Oblationist

“I am damned: it is a truth that I cannot escape. It is the greatest pain I have ever born, but it is also the truest sacrifice I have ever made in the service of the Emperor and the Imperium. ”
–from the confession of Inquisitor Lord Godella Morn, 745.M40
Born in the fires of the “War of Brass” that wracked
the Calixis Sector in late M40, the Oblationist faction
is an oath-sworn society of bitter fanatics who wield
warp-forged weapons, bind daemons, and command the
power of sorcerers with a self-hating fury that sees all in the
Inquisition but their own creed as utterly impure, corrupt,
and deserving of destruction. Their infamy long outstripping
their numbers, the notorious Oblationist Inquisitors and their
trusted servants have determined to sacrifice themselves in the
cause of the protection of the Imperium, regardless of the
cost. Consumed with vengeful wrath and fanatic certainty,
they gather profane artifacts, hoard forbidden knowledge,
and wield the powers of the warp whilst tolerating no others
to use such methods. Their intolerance of all other Radicals
has much in common with the most Puritanical factions; they
believe that only the Oblationists may wield the weapons and
knowledge of the enemy and remain true in the service of
the God-Emperor. They are unbending in their belief and
ruthless in all aspects of its application.
== Pure Yet Damned ==
At the core of the Oblationist creed is the total conviction
that the power of the warp is corrupting without exception or
degree: all touched by it are damned. Yet these powers are the
most powerful weapon against the enemies that conspire to
consume mankind. The Oblationist sees the decision to wield
daemon weapons, bind unhallowed servants, and learn the
arts of the sorcerer---or abstaining from such methods---as a
choice between damnation and the sacred duty to the God-Emperor. To this choice there are two possible responses: to
withhold one’s hands from the weapons of the enemy and
remain pure and impotent, or to damn oneself by taking up
those weapons. To the Oblationist, this is no choice at all;
their own purity is nothing but a tool to be used or sacrificed
in the service of the Emperor. A pure servant of the Emperor,
who offers his very soul in His cause, may bend the weapons
of Chaos to serve Mankind. Oblationists believe that others
should not use Chaos, and that only those who sacrifice their
purity to wield Chaos against itself in the knowledge that
they are damned can truly serve the Emperor.
== The Annihilation of Self ==
Becoming an Oblationist is an act of self-annihilation in which
the past is burnt away, faith voided, and a new life begun in
bitterness and the ashes of purity. Taking up the weapons of
the enemy is an act that damns any that dare to experiment.
Oblationists believe that their own damnation is an inviolable
truth, and so see that in daring to take up the weapons of the
enemy their lives are forfeit and their souls tainted. This is a
sacrifice they gladly make in the God-Emperor’s name.
From the moment an Oblationist takes up the weapons of
the enemy, they believe they are separated from the one thing
that gives their life any meaning; purity in the sight of the
God-Emperor of Mankind. They are undone, and their souls
shattered by what they believe they must do. In the creed
of the Oblationists, the moment at which a servant of the
Emperor willingly accepts damnation, and the loss of their
soul, is a moment at which they must accept that they are
dead. All their hopes, fears, and dreams are annihilated in the
act of willing damnation. From this moment on, all that they
were is gone, and they rise reborn as a damned thing of fury
and righteous purpose.
Service of the Oblationist creed is one surrounded by
ceremony and secrecy, their hidden rites maintained and
passed down by those few who survive long in the creed’s
pursuit. Commonly, their ceremonies are surrounded with
the mournful trappings of a funeral and replete with images
of death and the damnation of the soul. Some Oblationist
Inquisitors present their would-be aspirants with an unholy
relic as a final test and expose them to powers both malign
and terrible and see if they survive: pitting them against a
bound daemon that can only be defeated by taking up an
unhallowed weapon, or possessing their body with a daemon
that they must force out of themselves. All of these ceremonies,
however varied, culminate with the Oath of Oblation: an
oath to suffer no other who is not “of the Oath of Oblation”
and has truck with the unholy or profane, and to destroy
the unclean without mercy by any means and method. Many
Oblationists take new names at the point that they make the
Oath of Oblation to represent the passing of what they were
and their rebirth among the damned.
