Exorcism (Exorcists)

Common Methods of Exorcism

In OC terms, it does not matter what exact form the Exorcism ritual takes. However, your character has studied esoteric lores about the nature of Daemons and the rites which cast them out in the process of learning this lore, and is likely to have very fixed ideas about what types of Exorcism are both effective and safe. Your character is aware that Exorcism involves interacting with the powers of the Warp and is therefore not without risk; many of the sources which teach Exorcism stress the importance of sticking to set forms and rituals to avoid unexpected effects.

Some common traditional methods which are found in Exorcisms are:

• The invocation of the name of the God-Emperor or Omnissiah in Low or High Gothic or Binaric.

• The use of sacred salt to create a circle around the target, ‘sealing’ it in, the use of holy water blessed by a priest cast upon the target’s flesh, the application of sacred oils and unguents where the target is mechanical or a machine.

• The use of religious gestures (sign of the aquila, sign of the cog) or religious icons and incantation of prayers, psalms and forms of words such as those found on the Prayer and Liturgy page as well as binaric hymns sacred to the Cult Mechanicus.

• Physical scourging or symbolic wounds inflicted upon a living target – the use of fire and heat has symbolic value to the Imperium.

• Attempting to rouse the Machine Spirit of a possessed machine to resist corruption via extolling its virtues and publicly speaking their great deeds.

Any of these methods will likely be effective, as well as any roleplay appropriate to your character’s background and characterisation.

If your character loses faith in the efficacy of their methods, you must see a Ref before conducting an Exorcism.

If you attempt to carry out an Exorcism while Marked by Corruption, it is highly likely to fail. You must see a Ref before attempting it.

Exorcising Corruption

If you believe your target is experiencing the effects of Corruption or has an active warp-related roleplaying effect, then an Exorcism can resolve this up to the Marked level of Corruption. An Exorcism of this sort takes the form of a short ritual;

• It costs a point of Willpower to attempt an exorcism. If you have a Neural Failsafe, this will typically activate at the end of the ritual, as your bionics are overloaded by the cognitive stress of casting out the Warp.

• The precise form of the ritual is at player discretion but it should last at least 5 minutes and should be a violent process, if exorcising a warp effect, read the description.

• It must refer to the Emperor or the Omnissiah.

• If you wish to reduce a target’s Corruption level, the ritual must have a permanent impact on the target. This is not necessary to resolve the effects of a warp effect.

• You must make a Power Check during the ritual; if failed, draw a card from the Exorcism Deck.

• At the end of the Exorcism the target should be rendered Bleeding and will require medical aid.

Exorcisms are violent processes; the warp resists being driven from the flesh once it has taken purchase. Unlike Ordeals which are consensual confessions of sin and corruption, Exorcisms do not require the target to be willing, or believe in the spiritual authority of the Exorcist; they are enacted through the Exorcist’s strength of will alone. This makes them dangerous for both the target and exorcist; the warp corruption might well fight back.

When reducing Corruption, the ‘permanent impact’ of an exorcism could simply be lasting wounds, scars or brands in designs styled to drive the warp from flesh, but more extreme methods such as cutting off a limb demonstrating physical manifestations of corruption might be required. It is harder to justify taking on Mental effects as a result of an Exorcism than with Ordeals as the impact should be the result of unwilling admission to failure, signing binding oaths or confessions to hidden sins before an audience. As with Ordeals, any mental effect or undertaking must be honest; the target should be changed by the ritual. If the target means none of what they offer, the rite automatically fails. Players should return to their previous corruption if they ever rescind on those oaths, or repeat their sins, or indeed attempt to have the physical markings of an exorcism excised from their flesh.

Exorcising Daemons and greater marks of Corruption

Most characters who become Overwhelmed by corruption, have willingly Beseeched the Warp, or made Pacts with Daemons are beyond saving in the eyes of most Puritans. However there is some hope for their souls and some Overwhelmed individuals may have instead become possessed by a creature of the Warp. In these circumstances it is possible but not common for an Exorcist to drive such foul stuff from the target’s soul.

