Iscariot Crusaders

## Description:

The Iscariot Crusaders are an ordained religious order within the Catholic Church dedicated to the enforcement of holy laws in accordance with Pope Diodoro Bonanni's decrees on behalf of God and Heaven. The organization exists as spiritual successors of the Crusaders of the Medieval Age, working as the necessary evil to rid the world of God's foes and erase Satan's influence from existence on the Material Realm.

The Iscariot Crusaders is an international organization with members across the globe, wherever Christianity spreads its message; as such, everyone in the K2 Universe, even those on the Continent of Pilbo, have likely heard stories about the Crusaders escapades.

### Organization:

#### Capital: Rome, Vatican

The Iscariot Crusaders consider their true leader to be God, and firmly believe that they do only the work that God chooses for them; this manifests in reality with Pope Diodoro Bonanni acting as God's representative on Earth. The Pope oversees the Crusaders' operations through Cardinal Lamberto Fasanella. The Cardinal/Archbishop Fasanella gives orders and provides the Crusaders with the divine directive to eradicate God's enemies wherever they may be found. Beneath Fasanella sit the Crusader Generals, the regional commanders of the Crusaders who organize logistics, manage troop movements, plan battle strategies, and carry out the orders passed down to them from "God." Beneath the Crusader Generals sit the Grand Masters, who preside over the various Orders of the Crusaders and manage their respective Order. Crusader Generals will often assign detachments from various Orders to the same battlefield or region to maximize efficiency or effectiveness in combat, although this is known to cause strife amongst the Orders. The other various lower ranks are all based on the standard structure of a modern military (see below), while some Orders have a special hierarchy all their own, or additional ranks or titles unique to their Order. Alongside the standard ranks for officers sit the Chaplains, who are particularly well-trained and skilled ordained priests of the Church who are tasked with managing the spiritual needs of their assigned units, including leading investigations into possible deviants or traitors in their midst. The standard soldiers of the organization are referred to as Crusaders, and are all considered ordained ministers of the Catholic Church as part of their service with the Crusaders, although these holy warriors do not receive the years of magical and theological education of actual priests; this ordination of standard Crusaders is done to allow the rank-and-file troops to carry out certain spiritual or magic tasks, like exorcisms or the ritual required to create Holy Water, without the presence of a dedicated priest or Chaplain. Additionally, the ordination of common soldiers also provides the Crusaders with resistances to the evils they face in combat, and divine protections against corruption in the face of the supernatural or Demonic.

The Iscariot Crusaders recruit primarily from the most devout Christian men within the Parishes of the Catholic Church, encouraging young men to enlist within the Crusaders' ranks to fight for their faith and ensure the survival of the human race in the face of the incoming tides of evil. Additionally, the Crusaders are also known to recruit from the repentant; certain convicted sinners or heretics who are assessed by a priest or Chaplain and deemed truly sorry for their previous crimes are allowed to keep their life and freedom if they enlist in the Crusaders. Certain Orders within the Crusaders are known to have their own unique requirements for recruitment or entrance, but all Orders are required to have an affirmation of faith as part of their trials to ensure that no disloyal or Demonic entities can gain easy entrance into the Crusaders.

The Crusaders dedicate all of their resources to the enforcement of divine mandate provided by Pope Diodoro Bonanni on behalf of God. These efforts materialize as wars against Protestantism, Atheism, Islam (and in some areas, Judaism), Witches and magic users, paranormal races (Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Goblins, etc.), corrupt or evil beasts, heretics and false prophets, and anything deemed Demonic or otherwise derived from or influenced by Satan or Hell. These large-scale conflicts, often taking place all over the world at once, is an immense undertaking only possible by a group as organized, as driven, and as wealthy as the Iscariot Crusaders and the Catholic Church. The Crusaders tolerate no witch, heretic, Demon, or monster, and will do everything within their considerable powers to ensure that no such creature remains alive within their domain for long; as one may expect, the Crusaders are an international organization with ties in all parts of the world.

The ranks and hierarchy within the Iscariot Crusaders is strict and well-respected within and outside of the organization; treated as a military, the structure of the group is maintained with aggressive discipline. The list of known (universally-used) ranks is provided below:

1. Crusader General: The regional commander and overseer of all Crusader forces in a large area or theater of war; gifted with powerful divine artifacts, weapons, and armor, in addition to their formidable divine magic and years of experience and education.
2. Grand Master: The leader of an Order within the Crusaders, equivalent to a Colonel or Major; masters of their Order and experts in their respective specialty.
3. [REDACTED]
4. Sergeant: The "captain" rank of the Crusaders reserved for commanders of Squads or Companies of Crusaders; usually a veteran with ample combat and strategic insight.
5. Chaplain: The proper Priests of the Crusaders, trained in combat magic in addition to their usual years of theological and magical education.
6. Crusader: The standard trooper within the Iscariot Crusaders; technically an ordained minister to allow for the performance of certain basic divine magics.

