| abstract
| - Arco-Flagellants are human beings who have been condemned by Imperial justice to death, but whose crimes are not so severe that they are behind all hope of redemption. Such criminals will be put to a merciful death after a lengthy and extremely excruciating ritual of torture intended to purify their souls, so that they may still find peace alongside the Emperor of Mankind in the afterlife. The sentence of Arco-Flagellation is only delivered to criminals on technologically advanced worlds due to the advanced resources it requires. A penitent condemned to arco-flagellation will be handed over to the Adeptus Mechanicus, who will lobotomise him and replace both his arms with cybernetic weapons, most often a pair of heavy industrial shears or a pair of Electroflails. They will then graft a whole battery of chemical injectors directly onto his spine, and install a Pacifier Helmet which contains a crude Mind Impulse Unit, designed to control the cyborg. As long as the Pacifier Helmet is active, the Arco-Flagellant remains dormant, with what little remains of his mind filled with the hymns and holy iconography of the Ecclesiarchy. He will only be able to shuffle around if ordered to, but will otherwhise remain immobile in a deadened bliss. Once dragged into battle, the Pacifier Helmet will be deactivated, and the injectors in the Arco-Flagellant's spine will start unleashing their cocktail of drugs (often a volatile mix of Barrage, Frenzon, Slaught and Spur) into his body. This cocktail will grant the flagellant enormous strength, speed and stamina, and will plunge him into an uncontrollable killing frenzy fuelled by the drugs and the terrible pain of his crude bionic grafts. The helmet will then only allow him to see any being who has not been tagged by his controller as friendly. The Arco-flagellant will rush toward the nearest living creature it can see and rend it to pieces, utterly uncaring of his own wounds or survival. He will continue to attack in this berserk manner until he has been mortally wounded, or his metabolism finally collapses under the assault of the deadly mix of chemicals constantly injected into it to maintain his frenzy. Arco-Flagellants are either detached individually to the service of those Inquisitors who need an unsubtle tool for a vital task like the eradication of a nest of Heretics, or gathered in groups and unleashed upon the enemies of the Emperor in an orgy of slaughter that would put a Khornate Berserker to shame. Although the Sisters of Battle readily use Arco-Flagellants, and rejoice in seeing criminals finding their redemption in death, they keep a wary distance from the creatures, and only use them when they are past considerations of collateral damage. To the Arco-Flagellants, any living being who has not been specifically tagged by their controller as friendly is an enemy, and they will kill it accordingly, be it a true opponent or simply an innocent bystander.
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