Currently, there are two major Forge Orders: the Order of the Bright Forge and the Order of the First Forge. They are technically the same order, but operate very independently.

Originally, there was only the Order of the First Forge, but when the original creator of Excalibur and sole Forge Master, Forge Master Wayland, died, he bequeathed Crucible and the First Forge to one of his two squires, Wymon. The second squire, Mawt, though it chafed him, was forced to work under Wymon’s domineering design direction, and began constructing his own capital ship to work independently.

When Mawt’s capital ship, Invento, was completed, he left Crucible with the creative engineers who wanted to join him, creating a splinter group of the same knightly Order. Mawt’s founding of the Order of the Bright Forge caused trouble as resources became harder to get as confusion reigned for a few years while each group fought to gain a steady supply of resources.

Cultural Notes

Technically, both are the same order.
Strong rivalry between the two sub-orders.
Skilled / creative engineers at the First Forge are often recruited by the Order after they distinguish themselves.
The First Forge values productivity over creativity, while the Bright Forge is the opposite.

The Order of the First Forge

The Order of the Bright Forge
Motto	“The Fire Burns Within All of Us.”
Parent Faction	Starlit Court
Type	Knightly Order
Leader	Forge Master Syr Godfrey
Homeworld	Sihi
Capital Ship	Inventio

The Order of the First Forge
Motto	“A society is forged.”
Parent Faction	Starlit Court
Type	Knightly Order
Leader	Grandmaster Syr Reginald
Homeworld	Sihi
Capital Ship	Crucible

".... OUR BIT... By the will of the Threefold Courts of Starlight, in the guiding light of La Fae, undaunted and inspired, we shall achieve Enlightenment and reclaim the Grail."

Notable Knights and Squires

Grandmaster: Syr Reginald

Old Ironeyes

Elderly man, probably around 150 years old, clean cut and serious demeanor. He has a face like a hatchet and personality to match.
Wasn’t a particularly excellent mech pilot, but he has a gift for designing infrastructure and planning operations.
Became Forge Master relatively early in his career (~35yo) because it was clear he had the mind for it and the previous Forge Master was happy to let him step into the role.

Squire: Bastian

Warspark

28yo
Groomed by Reginald into the First Forge’s finest mech designer, and expected to be the one to prove the First Forge should be given the honor of maintaining Excalibur this cycle
Obsessive and tireless

Syr Alaric

Eye of the Storm, Thrice Bloodless, Guardian of the Wayward Star, Fae-Kept Commander of the Phoenix Lance

Originally the golden boy of the Order of the Bright Forge, piloting a mech called "Storm Djinn"
Distinguished himself in battle on numerous occasions into his 90s
Around 120 years old, the Stormdjinn was destroyed and Alaric was critically wounded. His squire was killed in this battle, her mech lost.
Both Alaric and his fae, Embry, waited for a new mech to be designed to his fae's specifications and accommodate his disability (neurological - motor functions damaged).
When the Grandmaster of the Order of the Forge, Syr Godfrey, was taking too long for his taste, Alaric pleaded with Godfrey to take the plans for his new interface to the First Forge. Grandmaster Reginald had promised to complete the system more quickly, and Alaric was desperate to get back in a mech. Godfrey agreed, and the First Forge was able to have his new mech, "Phoenix", quickly finished, but with some imperfections.
Discovered Nimue vas Hollan in an ancient escape pod from the homeworld and took her on as his squire
With Nimue’s help, Forge Master Reginald was able to complete a functional interface to accommodate his disability and Alaric was able to return to to active duty

Syr James

"Twilight Sentinel"

Distinguished himself in a recent engagement and was promoted to Knight-Captain
Was given command of a newly minted "Sentinel" Lance, composed entirely of newly promoted Knights

