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Their official name is the Order of the Immaculate Dragons, but they are commonly just called the Immaculate Order. It is a monastic order composed of both Exalted and mortal acolytes of various abilities. Both a tool for peace and a weapon of war, the Immaculate Order works to shape subject territories to liking of the leadership of the Realm.

Most of the Exalted monks are Dynasts seeking refuge from politics or who simply desire enlightenment. The mortals, on the other hand, rarely attain any position of true power in the Order and can come from any walk of life.

Hierarchy of the Order

The head of the Order bears the title the Mouth of Peace, which is derived from her traditional counsel against warfare. Her power is such that when she speaks against an official or military officer, even Exalted ones, they are disgraced. However, excepting high-ranking Exalts of the Order and the elders of House Iselsi, few ever see her. But there is a tendency that most Mouths of Peace have held to wander the Blessed Isle in disguise to get a feel for the spiritual state of the Realm. Her official residence is the vast and looming manse called the Palace Sublime.

Beneath the Mouth of Peace are the five Most Righteous Paragons, each representing one of the Five Immaculate Dragons. The Paragons are the members of the Order who have most rightly and faithfully emulated their chosen Immaculate Dragon. Beneath the Mouth and the Paragons is a confusing hierarchy of abbots, vartabeds and sybils, but few outside the Order can begin to understand it even begin to understand it, for it wanders almost as much as the Immaculate Texts, which are the Order’s scriptures.

Duties of the Order

The recovery of new Immaculate Texts and the teaching of the Immaculate Philosophy (see below) are the core of the Order's work in its own opinion. Since the Immaculate Texts are drawn from larger First Age documents, the Order has built up the largest library of knowledge about the First Age outside of Heaven. Due to this, the order has great influence over education on the Blessed Isle and serves as a body of advisors to the Realm on many areas of knowledge.

While the Order sees itself as an independend body, above the betty concerns of the Realm it looks suspiciously like a tool of the Realm to people in idependent parts of the Threshold. For example, the Order will often establish a mission in an area that the Realm has plans to conquer (by whatever means) or will attempt to convert the inhabitants of a region that the Realm has previously conquered. The two go hand in hand. Additionally, their operations rarely follow patterns that are aimed for finding new Immaculate Texts. Instead, after a new monastery has been established, the mortal monks will start teaching the local inhabitants about the Immcaulate Philosophy (see below) while the Exalted abbot and his allies will be challenging the local gods and spirits to martial-arts duels in order to force them to conform to the Order’s expectations of divine behavior.

Immaculate Philosophy

Beings ranging from small gods in Heaen to peasants in backwater areas of the Realm, easily numbering in multiple millions, adhere to the Immaculate Philosophy and accept the teachings of the Immaculate Order. Even though it is actually a secret tool of the Sidereal Exalts and is strongly joined to the ambitions of the Realm, the Philosophy has true appeal to people. It is quite compelling and many accept the Immaculate Dragons' teachings not because they were forced or tricked into doing so, but because they seem to match the observed reality of Creation.

The Immaculate Philosophy consists of a system of prayer and meditation that gives its devotees a sense of tranquility and the ability to accept their place in Creation. At its heart, however, are five core beliefs called The Noble Insights and five fundamental behaviors and duties which are called the Diligent Practices. Different monastic traditions within the Immaculate Order promote or downplay different Insights and Practices, but all the various schools within the Order accept these ten elements as the essentials of the Immaculate Philosophy.

The Noble Insights

1. All beings in Creation are constantly dying and being reincarnated, ascending and descending the Road of Enlightenment. Those who are Exalted are very close to the end of the Road, while insects and plants are near the beginning. Most sentient mortals are somewhere near the center.
2. As beings approach the end of the Road, they approach the infinate perfection of Essence that is the Elemental Dragons, who hold Creation together.
3. Working in solitude and striving to surpass their lot in life, all beings in Creation draw away from the perfection of the Elemental Dragons. Working together and accepting their present incarnations, all beings in Creation mimic the Elemental Dragons and approach their perfection.
4. The Dragon-Blooded, who were the disciples and children of the mortal incarnations of the Elemental Dragons, are leading the Immaculates toward that degree of perfection.
5. The Anathema, who reject the Elemental Dragons and obey only their own ambitions, are drawing Creation toward dispair and ruin.

The Immaculate Philosphy teaches attention to the community, obedience to the Realm's masters and concern for the well-being of all living things. While it acknowledges reincarnation, it places its emphisis on one's present incarnation. A focus on the hear and now is emphesised.

The Diligent Practices

The expectations placed upon an ordinary devotee are relatively few and are defined as a set of five obligations that mark a follower of the Philosophy as being particularly devout. They are guidelines, however, so the average layperson does not have to follow them strictly, but the monks of the Order are expected to perform the Diligent Practices all the time.

1. Hear a recital of an Immaculate Text at least once a month, in the company of at least seventeen other followers of the Philosophy.
2. Respect and honor spirits only according to the calendar and in the specific rites set down by the Immaculate Order, giving each spirit its due only insofar as it serves the harmony of Creation.
3. Imitate in word and deed the honorable behaviors of the five Immaculate Dragons, the mortal incarnations of the Dragons of the Elements. Emulate the thoughts appropriate to your incarnation as decreed by the Immaculate Dragons.
4. Obey the Dragon-Blooded, who are the descendants and disciples of the Immaculate Dragons and are so close to enlightenment that their commands cannot cause a soul to stray from the Road.
5. Resist the commands of the Anathema to the fullest degree of the abilities of your present incarnation, and do not fall into dispair.

The Diligent Practices tend to bring communities of disciples together strongly. Often, the offi cial rituals in the temple each day are followed by discourses led by a prominent abbot or teacher of the Order, who will lead a guided meditation on her favorite Immaculate Dragon. These discourses are often designed to promote a community project or civic duty, so that a new public bath or marketplace or orphanage will be built or provided for. The Immaculate Philosophy thus brings real and practical benefi ts to the communities it touches. That these communities are strongly opposed to the Solar Exalted only pleases the Order and its sponsors the more.

More coming!