Overview
The Order of Thalion Zenith is a secret order founded by Thalion Zenith during the Fall of Malverand and later carried forward by Isandriel / Isaac. Its members usually call it the Order. The Forgotten Order is Jin's later written account of the hidden history. The organization itself remains the Order of Thalion Zenith.
The Order exists to end guardian rule, erase Malverand from history, and protect the future that Thalion and his allies need to reach. After the displaced Order members return to the present, it operates openly with revived members and allied nations against Raphael, Gabriel, Eliona, and Azarion.
Its destruction of Malverand is politically contested. Members defend the Order's secrecy and historical erasure as the cost of ending the guardians and preserving the future. Raphael's faction blames it for ruined cities, mass deaths, shapers, and the dark age after Malverand's fall.
Purpose
The Order's first mission is to free the world from those who seek to rule it and guard history. That mission becomes a long campaign to remove the remaining Malverand guardians, erase Malverand's history, hide the people responsible for the empire's fall, and preserve the timeline that leads back to the present. Eira bootstraps that loop when she travels to Varnhallow with The Legacy of Thalion Zenith, the book written by Thalena / Helena, and recruits Michael / Eltaru into the Order before Thalion founds it.
Under Isaac, the Order also becomes a preparation network. Isaac trains and positions mages in institutions, keeps parts of Valrindor away from Malverand control, and recruits people who can act over decades or centuries. Isaac gives Garrik the mission to gather an army, bring peace to Valrindor, and defeat Eremion.
Membership
The Order is oath-bound, secretive, and distributed. Recruits swear lifelong loyalty and secrecy, and some members accept permanent erasure from public history.
The early Order grows out of the elite divine patriarch circle around Varnhallow, Rimvold, Eltaru, and Thalion. Benedict handles missions and logistics. Sylvia enforces oaths and secrecy. Ignatius / Aelius is Thalion's closest military commander, and scouts such as Zero / Zayren, Rhyzmar, and Thea carry out field work.
Thalion is the founder and namesake. Before his time in the past ends, he gives Isandriel responsibility for keeping the Order alive and steering the world onto the right path. As Isaac, Isandriel leads from the shadows. After Isaac disappears, Garrik becomes the current leader by Isaac's instruction. Eira takes practical command of the weakened revived members because Garrik is needed on the front line.
Operations and Strategy
The Order works through hidden missions, record destruction, political placement, military coordination, and personal recruitment. In the past, Rimvold and Skarnheim become its base and political shelter. Its members and allies include leaders, operatives, and military partners from Kaldaryn, Haverloch, Morozkaya, Thalassai, Ulzathir, and Xalmyrra factions.
Isaac's long strategy places members in institutions needed for later action. Simon rises in Haverloch's Axial Concord, Lysander and Zhang take missions involving Varnhallow and the Malverand vault, and Garrik's peacekeeping campaigns across western and central Valrindor prepare the Order for open war against Raphael's faction and Zain-aligned Ulzathir forces.
When the Order moves into open action against Raphael's faction, Xarion proposes a common Valrindor council. After that, Raphael's faction, Rahmavir-aligned forces, Thiravos, and Theryssa target the Order for Malverand's fall, ruined cities, and mass deaths after the empire collapsed.
History
The Order's temporal loop begins when Eira reaches Varnhallow with Kaelion, Jin, and Thalena's copy of The Legacy of Thalion Zenith. Michael reads the book, understands that Thalion will arrive to free the world from Malverand, and accepts Eira's recruitment into the Order. Michael later creates Varnhallow to forge an army against the remaining guardians; when the temporal bubble breaks, Thalion and his companions enter the Fall of Malverand.
The Order begins once Thalion has enough knowledge of Malverand, Varnhallow, and the future he must preserve to gather a sworn inner circle. In Rimvold's Great Hall, he requires everyone who remains to swear loyalty to the Order and take on its mission. Aelius names the organization the Order of Thalion Zenith.
The early Order fights the remaining guardians and tears down Malverand's rule. Its members work from Rimvold, Skarnheim, Jazarel, Thundermarch, Qarezh, Maraveth, and the Plains of Eternity. Helena Hyperion joins as a young mage, swears secrecy, and receives the mission to erase Malverand from history. She later becomes Thalena, carries Thalion's name forward, and conceals the Order's true history.
After Thalion's departure from the main flow of history, Isandriel carries the Order forward. As Isaac, he destroys traces of Malverand, trains selected mages, withholds dangerous knowledge, and recruits selectively. His recruitment of Garrik and Astrid leads into Garrik's peacekeeping mission across Valrindor, and Garrik later brings Eira, Kaelion, and Jin into the organization.
When the members displaced from Thalion's war against Malverand return from temporal displacement and stasis, the revived members are weakened, and some of Thalion's original members are missing or presumed dead. Isaac is gone, Garrik is leading in the present, and Eira takes charge of the revived members during their recovery. The Order then moves into the open. Enemies use its past destruction and secrecy to rally opposition.
Members
- Thalion / Xarion: Founder, namesake, and original leader.
- Isandriel / Isaac: Former Malverand guardian, the Unmaker, and long-term hidden leader.
- Helena / Thalena: Early member who later takes the name Thalena and preserves Thalion's name and the Order's hidden history.
- Benedict: Organizer of missions, patriarch logistics, and Rimvold operations.
- Sylvia: Oath keeper, secrecy enforcer, and first queen of Skarnheim.
- Ignatius / Aelius: Thalion's close ally and second-in-command for military matters.
- Zero / Zayren: Aether mage, scout, and combatant.
- Garrik: Commander recruited by Isaac and named current leader after Isaac disappears.
- Astrid: Garrik's mentor and an Order recruit.
- Simon: Haverloch leader trained by Isaac and part of the Order's long strategy.
- Lysander and Zhang: Members active around Varnhallow and the vault in Isaac's long strategy.
- Eira: Recruit who carries Thalena's book into Varnhallow, recruits Michael, and later takes charge of the revived members.
- Michael / Eltaru: Recruited by Eira in Varnhallow, where his work brings Thalion's Order into being.
- Kaelion and Jin: Recruited by Garrik, stranded with Eira in Varnhallow, preserved in the Malverand vault, and restored with the revived Order after Eira wakes the stasis cases.
- Kren, Ivan, Maia, Vianna, Rhyzmar, and Thea: Order members from Thalion's founding missions against Malverand's guardians.