Worshipful Guild of the Sacred Carnifices

Worshipful Guild of the Sacred Carnifices
Abbreviation	GMC
Predecessor	Elwynnese Landstorm
Formation	1698 AN
Type	Inquisition
Headquarters	Chryse
Region served	Union-state
Official languages	Istvanistani and Praeta
Lord High Censor	Heinrich Adolphus Kryptsinger
Parent organization	Congress of Chryse
Budget	5,728,146 benacian sovereigns (1703 AN)

The Worshipful Guild of the Sacred Carnifices is a civic and religious fraternity of magistrates and executioners, with the typical carnifex-magister being trained and empowered to perform both roles, established under the terms of the Edict for the Restoration of Justice and Order promulgated by the Congress of Chryse in 10.XIII.1698 AN.

Background

The Second Elwynnese Civil War of 1692 AN to 1696 AN, which culminated in the Scouring, a limited nuclear exchange which had destroyed a heretical liberal rebellion in Amokolia and Upper Elwynn at the cost of seven cities, had fundamentally interrupted the operation of the economy and civil society throughout central, northern, and eastern Benacia. Outrage at the use of orbital bombardments, anti-matter devices, and thermonuclear warheads, had triggered a rash of insurgencies, rural uprisings and urban protests, which were quashed by the Black Legions and the Elwynnese Landstorm only with great difficulty. More insidiously, the despair engendered by the use of weapons of mass destruction, combined with the near universal disruption of agriculture, trade, and tenuous supply chains, to say nothing of the abrupt demobilisation of millions of former UDF and rebel servicemen, produced a malaise that hung over the lands of the future Benacian Union. Corruption, depravity, and lawlessness, had seemingly taken root in almost every bailiwick. Even in victorious Alalehzamin and the Unified Governorates there were to be found knots of individuals drawn to the heretical conclusion that the price paid for victory had been one not worth the paying.

To combat this societal decay, the Congress of Chryse concluded that a severe and exemplary punishment must be laid upon the populace - to either restore them to obedience or to more swiftly bring about their lasting extermination and replacement by a more godly and humble body of subjects, versed in Holodomatic Cedrozurvanism and the principles of Humanism.

Remit

A tribune of the Worshipful Guild of the Sacred Carnifices.

A carnifex is to take his seat in the Bailiwick to which he has been assigned, and tasked to exercise the power of life and death in judgement over every living soul resident there.

Duties

The carnifex undertakes:

• To ensure that all lawful residents of the bailiwick in their charge has signed the Union Covenant and performed the associated rites. The Magister is also obligated to perform the duties associated with the punishment of recusants.
  • Notification of recusants to the Benacian Censorate for inclusion on the register (1715 AN onwards).
• To enforce upon the residents of the bailiwick the commandments proposed by the learned of Siyacha as a penance for the sinful nations of Benacia.
• To expel from his jurisdiction any alien or other sapient being who deviates at a fundamental genetic level from that of baseline humanity. Exemptions being granted only to those who can provide dockets endorsed by Benacia Command or the Guild of the Lotus specifying their permission to reside and work in a clearly delineated and closed location - a Paradise District, such as that found in Merensk is a perfect example of this.
• To purge any individual in public office suspected of corruption, decadence, heresy, subversion, or treason.
• The enforcement of the 1699 Edict of Dissolution in the bailiwicks of Elwynn (1700 AN–1712 AN).
• To enforce the 1699 Edict of Correction against the Church of Elwynn.
• Arrange the detention and deportation of subjects notified to the magister by the Cull Commission operated by the authorities of the bailiwick in which he resides.
• Oversight of the Benacian Labour Reserve and the appointment of its Commandant-General. (Since 1717 AN)
• To enact capital sentences on behalf of the civil authorities, utilising appropriate tools of divination, with noteworthy instances to be recorded in a public registry.

At the direction of higher authority, magisters have been known to assist allied and friendly states, such as Hurmu and Normark, with investigations into criminal and occult activities beyond their normal experience.

