vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Scar Lords - Chapter Appearance: The Scar Lords firmly held to the belief that, "The Emperor judges you not by your medals or diplomas, but by your scars." As such, the members of this Chapter bore their scarred visages proudly.Often disdaining the use of a helm, many of the Scar Lords left their wounds only partially healed, their facial disfigurements a sign of their devotion to the Golden Throne.
Scar Lords - Chapter Colours: The Scar Lords' power armour is terracotta and gold.
Scar Lords - Chapter Badge: The Scar Lords' Chapter badge is a skull riven by lightning bolts on a terracotta field.
Scarab Occult Terminators - Scarab Occult Terminators: The Scarab Occult Terminators, originally known as the Sekhmet and Magnus' Veterans, were the Veteran Space Marine Battle-Brothers of the Thousand Sons Legion who served as the Primarch Magnus the Red's elite Honour Guard.They were made up of the best and brightest of the Thousand Sons Legion's Astartes and were equipped with resplendent crimson and ivory Tactical Dreadnought Armour, with jade scarabs gleaming on their breastplates and golden crests rearing from their Atef helmets.Their visors were marred by a single vertical slash that obscured the right eye lenses of their helmets. This was in honour of their Primarch, nicknamed the Cyclops, due to the loss of his right eye from peering too deeply into the mysterious realms of the Immaterium.These fell warriors, whose reputation was well-known throughout the Great Crusade in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia, were the dour Terminator elite of the Thousand Sons Legion, trained all their lives to fight as a single unit and tempered by the long wars of conquest and Imperial Compliance.The Scarab Occult did not fight as individuals, but almost as a single body of one mind. They formed a wall of hulking, armoured bodies and flashing long-hafted Force Axes.In battle, they often changed position to counter their foes, and where one of their enemies moved to strike a blow against one of the Sekhmet, his brothers to either side moved to defend him. The Scarab Occult were trained in more than simple bladework and marksmanship.The psychic sorcery that would eventually condemn their Legion was the decisive advantage held by the Thousand Sons elite in battle. They could ignite the very air and turn it against their enemies like a living tide, twisting their minds so that they struck at their own allies or conjured shields and blades of kinetic force.The few Sekhmet that remained fled alongside the rest of the surviving Thousand Sons to the Planet of the Sorcerers at the conclusion of the Burning of Prospero during the opening years of the Horus Heresy.Years later, during their long exile, following the casting of the disastrous sorcerous ritual known as the Rubric of Ahriman, these fine examples of both warriors and psykers also had their physical bodies reduced to dust along with their non-psychic brethren.Controlled by their Sorcerer masters, the undead Scarab Occult Terminators now advance upon their foes implacably and as silent as the grave.
Scarab Occult Terminators - History: The Sekhmet were active throughout the era of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. The Sekhmet were all Veteran members of the Scarab Occult of the XV Legion's elite 1st Fellowship, under the command of Captain Ahzek Ahriman, who was also the Magister Templi of the Legion's Corvidae Cult.These proud and extremely devoted warriors were both combat Veterans and highly-ranked members of the psychic Cult system of the Thousand Sons. The Sekhmet were powerful warrior-mages, and could call forth powers mortal men could never dream of wielding. On his own, each warrior of the Sekhmet was capable of subduing worlds. In battle, the Scarab Occult could simply will their Tutelaries into their enemies' hiding places, and burn them out with invisible fires or crush them with psychic hammer blows. Methodical and swift, Ahriman's 1st Fellowship would then push onwards like autonomous engines of destruction.In the days before Council of Nikaea, when the Thousand Sons took to the field and encountered a foe so mighty that their own master, the terrifyingly powerful Magnus the Red, deemed it necessary that he take to the battlefield to best it, he often did so at the head of a configuration of his Sekhmet, supported by the most deadly elements of his arcane Legion and an unimaginable concentration of psychic force.Before the Guard of the Crimson King, foul xenos warlords who had slain whole worlds and mysterious entities hellish beyond description fell broken and shattered, and even the might of ancient terrors such as the Eldar and the M'Varta could not stand.None of the Sekhmet were ranked below the Thousand Sons Cult grade of Philosophus, the final Cult rank a warrior could hold before facing the Dominus Liminus. Each Astartes was able to mentally transcend his physical and emotional weaknesses; achieving a form of emotional purity that resulted in warriors who were both fearless and willing to follow orders immediately and unquestioningly.This extraordinary level of discipline was commented on by some of the other Primarchs who witnessed the Sekhmet in action during the Great Crusade. Jaghatai Khan of the White Scars Legion commented that the Sekhmet were no better than automata, whilst, in a similar vein, Ferrus Manus of the Iron Hands Legion likened them to robots, though some within the Thousand Sons suspected that knowing the Iron Hands' affinity for technology and cybernetic augmentation, this comment may have been meant as a compliment. Leman Russ, the Great Wolf of the Space Wolves Legion, showed disdain for what he perceived as the Sekhmet's perceived "lack" of fighting spirit and esprit de corps due to their taciturn natures.
Scarab Occult Terminators - Scarab Occult Sorcerer: Scarab Occult Sorcerers are Chaos Sorcerers of the Thousand Sons Legion. They serve as part of the Scarab Occult.Like almost all Sorcerers of the Thousand Sons, Scarab Occult Sorcerers kept their independent existence and intact personalities after the disastrous Rubric of Ahriman.Since that time the Scarab Occult Sorcerers have commanded the units of the Scarab Occult Terminators in battle.
