Order of Solis

The Order of Solis is the clandestine aspect of the Church of Pelor. It has existed for centuries. The Solarium, the greatest of Pelor’s temples, is found in Galefridus, with strong ties to the throne. Most of the power of the temple arises from The Order of Solis, which has strong political influence, and access to vast resources.

The Order’s ultimate objective lies in overcoming the current dark age, and reigning in the new age of Light. The means of the Order of Solis are largely related to maintaining and increasing the Church's political power in order to control the Throne, and the rise of the Kingdom of Galefridus is largely a result of the Order’s machinations.

The Order of Solis is by no means militant. The members of The Order consist primarily of philosophers, logicians, and diplomats. However, although constantly planning for the future, setting in motion plans that may take up to a century to come to fruition, the Order realizes the importance of the present as well, and the need to hedge out the darkness that threatens to encroach upon civilization.

In order to keep the people safe, to keep their spirits high and to keep up their hope of a better future, the Order had employed Heradric Dreth'dor, himself, to hunt monsters, to become a hero, a symbol of hope. Monsters that he managed to capture would be subjected to extensive study in order to develop better means of combating their ilk.

After Heradric's passing, once Dreth’dor could no longer continue his work, the Order of Solis needed the hole he left to be filled. That is the purpose for which the Disciples of Dreth'dor were chosen. The Order needed them to continue Dreth’dor’s work. They were allowed access to a great amount of the Order’s resources – things most people would normally have great difficulty getting a hold of: particular weapons, equipment, craftsmen, sages and researchers.

Organization
The Order of Solis is divided into four departments, and then further subdivided into wings. Every wing is a joint effort between two or more departments. Every department has a head, and the four department heads form the High Council of the Order of Solis.

The four departments include:


 * The Department of Arcana.
 * The Department of Intelligence
 * The Department of Defense
 * The Department of Healing

The six wings include:


 * The Divination Wing, a joint effort of the Departments of Arcana and Intelligence
 * The Politics Wing, a joint effort of the Departments of Healing and Intelligence
 * The Research Wing, a joint effort of the Departments of Arcana and Defense. This wing handles the development of new means of combating monsters.
 * The Planar Wing, a joint effort of the Departments of Arcana and Healing
 * The Templar Wing, a joint effort of the Departments of Defense and Healing
 * The Shadow Wing, a joint effort of the Departments of Defense and Intelligence. This wing handles the assassination of important enemies.
 * The War Wing, a joint effort between all departments.

The Department of Arcana
This department deals with most matters magical and arcane, from brewing potions to studying magical beasts. It encompasses artifact research, alchemy, teleportation, magical training and protection, and collaborates with the other departments through the various wings, such as magical spying (scrying) or research into weapons effective against monsters.

The Department of Arcana employees nearly every wizard in Galefridus.

Hierarchy
The lowest-ranking members of this department hold the rank of Initiate and wear ochre-red robes. After proving a degree of proficiency in arcane matters, Initiates may be promoted to the rank of Adeptus, who wear ochre-red robes with brown trim. After years of studying magic, Adepti may reach the rank of Magister by presenting research to their superiors that expands the Order of Solis' understanding of arcane matters in some way. Magisters wear ochre red robes with bronze trim. The most powerful Magisters will eventually be promoted to the rank of Magus of the Outer Circle and don the prestigious red robes that inspire awe in anyone who understands the status symbol they are. Among the Magi of the Outer Circle, the most knowledgeable are selected as Magi of the Inner Circle, a title that only a handful of mages hold at any given time. A Magus of the Inner Circle wears red robes with brown trim and works directly with the Archmage, the ultimate leader of the Department of Arcana, who wears red robes with bronze trim. When an Archmage dies, a new Archmage is selected from the Magi of the Inner Circle through a test of power. Malvanos is the current Archmage of the Order of Solis.

The Department of Defense
This department deals with the defense and protection of the Order and all its members. It is the military branch of the Order of Solis and its members consist of members of the Galefridish military, including every rank of soldier up to the department's leader, Sir Adgar, who is the High Constable of the Galefridish army.

This department collaborates with the other departments to research new weapons against the monsters that plague the world, or assassinate important enemies.

The Department of Healing
This department deals with all of the Order's religious matters, as well as running the Solarium's hospital. The Department of Healing is intimately intertwined with the priesthood of Pelor - all of its members are priests of Pelor. The department provides help and healing to everyone from peasant to nobleman, curing what it can through mundane means, and occasionally using holy magic and artifacts to heal the more difficult, or important, cases. It works alongside the other departments to study the dangerous creatures brought in by groups like the Disciples of Dreth'dor, and many of the lower ranking members perform duties that are mainly religious, only occasionally gently turning people's attention away from the secrets of the Order. The Lucis Sol of the priesthood of Pelor is the head of this department, a title currently held by Guenbrith of Bancroft.

Roughly 250 Elucidos work at the Solarium.

The Department of Intelligence
This department deals in information and its acquisition. It is responsible for gathering information across the civilized lands and forwarding it to relevant departments within the Order of Solis. This includes a large informant network and an unknown quantity of spies working in various positions throughout the known world. The department usually works in a 'hands-off' style, meaning discreet observation, thievery, bribes, but not fighting or assassination. Naturally this isn't a rule, as occasionally special circumstances call for different or uncommon methods.

