Order of the Crimson Crescent

Classes | Overview | Public Perception | Rules of the Order | Training

History

Long ago there was an order of monks that, in reaction to the madness of Icarrus, declared that magic and its use inevitably corrupted humans. They studied and found a way to make those who had magic to be able to resist this magic. As they were a threat to Mages who controlled everything, the monks were forced eventually into the most remote regions of Balthazor. They would send out their 'Ghostwalkers', the members of the order who were gifted and trained to use a particular magic to defend against that magic, out to hunt and kill mages to prevent the corruption of the spirit. Eventually the order was crushed and only a sole Ghostwalker survived, fleeing from the deadly fate of his fellows and vanishing for decades. When he returned, it was to a land that had forgotten where he came from. He began to build a new sort of monastery in Luminii. He would train all who came in the arts of self-defense he had learned from childhood, but he also brought in others to make it a place of learning as well. This was the end of Dewlyn's ambitions. He did not care for the political turmoil, nor did he continue training that magic was evil. His students trained and learned and moved back out into Luminii.

When Anara Midiere proved herself to be the next Archmage of Vivomancy, her constant companion, chief advisor and major domo, Vagan Vidaar, wanted to establish a force to protect the vivomancers of Luminii to prevent their wholesale slaughter as had happened with the Klockwork Master's Tivili Decree. He sought out the former monks of Anolinde to establish the Order of the Crimson Crescent.

The new Order of the Crimson Crescent became an instant presence in Luminii. As Vivomancers came out of hiding and the non-Nostrellan Vivomancers came back onto the scene, they were always accompanied by three monks wearing the white tunic with the embroidered crimson crescent moon. Of the three, usually one carries a staff and one monk is usually not armed at all. Occasionally, one of the three is armed with a sword, but these are fairly rare. Some in the Order do have very minor skills in Vivomancy and their powers in such are governed by the natural laws of Vivomancy, in that causing harm or death to another inherently will weaken their powers. Were one to assume the unarmed monk were a healer, one might be dreadfully wrong. The only assurance of what role a monk might play are the few with swords. These are never gifted in Vivomancy, but they are highly talented and well-trained swordsmen. To the general public, very little is known about the Order, but most do not care to look as Monks of the Order act in the name of the Archmagess in the role of peacekeepers, police, and most notably are rescue and aid workers.

Rules of the Order

Those in the Crimson Crescent never discuss the rules of the Order with anyone outside the Order or not in training for Vivomancy.

The Order of the Crimson Crescent is a family. All in the order are your brothers and sisters.
The Purpose of the Order is to protect Vivomancers. Anyone meaning harm to a Vivomancer is an enemy of the Order and must be dealt with immediately.
Any martial force or persons meaning harm to innocent life is an enemy of Vivomancy and therefore of the Order as well.
The Order is above disputes of property or rights. The Order's loyalty is to Life.
There are no disputes within the Order.
No member of the Order is to take a life unless there is no other way to protect either an innocent (unarmed) person or a Vivomancer.
All within the Order are required to learn the skills needed to act with the world around them in order to affect healing in others (Training with herbs, first aid, etc.) as well as basic Academic skills (reading, writing, arithmetic) or to be able to defend Vivomancers and innocents.
While all in the Order are family one must not forget the roles of the Order and to pay the due respect of each of the roles. The use of the titles of the Order are forbidden outside the walls of the Order.
The Order are Ambassadors for the Archmagess to all in all regions. Drunkeness and Misconduct are not allowed.
Only the Bishops among the Dons are allowed to carry edged weapons. All Apprentices will be taught edged weapon combat mainly to learn to defend from or provide aid to those victims of attacks with edged weapons.
Ranged weapons, such as a bow, are forbidden.
Once a Neophyte becomes an Abecedarian, they are a part of the Order for life.

Classes

The Cardinal Classes
1. Regnants: These nine are the leaders of the Order and masters of the three roles of the order (Learning, Healing, Martial Arts) and act as a council over the order under the Archmagess of Luminii. This is the highest rank one can achieve in the Order, and only death or choice can remove a Regnant. Within the Order, one Regnant speaks for all and their word is law.
2. Primas: These are the instructors of the Order and second only to the Regnants as they are below the Regnants alone, though the Regnants treat the Primas as advisors. They are always teachers to all others in the order. These are the highest ranking masters and the highest of them have usually failed the rites to become one of the Regnants.
3. Lodestars: These members of the order are subject to the Primas but are also direct students of the Regnants. These is considered the first rankings of masters.
The Disciple Classes
1. Dons: These are the students who are most gifted to the Martial Arts: The Bonners with staves, the Grinders with unarmed combat, and the Bishops with swords and knives. The ranks from Highest to lowest in the ranks of the Dons are:
  1. Veteran
  2. Venturer
  3. Volunteer
2. Academicians: These are those students most gifted in the Academic and Fine Arts. The Academicians have the most access to all knowledge within the Order, as by rights they most be the recorders of history, without favor or malice. They scribe the writings of Primas and Regnants for the growing Library of Nostrum (the sole reference to the former required worship of Nostrella which remains). The ranks from highest to lowest among the Academicians are:
  1. Pundit
  2. Prodigy
  3. Pupil
3. Adepts: These are those in the order gifted in Vivomancy trained to the heights of their power which would not quantify ascendancy within the Vivomantic ranks. The ranks from highest to lowest among the Adepts are:
  1. Insangoma
  2. Medico
  3. Bones
The Apprentice Classes
1. Catechumens: These students of the Order train with Lodestars and Primas in their area of skill.
2. Rooks: These are students in smaller groups under the schooling of the Disciples and Lodestars. These class groups are small and the Rooks are placed into living Triumvirates in which they do all things as one.
3. Abecedarians: These are the full beginners in the order given to full rights and knowledge of the order.
4. Neophytes: Not all are able to make it through the rigorous training required to reach the Disciple classes, therefore all initial applicants are set as Neophytes for several years. (Not even most in the order know that the only reason the Neophyte Class exists is to funnel off the truly gifted to the Vivomantic School rather than waste the talents in much lower powered ranks of the Adepts.)

