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Ordo Malleus - History: The Ordo Malleus was essentially the original heart of the Inquisition, founded in the period after Horus had launched his great rebellion against the Emperor of Mankind.In the days after the crew of the Imperial frigate Eisenstein brought the news of Horus' betrayal to Terra, the Emperor requested that His regent, Malcador the Sigillite, find Him men and women of utmost loyalty to the Imperial cause who were willing to investigate threats to the Imperium from both within and without.Malcador eventually brought 12 individuals to the Emperor's notice in the days just before the Siege of Terra began, 4 Imperial lords and administrators of an inquisitive bent and 8 psychically-empowered Astartes of both the Loyalist and Traitor Space Marine Legions who had remained loyal to the Emperor and served as Malcador's Knights Errant, his personal agents during the Horus Heresy. The eight Space Marines became the first Grey Knights Grand Masters while the four mortals founded what became the Inquisition proper.However, the division of the Inquisition that would become known as the "Ordo Malleus" was not officially formed until the mid-32nd Millennium, centuries after the end of the Horus Heresy in the wake of the War of the Beast. The Ordo Malleus was one of the two original Ordos Majoris of the Inquisition, the other being the Ordo Xenos, created following that great conflict against the Orks to ensure that the Imperium never again nearly fell to an assault by xenos.Where the Alien Hunter Inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos concentrate on defeating the many threats that aliens presented to continued Human domination of the galaxy, the Inquisitors of what slowly evolved into the Ordo Malleus remained focused on the Inquisition's original mission of countering the insidious threat of Chaos and the Daemons of the Warp.Since its inception, the Ordo Malleus has concerned itself with the constant threat of Daemonic incursion and Chaos corruption that faces the Imperium on a daily basis on tens of thousands of Human-settled worlds. For thousands of Terran years it has waged a covert war for Humanity's continued survival against the insidious infernal forces of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos.
Ordo Malleus - Malleus Investigations: Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus and their Acolytes face the greatest threat to Humanity's continued existence: Chaos and the Daemons of the Warp. The Dark Gods of Chaos are the Archenemies of Mankind; the Ruinous Powers and their Daemons seek to bring the veil separating the Materium and Immaterium crashing down and undo reality as we know it, plunging the galaxy into the madness of the Warp.Although insidious Heretics seek to undermine the Imperium from within and alien abominations attack from without, the Daemons of the Immaterium whisper their lies from beyond the fabric of reality. Yet, when the veil is rent asunder, Daemons invade realspace in a great tide, slaughtering and unleashing cataclysmic destruction. Few warriors can even face such a foe without succumbing to terror and madness, and even mere knowledge of such entities is restricted.Only the Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus and their Acolytes possess the knowledge, strength of will, and tools to stand against the Daemon.
Ordo Malleus - Beyond Reality: Although Daemons pose an almost inconceivable threat to Mankind, they face certain limitations. Chief amongst these is the difficulty Daemons have manifesting and remaining in the material universe. Without the psychic energy of the Warp to sustain them, Daemons are able to maintain a corporeal form in realspace for only so long.Breaching the veil and entering reality in the first place is only possible under certain circumstances. These limitations mean that the bulk of the Ordo Malleus' work consists not of banishing Daemons back to the Warp, but preventing their arrival in the first place.Some Daemons are so apocalyptically powerful that there is no hope of defeating them in battle, and the only way to save a world or star system is to ensure the Daemon does not manifest. For a Daemon to manifest, the barrier between reality and the Warp must be weakened and broken. There are a number of ways this can come about, both due to the actions of mortals and the vagaries of the Warp. Even a Sanctioned Psyker risks opening a gateway to the Warp with each use of their powers, and for this reason some members of the Ordo Malleus share the same anti-psyker views as the most hard-line Witch Hunters of the Ordo Hereticus, even when they, themselves, are psykers.Malefic Chaos Cults often seek to summon Daemons, either to enact the cult's aims or as a simple act of devotion to the Dark Gods. The very movements of the Warp, perhaps fed by the collective emotions of mortals, disturbed by the activities of psykers, or set in motion aeons ago, can in rare cases push against the veil of reality until it tears open. What all these potentialities share is either a Warp rift that allows Daemons to manifest physical forms in reality, or the possession of a mortal host body.It is not necessary, however, for a Daemon to manifest in reality in order to threaten Humanity. Daemons communicate with mortals from the depths of the Warp, and psykers are particularly susceptible to these whispers and visions. Often, such contact is the precursor to the Daemon entering reality, as it establishes a link in order to corrupt and possess a mortal, or instructs the mortal in the ways of its summoning.There are many reasons a mortal might fall to a Daemon's temptation. A lust for power, wealth, adoration, revenge -- all of these and more are mortal weaknesses a Daemon might exploit. Even if the interaction does not lead to the Daemon's emergence in the physical universe, a mortal under Daemonic influence might undertake all manner of evil deeds. Powerful psykers and influential figures corrupted by Chaos can cause untold damage, igniting wars and leading star systems -- even entire sectors -- into eternal damnation.
