Sister Andromache was born in the depths of a hive city on Augereau, in the Acheron sector. As a child, she began laboring in the hive's massive factories, and had fate not intervened, that would have been where she spent the rest of her life. But when the call went out for volunteers to fight in one of the Imperium's endless wars, she lied about her age and was accepted into an Imperial Guard regiment, and hurriedly shipped to combat.
As a young soldier, she distinguished herself in combat, but it was what she did out of combat that proved more enduring. On the long warp voyage to the front, a preacher had taught her and several other soldiers to read, and she spent countless hours poring over the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer. Impressed by her honest piety, her fellow soldiers asked her to lead them in prayer, and by the time the regiment left the frontline, she had been inducted into the missionary order of St. Electra the Light-bringer as Sister Andromache.
When the war was over, Sister Andromache stayed with the Order of St. Electra as a missionary, spreading the word of the Emperor in the Aradec Confederation and beyond. After a long career, she retired to one of the Order's convents on the shrine world of Termina Anastasiae. She spent many tranquil years at the convent, teaching young missionaries and immersing herself in the monastic life. She developed a strong interest in early Imperial theology, and became a recognized authority on some of the more obscure writings of Malcador the Sigilite.
This is where Sister Andromache's official biography ends. It was subsequently purged from all Imperial records, but can still be read in the Apocrypha of Krast. No-one knows what happened at the convent, but judging from what Andromache wrote, her studies in systematic theology drove her mad. She wrote a tome titled Metaphysica Divina, which was so blasphemously heretical that the first censor who read it went mad and committed suicide, hurling herself over a cliff next to the monastery. Sister Andromache was found in her cell, patiently awaiting her inevitable judgement. In recognition of her long service, she was granted the mercy of being executed before being burned with her book.
The book, however, would not die. Although no copies could possibly have been made before its destruction, on the day after Sister Andromache's pyre, eleven volumes of Metaphysica Divina were inexplicably discovered in the convent's library. Sisters at the convent testified to haunting dreams of Andromache and the dead censor; novices who could not have had access to the book mumbled passages from it in their sleep. Eventually the entire convent was purged, but the abbess in charge had delayed making a full report to her superiors, and some sisters had been able to leave the convent. Although they were subsequently tracked down and executed by the Ordo Hereticus, Sister Andromache's heresy had been allowed to spread. Persistent rumours on Termina Anastasia insist that some sisters of the convent escaped the Inquisition's attentions altogether.
Since then, the Metaphysica Divina has made inexplicable appearances in Imperial libraries. All knowledge of it was once thought to have been suppressed, until an Imperial expedition encountered a volume on the faraway world of Kanesh, leading to the work now being more commonly known as the Blasphemy of Kanesh. Possession of a copy is punishable by death.
**
Fragments from
Metaphysica Divina
or
The Blasphemy of Kanesh
by Sister Andromache the Doomed
**
By setting this quill to parchment, I commit suicide. I forsake my faith, my life and my soul. Yet the clamor in my head will not still, and I fear - I know - that even in death I will not find rest until I unburden my mind. I must write though it is my death.
**
It is not commonly known that the Emperor did not want humanity to worship him as a god. Even though this is an unthinkable blasphemy in our time, and many of the early documents have been redacted, a careful reading of the Theban Debates makes it clear this is what was discussed. Malcador opposed the Cult, but later changed his mind.
**
Why does he not strike me down? Where is the knock at the door? The Emperor must know I am writing this! Why does he permit it?
**
Though we must teach all humanity to abhor the Daemon, we know that we cannot think too deeply on the nature of the Enemy. To collect our thoughts is to invite damnation. Bitterly do I know this now.
Euphrosyne of Galatea teaches us that a Chaos God is a primal emotion, a being of the Immaterium brought to life by our mental energies. This is why we must teach the novices the Balance, but we cannot even hint at the Galatean Euphemisms for the reason why. Because the Enemy comes from us. It is our energies, and our souls, that power them.
**
In one of the tablets of the Euphratian Apocalypse, it is told that Malcador the Sigilite decided to support the Imperial Cult once he realized it would nourish the Emperor. Look at the exact words of the tablet, set it beside certain passages in the Liber Achelieus, and you will never again know a night of restful sleep.
No, I cannot write it.
I am tormented by a dream where the Emperor dances in a deep cave on Terra, building a tower of gold and brass that will make him a god.
My soul is forfeit.
**
In the Tome of St. Patricia, we learn of the death of St. Celestine, and her resurrection. She dies on Forrax - yet she does not die, and walks again. And she is only one of the Living Saints, revered immortal champions of the Emperor.
What does the Book of Proscriptions tell us the ultimate temptation, the greatest boon offered by the Ruinous Powers is? Immortality.
For most of those who turn to Chaos, this prize remains forever out of reach. They die in the service of the daemons, and their deaths are more power to their foul gods.
What of us, who are trained to diligently look for the least spark of the curse of the witch in our charges, and to deliver the cursed to the Black Ships? Do we not likewise feed our god with our faith, and with their deaths? Their sacrifice?
Do we not nourish him?
**
The Immaterium - the Warp - is a hell to us, full of daemons that would rip us to pieces and consume our very souls if they could.
What are we to them?
**
What is the Emperor?
WHAT IS THE EMPEROR?
What do we serve?
[fragments end]
No comments:
Post a Comment