At all times heresy exists, and has been fought by the religion that it pertains to, but when the Cult of the Dreamer appeared and declared that they followed the only true god, Sogna, and that all the other gods were merely his slaves, it was deemed necessary to form a new way to fight them. That is why the priest Elihu wrote his book, “Our Cause”, and why so many of the different factions/religions united under one banner. The basis for he Order and how it functions is laid out in this text.
No one really knows just how big the Order really is, or if it is even one organization. Its methodology is so varied and diverse that it causes some people to question whether it is a single organization or simply the front for numerous different organizations.
The most common tactic used by the Order to deal with the Cult is the use of fiery orators or priests to sway the public opinion against the cult. After that, to further enrage the poor commoners, deranged “Dream Nectar addicts” will begin attacking women and children for their money to get their next fix. Anyone who voices an opinion that is in any way pro-Cultist often becomes Public Enemy Number 1, and often times gets lynched by an angry populace. Oftentimes they get word of the location of one Dreamer’s Temples, most of the time through the grapevine, and in the riots that ensue the entire neighborhood around the temple is often destroyed.
Another of their tactics is firebombing the temple. However this is usually only done when other means of dealing with it would take to long and the target is too large to pass up. If they do raid the temple it is usually a group of 10 or so in the middle of the night, and these soldiers will kill anyone present who is awake. They use urns of an alchemical substance that ignites when exposed to the moisture in the air. They usually also coat the entire collection of books with oil to ensure that they get burned up in the ensuing flames. The urns are broken as they leave the temple.
It is very rare that the Order is openly supported by the authorities, but the inaction of those in power is enough support for them. If a leader has the gall, or backbone, to oppose the Order there are ways to teach them a lesson. Excommunication, assassination, blackmail, torture, ect. have been used to teach leaders the lesson that they were so stubborn in not learning. The Order accepts that occasionally arrests have to be made, but it also has a silent understanding with those in power that their members are to get off with the least punishment possible.
Finally, in addition to their more overt actions they also have an expansive spy/informer network to help them hunt down and infiltrate as many cells of the Dreamer Cult as possible. And the compartmentalization of the Order lends itself to the ideal of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing. Not even the leaders know of more than a dozen other members, and most of the time they only know of their superiors through letters using assumed names. Isolation is complete and total, so that no one organization can use the Order to act as its own private spy network.
New Submissions
Even though the Gods struggle so, their achievements are temporary at best.
For all beings must dream, and within those dreams dwell the Dreamer.
Come then and succumb to the lord, come then and enter the realm of sleep.
Come then taste the nectar, made of the tears of the dreamer.
-The 5th verse in the Book of the Dreaming Cult