Ordo Malleus - Servants of the Enemy: Because of the nature of Daemons, the early stages of Ordo Malleus investigations often deal with mortals in thrall to Daemons. In many cases, a successful mission might mean preventing a Chaos Cult from summoning a Daemon, or destroying a Rogue Psyker before they succumb to possession. In this way, the work of the Ordo Malleus overlaps with that of the Ordo Hereticus.However, while Inquisitors of the Ordo Hereticus focus on the Human Traitors and witches themselves, the servants of the Ordo Malleus concern themselves always with the true threat of the Daemon. Better to prevent that threat from materialising, but if the worst does happen, the warriors of the Ordo Malleus possess the knowledge and tools to fight against the Daemonic.The servants of the Ordo Malleus must often investigate secretive Chaos Cults with aspirations to summon Daemons, or even plunge whole worlds into thehellish madness of the Warp. Depending on the nature of the enemy and the preferred methods of a Inquisitorial warband, this might entail infiltrating a cult in order to learn the threat it poses and even uncover its dark secrets in order to turn such knowledge against other enemies. Other Inquisitors might conscript local armed forces in order to flush out the Heretics and launch a full-scale assault on their compound.There are many Heretics who unknowingly threaten to bring Daemons into reality. Although a scholar of forbidden lore might not think themselves a devotee of Chaos, by opening their mind to the secrets of the Warp, they draw the attentions of its denizens.A noble dilettante who collects Warp-touched artefacts might unwittingly release the power they contain and open a Warp rift. Guardsmen of the Astra Militarum and even Space Marines who enter battle against the forces of Chaos, and particularly against incarnate Daemons, risk corruption that might, if unchecked, transform them into the very enemy they battled against.
Ordo Malleus - Battle and Banishment: All too often, Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus or their Acolytes are too late to stop a Daemonic summoning, or a Warp rift might open without warning. Sometimes, an Inquisitorial warband's first indication that there is a threat comes from the presence of Daemons in realspace, whether scheming in the shadows or slaughtering in the habways.When Daemons step foot in the material universe, it is the sacred duty of the Ordo Malleus to banish them back to the Immaterium. Often, once a Daemon is manifest in reality, only inflicting great damage to its corporeal form can disrupt its hold enough to return it to the Warp. For this reason, combat can be a major part of Ordo Malleus investigations.Daemons are the most dangerous and horrifying foes imaginable, and even for veteran Daemonhunters, each encounter is a momentous experience. Not only are Daemons powerful adversaries that evince a host of strange Warp-spawned abilities, but their mere presence can taint the soul and shatter the minds of hardened warriors. Because of this, Inquisitors and Acolytes often cannot count on local law enforcement and military forces for aid in combat, as few are likely to possess the strength of will necessary to overcome their fear in the face of Daemonic foes.In order to successfully battle Daemons, Acolytes must not only be capable combatants, but strong enough of will to maintain their composure. Heavy weapons and sanctified blades are of no use if the warriors fall apart in the presence of the horrific enemy.
Ordo Malleus - Military Forces: The direct military forces employed by the Ordo Malleus are small, as only a select few individuals are trusted by the Inquisition with extensive knowledge of Chaos. Daemonhunter strike forces usually consist only of a Malleus Inquisitor, the Inquisitor's personal retinue of Acolytes and Throne Agents, and as many Grey Knights as can be spared if the threat is unusually potent.In battle, the greatest advantage of any Ordo Malleus force lies in the specialised and consecrated weaponry available to it. Utilising techniques and metallurgy lost to the rest of the Imperium, Malleus savants and allied Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-priests produce and maintain immensely powerful arms and armour specifically designed to combat Daemons, Chaos Space Marines, Chaos Sorcerers, Rogue Psykers and other Warp entities. In addition to this equipment, the Malleus Remit allows any Daemonhunter strike force to be bolstered by units requisitioned or seconded from the Adeptus Astartes, the Astra Militarum, and the Officio Assassinorum.Only the ranks of the Grey Knights are expected to survive in the service to the Ordo Malleus. All other troops that are seconded to the Ordo Malleus often see their lives expended so as to better prevent them from later being corrupted by Chaos. Even seconded Space Marines will be subjected to a mind-wipe if no other sanction is taken, particularly during Time of Ending before the birth of the Great Rift made such precautions largely pointless.Those troops seconded to the missions of the Ordo Malleus inevitably become privy to one of the Imperium's most closely guarded secrets -- the existence of Chaos as a potent, sentient metaphysical force within the Warp and of the entities rightly called "Daemons" who serve the Dark Gods. As their duty is to keep this threat contained and hidden from the citizens of the Imperium, the Ordo Malleus will often execute any troops that survive an encounter with Daemons or other tell-tale Warp entities.At a minimum, such troops will be mind-wiped and even sterilised to prevent the taint of Chaos from creating mutants from amongst their offspring. Those slain in battle or even as a result of the Inquisition's orders always receive full honours shortly after their death or execution. Ultimately, all other servants of the Emperor, including other Inquisitors, are seen as expendable in the pursuit of the destruction of Humanity's Archenemy.The exceptions to this secrecy-by-extermination policy are units seconded by the Adeptus Astartes since the execution of a Space Marine is a terrible waste of Imperial resources due to the sheer difficulty of creating these transhuman warriors. Those Astartes not of the Grey Knights serving with the Ordo Malleus are mind-scrubbed immediately after their service is completed in order to remove any memory of the Ordo Malleus' existence and operational protocols.Ultimately, only the Grey Knights are allowed to retain their memories of their duty with the Ordo Malleus as their centuries of service have proven again and again that they are incorruptible in the face of the temptations of Chaos.
