there on in, the specifics are then explained and compliance is forced over the course of a slow, drawn out process in which all external ties and connections are slowly severed by the inductees at the urging of those more deeply rooted in the Order. Once established and a child is made, the mother is permitted to go to term and the child is taken. The parents are told that the child is moved to another location, and that giving up parenthood is the cost of reinforcing the way of life granted to them in the peace and serenity of the Haven, blessed as they are to have access to an oasis and the protection of the Burdened One. They are encouraged to go about their lives until this becomes accepted as normal at which point the inductees are allowed to move up in the echelon of the Order. Once this level of trust is granted, the initiate is moved into the Haven's second floor dormitories and cloistered, forbidden to leave the premises unless ordered to do so by the Burdened One of his Inner Circle. Here they toil and study, keeping a regimented lifestyle with little to no allowance for deviation. Once they have proved their devotion and dedication to the order, they are taken in a quiet ceremony into a centrally hidden ritual chamber, only open from above to allow moonlight to spill into the room. Here in this chamber is a small, scarred altar where they are informed, under guard, that the children the lower tier inductees are encouraged and often pressured to have, are sacrificed in order to pay the price for the life of metered comfort and sustainability they have been provided amidst the horrors of the wasteland. The idea that a balance must be kept, give and take, and that they are now part of that process. The initiate is then handed a knife and made to perform a sacrifice themselves, proving their dedication to the Order and the Burdened One himself. If they falter at this point, the initiate is killed and the body disposed of outside of the borders of Olive Branch. No one ever questions a nameless corpse found in the wasteland. If the initiate goes through with it, they are inducted as an acolyte to the Burdened One and allowed to become a part of his inner sanctum.