Crimson Order

The Crimson Order (紅の騎士団) is a recently formed military organization affiliated with the Midgar Kingdom's government that strives to protect the country, both in terms of security and order from all threats led by the First Princess Iris Midgar as one of the most powerful swordsman practitioners and magic users on the continent.

They are currently investigating Shadow Garden and the Cult of Diablos after the kidnapping of Princess Alexia. However, the Crimson Order had fallen into dire straits due to the failure of the assignments they had received, coupled with a shortage of resources in personnel and support.

Eventually, the Cult was able to worm one of their spies into the Crimson Order's ranks, approving fabricated evidence to incriminate Shadow Garden for past evils of the Cult's while disavowing the Cult as a fantasy.

Overview
The Crimson Order works as a special investigation unit. Even though it was only a newly formed small knight order, the Crimson Order was made up of trusted people. As an official military organization, their primary goal is to fight against all threats to maintain order and peace within Midgar Kingdom.

The Crimson Order has been investigate two shadow organizations, the Cult of Diablos which had carried out the kidnapping of the Second Princess Alexia Midgar, and Shadow Garden which had rescued Alexia and destroyed the Cult's hidden facility, as well as eliminated the people within the facility, especially Zenon Griffey who was the main perpetrator of the kidnapping.

However, the Crimson Order was unable to run smoothly due to the limited funds caused by the sudden construction of the new order. In addition, the Crimson Order had suffered from several failures that which have lost support with the death of their best knight after not long joining the organization, most notably Princess Iris Midgar' public defeat at the Bushin Festival.

History
The Crimson Order was first founded by Iris Midgar, who is the First Princess of Midgar Kingdom and strongest warrior in the kingdom which consists of her trusted members, namely Glen of the "Lion Mane" and Marco Granger who voluntarily joined the new Order.

Iris Midgar establishing the Crimson Order in order to combat forces that would disrupt the Midgar Kingdom after the kidnapping of her younger sister, Alexia Midgar by Zenon Griffey who known as a respected person because of his reputation is a mastermind of her sister kidnapping, as well as secretly a member of the Cult of Diablos. Knowing this, Iris formed this new Order because her distrust within the Knight Order.

During that incident, Iris also encountered Alpha from the Shadow Garden organization. Being unable to determine if Shadow Garden were friend or foe, the Crimson Order also pursued them with all their might as they also pursued the Cult of Diablos.

Organization Strength and Influence
The Crimson Order is a powerful military organization in the Midgar Kingdom and become a major force to be reckoned with, containing members of knights that have been carefully selected from the Knight Order with only being able to recruit 8 people, especially Glen who is known as the strongest knight and become the Vice-Commander in the organization. However, the true strength of the Crimson Order lies in their commander, the First Princess Iris Midgar who is recognized as the strongest person in the kingdom whose name has been famous by the populace and her famed have extraordinary achievements.

Although only formed as a new order, the Crimson Order's current standing influence is weak enough and could possibly survived more than ten years with Iris's sufficient contributions, despite having a limited budget. Not long after its founding, the Crimson Order had taking several failures which had lost a lot of support and cast doubt on Iris' capability in running the organization.

Membership
The Crimson Order was formed as a special force consisting of trusted people that Iris Midgar herself picked from the Knight Order in order to fight and eliminated any mischief forces that could threaten the Midgar Kingdom. Due to Iris' sudden recklessness in constructing a new Order, the Crimson Order does not have enough resources which is needed for forming into become a proper Order and then began to collect funds and stockpiling weapons, in order be able to build up its military strength.

During the failure of their first mission, Iris admitted that the Crimson Order had lost their strongest member shortly after joining which resulted in losing the majority support of the Knight Order and since there was little chance of them being replaced, its probably wouldn't be able to rebuild the Order.

Midgar Academy Terrorist Attack
For their first assignment, Iris had Glen of the "Lion Mane" and Marco Granger to protect Sherry Barnett as she worked in her lab at Midgar Academy to analyze an artifact called, the Eye of Avarice which they seized from a Diablos facility. However, Midgar Academy was soon under siege by the "Children" from the Cult of Diablos pretending to be Shadow Garden to incriminate the opposing faction. Rex attacked and killed Glen while severely wounding Marco, but Sherry was still able to complete her research and allow the Knights into the school to restore order.