Ordo Malleus - Inquisitorial Storm Troopers: Trained from their youth by the Schola Progenium in the arts of war, Storm Troopers are, perhaps, the finest soldiers ever to serve with the Astra Militarum. Armed with their trademark Hellguns and Hellpistols, these elite soldiers take combat to the heart of the enemy with blinding speed and deadly precision.Their accuracy is aided by their highly-protective Carapace Armour's integrated targeting system. Equipped with the finest weapons and wargear in the Departmento Munitorum's arsenal, Storm Troopers are trained to carry out missions beyond the capabilities of even the most veteran rank-and-file guardsmen.Should a sponsored candidate survive the gruelling regime of harsh training, they eventually become an Imperial Storm Trooper or Tempestus Scion. However, Storm Trooper candidates sponsored by the Inquisition are not meant to join a proper Tempestus Scions unit, nor to deploy alongside the Astra Militarum. Instead, these Inquisitorial Storm Troopers, with their training complete, are taken by their sponsor to serve a higher purpose -- a permanent place on an Inquisitor's retinue of Acolytes and Throne Agents.The Inquisition maintains a string of fortresses scattered throughout the galaxy, some hidden, some extremely well-known and the object of numerous dark legends. Inquisitorial Storm Troopers are also used by the Inquisition to guard these fortresses and the Black Ships and Inquisitorial Black Ships as they make their purity runs across the Imperium's sectors, as well as to augment an individual Inquisitor's personal retinue and warband forces with reliable and effective elite soldiers.Inquisitorial Storm Troopers are selected from families with a record of unwavering faith in the Emperor and prior duty to the Inquisition. They are trained and equipped in a manner similar to standard Tempestus Scions, albeit lacking the rapid insertion and infiltration skills, as they are not expected to undertake such types of missions. Such activities are more often carried out for the Inquisition by the Officio Assassinorum.
Ordo Malleus - Grey Knights: The Grey Knights are a mysterious and classified Loyalist Chapter of Space Marines specifically tasked with combating the dangerous Daemonic entities of the Warp and all who wield the corrupt power of the Chaos Gods. Legend has it that the Grey Knights were founded on the order of the Emperor Himself, in the final days of the Horus Heresy. Though the Chapter's origins are uncertain in many details, it is known that the Emperor ordered the creation of a force specifically mandated to fight Chaos after the onset of the galaxy-wide rebellion. This organisation, which was eventually named the Imperial Inquisition, was to include a branch of specialised Space Marine warriors, as the Heresy demonstrated that a powerful military force was necessary to fight the Daemonic minions of Chaos.The Grey Knights act as the military arm or Chamber Militant of the Ordo Malleus, the Daemonhunters who form the oldest branch of the virtually omnipotent Inquisition. The Grey Knights' fortress-monastery is based on Titan, the largest of the moons of the gas giant Saturn in the Sol System, that is kept as a private preserve of the Inquisition. The existence of the Chapter is virtually unknown outside of the Inquisition and the highest echelons of the Imperial adepta, and is a well-guarded secret.Unlike other Astartes, every Grey Knight is a potent psyker. Yet, in the 10,000 standard years of Imperial history, no Grey Knight has ever been corrupted by the Ruinous Powers of Chaos, so pure is their gene-seed (said to have been drawn directly from the genome of the Emperor) and so potent their psychic conditioning and faith in the Emperor.
Ordo Malleus - Inquisitorial Relics: Grimoire of True Names - He who knows a Daemon's True Name wields a terrible power over the beast, for it is the one verity that a Warp-spawn cannot deny. Accordingly, Grimoires of True Names are highly sought after by Daemonhunters, regardless of whether they intend to obliterate the Daemon, or bend it to their will. Alas, most are copies, with their information incomplete or subtly altered in such a way to put the reader at risk of damnation. Only one, the Malefact Maloreum, contains a complete and unswerving record of all the Dark Gods' Daemonic servants. As such, it is highly sought after -- and often fought over.
