kaisoumods | Black Order Indepth-Info

THE BLACK ORDER

The Black Order is one of the more enigmatic factions among paranormal circles. Funded and supported in secret by numerous religious organizations, members of the Black Order believe strongly in protecting the numerous holy grounds found within the Spirit Realm. Agents of the Black Order, known as Guardians, are renowned for their combat prowess and abilities that far surpass normal abilities. While they have a long storied history of attempting to restrict access to the Spirit Realm in any capacity, in the modern era they usually keep their presence concealed unless you attempt to interfere with a gate that has been deemed as "sacred", or commit a paranormal crime that is seen as highly dangerous. Beyond that, little is known about them or what they do outside the purview of people. Essentially, in the lawless landscape that makes up the Paranormal side of the world, the Black Order serves as the closest thing they have to law enforcement.

In truth, the Guardians of the Black Order are folks who have awoken to their memories of their previous lives, a very rare occurrence before the start of the Kaisou incident. Until very recently, these folks are tracked down and recruited by the Black Order, and those who do not comply have their former memories forcibly sealed away. However, with the changing of leadership following the rebellion in August 2024, recruitment policies are more lenient.

Leadership

Originally, the Black Order was founded by seven people who had the power of immortality. These founders were collectively known as The Unyielding, and watched over the Black Order for centuries. While they had started with the best of intentions, the many years wore down on them, and they began to lose sight of their original cause - opting instead to rule the Black Order with an iron fist and finding justification for just about every heinous act along the way.

In the year of 2024, this finally reached a boiling point and a collection of Black Order Guardians decided to rebel against the Unyielding. This rebellion proved successful, and the Unyielding were overthrown. Now, seven new leaders have taken their place, collectively known as the Unbroken. However unlike the previous leaders, the Unbroken are not a permanent position. Rather, it's an elective position with a term limit of 10-15 years. With this, there's hope that the Unbroken will avoid the corruption that plagued the Unyielding and will better be able to evolve with the times.

Recruitment

With the changing of leadership following the rebellion in August 2024, recruitment policies are more lenient. While they will still track down folks who recently awakened to their past memories or powers, their approach is much less forceful. They will explain the awakening of past memories and abilities, as well as the existence of the Black Order. From there, they will make an offer to join the Order, and explain the various incentives like the pay and having an organizaton look after you. Should one decline, they will be assessed for the potential danger of leaving them on their own. People deemed low risk will be allowed to continue with their lives unimpeded, while those who are considered high risk will have their memories and powers forcibly sealed away.

All new recruits who decide to join The Black Order must sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in the event that they leave for any reason. This is to ensure that the organization's secrets aren't public knowledge, as well as their base of operations and other security risks. The NDA is being arbitrated by Zhongli, the God of Contracts, so please don't break it or else he might break you (not in a fun way).

Missions

Typically, teams of Black Order guardians are dispatched to locations known to have high levels of paranormal activity. While it's common for one Guardian to be designated the team leader, the actual group dynamics will vary from group to group due to the Black Order's tendency to recruit folks with strong personalities. Once a team is dispatched to a location, they will receive occasional mission orders from the Black Order headquarters, which usually entails handling various threats.

While not every Black Order team functions this way, the Kaisou team will typically discuss their options with missions before putting them to vote. Although the Unbroken encourages to go for a nonlethal option if possible, it's ultimately left up to the individual teams to decide, since it depends on the severity of the crime and the level of remorse from the criminal. However, these are subject to review if there appears to be an overabundance of brutal tactics. Also, more paperwork is attached to the lethal option, so you better make sure it's worth it!

Senior Guardians (aka those who have been with the Black Order a minimum of 5 years), will have access to the Black Order's trump card technique: the Sealing Spell. The Sealing spell is designed to permanently seal the powers and paranormal memories of the target. Its done through a ritual, so it's not a spell that can be thrown around easily. Unfortunately, the spell doesn't always work perfect, and runs the risk of giving the target brain damage, more or less. The use and authorization of Sealing magic will also be under scrutiny to ensure that it's not abused.

With the recent hemorrhage of Guardians following the rebellion, The Black Order is prioritizing high-level threats globally until they can make back their numbers to deal with progressively smaller threats. They simply don’t have the manpower available at the moment.

The Rebellion

In August 2024, a rebellion spearheaded by the Kaisou team was launched on The Black Order’s headquarters in Asgard. Two of the Unyielding, Arianrhod the Steel Maiden and Kratos the Seraph, challenged the residents of Kaisou and launched a surprise attack on the Fortress of Meropide respectively. After overcoming this challenge, they all took the time needed to figure out how to utilize Yggdrasil to travel to Asgard. The final hurdle in their way was the remaining Unyielding: Tsuchigomori the Timekeeper, Kirei Kotomine the Executor, and Jun Wu the Ghost General. Originally there had been seven Unyielding, but two of them had died before the rebellion in secret.

