Order of Saint Castor of Karden

Known locally as: "Orden vom Kastor von Karden" or "Orden vom Kastor"

Government
Theocratic military order. Ruled by the Grand master, who is elected by the clergy and may be vetoed by the Heliarch. Grand masters rules for life.

Religion
Omnicanism is the only legal religion.

History
The Order of Saint Castor of Karden, created in 1953 out of Germanic converts, was set up by the Heliarch Marcus Illuminatus. Its purpose was the reconquest and conversion of the Germanic pagans to the west, in the old province of Faendal. Its members came from Omnican Germanics, fleeing prosecution by their pagan brothers. The order also employed a massive number of mercenaries at first, to counteract it's few Germanic members, all financed by the emperor. By the start of the 2000s, most of the pagans were converted and no major military threat existed in the province. However there still exists a minority pagan population to this day. They are mostly located around the deep forest of Braunwald, which has proven to be difficult for the knights to navigate.

The building of the Ordensburg Kastorburg was completed in 1967 and still stands strongly on an island outside of the capital city of Ordensburg. Kastorburg is built on top of the old imperial city Prudentissimus. Construction of a second Ordensburg, the Wartburg, was begun shortly after the completion of Kastorburg. It proved to be a massively expensive project, which let to very high taxes during its construction.

In 2130

In 2155 on the Emperor's command, the order relocated to Wartburg. Faendal was to be feudalised and Freiburg would become a free city in the empire. The order kept the area around Bremsdorf, with the objective to weed out the last pagans in the area.

History of the Germanic barbarians in Faendal
The Germanic people had first settled in Faendal in the late 1700s, when the old empire faced barbaric invasion from every direction. Faendal was as prosperous imperial province for 100s of years until 1782, when Chief Eberhard "the Bear" landed his raiding fleet in Faendal. The imperial garrisons, whose job had been to only keep the population in order, were taken completely off guard by the sudden raiding barbarians.

The news soon reached the Heliarch that Faendal was being raided by barbarians of unknown origin. Even though the old empire was already busy with a barbarian invasion to the east, a smaller army was sent to contain, if not defeat the new barbarians. The operation was initially a success, as the barbarians were pushed back to the edge of the great swamp. The imperial army decided to crush the barbarians now, as they though the swamp would prevent the barbarians from retreating. In the resulting battle, the imperial army got cocky and perused the barbarians in to the swamp where the barbarians triggered their trap. Not a single imperial soldier left the swamp alive.

Now Eberhard was free to pillage and burn in Faendal at will and at the start of 1783, the capital city of Faendal, Prudentissimus, was burned to the ground. No imperial citizen would ever return to Prudentissimus.

Chief Eberhard would not stay for long, but in 1804 he returned, this time not only with his army, but his people as well. They settled in the now almost abandoned province and fought some smaller battles with the empire before a truce was negotiated.