So Mord set me a challenge of sorts: write something dark using the corrupt cherubim.

I can't seem to resist

Here is my issue--despite being exposed to the 40k universe second-hand for more than a decade, I know almost nothing about it. I'm a 40k widow, not a player

I figure I'll approach it from a fanfiction standpoint--which I'm familiar with, along with the need to stick with canon. So, are there any specific parameters you can think of that I might find useful? I have the On Angel's Wings pdf (which hubby tells me is fan-created and so I figure I don't have to take it as gospel), but is there anything else I should be reading?

I'd like to write some kind of mundane, everyday kind of scenario (which hopefully won't be as boring as it sounds once I start killing people), so I don't think I really need a heavily detailed history of the 40k universe kind of education--though if there is a 40k for dummies anywhere, I wouldn't say no

Any questions, comments, ideas, or insults gratefully accepted. I'm flying blind here

I will try to get the basics down... hehehe... the gospel.

1st, the 40k Rulebook has a HUGE section on the Imperium. Official canon. You may also want to try these (shorter):

Imperium of Man
http://www.whalliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=328975
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Imperium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperium_%28Warhammer_40,000%29
http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Imperium_of_Man

That will get you enough information to beat any 40k geek... scary stuff already! Now, you want to concentrate further research on material regarding the Ecclesiarchy and the Inquisition.

Ecclesiarchy
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ecclesiarchy
http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Ecclesiarchy


Inquisition
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Inquisition
http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Inquisition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition_%28Warhammer_40,000%29


Novels about the Inquisition would be nice... good luck!

I might be just a little afraid

how about this Hun.... [found it at gaspez-arts a great site.] its not a cherub but certainly gives you an idea on what they could do to kids...

Creepy Girl 1




add some wings and there you have a Nephilim version [you know that creepy 6 year old lobotomized kid....]

imagine it floating down a corridor asking the lab techs "Are you my Mummy, Where is my Mummy?"

LGW

She's creeptastic. I love the teddy bear

Watch this from The Matrix... specially at the 0:40 seconds mark...


Now, in The Matrix, humans are spawned in vitro, hooked to feeders for nutrition and 'feed' and illusion reality (to keep the human alive)... thus harvesting the energy the organism produce.

The Imperium is much MUCH sadistic. Imagine the Imperium as a HUGE bureaucratic machine. It makes the Start Wars world of Coruscant (bureaucratic planet center of the Republic, covered 1,000% of political and governmental institutions) look like Woodstock. If you are lucky, your job would consist about sitting in a small dark room, listening to numbers come out from a speaker and typing them to a terminal... never knowing what they mean or where they go. If you are good, you are rewarded... when you die, your corpse is re-animated with cybernetics so you can continue to serve... as a semi-lobotomized Servitor.

Now, like I put on the Corrupt Cherubim introduction, rich and powerful bastards delight themselves in showcasing Servitors... the harder to make and maintain, the better. The lowest form of cybernetic manipulation would be a non-sentient animal... like a Cyber Mastiff. Clerical Servitors are built from the bodies and brains of pencil pushers, while construction Servitors are made from criminals whose bodies succumb too early to their sentences of force labor. Literally, not even death will be a relief. It is rumored that some consciousness is preserved, but locked... incapable of acting. You just suck in the fact of an Eternity of Loneliness, trapped in your own body and mind.

The highest form of cybernetic manipulation is a young child, especially a baby. The popular idea is that babies (or children) who die early in life and immortalized a Cherubim. They are completely lobotomized (no consciousness) and are a pure reflection of human potential and the power within each person, as they serve the Emperor. It is also rumored that there are some babies are breed in vitro; the cloning process tweaked to produce beautiful bodies.. perfect in form and function.

A more nefarious method, always unconfirmed but never denied. Those who defy the Imperium, those who commit acts of great heresy do not deserve death. Remember... that is a reward reserved for loyalists. So what could be worse that becoming a Servitor? How about watching your children become one... while THEY remain their consciousness and are very well aware that their fate is a direct cause of YOUR actions. Parents are tortured into watching siblings torturing the younger ones in preparation for the transformation.

Crap... I almost went REALLY dark. SEE WHAT YOU DO TO ME WOMAN?

Hope all that helps... I'm NOT sleeping today. Thank you...