The Iscariot Crusaders maintain a very uneasy and suspicious relationship with the JPCU, one that has frequently frozen over into cold suspicion or boiled over into open conflict. The Catholic Church refuses to officially work with the JPCU due to the JPCU's open use of magic in their "experiments" and "field research," as well as for their use of paranormal/supernatural entities within their ranks; the JPCU refuses to officially work with the Iscariot Crusaders or the Catholic Church due to the tensions present since the JPCU's inception and the flagrant human rights abuses perpetuated by the Church and the Crusaders many times throughout the group's relatively short history. Despite the suspicion, rivalries, and general animosity present between the two (2) organizations, the two (2) groups have worked together unofficially for the sake of some common goal, although these temporary (and unofficial) alliances rarely last for the duration of such missions.

#### Military:

The Iscariot Crusader military force is organized primarily into Orders, each of which is led by a Grand Master. In order for an Order to officially exist within the Iscariot Crusaders, and therefore the Catholic Church, the Order must be assessed by the Inquisition and be found within the Church's accepted canon for beliefs; if an Order is found to in conflict with one or more of the Church's dogmas (or too many minor beliefs), the Inquisition will declare the Order to be Excommunicated and therefore a heresy and illegal, at which point the deviant Order is hunted and destroyed. The list of recognized Orders is provided below:

### Religion:

The Iscariot Crusaders practice Roman Catholicism (for more information on Roman Catholicism, see the Catholic Church). The various Orders of the Iscariot Crusaders are known to possess their own (assessed and accepted) variations on Roman Catholicism as a way of better expressing their unique specializations.

## History:

### The First Crusaders:

Founded in 1119 CE by high-ranking members of the Catholic Church as a response to the bandit, highwayman, and Muslim attacks on Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land following the successful conclusion of the First Crusade. The first Order of the Crusaders to be officially recognized was the Knights Templar, who were founded in 1120 by Hugues de Payens and King Baldwin II of Jerusalem; the Crusaders would slowly found and abolish Orders as the need rose and fell over time. The Count de Saint-Germain is also accredited as being involved in the founding of the Knights Templar, albeit under a different name.

After initial success, the Crusaders came under intense scrutiny from the European public after the failure of later Crusades. Eventually, the Knights Templar were investigated by the Inquisition and Catholic Church under rumors of Hell-worship, culminating the arrest of many Templars and the dismantling of the Knights Templar completely in 1312. While later studies found that only a small sect within the Templars were genuine heretics, Pope Clement and King Philip IV declared the entire organization to be guilty of heresy and Hell-worship anyway, arresting, imprisoning, torturing, and killing many Templars and Iscariot Crusaders in the process; later investigation has revealed that Pope Clement and King Philip were active heretics themselves, using the rumors and scandals of the Templars to distract the Inquisition and Church from their activities. After the execution of the Templars' leaders and the deaths of Clement and Philip IV by the end of the year as a result of divine retribution, the Church investigated the remaining Iscariot Crusader Orders (and the surviving members of the Knights Templar) and found most of them innocent; despite this, faith in the Iscariot Crusaders fell drastically, and the entire organization was disbanded in 1312 alongside the Templars. The remaining members became mercenaries or were merged into other religious sects; some modern researchers speculate that some of these abandoned Crusaders would travel farther into Eastern Europe, eventually resulting in the founding of The Hunters Grimm many centuries later via regional influences upon the Brothers Grimm. The elusive Count de Saint-Germain was also involved in the dissolution of the Templars; the Inquisition discovered his influence within the organization, ties to its founding, and powerful alchemical abilities and had him excommunicated. The Inquisition blamed St. Germaine for the corruption of the Templars and sought his arrest, although he managed to evade capture at every turn.

### The New Age & the Tenth Crusade:

In 2020 CE, the Iscariot Crusaders would be reinstated as an official arm of the Catholic Church by Pope Diodoro Bonanni as a means of attaining increased political, economic, and religious power for the Church. The Iscariot Crusaders' first mission was the free the Vatican of the local government's secularism by leading a revolt and invasion of Italy. By Christmas of 2020, a date believed to have been well-orchestrated by Bonanni as a propaganda tool, the Crusaders had freed the Church of Italy's original democratic government and placed the Pope as the head of the new theocratic state.

