Orders of Death

Orders of Death

Purpose and Claim

The Orders of Death are a continent-spanning network of undertakers, wardens, plague-burners, and boundary priests who manage endings. They handle bodies, burial grounds, last rites, and the rules that keep death from becoming a second disaster. They claim one duty above all: a clean end protects the living. In practice, they often become the hands that enforce quarantine, cordon lines, and sanctioned burnings when fear is high and water is scarce.

Core Tenets

Endings must be respected. A body is a risk and a duty, not property.
Decay must be contained. Rot spreads disease, panic, and crime.
The dead must stay dead. Undead are treated as a failure of law and faith.
Mercy is allowed, but controlled. Mercy without limits becomes collapse.
Truth matters. Hiding deaths is treated as a direct threat to public safety.

Structure and Ranks

The Orders are not one unified church. They are many houses under shared doctrine, shaped by local law.

Grief Priests: administer last rites, manage mourning rules, certify deaths.
Undertakers: practical body handlers; transport, washing, wrapping, sealing.
Ash Wardens: burn-crew leaders; run pyres, ash pits, smoke control, evidence logs.
Boundary Wardens: maintain cemetery walls, ward-lines, and anti-undead measures.
Cordon Marshals: empowered to declare closures in plague seasons where crowns allow it.
Archivists of the Last Ledger: keep death tallies, burial maps, and quarantine records.

Authority depends on the kingdom. Some realms treat the Orders as state officers. Others tolerate them as a necessary power with limited reach.

Duties and Daily Operations

Body Control

Removal of corpses from streets, wells, cistern yards, and roads.
Sealing procedures for transport casks and carts to prevent rot leakage.
Identification, tallying, and disposition: burial, ash, or sealed pit.

Burial Grounds

Graveyard zoning, wall upkeep, and controlled entry.
Rules for family plots versus mass pits during famine and plague-wind seasons.
Grave robbery enforcement, often with crown guards or local militias.

Quarantine and Containment

Inspection of suspected infection sites with burn crews.
Declaration of “unclean zones” in partnership with border forts, reservoir guards, or city watches.
Disposal of contaminated goods when the risk is judged higher than the cost.

Undead Prevention

Consecrated boundaries at burial sites and old ruin approaches.
Mandatory destruction or sealing of bodies that show “wrong persistence” signs.
Tracking of illegal corpse trade, especially near contract courts and smuggler routes.

Rites and Practices

Last Rite: a short, repeated litany with strict handling rules; no improvisation is allowed.
Seal of Passing: wax, cord, or stitched cloth marks used to show a body was handled “by rule.”
Ash Return: burning followed by controlled ash storage or scattering in approved sites.
Boundary Walk: routine inspection of grave lines, walls, pits, and ward markers.
Death Tally: public or restricted records that decide quarantine escalation and burial expansion.

The Orders prefer clear procedures because panic grows when death looks uncontrolled.

Blessings and Recognized Signs

Blessings are real but narrow. The god of Death does not speak and does not appear. Power shows through consistent outcomes tied to strict tenets.
Commonly reported signs:

Rot slows long enough for safe handling.
The dying become calm and coherent for final words.
Disease spread weakens inside correctly maintained cordons.
Undead activity falters at properly kept boundaries.

These signs are never reliable enough to replace quarantine or patrol work, so the Orders treat miracles as support, not proof.

Law, Fear, and the “Clean Ending” Problem

The Orders of Death hold a dangerous kind of legitimacy: they can label a thing unclean. In scarcity, “unclean” can become a weapon. When leaders panic or seek control, the Orders can slide from containment into purge logic:

Entire streets marked as infected based on rumor.
Mass burnings used to erase evidence of state failure.
Death tallies altered to protect trade or punish rivals.

This is the main internal struggle of the Orders: clean endings versus political cruelty.

Relations with Other Powers

Crowns and Fort Commands: Crowns use Death authority to justify closures, executions for “endangerment,” and forced removals. Fort commanders value them because they reduce chaos.
Orders of Life: Life focuses on saving people; Death focuses on limiting harm. They cooperate in heal houses and plague camps, then clash over when mercy becomes a risk.
Orders of Fate: Fate courts depend on Death tallies for inheritance and debt closure. They also pressure Death houses to “certify” outcomes that benefit ledgers.
Water Authorities: Well-Wardens and reservoir guards treat Death houses as necessary partners when bodies appear near water access. They also blame them when closures cause riots.
Magic Control: Mage registries watch Death houses closely because corpse-handling is a common path for illegal necromancy. Death houses, in turn, support strict licensing and harsh punishment for “death-magic.”

Assets and Holdings

Cemetery compounds with walls, pits, ash sheds, and guarded gates.
Charnel houses and sealed storage for unclaimed bodies.
Burn yards with fuel stockpiles and smoke control rules.
Ledgers of deaths, burial maps, and quarantine records that kings and courts try to seize.

Because records decide blame, Death archives are frequent targets for theft or “official correction.”

Internal Divisions

Most Death houses fall somewhere between two hard positions:

The Mercy Doctrine: prioritize last rites, dignity, and narrow containment; resist mass punishment.
The Purity Doctrine: prioritize removal and burning; treat fear as proof; accept collateral loss as necessary.

Both sides claim they prevent collapse. In a harsh world, neither side can fully disprove the other.