Heretics

Heresy is a moral threat to the soul of the Imperium, even the most harmless seeming heresies pose a deep spiritual threat in the eyes of the Imperial Cult because they erode the faith and will of the Imperial populace.

Schisms of the Imperial Cult

Schisms are not unheard of within the Imperial Cult. In such a vast Galaxy there are often those with differing opinions on how best to to give the God Emperor Their due worship, or with differing practices of ritual. Normally, these ‘sects’ are recognised and incorporated into the faith – though the Imperium has had bloody wars of faith – but there are those that are intolerable to the wider Ecclesiarchy. Deviant ‘Death Cults’ that practice murder as worship can be a major challenge – but, more often than not, it is puritan factions of the Imperial Cult that are the most trouble. Fanatics like the ‘Redemptionists’ see heresy in even the most loyal citizens for imagined failures to observe stricter rules of worship – and have been known to cause immense problems for the Imperium with their disdain for any authority other than the God-Emperor’s direct command and their vicious attacks on other citizens.

Hereteks

Hereteks, are those that break not the taboos of the Imperial Cult, but of the Machine Cult. To break with the Rites and Rituals of the Sacred Machine can result in summary conversion into a servitor or fouler fates as a Mechanicus test subject. The majority of Hereteks behave more as criminals than heretical cultists. They are mechanics operating without sanction, individuals failing to observe the rituals of the Machine – and all are Hereteks in the eyes of the Priesthood of Mars. But there are worse threats to the sanctiity of the followers of the Omnissiah. The Fist of Steel – and especially the splinter Black Gauntlet faction – are both criminals and active enemies of the Imperium – and there are many whispers of the mysterious Black Octad Combine that serves to create foul machinery from the warp-touched worlds at the edge of the Eye.

Xenos Worship

Xenocults are not uncommon in the Rimward regions of the Prosperitas Sector where the Shavasti and other races have been encountered - in the absence of proper religious guidance idolatry and worship of Xenos religion and values, even the direct worship of Xenos creatures themselves, can grow - these cults are not, for the most part as obvious as those who follow the Dark Gods who often begin to demonstrate mutation. Most Xenos do not cause such change in their followers, which makes them a lot harder to spot. The high number of Eldar ruins and artefacts in the sector draw a high degree of interest from local populations, and many Annwfyn traditions do include these structures as co-opted sites of worship. Perhaps more dangerous are the Worm Cults who worship a triad of gods known as the 'Devourer Worms', it's not understood exactly what the Xenos they worship are but members of the cults demonstrate close familial bonds and demonstrate some capacity for exerting control.

Other Heresies

Other “religions” do exist within the Prosperitas Sector. The Annwfyn people possessed, before the arrival of the Imperium, their own misguided false “religion”. That “faith” has been stamped out prohibited since the establishment of Imperial rule, though rebels like the Rising Flame are rumoured to still hold to it.

Warp Cults

A common threat, Warp cults are another arm of the Archenemy