Ordo Malleus

The Ordo Malleus is the smallest and closest-knit of the ordos, and its Inquisitors are among the most knowledgeable, incorruptible and dangerous men and women in the galaxy. This is because the Ordo Malleus fights perhaps the most dangerous opponent that mankind can face---the Daemon. Daemons are creatures of the warp, servants of the foul powers that dwell there, and they are things of utter evil and madness whose very presence can only lead to corruption and death. The Ordo Malleus---the Daemonhunters---have the responsibility of battling these otherworldly horrors, risking their very souls to fight what might be humanity’s ultimate battle against the madness and malevolence of the warp.
==Overview==
The fight against the Daemon requires the Ordo Malleus to share precious information among its Inquisitors and work together. Alone amongst the ordos, the Daemonhunters have a distinct home base---the Inquisitorial facilities on the moons of Saturn. This is where the Ordo’s great libraries of Daemonic lore are kept, its volumes carefully warded against the malevolent nature of the information they contain. The Ordo Malleus fleet is docked among Saturn’s rings along with its principal fortress, where new Inquisitors are trained and old ones impart the knowledge painfully acquired over centuries of facing the direst and most corruptive of threats.
Ordo Malleus Daemonhunters tend to be very martially minded. They trust only themselves to execute a Daemon’s destruction and so go to battle armed with sacred weapons and armored with potent psychic wards. It is not unknown for Malleus Inquisitors to command whole armies from the front, charging into combat against Daemonic foes and inspiring the men around them to do battle with the most horrible of enemies. For this reason many Daemonhunters consider it their duty to be strong in both mind and body, great warriors with the finest battlegear as well as the strongest will. Some Ordo Malleus Inquisitors are investigators rather than fighters, hunting down Daemonic lore and searching for the signs of a Daemon’s presence, but when it comes to destroying this most heinous of foes, the Daemonhunters, with their sacred power hammers and blessed armor, come to the fore.
The Ordo Malleus needs the most elite and dedicated Chamber Militant to combat Daemons, and it has them: the Space Marines of the Grey Knights Chapter. The Grey Knights are trained specifically to fight Daemons and they are perhaps the only force in the Imperium who can do so without eventually losing their souls. Every Grey Knight has some psychic ability, which is trained and honed until they can shield their minds against Daemonic corruption. Their power armor is imbued with potent anti-Daemonic wards and their distinctive Nemesis force weapons are designed to focus their psychic strength into formidable destructive power. The Grey Knights are based at their fortress-monastery on Saturn’s moon of Titan but the majority of them are elsewhere in the galaxy at any given time, forming the retinues of Ordo Malleus Inquisitors or fighting in the cutting edge of an army led by a Daemonhunter. The Grey Knights, like most chapters, have their own fleet and support staff but, unlike most, they do not act completely independently---they are commanded by the Ordo Malleus, who alone know how to use such a potent weapon as the Grey Knights to maximum effect. In all the history of the chapter, a Grey Knight has never become corrupted by the forces of the warp and the tombvaults of Titan are the resting places of some of the greatest heroes the Imperium has ever known.
In spite of their skill and dedication, the Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus are still ultimately mortal. One of the biggest dangers they face is the possibility of one of their own becoming corrupted and ending up in thrall to the very powers they once sought to destroy. Contact with Daemons provides a constant threat of corruption, especially given that the Ordo Malleus collects knowledge about Daemons to help find and destroy them. Such is the potency of the Daemon that even knowledge of them can be dangerous. The Ordo Malleus polices its ranks thoroughly for any sign that its members may be susceptible to corruption or even already in league (knowingly or not) with the Dark gods. Nevertheless, the Ordo Malleus must often hunt down one of its own before all their knowledge of Daemonic lore is used to bring forth the horrors of the warp instead of to destroy them.
