The Order of the Emerald Claw
What arose as an order of militant knights within the city-state of Karrnath fell into disgrace and became a shattered remnant. The Order of the Emerald Claw now operates as a collection of cells of fanatical warriors, necromancers, and spies. On the surface, its members seem to be driven by Karrnathi patriotism, and they purport to be adherents of the Blood of Vol. The most cursory investigation reveals that claim to be a facade.
The truth behind the Emerald Claw today is that they serve a mysterious legacy member known as Lady Illmarrow, and in her name they carry out acts of destruction, murder, and necromantic terrorism. They have been linked to the theft of powerful items imbued with necromancy magic, and they often employ vicious undead minions that make even other Karrns and Seekers of Divinity Within uncomfortable. Most Seekers are quick to point out that they don’t accept the order’s claim to membership in their faith, and those true worshipers vehemently reject the Emerald Claw’s violent fanaticism.
History
During the Last War, Karrnath was forced to embrace the practice of necromancy to bolster the ranks of its army. At the same time, a number of chivalric orders were founded by devoted worshipers of the Blood of Vol. These groups included necromancers and bone knights that were trained to raise and command the undead troops used during the war. The Order of the Emerald Claw was one of the most infamous of these groups, renowned for its fighting skills but often sanctioned for its brutal treatment of enemy soldiers. The Emerald Claw were also accused of slaughtering civilians so they could be raised as skeletons or zombies — behavior that was strictly forbidden by the Karrnath commanders.
When King Kaius III came to power near the end of the war, he turned against the Blood of Vol. The orders were disbanded, and many members of the Emerald Claw were condemned as war criminals. While the other orders complied with the king’s edict, many knights of the Emerald Claw refused to surrender. The order fragmented as its original members scattered, but a number of those rebellious knights started their own cells, rallying all who wanted to see Karrnath achieve its rightful glory. The order experienced a surge in membership following the Treaty of Thronehold and the creation of the Republic of Dramm because many Karrns thought that Kaius III had betrayed their nation by embracing peace and joining the Republic.
The largest of these cells that remained together in hiding was lead by a skilled necromancer only ever known as the Lady Illmarrow, protecting her primary name feverishly. She was responsible for most, if not all, of the covert organizing the group did after their disbandment, and she secured her power rule over the group when she decided to migrate the order out of Karnath for their safety. Those that had fought alongside her followed her for her skill and devotion, legacy descendants of the group followed her because she fought to restore the respect and dark prestige the Order drew in it's prime, and these days, new recruits follow her as a radical-but-natural progression of many core tenets of the Sacrament of Blood, fighting for Illmarrow's promise of the abolition of the boundary between life and death. In the present, only the oldest or most devoted followers know anything detailed about her; what the average member of the order knows is that she is a gravely skilled necromancer, a messiah in the hunt for divinity, and a leader that is never afraid to get her hands dirty in the fight for what she believes in.
Parent Organization
Disdainful
The members of the Order still identify as Seekers of Divinity Within, but they resent the Blood of Vol's disagreement with their embrace and worship of death. The Blood of Vol and most Seekers openly denounce the Order and it's actions.
Diametric Opposition
Each group poses an active threat to both the belief system's of each religion respectively, and neither group hides the antagonism towards the other. The Church has more hold within Khorvaire and greater numbers, but the ever-growing Emerald Claw becomes a more pressing concern of theirs every passing moon.
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