The Order of the Eternal Torch

Order

This culture is formed around an organization dedicated to the teaching of Beshaba. They provide structure and resources to collectively enforce law and order in Kachmorah. Their bonds tend to be hierarchical.

After Surlamin usurped the throne, she utilized Beshaba's image, ideologies and rhetoric in order to help her win over the Malgian military. In addition, she agreed to give them more agency and autonomy in their operations. This tactic may ahve worked a little too well, as the military deeply embraced and adopted these "new" religious ideas, embedding them into their tactics, strategies and overall ideology. Even before Surlamin's rule, the Order of the Eternal Torch was the primary organization that enforced law and order within Kachmorah. They routinely rotate through soldiers who otherwise operate across and outside the empire. Soldiers are never stationed long enough to establish any kind of community development, and their historical training was guided by Vandria's tenants of faith that enabled the use force and corporal punishment to end conflicts as quickly as possible.

Treasure

Recently, the order has erected a new monument to honor Beshaba. It is located just outside the city walls, within the southern military facilities.

Love of Order

This faction is dedicated to upholding laws and respecting traditions. This manifests as maintaining a justice system, managing military hierarchies, and more recently, leading a religion that venerates Beshaba. They prioritize laws and systems in all matters and only tolerate change when it follows a predetermined course.

The Eternal Torch loves that order exalts and values what is sacred. They also believe that it resolves disputes before they happen.

They claims to hold law and order above above all else, however they have become radicalized by the idea of this and means to an end (the end being Beshaba's ideals of total control). More and more people have been commenting that the order is becoming increasingly absolute, totalitarian, and authoritarian in their operations. Since the order regularly rotates through soldiers, they are able to systematically indoctrinate the rest of the military. By holding their own units accountable, and to the same standards as civilians, their punishments ramp up the intensity and powerful imagery of Beshaba.

Relationships

The Eternal Torch admires the Overtel corporation for its ability to exert power and control on a global scale. However, the order consider themselves to be superior. They justify this claim through their faith and devotion to Beshaba. The order is convinced her ideology is the correct path for the future of Kachmorah, the Malgian Empire, and even the rest of Kai.

As more and more soldiers are radicalized, their enforcement of law and order has become more intense, violent, and rife with corporal punishment. Initially civilians didn’t consider the order any better or worse after Surlamin took power. This public opinion was informed partly by her transformation of the nation with investments in quality of life. However, recently there have been incidents that have some people questioning the power and tactics at play.

The Eternal Torch reluctantly tolerates the IDSME. A number of special laws protect students and provide staff and scholars special privileges. The institution has been a huge boon to the empire, and subsequently the rest of Kai. As such, the Eternal Torch struggles with what they consider a kind of hypocrisy that allows the school to operate and behave outside the laws that govern the rest of the city.

While the IDSME is a respected academic institution, the cocktail of energetic, often privileged youths from all over Kai learning and experimenting with a path of magic that is notorious for it’s expense and wastefulness is often a recipe for conflict. Rowdy students may party too hard in the soothing district. Ambitious researchers may conduct experiments that leave a literal magical mess to clean up. Some members of the Eternal Torch have begun to feel that they’ve become “all bark and no bite” in the face of the IDSME’s antics.