Church of the Chosen Ones

Overview

The Chosen Ones have many historical antecedents, but their history begins with the Solomani Hypothesis. The revelation of the Vargr's uplifting by the Ancients convinced many of them, perhaps too euphorically, that their race had been singled out for special treatment, perhaps as a master race over all other sophonts. A theology that elevated the Vargr's racial superiority over their less "manipulated" human neighbors was tonic for many hardpressed Vargr populations, though as with many such movements, the fortune of the church waxed and waned depending upon the warmth of relations between the Imperium and its Vargr neighbors. The Church finds the bulk of its recruitment efforts among less enlightened Vargr communities. Many corsair bands and opportunistic or expansionistic states became frequent partners of the Church, as its beliefs and theology were a convenient justifier for their operations, provided that they were concentrated upon bringing the faith to nearby sophonts and their interstellar polities.

But as with most Vargr institutions, the Church was rife with political challenge, internal dissent, ideological schism and outright heresy. In the last five hundred years of its existence it has been an institution in name only, with myriad congregations and individual world hierarchies held together only by the common cause of its theology, and even that is open to argument. For the most part it moderated its theology away from self destructive racial supremacy policies, though it skirted the line many times by its support of Vargr corsair raids against the Imperium, and its advocacy for powerful Vargr states and military expansion against the less noble and heretical. The Taarskoerzn branch was the most radical, and had significant historical and political influence. By 1116 it had further hardened its message, being influenced by the Oekhsos tirades propagated by the Utovogh device. When word of Strephon's assassination reached them, their priest whipped up the populace into a frenzy, and the Glory of Taarskoerzn, which had been planning a war with the Irrgh Manifest anyway, escalated their plans decisively.

Under the relenting assault by both Glory naval forces and a large contingent of corsairs hired by their government, the Manifest forces in their way were bullied or bludgeoned into submission. Within a few short weeks the Taarskoerzn forces managed to humble their foes, severing the Manifest into two halves separated by distance yet united in their humiliation at their defeat. In recognition of their foes superiority, the Manifest began to change its political and military culture along similar lines. A few weeks after losing, the surviving Manifest military in both sections launched an invasion at opposite ends of the sector, piling on the already hard pressed Imperial forces, and hastening their collapse. But an even more decisive change was the adoption of the Taarskoerzn state religion, the Church of the Chosen Ones, as the Manifest's own.

The advent of the Chosen Ones was quickened by the Irrgh's defeat. Under their guidance, humiliation was transformed into a crusade of vengeance against the body responsible: the Third Imperium. At the urging of COTCO priests, the Manifest forces competed with their rivals and neighbors to commit the most atrocities or collect the most loot. By the time of the Collapse COTCO was so deeply enmeshed in the politics of Voudzuer that they were able to sidestep the worst effects of Virus and take over the power structures of many decimated worlds. Both sections of the former Manifest are now dominated by Post-Collapse factions of the Church, though Voudzeur contains groups that are better organized and cohesive. So complete is the Church's control that on many worlds the subsector name is no longer used, being replaced simply with the term "Stars of the Chosen." Attempts to change planetary names with church chosen appelations have been less successful.

Takeover of these worlds was more difficult than the Church had expected, however. Many surviving Manifest communities became disenchanted with the Chosen One faith and attempted to either abandon the faith, or expel their ministers from their territories. The Church retaliated in an excessively cruel manner. They recruited millions of troops from the outcasts and downtrodden survivors of some Vampire raids, and through judicious discipline and offers of land and security, managed to create a highly loyal shock force known as the Kaedharz. Through the use of these troops the Chosen Ones managed to purge "their" worlds of the heresy and blasphemy that threatened them. On many their troops managed to equal or exceed the atrocities inflicted by Virus. After about twenty years of genocidal conflict, most of the worlds listed as "Mystic-" are under the majority control of the church hierarchy. The main leaders are located on the old Irrgh capitol of Igunfaksa (1431), with the leadership of the other worlds declaring at least nominal loyalty to the "Ghorrnug" or supreme leader of the Church.

