Ironwrights

[The ironwrights] promise a rationality of Reality. We promise liberation from the enslavement to the Dream. The full Manifestation of our Will is a discoverable and knowable Reality based on elegant logic, devoid of the vagaries of the immaterial. In the Sixth Age, each person will becomes the master of their own destiny, beholden to None and rich in Truth. Devotion is a flame, and deed the hammer with which we reshape the world. So we must strike, Believers! Strike while the iron is red!

- excerpt from an Ironwright sermon

Once a heretical sect of the Smith's temple, Ironwrights are now considered to be a doomsday cult intent on bringing about the start of the Sixth Age by forcibly removing magic from the world.
The order was founded by Vasko Giorgadze in 5.440, and originally dedicated to attempts to commune and subsequently form contracts with the spirit of Iron. Over the centries, the sect has fallen increasingly out of step with the temple's canon, and become an anti-magic cult whose adherents are isolated from the world and trained to fight and 'kill' spirits, believing that they can begin a sixth age by cutting away magical influence and exerting control over reality.
Despite this dissonance with the main body of faith, Ironwrights still claim to be adherents of the Smith, believing that technological advancement and dominion over the physical world is the natural progression in spritual evolution: from void to desire, desire to thought, and thought to form. The creation of deities in the third age is cited as proof that Thinkers are able - and ought - to have dominion over reality.

Structure

1. Petitioner (Ledúrnæ)
2. Aspirant (Lod (f), Mæt (m), Flinc (n))
3. Practitioner / First Degree (Leswol)
4. Knight / Second degree (Mændæchy)
5. Master / Third Degree (Blærdæ)
6. Supreme (Adúttær)

Only three members can hold the level of 'Supreme'. They are:

• Supreme Flame (Adúttær Wrærgo), responsible for 'preparing the forge' (proselytisation and raising Petitioners and Aspirants to the first degree)
• Supreme Hammer (Adúttær Naarúdfalm), responsible for 'addressing the iron' (spearheading the tenet of 'cessation')
• Supreme Anvil (Adúttær Swothonnúdæh), responsible for 'shaping the form' (intra-order disciplinary matters)

Tenets of Faith

The Sixth Age

Ironwrights believe that the Sixth age of Núreht will be one of complete mastery over reality, wherein Thinkers will be able to shape form directly, without the need for contracts with spirits. The new age will be heralded by contact with the spirit of Iron, whose presence can be brought forth by quieting the background noise of magic and spirits.

Nonparticipation in magical acts

As part of their admission to the sect, Aspirants are obliged swear to reject the use of magic in all its forms, making them voluntarily ironbound.

Cessation of magical influence

Members of the second degree and above are required to actively engage in acts that will reduce the influence of magic in the world. This can include, but is not limited to: advancing nonmagical medical services, hunting monsters, exorcising malevolent spirits, discrediting and replacing cunningfolk and magical healers, and (allegedly) killing magical practitioners, including magen.

Worship

As a pre-requisite for admission, Ironwrights must be practicing adherents of the Smith and attend temple services monthly, albeit in secrecy where they are obliged to attend services hosted by 'main body' temples (those who are not friendly to the Ironwrights' mission).

Political Influence & Intrigue

King Sigfrid Iaenbeorht was swayed by the messages of the Ironwrights, and endorsed the widespread adoption of iron-based technology as a means to strengthen the country's military, a decision which led to the Mage War.
Since the end of the war, the Ironwrights' influence in Ewas has been significantly reduced. Their members have been actively persecuted and their enclaves raided. In Ewura, they are officially regarded as a 'doomsday cult'. If caught, adherents face trial, branding, and exile. Small conclaves of extremist, exiled Ironwrights have sprung up in the remote valleys of the Daïdänt and have begun spreading their influence among the villages of the mountains, leading to authorities leading raids and even offering bounties on prominent members.

Sects

Daïdänt Ironwrights

In opposition to the more charismatic and conversion-minded Gnóttvǫllr Ironwrights, Daïdänt Ironwrights are militant and hostile. The leaders of the Daïdänt enclaves use their treatment as proof that the world must be cleansed by force. They have moved in to a number of villages in the remote parts of the mountains, taking over small mining communities and using their equipment to further their mission.

Founding Date

5.440

Type

Religious, Cult

Deities

• the Smith

Location

Erwā

Known members

• Magni Oavánson