Cult of the Redemption

Thought Jack Chick was bad? GUESS AGAIN

The Cult of the Redemption is one of the few signs that Warhammer 40,000 still accepts that it has an understanding of the phrase "excessive", as the Cult of the Redemption is considered an extremist branch of the Imperial Cult.

Founding

Formed on Necromunda, the Redemptionists took a good look at the Hive they were living in and came to a rational decision for the first time in millennia: they realized that this place was Hell.

Unfortunately, they stopped thinking clearly after that, as they soon decided that humanity was inherently evil (which is open for debate) and could only find redemption in the eyes of the God-Emperor by killing all his enemies: In other words, psykers, mutants, and heretics (which is anyone who decides to work against the Cult or its members).

On Necromunda, they ended up finding a home in House Cawdor, where it became the official religion of the noble House.

Diaspora

Though originally confined to Necromunda, the Redemption Cult soon spread across the Imperium of Man thanks to members of the Ecclesiarchy. Commissar Ciaphas Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, noted in the novel The Traitor's Hand that there was a Redemptionist preacher on Adumbria, and believed his old Schola Progenium classmate Tomas Beije was a member of the Cult.

The Ecclesiarchy has occasionally tried to use Redemptionist Zealots as a means to get around the Decree Passive preventing them from having "men under arms" and limiting their military forces to the Sisters of Battle (Emperor's balls, now even the Ecclesiarchy doesn't want the Nuns with Guns). In the novel Legion of the Damned, a group of Ecclesiarchs end up getting into a pissing match with the Excoriators over authority long enough for the Marines to get bored and BLAM several Redemptionist militants.

Teachings

The Cult of Redemption believes that the God-Emperor of Mankind is manifest proof of mankind’s holy destiny to rule the stars, but as they comprise of mostly poor citizens with limited education they very rarely factor in what the Xenos have to say upon the matter. In their minds, the only thing keeping mankind from its destiny is its own sinfulness. So they take it upon themselves to "remove" the sins which are holding back mankind.

Crucially, the Redemption believes that three sins surpass all others:

• Mutation is sin and corruption made manifest on the human body.
• Witchcraft is the ability to use unnatural powers.
• Heresy is refusing the truth of the Redemption, which pretty much encompasses everyone not part of the Cult.

Redemptionists "on business" are relatively uniform wherever they appear, with a particular tendency to wear the colour red and full face concealing KKK masks and have a preference for wielding flame or chain weapons. Though when not on the job they can appear just as typical as the next Imperial citizen, though perhaps with a heightened sense of irritability and racism over and above that of your average Joe living in the 41st Millennium.

The Ludmillan Dictates

Someone in the Calixis Sector actually took the time to sit down and codify how Redemptionists need to behave, essentially turning the Cult from a slightly crazy social gathering of religious nutballs into an organised sect.

The (paraphrased) rules are as follows:

• Red is the colour of blood and therefore the colour of the Redemption.
• "Drugs are Bad M'Kay?" taking drugs is a sin, punishable by death.
• "Suffer not the Witch to live" punish them with death
• "Suffer not the Mutant to live" punish them with death
• "Suffer not the Heretic to live" make them repent, then punish them with death
• When punishing sinners with death, you should wear red as it is the colour of the Redemption.
• When you take up the weapons of the Emperor, you are on His time and not your own, so hide your face.
• Self-Mortification should be done daily, as it is a good pain.

Followers

The rules are not necessarily hard and fast when it comes to how the Redemption is organised. In the Necromunda skirmish game, the Redemptionists were made up of a mob of citizens who made up for being shit with their enthusiasm. Add in a Redemptionist priest and then it became a crusade instead, and could start including more highly trained individuals who took up the cult as their day-job rather than whenever it suited their 16 hour a day employer.

Dark Heresy alone introduced three ways for a citizen (read: character) to become a member of the Redemptionists and the rules for them were not all mutually exclusive either, so some people could go FULL crazy and take them all if they felt their character needed to be more one-dimensional like that:

• Cultist - basically what you took as an elite advance if being a member of the cult was done in your spare time. This broadly meant anyone can take up membership unless you were a mutant, psyker, tech-priest, priest of another denomination or disagreed with the cult in general. They are indoctrinated very heavily into the teachings of the cult, and have real difficulty from acting against the ludmillan dictates.

• Firebrand - Essentially a Cleric of the Redemption, taken as a background package at character creation. These would be the sect leaders of the cult, such as the deacons or pastors, they make it their job to spread the teachings of the redemption, either with a chainsword or a flamer and a whole lot of shouting.

• Redeemer - more correctly called the "Redemptionist", though is referred to in the text as Redeemer a couple of time which is less confusing for this article. A Redeemer is a professional Redemptionist, the sort of person who lives every day as a Redemptionist and doesn't go home for the evening after the sunday witch-burning. They can either be a Cleric - much like Klovis from the "Redeemer" comic books or they can be Assassins - like Silas from The Da Vinci Code. Both all-round psychopathic zealots who get to perform acts of Faith and perform practically supernatural feats while murdering heretics, but one focuses on bravado and leadership while the other focuses on killing efficiently and quickly.

Notable Redemptionists

• House Cawdor - An entire Noble House that espouses the Redemptionist interpretation of the Creed, possibly an insightful look into what would happen if the Imperium adopted the extreme view of their own religion. They wear elaborate masks when outside of their house though they are not required to wear the colour red all the times. Funnily enough, extreme-extremists sometimes speak out against House Cawdor, since the Imperial Nobility is usually the hotbed of sinners that the cult seeks to purge. Though these particular voices tend to suffer *BLAM*, since Cawdor is one of the biggest fundraisers for the cult.
• Klovis the Redeemer - the most well known Redemptionist (to us at least); called the Arch Maniac by some, he is a notorious rabble rouser who endlessly crusades against sinners. He's pretty much the much noisier, grimdark version of Batman too, as he is originally a noble of House Cawdor and has a variety of gadgets to help him out; from the Holy-combi-Eviscerator/Flamer called the Sword of Persecution, a flaming mace called Mortifier, and he even has his very own autocannon armed pimp-mobile called the Pulpitek.
  • Malakev - The Robin to Klovis' Batman, though far more useful. Malakev suffers Fear from everything in a fight and is armed with only a stub pistol and a knife. His job is to chronicle everything that Klovis does and carry around the Big-Giant-Book-of-Torture, said to be imbued with the power of the Emperor which grants him 5++ protection.
• The Arch Zealot - the Grand Dragon of the K- - the most well known Redemptionist on Necromunda, more so than the Redeemer. Considered to be a prophet, he does not belong to any particular local cult, but travels between them, preaching the creed. He's no-where near as good a fighter as Klovis on the tabletop, but he's far more inspirational and makes his whole gang immune to bricking it and running away.
• Archdeacon Ludmilla - Leader of the redemptionists in the Calixis Sector, which automatically makes her bigger than the Arch Zealot of Necromunda. She is the one who wrote the Ludmillan Dictates and she has made it her mission to get the Redemption incorporated into the Imperial Creed proper and become part of the Ecclesiarchy. To this end she sent gifts of burned or flayed sinners to the Cardinal of the sector, much like a pet cat bringing home dead animals.