Verdant Order

Mr. Elmlin, Your request for asylum in the Commonwealth of C has been denied. According to testimony before the Commonwealth Parliament, until your recent foibles, you were a member in good standing the Verdant Order. Surely, as a person who is 'naturally intellectually superior' to us 'mere Humans,' you can find your own way out of your current predicament? Unless you're going to tell us how the guy who put the price on your head is politically connected, its a criminal matter internal to Petalcap Vale and outside our jurisdiction. Your material support for a certain other organization didn't do your claim any favors, either. Frankly, if you swim with turds, you shouldn't be surprised when they decide to flush you for being a lesser caliber of turd. Get yourself a bodyguard, move to a different Tesseract, and stop sending us telegrams.
— Tom Travis, Commonwealth of C Foreign Affairs Bureau

The Verdant Order is a Vale Verdial secret society with roots in both Forgist and Biocosmist philosophies.

Cosmological Views

Forgism and Biocosmism would normally be considered polar opposites - the former teaching that the world is an artificial creation and the latter teaching that the Manifold is a living creature of which all individuals are mere cells. The Verdant Order believes that the Creator engineered the Biocosm as a living being such that it can evolve and grow with proper guidance. The Order believes that Verdials, embodying the union of plants (growing from the Biocosm) and sentient animals (with the natural ingenuity of the Creator himself), were destined from the Curved Time to serve as the 'brain cells' of the world. As such, the Order teaches its members that they are to foster their leadership skills, acquire all open and secret knowledge, and prepare the way for the eventual apotheosis of the Verdials as the saviors of the Manifold. This self-aggrandizing philosophy is appealing to ambitious members of Petalcap Vale intelligentsia, business, and political classes.

Worship

While the Verdant Order is nominally a religious sect which believes in a fusion of two mainstream religions, their actual adherence to that faith beyond symbolism is limited. Because there are rarely more than 200 members of the Verdant Order at any given time, the organization is capable of gathering in large groups at their private ski lodge in one of the Caudal D vertex mountain ranges. When commencing or concluding gatherings at the Verdant Order lodge, the Order conducts secret occult rites to propitiate the Creator and celebrate their connection to the Biocosm. These rights would generally be considered shallow by Forgists and vain by Biocosmists if witnessed anywhere else. Members use Verdant Order gatherings to relax, network with other members of the elite classes, and reaffirm bonds within the group. Order gatherings are decadent, profligate affairs, including lavish meals, alcohol, drugs, music, and forms of adult entertainment best left to the imagination. As a result, gatherings also generate ample blackmail material to help prevent members who develop consciences from going rogue. Otherwise, the Order maintains a rigorous secrecy regarding what goes on in their gatherings.

Political Influence & Intrigue

Members of the Order use their high places in society as leverage to promote expansionism, research into Caudal lichen symbiosis, and various cultural causes which serve to highlight the virtues of Verdials over all other species. Verdant Order propaganda tends to promote an attitude of arrogant nationalism, though the Order is careful to avoid direct associations with itself when doing so. Order propaganda can be distinguished from mainstream patriotism (or even Petalcap Vale nationalism) because it has an expansionist bent and is derogatory towards non-Verdials rather than merely celebrating what makes Verdials special. Because there are members of the Verdant Order in the highest echelons of society, the various intrigues conducted by the Order are difficult to uncover and prosecute if they stray into criminality. At the same time, while the Order is arguably beyond the reach of the Petalcap Vale security forces, groups such as the Voxelian Bards-Recursant and the Black Sheep have no qualms with eliminating Verdant Order members to protect the rest of the Manifold from their creeping influence.