Emperor's Bane

Chapter 210 "Psionic Canon"

"If you want to understand the future the Primarch has planned for us, there is only one word you need to understand."

"Institutionalization."

"Unified concepts, unified institutions, unified norms, and unified core."

"Everyone performs their duties and is in order."

"This is the mother of our genes, the requirements and expectations for the psionic troops."

"It's also what I'm waiting for in the future, and will do whatever it takes to do it."

------

When the [North Star] was sent into the most magnificent space port in Razatswy, and was preparing for a quick and thorough refit, Ahriman was finally brought to one of his most desired destinations on this trip. one.

Temple of Contemplation.

Any psionic master of any legion would have heard of this place more or less.

This is the most important area of ​​the battleship [Fire Bearer]. It was the only choice for the psykers of the Third Fleet to conduct all large-scale meetings and group meditations in the previous dozens of Terra Standard Years. After the Second Legion was born from Nirvana, it was given a brand new mission by the Lord of the Legion.

In the past, contrary to its name, the Temple of Contemplation was one of the noisiest venues: the psykers of the Second Legion considered it the most important public place, where new ideas, new Controversy, and even the birth of new competitions, extended the Second Legion's exploration of spiritual power in constant collisions.

And now, the Temple of Contemplation is still the most important public meeting place for the psykers of the Dawnbreaker Legion, but compared to the previous noisy and constant debates, now, it has changed into another style of painting.

A style of painting that Ahriman was not even comfortable with.

……

land of the dead.

When Ahriman stepped into this long-awaited destination for the first time, this appropriate adjective popped up in his mind involuntarily.

Yes, today's meditation hall is no longer the noisy center where one can speak freely: it has become the land of the dead, a kingdom of incomparable tranquility, lowness, and depth.

The dome engraved with various languages ​​and knowledge is still arrogantly entrenched at the end of the field of vision tens of meters high, and at the core of these priceless treasures is decorated with a magnificent painting: that is a hair-raising A white-bearded old man, dressed in robes, holding deadly poisoned wine in one hand, and a torch in the other, surrounded by vicious beasts that were beaten and terrorized by his radiance.

This is the origin of the name of the battleship [Fire Bearer]: it commemorates a great move that took place in ancient Terra. A sage accepted those who had evil intentions for his ideals and perseverance. Unjust death framed.

The think tanks of the Dawnbreaker Legion regard this figure whose name has long been forgotten as a symbol of some kind of ideal. They talk about the world under the paintings that commemorate him, telling their thoughts and inspirations, and then arguing with each other. Cooperate and jointly explore the infinite future in the field of psionic energy.

To this day, those wonderful debates and impassioned speeches that have been brewing for decades are still lingering among the high domes. If you listen carefully, you can still feel the slightest echo, just like those that happened decades ago. The words are still in the ears.

But now, even these most passionate words have died down in silence, because they have no right to disturb the tranquility and depth here.

Because, in this world, nothing has the right to bother those dead souls.

"Are they all martyrs?"

"Some were, and others were different. They didn't die on the battlefield, at the gunpoint of the enemy, but in another, bloodier... place."

Ahriman stood in the center of this temple of contemplation. He tried his best to maintain a kind of tranquility that matched the atmosphere here, but his vision was still a little restless looking around: looking for the one that was somewhat similar to the holy place of thought he had heard about. place, even if it’s just a corner.

However, the first company commander of the Thousand Sons Legion was doomed to be disappointed, because no matter how eagerly he looked around, no matter how carefully he kept searching, what appeared in his eyes was only the tranquility and peace that had frozen the air. profound.

On the walls where the bookshelves used to be lined with papers, wine glasses and free-spirited words, now there are only pale faces one after another.

It was the face of the dead.

Those are the most serious death masks, covering every corner of every wall. At a glance, there are at least 1000 of them.

Among them, some are extremely clear, lifelike statues carved.

There is a distant and vague, only a picture born from memory.

Others don't even have the simplest picture, just record a name, a title, or a vague period of time.

