Order of the Torch
The Order of the Torch was an inquisitorial organization created shortly after the death of Vladimir the Conqueror in order to hunt down and destroy the remaining vampires of his lineage (and any and all vampires really).
Structure
The Order of the Torch had small scattered bases to provide training and logistical support, but they were a relic of the Vampire Wars, when most of the most successful vampire hunters were essentially independent adventurers, so command infrastructure was light.
Field agents are given a lot of autonomy and freedom to choose where and how they would seek out vampires in their own manner, as long as they didn't grossly violate ethical practices or demonstrate severe incompetance. The Order rarely had to discipline their members for ethical violations and they never had to discipline their members for incompetance (because those members died in the field.)
Very few members retired or left the Order, save with death. As members aged out of being able to do regular field work, they would take on administrative or training roles.
Public Agenda
To eradicate every last vampire.
Assets
In their heyday, the Order of the Torch was filled with celebrated war heroes and just about every priesthood and government agreed that stamping out all vampires was a good thing.
The Torch emblem guaranteed cooperation with local lords and police forces and the Order of the Torch was awash with generous donations from princes and potentates.
As the vampire threat became less pressing (or at least seemed less pressing), donations and political support gradually dried up.
But even in their twilight the Order had an extensive library of journals of vampire hunters and a fair number of ancient magical weapons.
History
The initial members of the Order of the Torch were combat veterans of the Vampire Wars that were unwilling and unable to give up the fight. A majority of the initial veterans were associated with the Nonagon and the majority of this subset were associated with the Keepers. All of them personally hated vampires.
Initally they were remarkably successful killing almost two hundred vampires in their first ten years. They were arguably a victim of their own success. As time wore on, there were fewer vampires for them to hunt and the remaining vampires were better at hiding their tracks.
After roughly four centuries of existance, they reached a point where a majority of their members lived out their whole lives without finding one vampire. A lot of the Order members had been responding to other supernatural threats.
Disbandment
Over time, the Order of the Torch was able to successfully find fewer and fewer vampires, some began to question the reason for the Order's existance.
A lot of the order members ran into other evils while following false leads on vampires, especially evil mages. It turned out that the training for finding and defeating vampires had a lot of cross-application to fighting evil magic, especially enchanters.
The majority of the Order of the Torch decided they should change their mission charter to focus on battling hostile users of arcane magic, rationalizing that misused arcane magic triggered both the First Unmaking and Second Unmaking.
A minority of the Order of the Torch wanted to change their mission charter to seek out hidden evils of all stripes, but most others thought a group this broad was not practical. Most of these Order of the Torch members became freelance adventurers.
A few hardliners declared that since vampires still existed, they should continue their original mission, until every last vampire was dead, so the old school Order of the Torch kept the organization name and the charter while the rest formed the Order of the Lantern to combat evil mages.
About a century later, the Order of the Torch had to disband because they could not recruit new members very well. The wrinkly old men reluctantly ceded their remaining resources to the Order of the Lantern.
DISBANDED/DISSOLVED
4 - 583
Type
Religious, Inquisitorial
Successor Organization
Location
Official Languages
Comments