The Orders of the Hekatonystika or Corpus Sinister is the hidden counterpart of the Dark Angels Legion's infamous Hexagrammaton.[1]
Overview
Transliterated roughly as The Hundred Esoteric Arts in the language of the broken lands of Mykene on Old Earth, the term was used to refer to the body of secretive military Orders embedded within the structure of Wings and Chapters. Each Order was an autonomous body of warriors dedicated to the protection of one portion of the Legion's hard-won secret lore, most often regarding the weakness of some specific foe or mastery of a certain terrain or weapon. They were equal parts scholars and warriors, both researchers and practitioners, and as deadly on the field of battle as they were enigmatic in the halls of the Legion. Though rarely gathered all in one place, small cells of these warriors were often assembled prior to battles that would benefit from their skills, forming a temporary unit known within the Dark Angels as a Cenobium to lead the charge and advise the officers in command.[1]
Its Orders were divided between the Orders Militant and the Orders Civilis[1] (which consisted of civilians and auxilia).[2]
Hierarchy
In contrast to the Hexgrammaton, the secretive Orders of the Hekatonystika maintained few set titles across the hundreds of individual Orders. Of the few titles used by almost every Order the most well-known were that of Preceptor, used to indicate the leader of an Order, and Seneschal, which was granted to high ranking members that oversaw the hidden chambers of the halls of an Order. When openly garbed in the full panoply of the Order and bound to open war in the name of the Legion, members would also use the honourary title Cenobite to illustrate the temporary supremacy of their standing in the Order over that within the Legion.[1]
A list of general rankings:
Sources
- 1: The Horus Heresy Book Nine - Crusade, pgs. 106-108
- 2: Lion El'Jonson: Lord of the First (Novel) Chapter 11 Section 1
- 3: The Lion: Son of the Forest (Novel) - Chapter 4
