Seropaeneans

[Sydonai]

Whats up with the Order of Seropaeneans?

They were founded by a priest of Vecna, they employ Assassins and Blackguards regularly, but Paladins work for them to.

Do they just ignore alignment restrictions or what?

[hamishspence]

It might be that they have a very generous definition of "association".

With the gods that founded the order, initially giving a "You must put up with each other for the greater goal" order to their followers.

Or- it's one order, divided into many sects- and the paladin ones and assassin/blackguard ones tend to operate separately, seeing the other sects as corrupt or naive.

May have a bit of the style of the 40K Inquisition- with its Puritans and Radicals.

[Sydonai]

From "Tome of Magic", their current leaders are a Cleric of Vecna, a corpse( not an undead, an actual corpse), and a Necromancer........Paladins work for these people.

edit: the Order was founded by four clerics, one for Vecna, WeeJas, St.Cuthbert, and Heironeous. But the Vecnan was in charge, for some reason the Vecnan is always always in charge.coughassassinscough

[mabriss lethe]

I think they decided to put the vecnan in charge because it was easier, and safer, to let him have the spotlight rather than have him manipulating things from behind the scenes.

[Kantolin]

It's because they're all working towards the same goal - stopping Pact Magic.

It was set up by a priest of Vecna, who called the other churches - peacefully - to try to solve Pact Magic as a threat to all of them. Only a few churches showed up to the meeting, Vecna explained pact magic and everyone agreed that they do want it stopped.

In this particular case, Vecna is actually being extremely up-front about the point of the organization - it really is an organization to stop pact magic. The idea is that this threat, if left unchecked, is so great that it threatens both good and evil.

It also does mention that the home churches themselves were horrified by this - specifically calling out Heironeous Paladins teaming up with Vecna Necromancers for any reason, and the order became publically banned but privately supported as Pact Magic is seen as that threatening.

It's actually a pretty neat sequence. ^_^ I mean... to us, it seems faulty logic-wise since Binders aren't intrinsically evil/world destroying, but binding certainly seems problematic, there are a lot of evil binders, and the idea of good and evil teaming up to solve something that threatens both is a common trope.

Plus, notably, the high priest of heironeous expressly was making sure everything was on the up and up when he was killed by, ironically enough, binders. :P See! They're evil! Burn them! BURN THEM!

[Sydonai]

I was under the impression that Heironeous' representative was led into an ambush when he learned the truth, that the Vecnan was using the organization to aid the "Votaries of Vecna". Also, the Order targets Truenamers( they have enough trouble), Warlocks( Discrimination!), and anyone they think is suspicious or that they don't like( They except bribes to). Its the worst parts of the Spanish inquisition and the Salem Witch-hunts rolled into one, how exactly do "good" people work for them without a conflict of interest? As an example; the Cuthbert representative is a fallen paladin turned blackguard, but because he is a part of The Order of Seropaeneans he thinks its alright, St.Cuthbert refuses to even talk to the psycho.

[Coidzor]

Yeah, I decided I was probably never going to use them as is. Might crib some of the more delightfully crazy people if I ever run a game in Thrane in Eberron though.