The Order of the Lantern is Argentum’s body of guardians and investigators. It answers directly to the Synod of the Silver Flame. Its garrison, muster yard, armoury and holding cells stand in the Hearth Wall, while its command offices sit in the Lantern Wards.
Activities
The Order protects the city from creatures corrupted by the Sorrow, enforces the ban on arcane magic, patrols the Silver Vale and assists the farming communities there. Children who show arcane talent are taken by the Order for “purification”. The Order does not say what purification involves, and those taken are rarely seen again. Wellby Emberthumb understands it as the Synod of the Silver Flame’s means of excising arcane corruption where nothing else will prevent it.1
Organization
The Order is divided into three sub-orders, each largely independent and all answerable to the Synod of the Silver Flame.
Light Wardens
The bulk of the Order and its civilian face, overseen by Lantern Commander Thessa Morn. They patrol the Outerworks and the Silver Vale, dispose of lesser Sorrow-corrupted creatures and support the other sections.
Inquisition
The Inquisition is under High Inquisitor Westra Saelis. Apart from the Dragoons, it is the most dangerous martial arm of the Order.2 Its Censors investigate rogue mages, and its Purifiers hunt Sorrow-corrupted creatures and people. Both roles require the blessing of the Silver Flame. The Censors, who hunt down illegal magic users and bring them in, wear an emblem of a palm with the mote of fire of the Silver Flame inside it.2 Devyn Marsh put the division plainly: Light Wardens can handle the creatures, and a person who turns is what a Purifier is for.3
Dragoons of Bahamut
Part of the Order in name, though they operate on their own in most matters. They are elite and specially chosen, and receive the blessing of Bahamut in place of the Silver Flame’s.4
Regalia
Each member carries a blessed lantern that gives off a perpetual silver-white light, held as a symbol of the Order’s duty. Patrol lanterns are made of Sun-Glass and bear a translucent sigil. The light they cast is cold and silver-white, which is how the party picked three Wardens out of the dark in the forest north of Silverthorn.5
Reputation
Most citizens regard the Order with admiration, as the light that keeps the dark at bay, and the Order spends much of its time and resources helping the farming communities of the Vale. Those who practice arcane magic regard it with fear.
History
Session 1
Cassia Brightshield assigned Temerity to shadow Iva while the two handed out bells for the Bell Hunt at the Festival of Bells.6
Session 2
The Order took over the investigation into the Everfire Lamp explosion after the device that opened the passwall was found, by Luma’s account.7 High Inquisitor Westra Saelis interviewed the party at Stone Shields headquarters, and set Iva and Temerity to hunt Miles Quickstep through the maintenance tunnels.7
Session 4
The party delivered Miles Quickstep to the Order barracks, where Julia Valerius took him into custody.8 Cassia Brightshield commended Temerity and offered to put her in front of Rhea Larnas of the Dragoons of Bahamut.8
Session 6
Petra Ashford, Harwick Stoll and Devyn Marsh rode north past the party at a gallop on 27 Coldrise, 1714 PSF, a day after meeting them on the Old Road and far enough north that they must have changed horses in Argentum to do it.5 That night the three of them were in the forest north of Silverthorn, where they found a Sorrowsworn.5
Iva’s lantern, which she had kept after leaving the Order, was offered to the Sisters as the item blessed by the Silver Flame that their warding ritual called for, and Hecate told Hazel to hold on to it.5
Session 7
Petra Ashford, Harwick Stoll and Devyn Marsh fought the Sorrowsworn alongside the party and came out of it alive because of them. Ashford chose not to arrest the party for the magic they had used in front of her, on the grounds that she could not have made it stick while wounded and that the Sorrowsworn was the more important report. She filed it as strangers helping in the chaos.3 Stoll pushed for arrest and lost.3
Session 8
Iva delivered a forged Order letter to Margaret Fletcher in Silverthorn, disguised as a young Light Warden in Temerity’s tabard and carrying her own lantern, telling her that her husband had been found dead and purified.1 Wellby Emberthumb told Temerity that purification is a function of the church rather than the holy texts, and that he does not know what it involves.1
Session 9
At the barracks on 29 Coldrise, 1714 PSF, Temerity found that Cassia Brightshield, in charge of the Light Warden recruits, had given her bunk to a new recruit.9 The next morning the party passed the Order’s headquarters in the Lantern Wards, which Iva knew to be separate from the barracks.9
Session 11
Censors of the Inquisition guarded the basement of the Silver Archives when the party passed through on the Vigil of Remembrance, 1714 PSF. One of them stopped Rhysaene, her eyes flashed with silver light, and she let her pass.2 Luma pointed out to Iva that the Order lantern she still carries is now incredibly illegal for her to have.2
Session 13
A different Order sentinel was on the basement door of the Silver Archives when the party came up from the vaults late on the Vigil of Remembrance, 1714 PSF. The sentinel told them to head up quickly, and when Luma cited her work order, asked whether their work was completed and told them to get out.10
Session 14
Candidates for the Dragoons of Bahamut began training in the Order’s yard on 1 Nightdeep, 1714 PSF.4 That evening Dalric Ironmark told Luma and Hazel that his smartest move would be to go to the Order and have them taken out back, and said he did not want to.4
Session 15
Silas Wintermist told Iva on 2 Nightdeep, 1714 PSF, that the Syndicate had other contacts inside the Order.11 Harwick Stoll was trying to go around his chain of command to report the mages his squad had met up north, and his commanding officer, Petra Ashford, had so far kept him from filing it.11 Julia Valerius was investigating forged documents naming her brother, and the Order was taking seriously a mage’s escape from its custody.11
Session 16
Order patrols passed Rhysaene's apartment every so often on 3 Nightdeep, 1714 PSF.12 Amber Deepdraft told the party that no one knows what purification means. The Order may kill the mages it takes, at Candlehold. On rare occasions a small caravan leaves the barracks by the northwest gate, on the road that goes only there.12