Cyanites

Death is not the end, not any more. God has punished us and taken the grace and gift of swift death and its release from the earth, or at least prolonged man’s suffering, leaving evil to fester in the heart of every man. What role does an assassin play in a world in which the dead refuse to move on, to rest peacefully?

What role do any of us play?

This is the question that those who follow the patron angel Cyaniel must answer, and many fear their conclusions. These priests are known in ghost stories and legends as feared assassins, whose killing strikes are done in worship. In the stories of old, it is they who were sent after the untouchable to remind them that the hand of god can still reach them. But the world is different now, and our deliverance from evil brought by death is often only temporary…until it isn’t.

The Cyanites follow the words of St. Decimus, beloved of Cyaniel, who taught that the nature of mankind is evil, and that it is impossible for god to see us any longer, having to avert the divine gaze from us. Mankind has become so twisted and contorted from its original shape and design, so fallen from the blessings and beauty that was intended for us, that we are now left to our own. They believe that through the nigh impossible task of destroying all evil in the hearts of men and fundamentally changing who we are, that we may once more show god that we are worthy of favor and the reward of peace and eternal contentment. As a parent punishes a disappointing and unruly child, so too are we being chastened with the state of the world, and like that child, we must prove that we have learned from our mistakes and clean the mess we have made.

In order to set things right on the path to redemption, the Cyanites believe that the world must be purged of the wicked, preferably starting with the worst of the lot – for they also believe that god judges humanity as a whole by the most iniquitous of us. Thus, if the scale can be shifted – the truly evil undone and the lesser evils stopped in their tracks before we worsen, perhaps the world as a whole can be set to rights. Among the Cyanites there are different interpretations of what constitutes punishable wickedness, but all agree that action must be taken to place fear in the hearts of wrongdoers and remove the irredeemable from the human race. In addition, their targets are not random, nor clouded by their own biases, for Cyanites do not consider their targets for elimination to be their choice. Instead, they perform a vision-seeking ritual to obtain the names of their targets, which they believe are chosen by god. If the death they inflict is not final, then perhaps it will make the sinner think twice before committing wrong again. And if it is final, there is one less wicked soul upon the earth.

However, the nigh impossible task of shifting the morality of mankind cannot be done through simple assassination any more – the world is more complex than that, and a complex web must be drawn to see how the influence of corruption and depravity touches the lives of nearly every human. But every web has its spiders, and the Cyanites must patiently wait and watch, understanding what secrets, deceits, and conspiracies lay beneath them, so that they may first undermine and discourage those in power from abuse, and then ultimately put an end to immorality once they determine who truly pulls the strings. Sometimes, a whispered word is as effective as a knife in the dark. Sometimes, a terrifying memory is more powerful than the threat of death when death no longer carries the same sting. The priests of Cyaniel keep intimate track of the secrets of those around them, allowing them to monitor grand conspiracies and anticipate the actions and decisions of others in order to force them into a trap from which they can never re-emerge.

It is important to the Cyanites that they remain anonymous in order to preserve what they consider to be their source of strength and power – their ability to bring uncertainty and fear. Better that they be thought of as a many-eyed predator in the shadows, capable of being anyone, rather than a single hero fighting against evil. A man can be stopped, but a nameless redeemer is a symbol – a monster under the bed of the wicked. As such, priests of Cyaniel perform the work of their archangel fully masked or covered and hidden, and do not tell others who they are when they are not wearing the mask. Thus, no individual priest gains power or recognition, and they may move more freely through the populace.

**Vow**: The Vow of Silence: Never Speak Unless Spoken To First