Hippocrasian Agglomeration

“Death is but the beginning. To capture what happens afterwards is our goal.”
–Magos Adeb Xam of the Caste Necrosis
The Hippocrasian Agglomeration orbits the lifeless world of Morwen VI outside of the Adrantis Nebula. The Hippocrasians are a sect of the Adeptus Mechanicus Biologis concerned with the death of flesh: how it occurs, what brings it about and how it can be halted. Today, Morwen VI is orbited by an irregular agglomeration of ships that now make up one of the largest and most secretive Mechanicus independent facilities in the sector.
Consisting primarily of Magos Biologis and Genetors, the
Hippocrasian Sect is a fellowship of like-minded adepts
forming organically around the study of life and the transition-state
between living and death. The Hippocrassians, unlike
the vast majority of the Biologis adepts, have come to focus
almost solely on the study of death, the passing of the life
essence from corporeal to incorporeal, and the process of
decay that immediately begins to encroach upon the dying
flesh. The Sect itself has never been clear as to the end use
of their research, and has responded to inquiries from the
Lathe-Covenant and even the office of the High Fabricator
himself with vague statements of prolonged life, improved
augmetic implantation, and the like. To date, however, the
Hippocrasians have filed no official findings or discoveries
regarding these fields, or, in fact, any others.
Although the vast majority of the followers of the Sect
can be found in the haphazard collection of space craft and
observation stations orbiting the dead world of Morwen VI,
there are adherents of the Sect spread throughout the Lathe
Worlds. Any research station with a Biologis cadre most likely
has at least one Magos sympathetic to the fascinations that drive
the Hippocrasians. Reports indicate that the Ordo Hereticus
holds certain suspicions of the Sect, and the Lathe-Covenant
has received warnings that Chaos taint might fester without
proper Inquisitorial oversight. To date, however, absolutely
no proof of any heretical influence has been found, and there
is no reason to believe the adepts of the Hippocrasian Sect
are anything other than what they appear; simple researchers
merely studying the frailties of the flesh.
After a number of their Genetors were murdered by the rogue Inquisitor Erya Nephthys in her quest for eternal life, relations between the Hippocrasian Agglomeration and the Calixian Conclave have been soured and have yet to recover.
Over a decade ago, a schism within the Hippocrasians led to the creation of the Carnicula. The Carnicula are not solely fixated on mortality and decay, but rather on multifarious approaches to lengthening the lifespan of various vat-grown constructs.
==Overview==
Flesh is weaker than pure machine, yet flesh has unique
attractions of its own, mysteries that cannot be resolved if
the biological material is simply discarded. Flesh changes,
flesh begets new flesh, flesh comes to life, and flesh dies. It
is this latter quality that especially fascinates sects within the
Magos Biologis of the Lathes. The Magos Biologis commonly
study biological systems; those of the xenos in order to defeat
them, those of the human in order to improve them. Their
work has led to great victories against several alien species
and improved augmetic systems, but often to no avail to their
standing. They are somewhat shunned within the Lathes, due
to their association (oft times unjustified) with some of the
more notorious failed experiments and atrocities that have
occurred in the Sector and within the Lathes System itself.
Traditional Tech-Priests find their interest in organic tissues
distasteful, and some even view it as tech-heresy no matter
the justification. This has driven many of the Biologis to the
remote areas of the Sector, there to conduct their researches.
One such location is on the Adrantine Fringes, in the
Morwen System. Orbiting the sixth planet is a void station
devoted to studying the impermanence of the flesh, where
Tech-Priests can seek to unravel the mysteries of death itself
in relative seclusion. The planet below is devoid of native
life, making it a fitting place for such investigations. The
Hippocrasian Sect operates here, ostensibly an outpost of the
Magos Biologis and devoted to corporeal research for the
betterment of the Calixis Sector. Like many of the Mechanicum
stations in the Sector, however, it contains hidden secrets
within. Tech-heresies of the basest sort fester deep under the
brightly lit main laboratories, where forbidden sects conduct
unholy experiments far beyond the station’s mandate.
==A World of Death==
Though records from before the Angevin Crusade are
incomplete at best, they indicate the Morwen System was
once verdant and lush. Some evidence indicates that it even
supported a xenos civilization, which may be the reason
it was attacked so thoroughly during the initial stages of
the Crusade. An entire battlefleet attended to the world,
obliterating any existing life in a cataclysmic bombardment
of lance and torpedo that lasted a full six days. The fleet
then rested a day, searching for any evidence that anything
living survived, before completing the annihilation with
a firestorm cannonade that burned any remaining oxygen
from the atmosphere. Satisfied with their utter eradication,
the fleet departed for other combat operations. Such total
devastation is normally done on the order of the Inquisition,
but the lack of a more simple cyclonic torpedo attack to
accomplish the task indicates otherwise. Other planetary
attacks during the Crusade were often as destructive, though
seeking only to kill off any xenos or rebellious armies, and
not to remove all life no matter the type. Whatever their
enemy might have been, the Crusade required its complete
extermination and was willing to take valuable time during
the war to ensure this goal to the best of their ability.
