Saint Drusus and Drusianism - Background Information

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Valas
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Saint Drusus and Drusianism - Background Information

Post by Valas » Sun Aug 12, 2012 4:20 pm

Saint Drusus and Drusianism

No Imperial Saint is as revered in the Calixis sector as Saint Drusus, General-Militant (later Lord-Militant) of the Angevin Crusade that forged the Calixis sector out of the Calyx Expanse, and the first Lord Sector of Calixis. In the hearts of the Calixis population, he is second only to the God-Emperor Himself; he is portrayed as a stern, fair, militant Saint who offers compassion and faith to the downtrodden, and fire and doom to the foul xeno and heretic. Saint Drusus began his path to Sainthood as a young general, a scion of an old noble family from Scarus Sector and a protege of Lord-Militant Angevin. He distinguished himself in the Angevin Crusade by taking the strategically important planet of Locanthos in a single week, toppling a fierce warlord and his terrible daemon-worshipping followers, in 363.M41. As the Crusade stalled from indecision, Warp storms, over-extended supply lines, and attacks by the monstrous xeno race called the Yu'Vath , Saint Drusus was the only General-Militant who demonstrated success, aided by Rogue Traders Sibylline Haarlock (of the infamous and dreaded Haarlock Dynasty) and Ludd Sabrehagen. Forces led by the Drusus smashed the Yu'Vath empire that occupied most of what is today Malfi and Drusus Marches Sub-Sectors. While rallying his forces on Maccabeus Quintus (which will later become a holy shrine world), Drusus was slain by an unknown assassin (some say it was his rivals, others claim it was Angevin himself, while others still believe that it was a daemon), yet the next day he rose from the dead - the soldiers, priests and even the Astartes - Angels of the Emperor - were witness to this miracle and proclaimed it as such. Reinvigorated by this miracle the Imperial forces finished the cleansing of the Drusus March and banished the remnants of the Yu'Vath to the lawless region that would later become the Koronus Expanse, never to be seen again. In recognition of this deed, Drusus replaced Angevin as Lord-Militant of the Crusade and became the first Lord-Sector of Calixis in 384.M39. As the first Lord-Sector he was also among the greatest rulers that Calixis knew. He had penned the Corpus Presidium Calixis (the legal code of the sector), built the great palaces and offices of the Imperial bureaucracy on capital world of Scintilla, founded the Calixian Holy Synod in Hive Tarsus in Scintilla, granted the Lathes system in perpetuity to the Adeptus Mechanicus, founded the great noble and mercantile families of the sector, and ratified the trade charters that laid the foundations of Calixis' prosperity. He died peacefully in 417.M39, and his resting place is unknown but rumored to be either on Maccabeus Quitus or on Sentinel in the Drusus Marches. Less than a century later, in 502.M39 he was Beautified by the General Synod of Holy Terra, and the Cult of Saint Drusus was recognized as an accepted and orthodox branch of the Imperial Faith.

Drusianism

Drusianism is a set of beliefs and practices that guide the Cult of Saint Drusus in Calixis Sector and Koronus Expanse. It pervades much of the Cult Imperialis in the Calixian worlds, particularly those that are distant from Scintilla - especially in the Drusus Marches. Drusianism is a hard and uncompromising reading of the Imperial Creed, emphasising the purifying quality of suffering, the power of holy relics, and the endurance and rewards of hardship and toil. An ascetic and largely mystical tradition for the main part, it is somewhat at odds with the cult authorities on Scintilla, who hold to more traditionalist modes of worship but also claim the sector's saint as their own.
Importantly, Drusianism also has a strong "Calendite" influence and so holds the Emperor to be a complete and eternally divine being who predates even the birth of man. At a deep level, the uncompromising scholars and priests of the sect (in particular those trained for office on the bleak shrine world of Maccabeus Quintus - the so-called Black Priests) maintain that the Emperor's order is the natural order of all things without exception. To them, spiritual truth is the only truth, as it supersedes mundane physical reality and locally imposed temporal laws - although they do hold that the basis of the Dictates Imperialis as "His word" is indeed divine. This belief often leads the sect's adherents into conflict with the forces of authority, such as the nobility and the Combine Commercia, whose power lies outside of the cult or the core of the Adepta.
Many hard-line Drusians consider the noble and mercantile classes to be fundamentally venial and corrupt by nature, and hold little regard for any power or supposed rights such individuals possess.
Many Drusian followers are actively militant and proselityzing, adhering to a view sometimes referred to as Monodominancy - that the destiny of Mankind is to rule the stars and rule them alone, that all xenos, daemons, heretics and mutants are to be mercilessly purged as an affront to the natural order created by the God-Emperor. As such they can often be found in the ranks - or leading the ranks - of crusades, missions, cleansings, and so on. The Cult of Saint Drusus is thus the dominant form of Imperial Faith in the Koronus Expanse, where the Drusians seek to bring the word of the Emperor and Saint Drusus to the heathens and scourge the aliens and heretics.

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