Pontoppidan Order,

## The Order of the Gifts, in honor of Bishop Pontoppidan

* **Purpose:**The stated purpose of the Pontoppidan order is "Threefold: To Defend the Traditions of the Church, To Oppose Evil, To Create a Peace in Which the Faithful Might Have the Freedom to Explore Their Gifts". The Pontoppidans specialize in combating magical and astral threats, with an emphasis on protecting their local community (the Fargo side of the Red River ). They also see themselves as Defenders of the Faith, which by 'Faith' they mean a particular brand of conservative Lutheranism , heavily influenced by the Pietist Laestadians, and individual members are involved in advocacy for the causes that they feel the Spirit has guided them towards. Well, that and the whole seamonster thing (*see below*).
* **Headquarters:** Pontoppidan Lutheran Church, right on the Riverwall, 309 4th St N, Fargo, RRDMZ 58102
* **Membership:**Membership limited to 20, although at present there are only 8 active members. Membership is limited to Christian Hermetic  Theurges (Mage or Adept), Laestadian-trained, and all but one are currently from the twenty founding families of Pontoppidan Lutheran Church. The Order is led by the Shield of the Faith (currently Henrik Vaag), who is assisted by the Sword of the Spirit (currently Piter Hult), other officers include the Belt of Truth, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Sandals of the Gospel and the Helmet of Salvation. Since there is only a couple of members who don't hold one of these officers in the Order at the moment, a temporary title "the Armor of God" has been created for the youngest members, John Michael Mikarlsen and Margaret Anderson.
* **Strictures:**Fraternity, Oath, Belief (ELCNA Lutheran), Service, Limited Membership
* **Resources:**The Order only has the resources of the individual members, although these are considerable, as there is a pair of professors (including Henrik Vaag, who teaches at Concordia ), businessmen (including a member of city council), a policeman (John Michael Mikarlson) and a retired pastor (Piter Hult used to be the pastor at Hopperstad Church across in Moorhead ) in their midst. Several of the members of the Order are also members of other magical groups in town, including Principia , the Tri-College Working Group and the Supermodern Design Team and can sometimes call upon these connections to aid the work of the Order.
* **Allies:**The closest and most obvious allies of the Order are their counterparts across the river, Principia, with whom they work hand-in-glove. The Order is not well known, and prefer it that way, but they do have bonds with fellow traditionalists on the Fargo side of the river, maintaining contacts in the Sons of Ivaldi , the Flying 14th and the Crop Circle, even occasionally the Catholic Order of St Sylvester, with whom they share a number of attitudes and goals (except, perhaps the seamonster thing).

### History

The history of the Pontoppidans can be traced back to the first Lutheran congregation in Fargo, founded in 1877 by twenty-five Scandinavian immigrants (ancestors of the twenty founding families). Although called by several different names in its early years (including First Evangelical Lutheran Church), but by the early decades of the twentieth century they had settled on its current name "Pontoppidan Lutheran" named after a Norwegian Lutheran Bishop, Erik Pontoppidan (1698-1964), a pietist writer and theologian.

However, and here is where the Pontoppidan Order has its roots, Bishop Pontoppidan is known for writings other than his theology. Like many educated churchmen of the 18th Century, Erik was quite the natural scientist. Or in his case, more of a proto-parazoologist (yeah, we're about to get into "The Seamonster Thing"). In his two-volume work, *Versuch einer natürlichen Geschichte Norwegens (The Natural History of Norway)*, published in 1752 and 1753, for instance, he describes not just the actual animals in and around the Norwegian coasts, he also goes into some detail about Sea Serpents, Mermaids and the Kraken. And frankly does a pretty good job of it for a guy who lived THREE AND A HALF DREKKING CENTURIES before the Awakening. And that was just his published work, it turns out.

The local "Pontoppidan Order" has its origins with one Walter James Mikarlson (John Michael's grandfather), an amateur scholar and a devout parishioner of Pontoppidan Lutheran living during the Awakening. Having been working for years (if not decades) on a biography of Bishop Pontoppidan (including several research trips/vacations to Scandinavia in the 1990's and early 2000's), he had one of the biggest collections of the Bishop's private writings outside of the family archives in Denmark. Including some, it turns out, more occult materials about witchcraft and magic (largely with a view to hunting and foiling them, but still...). Before the Awakening those parts of the collection were esoteric trivia. Right after the Awakening they were power. The Codices Pontoppidanis contained techniques and principles Walter could use to defend his family and his church from the ravages of the Awakening in the Red River Valley. In the modern age of the Unified Magical Theory, nothing in the Codices are particularly revolutionary, but in the early days of magic they gave their possessor a leg up on even the scholars at Concordia across the river.

And fight water monsters. The original Pontoppidan Order was twenty members (mostly men) of the founding families of the church who used the secrets of the Codices to combat the *things* that crawled up out of the early angry Red, not just river monsters and rusalka, but distinctly local threats like Unhcegila, Miniwashitu and Underwater Panthers. It was from fighting these menaces that the Pontoppidan Order gained its mission to protect the community. Even now, well past the Order's glory days, members of the Order are called in as experts (especially Belt of Truth, Doctor Elias Strandvold, who is a professor of parazoology at NDRU) when dealing with aquatic awakened critters. Hence "The Sea-Monster Thing".

### Membership (as of 2076)

* **Shield of Faith:** Dr. Henrik Vaag, teaches Ethics of Conjuring, Department of Applied Theology, Concordia College [Full Mage]
* **Sword of the Spirit:** Rev. (ret) Piter Hult, retired pastor of Hopperstad Church [Mystic Adept]
* **Belt of Truth:** Dr. Elias Strandvold, Acting Chair of the Dept of Parazoology, NDRU [Full Mage]
* **Breastplate of Righteousness:** "Junior" Paul Haaden Jr., local farmer [Physical Adept]
* **Sandals of the Gospel:** Dr. Diane Bergquist, was the last Head Librarian of the old Fargo Public Library [Full Mage]
* **Helmet of Salvation:** Art Wedeen, owner/operator of Wedeen Fishing Expeditions [Physical Adept]
* **Armor of God (1):** Lt. John Michael Mikarlson, acting Captain, Knight Errant in Moorhead [Physical Adept]
* **Armor of God (2):** Margaret Anderson, homemaker from Hawley [Physical Adept]

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