“While all deception requires secrecy, all secrecy is not meant to deceive” - Sissela Bok

Amongst the countless knights orders which give battle in the name of Christendom there are many who have abandoned their sacred oath and strayed away from the light of god. Often times being branded as "Heretical Orders" due to a number of reasons, the most common of which being excessive violence in the field of battle and/or horrendous mistreatment of innocent civilians; though in times of crisis, especially during a Jihad, both Orthodox and Catholic churches tend to turn a blind eye. These orders are few and far between, due to the increased professionalism of these established knights orders, however whenever an order is branded as heretical by one church, it often becomes a de-facto order for the other church, being seen as more or less a tool to be used for political leverage against the other; orders branded by both Orthodox and Catholic churches as heretical are even more rare. This doesn't mean that they don't exist, and one such example of this is the knights order known as the "Powdered Patriarchs".

Their founding and early history is well established and understood to scholars, even those not affiliated with the Church, with their founding being in the area which is know as Transylvania, though this was before the massive incursions of vampires which has led to this area being a warzone between the existing human kingdoms that existed in this area and the new vampiric realms. The order was said to be established by a kingdom on the far fringes of Transylvania, as such their local name has yet to be fully translated into any of the standard Mediterranean scholarly languages, though a rough translation into greese has been made, calling it "the Realm of Trandafiri". With their founder, a knight named Zalem of the Golden Wheat, leading the initial order's ~500 men into battles in the levant and surrounding regions, acting as guards to Christian pilgrims.

Their order would operate under the banner of Greeso-Orthodoxy yet they often fought alongside and made great connections to other knight's orders who fought for Raman Catholicism, most notably a knights order named "the Brothers of Rhodes". Scholars on the ground in the levant at the time wrote of the great battles these two orders would participate in, regardless of the outcome they made sure to leave many a jihadists slain on the field of battle, and their men mostly unscratched. Though this would be the story of glory and success, even factoring in the small losses and personal tragedies the order would endure, this would be the happy ending and glorious tale of the order's history; sadly this would not be the case when the Order decided to follow in the Mesopotaminus Incursion.

The Mesopotaminus incursion was a combined effort of several knights orders under the general leadership of the king of Malka, Huedan Lato, and the leaders of well over 8+ prestigious knights orders to strike back at the Jihadists and lay siege to several important cities for the Jihadists, not the least of which being that of the central city of the Fuyabbid Caliphate; Bachdad. There is a common saying in western Europa of "being unable to look away from a wagon accident" which more or less means being unable to look away at something tragic; even if those signs were prevalent before the actual accident takes place. A planned attack which was built upon wishful thinking and the faith of the men involved in it with the backing of their horses, swords, and armor.

Beginning after the end of the winter of 1189 a force of 10000+ men mustered in the few cities the kingdom of Jerusalmon and began their incursion into Fuyabbid lands quickly thereafter. Initial skirmishes with the border units of the caliphate resulted in total victories due to the surprise, force, and numbers which was brought in with the Incursion force. Resulting in many caliph soldiers either being slain in battle or surrendering, being left to the treatment of whoever had captured them.

They would continue advancing into Fuyabbid lands largely uncontested, liberating and recruiting Christians who had to live under caliph rule, bolstering the ranks of this "mini crusade". Whilst it seemed to be largely successful and unnoticed by larger Fuyabbid rule (due to rumors of a military campaign in the far east occupying a large part of the caliphate army). This, however, was not true and unbeknownst to the incursion force an ambush was being set up for them to fall into. Continuing with the string of victories against small Garrison forces of the Fuyabbid Caliphate they pushed ever deeper into their lands until they were on the outskirts of the city of Bachdad. The final knot was tied on the noose when the force of knights decided to set up camp out side Bachdad; opting to take the city later in the day at night. This one decision decided the fate of the Mesopotaminus Incursion and all the men who followed.

With the Incursion Force setting up camp on a hill overlooking a path and another hill some 100-200 meters away from where they had encamped around. Tents and a simple barricade erected at the sloping ends of the hill to deter any forces from skirmishing on the good terrain; though this didn't matter in the face of it all with the Fuyabbid force closing in on the encampment. The bloody battle would begin with one of the scouting parties sent out by the incursion force would report a great number of Muslim troops beginning to converge and surround the general area of the camp. It was decided by Huedan Lato and the other leaders of the knights orders to begin preparations to hold off their attacks and wait for an opportunity to break out. Though during this discussion a number of regular soldiers overheard the leaders discussing the state they were in and quickly broke out in panic, leading to more and more soldiers being made aware of their circumstances, with some opting to mount their horses and try to get away from the incoming carnage as quickly as possible.