Jurisdiction

Every bailiwick or equivalent subdivision within the territories governed by the Congress of Chryse, in their capacity as victors in the Second Elwynnese Civil War (Chryse, Elluenuueq, the Sovereign Confederation, and the Unified Governorates) will receive a tribune of the Worshipful Guild of the Sacred Carnifices. Within the bounds of that bailiwick their authority is absolute, subject only to those appointed over them for the policing of their own souls, who enjoy an authority as absolute as that the carnifex enjoys over the subjects within his jurisdiction.

The rumoured circumstances of the demise in 1721 AN of Daniyal Aurangzeb Kalirion-Osman, one of the most powerful figures in the Union-State and a man with unassailable dynastic connections, did much to establish a justified dread and trepidation of the magisters, even amongst the highest echelons and ruling cadres of Benacia.

Organisation

Overview

• Lord High Censor
  • College of Magisters
    • Legatine Colleges
      • Legatine Retinues
      • Tribunal Colleges
        • Tribunal Retinues
    • Magistral Retinues
  • Benacian Labour Reserve
    • Directorate for Labour Services
    • Directorate for Penitentiaries
    • Directorate for Rehabilitation

Structure

The Worshipful Guild of the Sacred Carnifices, subject to the authority of the Lord High Censor appointed by the Congress of Chryse is organised to provide for a governing college of magisters, with a magister appointed to correspond to each of the Governorates of the Benacian Union. In subordination to each magister should then be a legatine college, consisting of four carnifices of legatine rank corresponding to each of the four cardinal directions, representing the roughly equal territorial portions into which the governorate in the care of the magister has been divided for the allocation of duties to the worshipful guild. The legatine carnifices in turn have care over the college formed of the carnifices of the tribunal rank who have each been assigned a bailiwick. Every tribune of the carnifex shall be obliged to maintain in their retinue eight squires taken from the temples where they have been initiated into the sacred mysteries as Vicars of the High Gods and inducted into the regional cadres of the Nationalist & Humanist Party. From these squires suitable candidates for elevation to the rank of tribune are chosen. Promotion being decided upon the basis of close examination and trial by ordeal rather than through seniority of service.

Tribunes, Legates, and Magisters of the Worshipful Guild of the Sacred Carnifices are expected to maintain retinues appropriate to their rank after the Shirerithian fashion:

• Magister: a captain, a sergeant (weapons master), and six men-at-arms
• Legate: a sergeant (weapons master), and six men-at-arms
• Tribune: a sergeant (weapons master), and four men-at-arms

In addition a tribune shall be charged to maintain a household consisting of a chaplain of a covenanted faith, a treasurer and a clerk, a purser and a victualler, and a flenser to serve as a pain technician. A legate shall maintain the same household as the tribune but in addition an intelligencer and a memorialist. A magister shall maintain the same household as the legate but in addition shall retain a steward and a herald.

The households and retinues of officers of the Worshipful Guild of the Sacred Carnifices are subject to the rule of discipline, namely, to abstain from eating, drinking, or keeping company with anyone who was not a member of the worshipful guild. Should a member breach these rules, both himself and the other person would be executed.

Squires not called upon to assume the position of tribune by the occasion of their thirtieth birthday are instead transferred into the Benacian Labour Reserve where they are appointed to the rank of warrant officer and assigned to available postings, such as become available, by order of their seniority (date of their first induction into the Magisters-Carnifex as squires).

Establishment

Positions	Holders
Magisters	30
Legates	120
Tribunes	246
Squires	1,968
Captains	30
Sergeants	396
Men-at-Arms	1,734
Stewards	30
Heralds	120
Intelligencers	150
Memorialists	150
Flensers	396
Chaplains	396
Clerks	396
Pursers	396
Treasurers	396
Victuallers	396
Total	7,350

Equipment

• M1680 assault rifle (5.56×45mmB) – 14,400
• M1689 service pistol (9×19mm)
• Rz.Kfz 1714 Razkampfwagen – 624

Gallery

• 

  Magister

• 

  Legate

• 

  Legate

• 

  Tribune

• 

  Squire

• 

  Captain

• 

  Sergeant

• 

  Man-at-arms

• 

  Tribune and her retinue in the prelude to a raid

• 

  A flenser, one who is adept at extracting answers through the application of the blade.

• 

  An intelligencer.