Divine Madness



"HEAR THE SONG OF CHAOS! LET IT BOIL YOUR BLOOD AND WARP YOUR FLESH! WE ARE YOUR DELIVERANCE TO INSANITY! WE ARE THE DIVINE MADNESS!"

- Lekaiz Muirr, The Apostle of Ruin

The Divine Madness is widespread faction of raving chaos worshipers. Unlike most widespread cults, the Divine Madness does not devote itself to any particular Dark God, but rather venerates Chaos Undivided in it's most pure form, that being the untapped madness, discord, and destruction that Chaos brings. The Divine Madness is comprised of all sort of beings: traitor guardsmen, xenos, mutants, and even Chaos Space Marines.

Conception
It all began when the Hive World of Mesturia was engulfed by a massive warp storm, imprisoning the Imperial planet's population and cutting Mesturia off from the rest of the galaxy. For months the sky burned with the madness of the warp, Chaos' insidious taint slowly corrupting Mesturian people. At first, the Mesturians were frightened. Entire mega- city districts worth of people flocked to the nearest church or shrine of the God Emperor, praying that the warp storms would stop. But as the months turned into years the Mesturians began to loose hope.

Ever so slowly, fear turned into desperation. The people began to run out of basic living supplies as one by one whole districts of the mega- city were quarantined off. The mutant population skyrocketed, as the Warp storm's corrupting influence spread. Many began to become frightened of their own neighbors as their situation slowly worsened. The Adeptus Arbites tried to enforce order, but too many problems were developing at once. Many believed that the God- Emperor had abandoned them, many even began to question their faith in Him. Protests against the harsh laws being enforced transformed in to district-wide riots and then, without warning, the powdercake that Mesturia had become simply exploded.

Society crumbled. The pent up desparation and fear was to much for the Mesturian citizenship to bear anymore. They flooded the streets, killing, burning, maiming all to release the emotion inside of them. Both the Mesturian Adeptus Arbites and PDF tried to restore the peace, but quickly became hopelessly embroiled within the endless conflict. Idols of the God Emperor were defiled, the Planetary Governor and his family slaughtered, any form of order and civility quickly destabilized into an orgy of violence and panic. Almost overnight, the once proud civilization of of Mesturia transformed into a hellhole where madness, savagery, and depravity reigned supreme. Then one day, a stabilizing force emerged, led by a man who called himself the Apostle of Ruin.

His name was Lekaiz Muirr.

Birth
Lekaiz Muirr had once been the most wretched of beings, a mutant, or so he thought. He lived in the Mesturian Underhives, fighting each day just to survive. But, what Muirr did not know is that he was not a mutant, rather he was a psyker, albeit not a powerful one, but burning with the desire to seek vengeance upon those who shunned and despised him. His mutations were chaos taint, as the eyes of the Warp were upon him. When he slept, a voice would whisper to him the promise of power, which he at first disregarded as simply dreams, but slowly came to the realization that these voices were not a figment of his imagination.

The voice told him many things, about the nature of Chaos, of the power that he could have if he only if he excepted Chaos into his soul. Muirr eagerly agreed. What happened next was strange, when the daemon that had been whispering to him tried to possess him, only to find that Muirr was much stronger of will than he appeared. The two grappled over Muirr's soul, the conflict resulting in the fusion of the Daemon's mind with Muirr's own, driving him to insanity. But, through this madness came a strange kind of clarity, as Muirr's psychic power was dramatically increased by the daemon. From that day, Lekiaz Muirr ceased to exist, and the Apostle of Ruin was born.

Muirr, seeking more power, appeared to the frenzied masses of Mesturia offering the one thing they so desperately craved; hope. But, rather than trying to convert them to worshiping the Dark Gods, Muirr preached that Chaos is the ultimate expression of freedom, and that the discord and destruction that had claimed Mesturia was their absolution from the rigid confines of order and structure, both of which were no better than enslavement. He preached that sanity is a curse, for it limits what humanity is truly capable of. To the Mesturians, this revelation was revolutionary. It made them believe that the warp storm was in fact a blessing rather than a curse, and that what they had become was in fact the right thing to do. Muirr soon became a inspiring figure to them, seeing this god- like psyker as a prophet, the answer to their prayers. For the first time ever, the Mesturians rejoiced for the first time in decades, and as the warp storms dissipated, the Mesturians rallied beneath Muirr, who named his new cult of followers The Divine Madness.

Conquest
From there Muirr looked outward, inspiring his new cult that their revelations must be shared with the rest of the galaxy, that they must make it their holy duty to "liberate" the Impirium from the shackles of sanity and order. Organizing the Divine Madness into a potent fighting force took time, but in the end it was worth it. They began to attack the rest of the planets within their sector: the Paelias Sector. This attack took the rest of the Paelias sector completely by surprise, and soon they the Divine Madness had gained a strong foothold within the sector, conquering a few other planets. Despite, the fact that they have been attacked by the Impirium several times, the Divine Madness has managed to maintain that foothold, not to mention that the Divine Madness frequently attacks other planets within their reach.

Organization
The inner workings of the Divine Madness are quite complex, consisting of various mini- factions within the overall cult. Also, the Divine Madness inducts members of all species into it's fold. The factions are listed here in order of highest to lowest rank:

The Inner Circle
This faction is made up of Lekaiz Muirr and his lieutenants, each one overseeing a different part of the cult, with Muirr as the Supreme Leader.

The Scions of Madness
This Cabal of Human Chaos Sorcerers, led by Muirr himself, are the second highest ranking faction within the Divine Madness. They are divided into 4 cults, each one devoted to a different Chaos god: (MORE TO FOLLOW)
 * The Cult of Bloodlust - These are Khornate Sorcerers, but only in the sense that they specialize in summoning Khornate Daemons.
 * Cult of Ecstasy - These sorcerers are typically used to spread corrupting influence, which is somthing they excell at.
 * Cult of Decay - These Nurgalite Sorcerers bestow "gifts" of the Plague God upon select enemies, transfoming them into Plague Zombies that are used sometimes as cannon fodder.
 * Cult of Change - These Sorcerers are by far the most skilled, specializing in unleashing the fury of their psychic powers upon enemies.

Religion
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Tactics
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Notable Members
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