Order of Illumination Lore?

[jdripley]

I'm considering developing a campaign where the PCs are members of the Order of Illumination. This would give them a wide range of mobility and allow them to experience the Iron Kingdoms as a whole while giving them a motivation and common goal other than money (which is the big pitfall that I see in just letting them be mercs out to make a buck in the world).

But.. I'm coming up short on lore for the Order. I've borrowed the old IK World Guide and Character guide, I've got an assortment of books from the wargame... but I can't really get more than a brief mention wherever I look. Nothing in detail that runs down "this is what this organization is all about, what their major goals are, what internal politics are like" or whatnot. The best details so far have been from the Forces of Warmachine: Mercenaries" book entry on Harlan Versh - and that guys gone rogue from the Order! I've also got a stack of No Quarters (about half-complete), so if there's any important details in one of those I might have access to it.

Is the information I'm looking for right under my nose? Have I just skipped past it? Or... where could it be if it's not in the World Guide?

[susan]

No Quarter #2 has a fairly extensive write-up on the Order, including tips on how to run an Illuminated campaign. Should be precisely what you're looking for .

[jdripley]

Excellent! Unfortunately.......... not one of the NQ's I own, so now I've got to see about tracking one down :P

[jdripley]

Ok... so, NQ#2 is no longer for sale on the PP online store. Ebay has it starting at $25. So let's see if we can nail down enough of the major plot points for the Order of Illumination that I could fill in the blanks myself. After all, any campaign setting information is subject to a GM's whimsy anyways, so it's really not absolutely necessary to "have it all right" anyways.


So here's my understanding of the Order of Illumination:

The Order is a Morrowan witch-hunting order. They are multinational in scope, though they hold almost no sway in the Protectorate for obvious reasons. Their primary responsibility is to hunt rogue spellcasters, and they have a special zeal for hunting infernalists and necromancers - though any Thamarite is fair game if they commit evil acts.

The Order of Illumination is not an organization of vigilantes - they try to operate within a set of codes (I'm fuzzy on exactly what those are... do they require a certain amount of proof before putting somebody on their Most Wanted list?), and members exceeding those codes either by going after unsanctioned targets, or by executing their orders through excessive force, can be stripped of their title and of Order support (i.e. Harlan Versh), though that doesn't necessarily mean that the Order will stop you... assuming you're still fighting the good fight.

The Order of Illumination differs from the Greylords in one major way - they view dangerous artifacts as things to be locked away and guarded against future use, where as the Greylords view dangerous artifacts as potent weapons to be studied, harnessed, and used for the Khadoran Empire's war effort.

The Order also deals with the recovery of dangerous magical items. The Witchfire is a notable weapon that the Order tried to recover and control, however any Orgoth artifact would be of interest, any Cryxian device or Infernalist implement would also be deemed dangerous and a valid target for the Order of Illumination to find and secure.

The Order of Illumination employs people of a wide skill set. Wizards are valued for their knowledge of the typical quarry. Clerics likewise can bring their own set of skills to the table. Rogues and Fighters are also useful, as would be rangers for their tracking ability and so forth - basically, any skill set can be used because the Order finds itself in almost any situation imaginable trying to take down evil spellcasters or recovering dangerous artifacts.


Do I have it more or less right? How are they organized? Headed up in the Sancteum of Caspia, with regional offices throughout Cygnar/Ord/Khador? How do they find out about their targets - do locals talk to Morrowan priests saying "boogey man is in the forest over there" and the priest tips off the Order and asks for its help? Do they have their own ring of spies that sniff out witches? How politically stable is the Order? Is it the sort of organization where you stand a chance of being branded as a witch yourself if you step on the wrong toes, or do they pretty much get along and stick to stabbing the bad guys? Is a person hunted by the Order more likely to end up in chains being dragged off to prison, to be executed after trial, or to be summarily shot and done with when the Order agents catch up to them?

[PG_Duckboy]

You can get it for $6 on RPGwhater in PDF (Idk the actual sight name)

[PG_Salix060907]

I believe its RPG drive thru. Or something similar to that.

[PsychoLaughs]

the order is primarily an arcane order, so it is mostly comprised of arcane practitioners, but they do make use of non arcane auxiliaries.
in the IKCG there is a basic write up of the order in pages 299-300.

[Munindk]

The Five Fingers book has a bit of info on the OoI, its mainly about how thamarites view the OoI in general and the 2 OoI members in town specifically. Its not much but the wizardess leading the OoI in Five Fingers is described in some detail and she's an example of an OoI member striking out of her own and setting up shop somewhat independently but still with OoI acceptance.