The only Order Militant in Hazad — elite soldiers, and something much more feared.
History
One of the oldest surviving institutions in the Sultanate — it predates it, dating to the early Imperial period, and survived the rise of Hakim rather than being swept away with the old order. Over the centuries it became increasingly Hazadi while keeping deep roots among Praecursor families and older Church institutions: neither a foreign relic nor an al-Hakim creation. (GM)
A post-schism history in the Balventia library sharpens the origin — narrator of uncertain reliability: the Eagle started as a church guard that guarded the emperor in the early days of the Empire. (S7) Consistent with the primer’s dating, and a neat irony: the order that now guards the Sultan began by guarding the Emperor. See The Orders of the Five Courts for the library’s larger picture of the orders’ past.
In the Fourth Crusade it stood by the Sultan against the Most Holy’s crusade, the act that made the Eastern Church viable. Because the Sultan is both sovereign and head of the church, the Eagle is more closely tied to the state than any western Order is to its crown — problems of faith, public order, dangerous magic, and state security naturally converge on it. It is also substantially larger than any single western kingdom Order, with houses throughout Hazad. (GM)
The Eyes of the Eagle
Half secret police, half visible doctrinal enforcers, the Eyes fill the role the Order of the Phoenix once did — watching for the Arts of the Corrupted, monitoring the elven communities, enforcing orthodoxy. The identity of the head of the Eyes is a carefully guarded state secret.
The primer adds the origin story (GM): before the Schism, the Phoenix operated in Hazad as part of the united Church. Its judgment against Crown Prince Dakheer’s spiritual practices — Sultan Fahim’s older brother — became a central cause of the break; when the Schism became permanent the Phoenix left, and the Eyes were created to fill the gap in doctrinal investigation, Corruption, dangerous Gifts, and Church security. Some members are not publicly identified as Eyes, and the branch’s internal organization is unknown outside the Order — but it is a specialized branch, not the whole Order.
Motto
“Soaring Prayers.”
Key People
- Julius Menenius — Knight Captain; his squire is the elf Donatello. (S1)
- Nusra al-Bushra’s husband is a captain in the Eagle Knights. (S3)
- The Armory in Isbi’liyyah is their fortress headquarters.
- Haroun al-Affan has friends and contacts in the order. (S2) He squired for Naqi al-Akram, an Eagle knight of House al-Akram, now dead — branch not yet established. (Aaron)
- The order supplies royal protection. Naqi was often assigned to Crown Prince Awad, and Princess Ensah arrived at the dockside attack with a royal protection detail (S2). If the Eagle guarded Awad, the Eagle knows who was in the ruins — see The Death of Crown Prince Awad.
- Sadiq — an elf, quartermaster of the order, in his forties, with a minor light gift. He also squired for Naqi al-Akram, and wears his tabard in public because being an elf in Isbi’liyyah is currently dangerous. (S6) See The Elf Scapegoating.
- Eagle Knights fought and captured a group of Owl Knights in Halwa in Fall 1734 — a whole block burned. Three of the five were killed; the two survivors, Visenne de Tarrand and Isabel d’Allais, have been held at the Citadel of Gazra ever since. The mission the Eagle broke up was an escort taking a child out of the West’s reach. (S4, S6)
- They have been told about Madeline Foussard by Uncle’s Men and have not dispatched anyone — it looked too dangerous, and she has since left Kraus’s Folly. The decision remains theirs. (S6)
- They have since drawn down in Halwa. There used to be a larger presence; after the Owl incident they reduced it deliberately and adopted a more observational approach. (S5)
- After the riot, a cavalry force of about four dozen Eagle knights under Knight-Lieutenant Zahir ibn-Zahir arrived and cleared the capital’s streets, leaving a small force behind in the noble district. (S7)
Speculation
Where were the Eagle — and especially the Eyes — during the smuggling of Phoenix knights into Hazad? Uncle’s Men caught it instead. Institutional rivalry between Uncle’s Men and the Eyes seems structurally inevitable.
Speculation
The Eagle killed the party’s best witness. Jean-Marie, the knight closest to the Owl’s commander and the only one on that mission likely read into the order’s real business, died in the Halwa street fight. Five years later the party arrives asking exactly the questions she could have answered. Nothing suggests the Eagle knew what it was breaking up — a whole city block burned, which is not the signature of a careful operation — but the effect is the same.
Speculation
An elf holds the order’s stores. Sadiq is a quartermaster in the one Order Militant in Hazad, in a country where elves with more than minor gifts are pressed into service or purged, and whose Eyes exist partly to watch the elven communities. His gift is small enough to be safe and his position is one that sees every requisition the order makes — including, presumably, whatever outfitted Crown Prince Awad’s expedition to the dwarfhold. See The Death of Crown Prince Awad.