Overview

Anyone of any age may become a Neophyte. The Order does prefer children, but could not disallow the entry of adolescents or adults in their beginning. As time marches on, fewer seeking to join the order as a Neophyte reach above that rank. This has to do with indoctrinating the prospective Apprentices properly to keep their loyalty absolute. Since most of the adults that were the foundation for the Order had trained with Dewlyn, they already had the foundations of loyalty, discipline, and fealty among each other. Adult and adolescent Neophytes trying to reach Abecedarian will find the training almost inhumane. The initial Primas of the order made the training unbelievably rigorous for the adults to compress all aspects of the training. No one outside the order, with the exception of Mentors and Sentinals of the Vivomantic School and the Archmage or her majordomo. Few know of the scribes and artists preserving and adding to the historical record of Luminii, while most see the Dons and Adepts, the Academicians are rarely seen outside Damansque anad are the only exception to the traveling Triumvirates. If there are four of the order together, one is an Academician. The Academicians and Adepts are the few outside of Vivomantic students allowed in the rebuilt Vivomantic school. Few citizens ask of the fortress that marks the other side of the Archmagess's home, which sits between the school built on the grounds of the destroyed Nostrum and the Walls of the Order.

Training

One starting the circle of the Order must learn that mind and body are a part of the Great Circle which is life. The Apprentices must learn to control and exercise both mind and body in service to the Great Circle. By the time one has advanced in the Apprentice ranks to Catechumen, they have learned enough to be considered a scholar in basic academics and to be a leader of soldiers. The hours are grueling and the ranks of the Apprentices are forced to live communal with the rank one has reached relating directly to favor. The classes are large and highly disciplined and punishment for breaking of house, rank, or Order rules is meted out with the idea of the end goal of all training. Punishment is never idly decided on, nor is it delayed. In the Apprentice ranks, any disloyalty is met with hard punishment that works to discourage the disloyalty to the Order or its members and to work the Apprentice towards both mind and body being sharp and strong weapons. Punishments are never given out as things which must be done within the Walls of the Order, for duty, like fealty to the Order and the Archmagess, are as vital to the order as is loyalty. Each individual is given an area of duties and the duties rotate throughout all the ranks of the Apprentices. Thus the ranks of Apprentices learn that no task is beneath them. Throughout their life in the Order, each member must pass through the rites or trials to reach the next rank. Each rank within a class is achieved with a rite and each change in a class is achieved with a trial. At the first trial, a Neophyte becomes an Abecedarian.

The trial between Abecedarian and the Disciple classes is a twelve hour ordeal. Each Abecedarian that passes the trial is allowed the title of Disciple until they are put into a triumvirate within two tendays. Some of the exercises of the Disciples are conducted on the Field, a large open area behind the mansion of the Archmagess, where others can see, but these are generally just a part of continuing to train the body and not direct training. In the ranks of the Diciples, the training is done with the triumvirates in mind. Each lesson each member of the triumvirate must attend is attended by all. This even includes the Adepts attending the training of the Dons, though the adepts cannot enter into any kind of combat or risk losing their marginal talents, and the Dons being made to sit through the training of the Adepts, though they have no ability to use any measure of Vivomancy. All must go where any single member of the triumvirate must go, within reason.

By the time the Disciples are reaching the end of their rankings, they are starting to be mentored by the Lodestars of their discipline. As their mentoring steps, Disciples go out by twos with a Lodestar. This is the triumvirate that those outside the order meet. Not all of these public facing Triumvirates are made up of this exact measure (two Diciples and one Lodestar) but a Disciple will never be outside the Walls of the Order without at least one Lodestar. While a good number in the Order will be able to reach Lodestar, not all do and there is no dishonor in that. The trial to become a Lodestar goes for a full day and night. Many reach the highest rank of their discipline as a Disciple and advance no further. Not all who try and pass through the trials to become a Lodestar. Many cannot complete the trial and are allowed to face it again after a year, but unlike the trial to enter the Disciple Class, the Lodestar Trial can only be faced six times. The rites to become a Prima lasts for two days and a night. Those within the Walls of the Order knows that the difference between a Rite and a Trial lies only in where you are advancing. Only Primas are allowed to take the rites to try to become a Regnant, but only as a Regnant either steps aside to return to the ranks of the Primas or as they die. There are only nine Regnants at any time, three for each discipline.

Public Perception

The public who come in contact with the Order of the Crimson Crescent, usually do so in the most dire of circumstances and the almost silent dedication to duty and protecting the lives of innocent made the signs of the Crimson Crescent and those who wear them a growing legend though out Luminii, even while Luminii was still under the control of the Klockwork Master. These highly disciplined men and women worked as a single body rebuilding, protecting, and providing initial aid and the Vivomancers among them who healed without fear of harm (even Vivomancers who worshipped Nostrella) were welcome. They were often seen to stop looters and rumored to act as arbitrators in disputes. In short, in the chaos civil war had brought to Luminii, the Order of the Crimson Crescent brought order and civility with a quiet dedication and determination.

For more information on the Order of the Crimson Crescent, contact:

The Luminii Region Leader