Scarab Occult Terminators - Pre-Heresy: 4-9 Sekhemet Terminators (per squad)1 Sekhmet Inceptor (Sergeant)
Scarab Occult Terminators - Post-Heresy: 4-9 Scarab Occult Terminators (per squad)1 Scarab Occult Sorcerer1 Chaos Land Raider (as a dedicated transport)
Scarab Occult Terminators - Pre-Heresy: Cataphractii Pattern Terminator ArmourForce Weapon (Force Axe, Maul or Sword)Combi-BolterAsphyx Shells - Tainted with a psycho-reactive toxin of unknown origins, the Thousand Sons were able to arm their elites with these unusual and highly lethal Bolter munitions. Asphyx Shells were first believed to have been developed on Prospero for use with relatively primitive projectile weapons made to defend against the deadly Psychneuein, but the difficulties of mass production and scaling of their effect limited their deployment.
Scarab Occult Terminators - Post-Heresy: Archaic Terminator ArmourInferno Combi-Bolter - The weapons of the Thousand Sons are shaped by the craft of artificers and Sorcerers alike. When their guns roar, they fire not only explosive bolts that tear flesh, but uncanny arcane energies that can melt even ceramite. In such a fashion is the Long War waged anew.Power Sword
Scarab Occult Terminators - Pre-Heresy Optional Wargear: Any member of the squad could exchange their force weapon for a Power Fist with one of the following:Lightning ClawPower FistChainfistAny member in the squad might exchange their Combi-bolter for a:Any type of Combi-weapon (Asphyx Shells are retained for the Bolter component)
Scarab Occult Terminators - Post-Heresy Optional Wargear: 1 out of every 5 Scarab Occult Terminators may replace his Inferno Combi-bolter with the following:Heavy Warpflamer - In the hands of the Thousand Sons, their Flamers hurl gouts of transmorphic fire that mutate those touched by them.Soulreaper Cannon - A heavy variant of the Inferno Weapons utilised exclusively by the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion.For every 5 Scarab Occult Terminators, one may also take the following:Hellfyre Missile Rack - Mounted atop the shoulders of Scarab Occult Terminators, the Hellfyre Missile Rack fires compact but deadly warheads that detonate in explosions of aetheric light.
Scarab Occult Terminators - Scarab Occult Sorcerer: Artificer Chaos Terminator ArmourInferno Combi-bolterForce StavePower Sword (Replacement for the Inferno Combi-bolter)Chaos mutation
Scarab Occult Terminators - Sources: Codex Heretic Astartes - Thousand Sons (8th Edition), pp. 19, 41, 62, 76Horus Heresy: Collected Visions, pp. 52, 240, 303The Horus Heresy - Book Seven: Inferno (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 47, 151, 210, 212, 214War Zone: Fenris - Wrath of Magnus (7th Edition), pp. 99, 101-102, 108, 123, 125-126, 128, 131, 133-135, 138-139, 140-141, 146, 151, 164, 167, 169-170, 173, 198A Thousand Sons (Novel) by Graham McNeill, pp. 11, 14, 26, 48, 57, 98, 101-105, 108, 215, 219, 230-231, 248, 251, 254Forge World Webstore - Thousand Sons Legion Sekhmet Terminator CabalGames Workshop Webstore - Scarab Occult TerminatorsChaos Space Marine ForcesCommandChaos Lord • Exalted Champion •  Chaos Champion • Aspiring Champion • Sorcerer Lord • Daemon Prince • Daemon Prince of Nurgle • Daemon Prince of Tzeentch • Death Guard LordSpecialistsExalted Sorcerer • Sorcerer • Warpsmith • Dark Apostle • Master of Possession • Master of Executions • Lord Discordant • Warsmith • Death Guard Sorcerer • Lord of Contagion • Malignant Plaguecaster • Plague Surgeon • Tallyman • Scarab Occult Sorcerer • Scarab Occult TerminatorsTroopsChaos Space Marines • Havocs • Chosen • Chaos Terminators • Possessed • Greater Possessed • Khorne Berzerkers • Plague Marines • Noise Marines • Rubric Marines • Obliterators • Mutilators • Chaos Spawn • Fallen Angels • Noxious Blightbringer • Foul Blightspawn • Biologus Putrifier • Blightlord Terminators • DeathshroudFast AttackChaos Space Marine Bikers • Chaos Space Marine Raptors • Warp TalonsChaos DreadnoughtsHelbrute • Ferrum Infernus Dreadnought • Chaos Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought • Sonic Dreadnought • Berserker Dreadnought • Leviathan DreadnoughtVehicles and Daemon EnginesChaos Rhino • Chaos Predator • Infernal Relic Predator • Chaos Vindicator • Chaos Land Raider • Chaos Land Raider Proteus • Infernal Relic Land Raider Achilles • Land Raider Hades Diabolus • Relic Sicaran Battle Tank • Maulerfiend • Forgefiend • Defiler • Brass Scorpion • Blood Slaughterer • Blight Drone • Foetid Bloat-drone • Kytan • Plague Hulk • Venomcrawler • Myphitic Blight-haulerHeavy Vehicles and Daemon EnginesSpartan Assault Tank • Fellblade • Decimator • Typhon Heavy Siege Tank • Lord of Skulls • Death Wheel • Plaguereaper • Plagueburst Crawler • Silver Tower of TzeentchAircraftHeldrake • Stormbird • Thunderhawk • Chaos Storm Eagle • Chaos Fire Raptor • Hell Blade • Hell Talon • Harbinger • Chaos Dreadclaw • Kharybdis Assault Claw •  Fire Lord •  Doom WingSummoned DaemonsBloodletters • Plaguebearers • Horror of Tzeentch • Daemonette • Nurglings • Beast of Nurgle • Plague Drone • Flamer • ScreamerLost and the DamnedChaos Cultists • Poxwalkers • Pestigor • Plague Zombies • Plague Ogryn • Thrall Wizard • Tzaangor • Tzaangor Enlightened • Tzaangor Shaman • Dark DiscipleChampionsMagnus the Red • Mortarion • Abaddon the Despoiler • Kharn the Betrayer • Typhus • Ahriman • Huron Blackheart • Fabius Bile • Cypher • Haarken Worldclaimer • Invocatus
Scars - Scars: Scars is the twenty-eighth volume in the Horus Heresy series of novels.
