Named for its founder, English witchard George Pickingill, the Pickingill Order is famed for its members’ unparalleled expertise in matters relating to beasts both magical and mundane. George Pickingill practised and perfected his craft in 19th century England, where his unnatural aptitude for animal husbandry came to the attention of even the mundane population, and thus local Guardians. A staunch believer in witchard supremacy and the need to keep magical bloodlines free of Mundane taint, Pickingill was appalled by the accusations of careless use of magic levied against him, believing it a conspiracy concocted by mixborn lessers. He managed to not only convince the Guardian order to dismiss all charges but also to allow him to formally create an Order to help control growing and increasingly out-of-control populations of cryptids in the British Isles.

Members of Pickingill receive instruction in both the care and control of beasts, whether mundane animal or cryptid. Advanced methods for attracting or repelling beasts are taught, as well as secret, magical ways of soothing or subduing them through a combination of spells and herbs. For this reason, Pickingill Order members’ expertise is especially sought after in dealing with any non-human beings. 

Lingering within this Order are the remnants of George Pickingill’s hexist beliefs, and the opinion that witchards are inherently meant to rule over other beings. Particularly in times of violent conflict, some members have been rumoured to employ a troubling magical discipline, in which the mind of a beast is conditioned and its will is overridden by the will of the witchard.