With the failure of the Crimson Knight's first mission, Princess Iris lost the majority support from the Knight Order with Glen's unexpected demise shortly after joining. Iris notes to herself that her Crimson Order has lost their strongest members and probably won't be able to rebuild them as it is unlikely that they can be replaced.

Sanctuary Infiltration
The Second Princess of Midgar Kingdom, Alexia Midgar visits the Sacred Land, Lindwurm as a VIP guest for the Goddess's Trial event and also intends to investigate the archbishop Drake's dark rumors regarding corruption and missing orphans, as well as his ties to the Holy Church of Divine Teachings along with the Crimson Order member.

Hearing the news of the Sanctuary being obliterates by Shadow, Princess Iris Midgar approach King Klaus Midgar, as she wanted to use the kingdom's authority to investigate the Holy Church. Even after hearing reports of suspicions of collusion between the Holy Church of Divine Teachings and the Cult of Diablos, Klaus did not try to deal with it on the pretext that it was not a certainty with the facts at present and had no crucial evidence to justify a long term investigation.

Furthermore with the approaching of Bushin Festival event along with many honored guests from abroad to whom he must presently play host, Klaus think that this is certainly not a time where he can afford to present himself being antagonistic toward the Church for causing any undue turmoil. Also, Klaus wants to avoid upsetting his allies in Oriana Kingdom and receiving a visit from their king, Raphael Oriana. Iris is determined to get results and prove that she has power to stand up against the Divine Teachings, which Klaus often finds it tiresome to remind Iris of his words and also holds high expectations of her.

After that, Iris want to hear every detail from Alexia who went to Lindwurm to attend as a guest in the Goddess's Trial event. After hearing every detail from her sister report about Alexia wants to investigate the Divine Teachings because there must be a big organization that are be able to keep the Sanctuary a secret from the public, Iris also had suggested the same thing to their father, Klaus Midgar to use the kingdom's authority to investigate the Holy Church. But, the King told both princess to not do anything. However, Iris feels that if she wins the Bushin Festival again, she will have more backing and support of the people, and their father will have to listen to her.

Bushin Festival Tournament
There has been a great deal of criticism on the Royal Bushin method because of its questionable credibility, particularly from the propagators of the method, Zenon Griffey whose reputation has now been tarnished by his actions and as a result, his scandals have disgrace the Royal Bushin method.

Fearing for the kingdom's future, Iris Midgar plans to enter the tournament to participated and became a recurring champion in winning the Bushin Festival, in order to regain the good name of the kingdom's fighting technique that she had been trying so hard to contribute and restore public faith in her kingdom's knights order and the royal family, hoping that her victory would assuring her kingdom's confidence, in both her strength and their security as the public would raising support upon her victory.

During Bushin Festival tournament, Iris won numerous match until she against Mundane Mann in the semifinal match only she face an utter humiliated defeat. After that, Mundane goes into the VIP seating and rescuing Rose Oriana also reveals his true identity as Shadow, even helping the fugitive princess escape from the stadium arena. Seeing the person's real figure was the leader of Shadow Garden, Iris became angry and when Beatrix started to battling him, she decided to help the War Goddess in her confrontation against Shadow.

Novel/Manga
Iris Midgar who was beaten by the time she fought Shadow in her match as a Mundane suddenly decide to join their fight after Beatrix was overwhelmed when the leader of Shadow Garden started to exert his effort against her as she didn't want him to walk away after ruining the event. Iris suggesting that she'll sacrifice herself in stopping him while the Goddess cut him down.

This backfired as not even an obstruction could stop him as Shadow ultimately defeated them. The wounded Iris asked why he didn't kill them with him responding that he only kills his enemies, departing while reminding her that she shouldn't lose sight of her "true enemies". Immediately afterwards, Shadow disappears in a halo of light, leaving a clear sky in his wake.

