WARRIORS OF FAITH - MINISTORUM PRIESTS AND CRUSADERS

warriors of faith crusaders and minnesotan priests rickard had led them so far but now it was the end he knew it they knew it something had to give something had to be done they could all tuck tail and retreat or they could move forward the former was no choice at all or if they did flee if they did retreat then they were doomed as surely as if they had fallen off a cliff given up sunk into a corner or cave to die and these were the men and women of the third born mechanized ones would once been seen as rebellious cowardly inept very west of regiments but rickard had turned them around at first through intimidation and unadulterated terror he had given him a snap across the face that none ever spoke of but none could ever forget but from there he had changed solely by slowly but he had changed it was only now years later that they had come to see the truth he had not changed at all commas our record would never bend never break never fall to never change it was they who had been honed had been transformed for none could ever forget that day what he was capable of the lengths that he would go to but rickard was so much more to them now he had become a father to them all every unit every squad he had rotated them so he had spent time with them all he'd memorized not only the sergeants as most commissars did but every single last warrior under his command he would scold them barrack them push them on and on but as they showed that they would follow he begun to not terrorize but to lead and he advised trained helped he was a wellspring of near infinite information he could talk with the cooks about provisioning but also local herbs and spices that could be gleaned from the rattlings he would spend days on end improving the bayonet practice giving advice that created faster firing speeds marching patterns and cadence he was a walking talking manual but oh so much more by the end of his time with the third mechanized there was not one man who would shrink from his gaze nor skulk out of sight at his advent as he passed them men would snap out revolt jokes snarky salutes or salutations were always met by vicious bejovial put-downs that would have all-around chortling hard and when his men and women had done their duty after the fire and ferrari of war he was ever present across the field a stretcher bearer aid and organizer rickard would sit with his most wounded men when no one else would holding the hands of the dying so they were not alone bringing food and water to those who might be overlooked he led and after a few years the third mechanize loved him to be sure he had his foibles his annoyances he was certainly not a morning person had zero tolerance for tardiness and would prescribe the lash as easy as breathe if he had not ingested at least three rations of recap and sometimes his age showed which he detested so it was known that each unit to be his host would be given quadruple its usual allotment of recalf he would also take time on his boots every day polishing digging out the dirt they were ancient and he maintained them as well as he did his chain sword more so even but these traits actually made him predictable and because of it solid all knew the old man could get it done the commander harker must have been half of his age yet they were like a double act harker had proven himself to rickard in one night his first the two had met each eyed each other and ordered the room cleared the third leered on and punched each other in their arm or sneakered as they heard the kerfuffle within but to the absolute surprise of the entire command crew the two had walked out laughing both was a slight limp and a black eye or two harker was special the command crew were used to the room being closed for hours as a new officer recovered from his pasting before the doors were opened again it was a known fact that rickard would not take orders from a wimp more than one aristocratic fop who had brought his commission not gone through the scholar had been sent to the third to realize the pecking order very swiftly but harker had clearly given as hard as he had gotten with this the army was now complete for their last few officers had been competent had shown character but had not been a perfect fit but with harker and rickard the third were now as close to perfect as they could ever get and it was all verified by the old man one night it was known across the camp in less than an hour i fought next to katychan krieg mordian i would put you up against any of them they were ready all had been perfect they're only months away from being shipped off to a huge campaign the strategic prognostication had identified it was to be huge pivotal to the survival of the entire sector some said but that is when the gate opened some fool had ripped a hole in the walls of reality and allowed all hell to pour through and here is where rickard had punched a hole through the armies of the never born the demons and the third mechanized had fought its way to the very heart of the invasion the primary cathedral of hive pandora and they were in the sick of it now all the way up to their eyebrows the remains of the formation had used rickard's ladder to advance through the main thoroughfare edging along and wiping out hordes of cackling and convorting nightmarish beings the demons had thrown themselves at the small cluster of ranked men their toraxes providing covering fire over their heads combined they punish the hordes bitterly if they had been anything but never born their carcasses would have littered the ground creating a veritable carpet over which the men and women of the third would have had to trudge but as they were demons the moment their forms were destroyed their foul essences escaped into the ether and their remains turned to smoke and fire for hours the guardsmen have pushed forward but end was nigh as they approached the huge edifice of previously holy worship now seething with chaotic power the gate had yawned wider and fresh horrors had streamed from its open war like an ocean yet the guard had not just