Scars - Synopsis: Fresh from their conquest of Chondax and the discovery of Horus' rebellion, Jaghatai Khan's warriors stand divided.Long considered one of the less trustworthy Space Marine Legions, many of the White Scars claim to owe their loyalty exclusively to Terra, and others still to the Warmaster and his Warrior Lodges.But when a distress call from Leman Russ, primarch of the Space Wolves Legion, brings the wrath of the Alpha Legion to Chondax, the Khan's hand is forced and the decision must be made -- in the great war for the Imperium, will he side with the Emperor or Horus?
Scarus Sector - Scarus Sector: Scarus SectorsectorSegmentum ObscurusEye of TerrorCalixis SectorThe Scarus Sector has long served as the primary theatre of operations for the renowned Inquisitors Gregor Eisenhorn and Gideon Ravenor.It was also the site of the protracted Siege of Vraks from 813.M41 until 830.M41.
Scarus Sector - History: The region that would become the Scarus Sector was discovered during the middle years of the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium.It was named by the Primarch Lorgar for Captain Scarus of the Word Bearers Space Marine Legion's 52nd Company, Serrated Suns Chapter, whose Strike Cruiser Shield of Scarus and two other vessels were lost during a savage Warp Storm that occurred during the XVIIth Legion's sojourn in the Eye of Terror. This was during the quest now known as the Pilgrimage of Lorgar, some forty standard years before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy.The Scarus Sector's capital is the Hive World of Eustis Majorus. The Scarus Sector borders the Calixis Sector to spinward and its known sub-sectors include Angelus, Antimar, Helican, Kerak and Ophidian. This sector is the theatre of operation for the renowned Inquisitors Gregor Eisenhorn and Gideon Ravenor.The Helican Sub-sector was the site of the Helican Schism, a wave of rebellion, terrorism and sabotage that swept the region in the early 41st Millennium.The Ophidian Sub-sector is noted for being the site of the Ophidian Campaign (also known as the Purge Campaign), in which Battlefleet Scarus wrested control of the Sub-sector from Heretic forces. The campaign lasted from 240.M41 until 338.M41 -- and the Imperial victory represented a considerable achievement on such a short timescale.Lately, the Scarus Sector has been plagued by invasions of Orks, who attacked en masse during the 13th Black Crusade, a campaign led from the Eye of Terror by Abaddon the Despoiler himself, and Greenskin infestation remains a very real problem in this corner of the Imperium of Man.
Scarus Sector - Outcome: The Orks were able to batter down Imperial defences with sheer doggedness and not a little help from Chaos Space Marines, particularly from the Night Lords and the Black Legion. Now the Orks rule Lethe Eleven and Mordax, along with most of Imbrium and Ulant.Gudrun and Nysa Stromolo stand on the brink of anarchy and the weapon forges of Mordax (rechristened "MoreDakka Prime" by the Orks) are infested with Lootas of the Death Skulls clan, a truly terrifying prospect to the devotees of the Machine God, who know full well the depths of blasphemy against the Omnissiah to which these barbaric xenos will sink.Battered survivors speak of hundreds of Gargants being built from the debris of war by enslaved servitors and their brutal Greenskin overseers. The squat, menacing forms of more Gargant construction sites climb over the plains of Mordax daily as Ork Mekaniaks race to be the first to complete their machines.Imperial stategists are now regarding the Green Kroosade as a full-scale Ork WAAAGH!. Its Warlords are unknown but it would appear that Ghazghkull and Nazdreg are not among them.Only Thracian Primaris and Elnaur Delta have held firm against the Green Kroosade, bolstered first by the intervention of a Black Templars' Crusade, and later by the stalwart defence mounted by the Salamanders Chapter and many other Space Marine contingents.The situation is grim in Scarus. And none can see an end to the infestation given the dire situation across the region.
Scarus Sector - Notable People of the Sector: This sector is the theatre of operations for the renowned Inquisitors Eisenhorn and Ravenor.