Ordo Malleus - Sources: Avenging Son (Novel) by Guy HaleyBloodquest (Graphic Novel Series), "Mausoleum"Codex: Inquisition (6th Edition), pp. 12-14, 18, 30, 37, 47, 55, 99, 105, 131, 141, 165Dark Heresy: Ascension (RPG), pp. 173-174Dark Heresy: Daemon Hunters (RPG), pp. 28, 32Dark Heresy: Enemies Beyond (2nd Edition) (RPG), pp. 139-140Eye of Night (Audiobook) by Gav ThorpeHorus Heresy – Volume IV: Visions of Death (Forge World Series) by Alan MerrettIndex Astartes II, "Purge the Unclean - The Grey Knights and Deathwatch Chapters"Imperial Armour – Volume Twelve : The Fall of Orpheus, pg. 28Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness, pp. 240, 246-247The Inquisition (Background Book)Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (PC Game)White Dwarf 114 (US), "Grey Knight Terminator Squads: Space Marine Chapter 666", pp. 11-14White Dwarf 259 (US), "Index Astartes: Purge the Unclean, the Grey Knights & Deathwatch Chapters"White Dwarf 260 (AUS) (2001), "Index Astartes - Purge the Unclean"White Dwarf 279 (US), "Codicium Imperialis: The First Battle for Armageddon" by Graham McNeill and Andy HoareGrey Knights (Novel) by Ben CounterDark Adeptus (Novel) by Ben CounterThe Hammer of Daemons (Novel) by Ben CounterHunt for Voldorius (Novel) by Andy HoareMalleus (Novel) by Dan Abnett, Chs. 21-23The Chapter's Due (Novel) by Graham McNeillThe Emperor's Gift (Novel) by by Aaron Dembski-BowdenOrdos Majoris Ordo Malleus •  Ordo Hereticus •  Ordo Xenos
Ordo Reductor - Ordo Reductor: The Ordo Reductor is a specialised military division of the Adeptus Mechanicus that makes use of the forbidden weapons of a bygone age, engaging primarily in siege warfare. Known to their fellow adherents in the Machine Cult as the "Bringers of Blessed Ruin", the Ordo Reductor's sacred role is that of the un-maker, slaughterer and breaker; they embody the animus of the Omnissiah, its duality not as a creator or embodiment of knowledge, but as destroyer and bringer of oblivion. The Ordo Reductor was particularly active during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, and deployed the potent cybernetic shock-troops of the Mechanicum known as the Thallax. They have a different interpretation of the Cult Mechanicus than their peers among the Tech-priests, seeing the Machine God and the Omnissiah as the divine embodiments of destruction itself, naming Him the Unmaker God.
Ordo Reductor - History: The Ordo Reductor were known for being preeminent siege specialists, destroyers and world breakers, having access to many archeotech devices and forbidden technology. Their given title, whose prefix was unusual for the servants of the Mechanicum, was invoked first by the great treaty between the Lords of Mars and the Emperor of Mankind, although their true and forgotten origins delve back into the dust and blood of the Age of Strife on the red world of their birth. By this order, a sub-clause of the very compact by which the alliance between the Mechanicum and Terra was sealed, was the Ordo Reductor created for the express purpose of sundering and destroying those who would stand against the Great Crusade. Where a new and terrible alien form of life was encountered that would not succumb to the Imperium's panoply of war, it would be the biologis of the Ordo Reductor who would find a way to kill it; where a recalcitrant human techno-empire stood strong against the Great Crusade fleets, it would be the preceptors of the Ordo Reductor who observed and analysed their weapons and defences to find their weakness. Most famously, where a fortress stood seemingly impregnable, it would be the Ordo Reductor who would find a way to bring it low.The Ordo Reductor's numbers, however were always relatively few, accounting only for a handful of the most bellicose of the Magi of Mars in the beginning, split from their forges and domains henceforth to serve the Great Crusade first and their feudal masters of the Mechanicum second in all things. Even as other Forge Worlds were contacted and brought into the Imperial fold, their numbers did not increase greatly and it is often said, and not without evidence, that those Tech-priests and Magi given up to the Ordo Reductor by their birth worlds or who were drawn to it of their own volition were often already seen as outcasts; either dangerously heretical in their leanings or overly-independent and perhaps psychologically unstable by their peers. However, within the fold of the Ordo Reductor were such individuals redeemed in the doctrine of the Cult of the Omnissiah and given righteous purpose in the service of the Mechanicum -- as well as removed largely from the feudal politics of the Forge Worlds. And so while they became "other" to those who remained directly under the shadow of Mars, they were not considered with the same levels of suspicion and distrust as followed that parallel Mechanicum faction which also shared the battlefields of the Great Crusade with them, the Legio Cybernetica.
Ordo Reductor - The Hidden Order: As diffuse a military organisation as the Ordo Reductor was during the Great Crusade, and as unfathomable as its inner workings were to outsiders, it nevertheless showed a long history of successful tactical and strategic integration with the forces of the Great Crusade alongside which it served. This was evidenced not least of all by the willing incorporation of the heraldry and livery of the Space Marine Legions with which a particular Covenant (or more rarely a demi-Legio comprised of several Covenants) had been embedded for an extended period, and honours from such campaigns were retained in pride of place in the livery of their war machines and Servitors. It was for this reason, much as with other detached Mechanicum military formations such as the Titan Legions, that when the Horus Heresy erupted across the galaxy and split the forces of the Imperium, so was the Ordo Reductor also split, with its bellicose sigil of the broken tower present among the banners of Loyalist and Traitor alike.It is however true in the final analysis that a discernible percentage of the Ordo Reductor ultimately sided with the Loyalists' cause over that of the Warmaster Horus, and a very few took the same path as other certain outlying Forge Worlds and chose to withdraw support from either side of the conflict, declaring independence. It is not known why in this the Ordo Reductor should be so singularly different to the Titan Legions or the Martian Mechanicum, who on reflection favoured to a margin the Traitors' cause, or the various Taghmata, swayed by the rulers of their Forge Worlds going where they led. But it may simply be that the majority chose to ultimately honour the deeds and purposes of their genesis over more temporal concerns, or as some have less favourably theorised, that in opposing the forces of the Warmaster and his treachery, many saw the greatest challenge to their arts of war.
