Exorcism (Exorcists)

Though all Imperials have at least an understanding of the concept of an exorcism and are taught to fear ‘daemons’ as a part of scaring them into compliance only a few know what daemons actually are. For the most part ‘exorcists’ in the Imperium serve a spiritual role acting as part of the spiritual pageantry of the Ecclesiarchy cleansing homes of ‘bad spirits’ or purging ‘sinners’ of, more imagined, corruption in religious ceremonies. The Exorcists of the Ordo Malleus tend to avoid such ceremonies because silently sniggering or glowering at the back of an Ecclesiarchy temple is generally frowned upon and not conductive to maintaining the veil of secrecy the Inquisition prefers to keep about the true nature of the Archenemy.

Within the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition, an Exorcist is a specialised Agent of the Throne - trained by the Ordo Malleus, although they may not be of the Ordo themselves anymore, they have been fully inducted with knowledge of the Daemons and the Dark Gods - most will have undergone harrowing rites to prove they have the strength of will to undertake the duties that will be expected of them. They are not necessarily religious figures, though a degree of Faith in something greater lends most the strength to endure in the face of true horror unleashed.

Any character who has this trait has gone through this experience without exception; it is not possible without Game Team permission to play an Exorcist who is not known to the Ordo Malleus.

Power Tests

Several traits and abilities request that a character performs a Power Test - this is a test with a 25% chance of failure. In all cases you can always delay a test until it would not interrupt the flow of roleplay or combat - you are free to do it earlier, but we generally recommend doing tests at the end of a combat for example.

The standard suggestion for doing this is to take a bag of beads and fill it with 12 beads, 9 of one colour (representing success) , 3 of another (representing failure) and do a draw. But any other method capable of determining a 25% chance of failure is acceptable.

There may be conditions where this will flip and it will be a 75% chance of failure and a 25% chance of success.

Exorcisms

Perhaps unsurprisingly given their name the primary role of Exorcists in the Holy Ordos is providing esoteric first aid against encroachments of the warp upon the mind, body and soul all afflictions to which Inquisitorial Agents are often exposed by the nature of the Hidden War against the Archenemy.

An Exorcist can exorcise Corruption (up to Marked), as well as purge Warp Taint from people and objects in the following fashion:

• It costs the Exorcist 1/2/3 points of Willpower to purge Corruption depending on if the individual is Tempted/Touched/Marked - the cost of purging Warp Taint will either be written on an effect card or told to you by a member of the Game Team.

• Once an Exorcist has committed Willpower they may begin a five minute ritual, the exact form of its ritual depends on the Exorcist it is common to loudly invoke the name of the God-Emperor or Omnissiah - this process is painful to the exorcee who feels the warp-taint burning from their flesh they should roleplay appropriately (inform them beforehand to ensure they know).

• After the ritual is completed the Exorcist performs a Power Check if they pass the Exorcism was successful. If they fail a complication has occurred they must draw from the Exorcism Risk Deck and play out the complication to see if they succeed.

• If the exorcism is resolved successfully the character drops one level of corruption or the warp taint is removed from the person or object.
  • A character who has been exorcised is under the effect of the Weaken call until they Recuperate.

Dealing with Possession or Banishing a Daemon is a far riskier proposal - possession refers to the act of another sentience entering a body and subsuming control of it Beings of the Warp including Daemons use it to enter reality but some particularly sinister Psykers and other beings have been known to do it too;

• The target of this Exorcism or Banishment must be Subdued, Bleeding or otherwise unable to move freely and they must be kept within a warded circle (drawn or otherwise) for this to work.

• Up to three Exorcists may participate in this Exorcism or Banishment.

• Exorcists must blindly bid an amount of their willpower to purge the Possession or Banish a creature that may be pooled from every Exorcist involved. If they outbid the will of the being opposing them, they may proceed - otherwise all Exorcists involved must draw a card from the Exorcisms Risks Deck and resolve it to be able to proceed.

• They may then proceed as above with a five minute ritual doing a power test at the end this has a 75% chance of failure if they did not successfully outbid the entity originally otherwise it is made as normal.
  • If they are attempting a Banishment they must know a keyword or part of the True Name of the Daemon for this to be anything more than a temporary exclusion from reality. Some greater entities will simply not be affected at all if you don't know either of these.

• If the Exorcism or Banishment succeeds the being is driven from the flesh it is possessing or from reality.
  • All Exorcists and a Character who has been exorcised are under the effect of the Weaken call until they Recuperate.

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Rites of the Exorcists

Unlike the powers of Psykers or the technoarcana of Tech Priests, the powers demonstrated by Exorcists often have a mostly mundane origin though they are reinforced by faith and will they mostly require very practical preparations, the use of ingredients of materials that is known to react with and negatively affect warp-stuff as well as hexagramatic patterns known to disrupt the flow of warp energies across the veil of reality.

Most of these rites cost willpower to use and several allow the Exorcist to push to achieve greater effects.

After any scene where an Exorcist has used one or more of these rites they must do a Power Test - they must do an additional test for each time they Pushed one of their rites. If they fail they suffer one of the Eye of the Dark Gods curses at the end of this section.