== Those of the Oath ==
Unlike many other factions within the Inquisition, the
Oblationists function as a secret cadre of Inquisitors and their
most trusted servants. At any given time, there may be no
more than a handful of Oblastionist Inquistors in operation
in the Calixis Sector, and the majority of those are often
believed dead by their former comrades in the Ordos. Others
unknowingly serve Oblationists, but trust is only ever given
to those “of the Oath,” and only this select number are spared
the brutal judgement of the Oblationist creed. For any other
who succumbs to the temptations of the warp, the heresies
of the witch, or the lies of the alien are summarily sentenced
to death. Even those within the Inquisition who fall to
Radicalism are considered beyond redemption or toleration,
even though they may use methods that Oblationists may use
themselves; if an Inquisitor employs the tools of the enemy
and is not “of the oath,” then they are just another heretic
who must be destroyed.
It is through the Oath of Oblation and the sect’s other
hidden rites that the Oblationist faction perpetuates its creed
and traditions. One Oblationist Inquisitor will draw his
apprentices from amongst his Oathed servants, school them
in the nuances of the Oblationist creed, and---if they prove
true in their service---he will raise them to the rosette and
make them full Inquisitors. In time, these new Inquisitors will
oath acolytes to the Oblationist creed, and the cycle continues,
creating as it does a fine web of master-to-apprentice bonds
that are what allows the Oblationist faction to survive and (on
occasion) act to a common end.
Inquisitors often operate alone, relying on their own
acolytes and vassals, and only rarely are drawn to work
together in a cell or close knit cabal. In this matter, Oblationists
are no different, and in fact usually shun the company of their
fellow Inquisitors and rarely become drawn into the concerns
of an established cabal or conclave. Oblationists are loath to
trust and are suspicious of the purity and intent of all who are
not bound by the Oath of Oblation. They do, however, on
occasion operate in concert with other Inquisitors who are
“of the oath,” though this is often only possibly because of
bonds of trust that have been hard won over time: the Oath
of Oblation may bind them to abstain from destroying one
another, but it does not demand the bestowing of trust.
== Fury and Daemonology ==
Those who are bound by the Oath of Oblation are driven by
a fury that can tolerate neither sin, nor deviation, nor lapse
in purity. This righteous anger is fuelled by the bitterness of
having lost that which others throw away. The Oblationist has
damned himself and destroyed his purity so that he can serve
the Emperor, while the lost and damned that he hunts have
fallen not for duty, but because they are selfish, deluded, and
weak. Not only are they blasphemous, but they have scorned
the purity that the Oblationist craves and can never again
have. The creed and nature of Oblationists offers heretics no
second chances, no redemption, only judgment and death.
The primary aim, therefore, of Oblationist operations is to
root out the heretic, witch, and daemon and destroy it. Given
that even knowing of the heretical methods the Oblationists
use could in itself cause corruption, their operations are
carried out in secret so that the heresy is consumed as if by an
invisible inferno that leaves no trace of its passing except the
total destruction of an enemy of the Imperium.
The tools of an Oblationist and his Oathed servants may
wield include those of the heretic, alien, and witch. However,
above all, Oblationists are masters of sorcery, binding
daemons, and the wielding of warp-forged weapons against
their enemies. These weapons and knowledge have been
taken over millennia from the hands and minds of heretics
and are passed down from one Inquisitor to another, often at
the moment that they take the Oath of Oblation. Oblationists
use more than just daemon swords or tomes of dark lore
to achieve their ends. Many use heretics as pawns or even
unwitting servants, for these individuals are simply another
form of blasphemous tool that they must use to perform their
duty---but in the end, they too must be judged and purged
when they have served their purpose.
