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1 / 4 · Click to enlargeLore & origins
Arco-flagellants are sinners who have been surgically turned into living weapons by the Ecclesiarchy. Their hands are replaced with weapons, most often heavy industrial shears or electro-flails. Chemical injectors are grafted onto their spine, and a pacifier helm is fitted over their head.
While the pacifier is active, the arco-flagellant sees soothing visions and stays docile. When their handler, often a Ministorum Priest, speaks the trigger word, the helm switches off and a flood of combat drugs turns the arco-flagellant into a frenzied killer that fights until it dies or the threat is gone.
Arco-flagellation is a form of capital punishment reserved for criminals whose sins are grave but not beyond redemption. The condemned are handed to the Mechanicus, who lobotomise them, replace both arms with weapons (usually electro-flails) and implant a spinal injector system. A pacifier helmet keeps them dormant, their minds filled with Ecclesiarchy hymns and holy images. In battle, the helmet is switched off and the injectors flood them with combat drugs. From that point they see only targets that have not been tagged as friendly, and they charge the nearest one.
The background treats arco-flagellation as both punishment and mercy. The condemned are criminals and heretics whose torment is meant to purify their souls so that they may still find peace with the Emperor after death. A single Arco-flagellant may be assigned to an Inquisitor who needs a blunt instrument, for example to wipe out a nest of heretics. Others are released in packs. The best-known example, from the Dark Heresy material, is Octavus. He suffered from Gathalamor Syndrome, a zealotry that drives victims to seek self-sacrifice, and he attacked Cardinal Simeon during his delusions. Arco-flagellated and renamed Simeon 38X, he did not always respond to his trigger word, "Exculpate."
Appearance & wargear
Arco-flagellants are pale, scarred figures with weapon-limbs in place of hands, chemical tubes along their spines and a pacifier helm covering their eyes.
They are grotesquely muscled, pallid bodies with flails, whips or blades in place of arms. They wear spiked pacifier helmets with spines and injector tubes along their backs, and are often dressed in ragged penitent cloth.
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Battlefield role & tactics
Arco-flagellants are expendable shock troops, sent ahead of other forces to tear into the enemy and absorb punishment.
Arco-flagellants are thrown into suicidal charges for maximum damage, either individually or in packs. Inquisitors of the Ordo Hereticus deploy them, as do the Ecclesiarchy and the Sisters of Battle. The drugs let them shrug off wounds that would kill anyone else, but they are uncontrollable once released and short-lived.
Once activated, the drug mixture gives an Arco-flagellant great strength, speed and stamina. It fights until it is killed or its metabolism fails. They are expendable shock troops used to break enemy lines and tie up elite units. They are fragile against massed fire and cannot be controlled, so they are sent in front of the more valuable Ecclesiarchy forces.
Notable battles & users
- Ecclesiarchy campaigns: priests lead them into battle alongside the Orders Militant.
Related
No profiled character is closely tied to this unit type yet.
