The Palladium Circle

Early years: Founded after a civil near-break in the empire to reassert discipline. The sect began as an informal guild of officers who performed rites before battle and maintained a register of 'honorable' service. Expansion: Over a century they spread into provincial garrisons, establishing cloisters that trained officers in ceremonial drill, history, and the law of command. The sect stayed mostly in the shadows, influencing promotions through opaque recommendations. Watershed moment: 34 years ago the sect staged the Cleansing at Greyford, a successful purge of progressive commanders presented as uncovering a traitorous cabal. The public hailed them as saviors and the emperor granted them limited legal protections. Consolidation: After Greyford they institutionalized secrecy. They acquired a reliquary of banners and a subterranean archive of wartime letters. Later setbacks: A string of exposed coverups in border campaigns damaged their reputation, forcing the sect to become more clandestine and ruthless. Today: The sect is both powerful inside the military officer corps and feared by reformers. It maintains a public veneer of preserving tradition while increasingly acting to secure long-term dominance in the military and by extension the state.