The Knights Reliquary

[Chapter Serf]

An idea for a chapter, one of many, so please rip apart. I tried to suggest a grand, corrupt order on its last legs, hypocritical and corroding, with no real aim or purpose, rather than another saintly collection of Marines.

Posible armour. Roughly the Black Templars inverted - fitting, as the Reliquaries are also a Crusading chapter, albeit one who has really lost its way.

I justify adding a whole new religious order as we know next to nothing about the Ecclesiarchy.

[To simulate the peculiar nature of the Order, their close ties to the Ecclesiarchy and extensive use of non-Marines, Codex: Witch Hunters is used to represent them]

TAKEN FROM THE LIBER ASTARTES

With annotations by Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor Aleander

The Knights Reliquary

The Military Chapter of the Order of the God-Emperor and all the Holy Saints and Martyrs, The Severine Order, Severines, The Reliquary Order.

non nobis, Imperator, non nobis, sed nomine tua da Gloriam

I. THE ORDER

The Severine Order began in M36 in the aftermath of the Age of Apostasy, founded by a confessor, the eponymous Severus, as a confraternity of academics and scholars within the Ecclesiarchy and the Imperial Cult to repair the damage and loss caused by the reign of the heresiarch Goge Vandire, the schismatic Cardinal Bucharis and the Plague of Unbelief– plate, treasure, holy scriptures, texts, codices and relics of the Imperial Saints scattered, abandoned, forgotten, lost, plundered and defiled. The Severines would, he planned, work to find, catalogue and restore all of the relics in the Imperium, to afford them the veneration they were due. The confessor took an energetic part, founding communities of friars and nuns (who make up the first and second orders of the Severines, the lay association being the third), to dedicate their whole lives to the finding, study and adoration of the holy relics of the Imperial cult, drafting the constitutions of his new Religious Order, cataloguing hundreds of fragments of gold and silver, of bone and hair, even taking up a spade himself and digging in the ruins. They received recognition from the Ecclesiarch Alexis XXII and began the monumental task of searching, cataloguing and restoring the decaying Palace on Terra, a task which the holy confessor would not live to see completed. After Severus’s death, in honour of their work, his Order received a grand church within the Palace itself, the Basilica of St. Severus (duly canonized shortly after his death, for his piety, diligence and zeal) and All Saints, which remains the mother church of the whole Order to this day, and houses, it is said, the finest collection of holy relics in the whole Imperium.

Even while Severus was living, with the favour of the Ecclesiarch and the blessing of the Emperor [and, more cynically, the already considerable income from the tithes and fees of the steady flow of pilgrims to the relics of the Severines in order to claim an indulgence], the Order grew rapidly, and spread quickly across the Imperium – within twenty years of its erection by the Ecclesiarch, Provinces of the Order were founded on Gathalamor and Ophelia VII, the great Cardinal Worlds of the Ecclesiarchy.

As the Severine Order spread across the Imperium, sending monks and scholars with the fleets, wherever they went, to seek out the traces of the Imperium’s holy men and women, their churches and basilicas filled with the [reputed] relics of the Saints, grew in splendour and in importance as pilgrims started to travel, then to pour in to adore the men whom it had pleased the God-Emperor to sanctify. These pilgrims travelled alone, or in small groups across the stars, taking ship by the charity of Imperial captains, and pilgrim convoys often fell prey to pirates and unscrupulous men. Thus, by the 22nd Founding of the Adeptus Astartes, the influence of the Order was used to create a Chapter of Space Marines who would stand watch over the relics of the holiest men and women in all Mankind. The Master-General of the Order was sent to Terra to plead the case for his brothers. After much deliberation, it was accepted, and the Black Templars sent their treasured gene-seed to the Severine basilica at Ophelia VII.

