Overview
The Eternal Order is a clandestine faction within Postremo Limine dedicated to preserving a person's continuing soul through death and rebirth. Its ultimate goal is to overcome soul corruption and create a miniature Soul Cycle within the plane for everyone.
The Order already operates a limited return system for its members. Ethereal Coins connect them to the Eternal Order’s Citadel, which is itself a Node, maintained by a Relic. A successful return preserves the same continuing soul, but the system does not prevent the corruption caused by repeated rebirth.
Their work demonstrates that a local cycle is possible. Making it reliable, overcoming corruption, and extending it beyond selected members remain unfinished tasks.
Purpose and Soul Corruption
The Eternal Order has discovered that there is a limit to how many times a soul can be reborn before it gradually becomes corrupted. This finding drives its research and its efforts to improve the system it has built.
Preservation means maintaining the person's continuing soul. Keeping records of a life or reproducing its memories alone would not fulfill that purpose.
The Order's current system can return a member to life, but it does not remove the underlying danger of corruption. Each returned soul must be examined before rebirth is allowed.
Knowledge Recovery and Research
The Order brings together scholars, mages, seekers, and field operatives in pursuit of knowledge about souls, rebirth, and preservation. It collects Grimoires and Mystic Tomes, along with artifacts whose powers may help its cause.
Recovery teams search for valuable texts and objects, while guarded outposts serve as temporary holding places before recovered material reaches the citadel for study and cataloging. Teams are led by individuals chosen for their talents and abilities.
Ordinary and enchanted books still require study. Enchanted volumes can be reproduced through a suitable skill or spell, while only Relic tomes can grant knowledge directly. Possessing a text does not itself supply the understanding needed to use it.
The Citadel Node
The Eternal Order’s Citadel is a Node maintained by a Relic. Its operation requires the leader to sit in a chair. When the leader leaves the chair, the Node stops working.
Another person can take over only after the previous occupant has died. The citadel's continued operation therefore depends on the seated leader, and leadership succession is bound to this condition.
The citadel serves as the Order's headquarters and the destination for successful Coin-assisted returns. It also holds the equipment used for rebirth and the Coins containing souls that have failed the corruption check.
Ethereal Coins and Membership
An Ethereal Coin must be carried on a member's person for the return system to function. When that member dies and the transfer succeeds, their Coin generates at the citadel with their continuing soul.
Only members can receive Ethereal Coins. The Order can make only a limited number, and it must decide whom it can trust with them. Membership alone does not remove those limits on distribution.
The Coin also serves as a sign of allegiance. Its emblem combines an arcane sigil with an ouroboros whose head is severed, representing the Order's defiance of fate and its determination to overcome the limits placed on continued existence.
Return, Inspection, and Rebirth
A successful transfer brings a soul back to the citadel through its Coin. Rebirth then requires examination and the use of a machine.
- The member dies while carrying an Ethereal Coin, with the citadel active. The system attempts to transfer their continuing soul; the Node in which they die can prevent the return.
- If the transfer succeeds, the Coin generates at the citadel.
- A member examines the Coin to assess the soul's corruption level.
- If the soul passes the check, the Coin is placed in a machine and the person is reborn back into their old body.
- If the soul fails the check, the Coin is placed in storage.
A person may temporarily lose some memories following rebirth. The process preserves their continuing soul, but a successful return does not prevent corruption from repeated rebirth.
Stored Souls
Souls that fail the corruption check remain stored in their Coins instead of proceeding to rebirth. Stored souls are not conscious.
The Order's storage preserves these souls while its broader work remains unfinished. A failed inspection does not establish a cure, a timetable for recovery, or a guaranteed future return to life.
Inactive Citadel and Failed Returns
Some Nodes can prevent a member's return even while the citadel is active. Carrying an Ethereal Coin therefore does not guarantee rebirth.
If a member dies while the citadel is inactive, the Coin's soul-transfer system does not activate. The inactive system cannot bring that newly dead member back to the citadel.
When the citadel is inactive, returned Coins float in the space outside the Nodes. This is separate from dying during an outage: a Coin already containing a returned soul and a member whose transfer never activated are in different circumstances.
Methods and Sacrifice
The Eternal Order will do what it considers necessary for the cause. Field operatives may be sent on missions from which they will not return, and their lives can be treated as expendable in the pursuit of preservation.
The Order seeks to limit damage to bystanders when able. That restraint does not remove its willingness to make sacrifices or place its mission above individual safety.
Its ambition is preservation for everyone, while its present protection remains restricted by membership, trust, Coin production, the leader's continued presence in the chair, and the condition of each returning soul.
Personnel and Operational Roles
Luna Noir, the Crimson Director, serves beneath the seated leader and oversees intelligence, strategy, and operations. A former outside goddess, she possesses knowledge far beyond that of most mortals. Her operational authority is distinct from the leader's role maintaining the citadel through the Relic's chair.
Nysa Moonpetal is a Papilio administrator who is also trained to examine souls for corruption. Her work supports the Order's internal coordination and the assessment of returned souls before rebirth.
Current Position
The Eternal Order has a functioning but incomplete local rebirth system. It can preserve and return members under the necessary conditions, but it has not solved soul corruption or made its protection universal.
The Order currently has no knowledge of Vestige Soul. Its research and operations are not based on an awareness of his abilities.