The Mark was given to certain members of the group who took shelter from the Cleansing on the protected island of Melschez, the last Wusch. The Mark grants its bearer control over nature.

These are the orders of the Mark:

Initiate

Grey: Basic manipulation of air, water, earth, and chemicals.

Green: Basic manipulation of plant, fungal, and bacterial life.

Adept

Blue: Manipulation of kinetics, electro-magnetics, and energy.

Red: Manipulation of non-Nephesh life forms and matter.

Yellow: Manipulation of space-time.

Master

Bronze: Advanced manipulation of the forces, electro-magnetic phenomena,
and matter.

Silver: Advanced manipulation of quantum phenomena, anti and dark matters, and dark energy.

Gold: Advanced manipulation of space-time and higher dimensions.

White: Transcendent manipulation and understanding of the Cobhas.

Initiate

Initiates are bearers of active marks who have been newly admitted into the organized Orders of the Mark. Initiates may be trained in the Grey and Green disciplines. Besides their discipleship, Initiates attended formalized classes on theology, theoretic and actual science, history, and languages and cultures.

Adepts are bearers of the Mark who have mastered the Grey and Green disciplines and are approved by their disciplers for advancement, based on their submission to authority and their readiness to advance to the discipline of strength. Adepts must finish their formal studies before they may learn the next disciplines. Adepts may be taught, and are expected to master, the disciplines of Blue, Red, and Yellow.

Adepts may advance to Master when their discipler judges that they have master the Adept level. If their Master discipler has died, a commission of Masters will judge the readiness of the Adept for advancement. Masters are taught the disciplines of Bronze, Silver, and Gold by White discipline Masters. Masters are expected to train themselves in the White discipline.

Initiates, Adepts, and Masters are organized into teams of three. An Initiate will be attached to an Adept and a Master, who will act as his spiritual disciplers and will train him in his Mark disciplines. Besides training their Initiate, Adepts continue to be trained and discipled by their Master. Masters and Adepts maintain accountability between other members of their Order-Proper. Generally speaking, these teams share the same Mark Lineage, or relates Lineages. (Mark Lineage will be explained below.)

Initiates are expected to master the spiritual disciplines and the mental discipline of submission. Adepts are expected to master the mental discipline of strength. Masters are expected to master the spiritual discipline of sacrifice. This pattern will loosely reflect the son, father, grand-father relationship.

The commissions try to preserve these relationships, and will general permit advancements to higher levels when this allows these relationships to continue.

A bearer of the Mark will assign an person to receive the Mark through the laying on of hands (not related to that practice as found in the Book of Acts). At first, the Mark will take on a pale, transparent luminescence. As the bearer advances, this Mark changes subtly in color, giving rise to the colors assigned to each discipline.

Melschez first gave the Mark to a dwarf, and elf, and a man. Each received a unique shape of the Mark. Each was also given the power to pass on the Mark to five disciples. Each of the five received a unique mark, very similar to the Mark of the one who discipled them. Each of the five was also given the power to pass on the Mark to two disciples, each of whom received a unique Mark which resembled their discipler's. These latter bearers could only pass on the Mark once, and that Mark would be identical to their own.

The first three are called the First Division. These three give rise to the First Division Lineages. The groups of five created fifteen lineages called Second Division Lineages. The final thirty form the Third Division Lineages (generally referred to merely as "The Lineages".

Third Division Lineages are easily determined by the shape of a person's Mark. The Second and Third Divisions can be determined by brief examination of the Mark. Teams of three must share a Second Division Lineage. Commissions must share the same Third Division as the person they judge.

The order of the Mark was originally a loosely organized group of Mark bearers who associated with each other in order to prevent other bearers of the Mark from gaining power and influence. This group was reformed and became the Orders of the Mark, a secret organization for the benefit of justice and the Covenant. The group fell into corruption and became a secret cult which controlled the politics of several empires from behind the scenes. This cult gradually lost influenced and ultimately dissolved during the First Advanced period, superseded by an obsession with technological advancement and the quest to colonize the moons.

This is now being archived.