held but continued to push forward the thunder of metallic horrors in the forms of bull-like beings had shook the ground had been stayed but while the guardsmen and women stood in their mast ranks the forces of chaos are brought up ranged artillery skull cannons that fired balls of hate and flame directly into their midst the casualties were mounting fast and rickard ordered the infantry to take shelter behind the lines of taraxes but the armor could not sustain the fire forever would turn into liquefying lakes as slag if respite was not gained somehow men of the third-born regiment stood now their sides protected by the columns of ogrin who still held out and were crushing all of the lesser demons that were attempting to smash the formation from the side alleys that fell into the main thoroughfare scanned the eyes of his flock his men and women they were shaken but he did not see wide-eyed terror he saw cold resolve there despite the fire coming in he lapped up to the top of one of the closest toluxes so he could address them all as one with fire and cannons blazing still he could be heard by many of them one of his many times projection so sons and daughters of the third born we come to the final cut the final moment when me met on that fatey day i found cowards on scum before my eyes if you recall i was ashamed ashamed for you but now after all we have endured all we have faced all we have done i said that your body should be heaped at the ramparts of the enemy and thus they have been i said that you should be with the emperor at his right hand and many of us now are i said your banner should be groaning with the honest you should have won and now they do but have no doubt it was no effort of mine that did this despite what many may believe it was you your effort your carriage your sacrifice i did not but show the way and i have to state that now now i am proud for you proud for what you have done proud for who you are i am proud of you and i know that he the god emperor watches us right now with exactly the same pride in his heart he is proud of you all of you he knows each and every one of you as i do i have served with the best to god emperor commands and on this day i would not replace any one of you not for entire legion of space marines would i trade a single one of you not one so my brothers my sisters sons and daughters of born i ask you this last time will you rise to meet the challenge will you honor me by fighting at my side will you follow me as his last word resounded it was immediately met with a course of screaming consent then in the name of the proud third mechanized in the name of the astra militarim in the name of the emperor fix bayonets at the last signal they collected armor that had been the bulwark from the fireballs fired them all simply barreled forward at top speed battle cannons blazing into everything in front of them each had heard the speech from the old man all now knew their duty as the torax has churned forward they were assailed by more furious fire as the chaos forces realized their gambit the tauroc's heavy fire was concentrated on the greatest threat as the range crows they smashed one after another of the hellish cannon that spat fire at them no matter what else the destruction of the skull cannons was a boon beyond measure to rickart and his densely packed organic infantry the remaining armor plowed on buffeting and crushing all before them the cathedral was now an attainable goal but as the personnel carriers approached its very stairs they were bogged down by the twisted metal and stone that had succumbed to the taint of chaos and as their momentum failed they were soon surrounded masses of chittering and screeching things washed over them like an ocean around and then inside at this point the guard lines have been jogging behind them still maintaining formation then rickard stepped up the pace and raised his sword high in the air and bellowed what could well be his last word charge the bellow was taken up by the third born and filled the entire area the ranks of mere humans charged at their sides many born squads took the place of the ogre and covered in the alleys and the huge ogre and formed up and created the spear tip of the thrust ogrim were as stubborn and thick as salamite walls some said but they understood violence they locked shields and ran at the demonic horde with fury following rickard into the very center of hell the commissar's chainsaw roared as it slashed through one after another hellspawn's red flesh the oakland slammed into them like a cannonball and the entire front of the chaos invasion was bowled backwards but soon the momentum began to falter again ogrim were being outnumbered so much the groups of demons would drag down slab shields and then tear the berserk o-rings to pieces the guard then slammed into the lines and it devolved into a masked barging and clawing fray mccartney lost his head a dozen times the chaotic force is now turning on him and discerning that he was their leader they threw everything they had at his segment of the line yet they were held back as two boneheads somehow fathomed what was going on oglen was stupid but as stated they understood violence so rickard found that he soon had two squads of oggs and the elite veterans of the third born pushing around him so much he could not even make it into blade combat with the enemy they were protecting him it was more obvious when a huge thing came slithering out of the cathedral doors and ran straight for them ugly now jumped at it pushing it back with locked shields despite how many of them were swept aside by its huge tail how many he went in half by its hideously long and sharp claws just as the human forces had hit the lines of chaos this new being now tried to cut his force in half its wake being filled with red horned and bladed horrors and seemingly limitless packs of twisted burning hounds rickard knew that this was the crux point his assault had faltered again and if this horror was not stopped and slain they would never even scale the stairs that were littered with the burning and melting