The Order of the Vine is a
mysterious, semi-mythical Order that few can claim to have ever
encountered. Its existence is a matter
of continued interest to us, for it is our most important asset with which to
counter the Order of the Hammer.
Adherents to the Order of the
Vine, known as Pagans, cannot afford to be as blatant as the Hammerites. Hammer propaganda has prejudiced most of the
populace against them, and where they emerge they quickly come into conflict
with the Order of the Hammer. As a
result, they live a secret, nomadic existence, most of them hiding in the great
forests that lie close to the City and have not yet given up all their
secrets. There, living in the
environment their god, the Woodsie Lord, demands, they exist in small villages,
farming crops and continuing their devotion to the Trickster.
Pagans who live in these forests
speak an ancient dialect, with many abandoned verb and vowel constructions that
have fallen out of common use, and thus render the Pagan language perplexing,
even incomprehensible to some. Their
alphabet is the same as that in common use, but writing is only used for
devotional or historical texts, and only the few who carry out transactions
with city-dwellers are able to write fluently.
Settlements used to be prolific
in the territories surrounding the City, but in recent years these have declined
to shadows of their former selves.
Urban and industrial development, combined with persecution by the
Hammerites and Mechanists have forced them into smaller and denser communities,
and it is not unusual for urban developers to discover abandoned villages and
homesteads, complete with Pagan temples.
The history of the Order is
fragmented, with no conclusive proof to confirm or deny the prevalent
theory. This theory holds that they are
the remains of a tribal civilization that worshipped the Trickster in order to
appease him, but were gradually relegated to obscurity as the Order of the
Hammer grew in power and began to persecute them for worshipping their deity of
nature and chaos. The age of their
language and lack of technological development provides the best evidence for
this theory.
The Order of the Vine is a polytheistic religion, with a Pantheon of deities subservient to the Woodsie Lord. The Woodsie Lord, known to the City as the Trickster, is the deity of nature and chaos, who controls his cohorts of greater and lesser gods. Deities such as Viktoria control nature, while lesser gods