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I've been preparing a campaign for two months now- scratch building scenery and collecting the various rule sets and models I need to get it running. The primary factions are a genestealer cult, a slaanesh cult and a sisters heavy mixed imperial force.

It's escalation style, so armies grow over time. The cults develop a handful of models at a time, as recruitment tactics are built directly into the campaign rules. The Imperial faction grows by full units as they receive reinforcements from off world based on the escalating threat planetside. In the early games, small Imperial Guard or Sisters detachments fill the role of policing. That being the case, it occurred to me that captured cultists of either faction could be turned over to the Ministorum for arcoflagellation rather than being summarily executed. Especially in the early games, they may keep their cult affiliations secret, and thus be mistaken for more common criminals.

So the question for Dakka is do you think arcoflagellation is strong enough to overcome the psychological effects of chaos or the genestealer curse? Obviously, it couldn't undo physical mutations, unless those are confined exclusively to the limbs which are severed and replaced with electroflails, but would it overcome the psychological control of the cults?

Nope.

Tainted is tainted. Fire the only cure.

'stealer infection isn't ever just the limbs or a 'curse.' It's the implantation of foreign DNA which propagates in the subject's own genetic code. And that's just for initial breeders, subsequent generations are hybrid xenos, full stop.

Chaos mutations have been repeatedly shown to affect the mind as well as the body. Even if a limb is removed, it doesn't 'untaint' the person. They're still likely to go nuts and/or develop other mutations.

The Genestealer Curse changes them on a biological level, so I don't think so. Chaos taint is basically daemonic possession, so with the appropriate exorcism and whatever horrible, twisted process the powers-that-be in 40k would devise would work. The fact that the Inquisition uses daemon hosts in battle suggests that they could tame the taint to such an extent as to make them useful.

This wouldn't work for Genestealer infection. That is a biological infection, not a mental or spiritual one.

One could turn a lower level cultist or heretic into an Arcoflaggellent, provided they aren't too far gone.


I would say that if the Imperial forces captured some heretics, as long as they didn't have any mutations and it was early enough in the campaign they could become Arcoflaggellents. Maybe roll a D6 for each captured cultist and on a 6+ they could be saved.

From memory, the process of turning someone into an arco-flagellant destroys the original personality - they're closer to a combat Servitor than a Sister Repentia, for example.

I'm pretty sure it would work on a low-level Chaos cultist, and maybe even a mid-tier one - high-level Chaos cultists are likely to be purged rather than recycled.

GSC are an interesting case, given the connection to the local psychic network. I honestly have no idea if the psycho-surgery would be enough to sever that link, or whether it is something a canny Patriarch/Magus could take advantage of down the line.

It could make for an interesting short story, though...