A light autumn rain descended gently upon the balcony and the priestess pulled her hood down further. Grey clouds framed the view across the ornately decorated hive towers, clad in great golden reliefs and dotted by alcoved statues of Imperial Saints of old, lichen and verdigris weaving interlocking patterns across their marble surfaces. There was a fog up here on the highest floor of the Temple of Whispers, a clammy wet which got in through the clothes, no matter how many layers one wore. The lone worshipper was in somber thoughts about what had been transpiring in the last few weeks.
It was the year 816.M41 of the Imperial Calendar and things were becoming awry in the Vinrot system. It all began when Archpriest Waldemar Spindelwinter, High Appointed Ecclesiarchist of Vinrot and its Colonies had one day, during a routine mid-day sermon to the gathered folk in the Square of Holy Saint Stella, declared seemingly out of the blue that in light of recent activities there would be a great systematic sweep, a scourge as many understood, of the entire Hive City of Uhrenheim in order to suffocate a noxious heathen cult, as he announced it. Some of the less pious inhabitants had been organizing rallies and passionate public speeches, which despite regular dispersion by the PDF had not failed to instill a certain atmosphere of uncertain expectance in the air. All over the main hive and outlying towns there was speak of revolt and independence from the religiously-dominated imperial domination so prevalent on Vinrot Prime. There had been various armed clashes. Now, the Ecclesiarchy was going to put an end to subordination and any such citizen who would be found to have connections to this new cult, the so-called Neuzeit.
High Command had mobilised various Planetary Defense Force regiments and special interrogator departments of the Sororitas to swiftly and finally root out any taint on the pristine face of Vinrot Prime.
This announcement had been met with mixed responses. Many senior members of the Ecclesiarchy had given fiery agreement right there on the city square and vowed to eradicate non-Imperial thought with holy flame, though the support within the ranks of the Vinrot 1st Planetary Defense Guard was quite less heated, occasionally even rather icy. Lord Kommissar Urquhart, supreme kommandant of the 7th battalion, was an ambitious and calculating man, sympathetic of the people in his own way, and now with the spreading unrest amongst the fabric of Imperial society and the weakening believes in the might of the Ecclesiarchy and through it the Imperium, saw a grand opportunity to vest a great swathe of power over the Vinrot system to the forces under his command, knowing that through Will and the loyal humans and machines at his disposal, many a planetary system had been ruled with success. He openly refused Archpriest Spindelwinter's orders when presented with them in the Supreme Commander meeting following the public sermon, and under the protection of various Stormtrooper squadrons made his way to his awaiting Arvus Lighter and leaving swiftly behind any Ecclesiarchic pursuers, left for the 7th battalion's headquarters on the edge of the vast Dornwald forest a few hundred miles northward of the hive city to put his plan into further motions...
The priestess cast another glance upon the towering expanse of human creation growing forth from the ground of the city around her like marble mushrooms, and turned to the figure which had for a little while now silently been standing several feet away from her. It too was clad in a thick robe, as worn by the clergy in many parts of Vinrot, but there was a lithe tallness and contained composure about the entity, unlike of humanoid origin and more akin that of a patient arrow.
"It is becoming dire, friend", the priestess said.
"We know from trusted sources that heretic worshipping and degraded ceremonies take place around this city and Emperor knows whence else." She clasped the pendant which hung around her neck.
"It is, I hear, worship of a particularly debased and damned beast.. My sources tell me that the subject of worship is who you call
She Who Thirsts.."
The tall figure remained motionless, except for a slight nod of the drawn hood. A voice calm and somehow resonant beyond the openness of the rainy balcony emitted from the darkened depths of it.
"So it is of truth what the cards have read to us. How such a grievous influence found its way this far into clean space is as mysterious as unlikely, but I shall instruct our council and send out those who can sense the aura of She better than anyone and we will get to the source of this." The figure nodded again.
"I thank you for allowing this meeting, cleric. It is of ut importance to uproot the seedling before it grows large. Beware of corruption within your hierarchy, for the divisionary whispers of the dark can infiltrate and betwix many minds with ease."
