Order of the Seven Suns

Vermithrax and Aradia in the Order's mythos, art by William Blake

The **Order of the Seven Suns** are a religious movement based on the worship of Demons, specifically the Second Underking Mordaghast. They were founded by the Underking's human puppet, Steerpike, shortly after Mordaghast began to rise in power within the void between 300-400AE. The purpose of the order is to carry out the Underking's will on the terrestrial plane, as Demons are incapable of being physically present outside of the Void without constant blood sacrifice. With the advent of the Second Demon War, the Order rededicated itself to furthering the cause of the invading demon army. They derive their name from their leader's golden sun/star medallion, & the Seven islands that make up the Thunderlands, which was the site that the demon army emerged from circa 200AE to start the First Demon War.

Members of the Order are distinguishable by their indoctrination, wherein Steerpike uses his demonic medallion to hyponotize his converts. This takes the form of a "great light" within their minds and manifests physically as tiny burn marks in the middle of their irises that release thin plumes of smoke. Over time, with further indoctrination, the burn marks intensify until they burn away the iris, and those in the furthest stages appear to have no eyes at all, only smoking black pits. Steerpike himself had the greatest disfigurement, with his eyes being pits of wet foulness that constantly gushed with black fluid, and was forced to wear magical prosthetic glass eyes to hide it. Elder priests in the furthest stages of indoctrination somehow have retained full vision as well as precognitive and clairvoyant abilities; however, their minds are inextricably linked to the Underking's will, and they are complete slaves to Mordaghast.

In 1015AE, following the defeat of Mordaghast at the Final Battle for Everglow City, the Order was left rudderless and no longer chained to the will of their dark master. While freed from indoctrination, many of the cultists still retained strong beliefs in the old ideology, and when a new prophet The Grandfather began to espouse certain philosophies that fell in line with theirs, the remaining acolytes formed the Clockwork Order of Karhnak.

## Beliefs

The general doctrine for the order follows these beliefs.

* That the Temple of Aradia are liars and heathens;
* That Aradia is a liar, a "slattern," and a false god who has corrupted the world with her evil creations;
* That Vermithrax is the true creator of the world before it was corrupted by Aradia;
* That the slaying of Vermithrax has given rise to a heroic and great new conqueror king Mordaghast, who is the saviour of creation;
* That modern terrestrial society has become consumed by sinful behaviour and must be cleansed by the new Underking.

Members of the order display an intensely bitter, sadistic, misanthropic and especially misogynistic tempermant, and although they themselves are often Aradia's creatures, they believe other terrestrial beings to be below them.

### The Manifesto of the Seven Suns

An investigation into the vaults beneath the castle Griffin's Peak, conducted by Jaster and Talia Blackthorne in the year 1015AE, unconvered a Manifesto written by Steerpike that espoused the creation mythos of the Order. The manifesto suggests the Blackthorne's terramancy was a gift given by Vermithraax for allowing him out of the Void to conquer the world in the First Demon War. Excerpts reproduced here;