Ordo Reductor - Notable Campaigns: Istvaan III Atrocity (ca. 006.M31) - Units of the Ordo Reductor under Magos Calleb Decima were among the few Loyalist survivors of the Istvaan III Atrocity that marked the beginning of the Horus Heresy.Drop Site Massacre (ca. 006.M31) - Units of the Ordo Reductor supported the first wave of Loyalist Space Marine Legions during the infamous Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V. The assault on Istvaan V went badly for the first wave, comprised of the Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders Legions, when the second wave of Legiones Astartes revealed themselves to be sympathetic to the cause of the Warmaster Horus. These three Loyalist Legions and their supporting units were all but wiped out in the subsequent fighting, marking one of the darkest days in the Imperium's history.Achilus Crusade (ca. 777.M41) - At the outset of the Achilus Crusade to reclaim the Jericho Reach located in the outer reaches of the Segmentum Ultima for the Imperium, the Ordo Reductor sent two Siege Formations as a part of the supporting contingents supplied by the Adeptus Mechanicus for the Crusade.13th Black Crusade (999.M41) - When Abaddon the Despoiler and his Forces of Chaos assaulted the Fortress World of Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41, the Ordo Reductor aided in the defence of that beleaguered Imperial Fortress World by providing a Demi-legion of their coveted war engines.
Ordo Reductor - Forces of the Ordo Reductor: Mechanicum Thallax Cohort (pl. Thallaxii) - During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia, the Ordo Reductor possessed a faction of heavily augmented cyborg shock-troops called the Thallax Cohort. The Thallaxii differed from the standard Skitarii regiments both in their purpose and the unique degree of their augmetics. The Thallaxi Centuries utilised a divergent form of Power Armour technology known as the Lorica Thallax, which, unlike that used by its Space Marine counterparts, was permanently, surgically-bonded to the body of the wearer. The Lorica encloses the major organs, nervous system and cerebrum, but entirely replaces the skeletal structure and limbs with armoured bionics powered by an internal reactor-core. Surgical excision of the subject's pain sensors, emotions, and normal human sensory apparatus and the agony caused by the Lorica 's implantation, leaves the Thallax a cold, calculating killing machine (albeit one that retains a degree of independent thought). To some amongst the Mechanicum, this operation skirted the edge of abomination, yet the baleful Ordo Reductor continued Thallax conversion regardless; using suitable Forge Guard, fallen Skitarii, and other subjects obtained from more mysterious sources. It is not known if the Ordo Reductor still possesses the archaic technology used to create Thallaxii troops in the present era of the late 41st Millennium.Mechanicum Ursarax Cohort (Ursaraxii) - A development of the later Great Crusade, the Ursarax Tech-guards were first designed by the Explorator Magos Enabrin Falkan as a heavy, rapid-moving close combat unit for use by the notoriously independent Magos' forces. Using a fusion of existing technologies sacred to the Mechanicum, materials and patterns taken from the Thallax of the Ordo Reductor (much to their displeasure) and the fruits of Falkan's own discoveries, they are formidable, even monstrous, killing engines. Like the Thallax, Ursarax are true thralls rather than Servitors. Selected from suitable human candidates for conversion, their living components retain a consciousness and dim recollection of their former humanity, providing them with superior tactical abilities and the instincts to kill. Neural anesthesia is automatically administered for their successful fulfillment of their orders, providing them with relief, albeit temporarily, from their tortured existences. After Falkan's mysterious disappearance his warring acolytes dispersed to many different masters, taking the secret of the Ursarax's creation with them.
Ordo Reductor - Ordo Reductor Technology: Land Raider Achilles - The Land Raider Achilles originated in the closing years of the Great Crusade. The Achilles Pattern is perhaps the rarest and most venerable Land Raider variant still used on the battlefields of the late 41st Millenium. It was originally created by the Imperial Fists Legion in response to a dire xenos threat now lost to the mists of history, and is fittingly rare outside the armouries of the Imperial Fists, their Successor Chapters and the Ordo Reductor of the Adeptus Mechanicus.Siege Wrecker - A Siege Wrecker is a general term given to a specialised form of massive close combat weapon intended for use by robotic Mechanicum battle-automata which are utilised by the Ordo Reductor. Wreckers are designed to enable these heavy assault units to smash through fortifications and easily crush armoured barricades and defences in siege warfare. The most common form of this weapon is a hydraulic ram or massive disruption-field augmented hammer, although specialised forms of heavy claw or drill systems are also used.