• It costs a point of Willpower to attempt this.

• The precise form of the ritual is at player discretion, but you must find a Ref before you even attempt these.

• The ritual must follow the guidelines for Exorcisms above but;

• Where a character is Overwhelmed by Corruption in a way that does not involve possession or has Beseeched the Warp the ritual must be pushed to extremes. The most common method of dealing with this is to burn the target at the stake to cleanse their soul at the cost of their life, in all taught Imperial dogma importance is placed on the soul over the mortal form of the target. Sometimes permanent character-altering effects are enough, but these are always dramatic and are not guaranteed to leave the target as a playable character.

• Where a character is Possessed, which can include some Overwhelmed levels, by a warp entity this process is focused on driving the warp creature out of the target and banishing it back to where it came from. These rituals need to be ‘contained’ inside a sacred circle, as it is common belief that if the daemon is not trapped and forced back into the warp it will simply ‘leap’ into another nearby victim.

• There may be unique narrative side effects at the discretion of a Ref or draws straight from the exorcism deck.

• You will be expected to make a power check at the end of the ritual, if this fails, the following will happen:-

• If you are exorcising an individual who has become Overwhelmed by a non-possession effect or someone who has Beseeched the Warp you may either give up or in order to succeed you may kill the target of the ritual (they are free to resist your attempt to the best of their ability).

• If you are exorcising a Possession the Daemon will be driven out, but not banished, and will immediately leap into you or a nearby victim at Ref discretion, or, if you are particularly unlucky, manifest.

Rites of the Ordo Malleus

These rites are not something trained to Exorcists normally, however in 594.M41 the Prosperitas Conclave voted to unseal ancient vaults of restricted knowledge to train experienced Exorcists in service to the Inquisitors of the Conclave to battle resurgent threats from the forces of the Archenemy. These abilities rely heavily upon the willpower of Exorcists alone to be enacted:

The Rite of Warding

There are two forms of warding. The one commonly taught to Exorcists is used in the consecration of religious spaces; this creates infertile ground for a daemon to exist in and will make them actively uncomfortable, but has very little effect on powerful entities. The Warding Rites unsealed from the Conclave’s vaults are more effective, but require active maintenance when they come under attack from Daemons.

• You should inform a Ref when you have used this rite.

• It costs a point of Willpower to set a functioning warding covering a small room and more for larger protections (ask a Ref as the larger these get the less effective they are).

• No creature of the warp should be able to enter the space covered by the warding.

• Creatures may test the defences by calling I test thee!; these calls can be resisted by any exorcist within the warding (represented by prayer/desperately reinforcing/redrawing warding icons) at the cost of a point of Willpower (making this the only rite that can be used by a group) and calling Our Wards Hold Against Thee!

• Should a daemon call I test thee! at any stage and no exorcists possess the will to maintain the wards, they instantly collapse and cannot be restored without restarting the ritual, allowing the daemon in.

The Rite of Denial

You may spend a point of Willpower and pray over a holy icon of importance to you to call Avaunt! every 5s for the duration of a scene while presenting a holy icon before you. This has the effect of driving away most lesser creatures of the warp in fear, and causes greater creatures to flinch, making it equally valuable as a tool to reveal them. The call I test thee! if not resisted with Willpower causes the symbol to be destroyed or irrevocably tainted and the ability to call this to end until you can bless another sacred object and spend another point of will to begin again.

The Rite of Dismissal

After ritually preparing a melee weapon with sacred oils, and other banes of the warp, you may spend a point of will to call Creature of the Warp! I cast thee out! Warp Rend! every 5s for the duration of a scene. This can only be used on a weapon you are using. This only takes effect on Warp Creatures and Possessed, but where you aren’t sure feel free to attempt it, the game team do not expect you to get this 100% right all the time and crew should be briefed to ignore this call if they are not a creature of the warp.