[Dataslate] Officio Assassinorum, Fantastyka, Bitewniaki - systemy bitewne, WH40k
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//-->OFFICIO ASSASSINORUM‘Thought begets Heresy; Heresy begets Retribution.’- AnonThe Imperial Assassins are the hidden blades wielded by the High Lords ofTerra. They are the slayers of kings and false messiahs, the bane of traitorsand rebels across the stars. Once an agent has been despatched, he is asrelentless and inescapable as the march of time itself. Every facet of hisimpeccable training is turned to the business of a single kill. Though thetemples of the Officio Assassinorum are shrouded in the utmost secrecy, allmen of influence fear the shadows they cast, for their operatives are theEmperor’s Justice made real.In a realm the size and scope of the Imperium, it is all too common for planets to escapethe vigil of the High Lords. With communication and travel at the mercy of the Warp’sshifting tides, a populace can go for ten, twenty, even a hundred years without beingcontacted by the wider Imperium. It is a fragile system indeed, and given the crushinggrind of Imperial life, one that has seen many worlds fall into the thrall of heresy.Left to fend for themselves against a hostile galaxy, it is easy for a planet’s citizenry toharbour the seeds of corruption. A world may fail to pay its tithes, allow its psykercontainment routines to slip, or come under the rule of an unsanctioned government.Some simply crave independence away from the dictates of the Administratum, theEcclesiarchy, and a galaxy ruled by twelve faceless figures in the name of a distantEmperor.Regardless of whether the new order is benevolent or tyrannical, its orchestrators makethemselves targets for the most violent of retributions. Though their government maythrive in the short term, word will eventually reach the Adepts of the Imperium of theirdisobedience. Sometimes the resultant confrontation leads to open war, but it is just asoften resolved by covert means. Coercion, bribery, threats, blackmail and murder are allweapons in the armoury of those whose iron grip defines the realms of Man. To this end,the Imperium has developed several institutions to exploit these weapons to their fullest;ancient organisations that trace their history back to the Great Crusade and the very birthof the Imperium. One such organisation is the Officio Assassinorum.The Assassins of the Imperium are able to change the fate of worlds with the pull of asingle trigger. Where the length of the Emperor’s reach needs to be made abundantlyclear, a Vindicare sniper will put a bullet in the target’s head whilst the errant individualis surrounded by his followers. If the traitorous creed has spread to an entire organisationor military force, an Eversor will instead be set loose; a bio-enhanced berserker that willslaughter dozens if not hundreds of rebels alongside the key individual he has been sentto slay. Should the deed require more subtlety, an operative from the Callidus temple willinstead be despatched; in such cases it is all but impossible to detect the presence of theseshape-shifting Assassins until the deed is done. If the target is a psyker, one of the rareand fearsome Culexus will be sent to hunt them down – beings with a strange void inplace of a soul that makes them the bane of all who treat with the Warp.The weapons of the Assassins range from simple knives and garrotes, to exotic neuralshredders and phase swords that can cut through armour and force field alike. Even bare-handed, these operatives are lethal foes; each is trained extensively in unarmed combatand is more than capable of fighting their way free from the mayhem that ensues fromtheir kill. Returning to their masters, they are extensively debriefed and examined beforebeing given a new mark and mission to accomplish. In this way, each Assassin is lockedinto a constant cycle of headhunting that spans the breadth of the Imperium, reforgingthe fragile chains of Imperial rule even as the Time of Ending breaks them apart.THE EMPEROR’S KNIVESThe training of an Assassin is a long and arduous business. Almost every recruit is anorphan, taken from the wreckage of his or her former life among the population of adeath world, feral society or hive city, and transported to the Schola Progenium fortutelage. There, they train alongside the youths who will become the foremost agents ofthe Imperium.Life in the Scholas is extremely hard, a relentless grind of physical and mental challengewhere only the strongest thrive. Taught to strive for excellence and obedience in allthings, the minds and bodies of the recruits are sharpened to a killing edge whilst theirspirit learns to embrace the Emperor as master and immortal father. Most of theseintense young men and women go on to train as Militarum Tempestus Scions,Commissars or, in the most unusual cases, Inquisitors. Those of their number who areborn killers, however, are instead appropriated by the shadowy figures that haunt eachSelection Day. Those recruits are never seen again by their fellows. From that dayonwards, their only true friend is death itself.
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