One Radical concept is the idea that the warp is a source of immense power that, if it could be harnessed, could usher forth a golden age for the human race. Some Radicals therefore search for ways in which Daemons can be controlled, binding them with complex forbidden rituals or entering into bargains with them in the belief that an Inquisitor’s willpower and knowledge will allow him to cheat the damnation that is sure to follow. Some Inquisitors research the warp-spawned sorcery that disciples of the Dark gods have in turn learned from Daemons, hoping to use the warp’s own magic against the Emperor’s foes. Still other Radicals seek to employ Daemonic weapons or other items of power, believing that it is the will of the user, and not the Daemons bound into the items themselves, that determine whether they are used for good or ill. For every Radical purged from the ranks of the Ordo Malleus, another dares to read a forbidden tome instead of burning it, or takes up a mighty Daemon weapon instead of destroying it. It is a cruel irony that while knowledge is essential for the Ordo Malleus to fight the Daemon, that same knowledge can become the Dark gods’ most dangerous weapon of all.
==Calixian Malleus==
If it is true that Inquisitor Lord Caidin is a senior member of
the Ordo Malleus, he does not appear to take a hand in his
Ordo’s activities in the sector, at least not in any visible way.
In order for Caidin to maintain the balance of power, he must
remain neutral within the Calixian Conclave. If he were seen
to be involved in the operations of one particular Ordo, it
might compromise his position. Instead, Lord Caidin acts on
behalf of the Ordo Calixis on a galaxy-wide scale, leaving the
details of their mission in the sector to lesser members.
The Ordo Malleus within the Calixis Sector maintains
a relatively stable, if practically invisible, organizational
structure established many centuries ago. The Ordo Malleus
Calixis is ruled by a body known as the Masters in Council,
a gathering of Inquisitor Lords of the Ordo serving in the
sector. It appears that membership in this highly secretive
body is not permanent, nor are its numbers maintained at
any particular level. Its members gather in secret, hiding
their identities, so it is said, even from their fellow Council
members. Legend states that the reason for such secrecy is
because the Masters might be forced by circumstance to issue
such dire orders that millions of lives are lost and their own
peers slain in their duty. The shroud of secrecy allows such
decisions to be made without fear of reprisal, and much like
the executioner behind his hood, the man is subsumed by his
rank, and he remains free of responsibility.
==The Proctors of the Chamber==
When the Masters in Council issue an order, it is to one of
the Proctors of the Chamber. Each Proctor is an Inquisitor
Lord or veteran Inquisitor, and is the convener of a cell of
Throne agents, generally a loose association of servants of the
Ordo Malleus well-used to working and fighting alongside
one another in the eternal battle against the enemy beyond.
Depending on the scope of the Masters’ orders, the entire
Chamber may take to the field as one, combining their retinues
and household troops into a force the size of a small army, or
a single Proctor of the Chamber may be tasked to carry out
the order. When the Masters give an order, it eventually falls
to a Proctor’s Acolytes to carry it out no matter the cost, even
though they may never know that their master is a member
of the Chamber.
==Holdings==
The Ordo Malleus Chambers operating in the Calixis Sector
are secretive in the extreme, and aside from their holdings
within the Tricorn Palace, own no Imperial property. Within
the Tricorn Palace, entire levels and chambers are given over
to the use of the Ordo Malleus, and what goes on within
them withheld from those outside the Ordo. In truth, secrecy
is so important to the Ordo’s mission that the Masters in
Council long ago forbade the use of these places for anything
other than the most trivial of matters, preferring to hide their
activities in the furthest reaches of the sector, far from the
eyes of even the other arms of the Inquisition.
The Ordo Malleus maintains several major bases across
the sector, and many smaller ones. No single member of
the Ordo, not even the Masters in Council, knows of the
existence of every single one, ensuring that even if one Master
is corrupted, the organization will not be fully compromised.
When Masters, Proctors, and ordinary Inquisitors spend time
in the field, they are each able to make use of a handful of the
Ordo’s facilities. The largest are military bases fortified with
thick armor and potent energy shielding and armed with a
fearsome array of weapons, while the smallest are little more
than hidden safe-houses disguised within hive cities and feral
settlements across the sector.
Similar to the majority of Inquisitors, the servants of the
Ordo Malleus Calixis maintain extensive private holdings.
