Vastarian: Updated Rules for the Church of the Red Athenæum

The Church of the Red Athenæum.

Shortly after announcing the Vastarian Open Invitational, we created a post showcasing potential rules for our Church of the Red Athenæum cult using different rule systems, including Necromunda, Forbidden Psalm, and MiniGangs. The intent was to get people thinking about getting into the setting, adapting any ruleset they are comfortable with. Now that we are very close to holding our first Vastarian event alongside Bill Ford, we thought it would be instructive to showcase our finalized Church of the Red Athenæum warband for the event. The ruleset we are using for the event is a simplified version of Necromunda (2023) with elements from Mordheim.

Vastarian: The Knights of Reclamation

And I feel so proud when the reckoning arrives.

Since its creation, we have been thrilled with how many people have gotten involved in our Open Invitational Vastarian - Dreams of the Pious, including through our contest, creating Cult Shrines, and creating civilian cultists. Some people have even created entire warbands that they sent to be used in the event, including an amazing Adeptus Mechanicus Cult by Nicky Grillet. Excitingly, this week, our friend Jake (@master_splinters_pizza_kits) provided us with a warband he created for use in the Vastarian event in Houston this month!

Vastarian: Ligeia Orr, Prophet of the Crimson Veil, Dreamer of the Apocalypse

Lo! 'tis a gala night

Within the lonesome latter years!

An angel throng, bewinged, bedight

In veils, and drowned in tears,

Sit in a theatre, to see

A play of hopes and fears,

While the orchestra breathes fitfully

The music of the spheres.

Mimes, in the form of God on high,

Mutter and mumble low,

And hither and thither fly—

Mere puppets they, who come and go

At bidding of vast formless things

That shift the scenery to and fro,

Flapping from out their Condor wings

Invisible Wo!

That motley drama—oh, be sure

It shall not be forgot!

With its Phantom chased for evermore,

By a crowd that seize it not,

Through a circle that ever returneth in

To the self-same spot,

And much of Madness, and more of Sin,

And Horror the soul of the plot.

But see, amid the mimic rout

A crawling shape intrude!

A blood-red thing that writhes from out

The scenic solitude!

It writhes!—it writhes!—with mortal pangs

The mimes become its food,

And the angels sob at vermin fangs

In human gore imbued.

Out—out are the lights—out all!

And, over each quivering form,

The curtain, a funeral pall,

Comes down with the rush of a storm,

And the angels, all pallid and wan,

Uprising, unveiling, affirm

That the play is the tragedy, "Man,"

And its hero the Conqueror Worm.

- Attributed to Terran Poet Poe (circa M2)

Vastarian: The Eater of Saints

God gave me no name.

The figure hunches at the end of the table, smiling as it cracks bones and tears flesh. Its very presence is discomfiting, stained with the agony of countless psykers.

“A plague of Saints?”

The figure chuckles, and meat and bone shards spray from its maw.

“You do know how to keep me satiated, Inquisitor…"

The Beast smiles once more and it is that ancient and terrible grin that has haunted her nightmares for the last decade.

She nods, and begins her briefing.

Vastarian: "Civilian" Cultists

Bathe in the glow of sunlight's beating rays.

 

Before it descended into chaos after the “Emergence of Saints,” Vastarian was on a well-traveled route to holy Terra. As such, it was a holy world beyond compare, filled with massive houses of worship, an expanse of stained glass and minarets, labyrinthian catacombs revering the hallowed dead, and cavernous libraries and repositories of holy texts and religious scholarship. It also welcomed thousands of disparate orthodoxies and splinters of the Imperial Creed, where they all lived in relative harmony together. With the opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum, a psychic awakening swept over Vastarian and caused the planet to collapse into bedlam, and with it millions of lives were upended.

Vastarian: Synod of Reclamation

The New World.

The Synod of Reclamation is a splinter faction of the infamous Cult of Redemption. They believe that humanity can only be redeemed by a reborn Emperor. The Synod believes his rebirth is prevented by the myriad of monuments, shrines and relics spread across the Imperium. These blasphemous idols trap the Emperor's spirit in the past. Thus, the Synod of Reclamation takes an iconoclastic approach to worshiping the Emperor. They often run afoul of law enforcement while finding opportunities to deface, destroy or in some instances even melt down monuments, relics and any other symbols of the Emperor.

Vastarian: the Church of the Gyro Choir

The Disintegration Loops.

Arrogant clankers. Do they really think I’d keep working with them and not get noospheric and binaric implants at some point? The clergy of Mars sure pays well, but that doesn’t mean I trust them. Would they use so many layers of firewalls and data encryptions if they didn’t have anything to hide?

I’ve been their pilot for a while, but paying well isn’t always enough. The information I've scraped for now goes a long way to settle my debt. I’m sure others will like what I've heard on this journey to Vastarian. A decade doing this job, and I've never seen any of them so.. Nervous? I mean maybe at least something can wake up their dormant human emotions?

