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Ahn’Ghor

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BySuraia Silverbell

“Where corruption walks, we follow.”

Overview

Ahn’Ghor is an order of dedicated Ghor hunters, founded in the late Age of Darkness and still active in the present day. Born from grief and vengeance at the Ossar Crater, they have grown into one of the most disciplined and feared organizations devoted to fighting Ghor’s corruption across the Xaverion Islands and beyond.

Though they are not formally a priesthood, Ahn’Ghor is strongly associated with the New Faith god Envylon. Most of its members follow Envylon’s teachings, and many outsiders assume the order to be an arm of Envylon’s church—an assumption the order neither confirms nor denies.

Origins & Founding

The roots of Ahn’Ghor lie in tragedy.

In the years after the arrival of the New Faiths, a colossal centipede corrupted by Ghor ravaged the elven lands of Tanea. It was slain only when the mage Zimtalor sacrificed his life, unleashing a blast of magic that destroyed both the monster and his home village of Ossar. The blast left behind the vast scar now known as the Ossar Crater.

Zimtalor’s wife, the priestess Aurelia, had already fallen to the monster’s poisoned spines. Their daughter, Deirah, survived only because her father teleported her and a handful of others away before his final act. At the edge of the newly-formed crater, Deirah swore an oath that Ghor’s corruption would never again claim her family unchecked. Out of that vow, the first band of hunters was formed.

According to Ahn’Ghor’s own histories, the order took shape in the Age of Darkness, born from Deirah’s oath and the survivors of Ossar. Modern scholars place the formal founding of the order in the year 11 BFE, not long before the end of the Age of Darkness and the dawn of the Fifth Era.

Deirah herself is said to have later converted to the worship of Envylon when the New Faiths established their temples, shaping Ahn’Ghor’s lasting connection to the god of summer, balance, and the living world.

Faith & Identity

Ahn’Ghor is not recognized as an official priesthood or paladin order of Envylon, yet the bond is undeniable:

  • Dominant faith: The vast majority of Ahn’Ghor members follow Envylon.

  • Ethos: Envylon’s domains of life, growth, and balance underpin the order’s hatred of Ghor’s corruptive magic and creatures.

  • Public perception: In many villages, shrines to Envylon and the sigils of Ahn’Ghor stand side by side.

Despite this, Ahn’Ghor insists that their first loyalty is not to any church but to the protection of Eonil’s people from Ghor’s influence, wherever it manifests.

Structure & Discipline

Ahn’Ghor is known for its strict internal structure and unforgiving standards. Outsiders often describe it as a “military monastery” rather than a loose brotherhood.

  • Hierarchy: While specific titles and ranks differ from outpost to outpost, all report to a central council, believed to still trace its lineage back to Deirah’s first circle.

  • Code of conduct: Members are expected to obey orders swiftly, avoid needless glory-seeking, and place the protection of civilians above their own reputation.

  • Reputation: Among those who know of them, Ahn’Ghor are considered elite Ghor hunters: efficient, relentless, and rarely forgiving once they declare a threat to be of Ghor.

Even so, their reputation is not entirely spotless. In grim border regions, some whisper that Ahn’Ghor sees Ghor everywhere and that their zeal can border on ruthlessness—an echo, perhaps, of the tragedies that birthed the order.

Recruitment & Training

Ahn’Ghor recruits children from a very young age, selecting those who show particular promise—whether in martial ability, magical sensitivity, intellect, or rare talents like prophecy.

Key aspects of recruitment:

  • Purchase of guardianship: When a child is accepted, the order pays the family in exchange for the child’s lifelong service.

  • Ongoing support: In return, the child’s family is cared for by the order for the rest of their lives, regardless of how high or humble the child’s eventual position becomes.

  • No cast-offs: If a recruit proves less gifted than first believed, they are not dismissed. Instead, they are placed in other roles within the order—administration, teaching, quartermastery, support staff—ensuring that no one taken into Ahn’Ghor is ever discarded.

Training:

Recruits undergo years of rigorous training under skilled elven masters. Instruction includes:

  • Combat against Ghor’s creatures, both mundane and magical

  • Recognition of different forms of corruption

  • Discipline, survival, field tactics, and cooperation with other orders

  • Basic theology and history of Ghor, the Old Gods, and the New Faiths

Only those who pass these trials are allowed to specialize.

Outposts & Presence

Ahn’Ghor strives to maintain at least one outpost on every island of the Xaverion realm, and sometimes additional posts in major cities.

Where they cannot justify a full outpost, they instead establish close ties with the local Xaverion Knights’ guard tower or garrison and request regular reports of suspected Ghor activity.

  • Isolated regions: In places with a known history of corruption—such as haunted ruins, cursed forests, or shores plagued by undead—the outposts tend to be larger and more fortified.

