Ceremonia de Fornax Mortuus - Liber Challenge II - Dark Mech

[Castellan Cato]

Ceremonia de Fornax Mortuus

Forgeship: The Shallow Grave

Current Leader: Lord Mortician Septrax (Given Designation: Gamma-Sierra-Victor: Zayin)

Last Sighting: Segmentum Solar – Agretian Sector – 043.993.M41

+++Excommunicate Tratoris++++

+Records Sealed by Order of the Inquisition+

 

The Fall of a Magos -- Origins

 

The ships of Magos Biologis Zayin were originally sent from Mars in late M38 to gather data on the xenobiology found among the enigmatic Ghoul Stars.  However, little remains of this noble expedition.  Once they had arrived in the region, they uncovered the strange phenomenon of the Necron Flayed Ones that inhabit the region.  Entranced by the intricacies of Necron living-technology, Zayin ordered his forces to learn all that they could.  However once they had established themselves in the system, they found how elusive the Necrons could be.  For years the Mechanicum forces hunted the Necrons, only to find nothing but empty dead worlds.  Occasionally neuro-link would be lost with a surveying team and all that rescue teams would find was piles of mechanical parts, all flesh stripped from them.

 

Finally, ten years after arriving, a damaged Necron Flayed One was found amongst the rubble of a recently destroyed outpost.  Zayin imprisoned it and spent many Earth-cycles attempting to glean its secrets.  With such amazing technology of just one living Necron set before the Magos, it is perhaps unsurprising that the draw to break Mechanicus tradition was so great.  Frustrated with the lack of progress, the magos released the Flayed One from its bindings under heavy guard, hoping to gain an insight in how to communicate with it.  However Zayin had underestimated the guile and killing power of a single Necron.  The creature went on a killing rampage throughout the ship.  As he felt mind-link after mind-link severed and heard the screams of the dying echo through the ship, the grief for what he had done and for the loss of his brother techpriests drove Zayin past the brink of sanity.  In his madness and grief, he was suddenly struck by the enormity of the entropy of the universe. 

 

Despite the vast knowledge and enhancements granted by the Adeptus Mechanicus, even its esteemed members would suffer and die.  Whether it be from age, battle, or an experiment gone wrong, every living thing in the galaxy would wither and die.  He cornered the Flayed One and demanded that it submit to his rule and share its secrets. Unsurprisingly the Necron paid no heed to his words, and Zayin mercilessly slew it in single combat.  Upon returning to the command pit of the ship, he realized he was the only sentient member of the crew left alive.  Knowing that he would no longer be welcome on Mars after his act of hubris and folly, he set off to find a new destiny.

 

The Corpse Forge Rises – Current Strength and Organization

Years of travelling would see Magos Zayin enter the Eye of Terror in search of forbidden knowledge and the keys to escaping death.  He formalized his fall to Chaos by pledging his allegiance with the Dark Mechanicum.  He renounced his name, symbolically giving in to the death of his former self, and rose again at the head of the machine cult “Ceremonia de Fornax Mortuus” with the assumed title of Lord Septrax.  Other lesser magos and tech-priests rallied to his banner.  Current Inqusitorial estimates place the cult at 5 heretek magos and 25 heretek enginseers supported by hundreds of slave-drones and combat servitors. 

 

Consumed with the desire to find a way to escape the inevitable fate of death, Septrax has fallen further and further into heresy.  While docked at a neutral port in 877.M39, he was approached by a chaos space marine in bone colored armor.  The marine shared with him dark secrets and incantations of rebirth.  In the dark recess of living hell, they forged a pact.  Together, they would serve the Plague God and search for the secrets to eternal life.  And so The Ceremonia de Fornax Mortuus joined the chaos warband The Shepherds of Rot in the Long War against the Imperium.  Septrax retained command of his own ship, but refitted it to be a monstrous Forgeship filled with half-machine, half-undead horrors.  The Ceremonia would supply the warband with weapons, armor, and daemon engines in exchange for forbidden lore and all the biological material needed for their experiments.  Septrax took to this new calling with gusto and the partnership would see both groups flourish.  Now at the close of the 41^st Millennium, The Shepherds of Rot and Ceremonia de Fornax Mortuus wage war to conquer a dead planet and a long forgotten relic of the Imperium….

 

Hell-forged Pacts – Notable Alliances

 

The Shepherds of Rot- CSM Warband

The Shepherds and Ceremonia forged a pact due to similar ideologies.  It is a mutually beneficial partnership that has lasted since their initial alliance in 879.M39.  As both are relatively small organizations, their loyalties are rarely tested.

 

The Rotten – Traitor Guard and Heretic Regiment

The Rotten is the name for the human cults and military forces slaved to the will of the Shepherds of Rot.  Interaction between the Ceremonia and Rotten generally revolve around refitting, rearming and the occasional forced participation in experiments.

 

 

Legio Fulgo – Traitor Titan Legion with Skitarii Support Elements

Pacts with the Dark Mechanicus have allowed the Ceremonia to call on Titans in times of great need.  Usually these reinforcements come from the ranks of the Legio Fulgo.  The Legion specializes in ranged combat and is known for their extensive use of rad weapons.

 

Forgeship

The Ceremonia have no known permanent base of operations.  Instead, they operate from the gigantic forgeship The Shallow Grave.  The Shallow Grave’s heart is still the very same ship that carried Magos Zayin into the Ghoul Stars, however none would know it today.  Bloated and warped, it has expanded far beyond is original modest size.  Its armaments are average by Imperial standards, it instead relies on chaos battleships acting as bodyguards.  Those who have seen the ship describe it as a hulking mass, nearly the size of a small moon, but with no aesthetics or reason to its design.  Crazed half-meat, half-mechanism abonimations patrol the halls and ghostly screams ever echo down the corridors.

 

Doctrine

The drive to postpone death is the galvanizing force behind the endeavours of the Ceremonia.  Septrax's madness has spread and his faithful magos attempt to find ways to preserve the body and mind of their ruling elite.  Spetrax himself is now over two thousand years old, his body kept alive by dark mechanisms and the will of the dark powers.  The warriors of the Ceremonia can hardly be called alive either, but they are not pure machine either.  Some resemble zombies, with limbs reblaced with cutting implements or shooting weapons.  Others are steel skeletons with meat and muscle grafted on and animated by a daemons soul.