Syr Nimue vas Hollan

Dragonward

Nimue vas Hollan has designed and helped to produce her own Mech, the Starspear, which is an experimental suit which utilizes the power of the Bleed in conjunction with its Core, Fae, and technology.
Wynd is her Fae, an VI/AI copy of her mentor’s personality, lacking many of the original memories. In many ways, he is different than modern Fae through a separation of purpose/design. He has preferences, choices, and attitude, and prefers to act socially with all around, using the Fae-knight bond primarily for private communication.
Nimue was a prodigy of the old world, studying under Merl, a court technician under the high king, a respected advisor.
She advocated for revolutionary policies about revolutionizing the feudal peasantry with technology and upgrades, widening a conflict between the various layers of society when such measures were blocked by various courtesans.
In the fallout of society and after the assassination of Merl, she used revolutionary tech designed by Merl for the preservation of their research to survive the destruction of their society and planet. However, known to be a troublemaker, she was not revived from cryo and the escape pod was left closed for nearly a thousand years, until the life-support and power failed, and the pod opened and revived Nimue as a final feature.
Nimue was greeted by Sir Alaric, offended him, then awed him with a recording of the far past. In order to protect the new revelations, he took her as a squire.
Nimue is proficient/adept at using the Bleed, acting as a lens. The various disconnects with her fashion, actions, mannerisms, and abilities put her aside from many of her peers.
Nimue wishes to advance technological creations, help people, and broaden her research into creating and developing stable Bleed artifacts and tools.

The Order of the Bright Forge

They create specialist mechs that are the pinnacle of luxury, a lot of the designers for the Order of the Bright Forge are seem to be a little strange and put personal effects and names in each thing they make it being mech or not, when you have a mech from the Order of the Bright Forge you call that mech by who created it instead of what order it came from.

The Order of the Bright Forge are the Mech builders of the Starlit court that have shown great creative prowess, new members are scouted from the ranks of The Order of the First Forge, once brought over to the Order of the Bright Forge they are given small mech chassis and told to create whatever they want, if it's up to the Forge Master’s standards then they are fully accepted into the order.

This order holds creativity and passion in their work over all else, individualism is prized, this means to have a Order of the Bright Forge is to have a finely crafted handmade piece that may take years to build, once these special pieces are made the Forge Master goes threw a boot up system personally making sure everything works picking apart a mech if he feels its not right.

The Order of the Bright Forge mainly lives and creates on one big ship called Inventio, on this ship are docks multiple smaller ships that go out with freshly created mechs and these ships are called Embers, Each Ember will take the crafter who made the mech along with a small workshop to follow a freshly created mech on its first year of active duty, this means any defects not picked up are sorted on a spot by a qualified Bright Forge crafter.

The Order of the Bright Forge has a lot fewer mechs out in the field then the First Forge but that is weighed out by the Bright Forge mechs having more acclaimed titles, it is very rare to see a Bright Forge Mech without a long list of imposing titles unless it is relatively new, for a Bright Forge mech to be completely destroyed it seen as a great lose for the Bright Forge, while the creation of a new mech is in turn cause for great celebration

Of course not all the Bright Forge mechs are successes right away, many have minor defects that would normally be overlooked but because of the high standards the order keeps, they are disassembled and placed back together until the fault is found or its no longer there, some mechs this takes years to find the fault and no mech is more infamous then “The Unwoken”, once a mech is given the okay by the forge master then it is given a name.

“The Unwoken” is the biggest and most ambitious mech ever made by the order of the forge, its titanic size has been placed on par with some of the biggest mechs the first forge currently make, with a mech this size it always has something wrong with it and therefore not deemed worthy to be given a name, the current Forge Master Godfrey has personally taken over the task, alone and is on this third rebuild after finding multiple faults.

Notable Knights and Squires

Forge Master Syr Godfrey

Custodian of Brightest Light, Holder of Inventio, Forge Master of the Forge, Elder of the Unyielding force , The Homeward Beacon, Hermit of the Great Search, Lord of the Unending Dark, Champion of the Eighth Great Tournament

Older man that use to be a Grail Knight until he retired and went into the order of the Bright Forge
Gifted in almost everything he did much to the annoyance of those who have been in the order longer then he
One of his most famous tales in recent memory is sending Syr Reginald a letter in the middle of a class asking him to “Lick his ass”
Currently looking for a Squire

Heir to the Forge - Syr Typheinne

The Tranquil Mind, Stalwart of the Order, Survivor of the Great Odyssey, The Mystical Barrier of the Wayward Star

Middle age women who is emotionally void due to her over use over Metamagic
Chosen to be heir due to her love of crafting and impressing Godfrey
She has a Squire who specializes in anti technomagic mechs