The founding date of the Zin Virael is lost beneath the erasing sands of the Desert Kingdoms.  The group's first mention is found in the legends of the Desert Kingdoms at the dawn of the Fourth Age of Emereni Reckoning (ER).  The bandit lord Ir Zijal and his raiders were fleeing a coastal caliphate (believed to be near Tola) , pursued by a contingent of the caliph's soldiers.  The soldiers could see the fleeing horsemen by the clouds of dusts they left but found only pillaged towns and camps as they made their way toward the high mountains of Azjzar Kofur.  Into the mountains, the skilled horsemen of the caliph pursued the bandits for five days, closing the ground with each passing day.  At the end of the fifth day the soldiers stopped and beheld a keep built upon a mountainside.  The heavy gate was marked with the three silver crescent seal of the Zin Virael.  The legends do not expound on how the soldiers knew of the symbol, only that it was familiar to them and they were fearful of it.  Returning to the caliph, they drew maps of their journey and the caliph raised an army.  The army marched and rode into the Azjzar Kofur to rid the countryside once and for all of the bandits of Zin Virael.

Those that returned from the march reported that the keep was never found but could not recall what had happened to the army that was sent.  The piecemeal reports described how the army's camp was ambushed in the night by black-clad bandits whose eyes blazed with demonic fire (the old legends are prone to exaggeration?).  One of the survivors claimed that their attackers were Chaosborn Bru, whose shapes shifted between Uren and monster as they passed in and out from moon-shadows of [Woad].  The most sane of surviving soldiers agreed on one point, that the keep had not been found and that the army had become lost in the mountains.  Whether the devastating force they'd encountered was indeed sent by the Zin Virael could not be known.  The caliph however could not afford to send another force.  Many years later, an old drunken man was arrested in Bajarada for being disorderly, and upon being taken to the central plaza for punishment, someone identified the drunkard as the bandit leader Ir Zijal.  With no other evidence to go on, the old man was nailed to a plaza post where he died in the desert sun.

As the Princess Adayahba Azhar of Taybadah was sailed to Zirriz to be presented to the King of Serephar in 534 ER as a gesture of goodwill (and finalization of several treaties of trade) between those eastern Kingdoms, the princess's ship was overrun by a black-sailed vessel who kidnapped Adayahba and stole away to the Burning Coast east of Nemessad.  Though the fate of the people onboard the princess's ship was unknown, it somehow was sailed into the port of Zirriz one night where it moored with no-one aboard.  The King of Serephar was enraged, for whatever had befallen the vessel had occurred along his coasts (the ship had ported uneventfully in Cajir Jirraz weeks before), making him responsible for the disappearance.  When news reached Taybadah, the queen was enraged and soon drew an alliance with the confederacy of Qamar (who have always hated the Serephari) prompting the Desert Kingdoms War.  The purpose for creating war was to increase the business of the Zin Virael, who sold weapons and mercenaries to all sides of the conflicts. Many elements brought about the war, but the kidnapping was particularly significant because in 548 ER, Princess Adayahba emerged as leader of the Zin Virael, which fostered the period of greatest expansion for the order. Some believe that the princess had been working for the order since before the kidnapping.

During the Desert Kingdoms war, the Zin Virael established themselves throughout the region, and it was quickly realized that in a few kingdoms (Qamar, Serephar, Taybadah, and Kijam) that the order was the true power behind the thrones.  Those that disagreed with the mandates of the Zin Virael were quickly replaced. The order's hold on the powers of eastern Tassèrus seemed all but total. Only the kingdoms of Caphar and chaotic Cajir Jirraz managed to stave off the order's pervasive controls.  Freedom from the influence of the Zin Virael was not without dire costs.  Assassinations among the "free-states" was very high.  The cohesive force within the countries was a common religion called Ajmiral, who with the support of the people established and maintained the leadership of the respective kingdoms, a system that would be adapted by the Dekàlans a millennia later. When a leader or his family was killed, the temple would establish another who, with the support of the kingdom's people, would overthrow whoever the Zin Virael had placed on the throne.  The system worked well-enough but required a succession of governmental rights and powers to the Ajmiral temples.  The Zin Virael never seemed willing to wage active war on the Ajmiral temples.

This all changed in 1609 ER when the distant Azal were conquered by the Dekàlans and the Ajmiral temples were razed to make way for the erection of the High Temple to Zalan (who was modeled after the Ajmiralan deity, Ajal'an). The defiling of the Ajmiralan temple was a sign to the Zin Virael that the Dekàlans and their gods were fair game. Four years later, the newly crowned High Lady of Azàlari, with the backing of converted Ajmiralan priests, declared war against the Zin Virael.  Lady Aula I found strong support from the converted priests and their followers, who had chaffed for centuries under the mandates of the central Ajmiralan temple at Shir'mirad. With the Dekàlan forces backing them under the Eshàtan, the reborn temple grew in size, power, and influence.  Lady Aula I was assassinated three years after her decree, to no-one's surprise.  The death of Lady Aula I was the beginning of the Empire's most frenetic chain of successions, until the Tasseri Campaigns of 840 HK when the Empire sought out and destroyed many of the orders more overt holdings.