Hekatonystika - History: The orders of the Hekatonystika, though more numerous, boasted far fewer adherents than each of the individual Hosts of the Ist Legion, the other, earlier parallel system of organisation that existed within the Ist Legion. Of the hundreds of individual orders in the Legion, most could count no more than a few dozen initiates, a mere handful of warriors by comparison to the vast hosts and chapters of the greater Legion. Such warrior-fraternities could not disseminate their knowledge across an entire Legion in the same manner as the hosts, and harboured a skill set ill-disposed towards such a use.The Orders of Battle were experts in a single bloody aspect of war, the destruction of a singular foe or the mastery of some aberrant field of conflict. When a battlegroup of the Ist Legion encountered a foe worthy of their hatred or a field of battle whose nature defied their contempt it was to the Orders of Battle that they turned, forming a cenobium, a cadre of the warriors from an order trained to negate the foe, to lead the assault and to turn all their secret knowledge into a weapon to smite the enemies of Mankind.Each Order of Battle maintained a strict hierarchy, though no two were exactly the same, with each organised to best serve the aims and lore kept by that order. For, unlike the hosts, which openly recruited and shared much of their knowledge when called to battle, the orders were of a more secretive nature. The true position and nature of the ranks within a given order were only truly understood by the inducted initiates of that order, with a system of ciphers and cryptic signs unique to each order used to mark them out to those who had been inducted into their ranks.Each tier of the order granted an initiate greater understanding of the mysteries it had been created to preserve and placed upon them a greater burden of responsibility to keep that knowledge ever ready to be called upon at need. The order would meet to affirm their knowledge in the form of rituals and tradition as well as to train in more practical ways -- to keep ready blade and bolt for the day when their knowledge would be required in the name of the Legion and the Imperium.Most orders maintained a sanctum chamber aboard any voidship to which a cell of their members was posted, a private space in to which entry was only granted to ordained members of the order and where ritual training and study could be pursued in seclusion. Some of the largest orders controlled space stations, most often based in and around warzones that supported or required their unique skills. The Order of Broken Spears, for instance, operated an orbital stronghold capable of hosting all 138 known members, set in place above the broken mesas and twisting canyons of Argyel III, a Death World whose rock was laced with traces of heavy metals that countered most active sensor systems. Given that the Broken Spears were masters in the art of ambush and the silent war of wits that prevailed in such dense and confusing terrain, this served as the perfect location for the training of its initiates and as a retreat for those veterans seeking to contemplate the teachings of the order without distraction.These sanctum, whether grand strongholds or spartan chambers aboard a ship of war, also served a crucial role in the recruitment of new members. Such prospective acolytes were identified by the senior members of a cell by the record of their achievements and skill, and were subject to much debate within the cell before any decision was made. Once summoned by the cell a warrior could expect to face a series of gruelling physical and mental trials, administered in the seclusion of the order's domain where these candidates were granted limited rights of entry, though often under binding oaths to hold secret all that was witnessed.Such trials varied widely between orders, though often presented the very real possibility of serious injury or even death for those that accepted the challenge. The exact nature of these rituals was kept secret and even those that failed were bound by the honour of the Legion not to speak of that which they had faced, such was the respect given to the orders of the Hekatonystika by the rank-and-file warriors of the Legion. Only once fully inducted would they receive the freedom of the order's domains and the right to begin study of the first tier of the hidden lore of their new warrior-brotherhood and to bear the mark of acolyte upon the ceramite of their war plate.To hold a position even in the outer circles of one of the Orders Militant of the Hekatonystika was considered a great honour, and of the entire Legion less than half could claim such an achievement. Though few outside of the ranks of a given order knew the full import of the insignia borne by its adepts, all of the Legion's warriors granted the bearer of such a sigil due respect and few even amongst the most senior of commanders would fail to heed their advice, no matter what rank they might hold outside the order. Though it was a rare occurrence, some particularly skilled warriors within the Legion bore the insignia of more than one of the Orders Militant upon their armour.In some cases such warriors have formally departed one order to take up a position in a new brotherhood, sworn to keep the secrets of their old association, while in the most exceptional of cases they may hold rank in two or more orders at the same time. There are only a handful of examples of this, the most well-known being Lion El'Jonson himself, who held the rank of high preceptor of every order within the Legion, and Knight-Captain Atreus Deucalion, bearer of the sword Chrysaor. Knight-Captain Deucalion, who was also a marshal of the Firewing of the Hexagrammaton, was counted one of the finest swordsman in the Legion and held station within three separate orders, blending the blade-techniques of each to form a unique and deadly style of his own.