The Brother Battle

Overview

Throughout history, monastic battle orders have existed within organized religions: the Knights Templars, Hospitalers, Shaolin priests, Jannisaries, and others. In the Known Worlds, there are the Brother Battle, said to be the most elite combat corps in history. Fanatically dedicated to defending the Prophet's faith with might and force of arms, the Brothers of this exclusive order are respected - and feared - by most Known Worlders.

The order began early in the New Dark Ages, when the need for hard-line and able defenders of the faith was greatest. They personally defended the life of the patriarch from an assassination attempt on Holy Terra. In return for their service, the patriarch ordained the order, giving it special powers within and without the Church, conceded to by the noble houses, who were trying to cover up their role in the assassination attempt. Since then, the order has grown in skill and influence, building upon martial techniques created by previous Brothers. These techniques are kept secret. Those who have been ousted from the order are not allowed to teach them; if they are caught revealing them to others, the penalty is death.

Brothers adhere to strict discipline and suffers harsh penalties for breaking their vows. Oathbreakers must undertake dangerous penance quests which many do not survive. There is a strong support network from Brother to Brother, although most monks are often sent on individual missions across the Known Worlds, spreading their network thin.

The order does not work well with other units in the secular military chain of command, Brothers will not take orders from any but their superiors within the order, so they are rarely used as common soldiers, instead being employed as commandos and special tactics units.

Membership requirements are strict. Only youths under ten are accepted, although the order adopts many orphans. There have been very few exceptions to this rule throughout the order's history, although the handful of older individuals who have been accepted provides hope for many petitioners. New members are sent to the monastery on De Moley, there to spend the next ten or more years of their lives in rigorous training and spiritual contemplation. Local peasant mothers on De Moley often leave their newborn children on the monastery doorstep, hopeful that their offspring will be taken in and be given a better life and opportunity than a peasant's son or daughter would otherwise have.

However, the order does not accept every child left on its stoop. Many are left to survive or die outside the gates. Those who live longer than expected are often accepted.

The Brother Battle order wields much power, and many Orthodox patriarchs have felt threatened by their strength. Their piety and military might are needed by the emperor on the Symbiot and Barbarian fronts, and while they have rarely used the political power gained through this, the Orthodoxy anticipates the day when they must clash, fearing that the Brother Battle will win out. Thus, the order is under increased scrunity for heresy and other slip-up that could lead to their dissolution.

Despite the name, women may join, although it is rare.

The Earliest Brothers

Many people know that the Order actually predates its official founding, having originally dedicated itself to protecting pilgrims traveling to holy sites. This began as the Second Republic fell, and the Order dates its start to 4053 when Sir Malcolm Xavier Justinian and Lord Godfrey de Moley swore on their honor to keep the jump route open from AyIon to Yathrlb, the planet upon which the Prophet witnessed the Holy Flame. These two knights were expert pilots as well, and they spent weeks in space, battling pirates. Republican forces, aliens and unbelievers. Slowly other nobles and ship commander felt themselves drawn to this cause, and within a few years. Malcolm and Godfrey found themselves in command of a significant fleet.

They began assigning other warriors, pledged as their brothers, to other trouble spots. They began escorting pilgrims around the Known Worlds, bringing them safely from home to destination. These grateful worshippers spread the word of this protective Order, these knights who feared nothing. In 4061, the two established Brother BattIe as a brotherhood of monastic knights, all pledged to the Pancreator.

With the collapse of the Second Republic, the two found their services in constant demand. Word of their activates spread like wildfire, and more and more young nobles flocked to their banner. Sathraism made reappearance at this time, cropping up on innumerable different worlds. One of the systems most threatened was Mazdak (now De Moley) and from there this heresy spread like wildfire to the nearest planets. Malcolm and Godfrey rededicated the order to stopping this growing plague and marshaled their forces for battle.

Their earliest efforts received the blessing of Matriarch Khadija, who is said to have inspired the sword-in-the-jumpgate emblem, which became their symbol. AS A resuIt of her blessing and the group's reputation, hundreds of nobles and their entourages flocked to their banner. While the Sathraists boasted some of the best pilots in existence, the Brothers had the Pancreator on their side. They won few battles in space but proved unbeatable on the ground. Their theurgical rites appeared at this time, countering the Sathraists own psychic abilities. Most noted of Brother Battle theurgists was Count Jackson Fiate de Moley, Godfrey's own cousin.

Jackson had spent years on pilgrimage, traveling the Prophets own route between the stars. He had also spent a number of years on Holy Terra, studying with Church leaders in his ancestral homeland. He joined the Order shortly before the wars against theSathraists and proved his worth time and time again. After Malcolm was killed and Godfrey crippled during the infamous assault on Mazdak of 4073, Jackson became master of the Order. He regrouped his forces on Aylon and instituted a new hierarchy as well as more intense religious study.

