Orders (knightly, Occult etc)

Hello all, for June our theme is Orders, be they of knightly Brotherhoods, Wiccan Sororities, Doomsday Cults, Secret Societies etc. Basically stories which have an organisation bound together by more than just a day-job - oaths of loyalty, membership until death, a joint cause worth sacrificing your life for etc

Fantasy stories are awash with these. Many will have an order of knights or warrior society somewhere in the setting. Wizards will often group together as well. Religious orders may exist for various gods that exist in the fantasy work. And of course you may even have rogues, thieves or assassins guilds which expect some kind of death before failure clause.

Horror also has examples, such as holy orders of monster fighting good-guys, or occultist villains. And sci-fi (particularly science-fantasy / space operas) can have just many Jedi Knights and honour-bound warrior castes as fantasy.

So, hopefully there’s something for you to read. As always below are some examples to set the mood (suggested by either from members or Goodreads), but you are free to read whatever you wish however strictly or loosely it fits the theme, and come and tell us about it on the day.

Examples

• Brood of the Witch Queen (1918), by Sax Rogmer – supernatural horror involving occult murders. Very short, less than 100 pages.
• Dune (1965), by Frank Herbert – Far future science-fantasy, great houses play politics over a resource rich desert world. The Bene Gesserit are an all-female religious order who manipulate a lot of the events behind the scenes.
• Eye of The World (Wheel of Time vol 1) (1990), by Robert Jordan – High fantasy about a world readying itself for the last battle against the evil god of the setting, with the twist that everyone is terrified the messiah destined to save them will go insane and destroy the world anyway. (great series, and very different story from the Amazon show very loosely based on it). Loaded with military, magical and religious orders.
• The Last Wish (The Witcher vol 1) (1990), by Andrzej Sapkowski - The Witchers are an order of supernaturally enhanced monster hunters. First 2 books are a collection of short stories focusing on the missions of Geralt.
• Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire vol 1) (1996), by George R Martin – political dark fantasy, with more focus on war and interpersonal conflict between various High Houses than the supernatural elements (I presume we’ve all seen the show). Plenty of knightly orders, sworn-brotherhoods, orders of assassins, religious priesthoods etc
• The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive vol 1) (2010), by Brandon Sanderson – High fantasy were a knightly order called the Knights Radiant battle to defend humans against rampaging monsters.
• Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor vol 1) (2017), by Mark Lawrence – A slave is purchased by a church to be trained as a magic-using warrior nun.
• Gideon the Ninth (2019), by Tamsyn Muir – Gothic science-fantasy. Across nine planets in the far future necromancers and death cults play politics to win favour of their immortal Emperor.
• Empire of The Vampire (2021) by Jay Kristoff – Order of knights seek the Holy Grail to defend the world against vampires.
• Silver Nitrate (2023), by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – occult horror about a woman working on a movie cursed by an occultist.
• The Devils (2025), by Joe Abercrombie – historical fantasy of a European monk fighting against man-eating elves and other fantasy creatures.