Sepulchre of S=I=N: Elyria Imogen

As Above, So Below. 

Pictured here: Pict Capture of Elyria Imogen during the aftermath of the Siege of Malasta'du (Wikimedia Commons edit)

 

M41, Sector Ialia Ula--The Siege of Malasta'du:

Malasta’du was a religious stronghold on the moon of Ial, established shortly after the Age of Apostasy, and a thorn in the greater Ecclesiarchy’s side ever since. Malasta’du operated as a haven for the Glass Wyrials, a subsect of the Imperial Cult which diverged from wider Imperial teachings by denying the legitimacy of past Imperial Saints, both Living and traditional, and their teachings. The Wyrials, in place of these classical saints, argued instead in favour of the creation of a new pantheon of icons who would rise from the ranks of their followers. Malasta’du was of symbolic and strategic importance in the resistance against the greater Imperium’s teachings, as, despite only being a small and obscure religious sect, largely absent from most popular Imperial records, held immense political sway over the sub-sector’s local governors due to family ties and heraldic oaths.

              In 733.M41, Castellan Rylhar of the Imperial House of Lethargy made a tokenistic bid to capture Ial, primarily to ease the bankruptcy surrounding his Terran economic endeavours. This failed, however, as Rylhar was converted to the Glass Wyrials and the House of Lethargy officially disbanded by the Adeptus Terra.

              Later, in 811.M41, two members of the Emperor’s Holy Inquisition (of an unknown Ordo Minoris), as well as their retinues were dispatched to Malasta’du to investigate and council its Seven Lecturers and approach the matter of the sect’s assimilation into the greater Imperial Cult. The representatives, as well as their retinues, however, were murdered by the Glass Wyrials’ “Unearthed Nails”—a band of ritual assassins. This ritual murder led to the Glass Wyrials to be officially deemed “Traitoris”, and a decision was made to send an Imperial military expedition to end the religion in its totality, eliminating its influence over local governance.

              In 822.M41, Ordo Hereticus Interrogator Elyria Imogen was selected, by utilising her connections across Holy Terra and in various noble houses, to raise the Imperial Army for this expedition. With an fervorous interest in the torture of witches and dissidents, coupled with a grounded a personable demeanour, she and her retinues, through their vast Terran riches, subsumed the underfunded Astra Militarum force colloquially known as the Ithican Nobles, as well as much of the Imperial Knight House of Ithica alongside her standard Stormtrooper taskforce.

              Finally, in 827.M41, Imogen and her forces reached Ial, using her Scion units to hold the scattered towns and villages across the planet as her personal forces converged on the stronghold of Malasta’du. Initially, plans were devised to besiege the stronghold through traditional means, expecting food and supplies to run low before the inhabitants repented. However, the defenders were unusually well-supplied. It was quickly discovered that the fortress was held by only four hundred men, largely untrained nobles and preachers of the Glass Wyrials. Imogen received word from the surrounding villages that a Ulcer Plague had swept across the planet, ravaging its population.

The Destroying Angel by William Etty (Wikimedia Commons)

              It was then decided, after realising that the Wyrials could hold out using the supplies of their reduced populace, to bring Malasta’du to ruin in a more direct manner. Imogen and the Ithican Commanders directed their forces, as well as the ordinance of seventeen Imperial Knight Titans, towards the fortress walls, conquering the outer gates. Through treachery on behalf of the Wyrials, Imogen’s forces were, after twenty-six hours, let into the fortress, after which they massacred much of the population. Imogen herself brought three of the surviving Seven lecturers and all sixteen of their proposed “saints” to her crucifixes, burning them as night fell. Before dawn, Malasta’du’s survivors surrendered, but the fortress was left to burn for four days and four nights. Ash turned the surrounding villages grey, while the column of smoke rising from the ruins could be seen across the continent.

Upon hearing of the success of this expedition, the Ordo Hereticus superiors attached to the operation granted Imogen promotion from Interrogator to Inquisitor—a title which came with unprecedented access to the forces she has coalesced. She used her new direct command of these soldiers to hunt down survivors in the surrounding ashen wastes as her men waited for the smoke to clear.

              It was said, however, that when the smoke finally blew eastward on that fifth day, a lone survivor was found in the heart of the fortress—one of the Glass Wyrials' proposed saints who Imogen had put to the torch. According to the official records, of which there are scant few, the surviving woman was dragged through a nearby hamlet and knelt before Imogen, having ‘finally seen the light of the God Emperor’s creed and found the Will’. Haloed with an otherworldly radiance, the woman was instructed to stand, not as a heretic, but as one of Imogen’s own.

As the Wyrials went extinct, Malasta’du finally gave birth to its first Living Saint.

             

M42: 

A Primarch returned. A galaxy torn in two. Elyria Imogen, her faith tested by campaign after campaign, reported to to the Adeptus Terra and her officers in the Ordo Hereticus. There, she was informed of the world of Iners-da, and its moons--one of which, Astenant, a Pleasure World, she had been tasked to investigate. Corruption, blasphemy, sin--all were rife in the luxurious domes orbiting the surface. She had a week to uncover traces of Heresy within and to report on any intelligence linked to the Viourant civil war and its lack of Imperial Tithe. 

           If necessary, or if she adequately judged the Iners-da and its moons to be irredeemable, then she had permission to unleash her personal forces upon the moons and their four billion civilians. It was to be a great witch-burning, the flames of which might be seen from the atmosphere.

            Her Sepulchre of S=I=N.

Read Part One Here