> *"In the begin, there was only the Kinge.*
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> *The lonely Kinge.*
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> *Kinge of the Nothinge.*
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> *A Kinge without subjects is no Kinge at all*
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> *and so with his great power*
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> *he made a Bride*
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> *a perfect Bride,*
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> *so beautiful*
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> *and filled with light*
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> *and now he would never be lonely again.*
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> *But the Bride was malcontente*
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> *Great King, she said unto her maker,*
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> *Wise King, Mighty King. The Nothinge makes me sad.*
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> *I am a creature of beautye*
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> *and I wish to see beautye all around me.*
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> *And the Kinge loved her dearly*
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> *and wanted to make her happy*
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> *and so he made a Gardene*
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> *a great paradise in the midst of the Nothinge*
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> *where they could live together.*
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> *With his power he made*
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> *Blue seas, rollinge plains, great mountains caked with snow.*
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> *And he made life to live with them in the Gardene,*
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> *Tall trees, tiny insectes, beastes as beautiful as his bride.*
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> *But the Bride was malcontente*
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> *Great King, she said unto her maker,*
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> *Wise King, Mighty King. I cannot speak*
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> *to these beasts. I am lonely*
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> *I wish for children*
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> *children that may grow to be as wise as us.*
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> *The Kinge was saddened*
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> *why do you ask so much of me, he said unto her*
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> *am I not enough for you*
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> *is it not enough for us to live*
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> *in this great Garden I have made for us*
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> *But the Kinge loved her dearly*
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> *and wanted to make her happy*
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> *and so he coupled with her*
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> *and from her sainted womb came children*
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> *tall, strong, wise as the Kinge*
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> *beautiful as the Bride.*
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> *They lived amidst the snowe*
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> *frozen in time*
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> *never aging.*
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> *But the Bride was malcontente*
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> *Great King, she said unto her maker,*
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> *Wise King, Mighty King. We have*
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> *a great power, we two;*
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> *we could make life*
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> *more life, still*
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> *what wonders we could create!*
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> *And the Kinge grew angry.*
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> *Still you ask me for more, he said*
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> *After all I have given you.*
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> *No more, I say;*
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> *I need only not be alone*
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> *and you, my Bride, are all I need.*
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> *But the Bride was wicked.*
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> *No true, pure beauty was she,*
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> *but a Slattern.*
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> *The Slattern lay in the mountains,*
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> *and from her womb spilled*
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> *dark children*
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> *children that had the shape of the Kinge's*
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> *but were cursed*
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> *their eyes red*
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> *and their skin like tar.*
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> *The Kinge wept to behold*
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> *this cursed spawn;*
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> *what have you done, he cried*
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> *i made you to bring beauty to my loneliness*
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> *and now you mock me*
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> *with these creatures?*
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> *But the Slattern's greed*
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> *could not be sated*
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> *She lay in the woods*
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> *and from her womb spilled*
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> *wood children*
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> *ugly, short, stunted in their lives.*
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> *She lay in the barren northlands,*
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> *and from her womb spilled*
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> *greater monstrosities still;*
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> *bloated, squat, hairy rock-children*
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> *who had none of the look of the Kinge's design.*
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> *You must stop this, cried the Kinge*
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> *your children are monsters*
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> *twisted and beastly in their shape*
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> *but the Slattern birthed only uglier offspringe*
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> *she lay with the beasts of the land*
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> *and made vile fur-creatures*
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> *and green swine-men.*
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> *Yet the worste was still to come*
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> *For by living in this tainted garden*
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> *the Kinge's true children*
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> *began to lie with the Slattern's monsters*
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> *and they made the worst creatures of all*
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> *Children with stunted lives,*
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> *and no beauty,*
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> *and little strength,*
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> *and less wisdom,*
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> *and none of the Kinge's will in them at all.*
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> *I made you, the Kinge told the Slattern*
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> *Now I must unmake you*
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> *lest the monsters you create*
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> *destroy this Garden I have built around us*
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> *But the Slattern played a cruel trick*
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> *and she expelled the Kinge from the Garden*
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> *sending him back to the Nothinge from whence he came*
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> *The Kinge had put everything into the Garden*
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> *all the goodness, all the light he could make;*
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> *and when he came back to the Nothinge*
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> *he could no longer stand it*
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> *he suffered in pain, endless agony*
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> *he tried to birth new children of his own*
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> *but they were twisted, filled with hatred*
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> *three terrible daughters*
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> *vast winged shadows, as their father now was.*
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> *And the more he made*
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> *the feebler the creations became*
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> *more twisted, more mindless*
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> *all in constant pain from the Nothinge.*
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> *The Kinge's power was great.*
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> *he could still reach into the Garden.*
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> *The weakest of the Slattern's bastards*
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> *lived amidst the Seven Suns;*
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> *from here the Kinge could make his return.*
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> *He found a man*
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> *a greedy man*
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> *red of hair and black of heart*
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> *he whispered across worlds*
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> *out of the Nothinge*
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> *Obey me, he said*
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> *obey me*
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> *bring my children into your Garden*
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> *end their suffering*
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> *And the greedy man asked unto the Kinge*
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> *I may have the power to give this to you*
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> *but I will not help you from the goodness of my heart*
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> *there is no goodness there, you see*
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> *The Kinge cursed the Slattern's bastards*
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> *as foul of nature as of face;*
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> *he offered riches*
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> *he offered womyn*
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> *he offered a Garden of the greedy man's own.*
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> *But the greedy man demanded*
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> *the highest honor of all;*
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> *that he have the Kinge's power*
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> *the power to make and shape the Garden itself.*
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> *and that the greedy children he spawned*
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> *would have the power as well*
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> *Do this for me, the greedy man said,*
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> *and I will betray the Slattern*
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> *bring you into the Garden once again*
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> *and your children may live among my own."*
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## History

The Order's secrecy means a precise history for much of their existence is difficult to track. Steerpike was known have lived circa ~300AE and he likely began to convert various terrestrials over the course of his long life, with the 5 earliest converts becoming his personal guard the Harbingers. Around 1000AE, Steerpike began his machinations by planting his human Harbinger, later named Mr Sixx, in the staff of the nobleman Dominic Blackthorne. With the rising success of the Bloodhawk, Sixx became Spymaster and Court Sorcerer to House Blackthorne. At the same time Steerpike reached out to Nestor Knox and brought him on in the scheme. Working together, the three men set out a plan to destroy Arthur Blackthorne's household and weaken the realm with civil war, so that Mordaghast could conquer it all the more easily. The Second Demon War began at the Massacre at the Riverford, and in the rising chaos Dominic seized power as King of all Aradia; however, Steerpike and Nestor betrayed him, casting him aside and setting the stage between them for the grand invasion, which would begin at the Final Battle for Everglow City.

## Organization

In 1015AE there are an estimated several hundred actively converted members of the faith, with some hiding out in communes in the countryside, while others are implanted within the highest level of government. The Order need no set meeting places or lines of communciation as they are all directed by a higher will; there are also no ranks within the Order, save for Cardinal Steerpike, his 5 Harbingers and his Listener making up the coucil of 7 that lead the order.

## Known Members

* Cardinal Steerpike, leader
* Harbingers, 5 individuals in the furthest stages of indoctrination who serve as Mordaghast's personal guard.
* Listener, an orphan child forcefully converted into an intermediary between worlds by Steerpike as a blood sacrifice, later killed by Malakai;
* Jaxon Waynrite, a western nobleman converted to the Order by Steerpike;
* Gerold Highcliffe, a young nobleman and aspiring bard who, along with various other New Age Knights, was converted to the Order by Steerpike