torxes only 20 yards in front of them so close but yet so far away it was then that a growing rumble resounded along the road a rising crescendo a sound rebounding off every building rickard's side to himself in a brief moment of annoyance a fresh demonic assault from the rear would now wipe out his army it would be unstoppable with near all of his men in ogrin in brutal melee with the neverborn there was no one to stop the attack as rickard finally took the time to look behind himself his eyes widened for just a second as he saw and heard the reality of the situation he looked down the thoroughfare and i chilled allowed himself a single snort of satisfaction at the change of fortune because the banshee-like whale was not issuing from one preternatural being not demon or cultist no the rising screams were coming from the hordes of humans that were now charging on mass towards them men and women of a myriad of shattered units their uniforms mismatching and torn and blasted followed by thousands upon thousands of simple men and women all charging forward with makeshift or looted weaponry screaming their rage at the enemy as they came on like a tidal wave of their own rickard was utterly bemused until he focused on those right at the head of the wave it was of course didonos the high priest and around him were a score of his guard the paladins of purity he called them his elite crusaders didonus was the cardinal of this pandora hive and it was assumed that he had been slaughtered in the first hours if not days of the chaos invasion he'd always been a fiery one is what rickard had heard but now he witnessed the reality of it a corona of holy power ran around didonus's head along his huge two-handed chain sword as he moved forward at the rate of a space marine his men dragged along with him in some divine changing of reality so they moved faster than any demon before them the being that and tried to smash through their lines raised up on its haunches and bellowed a challenge into the air or was it pain it was impossible to be certain as many of his men were forced to their knees by the power of the bellow their enemies did not even miss a beat so it was messy for a few seconds but then the warriors of the emperor's own fury struck the lines didonous himself ran straight past rickarth and then to everyone's amazement simply started to walk on air discs of light appearing wherever his feet landed and kept him aloft as the priest ran directly towards the demon the paladins of purity were trying to catch up to their priest and displayed their skill as they appeared amongst the melee their power swords wielded with death deficiency cutting through the demons like a breeze ugly and born men were moved around and their enemies slain with precision the franks being overrun by the hordes of remnants of units and civilians of die donors had infused with a terrifying zeal of fury in the center the demons who would take an ogre down found that they were utterly outmatched attacks that would cut straight through a slab shield would bounce harmlessly off the shields of the crusaders as if they had all of the force of a summer breeze the light of the emperor shone around each of the crusaders and the demons found it hard to even look at the paladins something to which the paladins took full advantage didonus locked with a demon and it was as if a fly with a chain sword buzzed around a huge being easily evading it and zipping around ducking in to create massive rents in its flanks or limbs with the huge chain sword but all of this was not much more than a distraction as the priest forced the demon back with his pestering the crusaders finally punched a hole through the lesser demons and then surrounded the greater being their swords were moving so fast the tracers from their blades made the conflict take on a dreamlike quality but the end result was swift in its delivery for the demon shrieked as a dozen holy blades were thrust into its size and four at the same moment and tendrils of white light crawled across its body until all of them met the demon was surrounded in pure light then it simply burst out in the explosion of colors and was gone with that the remaining demons screamed a terrible lament and their age seemed to be lessened significantly the hordes of men and women the third born the ogre the paladins and the priests all surged forward and tore them apart the flood of beings from the gates had slowed to a trickle died on us now walked up the stairs toward the cathedral his paladins now circling him and rickard followed the holy procession walked through the doors and into the cathedral it was almost impossible to describe what was in there twisted prince screaming wars columns have shifted and burned or wailed the degradation was stomach churning as records watched on the paladins scoured the area and killed anything left inside but the powers of dead and dismembered were shocking not only in their number but also in how they had gone entire piles of limbs were collected separately and the beginnings of a throne of skulls was present rickard held his gorge but only barely even he died on us the priest did not miss a beat a single footstep as he steadily walked to the circles and glyphs that surrounded the smear on reality a rent as tall as the doors some fifty feet high and twenty wide a glaring red eye of fire that was the center of this sin he took out his water flask and liturgies issued from him as he splashed it on the ground and removed the glyphs there one by one but some minutes later the rent still stood the gate was not closed rickoff leaned on his sword as he watched he had multiple cracked ribs a smashed left arm he was feeling every second of his long life right now the fatigue was crushing yet he stood so what now he stayed too flatly to die donors lord commissar you have fought well the emperor is pleased but the priest very nice now you've gotten rid of all of the filthy heretic icons so why is the gate still open what now yes i must pray the emperor will guide our hand indeed and with that die donor snout and began to