| abstract
| - Founded at the request of King Arangor Obarskyr in 1018 DR by Lord Benil Arlinford, the Eclestian Order was formed to deal with numerous occurances of cults worshipping fiendish entities within Cormyr. With the attention of the kingdom, in particular the Prince (Later to become King Azoun II) occupied with a Black Dragon, Thauglorimorgorus, "The Black Doom", Cormyr's resources were stretched thin. It is mentioned that the original members consisted of a war wizard Thurson, specialised in infernal summoning, a paladin of Kossuth named Chathe, and a Suzailian militia officer, Captain Delezial who was apparently "not only highly skilled in the art of interrogation and uncovering difficult crimes, but zealous in his pursuit of wrongdoers". Although not widely published in most accounts of history during the time, the Eclestian Order proved instrumental in maintaining the stability of the Kingdom at that time. It is recorded that they halted the plans of a major power from the outer planes which would likely have resulted in widespread devastation in Cormyr had it succeeded. Due to thier proven usefulness, the order was granted a permanent status in the kingdom by the king, expanding their duties to hunting other monsters, such as werewolves, underdark denziens, undead and tieflings. Their primary goal however, was always the hunting of demons and devils attempting to gain a foothold on the area and this took priority over all other duties. They often worked in concert with the War Wizards over the next twenty years to wipe out infernalist activity in Cormyr. In 1039DR, disaster struck as the the Arlinford estate outside of Suzail, then serving as the home of the Order was attacked by an unamed cult seeking revenge for the damage the Eclestians had done by exposing thier activities in the past. Large numbers of losses are reported as a result of the attack, including war wizard Thurson who fell during the fighting attempting to protect the niece and nephew of Lord Arlinford. Delezial, who was himself burned heavily down the left side of his head during the attack, responded in anger by tracking down all those responsible and having them burned alive one by one. Chathe was also hit hard, retiring from the order and dissapearing into obscurity. Lord Arlinford, distraught from the loss of his relatives, let Delezial do as he wished with the remainder of the order. It was certainly the events of 1039 that caused the Order to become increasingly more secretive, selective and dispersed. From that point on Delezial (With the title of "Grand Inquisitor") ordered the extensive, even extreme, magical probing of new potential recruits. The outposts of the order were no longer common knowledge and the Eclestians often worked in secret to spy on populations around the country.
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