With Asgard taken, Jusis Albarea fulfilled his promise of allowing those who did not wish to remain in The Black Order any longer to go free or to imprison them in the Fortress of Meropide if that was their wish. He also swiftly worked to retain their funding by providing evidence of the Unyielding’s atrocities committed during their reign. New leaders were elected as well as new policies put into place to help prevent further corruption in their leadership due to the high stress placed upon them. They also decided to keep their headquarters within Asgard due to the barrier there with a deadly miasma created by the festering corpses of dead gods.

Zealots

During the Unyielding's reign, there were a group of Guardians with fanatical loyalty to the Black Order and the Unyielding. This group were known as the Zealots, and were some of the most ruthless of the Guardians. While most Guardians are willing to get their hands dirty in their missions, the Zealots reveled in it as a chance to serve the Order.

After the rebellion, there is an ongoing purge of Zealots from The Black Order, especially those still loyal to the Unyielding. Zealots are either be put to death or imprisoned within the Fortress of Meropide, depending on how dangerous they prove to be. Those Zealots willing to change or let go of the old Order will be allowed to live their life. The current Black Order encourages free thinking without holding fast to zealous ideals to their cause. They value prudence and empathy tempered by practicality more than blind loyalty.

The Fortress of Meropide

Once the Fortress of Meropide was located in the world of Teyvat and functioned as an underwater prison in Fontaine. However, several centuries ago it appeared on Earth and was discovered by the Black Order. They took the Fortress for themselves and for a long time, used it as a prison for folks they either couldn't seal, or was simply too dangerous to be allowed out.

Since the rebellion, the Fortress has fallen back in the hands of Duke Wriothesley, an adminstrator for the Teyvat counterpart. It is now more open to the public, with it being used as housing for Libra app users looking for a place to live. However it is still a prison, and thus it currently has an agreement to continue housing the most dangerous of the Order's charges in stasis containers. You can learn more about the Fortress here.

TRIVIA

🌙 All Black Order members are given a uniform that they are expected to wear while doing missions. That said, these uniforms can be customized to a certain extent to match the guardian's personal aesthetic.

🌙 Those who are active threats to society at large could have their powers fully sealed by some ancient magics. The effect of this spell is permanent and currently there's no known way to undo it. It occasionally has the side effect of sealing more than just the past life memories, sometimes giving people complete amnesia or sealing parts of their core personality. Basically, it's not pretty. This spell can also be used to seal the past life memories of a person who starts to remember them. While it can also be used on Guardians, it takes a lot for a Guardian to get sentenced to such a fate.

🌙 The main headquarters of the Black Order is actually hidden away within the Spirit Realm, in the long abandoned realm of Asgard. While the main gate to this realm is located in Europe, you may also reach it by using Yggdrasil who has a gate located in the bottom of the Fortress of Meropide Basically, it's hard as hell to try to infiltrate the Black Order. Not only that but they tend to be rather ruthless in their security. Lethal measures and severe curses are common place in Black Order security

🌙 For the Guardians, contact points for Orders and reports are often conducted through local churches and temples. There's no one set religion though that a Black Order contact point may work at.

🌙 Florida is a notorious hotspot for paranormal activity where there are constant problems that need attending to. To the Black Order guardians, it's generally seen as the assignment you only get when you're considered bottom of the barrel. The Kaisou assignment isn't considered very prestigious either, though it's a step above Florida.

🌙 There has been two major mission teams dispatched to Kaisou in recent years. The first one, in 2022, was the Kaisou Vanguard Team, who was dispatched to monitor and investigate the unusual Spirit Vein activity, and eliminate any potential threats. Once it was decided that the Libra app users were not an immediate threat, they dispatched a long term team at the start of 2023 with the mission purpose to work alongside the Libra app users as they continue to investigate the situation. The latter team got along with the local Libra App users TOO well, which set the dominos for the rebellion in motion.

🌙 Normally while on missions, Black Order Guardians carry enchanted relics that makes it harder for people to recall identifying details about them once they leave an area. However due to the nature of the current Kaisou assignment, the Guardians within Kaisou have been denied access to these relics.

🌙 The salary of Black Order members are lucrative ones, ranging from an annual salary of $60k-$100k depending on the type of work they do and seniority. They also get a standard benefits package including dental, but their surviving family members or dependents will be taken care of in the event that the Guardian dies in the line of duty. In addition, Guardians will be allowed free access to therapy if they so choose, as well as a free fishing license in any location they are dispatched.

🌙 We still have no idea where the hell Eizen is. He’s been lost in the corn to this day.

MEMBERS

Here is a list of the known members of the Black Order.

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