The Order of the Serene Maidens, once known as the Vestals, is an ancient order comprised of women who seek to learn knowledge regarding the Super-Ancients and their trials.
History[]
Early History[]
Established around 5,000 years ago, the organisation that would late become the Order of the Serene Maidens was formed exclusively out of women who desired to learn and obtain knowledge despite the oppressive opinions of men-led organisations. Originally called the Vestals, they expressed particular interest in learning all about the Super-Ancient Beings and their trials leading up to the Omega Event, and worshipped the Oracles of Siwa. Over the millennia, the Vestals were able to obtain much knowledge regarding the Super-Ancients' trials, such as the Great Games of the Hydra, and learned of the times and dates the Omega Event would occur in the future.
The Vestals rose to prominence during the era of the Roman Empire, using their astronomical knowledge to appear to the uneducated population as being mystical in their wisdom, which they encouraged, and promoted the idea that they were in charge of a sacred flame that would magically ensure the success of the Roman Empire and cause its collapse if it ever went out. Believing this, the people of Rome went to great lengths to them happy, severely punishing those who killed or defiled them, and considering it a great honour if someone's daughter was accepted into their ranks.
Despite being loathed by religious orders that saw women as being beneath men, their existence was largely tolerated by the Four Legendary Kingdoms who secretly ruled the world from the shadows. However, the Emperor Domitian hated the Vestals out of both ignorance and dislike for the educational advantages they had possessed over him. He would be remembered for executing more Vestals than any other Emperor of Rome, and at one point even attempted to force the order to reveal the location of the Orphean bell to him. Despite his torture of the head of the Vestal order and killing several of her sisters in front of her, Domitian was unable to get the information he sought from them, and so executed several more in anger.
During the fall of Rome to the Vandals in the fifth century, the Vestals put out their "sacred flame" and fled their temple; the extinguishing of the flame was believed to be the cause of Rome's sacking, enhancing the mythology behind the Vestal's supposed mystical abilities. However, the most prominent fact about the Vestals that most people would remember was that their members would all take a pledge of abstinence, thus they were also called the Vestal Virgins.
The order of the Vestals would continue on through the next several centuries, changing the location of its base and its name, which by the present day had become the Order of the Serene Maidens. At some point they would manage to acquire the 14 Siren bells that could induce a catatonic sleep, though the location of the Orphean bell that awoke people from this state still remained unknown to them.
Shortly after the Novodevichy Convent was established in order to serve as a place to force women to take the veil in the early 16th century, the Order of the Serene Maidens began basing themselves in the Moscow convent, where they also hid the Siren bells. As a measure to prevent their order from being completely wiped out and their knowledge with them, the Maidens took to designating two of their members to be based offsite from the Convent each night.
By the 20th century, the Maidens had been tasked with assisting in raising the young members of the Four Kingdoms, with Sister Beatrice taking to babysitting Hardin "Sphinx" Lancaster, though she found him to be exceptionally cruel despite his youth.
Meanwhile, the Order of the Serene Maidens began following the works of talented women who were studying subjects closely related to their own interests and tried to recruit them. Sister Lynda was sent to try recruit Mae Merriweather into their order, though Mae was in love with Jack West Sr and declined the Order's offer. Tracy Smith - a doctor specialising in people's ears, noses and throats - was convinced to join the Order, and did extensive work researching the properties of the Siren bells to see how they affected people. However, around 2015, she left the Maidens in disgust since she believed they weren't doing anything to help people who were suffering around the world.
Since the time of the Tartarus sunspot's rotation event, the Maidens became aware of the exploits of Jack West Jr and his team in overcoming the trials of the Super-Ancients, learned of his adoption of the latest Oracle of Siwa Lily, and later of Jack's disruption to the Four Kingdoms' rule over the world after the fourth Great Games of the Hydra, to which the Maidens were pleased to hear.
The Two Lost Mountains[]
After he had completed the Trial of the Cities, Sphinx announced his intention to claim the Siren bells, as they were crucial to his ruling plans, which he noted meant visiting the Maidens. While Cardinal Ricardo Mendoza spat that they were whores too clever for their own good, Sphinx remarked that he liked them since they were committed to their code and cause, and had been able to outwit the Church for thousands of years.
At midnight on December 23rd, the Novodevichy Convent was invaded by Sphinx and his force of bronzemen, and with the ancient automatons blocking all of the exits, the Order of the Serene Maidens were trapped. Forced to gather in a crypt beneath the Convent, many of the nuns sobbed and some were horrified not by the bronzemen, but by the cannibalistic Vandals Sphinx had brought along. When Sphinx himself arrived, with the captive Oracle Lily in tow, Sister Beatrice exchanged harsh words with her former charge, being unsurprised that he had made a move against the Four Kingdoms and recalling his distasteful nature as a child.
Unperturbed, Sphinx revealed he had come for the Siren bells, which Beatrice immediately claimed were not in the Convent. Knowing the truth, however, that they were located inside the crypt of Tsarevna Sophia Alekseyevna, Sphinx toyed with Beatrice by offering a wager in which he would give the Maidens a quick death if the bells were not in fact there, but would leave them to the Vandals if there were. After Jaeger Eins opened the crypt to reveal the 14 huge gold-and-silver bells, Beatrice called Sphinx a tyrant and not to toy with them further, and goaded him to proceed with his plans to rule the world. Sphinx, however, reminded her of his wager, and to prove he was no tyrant, decided to let the Maidens have a quick death while Beatrice alone was set upon by the Vandals, while his men executed the other Maidens with their guns.
Fortunately, due to being the Order's designated survivors for the night, Sisters Lynda and Agnes were spared from Sphinx's assault on the Order, and heard everything that had occurred in the Convent though an open radio link. Enduring the ring of a Siren bell Sphinx set off by donning protective headgear, the two remaining Maidens watched from afar as Sphinx's people set up a trap for Jack and his team by using Lily as bait.
As chaos erupted in Red Square and Jack and Alby Calvin were forced to begin fleeing with their sleep-struck teammates, Lynda and Agnes moved into action by following the former and picking him, Lily and Stretch up on their snowbikes when they became surrounded by the bronzemen. Once the car carriers transporting the automatons were destroyed by the Black Raven, Lynda and Agnes introduced themselves to Jack and the nature of their Order, admitting they were fans of his and Lily's. Lynda added that they could aid his team's mission with the intel the Maidens had gathered over the years, such as a way to awaken those rendered unconscious by the bells and the date of the Omega Event, and so were allowed to join Jack's team.
Later in Rome, Agnes would be killed by Garthon Rastor, leaving Lynda as the last member of the Maidens still alive, and she and the Order's former member Tracy, with her knowledge of the bells, would soon be tasked with aiding Jack's team in finding the Orphean bell to awaken the sleep-truck cities.
The One Impossible Labyrinth[]
As they were searching for the Orphean bell at Lake Albano, Iolanthe Compton-Jones explained to David "Nobody" Black the truth of the Vestal order when Domitian was brought up, and that he had met the last two surviving members of their modern order, Lynda and Tracy.
Members[]
- Sister Beatrice (High Priestess) †
- Sister Lynda Fadel
- Sister Agnes †
Former Members[]
- Dr Tracy Smith
Goals[]
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Trivia[]
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