Order of Truth

The Order of Truth is a religious cult active mainly in the Steadfast, where it is the dominant religion. One of their offshoots is the Order of Flagellants and Austerities.

Description

The Order reveres the past and the knowledge of the ancients as understood by the enigmatic Aeon Priests. By decree of the Amber Pope, The Steadfast and The Order of Truth wage war with the lands to the north, believed by many to be enthralled by a secretive and mysterious cult called the Gaeans.

The Order of Truth was established by the original Amber Pope, High Father Calaval, about 400 years ago. Although the Order of Truth seems like a religion, technically it’s not one. The papacy has a structure like a priesthood and calls its members priests, but it’s not a religion — it’s a veneration of intellect, understanding, and the wonders that arise from such things: science, technology, and the numenera.

Still, many people treat the order like a religion regardless. These people are not members, but rather “adherents.” In their eyes, the order is focused on worshipping the past and the ancients who created the fantastic devices and strange discoveries that fill the Ninth World. And over the last century or so, the order has done little to discourage this idea. In fact, under the current Amber Pope, Durranet VI, the Aeon Priests have discovered that the people of the Steadfast are more likely to respect, admire, and obey the Order of Truth if they think of it as a religion. Thus, in larger cities, the order has begun holding quasireligious services to encourage this idea. They ritualize their teachings to respect and understand the numenera as the key to advancing humanity into the future. They praise the past and those who lived in it for their intelligence and understanding. The order maintains a small army, as well as a large organization of agents, observers, clerks, scribes, and other personnel.

The headquarters lies in the city of Qi, in a complex known as the Durkhal. They also have a secret fortress called the Citadel of the Conduit that lies in a parallel dimension and can be accessed by any high-ranking Aeon Priest.

The influence of the organization — and in particular its head, the Amber Pope — has become clear in the Steadfast. Arguably, the Order of Truth holds the Steadfast together. The Amber Pope uses all the pressure his influence can muster to keep the so-called Nine Rival Kings from warring among themselves. To this end, he has called for a crusade against the recently discovered people in the far north who live beyond the Cloudcrystal Skyfields. These people call themselves Gaeans, and they are animists, revering and believing in supernatural spirits inhabiting all natural things, an act the order believes to be an abomination of truth. Nine years ago, when Gaean explorers first ventured into the skyfields and the northern parts of the Steadfast, the Amber Pope branded them enemies of truth and declared a holy war against them.

Dogma

While not stricly a religion, the Order of Truth, even more in the recent time, follow some kind of dogma.

The Catechism of Lore is in important part of it :

All glory to the originators of truth and understanding.

Praise to the innovators of steel and synth.

Praise to the shapers of flesh, of bone, and of mind.

Glory to those who re-sculpted the sustaining earth and the life-giving sun.

Praise to the senders of signals, who even now whisper into machine ears and give life to the inanimate.

Praise to those who traveled to the stars, and the realms beyond the stars.

All glory to the originators of truth and understanding.

Sources

• The Amber Monolith (First mention)