I’ve known for a while that the Adeptus Mechanicus was not a unified dogma. They have internal sects, with specific systems of beliefs, with the Omnissiah and all always at the center. These ones though, they call themselves the Church of the Gyro Choir. I think they came from a lost underhive city. Something must have happened there, some kind of fringe event. And they keep mentioning a Servo Prophet. They make all kinds of horrible noises when they are not exchanging data. I wonder if it’s some kind of prayer? I can recognise patterns, but my implants don’t seem to have the correct plugins. I’ll have to get on that.

I wonder why an obscure sect of the Mechanicum is so anxious to get to Vastarian? They talk about an awakening that happened there, but it’s the first time I’ve heard about it.

I need to be careful because I think they know I'm listening, even if I doubt they know I understand. Or maybe I don't, it doesn’t make any sense to me.

The frequency of a psychic scream matching the words of the prophet? The holoprints for a lighthouse? The raw wisdom of the Omnissiah? And all this noise. This horrible noise.

We’ll soon arrive at Vastarian. I can’t wait for them to leave my ship.

- Last entry of the logbook of Captain Hainbach of the Erebus’ Pendulum, found dead in a local tavern after his audio implant overheated.

Vastarian: the Aeris Sanctus saint

After long breathless hours, the spiritual leaders of the Aeris Sanctus reached a conclusion for the Ravachol conundrum: while it is a noble goal to strip Vastarian of the psykic pall engulfing it, such a task is not for fallible mortals; it is a task for the omniscient Emperor. Taking matters into their own hands will only cause more ruin. What is needed is faith, faith that He will intervene as breath draws short.

"O Emperor, whose breath fills the void,

In the thin air of Vastarian, we stand before thee,

Each breath a testament to our faith, each gasp a hymn of devotion.

Grant us strength amidst the winds,

As we face the trials of this smothering world.

May every breath be a communion with thy divine essence,

A reminder of thy eternal presence in the air we breathe.

Guide us, O Emperor, through the turbulent currents of fate,

As we journey to the high-altitude shrines, seeking thy favor.

In the relentless winds, we find thy whispers,

In the scarce air, we find thy challenge.

Bless us with thy grace, O Emperor, as we endure,

For in the struggle for each breath, we find our purpose,

And in our unwavering faith, we find salvation.

In nomine Imperator, amen."

Vastarian: Cult Shrines for November

The Scared Linament of Judgment.

In the later part of 2023, Between the Bolter and Me created its own setting in the 40k universe and encouraged others to get involved in developing it by making it an Open Invitational. The setting is called Vastarian - Dreams of the Pious, with Vastarian being a major cathedral world that has been thrown into turmoil due to the opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum. This has caused a massive psychic awakening amongst the general population and has fomented conflicts between the different religious sects on the planet. The Invitational asks you to create your own Imperial Cult (the more eccentric and deranged the better) and using your favorite ruleset, play some skirmish games to help develop the lore! In addition to the overall Invitational, we also held a contest for people to create their own cults and were amazed by all of the awesome creations by hobbyists from around the world! Although the contest is over, we are still encouraging people to get involved in the setting and keep the Invitational going. We are currently building up to a small Inq28 event with friends in November (hosted with Bill Ford of the Mordheim 2022 and Rot of Hondious fame!). We wish we could get more people involved in the event, but due to space and general logistic reasons, it has to remain quite small. Despite this, we have been looking for ways to let others get involved in the event in some small way. Bill has been working on a final board for the event, one where he would like to have it filled with all manner of small shrines dedicated to the numerous Imperial cults on the planet. We realized this might be a fun way to let people contribute to the event: create a small shrine/piece of terrain dedicated to a Vastarian Cult!

Vastarian: Glass for the Beacon

The Diocese of the Adamant Spires comes to a chapel in Saint-Fauré to request the aid of the Church of the Red Athenæum for creating an astropathic beacon.

Retrofitting the Ravachol lighthouse as an astropathic beacon was a risk. If fortunate, concentrating and focusing a massive amount of psychic energy might serve as a conduit to amplify the waning Astronomican and pierce the darkness enveloping Vastarian. But it might also serve as a lightning rod for the horrors of the Immaterium, like a scintilla of blood in the water drawing in cartilaginous horrors from the stygian depths, Helicoprion and Edestus.

