Keepers of Olkum

Fox masks and burgundy robes. Hushed whispers, the dread of being watched. These are the tools that set the Keepers of Olkum apart from other holy orders of Suneka . They are priests, spies, and inquisitors, who hunt corruption, cults, sedition, and elite malpractice across the realms of Suneka. They are the weapons and cultists of the god-spirit Olkum and one of the largest and most feared orders of the Sunekan priesthood.
The Fox God Olkum, to whom the order is devoted, is the penultimate trickster. They stole fire from the underworld and tricked spiders into teaching mortals weaving, and create ghosts from their laughter or sorrow. While trickery is frowned upon in the Sunekan priesthood, the Keepers have special exemption to wield it as a weapon.
To many, the Keepers of Olkum are champions of the lower classes- they police those in power just as normal priests police the common people. But make no mistake, these are ruthless spies, assassins, and detectives that work tirelessly to uphold the order of Suneka. Just as they hunt those who abuse their power, they hunt those who would preach against the Sunekan way of life.
The majority of Keepers are orphans raised into the order, often from the same pool of candidates as the Lion Warriors of Hokzin. This keeps the agents impartial and free from the influence of local powerbrokers. That said, they do accept talented candidates from existing communities who are willing to break from their families legally.
The Keepers are theoretically a female-presenting profession, but their role as tricksters means that they are granted an unusual level of individual gender-fluidity and gender rules are not enforced within the order. Those who rise within the order are typically granted multiple genders legally, cementing this.
The Keepers hold immense power in Suneka, and their secret libraries catalogue blackmail and secrets from across the continent. The greatest threat to the Keepers are ironically their own power: corrupt Keepers or feuds between chapters can often lead to terrible bloodshed.

Structure

Ranks above Master are considered "Upper Order", while ranks below are considered "Lower Order".

Rank	Role	Symbol
All-Keeper	All-Keepers are the supreme authorities of the Keepers	Eye
Guide	The Guides are the All-Keepers' lieutenants and regional managers	Bell
Shadows	Shadows are Special Agents that work directly under the Guides.	Key
Specter	Analysts, accountants, librarians, and detectives, for all the less-violent high-level work	Chalice
All-Watcher	All-Watchers observe regional doctrinal shift, manage mystery cult, and perform internal audits	Lock
Master	Masters manage local regions and report directly to Guides. Highest rank of the lower Order	Diadem
Abbess	Abbesses manage chapters of the order, temples, and the promotion of initiates	Flame
Archivist	Archivists manage local libraries, gather knowledge for the order, and provide information for the Specters	Hookstaff
Watcher	Watchers watch over local cult, and are essentially small-time local versions of all-watchers	Candle
Agent	Agents are regional specialists in spycraft, intrigue, and magic.	Claw
Priest	Priests are the basic unit of the Keepers- jack-of-all-trade full members	Door
Acolyte	Acolytes are the backbone of the Order that do most of the basic grunt work and are not full members	String
Initiate	Initiates are low-level members undergoing active training	---

 Each upper order position is also represented by one of the planets of the solar system: All Keepers are associated with the North Star, Guides with the Red Star, Shadows with the Glimmering Star, Specters with the Far Star, and All-Watchers with the Heavy Star.

Public Agenda

• Police the Elites: The Keepers seek to end corruption among the upper echelons of Sunekan society, including hoarding of resources, illegal fostering of biological family lines, voter fraud, illegal coercion of communities, and acceptance of foreign norms
• Keep the Custom Pure: The Keepers watch over local cult and the local priesthood, making sure it doesn't deviate in dangerous ways
• Find and Destroy Dangerous Cults: The Keepers look for dangerous cult movements, such as foreign evangelism, dangerous heresies, or unregulated Lunar Pantheon Cult
• Rule the Shadows: The Keepers seek to watch over and control the underworld of the Suneka. They hunt down crime syndicates, foreign spies, and other shadowy threats to the Suneka

History

Fox Cult dedicated to Olkum dates back to the very early Sunekan movement of the Divine Era, but the Keepers as we know them began forming in the 100s ME in the region of Atupan. As the priests in charge of Moonstone regulation and forging, Olkum priests there began incredibly powerful following the discovery of a massive Moonstone deposit in 60 ME. As their influence grew, they linked up with other priesthoods of Olkum as a sort of merchant cult. Throughout Atupan's early history, the Keepers of Olkum were critical bodies of state power. The first Republic of Atupan that formed in 430 ME offered the Keepers control over commercial policy and used their influence to monitor mystery cult. In 480, when the republic was shaken by accusations of electoral fraud, it was the Keepers who stepped in and held the republic together.
In 550, Atupan was conquered and incorporated into the Great Ghost Empire of Suneka. But even as the republic died, the Keepers were co-opted as regulators and merchant coordinators by the new empire. The Keepers were internally divided between the priesthood of secrets (who managed policing) and the priesthood of metals (that managed finance) and introduced as an imperial institution across the heartlands. While the empire was largely de-clawed as a direct power by the exorcism of the emperor in 605, the institutions of the empire remained. Just as the empire slowly transformed into an international league of Sunekan states, the Keepers of Olkum slowly broke away from any direct authority.
For some time, there were hints of re-connecting the Keepers of Metals and the Keepers of Secrets, with a brief reconnection from 700 to 740. These dreams were suddenly erased by the rise of the Cult of Tetzin the Mountain God, whose mining guilds held a monopoly over the massive gold deposits discovered in Akatlan in the 800s. The Keepers of Metals remained independent for some time and even tried transitioning to more of a banking role before they were formally bought out by the Cult of Tetzin in 990. And so the Keepers of Secrets simply became the sole cult of Olkum.
From the 1000s onward, continual tests of the Suneka strengthened the role of the Keepers as an international organization: every time invaders of a foreign religion took Sunekan land, cult movements challenged state authority, or great states failed to provide for their priesthoods, the Keepers stepped in and strengthened their institution. While the leadership of the Order has been destroyed periodically by internal feuds, the raw power of Sunekan tradition has kept the structure intact. The great invasion from the foreign empire of Calazen in the 1800s was the final push that made their power absolute.

Founding Date

105 ME

Type

Religious, Holy Order

Alternative Names

The Order of Fox Priests

Demonym

Olkan

Parent Organization

Suneka

Location

Suneka (place)

Notable Members

• Imora
• Kipilu of Tezitkal

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