The tide slowly turned against the Sathraists and their alien allies. While the Brothers would lose ships while attacking Mazdak, once their troops Ianded, they proved unbeatable. Some knights would lead their followers in attacks against Sathraist strongholds, while others formed crack legions capable of defeating any threat. The Order finally eliminated the Sathraist threat, but not before Sathraist terrorists shut down the jump route between Aylon and Yathrib, then the brothers' main source of income. As a result, Count Jackson claimed Mazdak for the Order, and in 4096 petitioned Patriarch Benedict III to recognize his group.

Thus began the periodic schisms between Brother Battle and the Patriarch. Initially Benedict wanted both ownership of Mazdak and a pledge of loyalty to him from all the Brothers. Count Jackson refused both of these, insisting that the Brothers would only swear loyalty to the Prophet and Pancreator. Rumors began to fly back and forth, with Jackson accusing the Patriarch of unseemly greed and the Church questioning Jackson's background.

Most troubling of its allegations, and one, which has lasted to the present day, is that while on Holy Terra Jackson had studied with the masters of certain heretical societies and still maintained ties to them. The Brothers scoffed at such assertions, though Jackson did admit to having visited a shrine to Mantius the Soldier at which he received a vision. Jackson said the vision commanded him to organize a force of warriors committed to battle in the name, of the Pancreator. He also claimed that the acolytes at the shrine gave him the 'Rule of battle.' a manuscript which became the basis for the Brother Battle command structure and training.

This feud lasted for more than 40 years, until Jackson's death in 4135. At this point, the Order sent a number of secret emissaries to Holy Terra, and their discussions with then-Patriarch Innocent IV proved fruitful. The Patriarch had risen to power over the protests of several noble houses, and these houses complained loudly about his interference in their affairs. They especially disliked his attempts to stop the growing practice of generational contracts, under which people would pledge themselves, their families and their descendants to a noble in exchange for protection and the right to work in the nobles lands.

Negotiations between the Brothers and the Patriarch continued as hostility between the nobles and the Church grew. Things reached a head in 4138, when several especially incensed nobles from Absolution and Daishan sneaked into the Grand Cathedral on Holy Terra. The secret Brother Battle representatives on the planet intercepted the assassin's moments before they could attack the Patriarch, and they killed all but one. The surviving assassin confessed the plot, and the Patriarch assigned him to the Order to make penance.

Following the aborted assassination, relations between the Church and the Order improved. The Patriarch felt he needed the Order to help ward off whatever other threats the nobles might make. In March of the following year he officially recognized Brother Battle as a Church Order charged with protecting the faithful and spreading the faith. The Order became free of all ecclesiastical authority short of the Patriarch, and he in turn made the Order's master, Kevin Robertson, fully responsible for its activities. Even when the feud with nobility ended, with the Church sanctifying generational contracts and most nobles recognizing the Church as the only religion allowed in their territories, the Order maintained its favorable position.

A few centuries later the Church even made Godfrey and Malcolm saints; though Jackson never received a similar honor. The Order changed Mazdak's name to de Moley on its own to honor its former leader. This was never an official change; the Brothers just started referring to it by that name and the new appellation stuck.

The Order Matures

Brother Battle has been one of the most successful religious orders, maintaining a place of prominence for more rhan 800 years. It has survived countless Church schisms and internal wars, kept its position when Patriarchs and anti-Patriarchs have excommunicated one another, and grown whenever it had the chance. Innumerable Brothers have come and gone, but the Order has endured.

Until the 4900s, the Brothers spent most of their time battling heretics, barbarians and rogue noble houses. They became most active around Stigmata and the planets around it as other jump routes closed. Thus they were in the front lines when the Symbiots appeared, and were among the first to take advantage of the theurgical research that came out of the wars. A number of Brothers died on Absolution and Daishan before humanity stabilized its position on Stigmata, but the Order came out of the wars stronger than it was before, and in control of much of the land on Stigmata.

The Emperor Wars, following as they did shortly after the Symbiot War, gave the Order even more power. All sides courted the Brothers, offering them land, money and weapons in exchange for their services. Additionally, Brother Battle offered one of the few avenues for protection available during those years. Pilgrims sought its aid for any travels, and the Church itself turned to it to collect tithes. By the end of the wars the Order had gained land throughout the Known Worlds and, despire setbacks on Stigmata and other places, found itself stronger than it had ever been before.

Brother Battle Information

Hostage Rescue

Stereotypes: holy warrior, élite commando, smiter of heathens,
kung-fu master, ex-gunfighter (trying to hang up his guns).

Brother Battle web site: http://www.geocities.com/samiloth/