Even within a single Ordo or Chamber, conflict can erupt
between the adherents of different creeds. Many Inquisitors
find it necessary to withhold the details of facilities they
have built for themselves in order to improve their chances
of weathering the storm of internecine war. These holdings
range from sealed habs high atop hive city spires to isolated
manses deep in the wilderness. Some are staffed by the
Inquisitor’s own household followers, and some host entire
private armies. Few Inquisitors are foolish enough to imagine
their peers are not aware of at least some of their holdings,
but most seek to keep the existence of at least one a secret.
==The Seven Cloisters==
The Seven Cloisters are the largest of the Ordo’s bases in the
Calixis Sector. The details of the construction of the Cloisters
are long lost, and not even the senior Masters know who
built them or why. Each takes the form of a fortified tower
constructed of an inert material so dark that it appears to be
as solid shadow. The walls are laced with the same material
used in the construction of ‘psyk-out’ weapons, making them
utterly impregnable even to the most powerful of psychically
gifted minds. Furthermore, every surface is inscribed with
potent warding glyphs, ensuring that even the most cunning
daemonic entities cannot cross the threshold.
All of the Seven Cloisters are filled with endless dark
passageways and chambers and their walls are adorned only
with warding runes, spidery votive script, and mouldering
purity seals. Inquisitors come and go from the Cloisters as they
will, using the base for a time before moving on. Only the
oldest of Ordo Malleus veterans reside there for any length
of time, generally those wounded in body, mind, or soul in
the pursuit of their duties and unable to take to the field.
Sealed archives and repositories within them hold tomes and
artefacts recovered by the Ordo in the course of their duties
and deemed both too dangerous to be allowed to fall into
any other hands and too potent to destroy. The deepest vaults
contain the Ordo’s most holy relics---weapons, armor, and
icons wrought in ages past to bring death to daemons. Other
areas within the Cloisters contain excoriation chambers where
heretics are interrogated and judged, as well as shielded vaults
built securely and strongly enough that a bound Daemon
could be held within, for a short while at least.
The exact location of each of the Seven Cloisters is one of
the Ordo’s closest guarded secrets, and even the most senior
of Masters knows only of three or four. Most Proctors know
of only one or two, while many ordinary Inquisitors may not
be aware of their existence at all. If the duties of an Acolyte
bring him to one of the Seven Cloisters, he is typically kept
ignorant of its true location and purpose, lest the untried
servant inadvertently betray one of the Ordo’s greatest secrets.
The greatest of the Seven Cloisters, called the
First Cloister, is located on the moon of an
unnamed world on the outskirts of the
forbidden Threnos Zone. The reason
for the First Cloister’s location so
close to such a dire region is an
unknown even to the Masters of
the Council.
The Wandering Cloister is
situated on an empty space hulk
drifting in the open void coreward
of Fenksworld, technically beyond
the border of the Calixis Sector.
The Lost Cloister is exactly that---its
existence is referred to in various secret
tomes, but it has never been located. Many
servants of the Ordo Malleus have sought out the
Lost Cloister, but to date none have succeeded in their
quest. Some now believe the Lost Cloister never actually
existed, and that it was created to distract the foolhardy and
send them on long, hopeless quests where they could do no
real damage to the Ordo’s operations.
The Forbidden Cloister is located not within the boundaries
of the Calixis Sector, but within the depths of the Maw, the
passage through the Warp storm that leads to the Koronus Expanse out amongst the Halo Stars. This Cloister was built
long before the passage was opened up to exploration. Since
travel began through the Maw, it has earned a dark reputation
amongst Rogue Traders and other travelers. Passage through
the Maw is a perilous enterprise, and many vessels have
foundered in its depths. Several have attempted to limp to the
dead world which the Forbidden Cloister orbits, and been
destroyed without warning by the Cloister’s defenses. While
no official notices have ever been issued, it is generally held
amongst voidship captains that this world is to be avoided
even in the direst of emergencies.
