Those few survivors of the once-formidable knightly Orders of the Kingdom were left without lands, lords or allegiance in the world after the Cataclysm. Whilst many retained the colours and heraldry of their now-dead liege lords, seeking only to end their service - and lives - with honour, others bound themselves to new masters, sacrificing old heraldry for new in a desperate attempt to retain their purpose in an unforgiving and hostile world.
The foundation of the Black Order is not well recorded. The Battle of Black Cross is believed by historians to have been the singular event which granted the Order its name as well as its sigil, the iron cross of fervor, in recognition of the infamy it earned that day. Few other battles in the post-Cataclysm ruins of the Kingdom are known to have pitched knight against knight, and none were fought with such ferocity.
In the wake of Black Cross, the Order swelled in size, with many knights-errant and initiates of now-shattered Orders submitting themselves to the Black Order and taking the black-and-bone surcoat as their own. Those who would bear the black sigil would be required to swear fealty to the Order as a singular entity, and would undergo a joining ritual, the nature of which was whispered by the Order's enemies and detractors as heathen and barbaric.