History

The order was originally a part of the Knights Templar

Knights Templar

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...

, a group of soldier-monks that were formed during the Crusades

Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...

 originally to protect pilgrims journeying to the Holy Land, and who grew quite powerful before being disbanded. The members of the Order had a falling out with the other Templars and formed their own group, named for their leader Dumas ("who nobody else has ever accused of being a Saint"). The centuries-old villain Ra's al Ghul

Ra's al Ghul

Ra's al Ghul is a DC Comics supervillain and is one of Batman's greatest enemies. His name in Arabic has been translated in the comics as "The Demon's Head" and references the name of the star Algol. Created by writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Neal Adams, he was introduced in Batman #232's...

 once had "an adventure" with Dumas, and Ra's later described the founder of the Order as "...[a] vicious man, an insane fanatic." The Order eventually stole Ra's Wheel of Plagues, which contains a record of biological weapons. Ra's himself also took their precious battle armor, The Suit Of Sorrows, to pass as a family heirloom.

The order enriched itself during the Crusades and then went into hiding. It devoted itself to the teachings of Dumas. The order's first champion was an Asian man named Stephen Forrest Lee, the assassin known to Mark Shaw as Dumas. The failure of this champion splintered the order.

Splinter

The main branch retreated and the violent splinter elements created a new champion called Azrael

Azrael (comics)

Azrael is the name of several fictional characters in the DC Comics universe. They are a group of assassins who were created by The Order of St. Dumas to "enforce god's will"...

, a hereditary title given to the splinter order's near-superhuman enforcer and assassin. Members of the splinter order enlarged the organization's power by killing their enemies, hoarding knowledge and kidnapping some of the greatest thinkers in the world. The order also spread disinformation

Disinformation

Disinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. For this reason, it is synonymous with and sometimes called black propaganda. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth...

 to ensure that the theories of the kidnapped geniuses would look so silly that nobody would miss them or examine their research. A recent Azrael, Jean-Paul Valley

Azrael (comics)

Azrael is the name of several fictional characters in the DC Comics universe. They are a group of assassins who were created by The Order of St. Dumas to "enforce god's will"...

, eventually destroyed the splinter group.

In Detective Comics #842, reveals that there is another splinter faction, The Order of Purity.

A new champion

The main branch of the order recently recruited former Manhunter Mark Shaw to be their new champion.