Welcome to Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum! Log in and join the community.

Shrouds

From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
Jump to: navigation, search

The Shrouds is the name given to a secret chamber located within the confines of the Inner Palace that served as the headquarters of the Officio Assassinorum during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy.[1a]

History

Schematics of the Palace showed no trace of this room or its apparent entraces which meant that to outsiders this place did not exist on records. Thus, only those that were aware of its existence and used it were capable of finding it.[1a]

Within the Shrouds, an long octagonal table of polished rosewood was present and a simple hololithic projector which created images for those that sat at the site. At the six seats sat the Director Primus's of the different Assassin Clades and the seventh seat at the head was the post of the Master of Assassins. All these individuals wore masks that concealed their identities from their fellows.[1b]

Among the routes into the Shrouds included hidden passageways concealed int the tromp I'oeil artworks of the ArcGalleries, a shaft behind the captured waterfall at the Annapurna Gate, a blindcorridor near the Great Orrery, Solomon Folly where a sapphire elevator at the Western Vantage held a ghost swtich and several more that had not been used for centuries. Any of those summoned would emerge from the labyrinth of ever-shifting corridors which seemingly defied any attempt at mapping them. These individuals were guided by a mech-intellect that would navigate them to the room but would never use the same route twice. This sense of secrecy ensured it to be the most secure location in the palace except for Emperor's Throne Room. The walls of the chamber itself consisted of dark mahogany panels that were adorned with minimalist artworks and several lume-globes. Layers of instrumentality were concealed and rendered the room as well as everything else dead to the eyes or ears of any possible surveillance. Among the countermeasures employed included a device that fogged radiation detection frequencies, others that swalloed sound, heat or light and some which worked alongside slivers of living neural matter that broadcasted telepathic white noise across all psychic spectra.[1b]

During the end of the Great Crusade, the masked Malcador who served as the Master of Assassins met with the Sires and Siresses of the Clades after learning of the failure of the Venenum Assassin Tobeld in assassinating the renegade Warmaster Horus during the events of the Horus Heresy. In attendance with Legio Custodes Captain-General Constantin Valdor, it was ordered that an Officio Assassinorum Execution Force be deployed with numerous Assassins of the various Clades being dispatched to eliminate the rogue Primarch.[1b]

Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists later had Captain-General Valdor under surveillance by his forces and learnt that the Custodes had journeyed to the Shrouds in a closed session with the Assassinorum over the conduct of the operation to terminate Horus.[1c]

Afterwards, word reached the Shrouds that the Execution Force failed in their mission on Dagonet to eliminate the Warmaster.[1d]

During the meeting, the Imperial Fists led by Rogal Dorn burst into the Shrouds and exposed Malcador as te Master of Assassins along with unmasking the Clade leaders whilst highlighting the failure of their mission as well as the deceptive tactics they used.[1e]

The argument between the Officio and the Primarch only ended with the sudden arrival of the Emperor who concluded that the Officio Assassinorum needed to be governed.[1f]

Sources

Uncited

  • Nemesis (Novel) by James Swallow, pgs. 24, 248, 249, 251-252