The Church maintains several cloistered enclaves on the world it controls. These are primarily city or county sized and fortified against most forms of attack. These are considerably more advanced than the UPP codes otherwise indicate. For the most part the Church has TL 10-12 production abilities, thanks to devoted salvage efforts, and a significant stockpile of more advanced materials they ration out when they are needed. All of these are equipped with their own Class C or D starport, exclusively used by the Church and its militia. The exception to this are B-class facilities on Igunfaksa and Gheerg (1440), and on Khungorr/Uekhourg (1731). The starport on Thoelksor (1331) is rumored to be a gift to its Chosen One friendly leadership, as that world's technical guilds are largely dominated by the Church, which has a large though low profile embassy that has enormous influence over most of the world. It is worth noting that the Stars of the Chosen One are a monastic feudal assemblage rather than a functioning pocket empire: despite their pretensions its local leaders are held together solely by mutual self-interest and rarely ally above the planetary level except to save their scrawny necks from greater threats.

The Church has a sizeable force of armed starships of less than 1000 tons displacement that it has managed to keep in service through salvage and the hand making of hard to obtain spare parts. Its main strength is its massive ground forces. The Kaedharz are divided into four different echelons. The Oengkaedharz are the elite bodyguard forces for Church leadership and facilities, and are always the most fanatically loyal and given the best equipment available. The Llokaedharz are commando and internal security strike forces that eliminate dissension or heresy before it can spread out to infect the rest of their congregants. The Sikaedharz are cadres placed within the ranks of their main local and allied forces, but are given better equipment and are used as both shock troops and religious indoctrination personnel to maintain the loyalty of these forces. The main bodies of local troops are known as the Soung, which in Aekhu could mean "militia" but is better known in Gvegh as meaning "cannon fodder" or "forlorn hope." Most of these troops are well armed with material of post-industrial levels or better, though the preferred weapon of control are DEI Laser Weapons, given their devastating effect upon large numbers of unarmored targets.

Most Wildside worlds are highly xenophobic, but under the Church's baneful influence, local xenophobia is extremely dangerous. This is due less to genuine hatred of unbelievers than the fact that even the appearance of heresy with outside groups can trigger a bloody intervention by the Kaedharz. Injunctions against outsiders are enacted mostly for military and political reasons, since it isolates rebellious elements within the subsector. Humans are particularly loathed, and it is not uncommon for the leadership and Kaedharz to lynch any humans that otherwise fall into their hands. This hatred of the Imperium and all things humanity now seems largely pro forma and contrived, and some worlds on the periphery of their territory are inconsistent in this behavior.

Local congregation leaders are interested purely in secular gain, as it is widely believed that the Imperium is completely dead, leaving the faithful with the god-given opportunity to reclaim their birthright, which is to rule the universe. Opposing this expansion are the Tong of Kaasu, which is more powerful in space, and the internal divisions of the Church itself. Two previous attempts to invade Corridor have ended in absolute debacles, the last attempt leading to the destruction of the Churchs remaining enclaves in Uekhourg Subsector. Previously they allied themselves with a pair of Vampire fleets opposed to the Tong, but the unreliability of these allies and the Tongs last vehement reaction towards such covenants has made the leadership more cautious. For the last thirty years it has been collecting the materials and expertise necessary to rebuild a major shipbuilding center located somewhere in the spinward Windhorn. The level of construction is primitive, however, and nothing more advanced than a few heavy TL-11 and light TL-12 warships have been constructed. The size of the fleet is more worrisome, and recalcitrant neighbors have been subjected to punitive vampire raids of heavy warships in recent years they may turn out to be the so called "Fleet of the Chosen Ones."

COTCO Vessels: Roll 8+ for any world with a government code of 7 or 9. Roll 1D6+1 to determine the number of vessels present; if the number is more than 3, all vessels beyond the first three are non-jump capable craft such as SDBs, converted starships and armed small craft. Vessel types should be determined randomly using charts in TNE Rulebook or Referees Screen, though with the following guideline: only one in three COTCO starships are military designs, they are all Vargr designs, and only one out of twenty is a vessel of more than 1000 tons displacement. All COTCO starship crews are considered Line crews for purposes of skill determination. Wear value of these vessels is usually between 4 and 8.

COTCO Kaedharz: The Oengkaedharz are usually encountered only in the presence of high church officialdom, in contingents of 1D6-1 times 200 personnel, and are always armed with weapons of the highest available technology (TL 12-15); they are always of elite skills and initiative. The Llokaedharz and Sikaedharz are primarily Veteran and Experienced troops, constitute about ten to fifteen percent (half as many on worlds where COTCO has enclaves but does not dominate) of those militaries loyal or allied to the Church, and are always armed at a level three points higher than local Soung forces (though never lower than TL-7), and many are equipped with TL 8-10 DEI lasers for "internal security purposes". Soung forces are always armed with locally obtained resources, as their upkeep is the responsibility of loyal feudal retainers.