mutter his men formed up around him some standing in a line some twenty foot from the gate and advancing to say the occasional demon that was blurted out into reality but they were few an individual now dying donors continue to pray to the god emperor the master of mankind for guidance story and voting opportunity continued after the law welcome gentle listener i am voldemort your faithful servant and i wish to introduce you to the important factions forces and units of the warhammer 40k universe the grim darkness of the far future where there is no time for peace there is only time for war and today we shall be briefly looking at some of the warriors of faith of course i can only be speaking of the crusaders and minister and priests of the astra melatarum or or simply put the clergy and the crusaders of the imperial guard now i will only be making a brief entry for this law as much more will be explained about the imperial creed very soon so think of this as more of a morsel of law until we can tackle that huge monster of a subject the ecclesiarchy and so as usual for the very basics let us lean on existing wisdom to quote warriors of faith the mortal men and women of the astra military are faced daily with gruesome death their lies insignificant in the grand scale of the imperium but their fear is assuaged by righteous zeal fueled by the pious frenzy of minister and priests who preach the wrathful dictums of the ecclesia and the dauntless crusaders who prosecute the emperor's holy wars ministorum priests the priests of the ecclesiaki play a vital role in the imperial guard imparting the holy teachings of the emperor and providing spiritual soccer to the troops both on and off the battlefield to these priests there is no calling higher than tending the emperor's armies they lead by example and gladly martyr themselves on blood-soaked fields the highest sacrifice that is expected of them some minister and priests are particularly noted for their fiery zeal in the execution of both their duties and of the heretics they abhor more than one astral military commander has been grateful for the powerful oratory of a minister and priest their fiery speeches can stir a populace to rebel against a heretic lord or persuade an army to lay down its arms and surrender to the mercy of the emperor which is inevitably quick and bloody minister and priests ensure that the troops are sufficiently motivated to do their duty without fear as well as fighting fanatically themselves in battle they harness the faith of the troops to smite the emperor's foes chanting litanies of devotion and mantras of hate they stir the hearts and souls of nearby guardsmen to righteous anger together they charge down the heretical forces that dare oppose the emperor determined to purge such filth from the battlefield during the second tyrannic war the myasman 15th brimstones found themselves out of ammunition and cut off from reinforcements on the shrine world of dystra angelicus roused by the righteous fervor of a trio of minister and priests the miles men salad forth butchering half a dozen broods with their knives before they were eventually cut down all members of the ecclesiaki carry with them a rosarius a symbol of faith as potent as the holy aquila the more bloodthirsty of ministerial priests including those that are ties to the redemption cause often preach in the swirling melee of combat and so supplement their faith with snarling chain blades and bulky pistols few liturgies are more arousing to the soldiery of the aston martin than those accompanied by sprays of traitor blood and the wet side of carved enemy flesh hitting the ground some minister and priests may serve with an astral military enrichment sometimes for an extended period he is still formerly part of the krisiaki the religious body of the imperium in a practical sense this is little bearing on his place in a battle for a priest will follow the orders given to the regiment he has been seconded to and will fight and die alongside the soldiers he shepherds crusaders imperial guard commanders who show exceptional zeal unflinching faith and appropriate difference towards the atletico mensthorum are sometimes afforded a retinue of crusaders these warrior aesthetics hail from the most mysterious of all the ecclesiaki's many orders the cardinals crimson and it is said that nowhere in the imperium can more devout warriors be found save perhaps for in the ranks of the adapter sororitas armed with formidable shields shrouded in robes and wielding heavy long swords wreaths and crackling power fields crusaders former dauntless honor guard that is nigh impenetrable in both body and spirit on the battlefield crusaders will often form a halo around their commander allowing them to move freely wherever the emperor guides xenos heretics and traitors who would approach this holy officer are slaughtered by the crusaders while incoming fire ricochets harmlessly off their ornamented storm shields blessed are the soldiers serving under such a commander for to fight in the presence of crusaders is to be assured that the war being waged is truly righteous end quote [Music] now as stated we should go more into the actual faith the imperial creed of the krishiaki very soon but much has changed since the psychic awakening only very recently as outlined in the books the greater good and faith and fury the opening of the great grift across the galaxy the krikatrix maledictum has also augmented the effects of faith now more akin to holy powers that might be seen exhibited by paladins and priests of more standard fantasy the rules of the entire galaxy and setting have been quite rapidly changing well by my standards anyway so probably glacially to anyone more in the flush of youth but i digress for once it was a slur a delusion an accusation that the emperor was attempting to gain godhood bile splattered the loyalist by their twisted chaos worshiping kin the setting was far more sci-fi and a bit more tongue-in-cheek but now now with the appearance of the emperor angelic and the blatant display of preternatural abilities by the faithful