Also Known As: The Six Holy Orders, Orders of the Dawn
Classification: Religious Institutions
Parent Organization: Church of Lathander
Founded: Age of Dawn
Headquarters: Throughout the United Kingdoms; each Order maintains houses within the Cathedral of First Light in Vienna.
Principal Knightly Orders: Order of the Silver Dragon (Extinct) and Order of the Silver Dawn

Overview

The Holy Orders are the principal vocational bodies of the Church of Lathander. Together they carry out the Church’s mission to strengthen civilization through worship, learning, justice, charity, exploration, and defense.

Although each Order possesses its own customs, traditions, heraldry, and internal hierarchy, they are not separate churches. All recognize the authority of the Dawnlord Pontifex, profess the same central doctrines, and serve the same divine purpose.

The Orders differ not in what they believe, but in how they answer the needs of the world. A village priest, a missionary crossing distant seas, a knight defending a mountain pass, a scholar preserving ancient manuscripts, and an investigator hunting a hidden cult all serve the Light through different callings.

History

The Holy Orders emerged gradually during the Age of Dawn as the Church expanded beyond its earliest congregations. What began as a single fellowship of priests grew into specialized communities dedicated to the many responsibilities required to sustain a growing civilization.

As kingdoms rose, roads stretched across continents, universities flourished, and distant lands came into contact with the Church, new vocations developed naturally. Rather than replacing one another, these Orders became complementary institutions whose combined efforts shaped much of the western world.

Each Order traces its origins to a particular region of the United Kingdoms. Those historical roots remain a source of pride, but today every Order maintains chapter houses, monasteries, and commanderies throughout the Church’s territories and missionary lands. This preserves the regional heritage found in earlier traditions while reflecting the Church’s centuries of growth beyond its birthplace. The older traditions that associated the Radiant Sun with England, the Silver Dawn with France, the Scarlet Dawn with Scotland, and the Golden Lance with Ireland remain part of each Order’s historical identity rather than limiting where they now serve.

The Six Holy Orders

Order of the Radiant Sun

Question: How do we shepherd the faithful?

The Radiant Sun forms the pastoral heart of the Church. Its clergy oversee parish churches, monasteries, cathedrals, schools, hospitals, and charitable houses. For most citizens, the Church is experienced through the daily ministry of the Radiant Sun.

Its members believe civilization is built through faithful service offered one soul at a time.

Historical knightly traditions include the Order of the Morning Star, Order of the Radiant Sun, and Order of the Shining Shield, whose responsibilities historically emphasized healing, sanctuary, and the protection of holy places.

Order of the Silver Dawn

Question: How do we carry the Light beyond our borders?

The Silver Dawn serves as the Church’s missionary, diplomatic, and exploratory Order. Its members learn foreign languages, study unfamiliar customs, establish frontier missions, negotiate treaties, and accompany expeditions into distant lands.

The Order believes understanding must precede instruction, and that lasting conversion is achieved through respect rather than conquest.

Its historical knightly branch, the Order of the Silver Dawn, became renowned for combating supernatural threats encountered on the frontier, particularly corrupted beasts, cults, and spiritual afflictions encountered during missionary work.

Order of the Scarlet Dawn

Question: How do we defend civilization?

The Scarlet Dawn serves as the Church’s principal military Order. Its members include holy knights, fortress commanders, military chaplains, monster hunters, and defenders of the realm.

They believe peace endures only when protected by disciplined strength.

Earlier traditions emphasized uncompromising zeal and purity. In modern teaching, that fierce conviction remains, but is directed toward defending civilization rather than dominating it. Their academies continue to cultivate martial excellence among paladins, fighters, clerics, rangers, and battle wizards, reflecting the culture seen in institutions such as the Dawnspire Scholarium.

Order of the Golden Lance

Question: How do we ensure justice serves the Light?

The Golden Lance exists to defend the innocent through justice, mediation, and honorable service. Its members advise rulers, protect pilgrims, investigate wrongdoing, and intervene where law has failed or compassion has been forgotten.

Their motto is often summarized:

Justice without mercy becomes tyranny. Mercy without justice becomes weakness.

The Order of the Golden Lance remains its best-known knightly fraternity, renowned for escorting pilgrims, mediating disputes, and protecting the vulnerable. The older traditions emphasizing compassion for the afflicted continue to shape the Order’s identity today.

Dawnbound Conclave

Question: How do we preserve truth?

The Dawnbound Conclave safeguards the intellectual life of the Church. It oversees universities, libraries, archives, theological schools, magical scholarship, and the preservation of sacred history.

Its scholars believe every genuine discovery ultimately glorifies the Creator.

