Elamite Order

Arms of the Elamite Order

The Order of Elamite Hospitallers of the Seven Churches is a Catholic religious order.

The Order was originally formed to provide protection, accommodations, and spiritual care to Kiravian pilgrims visiting Christian holy sites in the Istroyan Basin. Further to these functions, the Order began developing military capabilities and would emerge as a militarily potent chivalric order during the Crusades, due largely to their mastery of amphibious warfare tactics. As the "shock troops of Christendom", the Elamites saw action on numerous fronts throughout the Crusades, and in the process acquired territorial holdings in the Melian Isles, Sydona, and elsewhere which they governed as Crusader states.

Today the Order persists as a Catholic religious order and as a non-territorial federal subject of the Kiravian Federacy.

Name

The 'Elamite' appellation comes from the association of the Biblical Land of Kir with Elam. Antediluvian theories about the peopling of Great Kirav nonwithstanding, Mediæval Coscivian and Celtic Christian histories identified the Elamites of Kir as ancestors of the Coscivian peoples, thus integrating them into Noachic genealogies as descendants of Elam, son of Shem. Mediæval writers in both Kiravia and the Occident often used Elamite and Elamitic as synonyms for 'Coscivian'.

History

Origins

The Order was founded in the lost cathedral town of Sodexorstrom, Mérav in 1062 AD.

First Crusade

The Elamites were latecomers to the First Crusade effort and played only a minor role.

Second Crusade

During the Second Crusade, the Elamites participated in several assaults on the Caliphate's island possessions. Although most of these were repelled or resulted in minor or transitory territorial gains, they provided the Elamites with valuable experience and earned them much reknown for their valour.

Third Crusade

During the Third Crusade the Elamites were instrumental in the successful conquest of the Melian Isles, where they would subsequently establish a Crusader state under their administration.

The Order also helped facilitate the Qustanti Revolt of [YEAR].

Fourth Crusade

From its Melian base, the Elamites continued to contribute to the Crusader offensives in the Istroyan region and would extend their reach further south and west to the Iddrytine Despotate and Sydona Islands, ultimately establishing a permanent presence in the latter.

Modern Era

The Elamites last engaged in combat during the Farravonian Counterrevolution, when a small company of Elamite Knights was mustered to assist the Catholic and Republican Army in the defence of Venèra, where they suffered a devastating defeat by the Red Army of the Kiravian Union.

The Order was banned in the Kiravian Union and expelled from the Mainland and - more injuriously - Sydona. Its hierarchy rode out the Sunderance from its historic strongholds in the Melian Islands.

Non-Military Activities

Elamite Health & Rehabilitation System

The Elamite Order has operated hospitals and cared for the sick and injured since its creation. Today it operates a very large network of hospitals, rehabilitation centres, and other healthcare facilities across the Kiravian Federacy and Collectivity. Much of the modern network was put in place on the Kiravian Mainland after reunification, and was motivated in part due to the order's concerns about the growing influence of Methodism in Kiravia due to Methodist ecclesial communities' involvement in healthcare, sanatoria, and addiction recovery ministries, thus synergising with the Order's contemporary focus on Neo-Counter-Reformation.

Neo-Counter-Reformation and Countercult Movement

Due to the repression of the major apostolic churches (Insular Apostolic, Coscivian Orthodox, but most of all, Catholic) during Kirosocialism, the post-communist rebound in religious practice on the Kiravian mainland has been much more diverse in terms of the religious traditions embraced than was the landscape that preceded it. While most returnees to religion in urban Great Kirav have reverted to the faiths of their ancestors, others have taken up the Coscivian-origin religions, Sectarian creeds, new religious movements, historical Protestantism (mainly Methodism), and post-denominational neo-Protestantism.

One of the Order's post-reunification priorities has been countering the spread of Protestantism, new religious movements, and schismatic and heretical sects in Kiravia and providing Catholic alternatives to humanitarian missions sponsored by Protestant churches and other non-Catholic bodies. It is a major participant in the Christian countercult movement, even joining forces with the ecumenical Christian Motorcyclists Association and Protestant churches in this effort.