Council of Saints

In the well-guarded chambers of the Holy See, under the watchful eyes of the Swiss Guard and handpicked contingent of winged Communicants rest the greatest treasures of the Church Militant: the collection of true remains of saints. The bones of Saint Barbara, the ashes of Saint John the Warrior, Severed hand of Saint Teresa of Avila, reliquary of Saint Andrew the General and many, many others rest here protected by both the might of arms and prayers of the faithful. But few know of their true role: the long-dead martyrs of the Church form the supreme advisory body of the Church and the armies of the Faithful. In times of dire need, their holy remains are brought to the great council chambers so the Princes of the Church led by the Cardinal of War and temporal rulers of the free lands can ask for their guidance.

Such consultation is not undertaken lightly: Only truly vital issues such as dispatching one of the irreplaceable Paladins on a mission to Inferno, opening up a new front in the Great War or determining the hidden plans of the Lord of the Sixty-Six are worthy of the attention of the Council. For it is a costly and perilous ordeal: Reliquaries holding their remains are brought forth and cables are connected to the machines of the Synod of Strategic Prophecy to establish communication to the souls of the Saints. Then finally the Tacticians of the Synod, the purest and the most gifted, attach their spinal cables to the prophetic machines so the saints may talk through them.

It takes long years to train a Tactician, but the mental and physical strain of communing with Saints ages them at the rate of a year per heartbeat, and even then they might not succeed: Sometimes the link between the tactician and the relic Saint is weak, their voices are a mere whisper. At other times, they speak a long-forgotten incomprehensible language that the scribes of the Holy See struggle to decipher.

And these are not the greatest of the challenges either. The Infernal powers are well-aware of the Council and through the corrupted saintly relics they hold, the great lords of Hell are roused when the Council is in session, and set forth to challenge their hated opponents with their unholy willpower. On such occasions a fierce spiritual battle then takes place and skies above Rome burn with Hellfires and flashes with Holy Light. The immense strain the devils put on the Tacticians ages them, they enter the chamber in the flower of their youth and come out of it as ancient, decrepit husks. Many are possessed by the most spiteful demons and rend themselves apart to disrupt the ritual. In proportion, the casualty rates of the Council are greater than the trenches of the Great War.

Nor are the Saints infallible: they hold great knowledge as they did in life, and advise the Cardinals of War as best they are able, but their advice is often given as Revelation that is hard to decipher. And not all of the relics guide humanity faithfully. There are cleverly wrought forgeries by the Heretic Necromancer-Clerics, disguised by illusions to fool even the most experienced Examiner-Priests. A corrupt Relic Saint can wreak great havoc at the very heart of the Holy See: demons can use them as conduits to mislead the Council, or learn the identity of its secret members so they can later be targeted by Death Commando assassination squads. Some are True relics that the Heretic Saint-Hunters have discovered, infected with mite-demons and then reburied. It often happens that during a Council meeting these vile creatures come forth and then silently enter the mouths and eyes of the mortal conduits of the Saints, they burrow their way into the central nervous system of their victims, ending their lives in withering agony.

Taking into account all these tribulations it is no wonder that the Papal Expedition forces are continually scouring the world for true relics of Saints to strengthen the Council and the Supreme Pontiff pays handsomely for curated relics brought forward by the warbands scouring the No Man’s Land.