[Organisations] The Servants of the August Star

[LightDark]

The Servants of the August Star

General

The Servants of the August Star are a chaos cult on the world of Anargo Primus serving the minor Chaos God known as the August Star of Heaven, and hoping to summon him in return for the daemon-god's promised gift of immortality, but in actuality this is an impossible task, and their purpose is to summon one of his Bright Ones to Anargo Primus to reap the souls of its populace.

The Nature of the Beast

The August Star of Heaven (otherwise known as the Shining King Amongst the Constellations) is a minor Chaos God formed from several emotions and states of mind, not least among them pride, arrogance and hubris. He has existed, in a sub-sapient form, for as long as people have been proud, arrogant and hubristic. It was during the long twilight of the Eldar, when they thought themselves all-powerful, that he was truly born, although most (and the most knowledgeable) investigators have instead connected this to humanity.

His greatest servants, the Bright Ones (also known as the Burning Ones, the Faceless Angels (so called because the light of their eyes makes it hard to look at the face) and several other euphemisms) are seemingly-perfect beings, shining with blinding light and with hair of gold, wings of burning silver, and other beautiful features. An aura surrounds them that forces other beings to worship the awe and wonder that these beings exude. It is only when one encounters the looks on their faces that one realises the difference between these impostors and the true Angels of the Emperor. Their faces tell of total arrogance and disdain, total disregard for anything but themselves.

They are the ultimate egotists, caring for nothing but themselves, constantly worshipping their own glory. They have no fear, not even of the Grey Knights, as they instinctively consider themselves immune from attack or banishment.

Then there are the Heralds of Glory, mechanical angels of perfect artifice, and the August Star's lesser servants. While the Faceless Angels represent pride, the Heralds represent hubris, arrogance and vanity. They believe that everything is in their hands, that they are greater than the gods, when they're actually servants of a Chaos God that would be only a small blip on one of the Great Four's radar were he to try and do something major.

The August Star's land in the Realm of Chaos is tiny, and he only has a small force of renegades and daemons to his banner. Thus, he takes a personal hand in his cults, and has many in the Esquiline Quadrant, never mind the galaxy.

History

The Servants of the August Star were born on Anargo Primus as a result of Tzakath Arrian's (a noble on the planet) insane pride, some centuries ago. He was a latent psyker, although nobody knew it, and as a result of his madness, his pure, unbridled pride and vanity and arrogance and hubris, the August Star's servants were attracted to him. They began to whisper to him in his dreams, steering his soul down the path of even greater self-love rather than the one of debauchery he would otherwise fall into.

He became obsessed with himself, and gathered a cult of other people, through his extensive connections, that would worship him as the avatar of the August Star. However, he soon died, and was replaced with a more malleable puppet of the August Star, Daness Morgenstern.

And so Morgenstern began to prepare the rituals that would lead to the coming of the August Star, or so he thought...

Base, Organisation, Physiology, Psychology and So Forth

The base of the August Star's servants is the mansion of Tzakath Arrian, now abandoned and decayed. However, the temple still underneath now shines with the August Star's shining white light, which makes it hard to see. Everything is kept as immaculate as possible, and the beauty is extraordinary.

The organisation of the Servants is simple: Initiates to their cult of self-worship are known as 'Chosen of the Star of Heaven', priests are known as 'Emissaries of the Star of Heaven ' and the high priests are known as 'Voices of the Star of Heaven', with their leader known as 'the Highest One'.

The physiology of the Servants changes greatly as they proceed in the ranks, starting with shining eyes and ending with beautiful, perfect and inhuman creatures that revere themselves in their insanity. Their psychology changes too, turning them into proud and terrible creatures of unparalleled pride and arrogance. They are completely insane, believing that they are above such petty things as good and evil, and that they make their own morality, in which everything that they do in the name of themselves is justifiable, no, required.

They are truly mad beings, with immense delusions of grandeur and power, just enough to be useful puppets for the August Star of Heaven.

[LightDark]

C&C please. I'm tired of how nobody responds to this thread.

[Dragon Lord]

I apologise LightDark, in part it's because of the re-visioning process, quite a lot of the basic concepts of the sector are still not entirely fixed at the moment.  Anargo Primus on which you have set the base of this cult is likely to change quite substantially in its new incarnation.
That said I think the cult sounds quite interesting.
A few comments on individual bits:

The August Star's land in the Realm of Chaos is tiny, and he only has a small force of renegades and daemons to his banner. Thus, he takes a personal hand in his cults, and has many in the Esquiline Quadrant, never mind the galaxy.

While I can understand that as a minor warp entity the August Star is more likely to take a strong personal interest in cults dedicated to it the 'many in the Esquiline Quadrant never mind the galaxy' bit is slightly at odds with this.  If the August Star is a minor warp entity it seems unlikely that it will have been able to inspire a large number of cults, while they might well exist all over the galaxy it would seem more likely that they would be few and far between.  Conversely if there were a greater number of cults venerating the August Star and it remains a minor warp entity it would seem unlikely that it would have great enough power to be strongly involved with all of its cults at the same time.

On another point it would seem likely given the extreme tendency towards pride, arrogance and hubris that cults dedicated to the August Star would be unlikely to remain hidden for long, since the cult members would likely consider themselves to be above the law and retribution.  This is not necessarily a problem, in fact it might be quite interesting if cults dedicated to the August Star keep recurring, possibly on different worlds, despite each individual cult not lasting very long before it is discovered and purged.

[Destecado]

So where do the cultists come from?  Are they drawn from lower society or are they aristocrats.  One problem that may potentially emerge, is that if they are all so prideful, why would any dane to serve another?   You may wind up with internal fights within the cult to establish domiance.  Somehow makes me think of Paris Hilton and her entourage of BFFs.   
Actually, that might explain why the August Stars realm in chaos is so small.  Its forces spend more time fighting each other than they do anyone else. 

[Kage2020]

C&C please. I'm tired of how nobody responds to this thread.

I'm afraid it happens, especially as we continue with the re-visioning process.  At the moment my head is firmly in the game of looking at the information on the Age of Apostasy and how it relates to the sector, etc.  A lot of the history is going to be changing...

Comments will follow at another time.

Kage

[LightDark]

So where do the cultists come from?  Are they drawn from lower society or are they aristocrats.  One problem that may potentially emerge, is that if they are all so prideful, why would any dane to serve another?   You may wind up with internal fights within the cult to establish domiance.  Somehow makes me think of Paris Hilton and her entourage of BFFs.   
Actually, that might explain why the August Stars realm in chaos is so small.  Its forces spend more time fighting each other than they do anyone else. 

Yes, they are drawn from the aristocracy. And internal fighting within the cult is a cool idea.