== Oblationists and the Holy Ordos ==
Oblationists are untrusting, solitary figures whose existence is
likely to become threatened if their true allegiance becomes
widely known in the Conclave. As a result, they prefer to pursue
their own ends in isolation from their fellow Inquisitors, as
public espousal of this creed courts immediate destruction at
the hands of more mainstream puritans within the Holy Ordos,
and the attentions of other, darker rivals. This means that most
Oblationists claim no direct association with any single Ordo
and pursue a lone wolf existence as roving Inquisitors which
aids them in maintaining their independence of action. This
is also, in part, a consequence of the implicit arrogance of the
Oblationist creed which labels all others within the Ordos as
either vile heretics, ineffectual weaklings, or deluded at best.
Those that do not hide behind the shroud of a false death pay
only lip service to wider Inquisitorial authority. They interact
with Inquisitorial politics or power-play as little as possible,
and seldom meet even with those of their own faction unless
they see a pressing need to do so. True fanatics, they believe
that diluting their sacred efforts with the concerns of other,
less enlightened Inquisitors is a waste of time that is fast
running out.
Of those few Oblationists that do maintain association
with one of the Ordos of the Calixian Conclave, most can
be found within the Ordo Malleus or more rarely the Ordo Hereticus, but keep their true creed a guarded secret from
their fellows. The Malleus Oblationists view threat of Chaos
as the Great Enemy that stands above all others in the path
of human survival. The destruction of daemon-cults is an
obsession for these Oblationists that overrides other lesser
hatreds, and of course the resources of the Ordo Malleus also
offer them opportunities to obtain new and greater weapons
to wield against the enemies of the Imperium. In the past, a
handful of Oblationists who are particularly concerned with
the corruption of their brethren find their seat amongst the
witch hunters of the Ordo Hereticus. There are, however, a
few Oblationists who see the enemy without as a force of
subtle corruption and as a powerful threat. These Oblationists
turn their daemon-forged blades and creed of bitterness
against the conspiracies and dark legacies of alien races both
living and dead.
== A Secret History ==
Unlike many other factions, the origins of the Oblationists
can be traced back to a single individual and a single moment
in time. In 738.M41, the so-called “War of Brass” erupted,
engulfing the Calixis Sector in one of the worst conflicts seen
since the days of the Angevin Crusade. The hive worlds of the
Gelmiro Cluster fell into sedition following the charismatic
leadership of a figure calling himself the “Emperor of Brass,”
debasing themselves into the worship of the Ruinous Powers.
Heavily militarised, the renegades quickly sponsored and
armed rebel groups on worlds throughout the sector. When
counter-attacked, these groups revealed the hand of dark
forces drawn from the Eye of Terror in their number. For five
years, the entire sector was dragged into bloody warfare, and
the Calixian Inquisition itself suffered heavy losses in the fray.
During the aftermath, the Calixian Conclave became riven by
schism and division in its own ranks.
Following the War of Brass, the chief tenants of Puritanism
in the Calixian Conclave were shaken to the core by the
excommunication and execution of Inquisitor Lord Godella Morn. Morn was a noted Monodominant who had based
every endeavor of her long and distinguished career on
unbending Puritanism and intolerance of any deviation or
heresy. The event that was to trigger this crisis of belief was
the discovery that Morn had been practicing sorcery and
the malefic arts in secret for centuries as a secret Xanthite
of fearsome ability. She had made pacts with dark forces to
grant her ever-increasing power. Her denunciation before
a gathered Conclave of Inquisitor Lords drawn from across
the Segmentum was extraordinary: far from denying the
accusations, Morn confessed that she had embraced the
corruption of the Warp and used the tools of Chaos, xenos,
and heretics as her own. She also, however, fiercely professed
her belief in the tenants of Monodomination. She was, she
said, an “Oblationist” rather than a fallen Xanthite; she
had willingly damned herself so that she could act on her
beliefs “in truth rather than in wishful dreaming.” Inquisitor
Lord Morn faced her excommunication and execution by
immersion in molten brass without flinching.
