It is an Age of Apostasy.

On distant Terra, cradle of humanity, High Lord Vandire has overreached himself. He has fused the arts of faith and state into one, and in seeking to walk in the footsteps of the Golden Emperor, has given himself to madness. Tales of his cruelty and malice have reached every corner of the Imperium, chilling the blood of even the most puissant of Adepts, and with word of his evil comes evidence of its consequences. Misfortune blights a thousand thousand worlds, plague and calamity and the hunger of prowling beasts, all rushing in to fill the void left by the complete absence of virtue. Though not even Vandire is so mad as to proclaim himself Imperator, his rule remains unquestionable, and in the grip of such a tyrant the people suffer in ways they could never have imagined scant years before.

Yet there is still hope. All across the galaxy, Adepts of virtue and prowess take up their blades and set their feet among the stars, stirred to action by principle or injury or simple greed. They will seek out strength, hone their skills, and rise to lay a claim upon this grim and darkened land. Their challenges will be many, their rivals without number, and the strength of their enemy beyond the comprehension of mortal minds. Yet if there is one thing mankind has never been short on, it is the hubris to look upon the heavens and imagine them a birthright.

Most will die. Many will fall without ceremony, their laughter of thirsting gods their only reward, for this is a cruel and merciless galaxy and the rewards of heroism are scant. Some few will achieve great things before they fall, leaving their imprint upon the stars for better or for worse, and eventually… Eventually, in time, one of them will succeed in dragging Vandire from his stolen throne and taking the mad Tyrant's head.

Will it be you? Only time will tell.

--/--

Five thousand years ago, the Golden Emperor emerged on Terra, wielding his Incomparable Thunder Warrior Arts to subdue the homeworld and assert his rule over all mankind. Though some attempted to resist, such was his strength and vision that all who stood against him were inevitably subdued, either at his hands or those of his chosen disciples. Five millenia later, it is the descendents and students of those same disciples that rule the galaxy, having refined their strength and cultivated their virtue until none remain who can oppose them. These disciples take the name of Adept for themselves, and in their hands rests the fate of the galaxy.

To be an Adept is to practice the art of imperium; mastery in its rawest and most potent form, dominion of oneself and the world at large. There are as many forms of imperium as there are stars in the sky, and it is commonly believed that only the Golden Emperor ever mastered them all - by laying claim to total mastery of both Ministorum and Administratum, Vandire has openly signaled his intention to follow in the Emperor's footsteps, and it is this more than anything else that has stirred rebels to take up arms and partisans to flock to his banner.

As a wandering hero, you have left your Sect behind to strike out into the galaxy at large, and may study the skills and learn the techniques of any master or tradition you can convince to teach you. Even so, the foundation of an Adept's path determines the shape of all that is to come, and while some techniques can be found in similar forms across multiple paths, others are mutually exclusive or inherently conflicting.

Which of the following are you an Adept of?

Adeptus Arbites
Those Adepts who walk the path of the Arbiter are both feared and respected, for it is their mandate to maintain order and the rule of law. Such a duty inevitably brings them into contact with other Adepts, who all too often respect nothing but strength, and so the Arbites have developed a wide range of techniques for slaying and subduing their fellow Adepts. Needless to say, few who walk this path get to enjoy a long or happy life.

Adeptus Astartes
The oldest and most respected of the Adept paths, the Astartes are unquestioned masters of physical enhancement and the arts of war, adapting alchemical concoctions and peerless battle techniques taught to their founders by the Golden Emperor himself. Living apart from humanity in their isolated fortress-redoubts, the Astartes are perhaps the purest expression of an Adept's path.

Adeptus Astra
While most who pursue imperium seek dominion over themselves or others, those of the Adeptus Astra seek mastery of the void and the realms beyond. Their schools are myriad, from the three-eyed Navigator-Captains to the fate-bending Masters of the Tarot, and the strangeness of their esoteric techniques often grants them means and methods unavailable or incomprehensible to others.

Adeptus Mechanicus
The first of the major Sects to bow to the Golden Emperor, the Machine Priests were rewarded with great power and independence. Now they pursue a path that leaves many other Adepts uncertain and uncomfortable, codifying enlightenment and binding it into their own bodies through devices strange and arcane. No other Path can match their mastery of the material world or rival the power of their Sacred Relics.

Adeptus Ministorum
Faith alone can overturn the universe. Such is the creed of the Adeptus Ministorum, the youngest and most volatile of the major Adept Paths. Through igniting their hearts and the souls of others they are capable of far exceeding the supposed limits of their rank, but their propensity for overreaching is well known, as is their mad zealotry. Not for nothing does the Imperial Creed exalt the Martyr above all others.

Article:

Which of the following is your Path of Ascension? Later votes will establish personal details and the particular traditions and techniques of your Sect, but this first vote will determine what kind of cultivation you practice.

You may vote for TWO OPTIONS:

[ ] Adeptus Arbites, the Law Keepers

[ ] Adeptus Astartes, the Angels of Death

[ ] Adeptus Astra, the Seekers of Mystery

[ ] Adeptus Mechanicus, the Cult of Knowledge

[ ] Adeptus Ministorum, the Champions of Faith

Basic Mechanics

This is a Cultivation Quest, set in the (somewhat altered) world of Warhammer 40k. It will be running on a loose adaptation of my old skill ranks ruleset, where the protagonist's advancement is measured according to what ranks they possess in a number of different skills.

Depending on the path you pick, there may be specific additional rules to consider. However, at its core this quest is concerned with the protagonist's Realm, their Arts, and their Techniques.

