Asceterium [ACTUM]

Works with:
Theology Council
Ministry of Internal Order
24th Imperial Crusade

Old records say that the Asceterium were a political cult prevailent in the Throne worlds for several centuries. The secretive 'Dark Monks' who served their Empire and God by producing warriors from misfits and undesirables through the use of holy scripture and brutal discipline.

This however is a monolithic understatement.

From an article in The Scope:

'...Perhaps in the dim past such were the methods. The brethren, however, have attuned their methods and goals considerably. Agents travel the inhabited systems seeking youths who display extreme tendencies toward cruelty, violence and psychopathy. Subjects will eventually disappear with no trace or warning whether from a family home or a penal complex. They will wake up in the gloomy chambers of the Asceterium

The subjects will have their innate negative characteristics augmented and solidified while simultaneously stripping out any remaining empathy or compassion. This involves years of what can only be described as targetted and structured torture (both mental and physical) coupled with modifications to neural pathways and the use of implants. The harnessing of the will to survive and the nurturing of diabolical malevolence. Instilling white-hot hatred and an inhuman cunning. More than half die or completely lose their minds in the processes.

Successful subjects are trained in the ways of espionage, subterfuge and war, each motivated by their own unique hatred for all life - and particularly the enemies of the Empire.

The robed and hooded things that leave the gloomy halls of the dark monks are not human. They are the products of a wholly evil cult and are an extreme danger to any being unfortunate enough to stumble near them.

Now the Dark Monks have begun to create Pod Pilots.'