The Damned Order
The Damned Order is a paramilitary faction dedicated to reclaiming Al-Onera, the region of the Oneran empire lost during the Dark Era.
Part paramilitary, part monster hunters, the Damned Order have erected forts and bases in the region north of the Tabalim river as well as in most major cities of Onera. Al Onera is ruled by warlords and strange entities who have erected their own kingdoms on the broken ruins of the once mighty kingdom. The Damned Order seeks to protect the settlements dotting Al Onera from supernatural foes, hunt these monsters, and destroy them.
Additionally, The Damned Order intends to resettle the land at some point with themselves as the Gentry, based on an imperial edict passed by Oneranis III stating that the lands north of Tabalim may be owned by whoever claims them, known as the “Homeland Right.” The Damned Order intends to place a true Oneran emperor on the throne and claim the vast wilderness, turning every commoner in their ranks into gentry.
Life in the Order is hard. Those not holding the forts are often sent ranging out to seek isolated settlements, kill monstrous prey, and explore the vast lost land. The Order turns no one away, and many of their members are hopeful commoners settling for three square meals a day. Other are criminals and exiles, looking for a place that will accept them. Others are Oneran nationalists, believing that they must take to the wilderness to reclaim what is theres.
Structure
There are three branches of the Damned Order: the Scouts, the Chymists, and the Cleaners.
Within each branch is a hierarchy of ranks, determining the members place in the chain of command.
Ranks
Rank 1: Initiate
Rank 2: Private
Rank 3: Cornet
Rank 4: Lieutenant
Rank 5: Captain
High Command
High command within the organization is structured around a council of Overseers who help direct the expansion and growth of the faction in the northern wasteland.
Public Agenda
Goals:
1. Seat an Oneran Emperor on the Jade Throne and reclaim our ancestral homeland.
2. Destroy the monsters, undead, and other entities that rule this land. Take back the homeland one mile at a time.
3. Only when the homeland is reclaimed will we be released. Everyone deserves to be a part of this battle, for it is all of ours to wage.
Beliefs:
1. All are welcome in our order, for we are all damned.
2. Monsters and nonhumans claim lands once ours, and we must destroy them to liberate those lands.
3. In the lost land, enemies surround us and seek to crush us once and for all. We must cleave together and trust no one.
4. Aide not the witch.
Assets
In total, about 1500 men and women serve in the Damned Order, making it as large as a county army, but the forces are scattered across the entirety of the "Damned Border" that separates NurOnera from Al-Onera. Under their protection are approximately 15,000 people in scattered settlements and forts across the entirety of the lands north of the Tabalim.
Life in the Damned Order is rough, and those with criminal backgrounds or violent pasts often excel in the Order. The Order does not tolerate criminal activity in its ranks, but dispersed as it is has difficulty maintaining structure without an inherent threat of violence towards rulebreakers.
There is little space for family life in the order, and while children and families are not forbidden they are frowned upon as something that should be left for after the reclamation. Damned Order Fortresses often attract commoners and have their own villages that surround the fort, so it is not uncommon for members to join from these common ranks and already have families.
History
Formed after the fall of the Black Minister, the Damned Order takes their name from a edict issued centuries ago by Oneranis III at the end of his life, stating:
“The edict that we abandon our homeland as refugees was a damned order, one we had no choice but to make to our people. We will return, in time, and reclaim that land, and must strive to seat an Emperor on the Jade throne once again.”
The Damned Order began as an Oneran Imperial cult worshiping the dead emperors as mage-god-kings. Over the next century, the cult becomes more martial, forward thinking, and serves to help maintain peace in the regions they practice in. Soon, the Damned order will become a paramilitary faction bent on reclaiming Oneran supremacy and pride from the skeletal grasp of the haunted land.
The Damned Order as it is known today was formed in the middle years of the Modern Era, connected with an Oneran nationalism philosophy that believed above all else that the words of Oneranis III were a prophecy of a return to the glories of a unified Oneran kingdom.
In the winter of 750, ME a wandering horde of the dead attempted to siege Moskawer. Sovereign troop movements were slow due to the weather, and Damned order scouts and rangers were the first to come to the cities aid. Following the destruction of the great horde, the Damned Order was given the permission of the Sovereign to attempt to re-settle the lands north of the Tabalim in earnest, though little Sovereignty aid would be provided.
Mythology & Lore
The Woewood Pact
The Woewoods are groves of Widow’s Oak trees throughout the lands of Onera with ancient branches burdened by undead creatures. These creatures are left trapped and hanging by the Damned Order. The Woewoods serve as an indication of territory, a place of study for the Order’s Chymist, and as a ritual site for recruitment and internment. Under the thrashing boughs of a Widow’s Oak, initiates attend their own mock ceremonial cremation, leaving the lives they once knew behind, and rising from the ashes as one of the Damned.
To the Initiate, the Woewoods symbolize the very soul of the Damned Order – that the threat of the undead is always looming, but able to be brought to heel. None can escape death, but they may choose the terms on which they meet it. Finally, the very trees remind them that, while the Blight of Undeath is Onera’s plight, the most ancient things, the very land itself, the blood in the veins of all Onerans, shall outlive even the undying – for Onera is the birthright of true Onerans, and none other.
The Ritual of the Woewood
If you wish to join the Order, you need only bring an Urn filled with burnt ash to a recruiter, if you can carry the Urn, nothing else of the initiate matters – race, religion, crime and creed die with the initiate’s old life.
Under a Widow’s Oak in a Woewood, the Urn’s contents are spread beneath the tree, and then the emptied Urn is buried – this is the funeral of the damned, when a member truly dies, there is no pomp and circumstance – his remains are burned, and ashes left to wind.
“As my ashes are spread, I make this pledge,
I shall give this life for the lives of those unborn,
to defend them from those already dead.
I will make my home the bones of Onera,
and Reclaim the Jade Throne.
I promise this as the last words of a dying man,
as the first words of the Damned."
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