Editing Nobledark Imperium Notable Planets (section)

=== The Order of the Old Tree ===

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The Order of the Old Tree is a name now considered inseparable with the planet Praetoria and inescapably associated with it’s ruling elite, but it was not always so. In the days of yore beyond the living memory of the eldest of Earth’s children they were far more humble. A lesser order of the Adeptus Biologicus from mostly western Merikan splice-commune stock they moved off world early and intentionally resisted amalgamation by confining themselves to remote and typically impoverished regions of the Imperium, having reached a consensus that poverty was better than bending the knee to the [Expunged] who dwelt on Mars or their sycophantic lapdogs who had forgotten that they were human. And oh yes they believed that they had forgotten that, the Splicers might have been chimeras grown in test tubes but they knew where their devotions and loyalties lay. They were human and they lived in service to humanity, they served the people, they did not rule them, they served the people, they did not serve [Expunged] masters, they served the people, they didn’t serve some half machine abomination on a dead world the colour of rust and dried blood.
 
In their early history asceticism was cultivated as a virtue as they reasoned that they might as well find comfort rather than resentment in their state of borderline deprivation and it wasn’t as if they were starving. The people that they served were typically poor but generous, or at least generous with the Order. Generosity tends to flow to the people who can cure toothache and other such everyday miracles and poor as these communities were they got at least slightly less poor for the inclusion of the Sisters of the Old Tree.
 
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The truth of the matter at this point is that little of the earliest history was actually remembered as finding the next meal was generally considered more important than keeping a coherent chronicle of tedious events. Why was the Order right from the onset predominantly female? Nobody is sure. There are theories about the early theology of the Order but nothing that can be proven with certainty. It was rumoured that they practiced a form of human parthenogenesis in those days. Indeed parthenogenesis was a secret unlocked by the AdBio in ages long since past but for what reason they would practice it is unknown consider that there are far more conventional ways of propagating the Order, even without going to outsiders for the purpose. Whatever the reason or the exact method by the time anyone was interested in writing anything down it had always been that way, much the same as the origins of the name of the order. What is known is that in the days of great poverty they had to either have children normally or recruit from outsiders as the equipment that they relied on to splice new members eventually broke down and they didn’t part from the AdMech on polite terms. The AdMech were willing to buy the old equipment back but not to repair it for them.
 
In time the AdBio became it’s own institution independent of the AdMech as the AdMech were getting sick of them and their attitude and “encouraged” them to set up shop somewhere else. Anywhere else. Just not on Mars or near Mars or for preference anywhere in the Sol System in its entirety. The freed AdBio offered the hand of friendship to their wayward friends who gratefully accepted it. This marks the end of the Early Order History and the transition to the Pre-Praetorian History of the Order.
 
For the most part and for thousands of years the Old Tree Sisters were a mostly unremarkable group within the AdBio. They were somewhat more sever than most, almost entirely female and tended to intentionally seek out poor communities to serve but as far as eccentricities go it was pretty unremarkable by AdBio standards. About the only real difference inclusion onto the AdBio made was that they had a safety net in case of emergencies, which was nice.
 

Eventually the history changing decision from the Council of Elder Bio-Druids (as they were calling themselves at that time) came to the Order. They were tasked, should they accept, to fix the genetic degeneration of the ruling elite of Praetoria by any means that they though necessary, and they were given to aid them in this task a much coveted and extremely valuable seed from a gestation tree. Exactly how the Old Tree got this assignment, lucrative and prestigious as it was, when more worthy orders of greater standing were available is as unknown now as it was then. Some say that Gregoria Barton, the Abbatissa of the Old Tree at that time, had used her legendary beauty to seduce one of the council and swayed a critical vote in their favour. If so such a thing was never proven and indeed no proof was found then or later.
 