The Screaming Cloister is so called because it has fallen to
daemonic incursion. Centuries ago, a Radical daemon hunter
attempted to summon and bind a Greater Daemon, believing
that within the warded fortifications of the Cloister he would
be able to master it. Sadly, he was wrong, and the daemon
and its servants consumed the Inquisitor’s soul and then killed
every other person in the Cloister. The final act of the last
Acolyte alive was to seal the Cloister from within, setting its
wards so that nothing could escape. It is said that the screams
of tormented souls can be heard resounding in the Warp for
light years around. The location of the Screaming Cloister
has been purged from many records, though the task is not
yet complete. It is located on a barren planetoid in the empty
reaches of the Markayn Marches.
Treachery’s Cloister is situated on a rogue planet deep in
the swirling nebulae at the center of the Adrantis Sub-sector.
It got its name because the Puritan Inquisitors who lived and
worked there were expelled through treachery by a cell of
Radicals. Though the Masters of the Council do not yet know
the truth, the cell follows the pariah doctrines of the outcast
Phaenonites. This particular faction usually operates in secret,
its adherents hiding behind a façade of loyalty to other
factions and philosophies, and has been declared outright
heretical the length and breadth of the Imperium. Should the
Masters of the Council in the Calixis Sector discover that a
Phaenonite cell took over Treachery’s Cloister, they are likely
to mobilize every asset at their disposal to recapture it and
kill its inhabitants. No one knows yet why the Phaenonites
thought this Cloister was so important, but they are known
to covet the most destructive of Warp-based technologies. If
such items are to be found anywhere in the Calixis Sector,
they will be kept in the secret vaults at the heart of one of the
Seven Cloisters...
The existence of the Ultimate Cloister is a secret known
only to the most senior of the Masters in Council, for it
is intended to serve as the ultimate sanctuary should the
Ordo be brought to its knees in the Calixis Sector. Its walls
are ten times the thickness of any other Cloister’s, and its
void shields are powered by several dozen independent
plasma reactors. In the event of a sector cataclysm, the most
privileged of the Masters of the Council would make for the
Ultimate Cloister, unseal its void-locked portal and close the
doors on the sector until the age of doom has passed. Within
a doomsday chamber, seven stasis caskets await, each able to
hold a Master immobile and unaging for millennia. When
the disaster has passed the machine spirits will awaken them,
and they will open the portals once more to see what has
become of the galaxy. There are many who claim that the
Time of Ending is upon the Imperium and that the doom
of the human race is coming. The Masters of the Council
intend to outlive that doom and carry forward their mission
to destroy the daemonic even should they be the very last
humans left alive in the sector.
==Solitariums==
Any holding used exclusively by the Ordo Malleus and smaller
than the Seven Cloisters is called a Solitarium. The largest
Solitariums are able to house several hundred Acolytes and
servants and provide staging posts for the household troops
of its Inquisitors. The smallest are little more than boltholes,
thousands of which are scattered across the sector, though any
one Daemon Hunter likely knows of no more than a dozen.
The Solitariums were not established according to any grand
plan; each was built to serve one Inquisitor’s immediate needs,
and then was useful enough to be maintained by the Ordo.
Some Solitariums are permanently staffed by oath-bonded
servants or mind-scrubbed servitors, while others are coated in
such thick layers of dust that they must not have been visited in
centuries. Most contain stockpiles of weapons, foodstuffs, and
other useful resources, while the largest contain mothballed
battle tanks and even void-capable shuttles. An Inquisitor
operating a cadre of Acolytes is likely to entrust them with the
location of one or more Solitariums so that they may use their
resources in the eternal battle against the archenemy.
==Incursions==
The work of the Ordo Malleus is never done, and it can
truly be said that entire sectors of the Imperium would
have long ago fallen to daemonic incursions were it
not for the constant vigilance of the Daemon Hunters. This is
certainly true of the Calixis Sector, where a number of major
incursions and countless smaller ones have been halted over the
last millennium. Some worlds have been lost entirely, all record
of their fate and current status purged from the annals of the
Imperium’s history. Several regions of the sector are forbidden
by Inquisitorial edict, and although few know why, some must
surely be the result of catastrophic daemonic incursion.
