A Side story from «The Origins»: The Order of the Most Loyal and Faithful Praying Nuns of the Third Sword
Una historia colateral de Los Orígenes: La Orden de las Orantes
Of all the monastic Orders in the Empire, at the time when the story of «The Origins» takes place, the Order of the Most Loyal and Faithful Praying Nuns of the Third Sword was the strangest… or the least seen in other territories. Formed exclusively by women, it had been founded for the defence and guard duty of the wives of high dignitaries of the Imperial Court. This way, they could live with them and travel and even be with them in very delicate private moments without giving rise to problems of intimacy, but with the guarantee of security that their presence implied.
At first, they took the four vows of the Monastic Orders (chastity, poverty, obedience and fidelity to their Abbess or Prioress), but to this was added another one: they had to swear an oath to defend the Empire even with their own lives, specially when their work began to include the defence of the places where the women, whose security they were in charge of, were to be found. However, the most important revolution came as a result of a wedding: more than 250 years ago, the heir to the first Emperor, Gironlian IV, a rather crazy young man, had fallen madly in love with a novice who was about to take her final vows. Kartogen I, the Emperor’s immature son, married the novice Danoriana, a stylish and elegant young woman, daughter of the Baron of Esdáloren, and all records indicate that it was a fairly well-matched marriage, although she occasionally had to call him to order. They had eight children, ensuring a smooth succession to the Empire.
But this event made the General Chapter of the Order realise that a modification of the Order’s General Rule was necessary in two respects:
a) firstly, not only would applicants be admitted ‘by invitation only’, but if any uninvited applicants were interested in joining the Order, they would also be admitted on a preliminary basis.
b) Secondly, all those invited to join the Order would not be able to make final vows until at least 10 years after their preliminary admission, during which they would be living in normal conditions.
In this way, further cases like that of the Empress Danoriana were avoided and the Order ensured that women who took perpetual vows had a vocation to belong there. Life in the Order was hard, the physical and psychological training was extremely tough and one had to be prepared to sacrifice one’s own life in very complicated acts, even with political consequences. But they also had to fulfil religious obligations: no matter how much of a warrior they were, they were still nuns.
However, as a result of the civil war between the heirs of Toringen III, the Order underwent a major transformation in the following centuries. But this development belongs to another chapter of the Empire’s History.