Ordo Reductor - Heraldic Devices of the Ordo Reductor: The various arms, sects, cults and factions of the Mechanicum commonly display heraldry of widely varying degrees. To outsiders a great deal of the nuance, symbolism and application of these signifiers is lost, shrouded by the arcane doctrines and circles of the Cult of the Omnissiah's worship, but the broadcast and most general interpretations are widely understood. In many such sects of the Mechanicum, the deep crimson livery most associated with the Machine Cult is in fact reserved most often for its sworn and initiated priesthood: the Magi, ordained Enginseers, logisters, autosavants and so on, and by lessening degree their initiates and close retainers. The bulk of the Mechanicum's soldiery, however, as well as their laymen servants, are usually clad in darker hue, often of a livery associated with their Forge World or particular order, but marked always with the heraldic device of their masters.Such is the common case with the Thallax. Where in service with the Ordo Reductor directly, it is common for the Thallax's armour and limbs to be over-plated with either burnished steel, polished bronze or, more rarely, gold or some environmentally protective coating. This is further adorned with colouration and iconography marked upon one or both pauldrons and/or more rarely the breastplate featuring the heraldry of their order of service, cohort designation, Forge Stamp and issue. During the Great Crusade and early Horus Heresy era, where the Ordo Reductor unit had been embedded for a time of service with a particular Space Marine Legion, Rogue Trader Militant, Titan Legion or Imperial Army Battlegroup, it was often customary to adopt in part the heraldry of that larger formation, and often for the Broken Tower emblem of the Ordo Reductor to be heraldically parted with the symbol of the principal affiliation, as shown with the following examples:Top Row (from Left-to-Right):Ordo Reductor/Iron Hands Legion; Sicronus-Septus CohortOrdo Reductor/Sons of Horus Legion; Steel Wolves CohortBottom Row (from Left-to-Right):Ordo Reductor/Word Bearers Legion; Gravis Logos-Nul CohortOrdo Reductor Phaeton Sigma-5-Osedax Cohort
Ordo Reductor - Sources: Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus - Cult Mechanicus (7th Edition), pp. 8, 10Codex: Eye of Terror (3rd Edition), pg. 16Dark Heresy: The Inquisitor's Handbook (RPG), pp. 68-70, 136Deathwatch: Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 339The Horus Heresy - Book One: Betrayal (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 48, 55, 58, 239, 270, 276-277The Horus Heresy - Book Two: Massacre (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 44-47, 273The Horus Heresy - Book Three: Extermination (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 200-201, 209, 222The Horus Heresy - Book Five: Tempest (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 61, 134-135, 219-227The Horus Heresy - Book Six: Retribution (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pg. 125Master of Mankind (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-BowdenForge World - Land Raider AchillesForge World - Achilles-Alpha Pattern Land RaiderForge World - Mechanicum Thallax CohortForge World - Mechanicum Thallax Cohort with Irad CleanserForge World - Mechanicum Thallax Cohort with Multi-MeltaForge World - Mechanicum Thallax Cohort with Phased-Plasma FusilForge World - Mechanicum Thallax Cohort with Photon Thruster
Ordo Scriptorum - Ordo Scriptorum: The Ordo Scriptorum, also known as The Unsleeping Eye, is one of the Ordos Minoris of the Inquisition. It is one of the seventeen such branches based on Terra itself.The Ordo Scriptorum is dedicated to the examination and investigation of records and communiqués, as well as overseeing the sporadic conflicts -- the so-called "Wars of the Quill" -- that break out between opposing sects of Imperial scribes. This may seem a trivial, almost facile task in light of the weighty matters pursued by other branches of the Inquisition, but nothing could be further from the truth.The Imperium constantly strains under the weight of its own colossal bureaucracy, and all manner of vital bibelots of information are lost or misfiled through simple human error. Far from Terra, a planetary governor whose world is in uproar looks to the skies for sign of assistance, little knowing that his request for aid has been bound into the spine of an eight hundred page missive on lumen design.Elsewhere, an Imperial Fleet -- hundreds of voidships all told -- hangs silent in interstellar space, because the documentation updating its orders has travelled from desk to desk, never reaching a recipient with sufficient authorisation.The Ordo Scriptorum can only intercept a handful of these failures, but even one can prove the difference between the life and death of billions. Moreover, even the rumour that an Inquisitor is supervising a scribe's work is enough to galvanise him to more careful practice, ensuring that fewer such errors occur in the future.
Ordo Sepulturum - Ordo Sepulturum: The Ordo Sepulturum, also called the Ordo Sepultura, is an Ordo Minoris of the Inquisition. This Ordo is one of the smallest and newest of the Ordos Minoris, formed during the 13th Black Crusade. The focus of the Inquisitors who comprise this Ordo is the relatively new threat presented to the Imperium of Man by the emergence of the Plague Zombies, the Nurgle-spawned Zombie Plague and the Poxwalkers. The Ordo Sepulturm's Inquisitors are particularly dedicated to combating the Death Guard Traitor Legion and all the myriad diseases and plagues it has unleashed on the Imperium since it became a more active force in the galaxy following the resurrection of Roboute Guilliman, the Lord Commander of the Imperium and the birth of the Great Rift.
