The Order
The Order, one of the largest and longest surviving organizations of the world, both before and after the Great Awakening. Founded in the 5th millenium b.A. by Lady Salko and her patron, the Goddess of magic Arkansa, the Order quickly started gaining popularity and power. With the help of their goddess, the Order soon built a small temple on the Island of Pakoth, where they also did most of their research. Being a mostly peaceful organization focused on research, the Order had very few enemies throughout the millenia of their existence.
What made the Order special, especially in their early times, when they didn't have many members, was the fact that they considered science and engineering to be equal to magic. Many mages disagreed with this, some even shunned them. But with time these people became less and less, as science became an increasingly more important aspect of everyday life.
As time went on, the Arkanski mages became the leading figures regarding anything magic or scienece. They also started to create outposts everywhere, most larger cities had a library or research facility built and led by the Order.
Structure
The Order was led by three guardians of Arkansk, the wisest and strongest mages of the Order, together with the high council consisting of 25 mages that were elected every three years. The guardians held their position for five years, after which a new guardian would be elected. One person could be elected only once to be a guardian, but you could get elected as council member for up to three times.
Training of new students was done by senior members of the Orders, commonly called the Segos (Seg is an ancient word for 'magic', the suffix 'os' is often used for masters of a craft). These members were highly respected amongst the Order, as they were amongst the most knowledgable mages of the Order.
Relations with other kingdoms and organizations were usually handled by members who used to be diplomats or politicians. This job was generally not amongst the most liked jobs, as it usually meant having to deal with know-it-all diplomats, uncultured nobles and ill-mannered royals. Important discussions and negotiations were handled by council members.
Trades with nearby settlements were handled either by the council or by the Kolna ('Kol' is an ancient word for trade, 'ana' means person). The Kolna were often travelling merchants that studied at the Order for some time.
Culture
The members of the Order see the world in a similar way to their deity, the goddess of magic. At their core, the Arkanski Mages are people of science, spending a lot of their time studying the arcane arts and science. Something that confuses and sometimes even enrages other mages is that the Arkanski consider science to be just as worthy of their attention as magic. It is one of the reasons why there are so many artificers amongst them. The Order is one of the very few places where people can study both science and magic.
The Aranski never built large, imposing temples as other Orders often did. Their only large temple dedicated to the goddess of magic Arkansa is the temple of Pakoth, located on the island of Pakoth. When they built structures in other parts of the world it was usually just ouside large cities, as the Arkanski like to work in peace, without the distractions a city center would bring, but also like to be somewhat close to large populated centers, as it facilitated trade and diplomatic relationships. These buildings were often impressive from an architectural standpoint, but never large. They usually only housed a small library, quarters for 10-20 people and a rather extensive garden where they cultivated all sorts of plants, to be used by alchemists.
Public Agenda
The Arkanski are generally friendly towards almost all people, they only rarely inervene in wars. When they do intervene, it is never to aid an empire, but always to aid civilians. The only time they heavily interfered in a war and did this partially for their own benefit was during the Divine Wars, where they fought not only to defend various innocent settlements, but also for their goddess Arkansa. Escept for the Divine Wars, they never provided military assistance to any other empire. What they sometimes did, was heal wounded civilians and provide food and basic medical supplies.
482 b.A. - 13.927 a.A.
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