Lords

The **Lords**, Order of the Lords, Order of the Most High, the Four Stars and Three Forests is a secretive organization that presides over the Starry Forest League and governs over humanity in Cloudream. The organization was formed after Ladi's supposed assassination and currently maintains the SFL until his return. The Lords are known to be an incredibly secretive with its members unknown to the public and their subordinates. Despite lacking a public appearance, the Lords are able to exert their influence on the Starry Forest League and civilians rarely do not dare to oppose the Lords. The Lords are said to be residing in the Starry Forest League Headquarters in Eastern Cloudream.

## Description

The Lords are known as tyrannical group of rulers who are often described as rambling old Men who do not understand how the world has change due to their treatment of SoulWorkers and SoulForcers as tools against the Bashai. They appear have no tolerance to whose who dare align themselves with the Bashai such giving Tenebris a death sentence on the simple suspicion of allying with Bashai for attempting to communicate with them,and Godren mentioning that the Lords would issue an order to eliminate NED Company if he was caught hiding Naomin and Scar. After the momentous rebellion where the Starry Forest League lost most of its SoulWorkers, the Lords were unfazed with Tenebris's calls for better treatment and continued with their iron rule in the Starry Forest League.

Due to the mysterious disappearance of the SoulWorkers, the Lords simply believed that the rebel SoulWorkers were swallowed in the Great Void and hailed Maverick as hero for surviving the conflict. Despite their vengeance towards the Bashai and current behavior, the Lords are weary of the war in Eastern Cloudream and are considering forming a ceasefire agreement with Nihil's Throne.

According to Veneris Raged, the Lords are not a tyrannical group but attempt to please humanity needs as much as possible, leading to the conflicting goals that have led to the unfavorable results questioned by their critics.

## Direct Power

The Lords are known to exert great influence over the Starry Forest League as many military commanders are unable to refuse the Lord's request without fear of the death penalty. It is mentioned by many members of the Starry Forest League that the Lords do not hesitate to issue executions to those who go against them as Aaron was prepared to be executed for refusing to initially cooperate with the Grace City defenses. Despite this influence, the Lords do not have an absolute control of the Starry Forest League's military since they appear to vest certain military powers to each region's commander. The SoulWorker unit exploits a rule that newly formed units fall under the jurisdiction of the region's commander over the Lords themselves. Due to this reason, the Lords are referred to more as a board of directors over military commanders within the Starry Forest League. It is mentioned by Maverick that due to his newly assigned position as the ESP Commander, he cannot takeover Haru's leadership position with the SoulWorker Unit as that would allow the Lords to forcefully reassign the SoulWorkers to Eastern Cloudream and abandon the defense effort in Grace City.

### Organization

The Lords have an epithet known as the Four Stars and the Three Forests with the Stars representing those in charge of governing over humanity and the three forests which represent the military officers. It is currently known if this implies that the Lords consists of seven members with divided responsibilities.

### Direct Subordinates

The Orca Unit and Second Generation SoulWorker Unit are the only known units that fall under Lord's complete demands. Despite being direct subordinates of the Lords, the members of Orca Unit do not know the identity of each Lord and are only aware of the Lord that they serve. It is currently unknown if this is the case with the Second Generation SoulWorker unit.

### Second Generation SoulWorker Unit

The Lords seem to originally set up the training camp that produces SoulWorkers about ten years before the start of the main story and around Tenebris's first appearance. After ten long years of potential human experimentation and mysterious training, the Lords were able to produce artificial SoulWorkers who lacked a SoulWorker's natural immunity to hunger and sleep but were able to temporarily produce SoulForce on the same scale as natural SoulWorker. The Second Generation SoulWorker unit was placed under Ein's supervision and the Bernard Special Task Force was formed to investigate the mysterious actions occurring in Western Cloudream. Unlike other SoulWorkers, the members of this unit prioritize following orders above personal emotions.

## First Appearance and Story

While the Lords have no yet made a direct appearance in story, they were first mentioned during Chapter 3 with minor tidbits regarding their founding and control over the Starry Forest League. They are not mentioned again until the Dipluce Horizon chapter where the Lords act as the main motivator towards finding the SoulDreg Queen.

They are somehow are aware of the SoulDreg Queen's appearance in Dipluce Horizon and gives Aaron, their blessing to investigate the SoulDreg Queen. Despite Aaron's failure to capture the SoulDreg Queen, the Lords were pleased with the result and spared Aaron for his actions.

## SoulWorker

The Lords appear to have a degree of respect towards the SoulWorker calling them a "Lord" Candidate,and the second coming of Tenebris.