In the year -2191 spies in the service of three of the great religions of Eastern Sudland met in the ciy of Azir to consider action
against a new movement they dubbed the Cult of Danaeus. The Cult had infiltrated the region in secret and by a judicious combination of
well placed propaganda and political assassination was sowing chaos to a dangerous extent. Azir was in any case a hub of religious rivalry
with many religions vying to dominate the city. It did not help that two of the leading religions at the time were the
Church of the Black Sun and the
Temple of the Hidden Name both of whom were suspected by the population
at large of being behind the unrest.
The spies suspected both through their own observations and the omens, auguries and divinations performed by their temples that the Cult
of Danaeus was a front for a major chaotic evil power such as the demon lord
Zanaku. They therefore decided to fight fire with fire and three of their number most suited to
the task were asked to set up a cult of assassins, the
Red Mantis. In order to ensure appropriate distance was maintained by the temples of the plotters the new cult would worship
Achaekek a dormant creature which was formerly the feared agent/assassin of the gods. Further,
apart from initial funding, the Red Mantis would have to be self-sustaining and there would be very limited contact with the founding temples.
It was noteworthy that at the time the rooting out of the Cult of Danaeus was thought to be a ten year project after which the Red Mantis would be disbanded.
None of the above history is known to the rank and file of the Red Mantis and indeed was not known to the rank and file at the time of
its founding in Azir. The Cult of Danaeus proved a formidable foe with many powerful allies in Azir society. This required the Red Mantis
to build up its numbers to take the Cult on. The expansion was funded by accepting commercial contracts which were relatively easy to come
by in the turmoil gripping the city. In the end the Red Mantis achieved its aims after a bitter underground war lasting 26 years and the
Cult of Danaeus was suppressed. The chaos
in the city, which the activities of the Red Mantis exacerpated, led, however, to the rise of a powerful anti-religious faction. In the
very next year the Law of Man was passed and all relgious factions including the Red Mantis were expelled from the city.
By the end of the 'war' only one of the original leaders of the Red Mantis was still alive, Jira Oban, and rather than disband the
organisation and return to her original temple she fled with the organisation's wealth to
Mediogalti Island, fearing perhaps a rebuke from the gods. Many people saw the 'gift'
of the Ghost Mantis egg at the Ghost Temple to be such a rebuke but if it was it only
confirmed to the Red Mantis hierarchy that they should stick with the enigmatic and uncaring Achaekek as their patron.
The Red Mantis leadership has from time to time tried to refocus on its original mission of fighting demonic cults but its
success as a commercial organisation has been a distraction from doing so. The former High Priestess Shiel tried to get the organisation to
take action against the Cult of Jubilek in Rahadoum which backed Admiral Thrune's assault on
The Shackles but was overthrown for doing so. In fact the Red Mantis seem to have gravely underestimated the threat of the new Cult due to their ignorance about the fate of the Hurricane King and if the invasion of The Shackles had been successful it
could have radically changed the internal politics of Rahadoum.