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# Order of the Servants of Decay

The Servants of Decay are rarely referred to as an Order. In beastfolk settlements, they are known by other names: Ashen Ones, Grave Brothers, Those Who Listen to the Earth, Heralds of the Last Bell. The Steam Empire considers them heretics, a dark cult, and a threat to the very order of iron. The Resistance regards them with caution: sometimes as dangerous allies, sometimes as a threat. They themselves use a simpler name — the Servants of Decay.

They do not worship death as the mere end of the body, but Decay — the great dissolution, the inevitable end of everything false, proud, stagnant, iron, and living. To them, Decay is neither a monster nor a curse, but one of the fundamental laws of the world. Everything is born, grows strong, ages, rots, crumbles, and returns to the earth. Anything that tries to escape this law will sooner or later become a monstrosity. This is why the Servants of Decay do not hate life itself, but its perversion: immortality without a soul, power without end, iron that seeks eternity, and any force that attempts to halt decay or escape it.

They believe that the Steam Empire, Argo the Eternal, the cities of machines, accumulated wealth, the lust for power, fear, arrogance, and even the very memory of former greatness are nothing more than a temporary crust upon the face of the world. One day, Decay will tear it away, and only the truth will remain.

**The central doctrine of the Order is:**

> *“That which fears disappearing is already dead. That which accepts decay becomes eternal.”*

The Servants of Decay do not consider themselves villains. In their own eyes, they are not destroying the world, but freeing it from lies. They despise those who cling to life at any cost, especially the robots of the Steam Empire, who seek eternity without a soul and power without end. Yet they are not ordinary allies of the living either. They are capable of sacrificing a village, a detachment, a caravan, or an entire city if they believe it will bring the world closer to purification through decay.