Order of the Holy Lakes

The Order of the Holy Lakes is an old order of chivalry founded in Hurmu in 1514 by Prince Andelarion of Hurmu. Since 1689, it governs the territory of the Eastern Lake District of the Hurmu Trust Territory. It is headquartered in Vesüha (Huyenkula), Lakkvia.

The Order has no permanent chair among its members. Rather, a secretary from outside the Order organizes it. As of 1689, it is Anskar Isamma.

History

The members of the Order, called Knights if men or Ladies if women, constituted the Electorate of Hurmu, a body of advisors to the Prince. In 1524, the Order and its Electorate merged to become the Senate of the Lakes (the Hurmu legislature), a body which in 1574 merged with the Elwynnese Senate. At that time, the Electorate of Hurmu was reestablished as an advisory body for Hurmu matters. When Hurmu received independence in 1600, the Electorate became the Senate of the Lakes once more, and governed Hurmu until the Jingdaoese invasion of 1602 and the Hurmu Genocide.

Membership was in the years 1612–1624 decided by the Prince (who inducted members by letters patent), and then it was simply an elected body, in that its members elected any new members. However, of note is that membership is also automatically extended to legal spouses and legitimate children of members, meaning that the size of the order has grown since 1514 exponentially, even as the Order has been dormant since 1603 following its relocation to Stormark.

In Stormark, the Order was housed in the Temple of the Lakes, at Haraldsborg, the construction of which was funded by the Storish government. At the onset, it was felt that the funding reflected the generosity of the Storish government, but it became clear quite quickly that the Stormarkers preferred to lay claim to all heritage of the Hurmu people and infuse it with the main Storish ideologies. Laws were made, for example, to allow for the naked worship around Hurmu holy sites, in the Vanic tradition. As such, the Order became more and more dormant from 1603 and on, focusing mainly on historical tasks and orders of service in the Temple.

Once the complete collapse of the Storish state became evident in 1685, the Order attempted to salvage its artifacts at the temple. With help from the Shirerithian imperial family, particularly from Prince Kir Azariah Vidar, the Order managed to evacuate most its people, artifacts and archives from Haraldsborg and temporarily house these in Talenore (Talenore having in the decade before suffered massive emigration had plenty of empty housing available).

The Order began from then to bring about its main objective of reorganizing the old Hurmu territories, now in the Green, under one government. At the same time, the Lontinian tribes, having also freed themselves from the Storish yoke, and having had a long history of alliance with the people of Hurmu, established the Restored Khanate of Lontinien. The Order and Khanate quickly agreed to joint efforts in reclaiming some of their old land in the Green. They established therefore the Hurmu Trust Territory, as a provisional government until Hurmu's Lakes could be reunited under one government.

Classes

There are three classes of membership, royal, princely and knightly. All members belong to the knightly class unless they belong to the royal or princely class.

Royal class

The royal class is defined as any person having been a royal monarch over Hurmu or, if he or she is dead, his or her most senior descendant. There has only been one Queen of Hurmu, Aoife the Celt, and she has therefore the only member of this class until her legal death in 1689. She was titled Queen among the Lakes. In 1689, she was declared legally dead by the government of the Hurmu Trust Territory.

In the same year (1689), the Order of the Holy Lakes bestowed upon King Craitman of Craitland the title King among the Lakes, signifying his rule over the majority of the Lakes as King of Craitland through its territory in Lakkvia.

Princely class

The princely class is defined as any person having been a prince over Hurmu, or, if he or she is dead, his or her most senior descendant under absolute primogeniture. A member of this class is titled Prince among the Lakes or Princess among the Lakes.

The current three members of this class are:

• Harald (c. 1446– ) (Prince, 1505–1512)
• Daniyal ibn Daniyal (1636– ), most senior descendant of Rashid Andelarion (Prince, 1512–1524)
• Salome (1665– ), most senior descendant of Daniel Kalirion (Prince, 1563–1586), Nathan of Waffel-Paine (Prince, 1586–1589) and Elijah Ayreon (Prince, 1590–1592). Salome is also titled Princess of Hurmu by a decision of the Congress of Hurmudans in Lakkvia.

Knightly class

All other members of the Order belong to the knightly class, each titled Knight of the Holy Lakes or Lady of the Holy Lakes. Members of this class are too numerous to list at the moment.

In 1689, all members of the knightly class who had been unheard of since the collapse of Stormark were declared legally dead en masse.