Vastarian: the Road to Ravachol

“I can only sit and wait, knowing that one day he will turn full around, step down from his stage, and claim me for the abyss I have always feared. Perhaps then I will discover what it was I did - what any of us did - to deserve this fate.” - Thomas Ligotti

The “Emergence of Saints” was a psychic awakening that swept over Vastarian and caused the planet to collapse into bedlam. In dreams panic spread, a euphoric terror spawned from an encroaching darkness—a presence that seeped in from the margins, dripping from the stars as if they were untethering from reality. The rise of “Saints” provided a temporary respite from the suffocating darkness that occupied the minds of everyone on Vastarian. These nascent psykers acted as luminous beacons in a fulminous storm that assaulted the inhabitants of the planet. However, as the violence escalated, the intangible blackness enveloped Vastarian with renewed vigor, haunting its people through dreams. As though it was metastasizing, that blackness began to leak from the confines of sleep, trapping inhabitants in a liminal space between wakefulness and sleep. During this psychic turmoil, the purifying radiance of the Emperor, the Astronomican, plummeted as if it were a tallow candle guttering in a tumultuous wind. In desperation, many of the Spyrehead conclaves on the planet pooled their resources and delved deeply into crumbling treatises on the nature of astropathic beacons and put into motion a fantastical gambit: fortifying the principle lighthouse in Ravachol as a psychic conduit to amplify the waning Astronomican.

Vastarian: Escalation

In November, we are holding a small Inq28 event set within our Vastarian setting! We are hosting it with Bill Ford of the Mordheim 2022 and Rot of Hondious fame! Bill recently created a short video using some of Vastarian photos we have taken over the last few months. I have long considered trying to create Warhammer-related video content, and Bill’s video inspired me to finally download some video editing software and start to learn it. I decided to try Davinci Resolve because it is highly regarded for color grading video footage and best of all because there is a free version of it! While I would like to start capturing some video footage with my Nikon Zf, there is a lot about video capture, so I decided to start by creating a simple video just using some of the Vastarian photos I have taken. It also gave me the opportunity to feature some of Greg’s music from his harsh noise project, Persistent Self Abuse. I hope this is the start of creating some additional video content in the future!

Vastarian: Lore Summary

The Emergence of Saints (Nikon F2 55mm f2.8 Porta 400).

In the later part of 2023, Between the Bolter and Me created its own setting in the 40k universe and encouraged others to get involved in developing it by making it an Open Invitational. The setting is called Vastarian - Dreams of the Pious, with Vastarian being a major cathedral world that has been thrown into turmoil due to the opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum. This has caused a massive psychic awakening amongst the general population and has fomented conflicts between the different religious sects on the planet. The Invitational asks you to create your own Imperial Cult (the more eccentric and deranged the better) and using your favorite ruleset, play some skirmish games to help develop the lore! We have had a series of posts developing the setting, including showcasing two factions (the Church of the Red Athenæum and a faction of Spyreheads) and some artwork showing others, designing a logo with Weirding Way, a battle report within the setting, some sample scenarios to play, and a specialized Adeptus Arbites group functioning on the planet! In addition to the overall Invitational, we also held a contest for people to create their own cults and were amazed by all of the awesome creations by hobbyists from around the world! With the contest over, we are still encouraging people to get involved in the setting and keep the Invitational going. Towards that end, we are building up to a small Inq28 event with friends in November (hosted with Bill Ford of the Mordheim 2022 and Rot of Hondious fame!). With this post, we want to collect all of the major pieces of Vastarian lore into one place, so it is easier for people new to the setting to know what it is about and get involved!

Vastarian: the Emergence of Saints

“But what can be done when you find the apocalypse has a dream of its own?” - Thomas Ligotti

Vastarian Contest Winners

The wait is finally over, roughly three months since submissions were due, we are ready to reveal which of the Vastarian Cults created for our contest are the winners! It was a difficult decision to say the least, with over 30 entries (see Entries 1, 2, 3, 4), each an amazing creative expression, pushing the Vastarian setting, and Warhammer 40k as a whole, forward in new directions! Below are our selected favorite cults along with some honorable mentions!

Vastarian: Cultist Painted

Lonely vigil.

At long last I have found the time to paint one of the resin casts of the generic cultist model I converted for our Vastarian setting! It was refreshing to paint a model based off of an older sculpt since it lacked a lot of the superfluous detail seen on some modern sculpts. I decided to paint the model red, so that they would fit nicely beside two models I converted for the Pilgrym event, also using old metal Brian Nelson sculpts!

Vastarian Contest - Entries Part 4

Below are the fourth and final set of entries in our Vastarian contest!

Vastarian: Child of Vastarian

Inquisitor Lucrezia Beltano and acolyte Severine of the Ordo Sanctorum.

Over the last month or two, we have been sharing all of the wonderful Vastarian Cults (Entries 1, 2, 3) that were created for our Vastarian Contest. While we still have one more upcoming post with the last few entries, we wanted to create a post showing a unique entry into the contest, one that didn’t involve a cult, but instead two Inquisitors embroiled in a conflict surrounding a powerful newly emerged psyker from the Cathedral World of Vastarian. This psyker, the “Child of Vastarian,” and associated characters were created by Moritz Schuessler (Herr.sobek). With this post, we wanted to showcase his creation via two stories from the perspective of two inquisitors: Lucrezia Beltano and Aesa Valerian.

Vastarian Contest - Entries Part 3

Entries Part 3

Below are the third set of ten entries in our Vastarian contest!

Vastarian Contest - Entries Part 2

Entries Part 2

Below are the second set of ten entries in our Vastarian contest! See Part 1 here!