Genoforger Enclaves

"...and they shall be my Flesh-Crafters, my Smiths of Blood and Bone. From the Threads of Life shall they weave Death, and from the Tools of Death shall they create Life. They shall be my Genoforgers..."

- Excerpt from the Libron Panthos, the Holy Book of the Pantheon (Translated from High Pyran)

Having existed even before the creation of the Empyran Pantheon, the Genoforger Enclaves, also known as Cult Ex Carnus, are an essential part of the twisted empire. Like a dark parody of the Imperium's Adeptus Mechanicus, the Enclaves are responsible for fueling the Pantheon's military machine through the creation of insidious bio-technologies, fabricated soldiers and gene-bred monsters. The Genoforgers themselves are perhaps even more twisted than the ungodly sciences that they practice, as they are often the subject of their own experiments, transforming their appearances into that of inhuman creatures. But while twisted they may be, very few can compete against the Enclaves' sheer knowledge of genetic science.

History
Very little is known of the Genoforger Enclaves' true origins, as much of the Pantheon's early history was lost during the Great Crusade Era, What little that is known is jealously guarded by the Magisters in private vaults and data-collections. What is known is that the Genoforgers are the descendants of the first geneticists and flesh-crafters that came the Empyran during the Dark Age of Technology. During the rise of the God-King and his conquest of the Veiled Region, the Genoforgers became their own organization, serving as the gene-crafters and fleshsmiths that fueled Empyran’s mighty armies.

As a reward for their valued service, the God-King bestowed upon the ancient Genoforgers a realm to call their own, the planet Daedelus, which became the first Genoforger Breeding World. It was said that the Enclaves' ancient predecessors were biomancers of almost mythical skill. Their laboratories were flesh-grown constructs, their walls made from throbbing muscle and diamond-hard bone, their facilities powered through bio-electirc pseudo-organs, creating a network of living generators. Many infamous creatures and constructs were birthed within these fleshy halls, from the grotesque Psionic Choir (a nightmarish creature composed of the fused bodies of a thousand psykers), to the enormous Flesh Engine (a strange bio-mechanical device designed to instantly assemble living cells into a sentient organism).

This was largely considered to be the Golden Age of the Cult Ex Carnus, until the arrival of the of the Imperial Fists Legion within the Veiled Region. Seeing the gene-science of the Genoforgers as an affront to life itself, the Sons of Dorn purposely attacked as many Breeding Worlds as they could during their conquests, including Daedelus. During that time much knowledge of the ancient's superior gene-craft was lost, forcing what few Genoforgers that remained to start from scratch. They established themselves amongst the warring factions of the Veiled Region in small groups of like-minded individuals that each plied a similar craft of dark science, thus the first Enclaves were formed.

The rise of the God-King back into supremacy also signaled the revival of the Genoforgers as well. Knowing that he could not build an new Empire without the Enclaves, the God-King created a pact with the Enclaves, a pact known as the Twofold Covenant. The Pantheon would secure and provide the raw "materials" that the Enclaves needed to ply their evil craft, and in return the Enclaves would create and bolster the Pantheon's armies. Thus was the agreement, and so to this day do the Enclaves serve as a key part of the Pantheon, for without them the entire Empire would crumble in a matter of days.

The Cult Ex Carnus
The motto of the Enclaves as a whole can be translated into one single method, the pursuit of perfection. While many comparisons can be made between them and Cult Mechanicus of the Imperium, the one pivotal difference is that while the Mechanicus believe in the Omnissiah, the Genoforger Enclaves believe in nothing. Even within the theocracy-ruled Pantheon they maintain their atheism, for they create life on a daily basis, playing god every single day of their lives. What truly drives the Enclaves is the ultimate goal of every Genoforger; to one day create the ultimate lifeform. This is why they experiment constantly, creating new abominations solely in the name of this ultimate goal, unfazed no matter how many times they fail. To the Genoforgers, failure always breeds success, in some cases quite literally.

However, a certain amount of curiosity also drives the Cult Ex Carnus. Some Genoforgers will spend their entire lifetimes trying to understand how a particularly exotic organism's life functions work and how they could replicate it. To them, life is something to be dissected so that one might figure out how it works, and little more. If improvements can be made through the study of a certain organism, then they strive to find out no matter what, concepts like morality meaning absolutely nothing to them.

The Apex
As mentioned before, the Enclaves are driven by a single-minded goal to create the perfect life-form, similar to the goals that created the Empyran God-King in the first place. This ultimate life-form is known to the Genoforgers as The Apex, short for the Apex Organism, as in the perfect organism. The creation of the Apex is what has transformed the Genoforgers into perfectionists. unsatisfied as long as a single flaw is present within their creation.

What the Encalves don't know is that the God-King is aware of their quest to create the ultimate life-form, and this frightens him, thus whenever a Genoforger comes close to this ultimate goal (which is rare, but has almost happened on several occasions throughout the Enclaves' history), the God-King intervenes. Covert agents sabotage the offending Genoforger's magnum opus, rendering it imperfect by some degree. Thus the Enclaves are left with a failure, and the God-King breathes easier for a few more millennia.

Genoforgers
(MORE TO COME)