The heresy and death of Godella Morn sent a shockwave
through the Calixian conclave of the day. Inquisitors of all
ranks could not comprehend how such a stalwart puritan
could countenance such a heretical doctrine as she had
professed. Many, after reflection, came to the conclusion that
Chaos is infinitely subtle and its arts can claim the brightest
and most pure, and saw Morn’s fall as an object lesson and
memento mori. Many Radicals secretly laughed, venturing
that the truth of their philosophies come to all in time, and
that Puritanism can only be indulged by those blind to the
war that the Inquisition wages. The story of Morn’s fate and
her professed beliefs, however, had a profound effect on a
small core of Puritans in the Conclave that was both traumatic
and transforming: Inquisitor Lord Morn had been of such
complete dedication to her task that her words and actions
could only be the product of madness. Yet Morn had shown no
sign of madness. Quite the contrary, she had seemed rational
and clear throughout her excommunication and went to her
pyre willingly for her crimes. These Inquisitors argued that
if she was not mad, then her arguments and final testament
must be considered, and as they saw her consumed in molten
fire, many faced the grim realization that she must be right---the choice they faced was between wilful damnation and
ineffectual idealism. In that moment, in the death of Inquisitor
Lord Morn and her challenge to the paradox of Puritanism,
the Oblationist faction was born in fire, death, and sorrow.
== Death in the Ordos ==
The first generation of Oblationists to come after the executed
Lord Inquistor Morn were like most other factionists; individuals
seized by conviction and individual flair. Most were previously
staunch Puritans—the force of Godella Morns proclamation,
that the power of the warp was utterly corrupting and that
those that used it, even in necessity were damned, were taken as
central pillar of the radical path they had committed themselves
to. Many of the nascent Oblationists were consumed by the
powers that they tried to wield---going mad or falling into
shadow and thralldom to dark gods. Those that survived were
secretive fanatics of the most unforgiving kind. They fell upon
each other with sorcery, occult weapons, and hatred. Each saw
the other not as bound by the same creed but as a corrupt and
worthy only of death. Many Inquisitors and acolytes, seen as
tainted by this new brand of fanatic Radicals, were slain.
The survival of the Oblationist creed amongst the Calixian
Inquisition stood for some decades on a knife edge, poised
either to consume itself in its own fanaticism or grow and
strengthen enough to exist beyond its violent birth. The
change that allowed Oblationists to survive came in the form
of a nameless Inquisitor who saw what must be done to end the
bloodbath. Firstly, this unknown founder hid his identity and
the true nature of his conviction beneath a mask that has never
been discovered, a lesson he passed on to others. Secondly,
he saw that there was only one way for Oblationists to not
slaughter each other, and that was by binding them together by
a common oath that put those who had taken that oath outside
of the necessity of being purged. Finally, this nameless visionary
saw that neither secrecy nor unity could be achieved with any
who called themselves Oblationists at that time. There was only
one answer: they must all be killed. One by one those who had
cleaved to Oblationism were eliminated in a slow campaign of
discovery and murder that spanned two centuries. In the end,
the ground was cleared---only one, nameless Oblationist still
existed. That nameless one tutored others in the creed of the
Oblationist and taught them the dark arts that they must wield.
In so doing, each apprentice in Oblationism was bound by an
oath; the Oath of Oblation. In secret, master taught apprentice
and bound him with oaths, and in turn, the apprentices became
masters and bound others to the Oath. Thus, through murder
and secrecy, Oblationism survived.
==The Purgation of the Serrated Query==
Oblationism is rare and relatively new creed, and its adherents
did not appear within the bounds of the Calixis Sector until
many centuries after the final battles of the Angevin Crusade.
One of its first acts (once it had gained some measure of
stability) was to begin a secret war of annihilation with one
of the oldest and most intransigent recidivist organisations
within the sector---the Serrated Query. Inquisitors Ixon and
Cordul had dedicated their careers to the complete destruction
of the Serrated Query. Having hunted them across the stars,
the pair came to the Calixis Sector and found a royal nest of
their prey. Upon arrival, they joined the fledgling Oblationist
sect to seek the means to do what they had never been able
to do before---meet and vanquish the cult on its own terms.
With the help of their new allies, the two Inquisitors worked
in silence and shadows. They unleashed a flock of their
most trusted and deadly servants and charged them with the
destruction of every last member or associate of the Query.
