Order of the Fae

The Order of the Fae is one of the many various orders of the Starlit Court.

The Order of the Fae
“In our flesh, there is faith. In our faith, there is order. In our order, there is tech. And within all our tech, there is the Fae.” -Credo LaFey

The Order of the Fae is the most technically adept order within the Starlit Court, focusing on maintaining the fae within all of the order, as well as tending to the Lady and Maeve. When it comes to Fighting out in the field, they adhere to a more supportive role, serving as combat engineers both in and out of mechs.

Origin
Long in the distant past far before the High King was even born, a noble house of craftsmen with the greatest of technical abilities established itself on Old Elentar. Although their name was lost to time they are credited with being the chief designers behind the fae. The founder of the Order of the Fae was one of the High King’s loyal knights even before he came to power. Syr Lylie Mckay, the Digital Mind, continued the study of creating fae, and when their presence grew contentious, advocated fiercely in defense of the fae. His efforts are credited to the creation of the gestalt consciousness and the resulting emerging personality of the Lady.

Eventually, Syr Lylie McKay sacrificed himself in the fallout of outrage at the initial fate of the fae. The formation of the gestalt was initially seen as controversial, and Syr McKay died protecting the database from being destroyed. His words have been immortalized, “I must ensure that our King’s legacy of the fae survives; I must ensure that it does not fall through the fingers of traitors into destruction!”

Flourishing from the acknowledgement of McKay’s noble sacrifice, the Order grew exponentially; its technical prowess expanded, and the need for the order grew as well. At the induction of each new grandmaster, rumor has it that a secret message is passed on, created by Syr Lylie McKay. What is disclosed, none but the grandmaster knows.

With such a fervent display of devotion and loyalty, authority was granted to the order’s next grandmaster, ensuring that all maintenance of the Lady always fell to the Order of the Fae solely, as they would have the technical expertise to tend to her needs. The grandmaster is usually the only one allowed to perform direct maintenance on the Lady.

ON SIHI
The order manages the fae and the many servers that run the AI crystals that contain The Lady and the fae gestalt. They manage and process messages in and between orders and work closely with the First and Bright Forges on blueprints and ensuring that the mechs that the forges create can hold a fae and have the correct software to function. Within the order as a whole, there is a wide variety of specialists that take care of the fae, from mental care of the fae to implantation of the neural sheath.

OUT ON THE FLEET
On every larger ship, members of the order can be found onboard maintaining the AI that manages subsystems within the ship, acting as emissaries. They maintain the fae and fix any bugs with any fae integration with modern technology, as well as ensuring that communications with Sihi and other orders remain intact.

IN COMBAT
They lag behind in large-scale combat until they are called on to put their skills to work: hacking open doors, boosting fae processing in combat, and downloading important data. They also are the ones to take care of and retrieve the fae during and after any combat, as well as retrieving any brain scans from those knights at death’s door.

Specialization
Specializations within the order are ways for each member to express their specific talents and also advance themselves further into their desired specialization.

Fae Medica
This specialization is for those trained in both medical and biomechanical methods. They perform minor medical aid in battle if ever assigned to a combat role, which is rare as most are trained as neurosurgeons to implant the sheath that allows for communication between the fae and knight.

Fae Technica
This specialization is solely based on creating and maintaining the physical necessities of the fae, building and working closely with the Forge Orders to design and update fae crystal containers. They are called upon when installing supplementary technology into a mech or even into a dragon of the Order of the Mystic Dragons. These augmentations allow for Mechs to be piloted by singular fae and facilitate a stronger bond between rider and dragon.

Fae Synthetica
This specialization deals with designing and maintaining fae code to prevent corruption as well as defragging old and dangerous code. They are also frequently seen maintaining the code of the Cherryblossom court and the fae in the fleets and on Sihi.

Notable members
Syr Poe, the Raven Code, the current Grand Master, Syr Allan Poe In recent years, he has worked tirelessly to promote the safety of the Order of the Fae. He has implemented new software to help Maeve more easily discover and destroy any malicious code that might permeate any of the fae that return to the Lady. Along with that, he within recent years was the lead project developer for what is known as “The Cherryblossom Court,” a deep dive virtual reality that is used mainly during downtime between missions by fellow knights to relax. When it comes to his combat skills, many can certainly say that he has the quickest reaction time when it comes to hacking and knowing just where to be to save a fae from harm.

