Dark Orchid Society
A Babkhi nationalist group active in Elluenuueq, the Dark Orchid Society once purported to consider the indigenous Elwynnese to be the last uncorrupted bastion of Humanity on the continent of Benacia and were dedicated to the unification of the continent under the Humanist banner, whilst simultaneously advocating for the eradication of all non-human sentient life on the planet.
It was the Dark Orchid Society that approached Daniel Simrani-Kalirion with the proposal to participate in the Coup of 1604 and in the recruitment of Tokaray al-Osman, one of the last surviving members of the Osmanid Faction to lead the attack on the Bailiwick of Mariyechelân which caused the government of Steward Isurui to rapidly collapse.
The Dark Orchid Society retreated into the background during the era of the Coordinated State, although its symbol was adopted as the banner of the Union Defence Force and the Hall of Tranquillity. The purging of many of its key operatives and supporters during the brief interlude of Communist rule saw the Society severely disrupted and unable to capitalise on the counter-coup organised by Tokaray al-Osman which cleared the way for the Kalirion Restoration.
The abdication of Prince Jonathan on the 9th of Vixaslaa in the year 1623 and the appointment of Hallbjörn Haraldsson as Steward, and effectively as regent, for Thorstein Noah, a man strongly associated with the culture and identity of Stormark in the popular imagination of the time, sparked widespread concern and alarm amongst secularists and Elwynnese nationalists. From this moment on there was a quiet but steady uptick in recruitment and fundraising by sympathisers of the Society. Many cells at this stage were self-organising and rather inchoate groupings of dissidents.