The Conclave trains many of the Church’s wizards, artificers, historians, physicians, astronomers, architects, and theologians, making it one of the foremost centers of learning in western A’erth.

The Purifiers

Question: What do we do when darkness hides beneath civilization?

The Purifiers investigate threats that most clergy never encounter: undead, cursed relics, infernal pacts, occult conspiracies, corruption, possession, and forbidden magic.

Unlike the other Orders, the Purifiers rarely seek recognition. Their greatest successes often remain unknown because the dangers they confront never become public.

Among their best-known traditions are the Dawnbound Purifiers, ranger orders dedicated to rooting out corruption in haunted forests, ancient ruins, and places where older powers threaten civilization.

Knightly Orders

Each Holy Order encompasses numerous knightly, monastic, scholarly, and lay fraternities developed over centuries of service.

The Holy Order defines an institution’s mission.

The Knightly Order defines its particular tradition.

Some are military brotherhoods, others scholarly colleges, missionary societies, healing orders, or monastic communities. Membership reflects vocation rather than social class, allowing clergy, lay brothers, knights, physicians, artificers, and scholars to serve according to their gifts.

The Callings Within the Orders

Every Holy Order welcomes many forms of service. Although certain professions naturally gravitate toward particular Orders, no calling belongs exclusively to one institution.

Calling	Role Within the Church
Clerics	Priests, bishops, missionaries, healers, theologians
Paladins	Holy knights, champions, commanders, guardians
Fighters	Professional soldiers, instructors, castle wardens
Monks	Monastics, physicians, scribes, contemplatives
Wizards	Scholars, astronomers, magical researchers, historians
Artificers	Relic-smiths, architects, engineers, builders, instrument makers
Rangers	Frontier wardens, monster hunters, pilgrimage escorts
Bards	Diplomats, historians, liturgists, choir masters, missionaries
Rogues	Investigators, intelligence agents, relic recovery specialists
Sorcerers	Individuals born with extraordinary divine or arcane gifts who are mentored by the Church
Barbarians	Rare frontier champions and converts who dedicate their strength to defending civilization
Druids	Uncommon members who serve as bridges between the Church and the ancient traditions of the Old Ways
Warlocks	Covenant bearers whose pacts are judged by the nature of the patron rather than by the class itself

Magic and the Orders

Unlike many faiths, the Church of Lathander does not divide magic into “divine” and “arcane” camps.

Its theologians teach that all lawful magic ultimately draws upon the same created order of Anima. Divine magic is received through sacred relationship. Arcane magic is cultivated through disciplined study. Primal traditions reflect creation’s oldest covenants.

Power itself is neither holy nor corrupt.

Only its use determines whether it serves the Light.

For this reason, cathedral schools routinely educate clerics beside wizards, artificers beside physicians, and paladins beside scholars. Magical learning is regarded as a sacred responsibility rather than a rival to faith, a philosophy that naturally complements the Church’s broader understanding of Sustainers and Ravagers within the practice of magic.

The Black Sun Heresy

The Church recognizes only six Holy Orders.

The Order of the Corrupted Sun is not one of them.

The Church refers to this movement collectively as the Black Sun Heresy, while its adherents continue to claim the title Order of the Corrupted Sun, asserting that they alone preserve Lathander’s original revelation.

Their greatest error is not the rejection of the Light, but the belief that power itself is the highest expression of the Light. Where the Church teaches stewardship, they preach domination. Where the Church builds civilization, they exalt conquest and survival.

Among their surviving traditions are the Order of the Black Sun, an openly militant brotherhood, and the secretive Order of the Crimson Dawn, whose members specialize in infiltration, subversion, and the corruption of institutions from within. These names intentionally preserve the older traditions already known within the setting while recontextualizing them as branches of a condemned heresy rather than legitimate Holy Orders.

Legacy

For over two millennia, the Holy Orders have shaped nearly every aspect of life within the United Kingdoms. They have founded universities, built hospitals, established roads and monasteries, advised kings, defended borders, preserved learning, and carried the faith into distant lands.

Though disagreements over methods are common, the Orders remain united by a shared conviction: civilization is the greatest expression of the Light, and every faithful calling has a role in preserving it.

GM Information

The Holy Orders are designed to be complementary rather than competitive. Internal disagreements should arise from differing priorities, institutional culture, and personality rather than fundamental theology. This allows members of multiple Orders to adventure together naturally while preserving each Order’s distinct identity.

The Black Sun Heresy serves as the Church’s enduring theological and institutional foil. It mirrors the Church’s structure closely enough to tempt, infiltrate, and corrupt, making it a recurring antagonist throughout A’erth without diminishing the unity of the six legitimate Holy Orders.

Notes

A'Erth

Holy Orders of the Church of Lathander