Lady Donovan, Champion of Site 14 She is one of the most adept hackers and tech-savvy members. Her technomancy abilities made her a champion within the order and she rose to the second in command through the use of her skillset. She ensured at the Battle of Site 14 that not only was the enemy decimated, but all their data was retrieved without a single drop of knightly blood falling.

Syr Flynn, Digital Scalpel He is one of the lead specialists in the order for implanting Fae into our fellow knights, not only within the Order of the Fae, but throughout the entire court. He is well-known for his preciseness; he can implement a sheath without any risk to the subject, virtually in any biological subject.

Flagship
Their flagship of the Order of the Fae is relatively small, but very technically advanced. The Tell-Tale Heart is a heavily armored battleship built to take hits rather than deal damage. This is due to the fact that the order tends to stick closer to other order ships, ones meant to deal out heavy damage. This is not to say the ship is helpless on its own; it has a wide array of heavy ion-based canons to knock out enemy ships. It is also equipped with flack canons that can handle taking out any fighters that get too close to it or its allies. This ship has been around since the founding of the order and has been continuously upgraded and modified so that it stays up to speed with growing technological advances.

Recruitment
Recruitment starts with the order examining the records and technical aptitude of all likely candidates from all over Sihi’s prestigious military academies and medical colleges. When aspiring prospects are chosen, an invitation is sent. The prospective candidate, upon acceptance of such an invitation, will be called to serve in a three-year stint as an apprentice, as further education is necessary. Technical and biological forms of education are strongly encouraged for those looking to find their true specialization. Once their education is complete, the prospect will be challenged with a final test that has two outcomes with one leading through a varied, branching path. The test is simple in scope, but it is a three-part trial. The aspiring squire is put to the test to ensure that the asperint is truly ready to join the order.

They will don a specialized headgear that will allow the aspirant to dive into three virtual memories that pose problems. The aspirant must find a way to solve each one.

The first problem is a test of the aspirant’s technical prowess; they are placed in a combat memory from a fae, willingly given for the order to test those eager to join. They must be able to maintain and find unique ways to maintain allied mechs using the tools on hand to ensure that each mech unit can hold out long enough for extraction. Their skills and duration of the trial will determine their success and score. If they do exceptionally well, they will have the possibility of being taken under the wing of a Fae Technica member.

The second is a test of their coding skills with that of another memory from a time that a Sihian ship was under assault by a malicious and rouge fae. The order had to, unfortunately, put the rogue down. The aspirant must use their coding skills to fight, disable, or even destroy the malicious fae before it causes any damage to major systems, escapes the network, or wreaks havoc. Depending on there skill in this test will determine if they may be able to join the fae synthetic. Those who badly fail this test are unfortunately often removed, as all members must have at least a decent skill, and if one gets overwhelmed and fails, then they may find themselves recommended to the duties of the men at arms in the cyber security sector, as all Order of the Fae knights are held to a extremely high standard for their coding skills.

The third and final part is one that will not only test the aspirant's morals, but also their medical skills. They will find themselves hunched over in a makeshift battlefield hospital with limited medical supplies and a desperate man clearly close to death. The aspirant must do their best to save the man's life or, if they can’t, give the man comfort in his final moments. This tests how willing the aspirant is to converse with the dying and extract the spirit of the soldier and his fae. Depending on how an aspirant does here, they will most likely be admitted to the Fae Medica.

These tests show an aspirant just what will be asked of them if they join the order. All the knights of the Order of the Fae hope that they will be ready to do their duty and ensure they are committed to the fact that, above all else, their duty is to the fae and to the order. That loyalty is ensured within their soul.

Upon completion of these tests, a special ceremony will be held in which the soon-to-be squire will be greeted by the knight that has chosen to train them or who was assigned based on data recommending the best pairing. Along with that, they will be greeted with their fae that will accompany them from that moment forward, helping in their education and assisting them in their duties. All squires and knights will not receive their honorific names until they have achieved something worthy of renown that has allowed them to earn a title. A group of their peers must agree that the honorific is rightfully earned and deserved.