And so the Old Tree planeted itself in fertile soils of Praetoria. For all that they had been given the assignment they had not been given additional resources, the Elder Bio-Druids assuming that they wouldn’t have bid for it if they couldn’t do it. The Old Tree under the orders of Abbatissa Barton moved itself wholes sale to the new world after handing over their concerns to other orders that they trusted and pooled what resources that they had. The gestation tree would take twenty years before it would produce any crop and at least thirty under optimal conditions before it would be capable of producing more than a few young each spawning. The sisters for those years did what they had always done and integrated themselves in the lower strata of society, ingratiating themselves with the populace, spreading their roots far and wide, increasing their numbers and preparing. Thirty years later Abbatissa Gregoria Barton, or hushed whispers had it her parthenogenetic descendant of the same name, made her Order’s presence known to the aristocracy. She and her most lovely to look upon (and shrewd and cunning) sisters approached the most prominent of the lords of that world and offered themselves to those lords as rewards from the Imperium for their worlds loyal service to the Imperium and, as the most august lords of such a world the Imperium must be seen to reward such diligence and loyalty. Few if any of those foppish fools refused such tantalizing offers and as rewards of the Imperium they were not hidden but flaunted at gatherings of the high society at every opportunity and these women were not just beautiful but graceful in speech and wise in their words and versed well in the etiquette of the courts. They were sophisticated ladies well educated in the classics and virtuous and honest seeming and the lords of the other great houses grew jealous; they demanded to know why they had been overlooked. Had their service to the Imperium not been as diligent? Had they not been as loyal? Were they not as worthy as these preening little princes who strutted around with such vanity? They demanded that their contributions be as recognised. Abbatissa Barton assured them that no insult as intended and sure enough one of her sisters arrived in each of the courts of those spire lords in the months and years that followed. Praetoria had been collared but those that realized were dismissed as malcontents and stirrers of unrest.
 
As time went on these concubines, skilled as they were, took on some of the tedium of the running of the great houses of Praetoria to the relief of the lords and ladies and in time they also had the children of those lords. Exactly which children is often difficult to trace as under the Promethean inspired and influenced legal systems of Praetoria they were children of the marriage first and foremost and in the official genealogies that is how they were seen. Some clue can be inferred as the head of the house was expected to designate an heir rather than it going to the first born son by simple virtue of birth order and it can be assumed that the heirs were the sons of their wives, who themselves were daughters of other noble houses, so as not to show insult to their neighbours. Not that it mattered to the Sisters of the Old Tree who were keeping their own very detailed and extensive records of genealogy and also records of other things as well as it was always a passing curiosity as to what they did on their holy days when they would meet in their strange temple in the underhives with it’s strange and holy off-world tree. And of those children if was the gentle hands of the Order that at least in part had some role in raising them and in them they instilled the notion of loyalty to the Imperium above loyalty to just their planet as the Imperium was sworn to protect Praetoria in reward for it’s loyalty.
 
In time these children, both biologically those of the Sisters and those merely under their influence, and they in turn became lords and ladies and the lords were in gratitude from the Imperium given concubines from the new generation of the Order and the presence of the Old Tree started to take on the form of a tradition.
 
By the dying of the 41st Millenium the Order of the Old Tree is felt from the depths of the roots of the underhives to the crowns in the sky. They are behind every strong lord, they stand behind the throne of the king, they are promised to the sons of the lords and king as a symbol of the unity between Praetoria and the Imperium and they have the support of the common masses as they siphon the wealth of the upper crust back into the hives and enrich the lives of the people in the downtrodden masses. Due to the increasingly competent ruling elite and the more effective distribution of wealth and indeed and increase in wealth by offworld contacts brought by the Order Praetoria has not been richer in an age if ever.
 

Which is not to say that the inclusion of the Order into society has been entirely without flaw. There is greater stratification in society and less social mobility. In the old days the noble houses had to at least occasionally marry down if only because they had run out of cousins to marry. This is no longer a concern with the freshly available genetic diversity of the Order without the loss of prestige from wedding a social inferior. Also there have been deaths. For all that they are an AdBio institution the Old Tree is extremely loyal to the Imperial Throne and fond of their new station and their new families as they are they know where their loyalties fall and they know how to make very hard decisions. The health of society as a whole and even the family trees of many old an established house can benefit from the removal of irredeemably defective branches. Children are usually spared, at least young children who might still be salvaged and trained to loyalty and diligent service. He boys are typically sent to the military orphanages, there are far worse places to end up, and the girls are typically raised by they order to supplement the next generation of Sisters. Often the daughters of nobility fallen from grace are sent to the off-world missions where their sins are wiped clean and they might make new lives for themselves and there are far worse fates than that.

The sisters themselves do not typically deal such dark work, although it’s not unprecedented. The work is often handed over to the Order of the Blooded Thorns, an order of the Adepta Securitas with which the Old Tree has maintained a strong tie with for many centuries.
 
The AdBio as a whole tends to look down on the Old Tree and sees them as having dirtied themselves with political games. Their original assignment was to fix the aristocracy and it was a task that should have taken a century at most and then the order could have been assigned to some other task. They were not supposed to set up a permanents project and inescapably bind themselves to the ruling elite, indeed it is debated if they should loose all standing in the AdBio and be cast out. It has not yet come to that if only because their efforts have mended the somewhat spotty reputation the AdBio has developed and encourages people to overlook their more “eccentric” members and their morally dubious works.
 
As the bell strikes on the last day of 999M41 it is known that the tree grows strong and as the tree grows strong the Imperium weathers the storm.

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