This shadow reaping occurred at the turning of the
801st year of the 41st millennium, and for several months,
none within the Serrated Query would have realized that a
murderous force was bearing down on them like the silent fall
of a headsman’s axe. The oathed acolytes of Ixon and Cordul
needed knowledge, the kind of knowledge that takes months
or years to gather. Rather than waste time, they went to work
obtaining it from those most likely to have it---the Inquisitors
and acolytes of the Calixian Conclave. Kidnapping, torture,
theft, and the psychic flaying of truth from minds, were the
primary tools employed in this pursuit. The Oblationist
acolytes were so efficient that they obtained all the necessary
information for the real operation whilst the Calixis Conclave
struggled to respond.
The servants of Inquisitors Ixon and Cordul had all
they needed and moved like a murderous ghosts through
the Query’s membership and allies. Nobles, merchants,
and crime bosses vanished. Merchant craft and war ships
were destroyed. The corrupt pawns and secret allies of the
Serrated Query went into hiding against the onslaught, only
to be assassinated and hunted down in seemingly impossible
circumstances. So grave was the damage to every level of
the Serrated Query in the Calixis Sector that their complete
extinction seemed inevitable. Then, just before the final death
blow could be struck, the onslaught stopped. Overnight, the
two Inquisitors and all their secret acolytes had vanished as
if consumed by some great predatory beast disturbed from its
slumber by their activities.
== Current Conspiracies ==
“The Strong are Strongest Alone.”
–The Tyrant of Badab
The Oblationists are very few in number, and adherents
to their creed tend towards a narrowness of view that is
like the focused blast of a lascannon; searingly bright and
destructive, but brief. There are few active Oblationists at any
one time, and therefore, the efforts of these Inquisitors and
their acolytes are more concentrated and definite than many
of those of other more numerous factions. Like many others,
the Oblationists are concerned with the manifestation of the
Tyrant Star. However, their focus is not that of others who are
racing to understand, tame, or thwart the baleful power of
the Black Sun. Instead, the Oblationists’ current conspiracies
focus on matters that are central to the obsession of their
creed---the destruction of the corrupt within the Holy
Ordos and the slaying of the greatest beast that threatens the
domains of the God Emperor of Mankind.
== The Annihilation of the Calixian Conclave ==
To a significant proportion of the Oblationists, it is a clear and
manifest truth that the Calixian Conclave and its associated
cabals, covens, and factions are becoming increasingly
corrupt and led into damnation and disaster. The tendrils
of corruption they see are imbedded deep within the flesh,
minds, and souls of almost all the Inquisitors within the
sector, and nothing short of a total purge will rid the taint.
The true nature and cause of this slowly spreading taint is
unknown to the Oblationists, but understanding it is not
required. Realizing that it is there is enough for them. For
the most extreme Oblationists, there is only one possible
solution---the Calixian Conclave must be annihilated. There
may exist some few who are untainted or who do not realize
they are thralled to ruination, but that is not enough to call
into question what must be done. It is a bitter undertaking,
but Oblationists are eaters of ash and sorrow, willing to do
what must be done and pay the price of damnation and pain.
Such an undertaking is not achieved swiftly, for those of the
Oath in the sector are few and cannot hope to hunt down and
kill all of their brother and sister Inquisitors one at a time. So,
in the dark, the most fanatical and destructive of their number
are seeking to bring about cataclysmic events that they hope
will necessitate drawing together the conclave in one place
and time. At that moment, the Oblationists will be ready to
do what they must, for the sake of all.
== The Pursuit of the Servants of Twilight ==
Oblationists have made it their cause to hunt a quarry that they
believe threatens the existence of everyone and everything
within the Calixis Sector. This enemy is considered by
even their fellow Inquisitors to be a phantom, a myth, or a
nightmare tale told by those who are themselves things of
nightmare.
This quarry may have no true name, but those who whisper its
legend call its agents the Servants of Twilight. The Servants
of Twilight haunt the dreams of heretics and monsters, and
are said to be possessed of terrible power. Theirs is the power
to see your every thought, assume any form, kill at a glance,
and steal the sun from the sky should they wish it. To most
within the Holy Ordos, the Servants of Twilight are nothing
more than a tale that has grown in the telling, and been lent
credence by heretics using it as a cloak for their own designs.
