Editing Nobledark Imperium Forces of Chaos (section)

==The Heretekal Sects of the Dark Mechanicus==
===The Church of the Omnissiah-Beyond-The-Horizon/'Visserites'===
An offshoot of the merely heterodox Tiplerite sect. The Tiplerites believed that the Omnissiah did not exist- yet, but needed to be built, the final end goal of the quest for knowledge. The Visserites got the brilliant idea to try and accelerate the process by building a machine that would receive messages from the future Omnissiah through the warp, instructing them on how to bring itself into existence. 
It worked, after a fashion. They started getting messages from... something. 

Although they make heavy use of warptech, they seemingly have no affiliation with any of the gods or even Chaos Undivided; whatever they're talking to, it's something more strange and obscure than that, something from out in the Chaos Wastes. 

Even by Dark Mechanicus standards, the constructions of the Visserites are strange and disturbing. They tend to incorporate human (specifically human- xenos are utterly unsuitable for the creation of human machines) tissues seamlessly into the electronics and ironmongery. Many components are utterly incomprehensible, their principles of operation entirely alien. The goals of these machines and procedures, likewise, is often obscure; whatever distortions they have on the world around them, they usually seem to be mere side-effects of their actual purpose. Whatever that might be.

(These devices undoubtedly use the powers of the warp, but it should be noted that they are not daemon engines. The Visserites do not deal with daemons; they have other sources of power.) 

When the Visserites have held a world long enough, scarred enough of its surface with their machines, it becomes... daemon-ish. Not precisely a daemon-world, since the Visserites don't use daemons. But a similar blending of the real and unreal. Impossible machines fading into existence out of thin air. Bastard offspring of Escher, Giger, and the complete contents of a patent office. Sometimes subtle enough that you need to really pay attention to realize you've gone a level beyond the usual Dark Mechanicus bullshit.

Generally, when you blow up enough of the stuff the effect goes away again. Generally.

===The Malevolence Engine===
Dedicated to destruction, to a degree unusual for the Dark Mechanicus. Where most heretek sects have goals beyond pure destruction, the Malevolence Engine does not; they exist solely to destroy societies. The Imperium is the most common target, but other forces of Chaos, the Silent Empire, minor xenos... everything is a valid target. 

The psychology of the Malevolence Engine is reflected in their most common chant: "The Malevolence Engine sees all weakness!" Interrogations of captured subjects indicates that they feel compelled to exploit any flaw they perceive, whether military, economic, social, psychological, architectural... 

To this end, they make far greater use of infiltration than any other Dark Mechanicus sect, or indeed almost any faction. Using a sophisticated array of mind control devices, front corporations, suborned criminal organizations, etc. they insert agents into all levels of Imperial society to gather information and attack from within. They carefully gather intimate knowledge of their target before attacking along every possible avenue, ruthlessly exploiting every weakness. 

The actions of suborned merchant houses combine with short-sighted sector fiscal policy to cause a sector-wide economic meltdown. As prices rise and jobs vanish, revolutionary groups arise on a hundred worlds simultaneously, overwhelming law enforcement with surprisingly well-planned attacks. Hamstrung by logistical issues, the sector military struggles to resist; the few counter-offensives they manage to mount are crushed by an enemy with absolute mention of their doctrines. As populations collapse into hysteria as news of defeat after defeat leaks past the censors, charismatic demagogues stoke the flames higher and higher... 

They rarely manage anything on that scale. The Inquisition is vigilant, the Farseers far-seeing. But every so often, the chance comes along, the flaw left exposed... and worlds die. 

Although generally considered a Chaos force, they follow no god; the Malevolence Engine cannot stand to subordinate itself to something so clearly flawed. It would destroy the gods if it could, but it cannot. So it is Undivided, grudgingly. Because what it wants cannot be achieved without the power of the warp.

===Arzach's World===
The Dark Mechanicus enclave of Arzach's World rarely clashes with the Imperium. It hosts no pirate fleets, sponsors no raids, wages no wars, devastates no planets. Perhaps a few far-flung explorator fleets have come to grief at its hands, but such is only an insignificant footnote in the bloody history of the galaxy. Still, the destruction of Arzach's World is a high priority for the Imperium despite this.

This is because Arzach's World manufactures and sells gene-seed, to whoever can pay. Mainly the Mk. III MP, of course, easiest to produce and maintain, but also dozens of home-grown varieties. The Magi of Arzach's World have produced many dangerous (to the enemy, even!) mutations of that baseline form. They ask people to use them, offer discounts if they bring reports and mostly-intact corpses back to them. A grand experiment, played out across the flesh of a thousand warbands. 

Their primary consumer is, of course, the Fallen. The Eye of Terror is hardly a good environment for the delicate work of nurturing immature geneseed, and the purity of Arzachs' product is comparable to standard Mechanicus facilities. But they will sell to anyone with money. Many lesser warbands try to break into the big leagues by acquiring Astartes. And on occasion, on the very fringes of the Imperium, under-resourced loyalist Chapters may find themselves approaching Arzach's World. 

Their location is hidden. Nearly every Fallen warband in the entire galaxy has ties with them; they can afford defensive sorceries of near-absurd depth. Every sort of divination is foiled, all navigation is for nought. They deal with the galaxy through widely scattered deep-space stations. 

The ultimate end goal of their experimentation in gene-seed is unknown, but from the slow evolution of their techniques over centuries it is evident that there is one.

===The Twiceborn===
Unusual for the Dark Mechanicus, this sect has its roots in the Biologis and (very distantly) in the transhuman ideals of Horus Lupercal. Their beliefs and goals are simple; they think that the Materium is doomed to eventually be submerged in the Warp, and that Mankind's only hope of survival is to somehow become warp entities. 

To this end, they seek out... lots of things. Daemon princes, and lore regarding them; how they're made, and how they sustain themselves. Powerful psykers. Mutants and Chaos Spawn. The Legion of the Damned. Psychneuein. Mandrakes. Navigators. Anything that might give them insight on how the flesh might be transformed by the warp, and survive. 
And, of course, any knowledge of the Men of Gold. (They'd kidnap Oscar if they could. But they know they can't.) 

Daemon Princedom is inadequate for their goals; they need a method that is not dependant on the favor of the gods, that can be reproduced at will. They haven't managed it. What they have managed are the twiceborn. 

The twiceborn (from which the sect takes its name) are liminal existences, half of the materium and half of the warp. They can slip through the boundaries between the two nearly at will, and even- with great difficulty- remain suspended on the border, half in both. They are not daemons. They stay dead when killed. Their existence is one of perpetual flight, constantly switching between realms to avoid all the things that want to kill them in both. 

To the Twiceborn Sect, these beings are part saint, part vivisection subject, and part commodity; the focus of their research and primary trade good. They sell these things to other warbands from their labs in the Eye, to support their roving fleets, dark mirrors of the Explorators, perpetually searching for knowledge and more test subjects.