Adeptus Ministorum - Adeptus Ministorum Variant Sects: The Holy Synod of the Ecclesiarchy and its subordinate Sector Synods and their governing cardinals are only a part of the Ministorum's presence within each sector. There are many other layers of leadership, synods and cults stretching all the way down to the average Imperial lay worshipper.System Synods and the variety of the worlds and cultures on which they thrive have given rise to a myriad of Imperial Cults and variances on the orthodox Imperial Creed. The following is a listing of just a fraction of the known Imperial sects:Black Priests of Maccabeus - The Black Priests of Maccabeus, known by some as the "Black Clerics" or the "Ashen Confessors" (and in secret by the more fearful nickname of "pyre-crows"), are clerics that form a loose-knit order of militant priests organised at the behest of the Ordo Malleus to aid those daemon-hunting Inquisitors in their work. The Ordo Malleus chose to base their Black Order on Maccabeus Quintus, an often overlooked Shrine World and home to a particularly mystical interpretation of the Imperial Creed. Black Priests are selected from promising candidates taken from the Ministorum's clergy and chosen for their strength of will, the power of their faith and, in many cases, by dint of their survival when confronted by malefic forces in the past. Entrusted with knowledge otherwise forbidden, even to other priests of the Ecclesiarchy, and taught how to focus their will and the purity of their faith to achieve extraordinary things, not least of all the castigation of daemons, clerics who undergo the "Maccabean rites" are forever changed by the experience, and set apart from their fellows in the Ministorum by the nature of their faith and the dark and secret truths about the nature of reality they now carry.Cult of the Emperor Revenant - The Cult of the Emperor Revenant is a sect that practices a variance of the Imperial Creed that has a strong funerary nature based upon the God-Emperor's own deathless state. Death is an ever-present reality on most Imperial worlds and how citizens deal with it is often as important as how they live. The members of this sect are found on many worlds within the Calixis Sector, administering to the dead and fostering belief in the power of the Imperium and the countless dead that its glory is built upon. Of all the Imperial Creed's sects, the Revenant Cult is perhaps the one closest to the orthodox doctrines of the Imperial Creed, so much so that many Ministorum servants do not see a difference between it and the more mainstream worship of the God-Emperor. The Cult of the Emperor Revenant is unfortunately also the progenitor of such organisations as the heretical Night Cult. According to some apocryphal sources, the Night Cult can trace their origins to the founding of the Calixis Sector, at a time when the Angevin Crusade was faltering and a man became a saint. It concerns a heretical faction of the Imperial Creed long forbidden, the darkest of proscribed technologies, an apocalyptic prophesy of the End of Days, and the power to make the dead walk.Drusians - The Drusians are perhaps the largest and most powerful of the Imperial Cult's sects within the Calixis Sector. Their members are the followers of Saint Drusus, the Lord Militant who successfully completed the Imperium's conquest of the Calyx Expanse that became the Calixis Sector during the Angevin Crusade. This cult is as old as the sector itself. So-called "Drusianism" pervades much of the Cult Imperialis in the Calixian worlds, particularly those that are distant from the sector capital world of Scintilla. Drusianism is a hard and uncompromising reading of the Imperial Creed, emphasising the purifying quality of suffering, the power of holy relics, and the endurance of hardship. An ascetic and largely mystical tradition for the main part, it is somewhat at odds with the cult authorities on Scintilla, who hold to more traditionalist modes of worship but also claim the sector's saint as their own. Many hard-line Drusians consider the sector's noble and mercantile classes to be fundamentally venial and corrupt by nature, and hold little regard for any power or supposed rights such individuals possess. Though they are publicly supported by the Calixian Ministorum and the sector's arch-cardinal, the Drusians are often seen as a rival to the orthodox Ecclesiarchy's power and its focused faith in the God-Emperor.Red Redemption - The Red Redemption is drawn to the poor underhives, wild Frontier Worlds and primitive feudal cities of the Calixis Sector, feeding on the fears of common men. An extreme variation of the Imperial Creed, the Red Redemption preaches a zealotry and intolerance beyond even that of the greater Ministorum. They teach that only through pain, cleansing fire and the complete rejection of anything that does not show total and utter devotion to the God-Emperor can a citizen hope to be saved from damnation and the touch of the Dark Gods. While at times the Ministorum and the Red Redemption are at odds, the Imperial church's hierarchy finds them more useful than not and is happy for them to do the dirty work of the faith.Redemptionists - Redemptionists are those Ministorum priests who follow an extreme and unforgiving doctrine of faith in which redemption in the eyes of the Emperor can only be found in death. Many Redemptionists seek their own redemption on the battlefield for the sins they have committed against the God-Emperor. They also seek to bring redemption to others, finding one sin particularly offensive and seeking any opportunity to bring the Emperor's final judgement to xenos, Heretics or those who traffic with daemons. The Redemptionist sect was originially founded on the Hive World of Necromunda where it remains a potent religious and political force, but the movement has since found adherents all across the galaxy.Sisters of the Void - A benevolent all-female sect of the Ecclesiarchy, the Sisters of the Void travel the pilgrim paths and Warp routes of the Calixis Sector bringing comfort and aid to crewmen and pilgrims alike. Exemplifying the kind and gentle aspect of the God-Emperor, the Sisters believe in the healing power of His light and the protection He brings through the blazing icon of the Astronomican. They are seen as little threat (either politically or to the faith) by the Sector Synod of the Calixis Sector and are accepted as a fairly benign sect. Some whisper, however, that the Sisters of the Void are in fact a front for something more sinister as the Sisters have spent years plying the void so that they might pass invisibly from one world to the next. What their true purpose could be if it actually differs from their stated role is difficult to fathom and certainly neither the Inquisition nor the church have shown an overt interest in them.Vitrian Covenant - The Vitrian Covenant is more of an unofficial Imperial Crusade in the Calixis Sector than a religious sect. They are named for the battle that saw the rise of Saint Vidicus and undertake the dual purpose of spreading the faith of the God-Emperor beyond the edges of the Imperium and combating the foul xenos known as Orks. For this reason the Covenant is mostly found on the edges of the Calixis Sector, supporting armies or helping missionaries to settle new and wild Frontier Worlds. Their fanatical hatred of the Greenskins has also seen them travel around the sector using their influence and skills to drum up support for the Margin Crusade, a venture which they view as a vital part of both bringing the Imperial Creed to the lawless void and also curtailing the spread of xenos from their worlds within the Halo Stars. Of course, the fact that the Vitrian Covenant is not wholly aware of the truth behind the fact that the Margin Crusade is a false front for the flow of troops and material through the secret Jericho-Maw Warpgate to aid the Achilus Crusade in the Jericho Reach has not stopped the Calixian Sector Synod from using them to raise troops and resources for it.