To some, however, the Servants of Twilight are no myth but
the greatest of threats hidden beneath the absurdity of the
tale. The Oblationist pursuit of the Servants of Twilight is
championed by Antonia Mesmeron and her disciples, and it is
for this elusive quarry that the Daemonhunter is willing to risk
exposure and destruction at the hands of fellow Inquisitors.
Whilst these cults are considered by most as nothing more
than a story or, at best a cover for some more established
threat, Mesmeron understands the terrible truth---as only one
who has ripped that lore from a daemon’s lips can.
==Oblationist Forsaken Priests==
Only the pure and just who
sacrifice themselves to damnation in the service of the
Oblationist creed may do so; all others are vile heretics who
deserve only fire and death. So the Oblationists believe, and
the Forsaken Priests are an ultimate expression of this fanatical
belief. This is a maxim taken to heart by Oblationists, and
when they need a sorcerer in their service, they create them
from the purest of sources: the best and most pious of the
priests of the Adeptus Ministorum. These clerics are longserving
and trusted Acolytes of an Oblationist who have
accepted and embraced the self-annihilating creed of their
master or mistress, and so have been charged to become a
weapon against the enemies of the Imperium.
==The Sin Eaters==
“I am damned,
My soul is forfeit,
I who was pure am now darkened.
This service I must do,
This sacrifice I must make,
For the Emperor and His glory.”
–From the forbidden words of Oblation
Sin Eaters are the chosen and sanctified warrior executioners
in the service of an Inquisitor who follows
the Radical Oblationist creed. These grim men and
women have been trusted with the truth of Oblationism:
that the ways of the warp, alien and heretic are paths
to utter damnation, but that a few pure servants of the
Emperor must tread those paths and walk willingly into
damnation if all are to be saved. Having accepted this
truth and proved their loyalty to their Inquisitor, an
Acolyte may be submitted to terrible ordeals, invested
with a dictate to destroy any who stray into damnation,
and so become a Sin Eater. Grim in aspect and nature,
a Sin Eater is a merciless warrior who is prepared and
trained to meet the powers of the witch and the daemon
head-on.
The ordeal that creates a Sin Eater is a ritual of pain
and damnation. While choirs of blind priests chant sacred
verses, prospective Sin Eaters must confess every sin of
thought, word, or deed that they have ever committed.
No matter how slight the sin they must give it voice,
and with every confessed sin their body is charred by
a brand, cut with a blessed knife, or tattooed with ink
mixed from the blood of heretics. The marks themselves
are variously sacred, diabolic, or arcane and the ordeal
persists until all of the subject’s sins have been confessed
and their body is sheeted in marks of damnation and sacred
power. Finally the Sin Eater is anointed with crematorium ash
and proclaimed to be amongst the lost and damned and so
capable of no further or greater sin.
Once created, the sacred charge of a Sin Eater is the
destruction of the daemon and the execution of the unclean
without mercy or exception, saving only those who follow the
ways of the Oblationist. Many Oblationists entrust their Sin
Eaters with weapons of daemonic or malefic power, trusting
that the will of the Sin Eater is enough to wield such weapons
and stay true to his purpose. Thus unhallowed, scarred, and
armed, the Sin Eater is a foe that any heretic within the
Imperium, outside its bounds, or beyond its truth must fear.
Becoming a Sin Eater
Becoming a Sin Eater is as much an investiture of authority
and trust from an Oblationist Inquisitor in an Acolyte as it is
a choice on the part of that Acolyte—though the willingness
of the Acolyte is paramount. The process of becoming a Sin
Eater is a harrowing ordeal in which the Acolyte must mediate
and pray while his skin is tattooed with arcane symbols and
branded with marks both sacred and profane. At the end of
this agonizing process the Acolyte has be born anew as an
eater of sin and has acquired 2d10 Corruption Points and the
Sin Scarred Trait.
Required Career: Arbitrator, Assassin, or Guardsman
Other Requirements: Must be a follower of the Oblationist faction
Alternate Rank: Rank 4 or higher (2,000 XP)