Libricar

"Your mistake was not simply that you strayed from the light of the Blessed Throne or were derelict in your duties, nor that you consorted with heretics and drank deep of the forbidden. Nor was it even your arrogance that you were strong enough to remain pure. No, your most grievous error was in believing that you could do these things un-seen and un-judged!”
–Inquisitor Claudia Tarshek, from the Excommunication of the Witch Hunter Mokartus
A relatively newly fanned flame of radicalism founded
from an unexpected Calixian source, Libricaranism
is a relative newcomer to the clash of Inquisitorial
ideology and doctrine and one that earns its fanatical
counter-reformers an often outcast status in the Holy Ordos.
An extremist outgrowth of the puritan Amalathians, for
the Libricar it is not enough to preserve the institutions of
the Imperium, but also necessary to ensure that those who
rule and maintain them are ceaselessly watched, mercilessly
judged, and made pure by bloodshed.
To a follower of the Libricar doctrine the sacred pattern of
the Imperium as divinely ordained by the mind of the God
Emperor, has become weakened from within by petty political
corruption, factional strife, and beset by arrogant ideology,
not least of all within the Holy Ordos itself. Above all, they
despise those proponents of change who presume to second
guess the will of the divine or betray their Emperor-given
power and privilege for petty personal vice. For the Libricar,
true order must be restored and tradition venerated and the
path to this sacred goal clear---and if they must take it into
their own hands and become judge, jury, and executioner in
order to show the way, then so be it.
== The Red Scourge of Sibellus ==
The Libricar doctrine first gained a solid foothold in the
Calixian Conclave in 609.M41 during the restoration of
the power and prestige of the Lucid Court remembered by
Calixian scholars as the Sult Ascendancy. During this time
and with the backing of the Calixian Inquisition, the newly
inaugurated Lord Sector Larhanus Sult (somewhat ironically
entitled “The Great Conciliator” by his biographers) did
much to pull back executive authority to his office as well
as presiding over a massive expansion of the military forces
under the Lord Sector’s direct control. This resurgence of
power in the seat of the Lord Calixis was in no small part
a reaction to a dangerous corrosion of the Calixis Sector’s
governance and the growing and often malign influences of a
burgeoning Combine Commercia and the petty nobility. A rot
many traced back first to the horrors of the Brotherhood of
the Horned Darkness’ corruption of the Lucid Court nearly
two centuries before and the shadow war that ended it.
Sult’s closest ally in the Holy Ordos, and a growing power
in the Conclave at the time was Inquisitor Drakos Monke,
once an Acolyte of Tarshek herself and a staunch advocate
of the then newborn Libricar doctrine. At Sult’s invitation,
Monke was charged with overseeing aggressive reforms to the
governance of Hive Sibellus, a task he took to with bloody
gusto worthy of the Crassan Purge in which as a young
man he had taken part, and soon gained Sult’s respect and
favor, rapidly earning himself the appellation of the ‘Red
Scourge.’ As Sult’s star rose so did Monke’s, despite growing
accusations from his peers that he had become too close to the
personal clique of the Lord Sector and had lost his objectivity.
For several decades Monke remained a potent force within
the Conclave Calixis and was grudgingly raised to the title
of Lord Inquisitor, based in no small part on Sult’s backing.
Monke further cemented his powerbase by building up an
inner circle of subordinate Inquisitors, most of which shared
his doctrine to some extent, although he counted far more
enemies than friends in the Conclave, particularly in the Ordo
Malleus and the Tyrantine Cabal of who he seemed to carry
a deep seated disdain and distrust.
When Monke died in 734.M41 (apparently of natural
causes), his power and influence had long since waned
as Sult himself gave way to his kinsman Marius Hax, and
those who had long born grudges against Monke and his
allies, (rumors of secret murder-cells used against fellow
Inquisitor’s operations by them had long been rife) were
quick to make good on their simmering enmity. Those who
did not immediately desert Monke’s old inner circle and
its successors quickly found themselves ostracized in the
Conclave or the brunt of revenge attacks, damaging intrigues
or more formal Inquisitorial scrutiny. At one particularly
turbulent Grand Conclave Synod, the Libricaran doctrine and
Monke’s personal record was mercilessly attacked by speaker
after speaker with the tacit backing of none other than Lord Inquisitor Caidin himself. The implication and result could
not be in doubt; the Libricar and their doctrine were no longer
welcome among the mainstream of the Calixian Conclave
and those few Inquisitors that bitterly remained attached to
its calling soon found themselves relegated to defacto status
as outsiders, viewed with deep suspicion by their peers.