On several occasions, the fate of an entire world has stood
in the balance. The Ordo Malleus has saved countless souls
from eternal damnation, and subsequently purged all records
and witnesses so that none now know of the courage and
sacrifice of these most dedicated servants of the Emperor.
This section presents an overview of five such Calixian
incursions, details of which exist only in the sealed archives
of the Calixian Conclave. Knowledge of these incursions is
beyond even the most highly connected Inquisitor or the
most obsessive savant, and Acolytes will only ever discover
them if specifically entrusted such knowledge by a Master
in Council. In all probability, the granting of this knowledge
will prove the precursor to a do-or-die mission, and the
Acolytes may wish they had never heard it at all.
The Ordo Malleus is monitoring, as best it is able, many
more potential incursions, and steadily mobilizing resources
to combat them. The Ordo has taken an interest in the
phenomenon known as the Tyrant Star, although very few
members of the Tyrantine Cabal are drawn from the Ordo’s
ranks. Others are currently engaged in preliminary operations
against a threat emerging on the Spinward border of the
Calixis Sector---that of the so-called Lord of Misrule.
==Unique Equipment==
Malleus Power Armor
Rare even among the Holy Ordos, this power armor is inscribed
with pentagrammatic wards in the vaults deep below the Tricorn
Palace. It is highly prized by those who expect to fight daemons
in hand-to-hand combat, and an Inquisitor who allows an
Acolyte access to it must have good (or desperate) reasons. The
wards inscribed onto the armor harm Daemonic creatures who
directly strike the wearer. The wards are temporary at best, some
failing after a single encounter, but servants of the Ordos Malleus
regard them as a retributive strike, hoping that with their death
they might still weaken or slay such accursed creatures.
This armor is Best Craftsmanship (already included in the
profile). It is identical to normal Power Armor. Additionally, the power pack
used in Ordo Malleus power armor allows it to operate for a
week without recharging. Alternatively, it can be equipped with
a power supply like that used by the Adeptus Astartes. If it does,
it follows the Astartes Power Armor rules for damaging power
armor.
Any Daemon striking a character in Malleus Power
Armor with its natural weapons takes 1d5 points of damage
that ignores Armor and Toughness.
All, AP 9, WT 180kg, Cost 25000, Near Unique
Malleus Terminator Armor
Tactical Dreadnought armor is more commonly called
Terminator Armor. Inquisitors who don this armor become
hulking defenders of the Imperium. There is no finer personal
protection anywhere in the Imperium and the Inquisitor who
maintains a suit of Terminator Armor for his personal use is
not someone to be trifled with on the battlefield.
Each suit of Terminator Armor is crafted by one of the most
skilled Tech-Priests for a specific user. While the suit can later
be adapted for another user, the process is extremely involved
and can take years. Crafting a new suit of Malleus Terminator
Armor can take decades. Each is given a distinct name and
some even notice small quirks---a personality of sorts.
Terminator Armor incorporates all the systems of standard
power armor with several upgrades. Superior actuator and
stabilization systems allow for Heavy and Mounted weapons
to be fired one-handed. This also provides the Auto-Stabilized
Trait and grants +30 to Strength instead of +20. The autosenses
are part of a sensorium, which provides the same
capabilities as an auspex. Terminator Armor's heavy layers of
protective alloys can deflect even the heaviest bombardments.
In addition, the built in refractor field on the Terminator’s
shoulder plate serves as a ward capable of turning aside attacks
from power weapons, melta fire, and even the baleful energies
of the Warp. This protection provides a slightly better chance
to emerge unscathed as a Refraction Field with
a Protection Rating of 35. This field does not overload under
normal circumstances.
The massive frame of Terminator Armor is not without
limitations. A Terminator cannot run, and the wearer suffers
–20 to Agility and cannot dodge (but may still parry).
