The Anapareesa
There exists within the heart of Her Empire a conclave. Known in their own tongue, the Confound Parsiflex, as Anapareesa, these are heretics tolerated by the Clerisy through a complex historical process.
The Cryptonic Monoclave records the first emergence of Anapareesa teachings during the reign of Emperor Thaddeus of Arcus. A woman gained prominence during this time, claiming to be the living embodiment and prophetess of the Lesser Goddess Minora. Entirely divorced from Monclavist teachings, she disregarded the holy Discipline to preach heretical doctrine. While the Cryptonic Monoclave will not enlighten you as to the contents of this doctrine, for it would be perverse to enter it into the very Discipline she defiled, it is known that the supposed prophetess claimed to possess Minora’s bottomless empathetic well. While she lived, she taught that the Discipline is to be read as metaphor, that much of it could be discarded as “overbearing and controlling” and that the most important maxim is empathy for your fellow human beings.
Ana, as she was called, gained prominence fast and dangerously close to the Ur-Kingdom, leading to swift Clerical action. With the blessing of Emperor Thaddeus, Ana was executed during his 32nd Ete of reign. Unfortunately, her dangerous teachings persisted beyond her un-making and poisoned the minds of a very small minority. After many more executions and skirmishes with imperial Legionnaires, this group soon disappeared underground where, as we know today, they continued evolving their ideology and named themselves the Parishioners of Ana. This term directly translates into the Confound Parsiflex word Anapareesa.
Through centuries of persecution and ultraviolent destruction, the Parishioners abandoned their peaceful ways, and Ana’s original teachings were largely warped and perverted into something even more menacing. Among the Parishioners, a warrior caste developed. Highly trained in the handling of weapons and martial arts, these warrior monks soon grew into a sizable, hard to control and impossible to suppress terroristic threat. They wielded fearsome battle staffs, weapons that sported a small ion blaster on one end and an atom-thin blade on the other. In Confound Parsiflex, this weapon is called the Olethros, which translates into Contraflex simply as the word “weapon,” as it is the only kind of weapon the cult uses.
With the Parishioners of the false prophetess gaining strength every Ete and rivaling the force of the Legionnaire Corps, it was the wise Emperor Pericleides who enacted a revolutionary and controversial solution to the problem. Instead of fighting the cult, he offered them one bargain, one way. The cult would be relegated to the surface of the moon Sobel above Norfodl. They would not be allowed to leave this moon, but they would be free to practice their ways undisturbed. In exchange for this, the Emperor mandated the creation of a body within their society called the Lectorate and placed it under the purview of the Clerisy. Through the Lectorate, the Anapareesa would lend their fighting prowess to the Clerisy and in turn, freedom.
A precarious union at first, it cemented over a thousand Etes and has come to be accepted as a strange but vital part of the imperial apparatus today. The Anapareesa are few in number — less than half of their moon is even occupied — but their Lectors are the most feared and most ruthless and most bloodthirsty operatives in the Nucleus and the Spiral Arms. The mere sight of an Olethros and the mere perception of one speaking Confound Parsiflex drives fear into a reasonable man.