Ordo Sepulturum - History: One of the smallest and most specialised organisations within the Inquisition, the Ordo Sepulturum operates around the Eye of Terror and the Great Rift and is dedicated to investigating a specific threat -- the Zombie Plague. Although occurrences of Plague Zombies have been recorded across the Imperium for many millennia, it is in the wake of the Plague Fleets of the Chaos Champion Typhus, the Herald of Nurgle, that they have grown in number to the point where they present a threat to the Imperium in their own right. Before Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade, the incidence of Zombie Plague around the Cadian System dramatically increased. This was noticed by several agents of the Inquisition who were soon in communication, and within a few standard years several more Thorians, most notably Inquisitor Aghastri, were investigating the Zombie Plague and the Ordo Sepulturum was formed.As a combination of both a Warp-based Chaos infection as well as an actual physical malaise, the Zombie Plague has always been on the agenda for Thorians to study, but its unpredictable nature and sporadic occurrences meant that it took luck or a tremendous amount of patience to capture Plague Zombies for investigation. With the advent of the Eye of Terror-related epidemic in the wake of the 13th Black Crusade, the formation of the Great Rift, and the Plague Wars, Inquisitors that had previously been thwarted in their missions to achieve specimens were suddenly confronted with a plethora of test subjects.The Zombie Plague physically degenerates those it infects -- and infection can occur in many ways, including psychically -- but maintains a portion of the life essence of the victim even after physical death occurs. The parallels between the Zombie Plague and the operation of the Golden Throne have not been overlooked. The increased study of the Zombie Plague has lead many Thorians to believe that in its unaltered form it may well provide several clues to the nature of the Emperor's life-in-death, but all forms of the "faith virus" so far examined have undergone mutation.Much more rare is the Obliterator Tech-virus, which again is a Chaos-born contagion that combines elements of physical corruption with mental disruption. Allowing the psychic manipulation of technology, the Obliterator virus makes it possible for humans to interact and meld with machinery, not only on the physical plane but also on the psychic and spiritual level, making it another area of intense interest to the Inquisitors of the Ordo Sepulturum.
Ordo Sepulturum - Notable Inquisitors: Inquisitor Aghastri - Aghastri was a Thorian Inquisitor who intently studied the the Zombie Plague. Before Abaddon launched his 13th Black Crusade there was a high incidence of Zombie Plague outbreaks around the Cadian System. Noticed by several of his Thorian peers, Aghastri was instrumental in the formation of the Ordo Sepulturum for the express purpose of studying the Zombie Plague.Inquisitor Bastian Caius - Bastian Caius was an Inquisitor active in the Cadian Sector at the end of the 41st Millennium. In 999.M41, he participated in the Reclamation of Kathur, where he hoped to gather enough data on the reasons for outbreaks of Plague Zombies in order to fight them better. Inquisitor Caius died during the Reclamation while fighting a Daemon Prince of Nurgle, the very being responsible for the outbreak on Kathur two solar months earlier.
Ordo Sicarius - Ordo Sicarius: The Ordo Sicarius is one of the Ordos Minoris of the Inquisition, and is assigned to monitor and control the Officio Assassinorum. The ordo was created by Inquisitor Jaegar after his investigation into the Wars of Vindication which resulted in the apparent death of the Grand Master of Assassins in the 36th Millennium.Like the Ordo Hereticus, this organisation was born out of the chaotic events of the Age of Apostasy in the 36th Millennium. After a vicious and secret internecine conflict within the Assassin Temples, the temples were devastated, and Inquisitorial investigation into the contradictory actions of the Officio Assassinorum during the second great Imperial civil war led to the decision that the Assassin Temples required dedicated monitoring.Given the terrifying capacity of the various Officio Assassinorum operatives it was deemed necessary that an Inquisitorial organisation should oversee the running of the temples and ensure their actions were in keeping with wider Imperial policy. It is the members of the Ordo Sicarius who dispatch Officio operatives on their missions, either in response to a specific request by the High Lords of Terra or another Inquisitor, or for objectives they themselves deem important. Given the obscure nature of this ordo's duties, they are little known outside the halls of high Imperial power, and even then, they are a subtle player in the great game of Imperial politics.
Ordo Sicarius - History: Tziz Jarek was an infamous rogue Callidus Assassin who was active during the Wars of Vindication, which took place shortly after the death of the Renegade High Lord Goge Vandire during the Age of Apostasy's Reign of Blood in the early 36th Millennium. Vandire had managed to corrupt many within the Officio Assassinorum, just as he had bribed and blackmailed his way through the other Imperial adepta. Foremost amongst Vandire's agents was Tziz Jarek. Using the shapeshifting drug polymorphine, Jarek had assassinated the Grand Master of Assassins who led the Officio Assassinorum and assumed his identity. However, unbeknownst to Jarek, the grand master had expected such a plot and had a decoy Assassin take his place in his chambers. As such, Jarek had not killed the true grand master, who secretly mustered those still loyal to him and the Emperor to fight against this usurper.A heinous battle raged within the Imperial Palace itself amongst the various factions of Assassins as they brought their terrible skills to war. Ancient arsenals of the Officio Assassinorum were unleashed and terrifying weaponry, long since banned by the Senatorum Imperialis, were brought to bear by the Assassins on both sides against one another.In the end, the true grand master assassinated Jarek and disappeared into a self-imposed exile. The Officio's hierarchy was shattered and needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. After the conclusion of the Wars of Vindication, following a thorough investigation, Inquisitor Jaeger deemed that a special order of the Inquisition was needed to monitor and to control the Officio Assassinorum much more closely. His proposal was accepted, and the hidden order of the Inquisition known as the Ordo Sicarius was created to monitor the Officio Assassinorum for signs of corruption and to police their activities to prevent such an event from occurring again.As the Officio Assassinorum is a highly secretive branch of the Imperial hierarchy, the only way to properly monitor its operatives was to plant Assassin-Acolytes and Inquisitors within their ranks. Acolytes of the Ordo Sicarius often find themselves placed within the trusted circles of many high-ranking members of the Imperium or on loan to Inquisitors of other ordos where their skill set would be extremely useful.As an added precaution, the various Assassin Temples' operations were split up and scattered to separate locations throughout the galaxy from Terra to ensure that if one should fall to xenos influence, daemonancy or heresy, another would remain untainted. Further rules were also put into place to ensure that no single individual could abuse wielding the immense power of the Officio Assassinorum to serve their own ambitions.
