The Order of the Ancients, also known as the Order of Ancients, the Snake, and derisively as the Order of Heretics, was a secretive religious cabal which operated throughout the ancient world. The Order of the Ancients was founded in 1334 BCE by the Egyptian pharaoh Smenkhkare, who not only strictly revered the Ancient Ones, but also upheld a strict supremacist view of them and sought to use the Pieces of Eden in order to politically and religiously shepherd humanity into recreating Isu societies on Earth as well as revive the Isu. Throughout their entire history, the Order of the Ancients held dominion over major empires in the known world. The reach of their members extended to military readers, religious elders, scholars, nobles, ealdorman and philosophers, political leaders as well as criminal masterminds. With the rise of Abrahamic religions and the decline of polythetic religions across Europe and Asia, the Order began to decline and were eventually mostly wiped out in 878 AD by King Alfred of Wessex, who used the Vikings' expansion into England to his advantage by manipulating them into unknowingly targeting influential members of the Order in Northern Europe. He then reformed the Order into the Knights Templar, otherwise known as the Templar Order. Foundation: Despite repeated persecutions, remnants of the Order still existed elsewhere in Europe such as Ireland and France but were eventually either eliminated or they disappeared. In 2020, given the similarities in theological beliefs, the Assassin Shaun Hastings theorized that the Order of the Ancients could have been a predecessor organization to the seemingly collapsed modern day secluded religious organization called the Instruments of the First Will. The Order of the Ancient's foundations heavily rely on their supremacist view of the Isu and their strong desire to shepherd humanity into recreating Isu societies on earth by leading humanity using the wisest and strongest members of society. Membership: By the time Egypt had been under the control of the Ptolemaic dynasty over one thousand years, the Order comprised of various men and women at the upper echelons of the ruling class; these individuals retained positions of power and, for the most part, were involved in political, religious, economic and military proceedings. Members of the Order of the Ancients symbolically wore identical masks, headdresses, and robes when they met in congress, a visual display of their loyalties. Each key member of the Order was responsible for their own sphere of influence within Egyptian society and they were scattered all over Egypt, due to the antiquated constraints of communication and transport. Within the Persian sect, members carried a necklace featuring the Faravahar, an emblem of the Achaemenid Empire, with a stylized wings design. During the 9th century, the Order in Anglo-Saxon England adopted a hierarchy system being led by a Grand Maegester with five Maegesters, while the remaining members were either of the Palatinus or Preost rank. Within this sect, members carried a silver medallion featuring an embossed Yggdrasil. Likewise, members of the Chinese sect of the Order known as the Golden Turtles carried a turtle badge as their symbol. Location: During the Greco-Persian Wars, the Order was primarily situated in Persia and had influenced the reigns of centuries of Achaemenid Emperors. Members of the Order believed their work to be divine and that few hundreds had to be sacrificed for tens of thousands to achieve long lasting peace and prosperity. The primary aim of the Order during the 1st century BCE was to bring back a strong dynastic power, equal to that of previous dynasties which had ruled during the glory days of Ancient Egypt, prior to the arrival of the Ptolemies. This was reinforced by the belief that the pre-existing system had been founded on order, on the divine power of the Pharaohs. In this perspective, the Order was looking for means of control, be they political, religious, military or cultural, to regain what had been lost. In addition, they also had people looking for the secrets of the past, such as the Pieces of Eden, and how to unlock said secrets' potential. By the 9th century, the Order of the Ancients gained a more stronger political standing in Northern Europe. During this time, they began to heavily invest in researching the Isu and occult lore, more strictly revering their trinity of deities as well as accumulating wealth, manpower, weapons and resources in order to further expand their influence. Unlike most of the people in the ancient world, the Order of the Ancients were trinitarian in their faith and were not fully polytheistic nor monotheistic. They did believe in a spiritual afterlife and their strict reverence of three deities, namely, the Father of Understanding, the Mother of Wisdom, and the Sacred Voice. The Order of the Ancients were also known for their strict supremacist view of the Isu and these views allows them to make a fetish out of searching for and using the Pieces of Eden. Their worship for their Trinity of Deities would be conducted in secluded temples which were not assessible or known of by the polytheistic and the monotheistic people of those times. For instance, during the 9th century in England, the abandoned Temples of Mithras located around the Roman ruins of England served as their base of operations, a place for them to conduct their worship and as repositories for their secret wisdom. One member of the Order, Fulke, believed that these beliefs were based on the Gnostic texts from before the Nicene Creed, and as such took a strict dislike to Abrahamic religions in general. The Order of the Ancients were also aware of Juno's imprisonment as well as the existence of Aita's Sages. The Order members were even well versed in how to identify Sages, even though their descendants, the Templar Order, were not. With the capture of Sigurd Styrbjornsson, the Order also became aware of other Isu Sages as well. Despite the Order of the Ancients' strict supremacist view of the Isu, the Order of the Ancients had a less than favorable view of Tainted Ones, humans who directly descended from the Isu. This was because they feared them and strongly believed that the Tainted Ones have the power to oppose them and burn down their centuries of work. However, they were not opposed to recruiting Tainted Ones into their organization, with one such member, Phila, even rising to the rank of Magus/Sorcerer in the Persian branch of the Order of Ancients due to her enhanced abilities and strategic brilliance.
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