Celestine Monks

The title 'Celestine Inquisition' comes not from its namesake saint, but rather from a secret buried underneath a well-known story. Many have heard the tale of a Grey Knight detachment sacrificing an entire Adepta Sororitas convent to banish the Bloodtide back to the warp, but the true story behind the heroic facade is as harrowing as it is heretical. In truth, the detachment was dispatched in secret to investigate and confront a fanatic Adepta Sororitas convent rumored to be practicing a severe form of heresy: the illicit creation of their own Space Marine chapter. When the detachment arrived, what they found was even worse than the Inquisitorial Enclave had predicted. The convent had imprisoned, tortured, and mutilated an entire priory of monks, then clad the 'successes' in stolen Grey Knight power armor, painted in the black and red of the Adepta Sororitas. The cathedral interior swam in choking ash spewed from makeshift incinerators as disfigured men feebly struggled to withstand the horrific effects of amateur gene-seeding experiments. The Sisters, so tainted by their blind devotion to their patron saint, Celestine, and the abhorrent mission they had taken on in her name, stood in righteous indignation before the intruders, demanding an explanation for the interruption. The Grey Knight detachment slayed every Sister in the convent for this perverse betrayal. That event became known, only to those who witnessed it, as the Celestine Inquisition.

After the short and messy massacre the Grey Knights turned their attention to the pitiful creatures left suffering in the darkness. The Brother-Captain mandated that these men would be returned to their priory to purify themselves in the Emperor's light for the remainder of their mangled lives. One dilapidated man known as Pyzethon, the first to survive the convent's experiments, rose slowly from behind the altar. Pyzethon defied the order, stating that after the horrors they had experienced in the convent, they could not go back to the quiet life of the priory. The Brother-Captain sensed something within Pyzethon, and indeed all of the living monks: a holy devoutness, found only on the other side of brutality, that granted them the spiritual strength to resist even the greatest taint of Chaos. All they needed was rehabilitation, combat training, and a righteous purpose. Intrigued by the prospect of a personal, specialized Inquisitorial force as unwaveringly loyal as the Grey Knights, but as expendable as Imperial Guard, he decided to enlist the ruined men. With Pyzethon's consent to the plan, the Brother-Captain allowed the men to keep their black Grey Knight armor in a patronizing nod to their new position, and appointed Pyzethon as their commander. The men, perhaps still reeling from the brainwashing they endured, named themselves the Celestine Monks, in honor of their 'beloved saint mother'. For his bravery and dedication, and the blackened armor he wore, the monks gave Pyzethon the title 'The Black Saint'. Then, on the blood-soaked steps of the cathedral, the monks pledged their service to the Black Saint, the Emperor, and the Inquisition.

Inspect the Force
Creating the CM

The Black Saint

Seraphim

Vehicles of the Priory

The Priory's Priests

Penitents