Candidates for this new Chapter were initially drawn from the boys at the schools of the monks, and they follow a harsh life, modelled both on their founding Chapter and the ascetic practises of the friars [did. Splendour and ritual have long replaced any monastic life, they live like kings in hair-shirts]. They are, however, not strictly members of the Severine Order– this would break the Decree Passive – and hence follow their Grand Master, but they follow a monastic rule and swear an oath of allegiance to the Emperor [and, it is rumoured, to the Grand Master of the Order of Severus and to the Ecclesiarch – a flagrant breach of the edict forbidding armed men under the Imperial Church], and the Knights Reliquary stand guard over the pilgrims, both of the Order and without, to this day. [Their dubious canonical structure, whether or not they break the Decree Passive and the secretive practises of the Knights (discussed later) have stained the record of courageous service on Crusade]

The habit of the Severines is of simple white, and the Knights too wear white surcoats and mantles with a red cross over their armour. The banner of the Knights, of white (for Saint Severus), black (for their founder Chapter) and a red skull (for martyrdom) is afforded great reverence, a relic in itself, and, traditionally, they do not retreat until it is fallen and all hope is lost.

In order to sustain their numbers, estimated at 15-20,000 members [of whom about 10%, 1500-2000, are Space Marines] lay men are admitted to the Knights without full formation as Marines, merely with biological modification. These ‘Sergeants’ are heavily augmented, but are not Space Marines. They wear a black tunic and mantle with the red sigil of the Order. Furthermore, large numbers of unaugmented men and squires are hired for periods of time. Hence, with hired men, the size of the Knights Reliquary can fluctuate widely based on need, swelling to considerable size – as much as several hundred thousand in the last Crusade against idolaters in the savage Fang Cluster - at times. [several hundred years ago. The Order is rotting. This practise, in effect, a Chapter of Astartes maintaining a large army of its own, who garrison the chapels of the Severine Order and fight alongside the Knights, is extremely suspect, and has lead to considerable arrogance and idleness amongst the knightly caste that has grown up. An investigation is in order.]

II. ORGANISATION OF THE KNIGHTS

GRAND MASTER

Commander of the Knights Reliquary

MASTERS OF THE ORDER

Commanders of a Province of the Order

COMMANDERIES

The Grand Master is the supreme commander of the The Military Chapter of the Order of the God-Emperor and all the Holy Saints and Martyrs (also known as the Knights Reliquary), starting with founder Saint Hugh of Payens. While many Grand Masters have chosen to hold the position for life, abdication is not unknown. Some masters chose to leave for the seclusion in simple monastic life [or, more often than not, to take a See of the Ecclesiarchy], or for other reasons. Grand Masters often lead their knights into battle on the front line and the numerous occupational hazards of battle have made some tenures very short.

Each Province has its own Master, and the Masters reported to the Grand Master. He oversees all of the operations of the Order, including both the military operations across the Imperium, and the financial and business dealings in the Order’s infrastructure of pilgrimages, tithes and relics. Like all Space Marines, he answers only to the Lords of Terra, [but with the patronage of the Ecclesiarch, he has been allowed a very long leash]. The current Master, Jacques de Molay, has held the office for twenty-two years.

The Knights are organised into Provinces, which vary in size from a single world in the very heart of the Imperium, for example, the great Reliquary fortress and Severine basilica on Ophelia VII, to a vast area, sometimes larger than a sub-sector, on the edges of Imperial space.

Provinces of the Knights are under the Master of the Order in that region, and consist of the fortresses and buildings of the Order as well as their Missions. The Masters are subject to the Grand Master, and are appointed for life.

The size of a Province can vary enormously, and no great heed is paid to the Codex Astartes – a Castellan, ten or twenty Marines, and a hundred or so Sergeants and Squires, can make up a small local commandery, attached to, and usually in the same building as, a monastery of the Severine Order, while the greater fortresses may have more than one thousand men.

Among other purposes, the structures are used for Reliquary initiation ceremonies. There is no standard form, at least, none published, as outsiders are strongly discouraged from attending, the ceremony involves new recruits entering the fortress via the western door at dawn. The initiates enter the circular nave, and then take vows of piety, chastity, poverty and obedience [the previous Grand Master had three mistresses, and was devoted to gambling, the vows of the Order are in a sorry state. More Severines are to be found in brothels than in the cloister, I fear], said to be like those of the Severine monks. The details of initiation are a closely guarded secret.