But whether it is a lifelike face, or those vague paintings, simple language fragments.The treatment they receive is the same.

Under each symbol that can represent a lost life, a suitable space is reserved, and their names, military ranks, positions, approximate time of death, and why they died are carefully engraved.

At a glance, there are more than 1000 faces, more than 1000 names, and more than 1000 records, each of which symbolizes a unique death.

Ahriman looked at them. Although he could swear that he didn't feel the slightest bit of contempt in his heart, he still didn't quite understand why the think tanks under Morgan had discussed it for so long and studied it over and over again before finally deciding to work with them. How he had a psionic session and then turned his head, which led him to this place.

This place is indeed very good and very important: a temple where the heroic spirits are placed, no Astartes will say [no] to this place, but in any case, this is not the best place to discuss psionic skills and experience Bar?

Ahriman blinked, he urged himself to calm down, not to show doubts on his face, he quietly followed behind Zosimos, listening to the psionic master under Morgan, one by one Among the dead, the most important ones are introduced.

But as he listened, this son of Magnus was sensitive to the fact that something seemed wrong.

In the ear, the voice of Zosimos continued to be heard.

"This is Latour. He was originally one of the leading figures in the think tank, a famous force field master. However, during an exploration of subspace, he experimented with a spell that no one had tried before, and The backlash was horrific because of it, and in the end, we helped him end his pain."

"This is Frederick, he used to be the best fire control master in the legion, he could turn the tide of a war with his flames and explosions, but in the battle against Star Vasul, he was He missed in the confrontation with an alien psyker, although he still killed his opponent, but after the war, his soul was still exhausted due to the huge trauma left in that war. When he passed away, his sanity It has been eroded to the point where it is no different from a wild beast."

"This is Samiska. His death is one of the biggest tragedies in the Legion's exploration of psionic energy. He died in a large-scale psionic energy discussion meeting. A psionic energy was first proposed by him. The use of the spell finally caused all the participants in the entire hall to fall into a violent and out-of-control force, and he himself became one of the 36 victims."

"And this one..."

The more Zosimus narrated, the more Ahriman frowned: In the words of the son of Morgan, only [-]% to [-]% of the dead died in battle, and among the remaining people, most of them died in battle. Most of them fell on the road of exploring spiritual energy.

Really...

Incredible.

Ahriman shook his head secretly. These characters who died tragically during the exploration even awakened some of his memories: some of the tragic memories left by the Thousand Sons before they met Magnus.

……enough!
He will forget about those!

Just as he and his Primarch swore!
The sons of Magnus endured all this patiently, until the two of them finally walked through one wall, and finished telling those elegiac songs of exploration and backlash. However, on the way to the other wall of the dead, Ahriman finally spoke as calmly as possible.

"I think that my understanding of the past history of your legion has reached a stage of satisfaction, Zosimus, maybe we can learn about the stories of the lost souls of the Second Legion in a certain period of time in the future. "

"Now, we should start something more urgent."

"Like?"

"Maybe, you should tell me first, what is the attitude of the Dawnbreaker Legion towards psychic energy, and what is the core of your research? Only then will I have a better mentality and cognition to understand these great victims."

But the words of the Thousand Sons only brought back Zosimos' strange eyes that were half puzzled and half clear.

"But I'm telling you now. Our attitude to psionics, Ahriman."

"……What did you say?"

"Haven't I made it clear enough?"

Zosimus blinked, caressing a lifelike statue, whispering softly to his guest.

------

"Did I not speak clearly enough?"

"Backlash."

"trauma."

"die."

"This is the gift that psionics give us: yes, this Warp existence also gives power, but the power it gives is more like a stingy compensation than these passings I mentioned .”

"Now, then, tell me, Ahriman from the Thousand Sons."

"A Thing That Traumatizes, Backfires, and Deaths: What Do You Make of It?"

"think about it."

"In your heart, the first answer that pops up, the answer born from the most basic rationality and human instinct: is our natural attitude."

