⸻ The Order of the ⸻
grand audience
A Crystal-based linkshell exploring the politics, ambitions, and ceremony of a secretive, hermetic order, its inscrutable masters, and the endless house that keeps them.
⸻ First steps ⸻
You’ve heard the rumours of Oldcross House. Nesting in the Pillars of Ishgard, it hangs in a cloud of myth and superstition, like the one about the room filled with light or the labyrinth of winding corridors that stretch far beyond the foundation’s reach— that eat you if you lose your way. You’ve heard how its many doors can open at strange, impossible angles if one merely provides the right key, if one has learned how to move sideways. Or how certain rhythms and sounds become codified in its laws, become sacred or profane – some redacted, others censored, others required. Maybe you’ve even heard about the Vicar of Oldcross and his Council of Sophia – the collection of great, mystical minds that determine the aged society’s inscrutable direction?‘But have you seen them,’ the children ask with jack-o-lantern grins and eyes that shine like stars. They weave a fairy tale populated with strange, abhuman shapes — stooped, shambling between windows. They spin the thread back and forth, round and round and coughing all the while. A pair of young, romantic seminarians overhearing their tales, pick up that thread next and talk about bodies twisted by sin, by too much knowing, by knowledge it was never built to bear— but they’re just children, they say, and only children give stock to such fantasies, isn’t that so?Isn’t it?
⸻ An Overview ⸻
The Order at Oldcross is a mystical, occult society inspired by historical hermetic groups (such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn) with a healthy dash of House of Leaves, Remedy’s Control, and the SCP Foundation thrown in for style. It maintains the legitimate (if somewhat clannish and exclusive) cover of the Oldcross Theological Society, an ecclesiastical organisation in Ishgard with close ties to the defunct Holy See and the current orthodoxy, which meets at Oldcross House to (allegedly) discuss theological interpretations on canon religious law and the will of God, all while smokescreening their eclectic goals as a cutthroat, brutally-ambitious, magocratic society devoted, not to God, but the hoarding of occult knowledge and cosmological mysteries. As a hallmark of hermetic orders (contrasted against the more modern, secular organisations of aetherology that one might find in the likes of Sharlayan), it retains a deeply-ceremonial, ritualistic sense of pageantry and tradition.
⸻ In Practice ⸻
Don’t Sweat the Small StuffAlthough the Order is anchored in the lore of Hydaelyn, the writers behind its creation value creativity, artistic license, and flexibility. We still prefer to participate in stories rooted in the world of FFXIV, but given some of the subject matter explored by the very nature of the guild, occasionally our love of worldbuilding and headcanon might not sit well with more staunch fans.BATW BATW or 'boring and therefore wrong' refers to an approach to worldbuilding that favours nuance and creativity over recycling standard tropes (fantasy ones in this case). We really enjoy leaning into this.Atmosphere The individuals behind Oldcross tend towards horror over traditional fantasy, and as such atmosphere and tone tend to be quite important for us! As such, we are most interested in telling the stories of the 'little guys in a big machine,' with most of the senior leadership remaining as faceless NPC's that callously jerk them around. 'Power level' should be kept to mortal limits, for starters, but most importantly: informational ignorance.In Defense of Secrecy To the general public, the Order does not exist. The body of scholars headquartered at Oldcross House is certainly not an arcane or occult order, but instead a theological society that discusses canon religious law and the interpretation of god's will, nothing more. Postulants are extensively vetted before working through a series of harrowing trials for months just to join the organisation properly, and their secrecy is further enforced by their ruthless 'Doormen.' So, consider: "is it really worth telling Thomas about it and what purpose will it serve? Do the benefits outweigh the risks? Can I really trust them? And do I want to endager them?"Murder is Messy The 'Doormen' who ensure Oldcross' secrets remain kept are not all-powerful and all-knowing. However, a lot of its members often superstitiously believe they must be, and they make examples of the people they do catch to create this atmosphere. Surprisingly, murder tends to be a last resort, since murder is messy, which is to say sexy, which is to say that people get excited and start snooping when that happens. Their preferable method? Academically discrediting people as lunatics.
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The Council
The Council of Sophia acts as the governing body of the Order, holding biannual meetings within Oldcross House’s Chamber of Magi. This is a non-exhaustive list and the following characters are NPCs. The descriptions are abridged for visual style; you may read them in full here.
Solomon GOODHEART
Solomon Goodheart acts as the public face of the organisation and supplies his official, Ishgardian title – the Vicar of Oldcross – to add legitimacy to their actions. Socially, he conducts himself with a kind, genteel nature: always eager to put those around him at ease and in good spirits with soft-spoken sincerity, and always ready to carry himself with the dignity of Oldcross – or to license the many dark deeds necessary to protect it.
Hester HUXLEY
“I am what the magnanimous Monsieur Goodheart pretends not to be,” thus spoke Lady Huxley to her colleague, Ymbolet Pomeroy, when he asked her, quite sarcastically, who exactly she thought she was that set her above the rules. “That is to say, Monsieur Pomeroy, that I am a wizard– and a damn good one, and as a damn good one, I have learned what every wizard must eventually learn: you can be a good wizard, or a good person. Not both.”
Enguerran CALVET
It is a rare few who ever come face-to-face with God, and that is perhaps a courtesy— one that Enguerran Calvet wishes had been extended to him. Instead, when his curiosity pierced the veil too deeply, it irreparably shattered his mind and left it as the fragmented state it still lingers in today. Only his routine gives him solace: overseeing the Oraculum of Lesions, listening to the pulse and hum of the House. It isn’t a safe place for people, but in some strange, unexplainable way, he says it feels like home.
