The Endpoint of the Ouroboros | Events of the Ages

  The techno-cults within the Northern Kingdoms have always received a degree of freedom not permitted to other institutions. As far back in history as the lone Kingdom of Breta, the nation's governance turned a blind eye to the acquisition activities that many of the sects used to obtain the materials for their research, and were permitted to hold dual loyalties to their discipline and their regent, provided that they continued to offer the fruits of their study as tribute.
  However, this leniency inevitably had its limits, as was the case for the cultists of the Ouroboros Doctrine. The Ouroboros Doctrine was a radical philosophy that postulated the existance of a device capable of self-perpetuation - a concept that had earned obsessive devotion from a growing crowd of followers. Such was the level of fanaticism that their high priesthood and arch-fabricators drove them to, that their members unscrupulously pillaged their neighbouring sects and even went as far as to steal from nobility. Eventually, the clamour for something do be done about this rabble was too much for the Regent of Breta to hold off on, even with the pressing needs of his growing kingdom. The potential consequences of clamping down on the worse aspects of the techno-cults had previously been too great to risk, after all, the freedom of research within Breta had been responsible for a number of advancements that had put the nation at the technological forefront of the region. But in this case, the cults at large were more concerned by the growing interference of the Ouroborus Doctrine than any restrictions of consequence to them.
  Thus, a number of new edicts were issued which imposed limitations on the rights of confiscation afforded to technological sects, which had permitted them to seize materials from their owners provided that they were relevant to the claimant's expertise. Early on, these powers had rescued a number of valuable artefacts from their role as decorative art pieces or exotic paperweights in the homes of their unknowing owners, yet in recent times, the majority of these claims had become highly dubious and were often used to accrue wealth rather than retrieve precious relics at risk of damage or loss as had originally been intended. These edicts also provided a chain of escalation which would provide local guard forces with necessary support from the wider region in dealing with any problematic factions under their jurisdiction, ultimately terminating in the involvement of the Order of Knights (later rewritten to include any and all recognised knight orders when their structure later diversified).

  By this point, the clergy that had constituted the sum of the Ouroboros Doctrine was too far gone. Over time, their leadership had been purged and replaced, cast down by the crazed devotees they had stirred up in the first place, and branded unfaithful. With the last representatives of the older faith expunged, any semblance of legitimate study had been lost and, with nothing to left to unify them, the new blood that took their place fractured the cult into five warring subfactions. The Doctrine had never taken root in the larger cities, where other, elder disciplines still held strong, but even so, the longer this chaos continued, the more would be lost. Now with unassailable justification in place, the duty of quelling the storm was given to the sixth cohort of the Order of Knights.

  In time, the valiance of the sixth cohort on these days would be forgotten. Their tapestry of victories ruined by a single diplomatic stain, and swept from recorded memory for the sake of a new era of peace. However, in their time, every one of these battles was a legend of its own. The charge down the infinite corridor; the hundred-fold felling of the blood titan; the events of the emerald convergence. These stories and more would be told thousands of times in the space of mere months, as people flocked each evening to the taverns and halls, eager to hear these tales of brave and mighty heroes overcoming all odds against them.
 On each of the sites chosen by the five cult leaders, the knights did battle with the most fearsome and devoted marauders, many of whom had twisted the machines and tools they had devoted their time to studying into makeshift, unstable weapons. These foes did not fight with the selfish discipline of mercenaries, nor the feral cunning of the metal beasts, but solely with an unrestrained ferocity that belied the state of their minds. Worst of all were the new high priests, who had augmented themselves with the most potent of the stolen, occultic technologies. Driven by paranoia that their prizes might be taken again in turn, these devices had been bonded to them on a cellular level or hidden within their flesh, transforming themselves into colossal, human-machine hybrids that were universally considered blasphemous, even at one time by the Ouroboroi themselves.
  Against an uncountable mass and a myriad of lethality, the bands of warriors in gleaming plate remained resolute. Irrespective of the kind of madness directed their way on each occasion, every one was the match for tens of the horde that engulfed them and together they blazed paths towards the cult's poisonous hearts one after the other without rest, like a wildfire that would not be quenched until every path had been expended.