Voices and chanting and the smell of incense emitted from a nearby passageway to the left of the balcony space, which connected this rooftop with the next one a small distance away. Worshippers, finished with the morning prayers, on their procession through the higher temples.
"I shall leave now", said the tall one. "I shall have word to you once we know more of the matter. Be well."
With that, the robed figure moved its hands in a short and precise motion under the fold around its waist and with a touch of the belt beneath glimmered out into aetherous space.
The priestess looked into where the Eldar had stood just a moment ago and swallowed heavily. The voices and incense smell grew stronger. They were right, she thought. There was corruption in the priesthood, and she would have to investigate and put holy flame to its extent.
By the Emperor,
she would.
Welcome to the Vinrot System, wanderer.
The events transpiring in this small outlier of Imperial Space are not oft recalled in historical records and remembrancer transcriptions, but they are, perhaps even more so for those reasons, worth telling and make for an intriguing insight into a particular aspect of Imperial life, full of fervor and faith and with an evolving Xenos undertone which slowly shall build to a planetary crescendo...
This corner of space has an ancient history of having been populated by primordeal species, long before the birth of humankind. Those days lay in the dark past and but ruins remain, buried in the endless jungles and beneath the dry plains of the system's planets. For now, as the turmoils in the galaxy send tremors through Warp and realspace alike and creatures are roused from a deep slumber ..
Presently, the uprising of the Neuzeit movement on Vinrot Prime and the ensuing fight between the Imperial forces and separatists is intensifying and the Astropaths have picked up signals of unknown ships entering realspace at the edge of the system and making headway for the populated planets..
Vinrot is a solar system of just two planets, Vinrot Prime and Vinrot Secundus, and a moon, orbiting a small central star. The smaller of the two planets, Vinrot Prime, is a Shrineworld of the Ecclesiarchy and an important site of various grand Imperial temples, relic pilgrims' paths as well as cloisters for the training of the Adepta Sororitas. The populace mostly consists of devout worshippers, spiritual attendants, a caste of servants as well as various working clans of miners and transport guilds for the supply chain of the trading connections with the closest Imperial world of Ophelia IV, threehundred lightyears to the galactic north of Vinrot Prime.
Being a rather small solar system, it is only guarded by a single Imperial Army contingent, the Vinrot 1st Planetary Defense Guard, comprised of roughly 15,000 personnel and various armoured and airborne divisions, making it a rather small force for a planetary system of around 65 million inhabitants. This is because of the Adepta Sororitas, The Sisters of Battle, who hold a large presence on the system. Many initiates to its various orders are selected from the hive cities and parishes of Vinrot Prime and widespread training colleges as well as martial and spiritual development scolasticae dot the planet's landscape. Both the Planetary Defense Guard and the Sisters are tasked with martial enforcement duties and internal missions, which has led to an unusual command structure existing, wherein the High Appointed Ecclesiarchist of Vinrot and its Colonies holds theoretical and sometimes practical control of the entire military system, a power which in recent years has been questioned by high-ranking personnel in the Planetary Defense Guard and has given rise to various uprisings of the people, most infamously the recent Neuzeit cult.
The only other planet of this system is a massive, mostly uninhabited greenhouse; a vast world of jungles and a large ocean spanning most of the northern hemisphere. The fuel Promethium and Bismium, the precursor to various crystal-matrix components used in Imperial power weaponry, are mined here extensively and form the major export market of the Vinrot system (other than Sisters of Battle). Various mining clans have taken
de facto control of the planet and with their economic prowess run affairs from labourer habitation to market prices, with little actual mingling in the affairs of the Ecclesiarchy. Many of the Imperial Cult are weary of the oligarchical influence of the clans, particularly in light of rumours that they are covertly funding the Neuzeit cell..
Vinrot Secundus has a singular satellite, the moon Krentil, itself host to a major spaceport as well as mines and a storage complex for shipping lanes to further Imperial space...
To be continued...