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Rites of Denial

Creatures of the Warp are beings of emotion and thought given shape, and personal faith is one of the greatest weapons available to those who combat them.

An Exorcist may expend a willpower to;

• Call Avaunt! Once every 3s while brandishing holy symbol or a more personal talisman before them - they must focus their attention fully on the this rite moving at a slow walk and may not make ranged calls and only use melee weapons defensively - if they take damage or a disruptive effect (such as shock) in this time they must stop and must expend another willpower to regain their focus.

After making five successful calls of Avaunt! the exorcist may push to;

• Make a call of [Keyword/True Name] I Banish Thee - be aware this will have NO effect if you do not know the beings True Name or one of the Keywords it is associated with or get them wrong but the willpower is still lost.

Rites of Warding

Done in salt, chalk and sometimes blood or other spiritually charged matter applied directly to a location or pre-marked on purity seals and prayer-rags - wardings are used to deny Warp Entities movement within realspace.

An exorcist may expend a willpower to do one of the following;

• Place a warding on a door or other entrance into a space that cannot be passed freely by Warp Entities and Possessed but may be scrubbed off by their mortal servants - some powerful Warp Entities can destroy such wards but at a cost to themselves. Call Warded Repel to inform beings you believe to be affected that they are trying to cross a warding - they will take it if they are affected.
  • A entity cannot use any call other than Would you Kindly? across a warding - call Warded Deflect if they forget this.

An Exorcist may push to;

• Draw a circular warding around a Warp Entity or Possessed individual - on sites where it is not possible to draw a line on the ground or pour salt this can be done by walking slowly around the target - once the circle is complete you may call I have Encircled thee! - the being is now held and can be targeted by an Exorcism. Circles can be disrupted by a character crossing the invisible barrier around the creature or by one of its mortal servants roleplaying scrubbing a break into it.
  • Attacking a trapped being breaks the circle.
  • A trapped being cannot use any call within the circle other than Would you Kindly?
  • Some powerful warp entities may call either I resist your bindings! (implying they have limited resistances to such attempts) or Ineffective (implying they are too potent to be bound) to break free.

Rites of Adorning

Exorcists are often the butt of jokes amongst their fellow Agents of the Throne for often looking ridiculously bedecked in prayer strips, purity seals and often daubed with blood and sacred oils or painted or tattooed with hexagramatic wards on their visible skin. Though many Exorcists can be said to be slightly unhinged by their experiences - adorning oneself against the warp has a very practical esoteric value.

An Exorcist may expend a willpower to give an individual one of the following adornments an individual may only have one of each adornment and all adornments fade at the end of the next combat scene;

• Adorn an individual with a warding that allows them to call Warp Deflect to the next call they take with Warp attached.

• Mark their brow (you do not have to touch them or leave anything on their skin if they do not wish you too) to allow them to resist a single call of Would you Kindly?

• Anoint their melee weapon allowing them to call Avaunt! after a successful melee blow.

• Anoint their armour if they have the Armoured ability of the Militant trait or have a Unique Trait that represents armour - allowing them to treat all calls of Warp Rend as if they were a call of Blam or Uncalled Melee.

• Anoint their shield if they have Aegis Training allowing them to call Warp Deflect to the next call with Warp attached.

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Eye of the Dark Gods

The curse of being an Exorcist is that while many are not Psykers and would normally live lives freer of the predation of Daemons and the Dark Gods - as a result of being amongst a singularly despised cadred of servants of the Holy Ordos they are reserved special attention by the horrors of the warp.

Whenever a Exorcist fails a Power Test when using a Rite they must select one of the following curses - you may randomise which one you get or select the curse of the God most closely associated with the last warp entities you encountered if you know it;

You do not suffer these Curses from a Power Test resulting from Exorcisms

• Slaanesh prefers to sink its barbs in deep extracting suffering by laming with its curses to make the cursed easy prey for its followers - your maximum endurance is reduced by 2 (to a minimum of 1) for the next scene.

• Nurgle likes to punish mortals that hurt its children with illnesses and diseases - the next time you attempt to use one of your rites or take a melee blow you may not make active use of your traits - though still benefit from passive effects such as increased willpower/endurance or effects representing armour or innate toughness that do not require you to make calls or roleplay actions to benefit from - you may still make melee attacks in self defence, but these must be uncalled - you become violently unwell, you cannot move faster than a slow stagger - this lasts 30s or until the Rites of Denial are used on you to drive it out.

• Khorne on the other hand likes to goad those it curses into dying a glorious death in the visceral mayhem of melee - the next time you enter combat you are overcome with bloodlust you may not use any of your traits until you gotten into melee and struck a foe with a melee blow, only then does the killing haze clear and you have clarity of mind to recover.

• Tzeentch prefers to make misfortune its weapon of discipline; you treat all attacks that target you in the next scene as if they had Warp attached.

Each Gods curse can only be on you once you must select a different one if you fail another test before it is resolved - If you are so particularly unlucky to fail a string of power tests and have all four curses active, get a member of the Game Team.