Scarus Sector - Helican Sub-sector: The Helican Sub-sector was the site of the Helican Schism, a wave of rebellion, terrorism and sabotage that swept the area in the early 41st Millennium.Thracian Primaris (Hive World) - Sub-sector capital planet.Anemae GulfwardGudrun (Civilised World) - Former sub-sector capital planet which has had a human presence for over 3,500 standard years.Hubris - A world named for the enormous pride of the original human colonists who founded a successful society despite the harsh and extreme climates.MariamMessina (Civilised World)Respa III
Scarus Sector - Angelus Sub-sector: Eustis Majoris (Hive World) - Sub-sector capital planet.
Scarus Sector - Antimar Sub-sector: Sarum - Sub-sector capital planet.
Scarus Sector - Kerak Sub-sector: Vraks Prime (Armoury World) - Vraks was the site of a massive campaign by the forces of the Imperium of Man in 813.M41, after the attempted assassination of the heretical and traitorous Apostate Cardinal-Astra Xaphan after a failed assassination attempt by the Officio Assassinorum. The Imperial Guard's 88th Siege Army was raised from line regiments of the Death Korps of Krieg to undertake the siege of Vraks and bring the Renegade cardinal down in a campaign  that the Administratum's Adepts calculated would take 12 standard years to successfully conclude. At the conclusion of what actually turned out to be a 17-year-long Imperial campaign of attrition called the Siege of Vraks that required 34 Regiments of the Imperial Guard to re-take the planet in 830.M41, 14 million Imperial Guardsmen had been lost and Vraks Prime's entire original population of 8 million souls had been consumed in the violence or exterminated after they fell to Chaos corruption. The world was then declared dead by the Imperium and placed under an interdiction to cordon it off from the rest of human space as ordered by the Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor Lord Hector Rex.
Scarus Sector - Ophidian Sub-sector: Ophidia - Sub-sector capital planet. Noted for being the site of the Ophidian Campaign (also known as the Purge Campaign), in which Battlefleet Scarus wrested control of the Sub-sector from Heretic forces. The campaign lasted from 240.M41 to 337-338.M41, a considerable achievement in such a short timescale.
Scarus Sector - Vincies Sub-sector (Lost): Imperial rule was discontinued in the Vincies Sub-sector in 085.M41 after it was engulfed by a great and turbulent Warp Storm.
Scatter Laser - Scatter Laser: The Scatter Laser, or Sierbahn in the Aeldari Lexicon, is a Laser Weapon that can be mounted on Aeldari Wraithlords, War Walkers, Falcons, Wave Serpents, Aeldari Jetbikes  and Vypers. The Scatter Laser can also be used as a support weapon for Guardian Squads whilst mounted to a Grav Platform.The weapon itself has six separate laser chambers which allow it to fire in bursts or all six chambers at once, at either the same target or a multitude of different ones. It stores its energy in crystalline power cells.The Scatter Laser, like most Aeldari weapons, has an Imperial counterpart, the Multi-Laser, though the Aeldari version is far more power efficient and advanced in design.
Schindelgheist - Schindelgheist: SchindelgheistCivilised WorldGothic WarGothic SectorSegmentum ObscurusSchindelgheist was also the location of the Blackstone Fortress V which was one of the Blackstone Fortresses that remained in Imperial hands during the Gothic War.In 160.M41, a 3 solar-day-long space battle between the massed Chaos Warfleets of Abaddon the Despoiler and a combined fleet of starships from the Imperial Navy and the Craftworld Aeldari took place above Schindelgheist in which the 12th Black Crusade was brought to an end and Abaddon the Despoiler and the Forces of Chaos retreated back into the Eye of Terror, taking two Blackstone Fortresses with them.
Schism of Mars - Schism of Mars: The Schism of Mars was the deadly civil war that erupted on Mars between the Loyalist factions of the ancient Mechanicum and the Traitors of the Dark Mechanicum during the early days of the broader interstellar civil war in 005-006.M31 between the Imperium of Man and the forces of Chaos loyal to the Warmaster Horus.This great conflagration between opposing Mechanicum forces mirrored the larger conflict that consumed the galaxy during what became known as the Horus Heresy.
Schism of Mars - History: The Emperor of Mankind's Great Crusade continued to expand outwards into the galaxy in the early 31st Millennium, bringing untold numbers of human-settled worlds back under the control of a single human authority and ending the isolation that had consumed the human-settled galaxy during the 5,000 Terran years of the Age of Strife. This massive expansion of the Imperium continued unabated until the Emperor's realm encompassed nearly the entire galaxy.At that time a new and unexpected threat emerged to challenge Mankind's dominance over the galaxy. This was the terrible interstellar rebellion that would be known to later ages as the Horus Heresy. This revolt was instigated and led by the Warmaster Horus, the greatest and most beloved of the Emperor's superhuman, genetically-engineered sons, the Primarchs. The rebellion began with the Warmaster's virus-bombing of those Space Marines whose loyalties to him were suspect on the world of Istvaan III, and soon took hold amongst 9 of the 18 active Space Marine Legions and many of the Titan Legions serving under the command of the Warmaster.It is not entirely clear how Horus managed to turn such a significant percentage of the armies under his command against the Emperor, but he was known to be a very skilled and persuasive leader who earned immense personal loyalty amongst his subordinates. But even before the opening stages of his planned insurrection began, he knew he would have to secure the support of the Mechanicum and their superior technology and weapons if he was to defeat the Emperor and conquer the galaxy.Horus won over the loyalty of many of the Mechanicum's Tech-priests after promising them the lost secrets of ancient Standard Template Construct (STC) technology that had been recovered from the worlds of the recently subjugated Auretian Technocracy by his own Sons of Horus Legion.