"You may be puzzled, you may not be able to accept it, this is of course, after all, in your eyes, psionic energy and subspace are completely different, just like the shock I suffered in Prospero , I can understand the shock you're in right now."

"However, no matter how unbelievable you are now, Ahriman, I hope you will not immediately refute or engage in any unnecessary debate with me."

"Please keep quiet."

"Please be quiet, and then look, listen, feel, remember and think about my words, and what you have seen and heard. If you still can't understand them, then you can talk to me, or any Dawnbreaker. Think tanks, it’s not too late to have a thorough debate.”

"I know, with your wisdom, you will definitely know the benefits of doing this, please let's just treat the attitude of the Dawnbreaker Legion towards psychic power as a kind of unknown knowledge, you always need to take a look and listen Just listen."

"Now, then, listen."

"Our attitude towards psionics."

------

"That's a curse from God."

"That's a stroke of luck."

"Not all think tanks are eager for this power, but when they appear in our hands, we have no choice, we are no longer our own masters."

"We can only embark on this road, this road is safe and sound in your eyes, but for us, this road is full of the blood and mud of our predecessors, full of our own fears and fears. Tears."

"How do we think about psionics?"

"That's how it's looked at."

"We have to walk on a path called psionics."

"Tremblingly."

"Walking on eggshells."

"It's densely packed with rocks."

"Blood dripping."

------

"Surprise, Trembling, Fear, Caution, Awareness, Sacrifice, Remembrance, Remembrance."

"This is the attitude of the Dawnbreakers towards psionic power."

------

"That's why, when our genetic mother proposed her reforms, no one thought it was a bad thing: We needed one long ago."

"And Lord Morgan, our Legion Master and Gene Queen, used her wisdom to bring us what we really need: institutionalization, regularization, and standardization."

"After several Tara standard months of change, reorganization and adaptation, we finally followed in the footsteps of our mother, and under her guidance and infinite wisdom, we found a real way to get along with psionic energy."

"The existence of these subspaces is no longer a vague force that requires us to use endless blood and sacrifices to explore. It has become a clearly visible existence, a pale and powerless mantis arm in front of the tight and meticulous organization. .”

"First of all, she conducted a point-to-point assessment and observation of all think tanks and psykers, a total of 946 people, and finally selected those who she thought were suitable and incorporated them into a special organization."

"Since then, the think tank of the Dawnbreaker Legion has been composed of two parts."

"Part of it is [Sword Singers], which can also be called [Sword Singers]. These people are combat troops, and they are divided into troops based on their own combat habits and relevant experience."

"And the other part is the [Pictorials], they are responsible as the advisers and followers of the Primarch, and under the personal leadership and guidance of Lord Morgan, they carefully explore the unknown areas of the subspace and compile [textbooks]. "

"The division of labor between [Sword Singer] and [Scroller] is very clear, but they will not be completely separated from each other. [Sword Singer] is expressly forbidden to study unknown spiritual spells in private, and is only allowed to learn and use [textbook] In addition, anyone who dares to study privately will be severely punished."

"But things are not absolute: if a [Sword Singer] has a good idea, or has some insights in actual combat, he can write down his ideas and submit them, and these ideas will be placed on the Primarch After approval and screening, those with value and feasibility are extracted for research.”

"In this process, the [Sword Singer] who proposed the plan can participate in it. If the plan is proved to be feasible, then this [Sword Singer] will be rewarded, and even directly promoted to [Painted Roller]. The plan itself will be compiled into a suitable song and recorded in the [textbook]."

"The [Painted Scrolls] are different. Their main job is to constantly sort out and study the opinions of the [Swordsingers], and under the leadership of the Primarch, they explore and investigate the subspace: Any private exploration of the subspace will be punished by the most severe torture, even the most experienced [painter], without exception, will even lose the favor of the Primarch."

"And when the [Pictorials] have sorted out or updated the new [Textbook], the original will check it in person, and after that, the [Swordsingers] will experiment with the content of the [Textbook] in actual combat exercises. And feedback, if all pass, [teaching materials] will be implemented.”

