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Vanus Temple

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"The cleanest kill is one that another performs in your stead, with no knowledge of your incitement."
- Dictatus Vanus
[4]

Vanus Infocyte[7]

The Vanus Temple is one of the assassin temples of the Officio Assassinorum.[1]

Overview

Agents of the Vanus Clade are known as infocytes and also made use of predictive engines in order to base their calculations on all available data as well as prognostic simulations in order to determine the success rate of the operations.[2a] The infocytes are essentially human computing engines that are far different from mindless automata such as servitors as their skills were unparalleled in matters of strategy and tactics. Their presence cemented their Clade's role as being the intelligence-gathering arm of the Officio Assassinorum and it has been said that they have never been known to make an error in judgement though some considered this disinformation. Despite this being the case, the Clade is well known for the creation and dissemination of propaganda which is noted as being its greatest strength. Infocytes are said to hold the same relationship with raw information as an addict had with their chosen vice in the sense that they are enraptured by the idea of new data as well as what they could do to not only gather it but know it as well.[2b] They along with cryptocrats take part in operations through telepresent means that are conducted from their sanctum or from an Officio Assassinorum sponsored starship with them physically deployed in the field a rare occurence.[2d] Ultimately, the Vanus Clade watched everyone with their data-stacks being filled with information on all the other Clades which was the means they maintained their position by way of blackmail.[2i]

While most Vanus operatives (dubbed Infocytes) do not deploy directly to the field to physically kill their targets, there exists a designation Unbound Infocyte. These relatively rare agents both designate and terminate their target, shunning away from the more indirect approaches of their Temples standard practices. Like the assassins of other Temples, they are equipped with Synskin and a variety of exotic weapons.[3a]

In terms of equipment, Clade Vanus are known to possess cogitator gauntlets that projected hololithic panes that floated in the air for them to access data.[2d] They could also send small swarms of organic-metal netfly automata that can tap into opti-cables and parse through the rich data which they fed back to the operative. Each of these netflies was by itself a relatively unsophisticated piece of technology but, en masse, their networking skills allowed the information they transferred to be condensed into a coherent picture of what occured in the immediate surroundings of the Vanus Assassin. This allowed them to generate maps of nearby structures, traffic and place monitoring beads throughout any given zone. This the netflies accomplished by boring into the deep sub-web of imaging coils in the area.[2e] When entering into a information system, Clade Vanus assassins are able to unleash data phages and blackouts designed to subvert the enemy.[2g]

Equipment

Operatives of the Clade did not have obvious weapons and tended to be armed with devices such as an Auspectre, Sympatic Dataspikes, and Noospheric Interloper. Other equipment included a electropulse projector built into their cogitator gauntlet as well as made use of their menagerie such as psyber eagles, eyerats and netfly swarms.[2f] Additionally, they made use of Imperial bionics such as mechadendrites that served as potent interface tools with other pieces of technology with the information present being projected by hololithic displays.[2h] According to Fon Tariel, the dictates and method of operation of the Clade were summed up as: 'the cleanest kill is one that another performs in your stead with no knowledge of your incitement.'[2x] Some believed that the operatives of this Clade were incapable of following assassin instincts in the field and this is the reason why the Officio Assassinorum kept them at their scrying stations.[2j]

History

Similar to the other Clades, the Vanus were formed during the age of the Great Crusade by a secret pact at Mount Vengeance on Terra consisting of the five other primary Clades that sought to eliminate the enemies of the Emperor in the shadows. Their founder was Sire Vanus who served as the Director Primus of the Clade and served under the secret Master of Assasins.[2a] The Clade is known to had removed many enemies of the Imperium as part of their duties which they accomplished by the manipulation of data rather than outright termination.[2c]

During the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the Clades met at the Shrouds where Sire Vanus revealed that his assassins' predictive engines along with their most diligent infocytes concluded that the Venenum Clade's assassin Tobeld's survival to complete his mission to eliminate Horus was zero point two percent. The margin of error was reported to be negligible and marked an improvement in proximity to the renegade Primarch compared to all the previous Officio Assassinorum operations.[2a] In order to eliminate the rogue Warmaster, the Master of Assassins ordered the assembly of the first Officio Assassinorum Execution Force and Clade Vanus dispatched Fon Tariel as their representive to the strike team.[2b]

After the failure of the mission on Dagonet, the Clade's infocytes were engaged with the information emerging from the Taebian Sector and were in the process of performing adjustments in overt as well as covert media in order to better reflect the Imperium's position during the rebellion.[2k]

Known Vanus Assassins

Sources


Temples of the Officio Assassinorum
Main Temples CallidusCulexusEversorVindicare
Other Temples AdamusMaerorusVanusVenenum