Lucius GENTLE
Quiet and soft-spoken, Monsieur Gentle’s most noteworthy characteristic is the brass lionshead that he always wears, leaving many to question what he’s hiding beneath it. Beyond this, he is considered one of the more helpful Sophists if one manages to catch him out in public, revealing for anyone interested, an encyclopedic knowledge of aetherological rituals in pre-Mhigo Gyr Abania and their contemporary applications.
Aurelius MAGNUS
Aurelius Magnus likens his tenure with the council to a child buying a new puppy: a Garlean with any magical ability at all is a charming, entertaining diversion, but like the child and the puppy, it’s one they’ll eventually tire of. He is a crotchety, dour perfectionist who finds magitek schematics more personable than most people, and whose origins as an aether-using Garlean remains a mystery to all.
Ymbolet POMEROY
As a knight of Ishgard, Ymbolet Pomeroy sets himself apart from most of his peers, both by nature and choice; he believes most of his peers are moral degenerates. The path that led him into the arms of the Order was the tired tale of the lawman willing to forsake his piety in order to more efficiently persecute wickedness, and one who never realised how he’d walked right into its jaws or how it’s been slowly digesting him for decades.
Ferula Waite
Age is a nebulous concept within the Council of Sophia. There are few who would expect the kindly (if occasionally crotchety), old Ferula Waite to be one of its youngest members, who still extends her life with their guarded longevity magic, but not her beauty as: "there is little room for being both a wizard and a young woman; no one bothers me now, and I can focus on my work." And no one would question the value of her work: a kind of kinetic magic, utilising bodily movement and dance, to bend, shape, and break reality all around her. She even has a dance studio and a number of promising protégés.
Falan FILAN
An Ul'dahn magnate, member of the Syndicate, and ceruleum baron, Falan Filan is, like Magnus, an unusual black sheep among the council, and as such has built a long-standing friendship with his peer. Compared to most of the other Sophists, he sees Monsieur Magnus and himself as the only 'down-to-earth' folks compared to the rest who've 'cracked their skulls on the top of the ivory tower.' According to the rumours, he used to work for Godwyn & Smythe before things went south and has been a large source of the order's knowledge on their rival.
The Fronts
As a secretive organisation, the Order operates under a handful of far more legitimate aliases, including charitable foundations, bureaus of authority, and fellowships.
the OLDCROSS THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
The theological society officially headquartered at Oldcross, it has a long-standing tradition of soft-support for the Holy See and the orthodoxy while establishing itself as both an enthusiastic and compliant body of religious thinkers and astrologians working to debate and further their understanding on the will of God. As a front, this enabled their ability to search for arcane mysteries and secrets under the guise of witchcraft investigations and theocratic authority. Considering the Order's interest and emphasis on Oldcross House, the (led by Vicar Goodheart himself) is often unofficially considered the primary face and headquarters for the order as a whole.
the PHILANTHROPIC SOCIETY
of STANDARDISED GRAMMER and RHETORIC
An Eorzean guild with chapter-houses in each of the major city-states on the continent, they visit countless libraries (public, private, and personal) and provide scribe services to copy and make corrections (grammar and academic) as required. The front provides an explanation for travel and an excuse to thumb through libraries for hours on end, many that no one else ever gets to see. If there is a book there that Oldcross would want, they report it and after a long enough time has elapsed, someone will go 'retrieve' it.
the BUREAU of CULTURAL OBSERVATION
and PRESERVATION
Although Oldcross House is in Ishgard, many of its influential members are either citizens or who have vested interests in the knowledge capital of Sharlayan. The Bureau has close ties with the Bibliothec as a propaganda machine to ensure that proprietary and national knowledge and rhetoric didn't reach places they didn't want it to. The people behind its conception were either members of the Order, or favours to them, with its real goal to monitor for people trying to spread information on their existence, or knowledge that they'd rather keep to themselves.
the GOODHEART FOUNDATION
A private, charitable foundation started by the Monsieur Goodheart, it raises money for and directly administers several boarding schools, orphanages, and academies to nurture underprivileged potential... while funnelling that potential into the Order, either through their research, or through recruitment.
the WORSHIPFUL COMPANY
of DWIMMER-REEVES
Regulated and subsidised by the Eorzean Alliance, Dwimmer-reeves are one of its outsourced solution to arcane problems. Although their most sensational and therefore public reputation tends to be as witch-hunters and magi-jailers, the bulk of their work is quite dull and bureaucratic: going door-to-door to extensively catalogue and licence objects of power and certain, proscribed texts; delivering subpoenas or fine collection notices; and maintaining the sprawling archives that house both of these.
the LA NOSCEAN ADMIRALTY ACADEMY
of ARCANIMA and NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
Commonly shortened to the Admiralty Academy of Arcanima or simply 'Triple A' by its students, the Academy is a Lominsan institution of higher learning with close ties to the Admiralty's Navy, Mealvaan's Gate, and the Nymian Restoration Society. The wealthiest or most talented of Vylbrand's arcanist hopefuls attend Triple A as a far more rigorous, prestigious, and thorough understanding of arcanima. Although not a direct front to Oldcross, it provides sizeable donations to it via the Goodheart Foundation, and often uses it to talent scout prospective members.