Realm

Your Realm is the level of your cultivation, how far you have progressed along the Adept's Path. If you are familiar with other works in the Xianxia genre, this is where you would find something like "Nascent Realm" or "Heavenly Realm" - cultivators refine themselves and their power in order to ascend through the Realms rather like climbing a ladder (or a mountain). The strength of one who stands even one Realm above his opponent is often greater by an order of magnitude at least.

The Imperium recognises myriad paths and routes to power, and consequently lacks any one unified grading structure for measuring how far one has advanced along the Path. Just about everyone publicly agrees that the highest stage is the Divine Realm, occupied by the Golden Emperor and his Chosen, but the names, nature and even number of intermediary realms until one reaches that point vary significantly depending on one's path. The Adeptus Astartes, for example, refer to beginners as "Aspirants" and those who stand at the summit as "Primarchs".

There is no guaranteed way to ascend from one Tier to the next - it is not a simple matter of spending xp. Enlightenment is not so easily quantified, though the Mechanicus come closer than most. Exact methods of ascending will be specified according to your chosen Path.

Arts

Your Arts are what previous iterations of this system would have termed 'skills', though the Adepts of the Imperium have many names for them - styles, schools, disciplines and ways, to name but a few. By investing xp into a given Art, you seek to master it and incorporate it smoothly into your overall Path. For example, an Astartes of the Blazing Salamander Sect might invest xp into the Volcanic Soul Style, learning how to channel the raw energies of flame through their body until their skin blackens and their veins shine like lava.

Arts are measured according to five levels of mastery:

• Novice (100xp) - You have just begun studying this Art. Purchasing this level requires learning from a master, studying an appropriate text, or else a risky and prolonged period of personal experimentation.
• Trained (250xp) - You have mastered the core competencies of your Art, and can now focus on refining and polishing it.
• Skilled (500xp) - You are sufficiently confident in your use of this Art to move beyond rote lessons and begin adapting it to your own style and practice. This is when you unlock your first Technique.
• Veteran (750xp) - You know your Art well enough to teach it to others. You gain another Technique at this rank, and are able to develop your own for 200xp each.
• Master (1000xp) - You have completed your training in this Art, and there is nothing further to learn. You gain one final 'Mastery' Technique, an expression of your personal philosophy and skill.

Each Art is associated with a given Realm, which serves as a loose guide to its relative power. The Golden Emperor's Incomparable Thunder Warrior Arts are far beyond the mere strength of a Cardinal's Burning Soul Style, for example. Spending xp to purchase Arts of a lower Realm grants you a discount - every xp spent counts as 2xp for one Realm below you, 3xp for two Realms and so on. Similar discounts may be offered for learning Arts strongly associated with your Path and Sect - a Salamander would likely find all kinds of Fire-based Arts easier to learn than something drawing on the howling wind, for example.

Arts can also cost more xp if they are particularly at odds with your Path or Sect, if it is possible at all. A Salamander might be able to learn the Burning Soul Art of a Ministorum Adept with some creative adaptations, but the Threefold Lightning Heart of a Mechanicus adept would be far more challenging.

Techniques

Your Techniques are just that - specific moves, tricks and abilities associated with an Art that are easily classified as their own thing. If you can call someone a fool for thinking he could ever hope to evade your signature move, that is a technique. If you feel the need to regretfully apologise to your master's spirit before you use it, that is probably a Mastery Technique.

You learn a minimum of three Techniques in the process of mastering an art, but most Adepts design and employ their own individual expansions beyond this baseline as a matter of utility, practice or prestige. These will often be chosen by vote in a given update.

As an example, the aforementioned Salamander might, upon advancing Volcanic Soul Style to the "Skilled" rank, learn the Pure Breath of Flame Technique, allowing him to superheat his exhalations until they resemble the fury of a dragon's breath. Or he might instead choose to learn the Perfect Immolating Fever Technique, allowing him to purify his body of toxins and curses by overwhelming the intrusive energy with raw concentrated fire.

Miraxa SH-43893
Young Mistress of the Omnissiah Igvita Sect

Gene-daughter of the prestigious "Blood of the Omnissiah" Sect's Fabricator General, Miraxa has been raised from birth in one of the most high-pressure and cutthroat competitive environments in the galaxy. Excellence is expected, genius the baseline, and every new triumph merely keeps her ahead of the pack for another day. Though recognised as Young Mistress, her gene-father has many other children, and each of the Sect's many elders maintains their own breeding programs and apprenticeship schemes in hopes of wresting control of the Sect from his iron-fisted rule. Her rivals are consequently legion.

Material Realm Arts

Open Palm of the Sun Goddess - Skilled (50/750)
An unarmed style with a venerable history among the Omnissiah Igvita. One gathers plasma in the palm of her hand, surrounding her fist in the sun's deadly radiance, and so imbues her strikes with such energy as to melt steel and turn flesh and bone to ash.

Incandescent Wings of the Phoenix - Skilled (250/750)
The core movement art of the Omnissiah Igvita. One learns to form jet-plumes of plasma and flame at the wrists and ankles, and so propel oneself through space. Learning to form the flames is easy; mastering the art of not ploughing head-first into obstacles is harder.

Aegis of Untouchable Glory - Skilled (0/750)
A defensive art that relies on the ability of plasma-generated heat to warp and ripple the air, creating a mirage that leads enemy shots astray or sears the flesh of those who get too close.

Runic Realm Arts