Order of Six: A Historical View

Order of Six - A historical view by Aneirin Menelaos Lorewarden of Vorin

Preface:

The Order of six is an enigmatic monastic order, founded in the City of Kuras sometime around 474 O.D. The Order began with six members but it is understood that this is not the origin of the Orders name. The Order was built on the precept called "medita" which can be defined as 'wisdom' or more prosaically 'study'. What follows is derived from a great deal of interaction between myself and the Great Library in Kuras and the high Lorewarden of Vorin. Conclusions made are my own but have been agreed to by those two entities.

It seems quite clear, were it not for the appearance of certain gloves we would to this day, be ignorant of this group's existence. Scant information exists about the order, there are tantalizing scraps of information that give us some small insight into this group, I hope to coalesce what information is available to shed some small amount of light on the Order of Six.

History:

As mentioned in the preface, the Order of Six is known to have been founded in the City of Kuras sometime around 474 O.D. roughly about the time that city reached one million inhabitants. The original six founding members are unknown, Documents recovered beneath Kuras clearly indicate that there were six founders, but they are never named. (1)

However in the absence of evidence one often finds much conjecture. For example, in the Archives of The Most Exalted Order of the Blade can be found the Writings of Sir Boral Grandor K.C.B. who penned no less than two scathing letters about the Order of Six. (2)

The first of his letters primarily accused the Order of being Anti-Empire and postulated that its head abbot was a Knight Patrician of The Most Excellent Order of the Kurathene Empire. It is true that Sir Hiram Farbinder K.P.KE disappeared around the estimated time of the Orders founding, but there is no evidence now, or recorded then, of his participation in its forming, nor is there any record of he being of a monastic inclination. The reasons for the accusation of being anti-empire it is believed to based upon a lack of taxes paid by the organization.

This is somewhat confusing as I have been informed that there is no record in the City' archived tax rolls of any property associated with the Order of Six, nor has anyone been able to find reference to a monastery or structure devoted to any such group.

The second letter was a particularly unhinged penning that accused the Order of Six of attempting to have him assassinated, presumably for writing the first letter. He claimed that his home was attacked by unarmed men whose fists glowed with the power of the elements, and that it was only the great bravery of himself and fellow members of The Most Exalted Order of the Blade that repelled them. One must ask themselves given what we understand of the hexads of the Order if this alleged assault wasn't performed by the First Hexad.

In 1825 OD with the fall of Joral Kuras at the hands of Nemeril and the rather severe and lasting damage to the City of Kuras, the order scattered. Certainly prior to the institution of martial law in that City. The current conventional wisdom is that the Order has spread across Negaria which to a certain degree is corroborated by the finding of gloves belonging to the order in places all over the southlands.

Again, in the absence of fact one often finds much conjecture. In the years after the Demise of Joral Kuras there have been ongoing rumors about the Order, first is a claim that the City has discovered the underground monastery of the Order below the Center of the city, finding there all manner of powerful artifacts of that order. We know there is some truth to this, there was a discovery of chambers below ground that are attributed to the Order of Six, however there is no record of anything more interesting than some obscure engraved stone objects and some few texts. None of which were given to any kind of power or even intrinsic value. Other rumors include the belief that upon splitting each Hexad of the Order went its own way and each has now set up in secret in other great cities of Negaria, numerous cities are mentioned of course, all of them large. One or more of the Seven cities always seems to be implied, however none of these claims are verifiable at this time.

<c Í>Structure:</c>

The structure of the Order of Six was built around six distinct hexads, three each to two triads. Based upon imagery and texts discovered in an underground facility believed to be the original halls of the Order, these two Triads were described as "Of within" and "Of Without" which we interpret to mean Internal and External respectively.

We do not know precisely the relationship of each to the other, based on the few texts that survived and were found in the chambers below Kuras, it is presumed that all within a triad are equal in stature to all others within that triad. It is further presumed that the Internal triad dealt with Order business exclusively concentrating entirely on medita, while the external triad dealt with matters beyond medita and perhaps even matters external to the Order itself.

Each Hexad specialized in combining a differing pair of elements, each pairing signifying the will and the type of connection to the life force of each Hexad. These pairings and their relationship in the two triads were central to their understanding of 'ki' pronounced "chee" which refers to an Order Monk' inner life energy.

Several items were recovered in the discovery of the subterranean halls in 1825 OD. Primarily was a runic diagram depicting a circle, circumscribed within a triangle, the circle was divided in five spaces. In each space was a rune, the runes did not follow any standard runic language and it was not until some time later that the Grand Library of Kuras was able to interpret them. Those hexads that combined any combination of the inner five elements were of the Internal Triad, those that included one of the external three energies were External Triad. (3)

Within the five spaces of the inner circle the following runes were inscribed in clockwise fashion from the top : Fire, Air, Water , Sound and Earth. In the three quadrants created by the triangle inscribed about the circle was an additional rune, clockwise from the top were; Arcanum, Space and consciousness.

By direct inspection of each of the six glove types and comparing the properties of those gloves to the recovered diagram we can see that the internal elements, Fire, Air, Water, Sound and Earth are represented on the gloves by Fire, Electricity, cold, Sonic and Acid respectively. While the three external energies, Arcanum, Space and consciousness are represented by Magic, Divine and Negative energies. With this information We can decipher the various hexads based on these gloves and the positions of their respective energies.

The First Hexad is External and combines Fire and Arcanum The Second Hexad is Internal and combines Water and Air. The Third Hexad is Internal and combines Fire and Sound. ** The Fourth Hexad is Internal and combines Air and Fire The Fifth Hexad is External and combines Earth and Consciousness The Sixth Hexad is External and combines Water and Space.

• • Examination of the third pair was not made but its properties were recounted to myself by a reliable witness, however evidence of the third hexad' properties should be considered anecdotal.

Conclusion:

There are a great many questions that remain unanswered about this secretive Order, first and foremost how the various elements represented on the diagram in our possession are incorporated into their beliefs. How did leadership of the order appear, was there a single leader or a council of leaders of each triad?, each hexad?

At present, because of the secrecy that the Order of Six has so efficiently cultivated, it is difficult to say if they still operate, certainly I have found no record of any members coming forth and there is no records of events I have found that might be attributed to them.

I see no reason to assume that the Order of Six is defunct, their long history of secrecy and disinterest in affairs outside their own may well continue. Intellectually it would be interesting to learn of their philosophy and history in greater detail, until such a time we shall have to live with a thin historical context, the rest being innuendo and rumor.

(1) Grand Library of Kuras Archives-Tome 1800 196-210 (2) The Most Exalted Order of the Blade Archives - "The Letters of Sir Boral Grandor K.C.B." 18-20 Ser Meren Trendt Archivist (3) Rubbings of a runed stone - Vorin Historical Archives