Schola Progenium - Schola Progenium: The Schola Progenium is one of the many divisions of the Adeptus Ministorum, the state church of the Imperium of Man. It is responsible for the upbringing, education and training of orphans, predominantly those of officers and nobles who have died in the service of the Imperium, often those who once served in the Astra Militarum or Imperial Navy.These children are known as the Progena, and most of them will end up serving the Ministorum or in other branches of the Adeptus Terra. Others will go on to become military leaders and special forces troops within the Imperial Guard or Imperial Navy such as elite Tempestus Scions or iron-willed Imperial commissars.Some may take office in a planetary government, the Administratum, the Ecclesiarchy, the Adeptus Arbites or even become Acolytes of the Inquisition on the path to assuming the duties of a full Inquisitor.Many girls of the Progena are destined for one of the Orders of the Adepta Sororitas.Those Progena who display psychic aptitude are often killed outright or used to meet the Emperor's levy of psykers if they are found to be lacking in willpower, but may sometimes be handed over for service with the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, or, in rare cases, receive further training as Sanctioned Psyker Acolytes of the Inquisition.
Schola Progenium - The Cadet Forge: Schola Progenium training may be considered a drawn-out form of torture. Indeed, injured limbs or broken minds are hardly uncommon. Cadets undergo basic physical drills in heavy Carapace Armour, quickly tiring them out as they scale walls or squeeze under razor wire. A cuff from the Drill Abbot's gauntleted hand and the sight of his great hammer is usually enough to encourage a lethargic cadet to try harder.Military exercises with live ammunition are conducted in the harsh landscape surrounding a Schola Progenium or on nearby moons. Cadets are often expected to endure solar days in the wilderness with little food or instruction, and limited weaponry with which to combat whatever violent fauna roams the planet. Yet with each roaming day, cadets improve in their performance. Their speed and endurance increase, they scale walls previously thought impossible to overcome, and it becomes obvious to even a novice Drill Abbot that true warriors are being forged. It is a strong belief within the Schola Progenium that from the hottest of fires, the strongest bonds of brotherhood are born.Whatever the technique, this tutelage serves to better divine what path a cadet is suited for, as well as preparing them for the brutalities of the 41st Millennium. Indeed, the training regimen within the Schola Progenium exists not just to create highly-skilled combatants. Amidst the trials and challenges, the Drill Abbot will constantly assess and reassess as to who will make an excellent Tempestus Scion, an excellent Commissar, or who would be better suited within the Adeptus Terra. However, some Scholas use more esoteric methods of selection. For example, the Abbot Prime of the Schola Progenium facility on Sanctus Omega is a known reader of the Emperor's Tarot, and uses the mystical cards to steer his judgement or decide upon a cadet's path. Technically, no one role is considered more prestigious than another, though Commissars are generally held to be the most redoubtable of the Schola's trainees. Each graduate has a highly specific role within the Imperium at large, and such skills need to be discerned well in advance of the Trials of Compliance -- the most important stage of a cadet's time at the Schola Progenium.
Schola Progenium - Trials of Compliance: Each Schola Progenium employs one or more challenges to separate those who will become Commissars from those who will join the Militarum Tempestus. These tests take diverse forms, but the primary purpose of all such Trials of Compliance is to highlight those cadets who are best committed to obeying orders in adversity, and test how they process those commands. Of course, a percentage of the supplicants fail in their allotted task -- many end up as equerries or thralls of the Schola Progenium. Some of these disappointments may work through their sentences as menials and eventually be permitted to join the regular Astra Militarum. Ever eager to prove their worth, these few may yet become Imperial soldiers in their own right.For potential Tempestus Scions, Trials of Compliance may involve live-fire exercises in the Hallucinarium. In endless labyrinths, cadets are constantly exposed to strange visions and false suggestions. Yet the prospective initiates are expected to follow the correct orders without hesitation, no matter how strange those orders may be, and no matter how monstrous the entities they come up against. There are timed physical tests, too, such as scaling the grand facade of the facility whilst constantly chanting that particular Schola Progenium's motto. Should the candidate's incantations slip out of sync from the metronomic tempo of the Servo-skull hovering nearby, the cadet may soon have gunfire to contend with, in addition to the high walls.For potential Commissars, the Trials of Compliance usually take even more esoteric forms. Without knowing it is a test, a cadet may be commanded to locate one of his closest colleagues -- a comrade with whom he has shared the trials and tribulations of the Schola Progenium over many years -- and shoot them through the head.Such a callous execution order serves a dual purpose, as it proves that the Cadet Commissar can not only follow Imperial orders, but that he or she will have no problem killing stubborn officers when in the heat of battle. However, the Schola Progenium recognises the danger posed by a highly trained candidate who shows the promise of a Commissar, but who cannot follow such an order. Prospective Commissars who fail this trial will end up being victim to the same challenge issued to another candidate, or released as quarry for a group of potential Scions.The few brave Adepts within the Adeptus Ministorum who suggest that all of this is a waste of good talent are reminded that these trials are essential to wean out the truly remorseless from those haunted by doubt. Besides, there are always thousands more orphans delivered into their hands each standard year -- such losses are hardly of import.
