The Order of the Sable Glass
A Cult of Knowledge
The mysterious cult of the Sable Glass began when the first travelers of the planes arrived in the sprawling libraries of Apocrypha, the plane of knowledge. In this dimension-sized library it is believed that all the wisdom, and insight of the universe has been scribed, and shelved. Some even believe that the plane itself is the 'mind' of the Endless, Anser. As these seekers explored the vast works of the library, where time itself falls forever still, spending lifetime, upon lifetime engrossed in the mysterious oracle of the bound parchments... only two truths became evident... They would all go mad long before they divined the secrets that drove their thirst for knowledge, and that the books were part of a universe-stretching cypher. Thus the order was born, both to protect the seekers, and to prevent the vast, eldritch knowledge of Apocrypha from exposing the world to maddening insights.
The Study of Prophesy, Time, and the BEYOND
The Order of the Sable Glass has splintered many times over the eras into small, purposeful factions whose missions in the prime material plane are kept hidden, and secret from the wider world; In fact, it is believed that the Order of the Sable Glass, and the mysterious cult known as the Travelers may have once shared a collective council in ages long forgotten. The Sable Glass is composed primarily of sorcerers, and wizards of the planes, but there have been notable priests of Answer, as well as all types of curious investigators of the paranormal, and the unknown. To become a member of this hidden society, the first test is simply to arrive in Apocrypha. Being one of the few 'great' demi-planes, this is a feat only the powerful, or the well connected can achieve. For this reason the members of the order are sometimes referred to in both the prime material, and the elmental planes as The Illuminated, for they are often wealthy, afluent, or otherwise gilded in some exceptional circumstance. There is no doubt that the Order of the Sable Glass is one of the most secretive planar guilds in the circlet of Orr's cosmic array, but its intentions, at least, those they profess to, are not. The Sable Glass has done nothing to hide their involvement with matters of destiny, fate, prophesy, and future events. Above all things, this Order has long believed that if they could only understand the cypher of the shelves they could also understand the origins of all things, and the destiny of all beings, for the library is said to hold the answers to every concievable question. In this way, the Sable Glass has studied, and investigated nearly every story of 'destiny' which the cultures of the world proffess, and have done much to seek out hidden, and lost prophecies, believing that somewhere in those fields of belief, some part of the cypher they seek might be unravelled. In conjunction with this obession with fate, and its unknown ministers, their next, most obvious field of intrigue is simply time itself. The object of which their Order takes its name counts the eras. Its black sand does not fall by the second, the minute, nor the hour, but instead treads downward in its arc, driven by a gravity of fate, as if to count not time per say, but the unfolding of uncountably awesome, and miniscule events that lead to the changing of the world in ways that it, and it alone can predict. The study of history is the study of destiny, for all things that have been have lead to now, or, that is what the Sable Glass would say. The Order has many historians within its number, and more still whom they offer patronage to throughout the planes. They have expended insurmountable sums of gold to unearth buried secrets, and forgotten lore, and in that way also acted as the benefactors to many of the world's greatest adventurers. The last of the Order's pusuits is the study of those things which are truly alien to the world. Those things which Apocrypha cannot account for. Forces, beings, magic, and other oddities which the prime material plane has no name for, and which threaten to splinter reality itself if their true nature were known. This realm of study is simply referred to as THE BEYOND, and little is known of it. The Order of the Sable Glass has, in nearly every instance, opted to utterly destroy the traces of the THE BEYOND that have found their way to Orr, for whatever profit those shards of the mysterious unknown might offer, it does not outweight the danger.
The Inevitables
Divine hands of order who keep the clockwork of the universe oiled, and whose swords of starlight are unsheathed to strike down any who would endanger the weave of fated events. The Inevitables are ceaseless constructs who will pursue their targets to the ends of the world, and the ends of time. They are (nearly) indestructible, uncorruptible, and they cannot be reasoned, or bargained with. Perhaps one of the most famous examples of an Inevitable in the world of Orr is the mysterious Man in Black of the Odegon Frontier who hunts the enemies of Fate Herself. Each of the Inevitables owes alliegiance to higher powers of fate and destiny which mortals, and truthfully even the Endless, can barely comprehend, but the Order of the Sable Glass has shown in the past the ability to predict their appearance, and to some very small degree, intervene against such agents.
The Sable Glass take their name, and their sigil, from massive hourglass, filled with obsidian sand, that floats in the sky above the plane of Apocrypha like a mechanical moon. The hourglass is tended by legions of constructs who scuttle about its exterior with a hivemind of shared intelligence, and unknown purpose. None know who created the hourglass, nor its swarms of guardians, and anyone foolish enough to approach the great oddity of the library are swiftly torn limb from limb by its hosts. The glass has been turned only five times, at the beginning of what scholars agreed were critical moments of history in the world of Orr. The glass, thus, is said to mark the beginning, and end of each age of time.
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