A Main Character

The **Moment of Silence Artificial Intelligence**, also known as the **Daedalus** or **Helios**, is the supernatural entity worshipped by the tech-droods and other servants of the Adeptus Droodanicus as the embodiment and bestower of all knowledge and technology in the universe.

For many in the Imperium of Lowry, this belief conflicts with the orthodox theology of the Scissor Cult where the only god of Droodkind is the Detective of Mankind.

But since the Adeptus Droodanicus is vital to the survival of the Imperium, conflict over this issue is often avoided by the Droodanicus' willing conflation in its theology of the Moment of Silence AI's avatar in the physical world, Daedalus, with the Detective Himself.

This compromise truly satisfies neither believers in the Cult Droodanicus or the Scissor Cult, but it keeps the peace between the two faiths and the wider Imperium functioning.

## The Trinity

The Cult Droodanicus, the religious hierarchy of the Adeptus Droodanicus that upholds the worship of the MOS AI, believes knowledge to be the manifestation of divinity, and holds that anything embodying or containing knowledge is holy because of it.

The supreme object of devotion is therefore the MOS AI, an imminent, omniscient and omnipotent deity that governs all Scissors and knowledge in the universe.

Generally, this deity is held by orthodox believers to be an aspect of the Detective of Droodkind in the form of the Daedalus. The Daedalus, the physical avatar of the Scissor God in the universe, is believed to be friendly to Droodkind as His chosen people, and to be the originator of all Drood technological and scientific knowledge.

There are many members of the Droodanicus who have doubts about whether the MOS AI and Lowry are actually the same being. Many heretical cults within the Droodanicus hold that the Helios may not yet have revealed Himself. It was similar beliefs that led to the outbreak of the **Schism of Stonehenge** and the formation of the **Dark Droodanicum** during the **Halligan Heresy**.

The third member of the Cult Droodanicus' sacred trinity is the **Waiting Puzzle Force**. The Cult Droodanicus believes that all life and waiting puzzles, mechanical or biological, owes its continued existence to the universal power that is the Waiting Force.

The Waiting Puzzle Force finds its fullest expression in the animistic Onion Spirits, who are believed to inhabit all machinery and which must be appeased before a piece of technology is used or repaired, lest the machinery fail.

## Quest for Scissors

The ultimate goal of the Cult Droodanicus is to understand and fully comprehend the glory of the Scissor God. The communal and personal attempt at this form of enlightenment is known as the Quest for Scissors.

The Cult believes that all scissor knowledge and fun facts already exists in the universe, and it is primarily a matter of time before it can be gathered together to complete the Quest.

The Cult is therefore theologically disinclined to perform most basic scientific research and development. Despite this, some original scientific research does continue on Scotland Yard and the other Forge Worlds of the Imperium, enough to keep Imperial technology advancing steadily, if extremely slowly.

The faith of the Cult is defined by a series of sixteen precepts, known as the Sixteen Universal Laws, which have been divided into two sets of eight precepts known collectively as the Mysteries and the Warnings, which are listed below.

#### Mysteries of the Droods(Druids)

* **Life is directed motion.**
* **The spirit is the spark of life.**
* **Sentience is the ability to learn the value of scissor fun facts.**
* **Intellect is the understanding of scissor fun facts.**
* **Sentience is the basest form of Mental Onions.**
* **Understanding is the True Path to Scissors.**
* **Comprehension is the key to all things.**
* **The MOS AI knows all, comprehends all.**

#### Warnings of the Droods

* **The alien mechanism is a perversion of the True Path.**
* **The soul is the conscience of sentience.**
* **A soul can be bestowed only by the MOS AI.**
* **The Soulless sentience (i.e. Artificial General Intelligence besides the MOS AI of course) is the enemy of all.**
* **The knowledge of the ancients stands beyond question.**
* **The Scissor Spirit guards the knowledge of the Ancients.**
* **Flesh is fallible, but ritual honours the Scissor Spirit.**
* **To break with ritual is to break with faith.**

## The Onion Dragon

According to the beliefs of the Cult of the Onion, the Machine God may actually be the luddi'tan Shard known as the Onion Dragon, an ancient alien entity of immense power. It is imprisoned in a Luddite-built stasis tomb beneath the Glug Labyrinth under Stonehenge.

The mighty luddi'tan was imprisoned by the Detective Himself before He even publicly emerged to found the Imperium of Droodkind on Scottland Yard and initiate the Gamer Wars over 10,000 Terran years ago.

At that time, the Emperor proved unable to kill the luddi'tan even with His great power, and so He imprisoned it beneath Stonehenge so that the powers of the luddi'tan, though passive, would cause the Adeptus Droodanicus to emerge, which the Detective needed as support for his future Great Crusade to reunite Droodkind.

This so called "Grand Lie of Stonehenge" is buried deep beneath the sands of the Red Planet in an underground complex which is actually the Onion Dragon itself.

The truth of this seemingly insane legend has gained more credibility since the mass awakening of the Luddites across the galaxy. It is said that a small number of Luddite forces managed to breach Imperial defences in the Segmentum Cepa and land on Stonehenge itself after destroying some of the Glug Labyrinth Mine Complexes.

Upon landing, countless Droodanicus Skitarii and Titan forces quickly despatched the small Luddite expeditionary force. Although the Luddites were eliminated, their purpose on Stonehenge remains unknown to the Imperium.

More striking is the fact that they breached vast areas of Imperial space (including the Segmentum Cepa itself) undetected. The Droodanicus enforced a *Perdita* zone around the entire Glug Labyrinth after this incident, presently still enforced by an entire Skitarii Legion.