The Order of The Stronghold

The Order of The Stronghold, or simply "The Order" as many locals call it, is a religious dictatorship that controls a large area of land in the area of North Carolina. They are one of the main rivals to The Mariners, being in a near-active state of war. The only thing keeping them from a direct invasion of The Mariners is the several raider buffer states between the two factions. The Order is based out of The Stronghold, the nickname for an underground U.S Military complex. The complex was used for mainly research pre-war and became a small Enclave base after the war. In a bloody week-long siege, the Enclave had been kicked out of the bunker by a coalition of religious groups in the area. The groups all had their own gods, but managed to unite in their mutual hatred of the Enclave. After the siege, The Order was formed by the former governing body known as 'The Stronghold Covenant'.
== History ==
In North Carolina, asides from the raider warbands and small independent settlements and coalitions, there were a large amount of religious tribes west of the raiders. These tribes all believed in separate gods, most being comparable to stone age era idols and other ancient deities. These tribes all had tense relations, with most of them not exactly liking the others, but they all had a threat looming over them that was greater than their inner squabbling. In the area, there was an Enclave contingent based out of the pre-war military base Hitchcock Military Base. This base had been primarily used for military research pre-war, with several forms of power armor that were never released for use being tested in the lower levels, along with rumored chemical weapons and other possibly world-ending weapons. After the war, the local national guard and other soldiers in the local area were ordered directly by the contingent's leader, Lieutenant Aaron Hanes, to mobilize and relocate to the military base. After forces were consolidated, they began to draw up plans for expanding outwards once the radiation and nuclear winter cleared up, entering a state of idleness.
The Hitchcock Enclave, as it was called by the locals, began outside operations in 2179. These operations started with small scout missions, but escalated into kidnapping locals and prying information of the local area out of them. Rumors quickly spread of men made of metal, which was what the tribal populace that the Enclave was dealing with mistook power armor for. The formerly rival religious tribes slowly began tensely discussing a possible coalition against the men of metal. The breaking point in the minds of the locals was an event known as 'The Great-Rock Massacre'. In this event, an Enclave patrol had, unknowingly, entered the territory of a religious tribe known as 'The Great-Rock Prophets'. When some of the tribals noticed them and attempted talking to them, the patrol mistook this for an act of aggression. The patrol of 6 power armor clad Enclave soldiers then opened fire on the tribals. They pushed onward, reaching their tribal capital at 'Great-Rock', where they massacred almost the entire tribe as an act meant to assert Enclave supremacy in the area. This only enraged the tribals. After the massacre, plans for a coalition were quickly sped up and formalized. Plans began for a siege against the Enclave.
After several diplomatic missions, almost every tribal religious faction was united under one coalition. After a small raid on an abandoned military base that had been left empty by U.S Soldiers, which was occupied by raiders, the armory of the base was looted. Several other raids were conducted, and eventually a formal army was established, most of them having military gear. On November 2nd, 2254, the Siege of Hitchcock occurred. The siege lasted nearly a week, and it ended with every Enclave member being killed by the coalition's soldiers. However, the Enclave had one last laugh, sealing off the entire lower wing of the facility behind layers of steel that the general public didn't even know existed pre-war and a code nobody could find. This sealed off possibly hundreds of suits of experimental power armor, chemical weapons, and more.
After the siege ended, the leaders of the coalition, which were the leaders of each tribe in the coalition, met in the high planning room of the facility. In this room, they officially formed The Order of The Stronghold. In this meeting, The Order was structured as a theocratic representative democracy, with a representative body called The Stronghold Covenant being made of a representative from each settlement/tribe in The Order. The capital of The Order was established in Hitchcock Military Base, which was renamed to 'The Stronghold' by the new occupants.
The history of The Order after this was mostly prosperous, but after the capture of The Fortress, a massive functioning cruise ship, by The Mariners in 2285, talks began for a preemptive strike. A figurehead rose among these warhawks, a man by the name of "Kevlar", whose real name is still not known, possibly not even by himself. Kevlar rose to power with invigorating speeches in the result to the elections for Covenant Speaker, calling for the 'culling of the savages' and quick, decisive action against The Mariners. He declared that he would establish more power for the Speaker in order to give them more power to take things into their own hands in situations like that of the situation with The Mariners. In the Speaker elections of 2286, Kevlar won with around 80% of the vote. As his first action as Speaker, he dissolved the Covenant and declared himself 'High Speaker'. He began to have invigorating speeches, being a combination of rallies and sermons, using the religion of The Order as a motivating force for the people.
As his second major action, he declared The Mariners an official enemy of The Order. Mariner patrols into Order territory were ordered by him to be shot or captured on sight. With his growing calls for war, it is now a matter of time before action is taken and war is officially declared.
Category:Faction
Category:Factions
Category:Religions
Category:North Carolina