The nominal fortress-monastery of the Knights is the tiny Priory of Ss. Hugh and Godfrey on Holy Terra, a signal honour, but their headquarters is the massive grey stone edifice of the New Temple on Ophelia VII, stretching several miles into the sky and several miles below, where the Grand Master of the Order sits in state in the Knights’ Hall, torches and braziers burn day and night and the cowled forms of monks pace the marble corridors ceaselessly, keeping a grim vigil of prayer and chant over the bones of the saints and relics held by the Knights. No itinerary has ever been produced, or ever will be [or, at least, will never be shown. Very few bankers do not know the contents of their own vaults], of the hundreds of relics at the New Temple alone but it is said that, in the heart of the great fortress, there lie great and long-lost things, found by the Order in the ruins of the Ecclesiarchical Palace and on crusade across the galaxy, sent to Ophelia VII to, at the heart of the Imperial Church, be kept, watched and adored for all eternity.

Annotation: The Severine order and their knightly fiefs are, frankly, rotten to the core. For all their vaunted strength, they are lazy and have become bankers and lords in their own worlds, and fattened by wealthy sees they now control. Virtue is tissue-thin. They are typical of the rotted and decaying Ecclesiarchical orders. However much, as a pious servant of the Emperor, this appalls one, they bring great comfort and faith to billions, and I advise against any more general investigation, as it might lead to a more general reaction against the Ecclesiarchy.

This was written rapidly one evening, I know it is cliched in the extreme [Knights Templar? What, never!]. It will be heavily revised.

[Octavulg]

I tried to suggest a grand, corrupt order on its last legs, hypocritical and corroding, with no real aim or purpose,

 

Fun!

 

The Knights Reliquary

 

I don't think Reliquary can be an adjective.

 

Thus, by the 22nd Founding of the Adeptus Astartes, the influence of the Order was used to create a Chapter of Space Marines who would stand watch over the relics of the holiest men and women in all Mankind. The Master-General of the Order was sent to Terra to plead the case for his brothers. After much deliberation, it was accepted, and the Black Templars sent their treasured gene-seed to the Severine basilica at Ophelia VII.

 

This seems odd for two reasons.

 

First, the Black Templars are loonies, and always seem an unwise choice to create a new chapter training cadre from. You'll get insubordinate zealots who do whatever the hell they want. If you don't draw cadre from them, of course, that's another thing.

 

Second, so close after the Age of Apostasy, why would such a request be tolerated in the slightest? Before the AoA, I could see. But after?

 

In order to sustain their numbers, estimated at 15-20,000 members [of whom about 10%, 1500-2000, are Space Marines]

 

So they ignore the codex AND the Decree Passive? How come the Inquisition hasn't come knocking?

 

* * *

 

I like the concept. God knows, I did enough of it myself once.

 

But there's some problems:

 

1) They're the Knights Templar in space.

2) Their corruption and rottenness is explicitly stated, rather than hinted at and revealed through example and doublespeak.

3) They ignore the Codex and the Decree Passive, and should have been stomped like rats.

4) Their origin'd make a lot more sense before the AoA than after.

 

Recommended solutions:

1) Disregard Templars, acquire subtlety (and other influences). The Stone Hearts, for example, are banker-knights, but I ripped off other things as well so it's subtler. :P

2) More subtlety. Never tell people what you can convey through implication, at least not in 40K.

3) No need for it. It adds little to their character other than the expectation that they should be wiped out already. If you want it to be a symptom of their corruption, it should develop over time.

4) Move their founding.

 

Still I like the concept, and you wrote it pretty well. I'm not complaining.

 

Much. :)

[Chapter Serf]

Sorry, I mucked it up a bit, I know. Still, this is my very first try, so I will persist. I will post up a revised version in the next week, so thanks!

[Octavulg]

I look forward to it. :P