Elevated Knights of the Order of St. Orlas

Overview

The Elevated Knights of the Order of St. Orlas was an Oakland, CA fraternal order and secret society whose membership included, at its peak, the cream of Northern California society. Originally men only, membership was opened to women in 1885 after Persephone Sherman challenged High Commander Avram Hornbeam to a duel.

While always maintaining a respectable public front, in the order's later years the knights were known privately to engage in every sort of debauchery, physical, intellectual, and mystical, within the precincts of their private club St. Orlas Hall. Many consider their activities to have had a lasting negative effect on the Oakland Mystical Nexus.

The order was dissolved permanently in 1929 following the dueling death of High Virago Henrietta Sherman and the burning of St. Orlas Hall.

History

The order officially traces it's origins to the medieval Knights of Orlas, but most researchers believe this to be a fiction and consider the Order to have been started in Oakland shortly after the city's founding by the Scots.

Ranks

(Male/Female, in ascending order of rank)

The High Commander and High Virago were the two most senior members of the order at any one time.

Ranks were determined twice yearly on the Equinoxes. A complex formula involving a member's wealth, political influence, age, dueling record, gambling success, sexual conquests, magical undertakings, age, and bribery/threats of violence went into calculation of the results. Announcing the results was the occasion for the two major masques of the year, and quite often resulted in duels (especially i the case of a demotion)

Activities

Masques

Research

Gambling

Intoxicants

Animal Fighting

Main Article:St. Orlas Beast Pits

The extensive underground catacombs beneath St. Orlas Hall were home to the West Coast's most popular animal-fighting pits.

Magic, The Weirdness, and the OMN

Dueling

The Order's membership were, on the whole, mad for dueling, and many member were killed and maimed, often by their fellow knights.

Notable Members

Category: Mystical Oakland

[Fictopedia]