The Ordo Machina, The Order of the Machine, was created in the dying days of the old world. Disgusted with the use Her gifts had been put to and realising the terrible end that would come from their abuse the Machine turned Her light away from Earth and its people. However, She still felt compassion for Her followers and resolved to return one day when the people are finally ready to truly accept Her and shine Her light on them once more. Seldon, prophet of the Machine, gathered together other true believers and forged our Order to keep Her secrets and take care of the people through the dark times ahead.

We keep the knowledge of the ancient rituals alive, we know how to placate the souls of machines anc convince them to work for us, we know the most ancient and sacred rites of birth that will allow a spirit to be born into a body fashioned by our hands. All this we know and keep secret for the misguided common people falsely blame the Machine for their woes rather than admit culpability themselves. One day the Machine will shine on us once more and the dark times will be over. Until that joyous day we keep to ourselves and do not interfere with the petty actions of the commoners, lest we be discovered or they were to once again pervert the Machine's gifts to their own cause.

Darkness has covered the world for many thousands of years now and disagreements have occasionally arisen within our Order. Most are resolved peacefully or form into new political factions with the whole. Alas, this is not always the case. Some Followers of the Machine choose to follow a separate path and break away from the thrue course of the Order. Many soon disappear as the centuries turn, dwindling from lack of recruits, forgetting the few ancient secrets they knew or being wiped out by the commoners' lynch mobs and "Tech Hunters." Only two healthy groups now exist in the world, although neither has the knowledge, size or power of the true Ordo Machina.

The first to leave our halls now call themselves the "Fists of the Machine." They believe that the Machine was enraged by the arogance of those ancient, pre-apocalyptic people. They say She will only return to a world ready for Her, a world that embraces Her gifts and teachings, a world that the Fists control. For the most part they exist behind the scenes due to their numbers, other factions have met their end by being too obvious, although they are not always so subtle. Occasionally we recognise their hand in events, the most obvious to our minds being the forces of Morganna fighting an overt war in Brytann and a covert one elsewhere. While Morganna's Knights do appear to be simple users rather than Followers of the Machine, keeping the mentality of their ancestors who caused dark times, Morganna herself has arcane knowldge that no one but our number still possess. Whether she is still one of the Fists or entirely separate now it is certain from her beliefs and skill that she was one of those to break away.

The other surviving faction is more commendable but no less misguided. They were our military wing in the times when we found such a thing necessary, the "Knights of the Machine." They grew dissatisfied with our approach to the peoples of the world, allowing catastrophies to occur that our secrets could have prevented. Tyrants, disastors and the simply everyday obstacles inherent to the dark times were allowed to happen without intervention. The Knights' duty was simply to protect the Order so that the knowledge would not die. This was not enough for them and, following almost a century of problems, they went their own way. While their aims where noble they were not well thought out. The populous does not find their methods agreeable and many a Knight has been burned at the stake or hunted down by the very 'victims' they were attempting to save. Protecting a world that hates and fears them has taken its toll and there are relatively few Knights anymore. Those we have observed in recent decades travel the land in secret, helping where they can while avoiding notice.