Ordo Sicarius - Role: The Ordo Sicarius is responsible for investigating and controlling the Officio Assassinorum. By ancient decree, no Imperial Assassin may be deployed without the consent of the High Lords of Terra. This is, of course, highly impractical and quite often an Inquisitor of the Ordo Sicarius will sanction the Officio Assassinorum under the guise of an edict from Terra. While some believe this to be an abuse of their power, in a galaxy-spanning civilisation, such measures are essential to maintain an adequate level of response to the myriad threats faced by Mankind.The Ordo Sicarius is also responsible for overseeing the Culexus Temple of the Officio Assassinorum, whose operatives are unique psychic Blanks. Between the Ordo Sicarius and the operatives of the Culexus Temple, an Inquisitor has a much greater chance of encountering, and perhaps even studying, an Untouchable, as the number of individuals born with the anti-psychic Pariah Gene is vanishingly small in the total Human population. However, a member of the Ordo Sicarius is able to gain access to such individuals every few standard years and study them at length.
Ordo Sinister - Ordo Sinister: The Ordo Sinister, known formally as the Titanicus Terranic Ordo Sinister, is an elite Titan Legion of the Collegia Titanica's highly-secret Divisio Telepathica that employs special psychic weapons and tactics.The Ordo Sinister is known by the informal cognomens "The Left Hand of the Emperor" and the "Nightmare Titans," and is considered one of the most covert and macabre of all the Imperium's agencies of war and political control.During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras, this Titan Legion was known to employ weapons of such hidden terror and secrecy, such as the Warlord-Sinister-class Psi-Titan, that few even within the Imperium's hierarchy suspected their existence.
Ordo Sinister - Legion History: The forces of the Great Crusade were myriad in nature, and as the Remembrancers were wont to style them, "...as numberless as the stars themselves." This is only befitting, as the task for which the vast host of the Imperialis Militarum was conceived and embodied was for no less than the staggeringly incomprehensible goal of the domination of the entire galaxy.This required weapons and warriors as diverse as uncounted Pioneer Corps of indentured labourers, hundreds of thousands strong, to the superhuman might of the Legiones Astartes, a purpose-created, gene-crafted transhuman fighting force greater than any in history.The will and reason of the Emperor divined and designed for the Great Crusade in effect a weapon and a warrior for every conceivable form of war, and even those inconceivable until they had to be fought -- unhallowed wars against powers and horrors beyond Human imagining and beyond merely Human endurance.One such dark creation, an experiment perhaps in weaponry long forbidden, and carried out not by any Mechanicum Archimandrite nor Strategos Magister, but by the hand of the Emperor Himself, led to the creation of the Ordo Sinister.
Ordo Sinister - Forbidden to All Save One: The exact genesis of the experiments which led to the creation of the Ordo Sinister is difficult to pin down by scholarly observers in later ages.As with almost all that began in the prohibited vaults of the Emperor's own laboratory complex beneath the Imperial Palace on Terra, its nature remains sealed by time and by the destruction that was to follow.Such records that do remain within the Martian Mechanicus, however, who, given the nature of the Ordo Sinister's origins, were seriously perturbed by the project -- or more accurately their exclusion from it -- do evidence certain speculations.The ancient Mechanicum believed that the project was created either as a tangent of what was to become the Emperor's great project to control and manipulate the psyker factor in Human evolution, or as a direct attempt to develop esoteric weaponry on the macro scale to combat certain encountered menaces which had proven terrible in the cost of their destruction.These menaces, such as Enslaver Alpha-incursions, the Rangdan Osseivores and the Hellespont Void-forms, all of which had taken the lives of millions of Imperial soldiers and thousands of star vessels to combat, and had broken whole expeditionary fleets and Titan Legions in the past, were menaces to which no sure counter existed save that of Exterminatus.The purpose of what became the Ordo Sinister was the battlefield employment of macro-level weaponry of terrible potency and of a nature which was expressly forbidden to any within the Imperium, be they Primarch or Planetary Governor, on pain of death.These were weapons born of the science of the Dark Age of Technology and perhaps ancient relics of alien civilisations which had risen and fallen before life had even begun on primeval Terra. These were weapons forbidden to all but those under the Emperor's direct shadow and control, and even then only under the greatest possible conditions of secrecy and failsafe.The Ordo Sinister was the cadre set up to build, maintain and use these weapons, classed as their name suggests as Sinistrum. This word has long stood as the Terran tech-arcana classification for prohibited technologies designed to artificially amplify or weaponise the psyker's gift, usually at the cost of the psyker himself, body or mind.Examples of Sinistrum technology, such as the "Culexine-shackles" used by the narco-enslaved psyker covens of the Caucasus Wastes subjugated by the Emperor during the Unification Wars, had long since been bywords for the true evils of the Dark Age of Technology.