Iris was initially confused by his response due to her being given an utter humiliating defeat before the public and had developed a deep hatred towards him, as she concluded that Shadow is an enemy of not only her kingdom but to the whole world.

Anime
In the middle of their fight, Iris Midgar shows up and states she wants to join the fight to confront Shadow as she wields an artifact mithril sword with ancient runes, surprising him but also amusing him that she would resort to what he sees as a clutch, which annoyed her and turns the blade into a large fire magic from the sword and swings at Shadow.

But, Shadow easily dodges and states that it has good visuals and is more fit for a festival spectacular as he block Beatrix attacks and continuing their fight, with Iris joining Beatrix to fight Shadow as their fight continues through the city and the two manage to push him towards a construction on a building. It was then Shadow stumbled upon a pair of crowbars and takes them to blocks both Iris and Beatrix attacks, noting that crowbars indeed have potential and they are keep on fighting on top of a train and on the water until reached the clock tower.

Knowing that Shadow is a very powerful opponent, Iris tells Beatrix that she will immobilize him even if it costs her her life and then Beatrix can take him down. Iris attacks Shadow by swinging her sword until she lets it go and attempts to grab Shadow, however, Shadow kicks her in the chin with his knee. At the same time, Beatrix already finishes charging her attack technique to strike in that moment to take him down when she knocks Shadow's sword. But, Shadow dodges her attack as he grabs and slams her over Iris until he stomps both of them.

Shadow attempts to leave, but the girls manage to stand up and Iris tells him that by now every knight in the city should have been mobilized. He has turned the whole kingdom into his enemy and there isn't a place he can run to. However to their shock, Shadow starts laughing maniacally and then states he ain't running as there is no reason to. He activates his power, covering most of the city and states that the playtime is over. Seeing his power, the girls are left stunned. Shadow starts casting his I am Atomic attack, but stops before the end and leaves. Seeing that, Iris drops on her knees and cries.

This incident made Iris realize that her swordsmanship was inexperienced and she became pessimistic that she had crushed the face of the kingdom by being defeated in front of the public. After that, she trained to defeat Shadow and Alpha. However, Alexia is worried about her desperation due to her crazy appearance.

The Academy Disappearances
During the new term of the Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy, the Crimson Order had recruited Hubb as Glen's successor as Vice-Commander. Unbeknownst, Hubb is a spy for the Cult of Diablos as he infiltrated the Crimson Order to manipulate Iris by giving her false evidence and mislead Iris that Shadow Garden were evil, behind many past events that were actually the Cult's evils. From Hubb's manipulation of information, Iris overturned her previous views, concluding the Cult did not exist and all disturbances were Shadow Garden's anarchy, becoming a puppet of the Cult. Iris then became obsessed with taking down Shadow and Shadow Garden believing them to be her "true enemy".

Equipment and Artifacts
As a newly formed organization, the Crimson Order has already lacking in funds, weapons equipment, and only possessed one Artifact.
 * Swords (standard issue)
 * Holy Sword of Freya (Anime only): Iris uses the sword of Freya in her battle with Shadow.

Known Members
There were originally only eight total members who had joined in the organization. At Volume 5, it is revealed that there are more members, but most of them seem like cowards. Even the Cult of Diablos had brought in their members to manipulate Princess Iris, with Hubb providing false evidence that their past evils in the world were really Shadow Garden.


 * Iris Midgar (Founder; Commander)
 * Glen of the "Lion Mane" (1st Vice-Commander; Deceased)
 * Hubb (2nd Vice-Commander; Cult infiltrator)
 * Marco Granger (Senior Knight)
 * Alexia Midgar (External Staff)

Trivia

 * The Crimson Order members wearing red cloaks, likely due to Iris's notable crimson red hair.
 * Claire Kagenō is one of the few students that Iris wants to recruit, after she graduates from the Midgar Royal Spellsword Academy.
 * Even Iris had recently build this Order for almost half a year, the Crimson Order has been losing public support from mishaps and failings related to their pursuit of Shadow.
 * With Hubb manipulating Princess Iris, the Crimson Order is effectively a (clueless) Cult asset.