Furthermore, in order for the Terminator’s frame to properly
support, aim, and interface with weapons, they must be affixed
by special couplings. Arming Tactical Dreadnought units is
a laborious and sacred ritual that may only be performed
by high-ranking Tech-Priests with the proper ceremonial
accoutrements and facilities. The weapon configuration may
not be changed under other circumstances.
Any Daemon striking a character in Malleus Terminator
armor with its natural weapons takes 1d5 points of damage
ignoring Armor and Toughness.
Terminator-Compatible Weapons: Termiantor Armour has a sturdy wrist mount that adds the
Auto-Stabilized trait to any ranged weapon attached to it.
The Following weapons can be used with Malleus Terminator
Armor; Any Combi-weapons, Power Weapons, Power Fists,
Nemesis Force Weapons, Thunder Hammers, Storm Bolters,
Incinerators and Psycannons.
All, AP 12, WT 400kg, Unique
Grimoire of True Names
The Ordos Malleus rivals the Administratum in its exacting
approach to record-keeping. However, while the Administratum
has access to entire planets of cogitators, information
concerning the Ruinous Powers is rarely entered into a machine
for fear of corrupting the machine spirits. Over the millennia,
Daemon hunters have recorded vast amounts of information
concerning cults, sorcerers, and the daemons they have fought.
Within the Calixis Sector, following the death of the Seventeen
Holy Martyrs in 385.M41, Lord Inquisitor Heydrich Tarlemon
ordered that the Ordo Malleus of the sector was to collate all
records regarding the names and activities of any daemons
they had encountered. Over the centuries since then, these
records have grown to encompass thousands of tomes and, as
a result, scribes serving the Holy Ordos have been forced to
reduce the information down to accessible, portable versions of
the complete Nomina Daemonica Tenemus found within the
Tricorn Palace on Scintilla.
While large and cumbersome, a Grimoire of True Names
is but a condensed account of the miles of bookshelves
archived by the Ordo Malleus concerning the myriad cults
and Daemonic adversaries that have plagued the Calixis
Sector. Unfortunately, deciphering the records of long-dead
Inquisitors is often as much luck as scholarship. The bearer
of a Grimoire of True Names may use the grimoire to seek
knowledge on any Daemon of note he encounters. Doing
so requires two successes on a Hard (–20) Forbidden Lore
(Daemonology) Test; each research attempt takes thirty
minutes. This difficulty may be increased by the GM based
on the amount of information the character already has about
the Daemon in question. A successful result on the Test,
combined with calling out portions of the Daemon’s True
Name during any attack, allows the character to automatically
confirm any Righteous Fury damage result when attacking
the Daemon. Because of the mad nature of the Warp, the
exact pronunciation and mental imagery of a daemon’s True
Name will fade after 2d10+Intelligence Bonus days and must
be re-studied. Grimoires are very rarely encountered outside
of the hands of the Ordo Malleus. Ironically, outside of the
daemon hunters they are most often found in the hands of
Warp-cultists and jaded nobles who have taken them from
fallen Acolytes or Inquisitors.
Cost 5,000, WT 10kg, Very Rare
Litany Micro-Beads & Vox Caster
The corrupting songs of cults and the whispers of daemons are
a constant threat to those carrying out the work of the Ordo
Malleus. Many Inquisitors travel with a choir of Ministorum
priests singing the litanies of the God-Emperor. Those
desiring a more subtle approach while still gaining some
protection from the aural assaults of heretics and blasphemous
sorcerers often make use of a litany micro-bead. A blessed
vox-caster within range (1 mile) broadcasts a constant stream
of blessings, prayers and inspirational hymns. These signals
cut out when the micro-beads are used to transmit, but while
not transmitting, the wearers of these beads are considered
deafened.
There are three liturgical channels which may be chosen
for a litany micro-bead; changing the channels requires a half
action to perform the proper rites:
*The Catechism of Devotion and Sanctity grants the user the benefit of the Chem Geld Talent while listening.
*The Prayers of St Drusus grants the user the benefit of the Jaded Talent while listening.
*The Petitions of Redemption grant the user a +10 bonus to Willpower Tests made to resist mind control.
Cost 100, Scarce