Malfi - The Masqued: The Masqued, a Chaos Cult with strong connections to an alarming number of Maflian noble houses, is believed to have grown directly out of Malfi's culture of constant political intrigue. Its original architects took the concepts of falsehood and subterfuge to their limits and arrived at the cult's guiding tenet: that nothing is what it seems.By extension, Human life and the Imperium of Man itself is a deceit, and Chaos is the only truth. The Masqued believe that the "civilised Imperium" wears a mask of refinement and devoted duty, beneath which lies Mankind's natural affinity with the lurid machinations of the Ruinous Powers of the Warp. They believe it is simply a matter of time before the mask falls away and Mankind's true nature as a Chaotic species is revealed.The Masqued revel in licentious, debauched behaviour and delight in extremes of falsehood and mendacity. All cult members are anonymous and wear at their gatherings grotesque and colourful masks derived from the styles worn at the Malfian nobility's courtly masques and entertainments. The Masqued boasts, in its membership, a shockingly large number of Malfian nobles and high-born, for whom the cult is a mere extension of their courtly world, intrigue taken to its natural conclusion. It is likely many of them have no real concept of the dark truth of Chaos lurking at the centre of their compact.More a deviant secret society than an actual Chaos Cult, the Masqued have avoided censure for a number of reasons: they have political connections and influence; they are almost impossible to identify and target; they offer no palpable threat as yet to Imperial control over Malfi or the Calixis Sector.The Masqued do not seem to be striving to achieve anything: their activities are more a broad excuse for licentious, orgiastic behaviour. Attempts made by the Calixian Conclave of the Inquisition, in the most part abortive or unsuccessful, to infiltrate the order have revealed that the cult seems content to meet and worship the Ruinous Powers in the form of Chaos Undivided, waiting for "the inevitable" to happen.They seem to show no desire or intent to bring about a Chaos revolution, as they regard it as a preordained fact. It is known that Inquisitor Lord Aegult Caidin himself regards the Masqued as a "dilettante order," a grouping of deviants rather than an active threat, and therefore not a priority target.However, given the potential membership of the cult, and the wealth, resources and influence that implies, if the order ever did decide to become more proactive, it would be the richest and most insidious Chaos Cult in the entire Segmentum Obscurus. For this reason, several key figures in the Calixian Conclave believe it should be dug out and sanctioned without delay.The range of the cult's activity is alarming: suborders and satellite lodges have been noted on Scintilla, Sepheris Secundus, Iocanthus and many other high population worlds in the Calixis Sector. Traces of it have been found as far away as Cypra Mundi and Eustis Majoris in the neighbouring Scarus Sector.It spreads wherever the noble houses of the Imperium have influence. Some say it has links all the way back to Terra. It is also chilling to reflect that, in the last three solar decades alone, four high-level operatives, each of unimpeachable character, sent by the Inquisition to infiltrate the cult, have later turned up as bonded members. It is an alluring, seductive order.