Schola Progenium - Selection Day: After successful cadets have survived their various Trials of Compliance, the Drill Abbots will allocate them their path in an event known as Selection Day. It is then that the truly hard challenges begin.Selection Days in the Schola Progenium mark the point at which a cadet is assigned their destiny. Cavernous voidships descend into planetary orbit, ready to export Progena to their new roles. From dawn to dusk, amidst the slow incantation of ancient litanies and clouds of incense, cadets are divided according to their selected path.A good many discover that they are to head into the ranks of the Adeptus Terra. Those young women who show not only fine military skills but strong signs of faith are prepared to journey to training convents of the Adepta Sororitas's Orders Militant, while others may join the Adeptus Arbites. The most talented warriors are chosen for the Militarum Tempestus and Officio Prefectus. Each group is assigned to a starship and consequently dispatched to the appropriate Schola Tempestus or Schola Prefectus for more advanced training in their chosen discipline.
Schola Progenium - Drill Abbots: A Drill Abbot (or Drill Abbess) is a priest of the Adeptus Ministorum and a decorated veteran of the Imperium's wars who tirelessly works at converting the orphans of martyred Imperial servants into driven and dedicated fanatics in the service of the God-Emperor, prepared for the trials of Imperial life. The Drill Abbots are technically full Preachers of the Ecclesiarchy, but are excused from a Preacher's normal duties of ministering to the faithful in favour of a more specialised role in teaching the future leaders and special forces troops of the Imperium. This sacred duty is fulfilled through the focused application of devotional teachings, exercise and weapons training. Drill Abbots stalk the hallways of the Schola, striking the fear of the Emperor into the hearts of youths who one day shall have the power of life and death over millions. Even the most ruthless Inquisitor Lord may still, many standard centuries later, remember his time in the Schola Progenium with a mixture of fear and awe due to the work of these fearsome individuals.Coming from a wide variety of backgrounds, most Drill Abbots have served at least half their lives in one branch or another of the Imperial military. They have seen first hand the enemies of the Imperium, and are anxious to impress upon their young charges the absolute necessity of faith in the Emperor and skill at arms. They are charismatic and inspiring, caring for their young charges in their own harsh way, and famed for their unbending stubborness and strength of will. They will seek to maintain their fighting edge throughout their lives, and remain fierce and skilled combatants and warriors. Many Drill Abbots forge lifelong bonds of mutual respect with Progena in their care, which can result in useful contacts years later with some of the most senior figures in the galaxy. Indeed, it is not unknown for Inquisitors to recruit their old tutors for their retinues of Acolytes, as a sign of the tremendous debt they owe for the gift of the light of the Emperor.So harsh are many of the methods employed by Drill Abbots that many students fear for their lives. The more fearsome Drill Abbots have been known to employ branding, freezing cold and sleep deprivation to motivate their charges, which is the source of the understandable terror that some Progena feel. This fear is not typically necessary, however, as Drill Abbots wish to prepare their charges for service to the God-Emperor and it is well known that such service ends only in death. Regardless of their pasts, Drill Abbots are well-known for their uncompromising and stubborn natures. Coupled with their faith in the God-Emperor of Mankind they have considerable martial prowess and the respect of even the most seasoned Imperial Guardsman. A Drill Abbot has suffered and knows how to administer suffering in turn; they are not people to be trifled with.
Scintilla - Magistratum: Law on Scintilla is the province of the Magistratum, the planet's local Enforcers; essentially the planetary police force. In the higher hive city spires, the dark green greatcoats of Magistratum officers are a common sight as they patrol the streets and investigate anything from petty theft upwards. In the middle spires, they are concerned mainly with serious property or violent crimes, unable and unwilling to deal with other common crimes like petty theft. In the underhives, they are almost completely absent.The quality of the Magistratum's officers and procedures varies enormously through the layers of Scintilla's hives, depending on the funding and support they are given by the ruling noble councils, and on the environments they have to work in. Inevitably, it is far easier for a noble victim to get the Magistratum to investigate a crime, and far easier for a middle hiver criminal to be arrested for one.The Adeptus Arbites also have a strong presence on Scintilla but they leave everyday policing to the Magistratum, concentrating on sedition, interference with the various Imperial tithes, certain xenophile, Chaos Cult and psyker activity, and in using their paramilitary strength to help put down major riots. Most Scintillan citizens never see an Arbites officer unless it is from the wrong side of a riot shield. As might be expected, the Arbitrators of the Arbites and the officers of the Magistratum despise each other and have little interest in working together except under dire circumstances.The laws across Scintilla vary from place to place, but two constants are trial by combat and duelling. Both are legal on Scintilla, and trials by combat are especially common when the hive city nobility are involved. Trials by combat, where the accuser and defendant fight to decide who is right, have conditions attached depending on the nature of the crime (murder and severe violent crime like rape is to the death, while some crimes have restrictions on the weapons to be used and sometimes bizarre conditions for victory, from first blood to the removal of limbs).It is permitted for either party to have a champion fight in their place and a skilled combatant can find lucrative, if perilous, employment in the Bloodsquares run by the Magistratum. Needless to say, good champions do not come cheap, and the very best are retained by the noble houses of the hive spires.Similarly, duelling is permitted on Scintilla and forms a part of the culture in the hives and elsewhere. The Magistratum does not interfere with duels and killing an opponent in a formally declared duel is not considered murder under Scintillan law. This means it is entirely possible to eliminate an enemy by manufacturing a matter of honour between them and an opponent who happens to excel at the form of combat used in the duel.
