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So, randomly flicking through the articles on 1D4Chan (what? Some articles are hilarious!) When I remembered the old crazy gang my mate used to play in Necromunda - House Cawdor.

So, looking into them, they are a part of the cult known as The Redemptionists. Proper pants on head religious nutjobs which a fetish for fire, Chan swords and self abuse. And excessive violence towards the 'sinners' (I.E. everyone not them.) Which, for me thinking...


Would it be possible to use them as guardsmen (isinglass much flamers as possible!)? In the fluff I've thought about how this came to pass, that a tech backward world (around the middle ages) who were at the mercy of corrupt lords and cruel leaders.
Then, the world is liberated by a combined force or guard and sisters. The Preachers attached show them the light of the Imperial creed, and the god emperor as it's leader and saviour. Add in some OTT bashing about sin, mutants, witches etc. And add in some backwater planet religious zealotry and hey presto - a planet full of emperor worshipping redemption is the crazies who really want to crusade in the name if the emperor!

Obviously, I'd play them as big standard guard, but with my own fluff added. Would this be OK as a basis for an army, or is a bit silly as an idea? Obviously, I know most redemption cults are outlawed, but what if the ENTIRE planet from the highest governor to the lowliest serf so wrapped up in the imperial creed, that it essentially is a redemptionist army machine?

Could be possible hard to say though

I see nothing wrong with this. As long as the Ecclessiarchy itself isn't (technically) in charge as far as I know it's perfectly okay by the Imperium. Religious fanatics are praised by the Imperium in general so go for it. A fervent planet supplying fanatic regiments is entirely reasonable.

Alternatively if the planet isn't entirely obsessed with it you could have the Imperial Governor placing the fanatics into regiments to get rid of potentially troublesome elements whilst meeting their quotas.

The thing to remember about the Redemptionists is they're considered an extremist group, not technically sanctioned in any official capacity by any of the major Imperium-spanning organizations, even the Ecclesiarchy technically doesn't want to overplay them; as they too are ultimately targets as well (for the high sin of claiming to be priests but not preaching the Redemption like us!)

A significant Redemptionist uprising on a hive world could lead to anything from major manufacturing delays as cheap laborers and sanctioned abhumans are slaughtered by robed nutjobs to the complete overthrow of the planetary government and neighboring planets. Imagine a report of a sudden tyranid encroachment catching everyone by surprise when an important and densely populated hive world suddenly goes dark without warning? Fleets are scrambled, assets reallocated, worlds (temporarily) abandoned to the encroaching xenos upstarts in order to meet this threat head on... only for them to discover it was only redemptionists: they had overthrown the local government and slaughtered the Astropathic Choir ("Fething mutaaaants!")

So yeah, Redemptionists could very much be a fun way to play an antagonistic imperial force. I'd look into including a Hereticus Inquisitor and acolytes as their re-rolls against chaos or psykers seems very fluffy.

I, personally, would not feel comfortable running the actual models with their little KKK hoods, but ideas abound:

Wouldn't be too hard to use Empire/Free Guild (or whatever) Flagellants for the bodies and heads (to avoid KKK look) and give them Cadian arms, with a little green stuff to make them more ragged or make the sleeves larger and blend the arms into the bodies more.

Definetly possible! Whilst the Ecclesiarchy is prohibited from maintaining 'men at arms', they don't just use the Sisters of Battle, they can also bend the rules of the decree by arming their servants or calling upon the common people to fight in their name as part of the Frateris Militia.

Basically exactly what you have described, the priests whip people up into a relious frenzy, put a weapon in their hand and send them out to fight the Xenos and the heretic. A good example of this was in book 4 of the recently released 'War of the Beast' series where the Ecclesiarch called a crusade against the Ork threat, and millions of relious fanatics were shipped out from Terra to fight the Orks.

Sounds good to me. It's quite the good idea for a unique army. There's medieval guard units equipped with sword and shields, so I don't see why you can't have a guard army made out of religious fanatics. Espescially from a medieval/shrine world. Approved.