Cardinal Quiro Olranna

“Nothing motivates the masses like fear and faith; and this is what we are: fear and faith in equal measures, meted out to those worthy of our attentions.”
–Cardinal Quiro Olranna, Josian Arch-Diocese
Titles: Void Mistress, Queen of the Seven Deeps
Seat of Power: Canopus
Arch-Diocese: Josian Reach
Originally a pilgrim, Quiro joined the church after ‘hearing
the call’ of the Saint when she first set foot on Maccabeus Quintus as a girl. Not of noble birth and not even born within
the sector, it is a strange path that has led her to don the
cardinal’s mantle, one that her allies view as the will of the
Emperor and her enemies see as suspicious and unorthodox.
Now a venerable woman nearing her third century, Quiro
cares little for such talk any more, and she has long ago
accepted the stigma which led her to the cardinalship of the
oft forgotten Josian Arch-Diocese. Even though her diocese
borders the shining glory of both the Golgenna Reach and
the Adrantis sub-sector, Quiro has a poor domain over
which to rule and a constant struggle to prove her importance
to the rest of the Sector Synod. In fact behind her back many
of her peers think of her as a ‘care-taker’ cardinal, ruling a
stretch of void in which the Ministorum only has nominal
interest. Despite this perception, however, she is as ambitious
and driven as any of her counterparts (common traits in Arch-
Diocese Cardinals) and has her own ambitions of power and
ideas of how best to increase the Ministorum’s control and
influence within the sector.
Part of these plans have led her to make pacts with Kregory against the interests of Ignato, on the promise of
greater support for her own agendas and a strengthening of
the Ministorum within her diocese. Of course largely these
are empty promises based on the success of Kregory’s own
plans and Quiro’s ability to bridge the obstacle of distance
between their domains---which are divided by Ignato’s. The
fact that such pacts are being made however is significant
and shows that Ignato’s control of the Sector Synod may be
far less complete than he would like to admit. Quietly Quiro
has also been garnering support from neighboring sectors
and other non-Calixian arms of the Ministorum. So far she
has had only limited success but this ‘open door’ may well
invite new and unpredictable parties into the ongoing power
plays of the Sector Synod. Needless to say, if Ignato were to
find out about such back-channel dealings, he could move to
have her stripped of her Arch-Diocese and perhaps even her
Cardinal’s office.
Among Quiro’s primary concerns for her own diocese is
the cleansing of the death world Woe, which has been a thorn
in her side since her rise to power. Little is know about the
death world save that few who set foot on its boggy, mist-choked
surface ever return. Rumors abound that the world
itself is somehow ‘aware,’ with a mind buried deep below
its bogs or a connection to the powers of the warp. These
rumors, and orbital warning beacons, have been enough
to keep most Emperor-fearing travelers away, but in recent
times the world has become a magnet for heretics and cultists
either hoping to uncover the source of the planet’s power or
to bow down before it as an alien god. Already Quiro has
created an orbital shrine to keep an eye on the void around
Woe and to draw the light of the God-Emperor to this dark
part of the sector. However what she truly desires is to launch
a crusade to cleanse the death world once and for all, root out
the nests of heretics and uncover the alien horror at the core
of the planet (if such a creature exists) and destroy it. Such a
crusade however will doubtless be costly and extraordinarily
hazardous (given records from those who have set foot on
Woe and lived to tell the tale) and impossible without the
support of the Sector Synod.