The Order of the Mind

When people in the north speak of the certilians, the sapient lizard-people from the southern deserts, they are generally speaking of certilians with red and brown scale tones hailing from the desert border cities of Ergonia, the largest and most influential certilian kingdom. The vast majority of Ergonians belong to the Order of the Mind, and the religious order is even more prominent in the border cities, cities from which troops are amassed and often sent out to battle over the Iolian Badlands, a battle that has raged off and on for over a century.

The Order of the Mind is a religious order devoted to serving Arankil, believed in the north to be a corruption of the god Devonis, Lord of the Deep. But the certilians' god is no ocean god. The gods are associated partly through appearance...both are said to be scorpions. Devonis has the form of a blue-green sea scorpion and Arankil, a mottled red-brown desert scorpion. In both cases, they are absolutely massive according to ancient accounts and sculptures. And in both cases, they are gods of war, darkness, and secrecy.

The Order of the Mind is extremely secretive. Even the names of ranks within the order are protected. The names of individuals given to the public are names given by the order rather than the actual, given names of those individuals. In the north, the most prominent members of the order are known, but their actual names and titles are not. High Priest Kalash'Iru, for instance, is not just a "high priest," and the name "Kalash'Iru" is a certilian name that means, "The Great Key." That hints at his importance, but that's all most can go on.

The Order of the Mind's adherents are the many worshipers of Arankil, and Arankil is worshiped exclusively as the state religion in Ergonia. Many in the north would like to know more about the order that has sent so many certilians to war and cost so many thousands of lives on both sides of the border conflict, though the role of various northern armies, notably those of the spider-kin and the Freeholder Volunteer Army, are also a part of the equation.