  • Urban presence: In larger towns, Ahn’Ghor may maintain a small house or wing within an existing garrison, serving as consultants and rapid-response specialists when Ghor minions are suspected.

To most common folk, an Ahn’Ghor outpost is a distant, almost mythical presence: they rarely see more than a small patrol passing through, yet stories of “the hunters in Envylon’s colours” slaying horrors in the night circulate wherever corruption has once taken root.

Specializations within Ahn’Ghor

Within the order, members are sorted into distinct specializations. Each is vital to the order’s work, and a typical hunting party includes several of these roles.

Ghor Hunters

The most visible and well-known of Ahn’Ghor’s specialists.

  • Role: Track down, confront, and destroy Ghor’s minions wherever they appear.

  • Skills: Martial prowess, knowledge of Ghor-created creatures (such as Dag’da, sirens, kobolds, and undead), and the ability to fight in small, coordinated teams.

They are the blade of the order, deployed whenever reports of corruption surface.

Summoners

A rarer but highly feared discipline in the order.

  • Role: Focus on banishing Ghor-touched creatures that are too powerful or entrenched to simply kill.

  • Practice: Ahn’Ghor summoners specialize in rituals that sever a creature’s connection to the world or cast it back beyond the Vei—
    (…back into whatever realm Ghor’s power anchors them to; the exact theology varies by region.)

  • Taboo of re-summoning: They almost never summon creatures they have banished. If they do, it is typically:

    • A being not of Ghor, or

    • A monster recalled solely so that a carefully prepared plan to finally destroy it can be executed.

Their work is dangerous and often misunderstood, but without them many sites of entrenched corruption would still be lost.

Medics

Where Ghor Hunters are the sword, the medics are the shield that keeps that sword from breaking.

  • Focus:

    • Early detection of Ghor corruption in the body and mind

    • Specialized treatment of wounds and afflictions common in Ghor hunts

    • Advanced knowledge of diseases, poisons, and magical taints related to corruption

They are more narrowly trained than common healers, but their expertise in Ghor-related injuries is unmatched. Many medics supplement divine or arcane healing with alchemical treatments and painstaking cleansing rituals.

Seers

The most secretive and least understood branch of Ahn’Ghor.

  • Rarity: True seers are exceedingly rare; the gift of sight is uncommon in any age.

  • Value: The order offers significant rewards for the discovery of a genuine seer, either child or adult.

  • Purpose: Ahn’Ghor believes seers can be trained to focus their visions specifically on Ghor’s movements and corruptions:

    • Foreseeing outbreaks of corruption

    • Sensing where powerful minions may appear

    • Guiding hunters toward threats before they fully manifest

Because most seers possess little to no offensive capability, they are considered precious and fragile assets. They are heavily guarded, and any hunting party assigned to protect a seer understands that their primary duty is not glory in battle but the safety of the one who guides them.

Relations with Other Orders

Ahn’Ghor does not rule any territory, nor do they claim secular authority. Instead, they operate alongside other powers:

  • Xaverion Knighthood:

    • Cooperate closely, especially in mixed patrols where knights provide broader law enforcement and Ahn’Ghor focus on clear Ghor threats.

    • In many places, knights rely on Ahn’Ghor’s expertise in identifying true corruption versus superstition.

  • Church of the New Faiths:

    • Particularly close ties to Envylon’s clergy.

    • Paladins and priests often join Ahn’Ghor on campaigns in heavily corrupted regions, bringing divine support to the hunt.

  • Other Ghor-focused orders:

    • Notably the Crimson Order in Naquart, once lauded for fighting undead but later infamous for zealotry and witch hunts. Ahn’Ghor and the Crimson Order share a common enemy but not a common philosophy; many Ahn’Ghor regard the Crimson Order as a cautionary tale of what happens when hatred of corruption becomes corruption of judgement.

Present Day

In the Fifth Era, Year 22, Ahn’Ghor remains active across the Xaverion Islands. The great wars of the Age of Darkness are long past, yet Ghor’s touch has never fully vanished:

  • Undead plagues in Naquart, though largely contained, still echo in memory and occasional outbreaks.

  • Sirens and other sea-born horrors keep the coasts wary.

  • Rumours of corrupted ruins, twisted creatures, and cults persist in the more remote corners of the islands.

Wherever such stories arise, it does not take long before the stylised sigil of Ahn’Ghor appears—on a patrol’s cloak, a sealed letter, or the armour of a grim-faced hunter asking quiet questions in the local tavern.

To most citizens of the Xaverion Islands, Ahn’Ghor is both reassurance and unease: a reminder that while this is the Age of Light, the shadows of Ghor still linger—and that there are those who have sworn their entire lives to hunting those shadows down.

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