Dramatis Personae: High Lord Casca Methuselahn, Paternoval Envoy
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| [//dan_j/@dark_isles+] |
“Tell me, is it better to kill a beast – or to cage it?
The Grand Provost Marshal, the Master of the Astra Telepathica, and our absent Eccelesiarch, all loudly reason the former. Yet I, and not in isolation, argue this course of action as blunt. Dull. Uninspired, and not merely ineffective but monstrously counterproductive. Strike the abomination down now, in its zenith, and we produce a martyr. A figurehead so potent that half of the Imperium – our Imperium – would fly Partisan banners openly and proudly.
Instead I second Chancellor Oreangelo's motion to empower the forces already committed to the zone. Has the Pentarchy not already borne fruit? I am informed that Lords Mor, Dwimmerlock and the others have unleashed apocalypse upon the traitors.
Reclaiming Heliopolis? Plunging into the heart of the zone? Our only sensible, logical, honourable, or just course of action is to back the abomination and renegades into a corner. Tighten the noose. Silence the war to the Imperium at large. Erase all that was before it bleeds into the pages of history.
We do not kill this beast, lest any hear its screams. Let us instead cage the beast; have it die quietly.”
[//Casca Methuselahn, acting Paternoval Envoy during the War of the Abomination+]
Key to movement
'A star-vessel cannot travel any great distance without a Navigator.' This bald statement, at the heart of the creed of the Navis Nobilite, is a truism. There is nothing physical that inherently prevents a craft from submersing itself in the immaterium through use of the warp-drives – but there is much in the soul of mankind.
'Imagine yourself locked in a vessel atop an ocean without shores. Aboard the vessel you are asked to muffle and blindfold yourself. You are stripped and shorn by unknown and hostile hands, then – cold, and wet, for there is naught to protect you from the spray – you are told to clamber into a crate. The crate is small and hard, sealed; barely room enough for for you to crouch. Dull booms, distant and lonely, tell you that all company has left.Control your breathing. Now you feel the crate begin to slide, unaccountably. Control your breathing. Now imagine that you feel salt water – cold, and stark, and no more than a trickle – somewhere. It may be your feet, or your forehead.You cannot see. You cannot scream. And you cannot stop the water.'Now you might imagine what it is to be aboard a vessel that translates.'
[//The Voidsman's Tale, Salious Punk+]
To be aboard a craft that immerses itself in the warp is distressing on many levels; corporeal, spiritual and mental. Warp travel is, quite literally, repulsive. The warp plays upon fears most primal: of the dark, of an inability to breathe, of the loss – or worse, corruption – of self.
It is perhaps understandable that the crews of the Imperial Navy – indeed, of all who need be void-borne in this period – bear a great deal of superstitions towards the warp. To ask them to travel aboard an unnavigated craft would be tantamount to provoking a mutiny. No ship-master or -mistress would openly demand it of their crew – and in truth, even the staunchest Captain would likely prefer the relative comfort of an honest death to the uncertainty of becoming unanchored in the voidsea.
***
Abhuman
Barring the occasional infamous exception, the Navigatorial Envoy is unique amongst the High Lords as the only abhuman on the Senatorum Imperialis.
It is for the reasons outline above that the Navigator Houses, populated by mutants that would otherwise be shunned, tortured or killed, are not merely sanctioned, but given colossal power. It is a mark of the Imperium's ability to doublethink that they can at once rely upon the Other, and simultaneously decry their right to existence.
'Profoundly unsettling.'
[//Remarks: Josef Strakh, Grand Provost Marshal, on the Paternoval Envoy+]
Most younger Navigators can pass for human in silhouette; albeit usually tall and slender specimens. Even ignoring their most obvious mutation, however, the older a Navigator becomes, the more they deviate.
Older navigators, however, have a feverish sheen about their three eyes, while their limbs attenuate. Distortions of the body and features become increasingly common with age. For those that continue to be seen in public, swaddling robes and gloves become a common addition to the bandanas or veils that are the unofficial mark of office.
For obvious reasons, most Navigators are well-travelled, or at the least have access to cloths, fabrics, materials and designers beyond the dreams of most Imperial citizens. Wealthy beyond measure – for the Navigatorial Houses are as acquisitive as any monopoly – these robes are usually opulent; ranging from comparatively straightforward adaptations of Terran fashion to marvels such as capes of grav-hibited cubes. Their gloves are particularly noteworthy. Many Navigators are born with, or develop, webbing between their fingers and toes. Particularly ancient Navigators often have hands fused into paddle-like organs; but their mittens are frequently embroidered with the outline of their former fingers.