Scintilla - Hive Sibellus: Hive Sibellus is the oldest hive city on Scintilla, almost certainly predating Lord Militant Golgenna Angevin's invasions of the Calyx Expanse. Its immense, eight thousand kilometre-wide bulk dominates the coastal plains and lowlands of the northern temperate landmass. Where its enormous, multi-layered skirts touch the coast itself -- in a five hundred kilometre belt -- they spill out over the black granite cliffs like shelves or glacial ridges. Sibellus has twice the population of its "twin" Hive Tarsus.Like almost all Imperial hive cities, Hive Sibellus is composed of an extraordinary conglomeration of architectural forms. Countless generations have added their own embellishments and every available surface is crammed with gargoyles, frescoes, columns and mosaics. The hive spire is a jumble of glittering wonders, while the middle hive -- and even the underhive -- is composed of long-fallen statues and temples to wealth and power. The middle hivers live in rickety tenements built inside the shells of great mansions and basilicas, and trudge to work each day through avenues formed by fallen statues. The underhivers live in buried hovels built into the eyes of great stone heads or clustered around the broken columns of fallen temples.The sprawl of the hive is at its most spectacular along the rugged coastline. The hive looms -- indeed, spills -- over towering black granite cliffs, which are lashed by ferocious seas during the stormy season. The Lucid Palace, a city in its own right, stands on a massive column of rock rising from the sea just off the coast, connected to the hive city by a single, cyclopean, stone processional bridge, as well as by countless smaller rope bridges and a fleet of ferries which transport strong-stomached passengers across the debris-strewn waters.Hundreds of rickety elevators scale the cliffs and the rock column on which the palace stands, and the hovels of ferrymen and fishermen cling to the rock face like barnacles. The bulk of Hive Sibellus itself rises up many times the height of the cliffs, casting a permanent shadow over the headland and the waters.
Scintilla - Notable Locations: Hive Sibellus' most extraordinary single landmark is the Lucid Palace, which houses the magnificent court of Sector Governor Marius Hax. The Lucid Palace, and the vast column rising from the waves on which it sits, is thought to be much older than Hive Sibellus or indeed, anything on Scintilla. The palace resembles a vast flower of stone, its granite petals overlapping to form its huge dome and the many archways used as entrances. The palace is draped with hundreds of banners representing the institutions of Scintilla and its noble houses, and having a banner fluttering from the palace dome is an honour that some will murder for.Another spectacular landmark is the Bastion Porphyr. This slender tower of purple-black stone is the tallest point in Hive Sibellus and the headquarters for Scintilla's astropaths. Scintilla's Astropathic Choir consists of about half a dozen astropaths, the largest concentration of these powerful psykers in the Calixis Sector, led by Senior Astropath Xiao.These astropaths are the only means for contacting other sectors and without them the Calixis Sector would be cut off from the rest of the Imperium. Anyone who wishes to use them to send a message must personally climb the apparently endless spiral staircase up the tower and make their request personally to Senior Astropath Xiao.Each astropath has a different method of visualising and sending messages, and they spend their lives amid the draughty belfries of the Bastion Porphyr performing intensive mental exercises and studying the tomes of symbolic code necessary to send their telepathic messages. Aside from a few servitors to assist them, no one lives in the Bastion Porphyr other than the astropaths.
Scintilla - Inquisitorial Holdings: The other most notable landmark in the hive is the Tricorn Palace, the headquarters of the Inquisition on Scintilla. A dark and austere trio of linked towers at the northern end of the hive sprawl, the palace is the headquarters of the High Council of the Calixian Conclave, which is to say that it is the administrative seat of the Inquisition in the Calixis Sector.Since earliest times, the Inquisition has often convened and empowered a conclave of its members for each sector of the Imperium. Each sector conclave is ruled by an Inquisitor Lord of unimpeachable merit, selected and appointed by the High Lords of the Inquisition on Terra. For the past two hundred standard years, the Lord Inquisitor of the Calixian Conclave has been Aegult Caidin.Though respectful of the Lord Sector, Caidin answers to no one except the distant High Lords. From the Tricorn Palace, he supervises and directs the general policies and activities of the Inquisitors under his command, as well as individual specialist cabals of Inquisitors sent upon "special circumstance" missions. The Lord Inquisitor is seldom seen in public. It is said that he keeps his true likeness secret, even from close aides and allies, so as to be free to operate unmolested and unrecognised. His true age is not known.Lord Inquisitor Caidin chairs the High Council of the Calixian Conclave, a ruling body of seventy senior Inquisitors drawn from all three Ordos Majoris, which orchestrates and monitors the Inquisition's work throughout the sector's territories. Estimates suggest that over eight thousand Inquisitorial personnel toil in the officio of the Tricorn Palace, from lowly scribes to archivists, from savants to specialist Tech-adepts.A small but potent army of Inquisitorial troops is garrisoned at the Tricorn Palace and dedicated starships of the Inquisition are permanently stationed at high anchor above Scintilla for rapid response deployment. It is also suggested, but unconfirmed, that the Tricorn Palace possesses its own astrotelepathic choir. In times of great crisis, the Officio of the High Council Calixis can call upon the help of any Imperial adepta it requires.New Acolytes to the Inquisition on Scintilla often start their teachings by learning the Scintillan Dictates, which are based off a series of letters by Inquisitor Heraclion Theos intended to educate investigators on the Calixis Sector's capital world of Scintilla.The general multitudes shun the Tricorn Palace, regarding it as a place of fear, peril and downright evil, though largely this is because the average citizen has no real grasp of the work and duties of the Calixian Conclave. Nevertheless, to be seized by the Inquisition and carried to the Tricorn for questioning is a grim fate that few ever return from.
