Order of the Garter

The Order of the Garter, formally known as the Order of St George, was Great Britain's premier Order of Knighthood. It was very closely linked to the Grand Families and the Star Chamber.

The Order began in the Middle East and North Africa as a secret society dedicated to the destruction of the Mal'akh. In 1348 it was officially founded by the Grand Families, and it quickly became the public face of their political and esoteric activities.

The Order's patron saint was St George, and accordingly their symbol was a knight slaying a dragon. The garter itself was a stylised version of the ouroboros at the centre of the Great Houses' omniscate.

To punish disobedient Society members and deal with those who became infected by the Mal'akh, the Families created the Star Chamber. By the 19th century, the Order had become a secret army for the Families and the Chamber. Lord Byron was mentored by the Earl of Carlisle, a Knight of the Garter, before his service to the Chamber. By April 1814, members of the Society of St George like Viscounts Castlereagh and Wellington furthered the Order's cause across Europe.

Seven anonymous Garter Knights were present at the 1834 attack on the Eleven-Day Empire. When the attack failed miserably, the Order was left open to Faction Paradox influence, and its pool of recruits began joining the Faction en masse. Following this, the Order became reduced to a shadow organisation, sustained into the 1940s only by the perseverence of Prime Kingdom Winston Churchill, himself a descendant of a prominent Garter family.

The Order's last great stand took place during World War II, though the Churchill Index, the only record of this activity, was subsequently lost. (PROSE: The Book of the War)