Hierarchy
All members of this department hold a rank, and when within the Solarium, they wear an armband that denotes their rank. Members of this department begin their careers as Informants and wear plain, black armbands. A typical Informant will be promoted to Emissary after five years of service, though exceptional individuals may progress more rapidly. Emissaries wear black armbands with a silver chevron on them. After at minimum another five years of service, and sometimes double that, Emissaries are promoted to the rank of Agent. Agents wear black armbands with a silver double chevron. After a further decade of service, the most motivated Agents are promoted to the rank of Operative. Operatives wear black armbands with a silver saltire. After a further five years of service, Operatives are eligible to be promoted by the department head to the rank of Senior Operative, who wear a black armband with a silver maltese cross. The Senior Operative with the greatest seniority within the Order of Solis holds the title of Director and leads the department. The Director wears a black armband with a cross pattée. The Director position is currently held by Baltazar.

The Order of Solis employs roughly 1000 Informants.

Members
The Order of Solis includes roughly 5,500 members.

Malvanos, head of the Department of Arcana.

Sir Adgar, head of the Department of Defense, the High Council, and thus the Order of Solis.

Baltazar, head of the Department of Intelligence.

Former Members:
Alzarthuras, human wizard and former head of the Department of Arcana before his passing.

Avilina, human cleric and former head of the Department of Healing before her passing.

Conspiracy
Lucas Walters was investigating a conspiracy within the Order of Solis, revolving around the disappearance of a young priestess, as well as the death of Alzarthuras. He said:

All this secrecy, this conspiracy... it's not how The Order of Solis operates. It's always been a very open republic. Well, obviously yes there is secrecy to the outside world, but not from within its own structure... The members of the council vote on all matters. So I started doing some digging, to find other instances where things have been swept under the rug, or vetoed, or other shady doings...

One thing that attracted my attention was the death of Alzarthuras, the former head of the Department of Arcana. His death was rather quite abrupt--one day, he was fully functional, the next, he was dead. Yes, he was rather old, but he still completely had his wits about him and was in decent enough physical shape to get around. And there was no investigation into his death--it was just marked as "natural causes," and the case was closed the very day he died. The body was not even brought to the Department of Healing to ensure he was dead, or to try to revive him. It seems very few people even saw his body. He was swiftly buried.

And what's worse is that it seems no one ever asked any questions. There's no record of anyone ever raising the issue, as though everyone forgot about it and moved on.

I fear that there may be a cancer within the Order. And I would very much like to investigate the matter further, but to do that, I need to be at the Solarium. And unfortunately, I don't have that sort of clearance...

__

The Disciples investigated themselves investigated and found records that say that Lucas died. Eri recognizes Malv's handwriting.

The Shridra Project
After The Disciples of Dreth'dor successfully captured the drow vampire Shridra and brought her to the Order for interrogation, Skamos doggedly questioned Avilina and Baltazar for information. He learned that as a child, Shridra became an outsider among her own people for her unwillingness to torture a small animal. Shridra eventually fled the Underdark in an attempt to find a better life. When she reached the surface world and tried to integrate into the Kingdoms, she discovered her lot in life was not going to change, due to the general population's biased views of Drow as evil. Despite everything, she managed to find love and happiness.

Unfortunately she was bitten and turned into a vampire, following which her one true love turned away from her. Embittered and alone, Shridra quickly became what was expected of her species. She became filled with hate for the entire world, surfacers and drow alike. That was when the Order of Solis took her in, telling her whatever she wanted to hear, manipulating her into being their pawn. They provided her with tremendous resources and told her to seek the destruction of the world. Over time she built up her underground city and spread her influence; ultimately she was responsible for hundreds and thousands of deaths across the Kingdoms, and no small amount of pain and destruction. The Order then planned on sending a collection of heroes, the Disciples of Dreth'dor, to defeat her. Their exploits were exaggerated and told to the masses to raise faith in the heroes, and keep the populace hopeful.

Considering that the Disciples ran into plenty of evil that was not related to Shridra, some people believe that the world already had enough trouble to deal with, and that creating more trouble for the sake of dispersing it was unnecessary. Avilina in particular was unable to forgive herself for agreeing to manipulate Shridra, while some of the Disciples were horrified to realize that the terror of their pasts, all orchestrated by Shridra, were in fact supported by the people they now worked for.

Of the situation, Avilina said, "It's awful what we did to that poor child. Her whole life has been a tragedy." She expressed regret: "I should have never agreed to this." Baltazar explained that he was not Director of the Department of Intelligence when the decision was made, absolving himself of blame, but explained the rationale behind it:

"There can be no heroes without villains. Shridra's role has always been to become the great villain that you would one day valiantly defeat. Your legacy will live on for generations in bardic tales, and fuel the hearts and souls of citizens throughout the kingdoms for years to come. In defeating Shridra, you have become a symbol of hope, a symbol that the light will always cast away the shadows of darkness and prevail.

"We are at war. Not with Gavriel, not with Galefridus. Civilization is at war. It's at war with the darkness outside our borders. During wartime, there's always collateral damage. The damage Shridra was estimated to inflict was deemed an acceptable loss in order to achieve a significant victory in this war."