Sacred Order of the Chain
History
The Sacred Order of the Chain was a small group of European noblemen that came together to battle the dark forces that seek to invade our realm from the inner planes that border our world. The 'chain' is a reference to Gleipnir, that which binds Fenrirsulfr till Ragnarok, and also to the hereditary nature of the members of the group. The mantle of each member has been passed down father to son for generations even though the Order itself is relatively new.
The Von Grünes had been battling an undead corruption that seeped into grave yards from a cancerous intersection of ley lines that weakened the walls between our world and the Netherworld.
The Skaraborgs guarded a pathway into the Nine Worlds. At times they acted as emissaries from Midgard to Asgard to mediate any perceived slights the gods may feel compelled to answer. They also track down any nefarious or dangerous entities from the nine worlds such as Dark Elves or Trolls that traveled to Midgard to cause unrest.
The St.Martins pursued an evil that they themselves unleashed onto the world. Etienne St.Martin, was an inventor of toys and gizmos of unparalleled genius. He created a puzzle of such cunning logic that solving it created an equation of diabolical Non-Euclidian geometry and acted as a conduit to the King of Edom, Vulshoth. Now whenever the puzzle is solved Vulshoth is able to unleash one of his Spawn to wreak havoc and destruction on the world. The puzzle itself always seems to elude the grasp of the St.Martins when they arrive to quell the invasion.
The Hollingsworths were another family of inventors that had discovered many aspects of electricity but kept those discoveries to themselves. They used their discoveries to battle what would later be identified as a small lost colony of Elder Worm.
The Dragos' fought a curse of therianthropy of tremendous variety and virulence. The source was ultimately traced to a disciple of the King of Edom, Orogtha lurking near the City of Samarkand
As time wore on and Europe became more mobile, so did the sources of evil. The first members of the Order had some knowledge of each other before they met formally. The mystics Skaraborg and Dragos had crossed paths in Finland, the scientists Hollingsworth and St.Martin had attended several symposiums at the same time. The story of their origin begins with Voivod Dragos pursuing a particularly dangerous were-drake from his homeland in Moldavia to the mountains of Bavaria where he met Count Von Grüne. The were-drake was destroyed but not before it had been bitten by a vampire. The blood of such a rare and powerful therianthrope had a bizarre effect on the vampire, transforming it, and it was able to escape and fled to Copenhagen. There the vampire encountered a Dark Elf being pursued by Baron Skaraborg. The elf used it's magic to dominate and enhance the drake-vampire creature and used it to cause great mayhem which attracted the attention of 2 visiting scientists that had experience in dealing with such things. After the battle was won, Count Von Grüne invited all of them back to his home in Bavaria and, after sharing their stories and knowledge with each other, realized it was in all of their best interests to work together to finally end the evils which none of them individually had been able to accomplish. Together they pursued these goals for nearly 100 years. Passing on their power, knowledge and membership in the Order to their sons. During that time, the evils that had plagued the Dragos', the Hollingsworths and the Von Grünes were vanquished. But they continued to pursue and vanquish vile evil across Europe.
The Order, as such, existed until World War 1, when they failed to prevent the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand. A cabal of ghoul lords had orchestrated the political climate in Europe to erupt into a war that would feed them with millions of corpses. With the battle lines drawn, the mystics Skaraborg and Dragos fled with their families to the Estonian island Saaremaa and used their mystic powers to keep the warring forces at bay. The Von Grünes in Germany were cut off from everyone else and the Order was effectively disbanded. After the war, the Von Grünes as well as the St.Martins, continued to battle evil into the modern age till 1975 when the last St. Martin forsook his families mission, and recently when the last Count Von Grüne passed his mantle on to Simon Sixkiller. The last true member of the Order still alive, Robert Hollingsworth, has joined a new organization, Strike Team Zulu
The Founders
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Count Von Grüne |
Baron Skaraborg |
Marquis de St. Martin |
Sir Robert Hollingsworth |
Voivod Dragos |
Rebirth in the 21st Century
Recently the heir to the Hollingsworth and St. Martin legacies, Gretchen Hammersmith, journeyed to America to follow up a report that the St. Martin device had made an appearance there and ran into the Demon Hunter known as Simon Sixkiller. They quickly recognized the same inner fire within each other and worked together to stop a Vulshoth cult from building their own temple that would unleash a spawn of Vulshoth on a tasty world. Gretchen was at first very shy with Simon but then realized that like her, he was scarred, but on the inside rather than the outside. He is the only one she has revealed her face to since it's disfigurement. However Gretchen was still a little wary of Simon since he insisted on using magical artifacts in his hunting, something she would never trust. They parted ways as friends but called on each other several times for help when they needed it. Eventually, on a joint mission in Vibora Bay, Gretchen was introduced to an ally of Simons, the archer known as Quartermoon.
Quartermoon immediately recognized the designs of some of Gretchen's equipment as belonging to his compatriot, the super-scientist known as Heron. Quartermoon arranged for them to meet and shortly after their introduction, they were both astonished to discover their connections to each other. Heron of course was actually Robert Hollingsworth, her long lost Great-grand father who had survived well beyond his natural lifespan. Robert was overwhelmed by the idea. He had nearly forgotten about his previous family, so unpleasant had they been to him, that it had never occurred to him that he might have grand children, let alone great-grand children. He saw none of the malice or dull-wittedness of his children in Gretchen and immediately developed an attachment to her. Gretchen in turn felt an affinity for the old man who had unwittingly made it possible for her to fulfill her desire for revenge. She also remembered that this was the man whom her father had left his original battle suit with and asked after it. Robert told her what had become of it and how it had more or less become the property of his servant android, R.O.man. He also explained to her that it was built for a man and would not suit her at all, but he offered to build her an entirely new suit and weapons if she liked. In the mean time he supplied her with some support drones and suggested that Roman join her in her quest as he had become somewhat unnecessary to Robert. He also asked if she would like to join him as a member of Strike Team Zulu but she declined. She did not want to become distracted from her purpose.
Together she and Roman continued to hunt artifacts. Now that she had access to Robert and all of his technology and records she researched the organization that had brought her two families together, the Sacred Order of the Chain. She remembered once that Simon Sixkiller had told her he had encountered another hunter a few years ago who had died in his arms and passed on his legacy to him. She recognized the name of that hunter, Count von Grüne. An idea began to take hold of her. She realized that the legacy of the order was still being carried forward by individual inheritors of those legacies and that it might be time for them to come together again. She confronted Simon with this information and the proposition that the 3 of them, Simon, Gretchen and Roman, reform the Sacred Order of the Chain. Simon, feeling the weight of years and still suffering his internal torment, agreed to the proposition. Although he was still associated with Lord Xanadu, Simon felt that the forces Xanadu dealt with were far beyond him. The new order, which they commonly referred to simply as The Chain, set up operations in Vibora Bay, Florida though they also still used the Hollingsworth estate in Europe as well. As a group they do well together but occasionally, still finding themselves out gunned or out manned, they are joined by their new allies such as Heron, Sky Marshal, Lord Xanadu and recently the Druid Omicron who has also joined the team. The Sacred Order of the Chain lives on.
