Cyclopean Congregation
The Cyclopean Congregation (or Confederation[2]) are a mysterious cult of degenerate Navigators alongside decadent voidsman that are presided over by the self-proclaimed prophet Kokabiel Grigoris. This group is named after Kokabiel and his inner circle of renegade Navigators that are all blind except for their Third Eye.
Overview
The Congregation promises its adherents illumination through communion with the Hadex Anomaly.[1] They claim ownership of Kokabiel's Drop, the only semi-stable Warp Route in the anomaly, which they guard and demand tribute from anyone using it.[2] The teachings espoused by their blasphemous lore states that the Drop is, in reality, a stable entrance to a stable Warp route into the heart of the Anomaly where the meanings of space and time are inverted. Thus, its fallen Navigator prophet leads his Congregation on blasphemous pilgrimages along this route in order to recreate the profane first passage of the Burden of Vigilance into the Anomaly. In these voyages, the acolytes of this order ritually blind themselves where they sacrifice their eyes for each level of initiation attained within the cult.[1]
The upper echelons are open only to full-blooded Navigators and they practice complex rites of initiation. According to its leader, only those possessing a Warp Eye can truly appreciate the Hadex Anomaly in its true form. The inner circle consists exclusively of Navigators that have been personally initiated into the cult by Kokabiel at the heart of the Hadex Anomaly. These individuals act as oracles and hierophants that have risen to become unquestioned masters of the Congregation. They spend most of the time in quiet contemplation and speak only to give a prophecy or issue orders to the clergy. It is these Cyclopean Oracles that hold the greatest secret of the Congregation as they can use the Hadex Anomaly as a guide and replacement for the Astronomican allowing them to navigate the Congregational Fleet safely and nearly instantaneously across the Jericho Reach.[1]
Outside the inner circle reside the Typhlotics that are the revered bearers of the Navigator gene. These individuals are culled from renegade houses of the Navis Nobilite and from extended families of raided Navigator households. Such individuals act as priests for the cult's inner and outer circles who have sacrificed both eyes already. Typhlotics go a step further by carving jagged spirals onto their foreheads. These symbols both the coiling routes of Kokabiel's Drop along with the swirling energies contained in their prophet's Third Eye. Such scars mark them as being the high priests of the Congregation. The lower ranks within this cult consists of a collection of outcast voidsmen. Most of these are ignorant of the true nature of the Congregation with many largely being void born fanatics that have lost their humanity to madness and mutation long before swearing their loyalty to Kokabiel. The most devoted of these acolytes wander the corridors and grope the bulkheads where they eagerly tade their sight for deeper initiation.[1]
House Der'cel
The Congregation are closely allied to the renegade Navis Nobilite House Der'cel, who moored their highliner the Via Infractus in the Charon Stars, and ran a massive breeding program in it to raise a new generation of Navigators for the Congregation.[1]
Sources
- 1: Deathwatch: The Achilus Assault, pgs. 85-86
- 2: Deathwatch: The Jericho Reach: Chapter I: The Nightmare Salient, Crusade Forces, pg. 31
