Vastarian: the Church of the Gyro Choir

The Disintegration Loops.

Arrogant clankers. Do they really think I’d keep working with them and not get noospheric and binaric implants at some point? The clergy of Mars sure pays well, but that doesn’t mean I trust them. Would they use so many layers of firewalls and data encryptions if they didn’t have anything to hide?

I’ve been their pilot for a while, but paying well isn’t always enough. The information I've scraped for now goes a long way to settle my debt. I’m sure others will like what I've heard on this journey to Vastarian. A decade doing this job, and I've never seen any of them so.. Nervous? I mean maybe at least something can wake up their dormant human emotions?

I’ve known for a while that the Adeptus Mechanicus was not a unified dogma. They have internal sects, with specific systems of beliefs, with the Omnissiah and all always at the center. These ones though, they call themselves the Church of the Gyro Choir. I think they came from a lost underhive city. Something must have happened there, some kind of fringe event. And they keep mentioning a Servo Prophet. They make all kinds of horrible noises when they are not exchanging data. I wonder if it’s some kind of prayer? I can recognise patterns, but my implants don’t seem to have the correct plugins. I’ll have to get on that.

I wonder why an obscure sect of the Mechanicum is so anxious to get to Vastarian? They talk about an awakening that happened there, but it’s the first time I’ve heard about it.

I need to be careful because I think they know I'm listening, even if I doubt they know I understand. Or maybe I don't, it doesn’t make any sense to me.

The frequency of a psychic scream matching the words of the prophet? The holoprints for a lighthouse? The raw wisdom of the Omnissiah? And all this noise. This horrible noise.

We’ll soon arrive at Vastarian. I can’t wait for them to leave my ship.

- Last entry of the logbook of Captain Hainbach of the Erebus’ Pendulum, found dead in a local tavern after his audio implant overheated.

Vastarian: the Aeris Sanctus saint

After long breathless hours, the spiritual leaders of the Aeris Sanctus reached a conclusion for the Ravachol conundrum: while it is a noble goal to strip Vastarian of the psykic pall engulfing it, such a task is not for fallible mortals; it is a task for the omniscient Emperor. Taking matters into their own hands will only cause more ruin. What is needed is faith, faith that He will intervene as breath draws short.

"O Emperor, whose breath fills the void,

In the thin air of Vastarian, we stand before thee,

Each breath a testament to our faith, each gasp a hymn of devotion.

Grant us strength amidst the winds,

As we face the trials of this smothering world.

May every breath be a communion with thy divine essence,

A reminder of thy eternal presence in the air we breathe.

Guide us, O Emperor, through the turbulent currents of fate,

As we journey to the high-altitude shrines, seeking thy favor.

In the relentless winds, we find thy whispers,

In the scarce air, we find thy challenge.

Bless us with thy grace, O Emperor, as we endure,

For in the struggle for each breath, we find our purpose,

And in our unwavering faith, we find salvation.

In nomine Imperator, amen."

Vastarian: Cult Shrines for November

The Scared Linament of Judgment.

In the later part of 2023, Between the Bolter and Me created its own setting in the 40k universe and encouraged others to get involved in developing it by making it an Open Invitational. The setting is called Vastarian - Dreams of the Pious, with Vastarian being a major cathedral world that has been thrown into turmoil due to the opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum. This has caused a massive psychic awakening amongst the general population and has fomented conflicts between the different religious sects on the planet. The Invitational asks you to create your own Imperial Cult (the more eccentric and deranged the better) and using your favorite ruleset, play some skirmish games to help develop the lore! In addition to the overall Invitational, we also held a contest for people to create their own cults and were amazed by all of the awesome creations by hobbyists from around the world! Although the contest is over, we are still encouraging people to get involved in the setting and keep the Invitational going. We are currently building up to a small Inq28 event with friends in November (hosted with Bill Ford of the Mordheim 2022 and Rot of Hondious fame!). We wish we could get more people involved in the event, but due to space and general logistic reasons, it has to remain quite small. Despite this, we have been looking for ways to let others get involved in the event in some small way. Bill has been working on a final board for the event, one where he would like to have it filled with all manner of small shrines dedicated to the numerous Imperial cults on the planet. We realized this might be a fun way to let people contribute to the event: create a small shrine/piece of terrain dedicated to a Vastarian Cult!

Vastarian: Elocutors

I have fought with the shadows on the edge of your vision. I have seen the faces that laugh at you in your nightmares.

 

Discontent and resentment lie within the crowded streets and chapel-slums of Vastarian. Innumerable sects disagree over sacrament and rite almost as a matter of pride. While these creed-based disagreements were once tolerated, they have now boiled into violence since the psychic turmoil  of “The “Emergence of Saints”. The Ecclesiarchy on Vastarian established a devout sect of templars for crises of faith that the Adeptus Arbites were not enough to quell: the Elocutors. Clad in silvered platemail, their faces hidden behind helmets of glossy black, they enforce the Pax Terra, eradicating all they deem as heretics to the Emperor’s word.