Casophilians

I tread the path of Righteousness.
Though it is paved with broken glass, I will walk it barefoot;
though it crosses rivers of fire, I will pass over them;
though it wanders wide, the light of the Emperor guides my step.

-Confessor Dolan of Chiros

The Casophilians are typical of the resurrectionist sects that dot the Imperial Cult. Saint Casophili was a missionary with the Missionarus Galaxia in the early 41st millennium, spreading the teachings of the Ecclesiarchy to worlds in the southern Segmentum Pacifica. It was on the world of Alena Three that he discovered minions of the Dark Gods at the heart of several of the feral societies on the world.
 
With few resources to hand, Saint Casophili did what he could to counter this endemic threat and laid the foundations for a full Ecclesiarchy task force to continue his work. However, as he moved from settlement to settlement preaching the word of the God-emperor, his foes began to take notice. Unable to bear such a threat to their power, the council of priests that ruled the world moved against him and had him captured and tortured, to recant his errant beliefs.
 
The chronicles of Casophili tell of his arduous ordeal at the hands of the twisted priests, to the point at which he died from his wounds. Here the tale of Saint Casophili may have ended, unknown and unrecorded, another pious missionary whose life had ended in the pursuit of his calling.
 
Though Casophili died at the hands of his tormentors, something remarkable happened. Five days after his death, the body of the missionary was to be burned upon a sacrificial pyre to the Dark Gods. As the flames took hold of the tarred wood, Casophili roused himself and jumped from the fires. Miraculously brought back from the dead, Casophili confronted his tormentors and the gathered crowd. The story of Saint Casophili’s return spread quickly and he led the people of Alena Three against the priesthood.
 
Such an occurrence would naturally attract the attention of Resurrectionist Inquisitors, but the faction that has dedicated themselves to the study of Casophili’s story focus on one particular aspect of the saint’s tale. In his later works, Casophili writes of his experiences over the fives days between death and resurrection. During this period, the saint tells of a bodiless floating sensation in a gulf of sound and color. He writes of a clamor of myriad voices, some whispering, and others bellowing, swirling around him. He also speaks of a great light that suffused everything, which he believed to be the Emperor.
 
The fact that Casophili’s soul returned to his body is not so much of a concern for the Casophilians, for the basic assumption of all Thorian and related beliefs is that the psychic energy of an individual can pass to the Warp and back. The fact that Casophili’s writings tell of a place within the Warp where these souls reside is the province of the Casophilians.
 
Knowing that daemonic entities can broach the barriers between Warp and real space, the Casophilians dedicate their study to the transition of a human soul to their universe. They are profound experts of demonology with regard to ritual summoning, as opposed to accidental or malicious possession. With this knowledge, they seek to devise a way to bring forth the soul of a deceased man or woman, and if this proves successful, it will be a major step towards creating the means by which the Emperor’s soul can be invested into a suitable mortal form.
 
Rather than the general and rather isolated studies of other Resurrectionist factions, the Casophilians openly embrace new ideas on their theories and work closely with Inquisitors of different leanings, gleaning what they can from the experiences of others. In particular, they are often found working in conjunction with an Inquisitor who follows the philosophy of the Anomolian Beholders, for the Casophilians focus on the souls of the dead, while the Anomolian Beholders study the souls of the living.