Prussian Feldkaplan

Trench Clerics who fight in the Great War include a vast array of both ordained and secular fighting ministers of the Holy Word. A good example of such are the specially-trained Militärgeistliche that the Church Militant of the Free State of Prussia dispatches to counter the Heretic Legion’s Sorcerers and High Priests, who pit their faith against the fiendish Goetic Powers of the Inferno.

Due to the importance of their role, (and because of the high blood price the Heretic commanders have set for each Chaplain killed – a price which is doubled by Mammon for captured individuals as these priests are prime material in constructing the dreaded Goetic Warlocks), the Church and the Free state go to extraordinary lengths to train and equip their Chaplains with the finest weapons and armour.

In battle these Prussian Trench Clerics don thrice blessed armour crafted in the Sacrosanct Workshops beneath Köln cathedral. They are styled after the armours of a bygone age to inspire the troops, but their fuctionality is state-of-the art as they utilise the latest metallurgical innovations from the Königsberg Institute of Warfare. The location of the workshops is not without controversy, as both the Free State of Prussia and the Holy Roman Empire claims ownership of Köln. This dispute stems from the time when the Free State seceded from the Empire after holding its first democratic elections. These elections were originally instituted specifically to gain independence from the Empire, but proved immensely popular with the people and have remained in place ever since. Luckily for Prussia, the Church considers the war effort more important than petty regional squabbles, and has thus far placed the Cathedral under their care in order to keep the war production going.

The Chaplain’s superb armaments are not just limited to protection: they also carry special grenades filled with myrrh, hemlock and burning incense, as well as classified chemical substances. When detonated the shrapnel of these grenades scatters embers that rapidly burn through anything caught in the blast.

The standard issue melee weapon of the Feldkaplane are swords. Sometimes they are blades fashioned after the burning blade carried by the angel that protected the garden of Eden, while others are smaller copies of the mighty brands carried by the Paladins.

Many front line Chaplains are repeatedly reprimanded by the Church for their overuse of inhaling “Holy Smoke”, a chemical compound which uses many of the same ingredients as the Martyrdom Pills. But, due to the extraordinary mental and physical toll the war takes on their minds and bodies, the practice persists even though many chaplains are lost to overdosage or have to be retired from active service due to their minds and bodies finally succumbing to the combination of stress, wounds and damage to the nervous system the Holy Smoke causes. The Great Hospice of New Antioch treats hundreds of such cases each year – withered husks of men who rarely regain their sanity.

Each Chaplain carries a reliquary with them (from which their original name capellanus is derived from). The Feldkaplane depicted here, Frieherr Rainer Schwentner of the Swords of the Lord division, goes to battle with a carved wooden back piece depicting the Prussian Eagle and a reliquary said to hold a feather of the angel Uriel within it.