The Order

*"United by Sol in peace. For peace."*

### Creation

Several centuries ago, after the great war against the withered, Drevhall's savior Sol gave a certain few that he could trust, a secret mission. This mission's words were never recorded but has been theorized about within The Order ever since its upbringing. Everything certain is that the objective is to keep an eye on the Nether in case Sol's power at some point, for some reason, isn't enough.

The leadership was put under Björn Oxenstierna (later known as Ordermaster Björn Oxenstierna), a noblemen and a general contributing, seemingly body and soul, along his countrymen in the war for all life's survival in those dark times. Sol saw it as the ideal being to take on such a role.

In memory of Oxenstierna's great rule over The Order; it was decided that calling the ceremony, in which a new Ordermaster is named, "To be Oxed" in later years it has also been common for the Ordermaster to be coronated with a helmet attached with a pair of ox horns. This procedure coming from the belief that the ox spirit, Ux, would guide them with its strength.

### Members

Enrolment into The Order has for centuries never been open to the public, for obvious reasons, and in fact wasn't a choice that was made and would be rather be a destiny forced onto an new-born individual. Some would find it cruel to decide someone's fate without their consent. However, in order to ensure worldwide security from utter destruction certain measures had to be taken, some worse than others. However, due to the recent events leading to The Order's exposure new ways, such as various gruesome trials, was implemented to get membership. This was decided as the era of stealth was no longer a necessity and a new need for more manpower in order to secure Drevhall against the rising might of The Withered armies, which has shown increasing signs of activity; even in the overworld, took its place.

When a Child of The Order turns 4 their journey to a fully fledged member begins. It is taught from an early age in order to ensure that betrayal isn't a risk worthy to be taken into the equation. At age 9 several tests are conducted where the skills in various fields are evaluated. Depending on the result of this test the child will be put into one of 4 categories of occupations in The Order:

**Scout:** An occupation meant for gathering information in goal of helping with The Order's effort. However, scouting is not limited to only the overworld but also within the depths of the nether, a dangerous job for those not ready. The job may also include investigations of individuals suspected of trying to bring back The Calamity.

**Soldier:** protecting the workers at sites of interest a soldier can have many skills in many different martial arts and sword techniques. While it is believed that soldiers are to be wielding sword and heavy armor the story is different in the order, which is focusing more on agility and stealth just like the rest of the typical crew going along on missions.

**Inspector:** Mainly inspecting materials, samples and whatever more brought back by the scouts on their ventures into the Nether. They wear specially woven gloves capable of being dipped in lava, protecting them from everything imaginable to be damaging while inspecting while also ensuring samples don't get ruined by touch.

**"Strongarm":** A term specifically used within The Order a strongarm is an individual capable to carrying any amount of payload needed for a mission with perfect stealth, this is due to their incredible strength believed to be blessed directly from Ux, it isn't uncommon for Strongarms to take on the Ordermaster title, however evidence of their chances being higher can't be proven.

### Main Objective(s)

The Order has it as a mission to observe the movements of the ones imprisoned in the Nether, the realm created by Sol to seal even the most cruel of beings. Reason for this traces back to their saying, "United by Sol in peace, for peace" meaning that at all times, the main effort is to keep The Withered and their armies at check, preferably inside their prison.

In order to do so a series of measures were taken to achieve their goals, perhaps one of the most important was to lay low and behind the scenes, to be entirely secret. The reason stating that in order to keep the chances of The Calamity, as the great war between the world and the Withered was later called, as low as possible to prevent the tragedy from reoccurring.

For centuries the knowledge about The Order was kept within its organization. The main selling point, that breaking silence would mean death, was more than enough to keep the members from spreading the word around.

### Recent Developments

In the First Era, some year after the coronation of the Riverlands High King, a sudden power increase was noted within the realm of the Nether. A panic erupted leading to many sudden and badly conducted missions to figure out what could be causing this. Inevitably these moves lead to numerous occasions where civilians in a half dozen nations encountered members from The Order, and some even seeing more than they should have.

As time went by the numbers of people reporting strange movement in the night on city streets and forests, most notably close to portals, were reported. Local militia took action against these alleged suspects, in most cases suspecting planned murder, kidnappings or spying.

The Order was cornered and eventually forced out of their hiding. Confessions were made by all local operations leaders in all nations across Drevhall. A centuries long secret finally seeing the light of day.