Story
The Order Empire Explained
The story of the Order Empire — the faction you command across the Stick War series — from its small beginnings to its conquest of Inamorta and its long war against Chaos.
The story of the Order Empire — the faction you command across the Stick War series — from its small beginnings to its conquest of Inamorta and its long war against Chaos.
The Order Empire is the faction the player commands throughout the Stick War series. Its story runs from a small, harassed nation to the ruler of Inamorta — and then into a new war against the Chaos Empire. This page collects what the games establish about Order’s origin, philosophy, army and place in the timeline.
Game scope: Stick War series lore. Original/Legacy history is separated from later Saga revelations and gameplay; Saga-only details are not treated as Legacy facts.
Order is a nation and later an empire in the world of Inamorta. In the original Stick War it is described as the country the player leads: a people whose way is peace and knowledge, and who — uniquely among the major nations — do not worship their weapons as gods. Across the series Order is also called the Country of Order and, once it has unified Inamorta, the Order Empire.
Order’s founding philosophy is the “way of peace and knowledge.” While the Swordwrath, Archidons, Speartons and Magikill each turn their weapon into a religion, Order treats its own tools as tools. The opening narration of the first game makes the contrast explicit: because Order does not worship weapons, it becomes “a mark for infiltration by the surrounding nations.” In the story this philosophy explains both Order’s early weakness and its later strength — it can adopt any technology because it is not bound to one.
Order does not begin as a conqueror. The series frames its first war as a response: surrounded by hostile nations that harass and infiltrate it, Order decides its only chance to defend is to attack first. Its armies march out to take the technology of each neighboring nation before those nations can destroy Order. The campaign presents the conquest as survival turning into unification — Order becomes the apex of the community by eliminating its aggressive competition.
In the original war the empire acts as a collective under its banner, with the player as its commander. In the modern era of the series, Order is ruled by King Zarek, who appears as a commander unit in Stick War: Legacy and later entries. Zarek is one of the few characters in the setting who does not follow any of the weapon “ways” — a detail consistent with Order’s own philosophy. See the King Zarek page for his full story.
Order’s army is built from the nations it conquers. Each defeated people contributes its own way of war: the Swordwrath bring the sword, the Archidons the bow, the Speartons the spear and shield, and the Magikill magic. Order also fields miners and basic infantry of its own, and later the enslaved giants of No Man’s Land. This mix — absorbing the enemy’s technology rather than rejecting it — is Order’s defining military trait.
The Order Empire and the Chaos Empire are opposites in the series’ story: Order follows peace and knowledge, Chaos rises from hatred and enslavement. The conflict between them is the engine of the later games. For the other side of the war, see the Chaos Empire page and the empires guide.
section class="faq" aria-labelledby="faq-title">Common questions about this topic.