Scintilla - Hive Tarsus: Hive Tarsus is Scintilla's second largest population centre and is the seat of the planet's trade and commerce. It maintains an aggressive independence from Hive Sibellus, though it relies on the export produce of Sibellus' manufactoria. Hive Tarsus is in the centre of Scintilla's least hospitable desert, baking in the relentless sun and battered by sandstorms.The hive city's construction is based around a foundation of immense vertical bars, between which stretch the great conglomerations of buildings that make up the body of the hive. As a result, Hive Tarsus is more vertical than horizontal, with more middle hivers climbing to work than walking.
Scintilla - Tarsian Society: Hive Tarsus' unusual structure and hostile location mean that darkness and cold are valued commodities and, as such, very unusually for a hive city, the richest areas are those on the bottom of the hive instead of at the top. Hive Tarsus' nobility enjoy the shade afforded by having a whole city strung in a dizzying web above them, while they are far enough from the merciless sun to live in cool comfort. The very wealthiest live in pitch-black subterranean mansions where inhabitants and visitors carry dim lanterns to see by, while the air is cooled to sub-zero temperatures that require everyone to wear lavish furs.The nobility here demonstrate their superiority by controlling their environment at immense cost, even to the extent of making their handsome estates as dangerous to the ill-prepared as the worst summer droughts. Hive scum that stray too close to the base of the city are often found frozen to death, caught out by the dramatic drops in temperature the closer they get to the wealthiest districts.The closer to the surface of Hive Tarsus, the poorer and more dangerous the hive becomes. Middle hivers labour in sweltering workshops bathed in the heat filtering down from the sun, plagued by sunbeams that sweep through the hive during the day and burn exposed skin. The outermost layers (known as the "Hiveskin") are hellish; it is almost too hot to breathe and hivers are bathed in sunlight so potent it can make those caught in it blacken and shrivel up in a few solar minutes.Layers of hovels cling to the top and sides of the hive, too flimsy to completely block out the deadly sun or the frequent lethal sandstorms. Worst of all, the heat is relentless, easily hot enough to kill those not adapted to it. The Hiveskinners scrabble like scarabs across the outermost layers to avoid the worst of the sun as it moves overhead during the day. They are a sunburned, sand-scarred lot who survive by hunting the hardy fauna that dwells here, including dangerous scaldbats and mildly poisonous fingerburner beetles. Many wear improvised, iridescent armour suits to reflect the sun, so that they themselves resemble Human-sized beetles.
Scintilla - Scintillan Protectorate Barracks: Hive Tarsus' proximity to the orbital docks means that it is also the home of the planet's military units. Scintilla's Planetary Defence Force, the "Army of the Scintillan Protectorate," is based at Hive Tarsus. It draws its troops from across the planet and there is considerable rivalry between its regiments. The regiments raised from Gunmetal City's ruffians consider themselves to be superior and they are mostly justified in this, with the Gunmetal regiments being the equal of the Astra Militarum.The Gunmetallicus 41st Regiment, in particular, is a prestigious elite formation whose troops are used to escort VIPs and perform dangerous missions in the wastelands between the hives. When the Imperium needs new Imperial Guard regiments raised for conflicts close to the Calixis Sector, Scintilla's tithe is often raised by  the Departmento Munitorum to include a draft of manpower for the Imperial Guard. This draft is mostly taken from the existing regiments of the Army of the Scintillan Protectorate, with some Imperial Guard also being raised from the ultra-violent gangers of Gunmetal City's notorious Infernis gang.Since the Scintillan troops often cut their teeth battling the Infernis gangs, care must be taken to keep the resulting Imperial Guard regiments apart. The Army of the Scintillan Protectorate, while answering to Marius Hax in his role as planetary governor, is effectively sponsored by the noble families who contribute their household troops to tours in the planetary army, and most of its officer class is drawn from the younger sons and daughters of Sibellian and Tarsian noble houses. Warrior brotherhoods, secret societies often born of loyalties to a particular noble house, are common in the army, with the most prestigious having fraternal meeting houses in the spire of Hive Tarsus.
Scintilla - Ambulon: Ambulon is a bizarre sight indeed, claimed by many to be a hive city in its own right. The entire city is mounted on the back of a machine that slowly walks across the unstable rocky regions in the centre of Scintilla's main continent. The machine is extremely old, and was almost certainly already on Scintilla when the Imperium conquered the Calixis Sector.It is probably a pre-Imperial artefact, constructed by a civilisation that fell before the foundation of the Imperium, though some claim it is a relic of pre-Horus Heresy terraforming technologies. Certainly the skeletal ruins of moving constructs similar to Ambulon dot the central steppes. Ambulon's unusual form affects every aspect of life in the city, from the industries that employ its middle-class citizens to the city's customs and folklore.