I was listening to this while I wrote it, its a good song check it out! Matt Maltese - As the World Caves In [Official Audio]
The Order of the Nadir is a Western Luminant religious group that regulates contracts and vows. By securing legal protections for travelers and mercenaries, going as far to get political immunity for assassins. They have significantly improved mercenary working conditions across Lumen. Alongside creating the only know contractual guarantee.
They have recently pushed their operations to the Central Luminant, anticipating the imminent war they seek to assist as many as they can before the Song consumes them. Currently a small Sect of them is stationed in Scoria, they are preparing to combat against the spreading syndicate. Originally, they intended to maintain their neutrality, but seeing the mass migration of dislodged citizens made them decide to act.
He who came first - The Decree of Nadir
It was beautiful, a world built for us, built for me. I saw it through his eyes, through the loving eyes of our father who had left us so... so long ago.
A thousand-- no, a million, maybe more years before us, long before that even he sat all alone; it was all him. He gave us everything, an eternal debt that he may never come to collect. And for all he gave, he forgot just one thing: his name.
The Nameless King that gave life to our world, to the very gods that sculpted it. The breath that spoke life into all things, no matter how corrupt or pure, he spawned it all just the same.
And what have we given to him? Nothing, nothing at all.
If only you could see it through his eyes, the sight he granted me even just for a moment. If you could see all of him, all of what he gave, what he left behind, what he walked away from. It's beautiful... a world made just for us, one of hardship yes, but nothing he believes us incapable of meeting.
In this world we have only one thing to remember his presence by.. a small strand left behind a million years before we would ever walk Lumen. A power foreign to her, unknown to her people, and indifferent to her gods. He left behind the ultimate gift, a power uniquely his own, the song that breathes life into our very words, life into our souls. He left us something.
It is through his remnant that we overturn the barriers constricting our world: the power to bring our very words into reality, to wager our conviction against our very souls. It is he who gave this to us. An opportunity or a blessing, I'm not sure; I may never be.
Are we truly deserving of it? Our tarnished souls so valuable? To wager them against the World itself? I may never know. Here, we.. his people.. gave birth to the first Vow. Through a promise... a promise made only to him.
A power that allows us to shape Lumen itself, a power that doesn't originate from her bleeding life blood but of something else entirely.. A Remnant of the Nadir.. The watcher, the Crownless King, the one who saw it all.
What is his power, you ask?
The Vow.
The ability to make a promise to the world itself, to give our words weight beyond us understanding, to create a power that syphons your soul as fuel. The power of change.. change through a promise."
-The Faceless Cardinal
Secrets: The power they wield and their immense understanding of it. The Vow, a power foreign to this world, one that isn't strictly magical and cannot be understood through magical means.
Faction Leader: The Faceless Cardinal an elusive figure who operates without name or adornment.
Local Traditions: Maybe the first integral vow one makes, it's a call for celebration. It shows an acceptance and understanding of their gift.