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The disorganization of the Knights was further exemplified when loud thunderous booms, akin to that of lightning, began to be heard around the grounds of the camps, followed by the cries of anguished men seeming to have been struck by some invisible force. The few men who had the courage and sense to stand and be ready for battle manned the barricades and took their positions on the hill, only to see an ocean of Fuyabbid troops quickly surround their encampment. Though the order had an estimated ~8000 men under their banner, eye-witness accounts described a near 17:1 ratio in favor of the coming Muslim troops; the situation and chances were dire. Assailing the hill and barricade en masse waves of Fuyabbid troops clashed against the poorly put together defenses of the Knights. Even after repelling the first few skirmishes the incursion force at this point had taken considerable casualties with barely any losses for the Fuyabbid force. It was decided by Lato and the remnants of the leaders to send out Zalem's knights, the Powdered Patriarchs, and Duke Giuseppe Dorato, leader of the Brothers of Rhodes, to attempt a breakthrough of the Fuyabbid lines and salvage this desperate situation they have found themselves in

Zalem and Durato would lead their knights during a quiet period of the attacks and ride out charging straight into a section of the Fuyabbid line which was determined to be weaker than the rest of it; to which they successfully were able to rout those Caliph troops away. However whilst this was happening it was said that Zalem couldn't help noticing a strange formation of Fuyabbid soldiers at another part of the line and pleaded Durato to follow him and attack this odd grouping of soldiers; to which he declined and began riding back to the incursion camp. Whilst Zalem and the Powdered Patriarchs rode out to attack these Fuyabbid troops whilst Durato and the Brothers of Rhodes Fuyabbid troops had noticed the gap in line and unbeknownst to the relieved soldiers of the incursion force, upon hearing news of the breakthrough, that they were walking in a deadly trap. Incursion soldiers began to immediately run towards the gap in the line in an attempt to flee the rapidly falter defenses of the camp. However they did this in panic and such were disorganized and unable to fight as a coherent force; the ideal target for the feared Fuyabbid Mamluks. Only a force of 200 or so Mamluks emerged from the rear of the main Fuyabbid line yet that was enough to cut down almost every fleeing incursion soldier. Those at the front were subjected to the spears and swords of the Mamluks, those in the rear were impaled by the rapidly advancing foot soldiers of the skirmishing forces, and those in the middle watched as they would share the same fate of the soldiers surrounding them.

By the time dusk had reached the battlefield it was mess of trampled horses, half-dying men, shattered armor, broken spears, torn banners, and the carcass which was the dream of what the Mesopotaminus Incursion hoped to achieve. The Incursion force entered the night with a force of ~8000 men led by the greatest leaders of several Knights Orders, by morning only 17 men were left alive to be taken prisoners by the Fuyabbid; most of whom being either sold off as slaves or executed shortly thereafter. Huedan Lato, the mastermind behind the whole Incursion, laid dead in the midst of the chaos to escape, ironically likely trampled by his own men. Durato, the leader of the ~500 Knights of the Brothers of Rhodes, whiose body was left skewered on a pike along with the rest of his soldiers. However Zalem's corpse was never found, not even any bit of his weapon or armor or any of the other Knights who joined him on the breakthrough charge. Due to himself and most of his order "disappearing" it was concluded by many scholars and clergy officials that Zalem and his Order, the Powdered Patriarchs, deserted the Incursion and fled, not only abandoning their fellow soldiers in the field of battle but also abandoning the holy cause of it. With how many knights orders took place that belonged to either branch of Christianity it was formally decided, in a long time, by both churches to ex-communicate Zalem and the remnants of the Order but also declare them as Heretics, seeing them no better than servants of the Anti-Christ itself.

Though we do not truly know what happened to Zalem nor his Knights it is quite easy to speculate and entertain the idea of them truly deserting and abandoning the cause; in the face of absolute destruction it is reasonable to want to flee. However rumors have begun to emerge to the east in contested Fuyabbid lands of "a band of rogue bandits attacking and harassing Fuyabbid army wagon trains and weapon armories". Particularly targeting storages for the Fuyabbid's supposed "black powder" weapons. Normally this is the usual dealings of bandits in lawless parts of any given empire, but these are different; they seem to be part of an organized group rather than a rag-tag band of mercenaries. Some point to them being merely an organized crime group, attacking these rare "black powder" storages to take and sell them. However an interesting proposal was brought up suggesting that these attacks on these "black powder" weapon storages are being perpetrated by the remnants of Zalem's Order, continuing the fight in their own way against Caliph rule over the levant and Mesopotaminus. However the only way to know is venture out to the east, into the levant, and await for a surprise attack against Fuyabbid forces or their "black powder" armories from these apparent "bandits".