The Order

The Order of the Beatific Light of Understanding and the Solemn Service Thereof (Or, as that's quite a mouthful and doesn't mean much specifically anymore, just The Order to anyone but the oldest and stodgiest of members.)

A secret society, est. mid-1300's in Venice, with which the player characters all have some involvement.

The Order is split into local chapters, called Bureaus, typically operating out of a large city or strategically important location (cultural or political centers, for instance).

Beliefs
The Order, having seen the destruction and sorrows wrought upon civilization (or, at least, European civilization, as in their beginnings they were quite Euro-centric) by the rule of the aristocracy, formed with the following guiding principle: The cleverest, the wisest, the most educated among us, they are the ones who should lead the world. Since its beginnings, the Order has reached out to the most highly educated among us, and when they could not wrest control from those born to power, they tried to guide them with wisdom and learning.

Historical Overview
Imagine that you are a student or a scholar, a philosopher or a seeker of truth. You spend your time with colleagues and friends, speculating on life and the universe. Asking the big questions: why are we here? What’s our purpose? What was life like before recorded history? Is that history accurate? Are things like the myth of Atlantis, or the Bible, entirely fabrications or based on fact? How do physics work? Now imagine that the more you and your friends ask those questions, the more they tend to meet with sudden inexplicable and unfortunate accidents.

Imagine you speak out because Julius Caeser accidentally burned down the library of Alexandria. Or are outspoken support guys like Galileo when the church condemns him, and because of that you find yourself hunted by shadowy assassins. You find out hundreds of others like you have vanished, and almost every time it seems like there’s no way it could be anything other than an accident. But you know that can’t be true. You run, you leave the country, change your name, but it turns out the people who want you dead are everywhere. These are the circumstances that gave birth to the Order.

Scholars and thinkers who found they were in danger of being “silenced” because they dared to ask “why?” There were a few who managed to escape. They went into hiding, and spent a very long time learning. They learned about others like them, whom they banded together with. They learned about their enemy, a secret conspiracy calling itself “The Society for the Illuminated.” Eventually these people resolved to create a group, to figure out what the Society was doing, to find other people who may be targeted to rescue, and above all to create a place where people can learn and ask questions in safety. In fact, the Order established what were essentially universities in secret before they managed to sway public opinion, and generate enough demand to have the institutions become a public thing in the early 1100’s. The first colleges were also an Order creation; they selected a word for such groups based on the Latin phrase meaning “I Choose.”

Largely through-out its history, the Order has worked to achieve its three goals: thwart the Society, figure out what they’re up to, and encourage learning. Sometimes these two things go hand in hand; the more widespread knowledge is, the harder it is for the Society to destroy it. They operate in secret, partially because the Society has been in place a lot longer, and if the Order moved openly the Society could easily crush them from the shadows. Also, the Society’s methods are subtle, and the Order feels it needs to be equally subtle. If Order members were to warn world leaders of the Society and explain everything they knew, it would not be long before a trusted life-long friend would appear to convince said world leaders that it was all nonsense. Or, barring that, said world leader might meet a tragic accident, and be quickly replaced by someone would deny what the Order said. Thus most of human history has been the two groups trying to quietly influence public opinion and trends to meet their goals.

To date, the Order has had a small amount of luck in working out the Society’s ultimate goals. While they’ve come to understand their enemy’s methods, it seems the Society keeps its true goals very close to the chest, telling only the members at the top echelons of their group.

Philosophically, The Order does know that the Society believes that humanity should be ruled by the people who deserve it, that they measure “how much someone deserves it” by how much money they’ve earned. Though they espouse an “anyone can achieve the wealth and power” idea to their followers, the Order has observed that the Society can easily game the system to prevent “undesirables” from reaching their level of money and power. They are then quick to use that as evidence of why those people are “obviously undeserving” of said wealth and power.

The main focus of the Society, and thus the Order, is a secret left behind from the dawn of time. A trial of clues and puzzles, hidden through out the world that hints at some grand truth. It seems as though this is what the Society is trying to protect. Numerous encounters suggest the Society is trying to figure this puzzle out just as much as the Order is, suggesting they were less protecting their own secrets, and more keeping others from beating them to the prize.

While the Order is rather in the dark as to the end goal of this mystery, they suspect it ties into the fact that there are numerous unexplained events surrounding the Society. More than one battle has been lost when the Society has engaged in what appears to be impossible. Not being very combat oriented, the Order would often target logistics. Preventing the Society from getting supplies, soldiers, food, or their primary resource, money, only to have the Society pull what they needed from what appeared to be literally nowhere.

Understanding the puzzle is a top priority amongst the order, though not as exposed to it as the Society, they have their fair share of clues, and being made up of thinkers tend to work out hte solutions faster then Society members do. At least when they aren’t side tracked by debates of an academic nature; such as wondering if the Society is responsible for Christianity, (less... respected theories coming from the artists and philosophers wonder if the Society set up miracles. More rational thinkers suggest the Society has simply wrote a book, made a religion and used it’s pull to make it the most popular faith. it does make sense that the Society, in need of something to replace a hunger for knowledge encouraged the populace to indulge in faith.)

The changing times have seen the Society and the Order changing their methods. The fact that this is an age of rational thought may seem like a boon to the Order, in truth the sense of “propriety” that runs through communities helps the Society discourage behavior they deem “improper” While rational thought is the by word of the day, people are more likely to accept “God” or “It doesn’t really exist” to explain the unexplained then scientific curiosity. Of course the Society is no longer in the habit of disposing of people simply because they do a lot of research. However those that do become curious about unexplained phenomena, those seeking answers to questions most would believe is none of mans concern, or those that might openly oppose the Societies ideals; suggesting money is the root of all evil, encouraging people to question authority, and so fourth will often find themselves receiving a stern visit from one of those “community leaders” followed by a chilling warning from dangerous people, and finally...

While their ultimate goal remains unclear, the Order is certain, given their draconian methods, letting the Society win would be very bad for the rest of the world, and so the Order is determined to stop them.

These concerns have grown stronger with the most recent generation of Society leadership. It has become clear in the last twenty to thirty years that something big is going to happen. The closer the calender gets to 1900, the busier the Society becomes. They’re so active that even the general populace has picked up on it, though they interpret it as an impending big change, largely attributing it to the turn of the century.