Order of the Skeletal Hand

The order of the Skeletal Hand is an order devoted to death. Though they don't bother about the afterlife or nature of the soul.

History
Formed in the city of Mournhold sometime in the first era, the order's members are kown to have an obsession with death. They focus their energies on studying killing and death to the extent that they were eventually run out of Mournhold. Similarly expelled from every other place they attempted to settle in, the members of the order became a secret society, establishing hidden monasteries all over Nirn where they can continue their studies in relative peace.

Activities
The Members of the Skeletal Hand are easily recognizeable by their pale skin and gaunt features. They eat little, and they spend most of their time inside their sanctuaries, in crypts and graveyards, and other dark places where there is little natural light.

The members of the Skeletal Hand intensely study the effect of the process of death on living tissue. The ultimate objective is to discover the 'perfect death' - an objective that no member of the group really understand, let alone achieve. In one of their sanctuaries, they spend the majority of their time sparring with one another and the rest in quiet contemplation. Outside of the sanctuaries, they wander relatively aimlessly, often disguised as beggars, attacking humanoids that they come across in an effort to inflict as painful a death as they can, using only their bare hands.

Membership
Becoming a member of the order require first finding a sanctuary. There are at least three - one hidden in Eastmarch, Skyrim, one in the Dragontail Mountains on the eastern edge of Ephesus and one in Summerset Isles between Eton Nir and Old Run near Cloudrest. Very few applicants are actually accepted - perhaps a dozen a year - and each one had to pass several tests of strength, agility and endurance before being inducted into the order fully.

They affect the trappings of death in their garb, wearing long, dark robes and shroudlike hooded cloaks to hide their features. Though fearful of those who do not understand them and who might seek to thwart their studies, they are civil hosts if approached by learned folk who offer to share knowledge or wisdom.

Leadership
Each sanctuary is independant of the others and led by a single individual. This individual had to prove themselves the best warrior of the members in the sanctuary through trials by combat every year on the Old Life Festival.