Haud

Depiction of Haud,

**Haud** is a minor god of Order that represents the overall collective and that of authority. He represents those who live austere lives and turn away from selfish desires and individual glory, drawing his power from those who willing submit to the collective, as a whole, and obey authority without question.

## Background

While other Gods may feed off the rebellious thoughts and forbidden desires of the countless souls, Haud draws his strength from the thoughts and emotions that prevent countless law-aiding and humble souls from giving it to such temptations. Every pleasure forgone, every order unquestioned and every faith held in-spite of overwhelming evidence strengthens Haud, the God of the Collective and Authority. Individuals under the influence of Haud are driven by a overwhelming sense of duty and loyalty to authority to deny their own desires and thoughts, willingly leading lives of service and self-sacrifice without consideration for their own physical welfare or for their own dreams and wishes. Haud represents the peace and certainty of numb, unthinking routine and blind acceptance of arbitrary authority. He is the accumulated results of thousands of lives lead without regard for fulfilment of lusts, for the acclimation of wealth, for personal glory and without desire for higher experience. Haud is often seen as a claim, saintly figure in a act of mediation with a expression of content upon his face, or a all powerful Master clad in grey armour, looking down upon his followers and demanding obedience.

At best, the followers of Haud are charitable, self-disciplined and selfless who gladly lend their strength to the greater good out of a deep seated sense of duty to others and to their faith. At worst, they are mindless automatons who will murder thousands of unarmed victims without blinking, if ordered by their masters. As the simple pleasures become dull to the Slaaneshi cultist, who seeks ever more bizarre and perverted forms of realise, so the Haud Cultist is driven to ever greater levels of self-denial by his faith. Friends and family are often distressed by the transformation of a kind and friendly soul into a unresponsive and cold Cult member who never returns from the confines of his order, driven by a all dominating need to deny the world. In battle, followers of Haud are a resolute mass of fearless warriors who obey any order without question or hesitation, whose dead eyes and expressionless faces unnerve enemies and allies alike.

Naturally, unlike the unpredictable and rebellious Cults of Pax, the Imperium has had no second thoughts about the accepting the Orders of Haud into the Ecclesiastical fold, such is there effectiveness in ensuring the unquestioning obedience of Imperial subjects who are exposed to it's influence. Some even have had Haud declared an aspect of the God-Emperor himself, alike unto the Machine God of Mars. However, a influential swathe of Imperial opinion, including Inquisitors and Space Marine Chapters, are suspicious of Haud, claiming that it's extreme self-denial is not a expression of faith in the Emperor but a result of exposure to a Warp power that destroys free will, the one and only requirement for true faith.