Category:The Iron Book

History

According to their history, the name of this group comes from the acts of an early scholar, who sealed a Book of Hell by encasing it in molten iron. Given demonkind's weakness to the hardy metal, this one act is rumored to have prevented a demon lord's return to Ea's surface, though the lord's name has been lost to history. The success of the scholar's endeavor inspired the Book's creation. In reality, they drew together many separate groups, who had been working towards similar goals, and united them.

Composed of a mixture of the faithful, its original purpose was research, with an aim towards demon-eradication from Ea. As the organization developed, however, it found its true calling in the unearthing and destruction of occult organizations crafted by these beings. These cults are often an evil outsider's foothold to power on the Material Plane, and serve as an access point to souls, power, and the expansion of evil's warfare. Today, that is the group's primary focus.

Role

The Book serves many functions within the Temples. First, it provides a means to eradicate demonkind's mortal power bases. Secondly, it provides a place for nontraditional students: paladins who still hold to the faith's tenets but seek a different means of combat, inquisitors with a more specific demonic focus, and even arcane faithful.

Demonic cults are a messy business and so the Iron Book's membership is diverse in talents. Combating demonic cults is both a creative and physically dangerous process. Members may be involved in research and infiltration, as well as physical eradication or exorcisms. Paladins who follow this organization are typically students of the Ruse of War, and all members are encouraged to study planar interactions. Inquisitors and monks are not infrequent, and wizard members are often scholars of abjuration and wards. Arcanists who serve are asked to be members of the faithful.

The Book delves into dangerous areas and power is seductive; what else led to the fall of Taara's Shadow Children? Actual practice of the arts they study then, is anathema. Without this missive, most temples would not allow them to operate. The order also possesses a number of tenets, to guard against corruption.

Practices and Tenets

Not much is written about the practices of the Book. What is known is below, and written in more general, sweeping statements. Note that specific details may vary from location to location.

Wardmarks: Upon initiation, members are given a way to mark their demonwounds, even when the wounds have been healed over. This is so that the wounds may be studied later, and inspected for lingering or insidious effects. These marks are not always visible unless one knows the counterritual to make them glow, which is trained to temple healers.

Cleansing: The group has some form of cleansing ritual that members are required to undergo before entering and after leaving their working spaces. Such spaces are often walled and warded in the basements of temples.

Oaths: Members take an oath upon entering, to not practice what they learn, as well as to be mindful in revealing the Iron Book's presence. Paladins within the Book take an additional oath, that binds their acts to their faith, as well as more closely with the tenets listed, below.

Given the nature of its enemy, the Iron Book operates by strict tenets, which are adapted and extrapolated from a singular source, a work published shortly after the Daemonic Wars. The work existed under several names, and has since been copied to international archives.* The Book's version of this work states:

• We are at war with demon and devilkind, and their agents.
• Our tenets are based on the guidelines of international warfare, and are intended to provide acceptable guidelines for behavior when engaging against demons. These tenets also exist to protect the general population and ourselves.
• Noncombatants are to be protected and excluded from the effects of engagement as much as possible.
• Fiends lie. They have had many years to perfect this craft. Therefore, members of the order may not engage in deals with them, and should make others aware of the dangers of doing so.
• In our pursuit of ridding Ea of demonic influence, we may be exposed to knowledge both corruptive and vile. We are therefore forbidden from using this information in any way which endangers our souls or the trust given to us. This specifically bans members from summoning of demons, devils, and similar creatures.
• Though we fight icons of corruption, we may not become so, ourselves. We must at all times act in good faith, even when our opponent does not. When acting in good faith:

• Agents may employ certain measures intended to mystify or mislead the enemy, as during war the enemy is expected to take measures to protect himself. These measures include using spies and secret agents, encouraging defection or insurrection among the enemy civilian population, or inducing the enemy's soldiers to desert, surrender, or rebel. We may apply legitimate ruses such as: surprises; ambushes; feigning attacks, retreats or flights; simulating quiet and inactivity; use of small forces to simulate large units; transmitting false or misleading messages; deception of the enemy by bogus orders purporting to have been issued by the enemy commanders; making use of the enemy's signals and passwords; pretending to communicate with troops or reinforcements which have no existence; deceptive supply movements; deliberate planting of false information; use of spies and secret agents; moving landmarks; putting up dummy defenses; removing unit identifications from uniforms; use of signal deceptive measures; and limited psychological warfare activities. We are permitted to deceive the enemy through stratagems and ruses of war intended to mislead him, to deter him from taking action, or to induce him to act recklessly.
• Agents should honor established symbols of good faith. It is forbidden to misuse the flag of truce, acts of surrender, healer's tents, or similar symbology and established international methods.
• Agents' actions and ruses should not harm the helpless, and may not involve food or drink, objects of noted art or a sacred nature, or the violating of temples (although temples dedicated to torture and other evils may suffer to be destroyed, or cleansed).
• Agents should act with mercy towards the victims of demons, recognizing that the persuasion, lies, and deceit capabilities of demons has been honed for millennia, and is a force few are prepared to deal with.

• The temples place their trust in us. We must honor our word whenever possible, unless it violates one of these tenets. We should not engage in acts of treachery or perfidy.

The above rules apply to warfare against the enemy and provide guidelines for behavior. They are intended to serve as protection for the agent against the enemy's corruption. These tenets are taken on top of those associated with the Daeusite and other temples.

* The real-life source for many of the tenets is the Ruse of War, as published on the Red Cross website.

Leadership and Areas of Influence

The organization itself reports generally to the Daeusite temple structure, and its official head is a Navosian monk. Her best friend and assistant is a sorcerer marked by demonic taint and student of the Temples. Her friend's condition actually spurred the monk's interest in the subject, with the goal of one day curing these sorts of taints. This sorcerer herself is in actuality a friend of Madame Gelfure, who eyes the friendship with amusement and some worry.

The Iron Book is a secretive organization, devoted to research and the thorough elimination of demonic cults from the earth--eradicating them by force, indirect action, and by crowbar. There are few formal gatherings, if any, and knowledge of it is more rumor than fact (it's not something brought up in casual conversation); it is unheard of outside of the Temples. Most of its "organizing" actually takes place via oversight--through the Sunguards. This was developed early on as a safeguard, which means the order is essentially powerless. Too, they would hide their resources from the dangerous creatures they hunt.

The Iron Book tends to operate in temple basements that have been warded for its purpose. One is located beneath the Temple of Daeus in Alexandria. The Temple of Eluna tends not to host them, as the number of dangerous artifacts would prove too tempting for the forces the Book studies.

Extras

• Tools for Assessing Hell's Cults (IC resource for IB members)
• A Primer on Demons and Devils (IC resource for IB members)