Search the Community

This is sort of just an info dump about the Christian faction I’m creating. I do plan on expanding on the individual orders & such, but as you can probably tell, I have a penchant for long-winded explanations. I tried to put as much relevant information as I could to help “paint a picture,” so to speak, as I could to try & help others understand as much about my faction as possible. Brackets [] indicate info that is more likely to be changed. I would also like to make this a sort of experiment. I’ve always said that I want my faction & lore to be plausible & implausible in relation to the lore of 40K as a whole. Basically I want it to be that you can either accept that God, Jesus & even Satan exist in the universe of 40K, especially in the way I present how they exist, or you can say that my faction is naive & the existence of these is explained away as a sort of collective consciousness or Warp phenomenon born of the faith of these people. Either way, one thing I love is learning more about the lore of 40K. Feel free to give me tidbits of lore & help me to figure out how to reckon with these things in relation to my faction. Constructive criticism is always welcome, especially when it helps me better understand what does or doesn’t work. I’ll edit this post as I get more information as well as responding in the thread. Just remember that you can’t convince me that God doesn’t exist anymore than I can convince you that He does. Like I said, you can either accept my explanation of how He exists in this universe or you can say “this is likely how the rest of the universe explains it.” Let’s keep it civil & respectful above all else. As always, thank you very much for any & all help & God bless! ****************************************************************************************************** Ordo Celestia is the order militant of the renegade empire known as the Scions of the Golden Kingdom. Ordo Celestia is further divided into several sub-orders: The Auric Order: A version of the Adeptus Astartes. The Royal Army: The main military faction, similar to the Astra Militarum. The Inquisition: Self-explanatory. The Sisterhood: Comprised of Battle Sisters as well as Sisters of Silence. Other sub-orders may exist & these sub-orders are often divided even further. Ordo Celestia & the Scions as a whole are separate from the Imperium of Man. They do not worship the God-Emperor or any of the Chaos gods, instead worshiping what they call the “Overlord of Light” whom they claim is the creator of all things. The Scions are considered the latest incarnation of the ancient Abrahamic religion of Christianity that has survived the Emperor’s purge of all religions as they inhabit a “living” star system which for millennia existed outside the galaxy. This star system, called the Aureum System, is nigh impossible to track & can move itself, as well as its planets, moons, asteroids, etc. anywhere it wishes instantly. There are those who believe that the Overlord of Light may in fact be the star, Stella Aurea, which is the center of this star system. The Scions deny this, proclaiming only that the star is not their God, but is a gift from Him, which He has total control over. The Aureum System seems to exist between the material universe & some alternate reality, separate from the Warp or any other dimension for that matter. The Scions are considered to be as naive as the T’au, believing that they can somehow unite all creatures within the galaxy. Though mostly made up of humans & abhumans, the Scions welcome individuals of all species into their ranks, so long as they are willing to accept their faith. Though mostly peaceful, they have had a military for several thousand years, though it has only become more well-organized & trained since the founding of Ordo Celestia, which was founded more than 400 years ago from the present day (though when the “present day” takes place is up for debate), by a Grey Knight grandmaster who traveled to the System’s capital world Eden, which appeared within Imperial space sometime before the Fall of Cadia. Lord Agamemnon Caustus, former leader of the Brotherhood of Lord Caustus, has been declared Excommunicate Traitoris, along with several other individuals who converted with him. He has since taken the alias of Abraham Shields & is declared the founder & Grand Patriarch of Ordo Celestia as well as founder & supreme grandmaster of the Auric Order. Along with him, other founders include his wife, Sarai Weiss, a Sister of Silence & former member of the Adeptus Custodes, now Grand Matriarch of Ordo Celestia & founder of the Sisterhood; Hestia, a former member of the Adeptus Mechanicus, now Forgemaster of Ordo Celestia; Zauriel Weiss, a former chaplain of the Grey Knights; Nathaniel Holt, a former general of the Astra Militarum, now Lord Commander of the Scions’ Royal Army; & Maeve Davenport, a former member of the Adepta Sororitas, now Sister Superior of the Sisterhood. Among them were several Abhumans formerly associated with the Imperium as well as several Xenos. The current spiritual leader of Ordo Celestia & the Scions as a whole is a man named David Shields, the son of Abraham Shields & his wife Sarai. David’s conception & birth should be impossible, given Abraham’s status as an Astartes as well as Sarai being barren. Those who witnessed the birth of David, estimated to be around 5000 individuals, almost immediately converted to Scionism. While most of the witnesses were Humans & Abhumans, at least a few of every species of Xenos were counted among the 5000, all of whom began to preach the word of Christ to their own kind. While some left with Abraham & his followers to the Aureum System, many remained within the galaxy, claiming that they had been given a mission to spread the word. Each of these individuals found varying degrees of success & failure among their own kind. The few Ork Scions were wiped out quickly; Drukhari Scions were subjected to torture, though the Homunculi assigned to them noted that they survived without the need to inflict pain & the screams of these victims provided no sustenance; the one Genestealer, a creature named Galamoth, took its cult to the Aureum System, where they would find ways to serve the Golden Kingdom. Most interesting is what became of the Human witnesses. The Inquisition first attempted to silence the witnesses, but found their inquisitors who interrogated them would too often convert & found their numbers swelled while the Scions were being repressed. This led to the Inquisition changing tactics, opting instead to convince their faithful that the Scions’ “God” was simply an aspect of the God-Emperor & their denial of this fact was because the God-Emperor revealed himself as such as it was the only way they would be convinced of his divinity. This seemed to work as the number of converts dropped, at least until a radical inquisitor from Ordo Hereticus began agitating the Scions, against the will of the Inquisition. [As for the T’au witnesses, it is known that those captured were sent to reeducation camps, though little else is known of their fates…] For four centuries, the Witnesses would spread the word that “the Light will return” & indeed it did. 400 years after vanishing, the Aureum System would reappear in the galaxy somewhere in Imperium Nihilus, heralded by a brilliant golden light that could be seen, not just across the entire galaxy, but even into the other dimensions. The Warp, the Ghostwind, even the darkest crevices of the Webway & Commoragh could see & feel its light! Soon after, Ordo Celestia launched its Lucis Adventus Crusade, a campaign to conquer twelve star systems that would be added to their “Golden Kingdom.” This would last seven years, by the end of which the Scions would indeed have complete control of every planet in these twelve systems. Unfortunately, over the next [9] years following the end of Lucis Adventus, the Scions would lose control of many of the worlds they conquered, causing several of their star systems to be thrown into anarchy. 6 years after Lucis Adventus, the Scions would only have 4 of their 12 conquered systems under their full control. Of the remaining 8 systems, compliance was more than 50% in 5 systems & less than 50% in 3 systems. Worse yet, around this time Ordo Celestia would be dragged into a war with the Imperium after an Imperial inquisitor of [Ordo Xenos] was accidentally killed on a Scion controlled world. [3 years later, a survivor of the first assault against the Scions] would come forward & reveal that the war was initiated by an extremist Inquisitor, named Morgott Voltairian, who had the Imperial Inquisitor killed in order to trick the Imperium into fighting the Scions. The Imperium & the Scions would sign the “Cruxis Treaty” putting an end to the full-scale war between them, however these two still clash often. The main purpose of this treaty is to prevent open war between the two sides & even allow cooperation when their agendas align, however they will fight each other when their goals oppose. Other such treaties have been made by the Scions with other entities such as the T’au Empire, the Asuryani & even [some] Necron Dynasties, all with the hope of keeping civilians as safe as possible.