Order of the Scorch

The "Torch-and-Rifle" insignia, a common yet unofficial symbol of the Order's military.

## Locations

### Headquarters

* The Cloud (de facto)
* Erie (de jure)

> "*Impurity is Purity*"
>
>

The Order of the Scorch was a dictatorial monastic order founded in 2086 by 'The One'. It is comprised solely of ghouls and is openly hostile to 'smoothskin', unghoulified humans.

## Background

### The Beginning

It had been nine years since the Great War devastated the world when a ghoulified survivor of the United States Military came upon a camp of fellow ghouls in the ruins of Washington DC. He had forgotten most of his past. His name, his family; everything except the fact that he was a soldier, and that he fought in the war. The ghoulified man was reluctant to settle with them, and so he continued to wander on his own, visiting every so often to make sure the only people he knew were okay. Until, one day, he came upon their camp only to see it in tatters, many dead, and others seemingly dragged away against their will. Following the trail left by the attackers, he followed them to their camp and wiped them out. Stories of this attack spread rapidly among survivors who were fleeing the deadlands of the capital, and he became known as 'The One', a name only spoken in hushed tones around the campfire.

His anger grew. These 'smooth' humans had seen fit to take the lives of innocent ghouls, and for what? In his eyes, they were inferior. Weaker. Ghouls were the evolution of mankind. And so he preached his philosophy to those he encountered in his travels, having gathered a modest following by the time he settled in the ruins of St. Louis. The city was mostly devoid of life, with his oragnised band of fanatics able to dispose of scattered survivors easily. It was here that the Order was truly founded, with a declaration of war against humankind by The One and his followers.

### The Golden Age

From St. Louis, the ideals of the Order of the Scorch spread, and The One's following grew. Despite this, they were thoroughly unprepared for the horde of super mutants that would invade and occupy the city in 2196. The group fled, but lost countless people and many resources in the process. They found no luck outside of St. Louis either, as in the following decade the Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel would become the dominant power in the region, and would not tolerate the radical ideals of the Order of the Scorch. With no other options, they fled north-east, to Ohio.

The journey was perilous, with no allies, and an increasingly dangerous wasteland to contend with. But, despite all that was thrown at them, they managed to survive, and reestablished themeslves in Erie, Pennsylvania. They came to dominate the city, eradicating or enslaving all non-ghouls and setting ferals loose on the streets to snuph out stragglers. A fortified bastion was constructed in the center of the city, which housed the main church in which followers of The One worshipped his teachings and the idea of ghoul-kind. Erie gained a stigma among caravaneers, with people staying as far away from the city as possible.

In 2257, the Order of the Scorch managed to obtain the security codes to the subterranean Erie complex. After a vicious battle against the robots dwelling inside, they managed to loot it - taking with them a large number of high-grade US Military equipment and munitions, most notably several sets of T-45d Power Armor. From thereon, they continued to grow; new sects were established in far-away lands, and the city of Erie remained firmly under the grasp of the ghouls.

### The New Era

Suddenly, in 2270, conflict arose in Erie. A large number of ghouls, primarily long-time veterans of the Order, had become disillusioned with The One, and how his cult of personality was becoming increasingly radical. The city erupted into fighting, and when the dust settled, The One stood victorious. The defeated uprising fled the city to plot their revenge, while The One saw that change was necessary. He and his most trusted soldiers left Erie seventeen years later in 2287, traveling north until they reached the fabled 'Cloud', an irradiated crater north of Buffalo. It was infested with the Children of Atom, and so the Order wiped them out, stringing their bodies upon poles and enslaving those unfortunate enough to not succumb to their wounds immediately. From his new home in The Cloud, the One waits, planning.

## **Politics**

### **Government**

The Order of the Scorch operates effectively as a despotic theocrcatic order, ruled solely by The One. A ranked hierachy exists, typically with The One's oldest and most loyal companions occupying the highest levels of power. Society was propserous - for ghouls - and slavery was commonplace.

### **Diplomacy**

As a genocidal anti-nonghoul dictatorship, the Order of the Scorch has made enemies of practically all non-ghoul factions in the wasteland. The oldest and most intense of their rivalries is with the Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel. They are responsible for effectively culling the Order in the Midwest, and remain a constant threat to their operations in Erie and Buffalo. The Midwestern Brotherhood certainly has the resources required to destroy the Order; though doing so gains them nothing, leaving their hostility in a state of limbo. Where the Order wants the Brotherhood destroyed, the Brotherhood couldn't care less what becomes of the Order.

A more recent rival is the city of Batavia in the Buffalo Wasteland. The disappearances of caravaneers originating from Batavia have been linked to the Order of the Scorch's operations within the region, and Batavian security will often slaughter envoys from the Order.

## **Equipment**

The Order was relatively well-equipped compared to other factions in the wastes. It's elite soldiers tended to wear Combat Armor and the highest echelons in the Order's military could on occasion be seen in Power Armour. The lower-grade footmen could be equipped in anything from crude junk armour to masterfully-forged armour plates.

Their weaponry ranged from homemade pipe guns to military-standard energy weapons. Laser rifles were common among their soldiers, sourced from the arsenal beneath Erie, but the typical footman was often only given the bare minimum in personal protection.

Feral ghouls were an integral part of the Order's arsenal and deployed in large numbers. Typically, ferals were created from forcing non-ghoul slaves to be exposed to controlled, intense radiation therapy using a perfected technique with a relatively high success rate, or they were coralled from ruins or metro systems, where wild ferals tend to congregate.