Clerics

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The **Clerics** are a faction within ELEX. They have banned the consumption of Elex, because it is against their religious beliefs and they use it for their weaponry and machinery. The Clerics follow the god Calaan. The Clerics are home to the volcanic region of Ignadon, and their main stronghold is The Hort, to the far northeast.

## Description

The site of the meteor’s impact, Ignadon is riven by constant volcanic activity. Thought to be devoid of life, Ignadon was the perfect hiding place for the Clerics to grow in power. Followers of the god Calaan, the Clerics see the consumption of Elex in any form as a sin. Instead they use Elex to power their machines. Guardians of Magalan’s technology, the Clerics put their faith in Calaan, plasma weapons, mechs and the power of industry and psionics. From the ashes shall rise a new Magalan even more advanced than before.

## History

The God Calaan is incensed, humanity is facing its biggest struggle. The clerics believe that only those who are pure can live before Calaan, and such purity of mind and soul can only be achieved through the study of facts, logic and science. It is for this reason they reject the consumption of Elex and they will mistrust everyone acting contrary to this rule. To protect humanity from itself, they strive to learn more and convert followers to their ideology.

Clerics have an advanced technology at their disposal. Besides laser and plasma weapons, their arsenal most notably includes heavily armed fighting machines leaving only scorched earth once used, as well as the use of psionic powers. Here you can have an insight into the various production steps from artwork to finished armor of the Clerics in the game.

The Clerics are, in fact, more tied into the actual history of Magalan than they might expect, which can be revealed through various ancient journals and voice recordings that can be found throughout the world. \*\*\*SPOILER WARNING\*\*\* this is more thoroughly collected and sequenced in Lore Origins of the Clerics.

## Culture

The Clerics have a regimented, militaristic society with rather strict controls, many of which can be attributed to their admittedly harsh living conditions. Being the closest to Albs territory they are at constant war with them, and the harsh volcanic terrain they live in is very poor for growing crops so food is carefully rationed; one of your first possible missions is from Martha to negotiate trade relations with an outlying group of hunters for more food supplies.

Religiously, the Clerics believe that if they follow the teachings of Calaan faithfully enough they will be taken to "The Infinite Skies", where "Knowledge is above all". This is potentially in reference to achieving space travel; there are also several references to a Project Infinite Skies in certain Old World notes and pamphlets which mention "a better future" and describe how participants went through extensive pre-screening first, including genetic scans. They also greatly revere knowledge of the Old World, considering it outright sacred and that it is their duty to preserve and study it. They routinely send out Reclamation Squads to Old World ruins, first pacifying the area and then salvaging all possible technology and records that they can. This has resulted in them easily being the most technologically advanced of the three core factions, second only to the Albs.

The constant combat with the Albs has unsurprisingly lead to casualties within the Clerics, and while their extensive mining and engineering crews can repair/replace their Mech armies accordingly they cannot do the same for people. There was also at least one major battle years ago with the Berserkers where a full squadron of earlier-generation Mechs accompanying the Cleric infantry all had power failures mid-battle from the same design flaw (which was later corrected), resulting in a loss of the battle and major casualties for the Clerics from which they never fully recovered. They are outright desperate for new members, and they almost never exile or execute any criminals. Instead they have developed Suggestion, a form of mental coercion (i.e. brainwashing), in order to reform any straying members back into their beliefs, so they can retain as many combat capable members as possible. This is a practice that other factions frown upon.

It is also worth noting that all of the Mechs in their bases cannot be Pickpocketed.

## Equipment

The typical weaponry of the Clerics consists of the most technologically advanced weapons you will have access to. Laser rifles, plasma rifles, flamethrowers are common. They are accurate, do high damage and can fire faster than melee weapons can be swung. The Clerics do also have melee weapons like swords and hammers, but to a lesser degree.

Their advanced ranged weapons combined with one of their unique skills, One with the Weapon, easily make the Clerics the best of the factions at ranged weapon combat.

The key resources you will need to make sure to collect for upgrading their weapons are Gold Nuggets for Melee weapons, Electronic Scrap and Mental Energy Reserves for Ranged weapons, and Natural Elex for both.

## Gallery

Albert

Dietrich

Egon

Gustav

Hans

Richard