The Order of the Broken Cross


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The Order of the Broken Cross

Broken cross brand on
forearm of dead vampire

Initiation into the Order
took place behind an
oversized broken cross

In 1935, an FVZA Assault Team encountered fierce resistance while conducting an attack on a warehouse on the outskirts of Dallas. The vampires they encountered were unusually well organized and seemed to know the assault team's every move before it was made. It took the team two full days to finish off the vampires, after which they made a chilling discovery: each of the dead vampires had a brand burned onto its forearm. While the chicken scratch might have meant little to the average person, it was bad news for the FVZA. The three-pronged symbol represented the broken cross, symbol of a paramilitary vampire organization that was to have devastating effects on the FVZA for the next several decades.

The Order of the Broken Cross considered themselves descendants of Quadilla, the great vampire general who besieged Rome in the Ninth Century. A vampire named Logan Mulvey resurrected the Order in 1935, at a time when the FVZA was making serious inroads into the U.S. vampire population. Mulvey and his associates knew their days were numbered unless they organized an effective counterattack against the Agency.

Ironically, the Order coopted FVZA techniques and philosophies in their own training regimen. They practiced martial arts diligently and acquired expertise in a vast array of weapons. New members were indoctrinated in a solemn ceremony, at which time they were branded on the forearm. Members of the Order maintained a sort of "Underground Railroad" consisting of hideouts across the country, so that they were never far from shelter come sunrise.

Striking back at the FVZA was a major part of the Order's agenda. They acquired names and personal information on agents and conducted a campaign of intimidation that knew no bounds. On one occasion, they impaled the severed head of an agent onto a traffic pole outside the Boston office. And if they couldn't get to the agents, then they attacked family members. The strategy proved to be brutally effective, as a number of agents left the force rather than endanger their families. The Second World War, which siphoned away a number of experienced agents, further emboldened the Order.

The Order reached its zenith around 1946, with an estimated 50,000 members worldwide, then began a slow decline. Increased FVZA enrollment was the biggest factor in turning the tide. It took the Agency several more years and many more lives to finish the job, but by the beginning of the 1960s the Order had returned to the halls of infamy, where it remains today.