"This is the basic operating curve of the Psionic Force: [Paper Scroller] is responsible for organizing and writing, while [Swordsinger] is responsible for execution and feedback. Although innovative activities are allowed, they must be under the close supervision of the Primarch .”

"At the same time, in order to ensure that the [Pictorial Scrollers] will not be divorced from reality, they also need to regularly participate in front-line battles and personally test the songs they have written. Moreover, every once in a while, [Pictroller] and [Sword Singer] will carry out some personnel exchanges to ensure the circulation of fresh blood, and at the same time, they will also draw out some elites to conduct centralized education and training for those new blood in the think tank."

"And all of this, of course, is inseparable from the [textbook], which is a gift from the Primarch, the source and model of all behaviors and methods."

"In private, we also call it the "Psionic Canon."

“[Textbook] is the general term for a series of written works, which are either written by the Primarch or reviewed by her to ensure absolute safety. At the same time, she is constantly updating to ensure that they will not be lost Abandoned by footsteps."

“[Textbook] records all the knowledge that psykers need, and is mainly composed of six main textbooks and variable electives. The six main books are: a self-cultivation and moral code for psykers, and four in Combat skills and spells in different states, and a summary of the history of the Legion's think tank."

"Besides, there are different electives for different types of psykers and enemies, all of which are written by the Primarch himself, and are constantly being updated. As for those written by [Sword Song] The ideas provided by the authors, and even specially compiled a compulsory elective textbook."

"Moreover, every once in a while, the Primarch will hold a psychic lecture in the conference hall to answer our doubts, explain the difficulties in the textbook, and listen to some of the feedback we provided: this lecture is spontaneous Sexual, you can go or not, but generally no one is absent.”

"Okay, that's all we have."

"A giant with the Primarch as its heart, her psionic scriptures as its blood, and two major organizations as its muscles. It advances cautiously, always walks on a safe path, and always advances slowly and cautiously."

"Perhaps, in your eyes, our order forbidding the self-exploration of most psykers is absurd, but in fact, when the Primarch issued it: no one refuted it."

"We're willing to do that, willing to walk in the shadow of our mother: there's nothing wrong with that."

"Her wisdom will flow into our minds through books, just like those female beasts spit out the minced meat that was chewed by themselves. We cubs gobble it up and enjoy the safest nutrition."

"Do you know that [teaching material] is the most sacred, although it occasionally fails to estimate the unprecedented situation, but it only needs a shock and a price, and it will update the corresponding means in time: Besides, our genetic mother is also As I said, in the most special cases, you can violate the [teaching material], and deal with special matters.”

"But despite this, this does not prevent us from advocating her books just as we support her. We even hold regular assessments and real-life exams to measure our understanding and application of [textbooks]."

"For this reason, we even prepared a special room to monitor each assessment room and corridor, to ensure that there will be no dissatisfied people making up for it and destroying mother's good intentions."

"Follow me, that room is on the side of the meditation hall, I'll show you."

"Push open this door, that's it."

……

"Look, Ahriman, in this monitoring, we can see the whole situation of the real examination room No. [-], so that no one will make small movements in the blind spot of the invigilator's perspective."

"And here is a storage room where we can supervise the latest [teaching materials] to ensure the safety of these mothers' gifts."

"And this: This camera is pointed directly at the front corridor of the meditation hall. Although there is no need for monitoring there, we still installed one. You can see..."

"Ok?"

"Why are there so many people? What are those from other fleets doing in the Temple of Contemplation?"

"Who's that in the lead? Bayar?"

"What is he doing?"

"Forget it, let's go out to meet them, Ahriman... Ahriman? Ahriman!"

"Where are you?"

　I recommend a book here, it should be regarded as a seedling, but it is a good seedling.

　　Title of the book: The Emperor's Children: The Purple Phoenix of Nirvana

　　Yes, it's about Fulgrim, and it's Fulgrim in Byzantine style!Comneuning is more suitable for purple~

　　It's already 10 words long, and the author's starting point is very interesting, quite...philosophical!
　　


(End of this chapter)