The House of the Order of Skielde - "The Doocot"

Summary
The House of the Order of Skielde is a fortified tower situated in the Upper Clayton district of Clayton. It is home to the Order of Skielde (also known as 'The Order of the Skielde'). Due to its round shape and the grey robes of the Order members, the locals nickname the House 'The Doocot' (from Scots) - or 'dovecote' as it's known in English - a building to house pigeons. The insignia of the House is a white dove in flight on a pale blue field, enclosed within stone walls. Although the Order wasn't founded until the year 1968 a.s, the House had existed in some form or another for over four centuries.

First House
The earliest construction of the House was completed in 1538 a.s. Commissioned by the High Temple of Skyre, it was intended as a monastery for the Brothers of Sta Pia of the Doves to spread and enforce Zunosianism in the Skielde Forest - whose population was largely pagan and resistant to the Skyrian religion. Situated atop Clay Hill, it commanded (and still commands) excellent views of the surrounding countryside across the Skielde forest to the North and East, the Mire to the South and Shayfields to the West. At that time, Clayton was a small hill village with a fortress on the adjoining Castle Hill, which later grew and became Castle Clay.

The original construction consisted of a wooden square keep, a chapel in the central courtyard, various outhouses and stables, fortified by wooden palisade walls atop stone foundations surrounded by an earthen ditch. Fire destroyed the keep c. 1640 a.s, and the resident monks petitioned for relief funds from the High Temple in Skyre. They were able to raze the entire remnants of the First House and rebuild.

Second House
Built upon the same foundations, the second house was built of limestone blocks quarried in the Snakeshadow Hills some fifty miles to the North-East. It retained the original's square foot-print, and added several buildings, including lodging houses, additional chapels and a library. It was completed in 1655 a.s, and at the time was the largest keep in the Sephea region. It was large enough at this point to house over a thousand monks, two-thousand servants and "a great many beasts of burden". The deforestation of Skielde, a process that had been occurring for over a millennium at this point, began to become mechanised, and accelerated in earnest, with the modern region of Shayfields emerging as reclaimed arable land - the forest entirely chopped down. The trees were cleared as far as the Holy Mountain and the coast, and the Forests of Caywood and Breachwood, once a part of the Skielde Forest, became distinct forests, which they remain. But with logging, and then agriculture, came trade, and the settlement of Clayton grew explosively around the House, developing secular institutions and leadership, with the first Mayor of Clayton established in 1706, coinciding with the completion of Clayton Castle (known as Castle Clay), which had grown in place of the ancient pagan hillfort that preceded it. Other than in times of war, the town was prosperous, with forest-craft and logging bringing in a great deal of revenue for the House. The ancient hardwood of Skielde sold for high prices, and was exported across the continent.

This meant that the House had to vie for influence in the area with the Mayor, and though they coexisted peacefully, rivalry was inevitable. This rivalry showed itself in acts of building. The House secured the services of renowned architect Guillermo of Foelby to redesign the House as a "fortress of Zunos" and expand it into an architectural wonder. Thus began the building of the Third - and current - House.

Third House and Founding of the Order
In 1895, Under the guidance of Guillermo of Foelby, the House was dismantled. The stones were sold to the Mayor, who used them in the construction of the curtain wall surrounding the town. The foundations were dug up, and the whole area of the original house made level. A deep circular foundation was laid, and the new House was built, taking two years to complete. With an internal diameter of 55m, walls 14m high and six metres thick at the base, gradually sloping inwards as they rose, the nickname "Doocot" was coined within days of its completion. The walls were constructed using polished granite, and laid ingeniously to allow almost no join between them, rendering the sides smooth, and unclimbable. The three indented stone rings supporting the walls as they rose were intricately carved with frescos depicting Skyrian saints ("Stas"), victories of the Skyrian army and pagan beasts and monsters of the Zunosian imagination. The House was originally plastered and painted a deep red, but the colour wasn't popular, and when it faded, was not restored. A moat, 3m deep and 5m wide was dug around the base of the House, and a single narrow drawbridge allowed entry. Within the walls, a magnificent central chapel was erected, and the walls were lined with outhouses, prayer-chapels, an armoury, stables, a library, kitchens and bunkhouses. A jutting, fortified walkway around the top of the wall allowed for patrols and defence.

It was, by all accounts, a marvel of engineering, but was deeply unpopular with the residents of Clayton, who saw it as an imposition and statement of militarism, not least because of the deep red colour and closed off design. The previous house, despite being originally built as a keep, had open access to all for worship, trade and meet. The new house symbolised the Church's growing isolationism, exclusivity and introversion, and was emblematic of the growing gulf between Church and State. This came to a peak in 1968, when the High Temple of Skyre began founding warrior-monk Orders across the continent. Among the first of these Orders was to be founded in Clayton. The Brotherhood of Sta Pia of the Doves was disbanded, and in its place The Order of the Skielde was founded. Now a fully fledged military institution, the people of Clayton took their worship to city chapels, and the Mayor's office established a city guard, led by the Sheriff, and and ordered the construction of the Sheriff's Keep a kilometre or so from the Doocot - roughly half-way between the Doocot and Castle Clay.

The Housekeeper
The leader of the Order was named the Housekeeper, and it was his job to oversee the daily running of the House, and act as Bishop. Chosen from amongst the Ordermen, the Housekeeper tended to be among the most experienced and senior, and was elected for life, unless deemed physically unfit to continue.

House Hands
Below the Housekeeper are five senior Ordermen known as the House Hands. They each oversee a function of the house:

House Hand of the Rangers: In charge of organising the forest expeditions and keeping account of the ranger's whereabouts and activities.

House Hand of the Library: In charge of maintaining the library and copying texts to preserve them.

