You have cried out in repentance and the kindly Lord has heard you; now hear His judgment.
A Penitent General counsels an initiate of the Legion
Do not pray for consolation. The blood of the innocent cries out louder than your prayers. No fast will avail you, for you have already glutted on the sins of ten lifetimes of men.
There are no depths of suffering we do not merit, we who so grieve our Father. Rare are we even in the annals of fallen man. Few were men like us even in dark Babylon or pagan Rom — yay, not even in black Omerikke. No, do not seek relief. Did not our spotless King suffer worse?
We are like Reprebus of old who was not fit to offer up prayer or fasting but rather his shoulders to be broken under the weight of his sin, and his awful head as tribute to Christ Victorious. Thus we receive our sentence with joy and tears of thanksgiving.
Grimmest of all the militant orders of Pan-Sidereal Christianity are the wolf-helmed warriors of Saint Christopher’s Legion. Theirs is one of the major cords in the tapestry of civilization, spun from the Nearer Night til the present, and they are known by many names on many worlds: the Reprobate, the Ash Knights, the Cynocephali. Despite their great antiquity, they have no charter and hold no worlds in fief; even the walls of their lavras and they do not claim, but surrender them freely to the widow, the orphan, and the marooned. They devote all plunder to the maintenance of their armory, to pay for transport to the next battlefield, or to be given in alms. Their only personal property is a garment of sackcloth and the order’s only patrimony are their weapons and armor. The only wealth they possess, say the Reprobates, lies in the eternal future after their death.
The Legion is made up of penitents, but of the worst sort imaginable. Their rolls do not encompass quotidian murderers, brigands and traitors, but the bottom rank of evil: those who with full knowledge and will submitted themselves to devils and raised worship to Satan. Having repented and made confession, they now seek surety of their salvation through the crown of martyrdom, and to repay the unpayable with their life’s blood.
Ever eager that sinners, themselves foremost among them, should “melteth before the fire”, Saint Christopher’s Legion crusades from star to star, seeking the destruction of the demonic principalities and the conversion of men and alien they hold in subjection. A brotherhood arrived on Xiandao mere weeks after the announcement of the world’s apostasy. Its 130 members set up a fortified skete in the rugged moorland near White Wyrm, offering submission and their employment in arms directly to the See of Fire Island, for they did not trust the civil authority in Ghostlight Harbor. As recent events proved, this was the height of wisdom, and the Reprobates have been unleashed against the rebel Xia.
On the Tabletop
This is just a background I whipped up after purchasing these very cool (and already decently painted!) Bauhaus Wolfshead Dragoons from the long out of print Mutant Chronicles: Warzone line of the mid ’90s. The ‘Oldzone’ miniatures have a delightfully chunky look of Oldhammer, with exaggerated proportions, expressions, and weapon sizes.
I like seeing these old minis – a big world out there I know nothing about.
And they look great!
I got a bunch more Warzone minis to show off, some given to me by a friend and some I bought for cheap on eBay. It was a good line with some interesting designs.