#### The Eleventh Crusade (Against Protestantism):

The Crusaders' second holy quest, according to the Pope, was to aid in the assimilation of all Protestant sects into the Catholic Church. As expected, almost all Protestant denominations across the world rose up in protest of this decree, citing ancient bills and agreements; Pope Diodoro Bonanni paid no heed to these heathens, and so the Crusaders---aided by the Inquisition---rode out across the globe en masse as part of a new Crusade to unite Christendom under Bonanni's iron fist. The Orthodox Church in Eastern Europe and the Balkans was the first to be fully assimilated, an act hastened by the two (2) groups' incredible similarity; the Crusaders gave the Orthodox Church little choice in the matter, approaching their leaders with stacks of religious documents (many written by Pope Diodoro Bonanni himself) that disproved their Protestantism as foolish heresy---if the Orthodox wanted to remain alive, they would accept Bonanni's refutations of Orthodoxy and assimilate without issue. The next group to assimilate were many American denominations of Protestantism, like the Lutherans, Baptists, and Gospel faiths; the Mormons, however, put up a fight.

The Church of Latter Day Saints staunchly refused to be assimilated, citing their founding and early history as signs of their previous persecution and perseverance, declaring that they would outlast the corrupt Church and their Crusaders. The resulting Crusade against Mormonism ended when the Mormons revolted against the United States government, declared Utah an independent theocracy, and were promptly invaded by the Crusaders with help from the United Stated armed forces; when the Mormons surrendered, the Church returned the land to the US as per their agreement. When the Inquisition approached the surviving leaders of Mormonism with a similar stack of theological documentation and a contract for them to sign, the subsequent religious debates went on for months; by the end, Mormonism was no more, and in its place sat the Church of Latter-Day Marksmen and the Church of Latter-Day Swordsmen. These two (2) new Mormon denominations would prove resilient against Church debate and Crusader attack due to their worship of weaponry, and a ceasefire was eventually negotiated between the three (3) warring factions by the United States government in 2025.

The collapse of Mormons left only the Anglican Church as the primary source of Protestantism left in the world, backed up by the British government. As a result of the Anglicans' impressive resources, the Church negotiated a ceasefire in 2024 and has, as of the time of writing, failed to assimilate them.

#### The Twelfth Crusade (Against Islam):

Following the assimilation of the Church's immediate offshoots and denominations, Pope Diodoro Bonanni declared, in a vigorous speech given from a lectern in Rome's largest city center, a Crusade against Islam. This Crusade, he explained, would not end until Islam was also assimilated into the Catholic Church and the Holy Land returned into the hands of its rightful owners; understandably, the Muslim world did not respond to this message kindly, nor did any of the various nations, groups, and sects within Islam simply assimilate peacefully. The Twelfth Crusade would prove one of the bloodiest conflicts in Church history.

In 2030, the Twelfth Crusade would come to its Earth-shattering conclusion. The remaining warriors and scholars of Islam gathered in Mecca, their last stronghold, and came together, unknowingly for the last time, to discuss a drastic plan of action. After forty (40) hours of debate, the scholars and religious leaders decided that, to prove to the world that Islam was as true as Christianity and therefore unworthy of a Crusade, they would create a miracle of Allah on a citywide scale.

Gathering the materials for this massive ritual and gathering at the Kaaba, the Muslim scholars and priests conducted a rite that they believed would deliver Allah's swift destruction down upon their enemies; instead, a Hell Mouth opened in the Earth, swallowing the Kaaba in its entirety and empowering it beyond previously known limits. A portal to Hell as large as a stadium was now open in the center of the Middle East, spewing forth an unending army of Demons so numerous that the Crusaders many miles away feared it was an unpredicted eclipse blocking the Sun. The sudden wave of Demonic energy released by the opening of the Hell Mouth that all remaining mortals in Mecca were instantly mutated, corrupted, and converted into Demons of both the Islamic and Christian faiths; the wave morphed the city into a Hellscape, reducing the surrounding landscape into a blasted wasteland polluted with Demonic energy. Like a Hellish nuclear bomb, the ritual obliterated the remnants of unified Muslim resistance and converted the surrounding countryside for miles into the Medio Inferno.

The Twelfth Crusade officially came to a close several hours later, when Pope Diodoro Bonanni caught word of the catastrophe that had laid waste to thousands of Crusaders who were approaching Mecca.