Crusader of Contrition

The best known of the Faithful and first among the Great Rethinkers. A former Exarch of the High Church of Messiah-as-Emperor, sometimes referred to within the church as "The Last Exarch." His given name is lost to time.

### The Legend

As the Exarch of Crusaders, he was ordered by the Aquilan Emperor to lay waste to a large settlement of aliens. During the process of extermination, the Crusaders found themselves significantly outnumbered while trying to hold a city. The sheer quantity of aliens besieging them led to the depletion of the entire store of power cells for the Crusaders' rifles. Forced to turn to more hand-to-hand techniques, the Crusaders engaged and were victorious on the field of battle despite heavy casualties.

It was that experience that changed the former Exarch. It was the first time he had seriously looked into the aliens' eyes. He saw their desperation, their conviction, their sadness, their pain; and began to wonder to himself "Is what we are doing right? Was this city worth this much loss of life? Are these beings truly devoid of souls?" After the war, when the Emperor came to the Exarchs for their blessing, he could not find it in himself to give one. So the Exarch of the Crusaders vacated his position and left the High Church. The seeds of the Church of Humanity, Repentant were sewn.

### Time in Exile

For decades after turning his back on the Emperor, the Crusader and a small group of like minded penitents wandered the sector looking for purpose. Many legends of his stern kindness have grown up around this time.

#### The Breaking of the Blade

One such legend offers an alternative account of the Crusader's first crisis. The file containing the legend was recovered from a derelict supposed to have carried one of the Crusader's earliest followers. Sadly, the file had been subject to slow decay, but fragments have been preserved and later edited by several theologians and historians. Most of these critical editions suspect the anonymous author of the legend to have taken significant poetic licence. As a historical source, then, the legend carries little weight, but from a theological-historiographical standpoint, it proves a fascinating subject.

> And thus on the field of battle the Crusader stood, surrounded by the bodies of both his Blood Eagle allies and the Native Defenders, his blade blue-stained. And as the soil drank richly, blood blue and red merged to royal purple. It was then that Divine Light fell on the eyes of the Crusader, and he could no longer tell attacker from attacked, and all were as one in his eyes, and he wept bitter blood.
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> With steady arm he raised his blue-stained blade, crested with the sigil of his house, and struck it with strength so that the world trembled. And the blue-stained blade did break in three pieces.
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> "No more shall I wield weapons, for today I have been shown my sins. Scores we slew, and they as well, and all that life is lost. When we bloodied our blades, we saw the eyes of our foes, and we found light therein, only to snuff it out. This is our sin: for we bring suffering to those who are sibling to humanity, and to humanity itself as well. For this, we must repent, and mend what harm we caused, if there is hope to be had."
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> Excerpt from *An Account of the days of the Crusader*
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## The Homecoming

After decades of wandering, the Faithful were on their last legs: hungry, fuel-less, and looking for shelter, their ship drifted into the Benilli system. The alien inhabitants of Cabina took pity on them, despite the cruelty humans had shown to them in the past. This moment of connection was pivotal in the developing theology of the Faithful.

1. ↑ see K. Callany (3188) for a detailed study of the disciple's identity
2. ↑ notably B.M. Mosca (3174) and more recently D. Poll (3193)
3. ↑ The scribe uses the term "irr Xentho" to refer to the xeno race, which to date has not been successfully translated. There are no other known uses of the phrase. It has been subject of lively debate for years. In her edition of the legend, D. Poll gives a comprehensive overview of current theories.