It took years for the gigatonnes of ash and dust to settle
onto the surface, so great as to fill many of the immense
craters covering the planet. The world remained silent for
scores of decades, with only cyclopean monolithic structures
still standing to indicate life once existed there. An Explorator
vessel performed a cursory examination of these huge
formations, but was unable to even pierce their heavy plate
surfaces. Records from this landing are inconclusive as to if
the Tech-Priests detected any data of interest, though they did
report certain anomalous readings. The ship soon departed,
but its report did lead to the arrival of a more dedicated
presence of the Machine Cult in the system.
==The Agglomeration Coalesces==
The Magos Biologis came to the system with a Hippocrasian-pattern
orbital, a tall torus of interlocking modular tubes
commonly used as void-based laboratory installations.
Their Oath of Data before the High Fabricator called for
investigations into the cessation of the flesh and methods
to prevent or delay such biological failures, and soon Tech-Priests from across the Sector were drawn to the station as
word spread across the Lathe Worlds of innovative discoveries
coming from its mortuaria slabs. Their presence brought new
alchæmical elixirs, tissue-welding devices, organ regeneratives,
and other techniques to aid in research. Now dubbed the
Hippocrasian Sect, those on the station continued to push the
weak flesh to new strengths. Experiments were conducted on
hundreds each day, culled from cells and slave pens though
few of the Hippocrasians were too curious as to their origin.
The research outgrew the station within a few short
centuries, and additional facilities soon sprouted in nearby
orbit along with ships set in high anchor. Support orbitals,
dedicated docks for mass loading, plasma depots, and
more began crowding the space around the original station
in a chaotic spread. Such an assemblage became a useful
waystation for Explorator vessels making their way outwards
to the Nebula. Those on the Lathes who still viewed the sect
with suspicion deemed this yet another example of how the
study of the flesh can lead to unorganized results, and decried
the undisciplined flotilla as the Hippocrasian Agglomeration.
==The End of Death==
The work of the Hippocrasian Sect has always trod a fine line
between authorized standard Magos Biologis work and tech-heresy.
Many of their researches delves into genetic sculpting
and vat-flesh grafting, fields were somewhat common within
the Adeptus Mechanicus (especially in servitor creation).
Some of the Tech-Priests dared to continue even farther along
these lines, creating their own flesh gholams, and then using
these as experimental subjects into decay and regenerative
protocols. Some even attempted to use deviant engrammatic
brands to rework nervous systems, convinced that flesh could
be forced to reject necrotic decay. These shambling mockeries
resist death itself with their stringent protoplasm, and the
Caste Necrosis is certain that these represent an important
step into the perfection and extension of the flesh.
The Ethereals have instead aimed their study into the
transformation from life to death, and the nature of this process.
As the body leaves one state for the other, these Tech-Priests bring
all their auguries and sensoria into play, seeking to observe what
many before them insist cannot be measured. Their true target is
the soul, hoping to detect and even capture this elusive item as it
departs a dying body. Few of the Mechanicum hold such beliefs
as worthy of consideration, but years of examinations have led
these researchers to believe that such things do exist, and also that
such essence can be ensnared just as it escapes. For what purposes
they might use such ethereal membranes, none can imagine.
Some have begun using heretical xenos devices to aid them in
their quest, surely damning their own souls in the practice.
Many other cadres work their dark research in other manners.
The Preservationists act to forestall the ending of breath though
any means necessary, no matter what effects their nightmarish
actions might have on the body or mind. As long as death is
held at bay, they claim success. The Leagues of Ice use techniques
involving cryogenic states to stave off tissue failure, employing
alternating intensities of temperatures, especially those where the
flesh itself turns solid and brittle, to reinvigorate the body. Their
few successes remain disputed. The Mechanicals refuse to believe
that death actually occurs, and instead use technological aids to
continue to motivate the corpse, and foul unguents to maintain
the flesh. The bodies refuse to respond to such attentions, but this
has not dissuaded this group from further experimentation.
These are but a few of the dangerous groups operating within
the Agglomeration, each a splinter from the original founding,
but now so divergent in their goals and methods as to be nearly
unrecognizable. Others, like the Carnicula, have quit the Sect
to pursue their research elsewhere in divergent patterns. Their
obsession with death still unites them all however, and, for many,
their experiments soon result in their unity with this state.
==The Rite of Setesh==
Utilized by the rich and powerful whose fear of death is
sufficient to overcome their love of humanity, these augmetic
rigs (known in Mechanicus lore as the Rite of Setesh)
involve the living mummification of a dying body and its
emplacement in an all-encompassing exoskeleton designed to
keep an advanced aged or disease-ravaged body alive long
past natural limits, trapping the body in what amounts to
little more than a semi-mobile iron coffin devoid of human
contact. The use of these augmetics is largely frowned upon
even by the Mechanicus as skirting the edge of techno-heresy
in form and function. In the Calixis Sector, only the
isolated and independent Magos Biologis of the Hippocrasian
Agglomeration are willing to fashion these implant systems,
and only then for a price that would beggar a king.
Common: This rite grants a character the Machine (4) trait (except
this Trait does not affect his or her mind) and the Regeneration trait.
Wounds and mental characteristics are unchanged.
Drawbacks: The character reduces Weapon Skill, Ballistic
Skill and Agility to half (round down). Life in one of these
devices is nightmarish and painful. The character gains 2d10
Insanity Points. Also, the rotted biology contained within
adds +5 to any Critical Effect inflicted against the character.
Category:Space Stations
Category:Adrantis Nebula
Category:Adeptus Mechanicus
Category:Calixis Sector