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Navigatorial Envoy
The Office of Navigatorial Envoy was a well-established and broadly respected one. Almost by definition the Patriarchs themselves – the overall leader of all Navigators – were older Navigators, and thus not usually in a position to be seen in public. At the time of the War of the False Primarch, rumours abounded that the occupant of the position was so distorted that he was unable to stand or move unaided. Whether this was true or not is conjecture, and while the truth undoubtedly lies within the Navigator's own notoriously secretive and inward-looking records, it is largely irrelevant.
Whatever the case, it had long been traditional for the Patriarch to send an Envoy to the Senatorum Chambers in his place. Thus, in addition to being an outsider by virtue of his or her abhuman nature, the Envoy was also peculiar in being a voice for the true wielder of Senatorial power. This
Almost inevitably, the occupants of the role of Navigatorial Envoy were true masters of politics, despite their (usually) relative youth. Casca Methuselahn was no exception.
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| [//Casca Methuselahn+] [//dan_j/@dark_isles+] |
***
False prophets and similar world-ending personalities were largely beneath the notice of High Lords, who relied on their underlings and mechanisms to deal with them. Those that escalated to becoming Sectorial might occasionally become of note to a particular High Lord, but they rarely required direct intervention by the Senatorum as a whole.
Each High Lord, after all, wielded monstrous power in their own right, able to directly order the relevant Imperial Forces wherever needed, or to pull the myriad strings of curtained power to resolve things more quietly. In this instance, it was the Navigator Houses who first made their move regarding the False Primarch Volnoscere.
As alluded to here, Inquisitor Austine d'Arby had demonstrated, prior to commencement of the open War, that the Abomination was gathering Navigators and Astropaths. Indeed, he had likely been doing so for many years. Keenly aware of the private threat to their institution, the Methuselahn Affair had been the Navigatorial Houses gambit to quietly resolve the issue.
Alas for the Patriarch, while the forces of the False Primarch were defeated, they managed to capture a substantial proportion of the tempting bait – numerous Navigators of House Methuselahn, including Casca's own blood-sibling.
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| [//dan_j/@dark_isles+] |
Casca had been chosen – rather pointedly – by the Patriarch to make a deliberate point. The Patriarch was of the opinion, formerly unpopular, that the False Primarch was, in the parlance of the High Lords, a 'Weighty Threat' – one that required the cooperation of different arms of governance.
While the Patriarch would not countenance admitting so openly, of course, he knew that the spymasters of the other High Lords would recognise the unspoken reason for the appointment of Casca, an Elder of the House of Methuselahn.
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| [//Navigatorial Life-Guards of House Methuselahn. Warders such as these helped to protect Casca from a number of the low-grade assassination attempts and conspiracies inevitable to any High Lord.+] [//dan_j/@dark_isles+] |
***
Casca wasted no time, appointing herself to the Consilio Belli during the period of the War of the Abomination. Met with ambivalence by the other members, who privately regarded her as knowing little of the ways of war, she proved herself precociously capable, and by the mid years of the War, had earned the respect of her most established peers.
'[Expect] an elder of House Methuselahn, one already touched by the war – a house ravaged by regional seizures, and her very brother lost to the shadowed early-years. Grant her pity, therefore; but keep your wits about you.'
[//Admonishments of Vamma Andreia Pushkin to her staff+]
***
In spite of the exhaustive blockade efforts, Partisan forces retained the ability to communicate and coordinate. This conjured accusations of negligence, ineptitude, collusion and disgrace. Accusations breathed fresh life into the machinations of the Senatorum Imperialis – which the Navigatorial Envoy was the first to address openly.
It was from these quiet beginnings that the Annulus Umbra was eventually proposed and assembled. Formed to create an 'ring of steel' around Sectors Heliopolis and Morqub, the proposal was championed by Casca Methuselahn, whose patronage helped to shepherd the scheme from implausiblity to impracticality to actuality.
With ‘The High Lords' noose’ (as the Annulus Umbra became known) in place, deeper-set stratagems, heretofore veiled and secretive, came to life.
'Fieri potest ut pulchra sint mendacia?'
[//Unofficial motto-cant of House Methuselahn+]
Unbeknownst to the rest of the Senatorum Imperialis, the Paternova had already forbidden free Navigators from travelling to Heliopolis and Morqub due to the hundreds already missing or dead. This secretive edict was strengthened by the deployment of an undisclosed number of ‘Cthodan High-Guard’ battalions to the zone. With the deepest secrecy, the Cthodans extracted a number of Navigators. Only those entrusted to the Pentarchy would be allowed to remain.
These actions were instrumental in ensuring the isolation of the zone, and silence began to fall across the twin sectors as travel between worlds became increasingly complex. As Casca ensured the schemes of the Paternova fell gently into place, stasis, order and isolation began to veil the worlds of Heliopolis and Morqub.
***
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| [//Cthodan High-Guard+] [//dan_j/@dark_isles+] |
+You are █████████ ?+
+You shall come with us.”+
[//888th Cthodan High-Guard sterilisation-unit makes contact+]
***