Despite this reversal of fortune, the Libricar’s presence
in the Calixis sector did not end. It was merely forced
underground, its survival aided by the remnants of Monke’s
well-hidden private network and web of contacts and those
that remain loyal to the doctrine are more militant than ever
in their convictions.
==Current Conspiracies==
“You have strayed and been found wanting.”
–Libricaran pronouncement of death
After suffering the nadir of their influence in the Calixis sector
some decades ago, the small but fanatical Libricar presence in
the Conclave Calixis has been slowly and carefully plotting
its return and cautiously expanding reach. Until recently no
more than a handful of disparate outcasts who have either
hung on bitterly after the harrowing of the late Lord Inquisitor
Monke’s former allies or come to the doctrine on their own.
However, while few in number, The Libricar are starting to
organize and meet in secret once more to affirm their accords.
This quiet resurgence is in no small part due to a growing
perception by some Inquisitors (particularly independents
of an Amalathian mindset) that the Calixian Conclave has
become ever more divided and plagued by schism and
infighting over recent years, while the threats to the sector
have only multiplied and grown. Although by no means a
coherent movement yet, nor with any great overarching plan,
these new Libricar are notably distinct from their forbears in
the caution they take in how loudly they profess their cause
and their immediate willingness to circumvent Inquisitorial
procedure and authority to enact their judgments.
The Baraspine Project
Although the Calixian Libricar have no true leader as of yet,
the front runner for the role is an up-and-coming member
of the Ordo Hereticus called Constantos Trevelyan, a former
loyal servant of the noted Spectarian Inquisitor Globus Vaarak
(himself one of the sector’s most respected Amalathians).
Trevelyan came to prominence during the Tranch War where
he garnered notice for his single minded pursuit of the
scattering witches and mutant rebels of the Pale Throng. It
was in fact his experience with the corruption on Tranch that
swung him to the Libricar cause, although this is a fact he has
kept largely hidden. Charismatic and meticulous, Trevelyan has
been in recent years been given the rank of Planetia Inquisitor
for the minor hive world of Baraspine after destroying a Pale
Throng uprising there and executing the infamous malefic
sorcerer who sponsored it. Since taking up his post, he has
quietly and covertly begun the project of building up a
power base there and converting a significant percentage of
Baraspine’s Conclavian Council to his favored doctrine. His
plan is slowly progressing, and through a diligent mix of overt
and fully sanctioned Inquisitorial vigilance and secret ‘star
chamber justice’ administered by a Moritat assassin sub-cult
he has nurtured there, the “Baraspine Project” is bearing fruit.
The Kaede Sanction
One of the first actions of the newly allied Calixian Libricar
has been to mark the flamboyant Inquisitor Vownus Kaede for
death. Although nominally a puritan, Kaede’s eccentricities,
cavalier attitude to external authorities, and repeated flouting
of his fellow Inquisitors when it comes to spiriting young
psykers away for service, not to mention his public and
repeated criticism of the Libricar cause have all served sign
his execution warrant as far as they are concerned. He is the
epitome of a ‘Rogue Agent’ in the Libricars’ eyes, wrongly
tolerated by his fellow Inquisitors. Rather than come after
him publicly and denounce him in conclave as they might
have once done, instead the Libricar have opted to slowly
pick apart his organization and leave him vulnerable for a final
death stroke. As a result several Libricar sympathizers have
already moved against him and begun the task of infiltrating
Kaede’s support network and tracking his movements. In
recent months one of his notoriously militant Acolyte bands
was drawn out and ambushed while investigating a Heretek
cult in the Sinophian hinterlands. They were slaughtered
to a man, and the hot-blooded Kaede has vowed to avenge
their deaths---little realizing the true nature of the culprits
responsible or the trap being laid for him. Nor is his the only
name on the Libricar’s death list.