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Dismal Texts

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The Dismal Texts are a classification of forbidden and heretical tomes that are contained by the Holy Inquisition. This horrific secret knowledge has, in some cases, been written down by agents of the Inquisition and can be available to those willing to pay the price for them as they contain a staggering amount of information. Some contain knowledge of xenos civilisations that fell long before Mankind had left their cradle of Terra, whilst others speak of concepts such as "freedom from the state" that are foreign to the teachings of the Imperial Truth. A few contain dark secrets of treachery that are traced to the history of the Imperium which have been purged from the archives. The most dangerous of these texts speak of means of summoning daemonic entities from the warp. To possess these latter tomes is to court damnation as they radiate fell power.[1]

A great number of these artefacts are deemed heretical and too dangerous to exist which leads to them being destroyed whilst anyone who sees them is executed. However, some are deemed to be potentially useful and thus the Inquisition locks these Dismal Texts within their vaults where they are guarded by defences designed to prevent outsiders from accessing them. Among the staff who watch over such places include archivists who are regularly mind-wiped to prevent this forbidden knowledge from latching onto their minds and using them as portals to terrible horrors. Gatekeepers are also assigned to these sites where they allow or deny entry to Inquisitors which further protects the Inquisition from the dangers posed by the Dismal Texts. All Inquisitors recognise the fact that some secrets need to be kept and thus consultation with any of these tomes is not deemed to turn an Inquisitor into a Radical. Instead, it is the usage of this knowledge when can put them on the path to Radicalism which is why one of the laws of the Inquisition is not to consult such texts.[1]

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