House Hand of the Armoury: In charge of the armoury and smith-works, and also House security.

House Hand of the Treasury: In charge of finances, but also of the kitchens and stables.

House Hand of the Chapel: In charge of worship and the religious functions of the House.

Ordermen
Every other member of the order holds the same rank, each assigned to various tasks, with roughly half sent out on regular forest expeditions, the others split between the remaining four House Hands. The number of Ordermen has varied greatly since the founding. At its peak, roughly fifty years after the founding, the Order boasted 300 Ordermen, but the number now (in the year 2214 a.s) is around 85. The trend towards secularism during the reign of Torremund made joining the Order an unpopular choice, and those that did join were a self-selecting group of hard-line religious zealots. And so, though the number of Ordermen is now small, every member is a fervent believer in the cause.

Purpose and Beliefs
The Order was commissioned by the High Temple of Skyre with the purpose of forcefully evangelising Zunosianism amongst the native pagan inhabitants of the Skielde Forest, and to defend Zunosians from attacks and banditry from the same. In reality, it was the pagans - tribes of the descendants of the Tambatalleni - who were most likely to be persecuted and victimised.

As the forest was driven back by commerce and settlement, the Tambatalleni were driven back by the Order, forced to abandon ancient ancestral grounds and relocate to new sites deep in the woods. The population of the pagans dwindled from ~90,000 to a mere ~12,000 at the height of the Order's power. This was through kidnapping, enforced conversion and integration, voluntary conversion, diaspora, murder, starvation and imported disease to which the pagans had no inherited immunity. As the Order diminished, the pagan tribes of the Skielde rallied somewhat, and the contemporary population is stable at around 20,000.

The Order follows the doctrine of the High Temple of Skyre, and answers to the Arch-Bishop. The Order was instrumental in opening the Clearwater Pass (known in Skyre as the Skyrian Pass) starting near modern-day Skielton in 1973 a.s, which established a safe and reliable passage from Sephea to Skyre by way of a series of tunnels and sheltered valleys through the Snaketooth Mountains. Until the construction of the pass, journeys to Skyre had to go via Pallema to the south, taking travellers through dangerous border country with Skabor - Sephea's perpetual antagonist. The journey-time was reduced from a month to around 12 days on horseback. This allowed for the Order to communicate relatively swiftly with their overlords in Skyre and gain the blessing and authority of the High Temple on a campaign-to-campaign basis.

The Order practices the Doctrines of Zunos - the Zunosian liturgy (worship practices), and as such do not favour a patron God, but worship all 12 equally. That said, the Order have chapels and shrines to patron Gods in the Skielde Forest, the chief of which being Sylvea, Goddess of Forests. Many of these shrines pre-exist Zunosianism in the region, as the Tambatalleni worship a similar God (Tallena) whom the High Temple decreed to be one and the same. This point of similarity, rather than uniting the factions, ultimately led to the greatest rift between the Order and the pagans - essentially the name change of a God led to accusations of heresy, and the religious justification for the persecution of the Tambatalleni.

As the Order diminished, the purpose, through necessity, became enforcing the boundaries of pagan land, and ranging the forest to keep them in check. The evangelistic nature of the Order became secondary, and by the current day, more or less defunct. Since the Fall of Skyre, the Order has been cut off from the source of its authority, and is largely viewed as a relic - at best distrusted by the people of Sephea, and at worst, outright condemned. Regardless, the Order maintains the House, continues to range in the forest - albeit in much smaller groups - and enjoys the tentative protection of the Citadel and the Arch Mage of Sephea. Thus, the Order and the Mayor of Clayton co-exist in a febrile peace.

The Order does not recognise the authority of the Citadel, nor the primacy of the Arch-Mage. Despite the Fall of Skyre, they maintain their subservience to the High Temple. This makes them difficult, fairweather allies of the Citadel. The Order have even engaged in open conflict with the Castil Knights (in 1986 a.s) when the Housekeeper was refused entry to the Citadel after he refused to do penance on the Piety Steps. This incident became known as 'The Battle of the Piety Steps'.

Although the Order is focused on the Skielde forest, they have free reign to pursue their missions elsewhere, and increasingly turn their attentions to the isolated communities of pagans in the Mire, southeast of Clayton.

Unlike the Citadel or the Castil Knights, the Order does not permit women or others to join - a hangover from its adherence to conservative Skyrian doctrine.

Weapons and Arms
When ranging, the Ordermen carry hunting bows and arrows, spears and sabres. They are highly trained horsemen, and their mounts are bred for sprint speed and agility over weight, size and stamina, and as such are small compared to regular army horses. This makes them better suited to swift movement in the Forest.

They wear padded gambesons beneath their pigeon-grey Order robes with white collar, stiff leather footwraps (without soles) and leather helmets. They prize speed, quietness and agility above all. In winter, they wear grey ankle-length cloaks trimmed with fleece.

At the House, they wear simple tunics beneath their Order robes and carry no arms unless manning the walls, where their hunting bows are replaced with short bows; their swords replaced with cudgels. Entry to chapel requires bare feet.

Their robes bear the Order's insignia on the left breast - that of a white dove on a blue field.

Notable Ordermen
- Fra Horace: the current Housekeeper of the Order of Skielde.

- Fra Tellareus: Ranger. De facto captain of his unit of three. He leads Fra Philbert and Fra Collen on patrol of the Southern Skielde.

- Fra Philbert: Ranger.

- Fra Collen: Ranger.

- Fra Patrick (Patch Felleman): serves under the Hand of the Armourer as a watchman. Helped out by Kal Farramund, but joined the order against his wishes.

- Jonus: The first Cleric of the Citadel.

- Aptaliostopher: The first Arch-Mage of the Citadel.

- Sanastra: The first of the Castil Knights.