History
The Order & the Thee'nor Accord
In the 5th Year of Second Age, the secretive Imperial Order of Salijarna was faced with a difficult choice. Its original mandate, dating back 1,000 years and decreed by Overseer Tuloni I himself, directed the use of Imperial magics and resources to ultimately protect the citizens and servants
of the Empire from unnamed adversaries beyond this realm. Yet the Thee'nor Accord had largely dissolved the Empire into numerous smaller kingdoms, provisioning its former lands to other, non-elven races and rulers. While these new geographical lines defined new political boundaries, the Order had always been seen as external to politics. In the lands where they were able to negotiate successfully, the Order's members were permitted to remain, to retain their holdings, and to be seen as equal participants in the prosperity and future of new peoples and kingdoms.
But there were many still reeling from the crushing defeat of the Great War who saw these new kingdoms as an affront to everything for which the Empire stood. They maintained those lands outside the new Empire had, by their own declaration, asserted they had neither the desire nor will for further protection by the Order. Thus, they argued, the Order should expend none of the Empire's resources to protect those citizens who were no longer under its protection.
And yet a progressive counter-argument grew internally within the Order, spearheaded by an elven woman named Shula, an Archon of one of the provinces of the newly established human Kingdom of
Rolighav. She argued the Order's mandate had never conceived of a world not carefully orchestrated by the Empire. She believed the
spirit of the mandate was the need to protect the people, regardless of whether or not they were under the protection of the Empire.
The Schism of 5, 2A
The dissension grew, creating an impassioned divide between the two groups labeled "Imperialists" (or "Loyalists" depending on which side of the aisle one found themselves) and the new "Ja'kwilzyn" - or those following
spirit of the Emperor. It became so heated Grand Archon Kasym, still head of the Order to this day, stepped in. In a shocking decree that upended the stability of the Order for a short time, much to the surprise of both the Loyalists and the Ja'kwilzyn, he did
not declare the mindset heretical - a sentence which would have required followers to renounce it or face death. Instead, he declared the Ja'kwilzyn and followers of this way cut off from all Imperial support. They would be afforded no access to the Empire's extensive resources and would be required to find their own way. In response Archon Shula pledged the sect would always answer the Grand Archon, so long as the Order stayed true to the essence of its mandate.
Thus was born the sect of the Salijarna known as the Ja'kwilzyn.
Modern Ja'kwilzyn
Sixty years have passed since the Schism of 5, 2A. In that time, the burning embers that once fanned the flames of conflict have cooled to smoldering ashes. While at the most senior levels, some level of disdain still exists on both sides of the aisle, at the Temple level, most Superiors and their followers are primarily focused on the day to day work needing to be accomplished. As such they, and their followers, make almost no distinction between the two sects.
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