this has become an absolute and cannot be refuted the name and title of god emperor of mankind is indeed becoming true starchild or no there is a god who now resides on taylor or at least one in its first bursting pangs and please see my entry on how the warhammer universe ends for my perspective on the impending event well as things stand at present anyway let it be known that no position i take is solid as it is based on the details i have at my command so any new information will inevitably lead to a change in my perspective but why do i lacks lyrical on this one well because these events and the new nature of the universe should affect the units we are discussing quite profoundly from my perspective i would like to see the crusader knights and the minister and priests get somewhat of an overhaul an update a possible magnification to show the newfound power that is under their command the crusaders have the acts of faith ability as do the sororitas yet the priest himself does not but weird at the very least i would like to see the powers of faith to be extended to the priest but my optimal result will be for them to have a new suite of abilities that might show their elevation in power perhaps something that would allow for an inquisitorial army to have no need of psyches and the like and for the powers of faith to be extended for even the sororitas take sermons from the priests even they acknowledge that the greatest most fiercely burning fires of faith must indeed be said to reside in the breasts of the crusaders and the priests who sermon to them i have been baldermod your faithful servant i hope you've enjoyed this brief introduction to warriors of faith if so then please do consider liking and subscribing back to the story after what seemed like an eternity the priest died on us ceased his muttering and went silent only moments later he then stood up he turned to rickard and nodded his light has suffused me i know what must be done care to share the unclean do not issue from the gate now as we are present our light shines too brightly for them to endure he said as he waved to indicate his paladins his most holy crusader but the gate was opened by sacrifice it can only be closed by the same where the evil one sacrificed the unwilling pure for the coin to open this rift so must they be closed by the sacrifice of pure who are willing bemused ricard shrugged as an indicant of his confusion didonous then turned on the spot and locked eyes with each of his crusaders one after the other as he spoke we are the righteous we are the pure we have served our emperor our god for all our days we have cut down evil this day we have crushed them beneath our zealous boots but now we are truly blessed a path shown to us by the emperor himself his wisdom our boon his love our armor his wrath our sword he has spoken for we will not just close this gate we will not just swat the forces of evil we shall punish them forever setting foot in our realms forward my paladins follow me for we shall take our righteous light into the very flames of hell and purge and purify there and with that the paladins formed up ceremonially at either side of their priest he turned and bowed slightly to record then extended his hand and beckoned they cut warrior of light it seems unjust and unfair that you should be the one to make this possible to fight away to this space and this time only to be left aside at the last so will thou join us at that all eyes were on the old commissar he looked on for a moment as it sank in then he looked at his left leg the knee that always gave him jib the broken arm the old boots his attention concentrated on his boots now he could not fathom why but as he looked upon them he had an epiphany they were worn they were broken scuffed and battered they'd always been but today right now they seemed so threadbare almost ready to fall apart if but one more stitch was unpicked their soul so worn that they would open his feet to the ground in areas if not replaced rickard could see a collection of the born third from the periphery of his vision or shaking their heads slowly and mouthing no no but the boots they could not take much more better to take one more final journey than be thrown onto the scrappy to fall apart at the one time that they will be needed most the boots as the priest leared at him rickard felt the pull his gaze went from the men of the third born and then back to the priest in indecision an emotion a state of being record had not experienced in decades and at this point i would now invite you all to join me in forging the narrative there are but two choices ricotta knowing his usefulness is nearly done he will go out with a bang not a whimper and follows the priest and walks through the rift to bring the light of the emperor into hell itself or option two rickard may have just one more campaign in him and the forces at abundance tertius may well benefit from his presence the third and harker most especially of course and he refuses the call of the priest you decide go to the comments section and enter rp that's romeo papa for rickard follows the priest rp enter r r that's romeo romeo for rickard refuses that's r r please make a secondary comment for anything else you would like to say or below the votes separated by one line at the very least this assists with counting the results you see forge the narrative you decide now no matter what you do today do try to make some time for fun

Channel: Baldermort's Guide to Warhammer

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Keywords: WARRIORS OF FAITH - MINISTORUM PRIESTS AND CRUSADERS, COMMISSAR RIKART - THE STORY SO FAR, compilation of the stories, Commissar Rikart Audio drama, Warhammer Audiodrama, Warhammer Audiobook, Warhammer 40K Stories, Warhammer 40K Lore, Games Workshop, Warhammer stories, Baldermort, Balder, Mort, Baldermort's Guides to Warhammer, The Story So far, LAS GUNS, IMPERIAL FISTS, WORD BEARERS, IMPERIAL GUARD, ASTRA MILITARUM, Warriors of Faith, Crusaders, 40K Priests

Id: jEJFUpafCOA

Length: 37min 34sec (2254 seconds)

Published: Fri May 28 2021