Cyfecti

The Cyfecti

This page couldn't be more Work In Progress.
Pretty much in note form right now.

Biology

Physical Appearance

The Cyfecti are bipedal beings, with two torso's, four arms, a long tail, and clawed felinid-type feet. They have pale grey skin, often adorned with colourful body paints denoting their pseudo-religious teachings and mantras, as well as intricate patterns. Their second torso extends out from between the shoulders of the first, giving them their characteristic ~12 foot height. Their hands are very similar to humans, but longer and thinner, ending in small talons instead of nails. Their pale leathery flesh is similar to that of humans, but much more dense and notably thicker, giving the Cyfecti a surprising durability to tissue damage and shallow cuts. Their muscle mass is presumed to be similarly more dense than that of humans, as the Cyfecti seem to be far stronger than their appearance would suggest, the typical Cyfecti closer in strength to a space marine than a normal human, despite the Cyfecti having no bio-genetic capabilities. The Cyfecti also have chitinous outgrowths, protecting both of their chests and backs, their joints, and neck. Curiously, their head has no such outgrowths. The chitin has been observed to withstand edge weaponry with great effect, but provides little protection against conventional projectile firearms. However, lasguns require a high-charge to penetrate through both the chitin and the Cyfecti's flesh.

The Cyfecti most commonly wear colourful loose fitting clothing, the most common being robes and cloaks, but a wide variety of other clothing has been observed. Surprisingly however, they wear little armour, that usually being just shin and forearm armour. They do possess shields in great number though, and have been observed to wear strange semi-armoured, psuedo-religious masks in the image of various known and unknown non-sentient creatures.

Physiology

Little is known of their physiology as no intact specimen has ever been retrieved to date, as upon the death of their brain the body bizarrely explodes in a cloud of plasma dust. While non-lethal, the plasma dust-cloud is dangerous due to its toxicity, but is generally diffuse enough in a ventilated area to only cause severe irritation if inhaled. Also unexplained is the small crystal-like stone that appears in the same process that creates the plasma dust cloud. This is believed to be due to obscure rituals that bind the physical body of a Cyfecti specimen to the warp somehow. This means everything we do know is based on inductive and deductive reasoning derived from conjecture and observation, or from documentation from other xenos races, such as the Eldar.

The Cyfecti appear to naturally possess very high-level Psyker powers, with some individual Cyfecti believed to have powers that exceed Imperial psy-level classifications. Presumably, their corruption by the Ruinous Powers has increased these levels beyond their natural limits, and it is perhaps then fortunate that so few Cyfecti existed during the Heresy, and even fewer exist now.

Technology

Where their physiology may be largely unremarkable however, their technology is not. Eschewing armour and firearms technology, the Cyfecti tech is purely about harnessing the warp, or enhancing the Cyfecti's natural psi-powers. As such they use the bare minimum of protection (usually just ballistic shields, if that), and possess no firearms whatsoever.

The most common weapon is a 7ft halberd-like polearm called a Hansza; a 7-8ft tall haft with a thick 3 ft single edged force blade on top. This functions as a close combat weapon when necessary, but its prime purpose is to channel warp-energy, with the blade functioning as an amplifier and the haft a nullfier. It is usually used in one set of hands, while the other set is left free. But other weapons have been observed, most notably are the quad sickle blades of Naygo Ashkagaar, the nine-tendril whip of Kajj Yaszut and the spear-scythe of Pajjen Kupeszran. Interestingly, the weapons seem to be able to channel psy powers into beams and bolts of energy that are emitted from the blade. Blunt weapons are uncommon with the Cyfecti as they lack the bladed-edge to focus the Cyfecti psy-powers and warp energies, but a highly revered set of artifacts known as "The Pillars of Mypan Adesh" do exist. The "Four Pillars", as they are more commonly known, are a set of weapons made up of a warhammer, a flail, an axe, and a sword. It is now known that primarch Uriel Starikov came into possession of the hammer, prior to the Heresy. The sword has been recovered by the Inquisition, some time in M35. However, the fate of the remaining two weapons is unknown, although it is believed at least one has fallen into the hands of the traitor legions.

The Cyfecti also possess personal teleportation devices similar to the Eldar Warp Spider, but they possess the ability to travel system-wide distances. These distances can be extended much further if they set up a Crux Portal conduit , allowing them to traverse the entire Galaxy with frightening speed. Thankfully this tech has not been replicated by the Dark Mechanicum for obvious reasons. This teleportation technology appears to have made void-ships largely redundant to the Cyfecti, and so they have very few in their possession; those they do have are archaic and most often not of Cyfecti origin.

Society

Peculiarly, the Cyfecti don't appear to have had or still retain any type of formalised society at all. The most accurate description that one might give, is that they are fundamentally an anarchistic society that focuses on respect of the wisest and most altruistic individuals. To a lesser degree they also respect the most skilled psykers among their race; note that skill does not mean highest strength, which is quite peculiar for an anarchist society, where the strongest usually dominate.

Their society appears to have been kept together by a very strong belief in pseudo-religious philosophies, reverence for rituals and wisdom, and a idealisation of self-discipline. This has largely been retained by their surviving species, despite the ravages the Ruinous Powers have on the minds, and specifically the sanity, of its followers. However, with hindsight it is not hard to understand how these practices served to smooth the process of the Cyfecti's corruption by Chaos, and thus how it has been retained.

The Four Kings

The myth of the Four Kings or is apparently the most fundamental building block of the Cyfecti culture. Dating back to their very earliest history, the Four Kings myth is not unlike the myths of great and wise hero's of old found in Terran history. When translated literally into Gothic, King or Emperor would be the closest translation, but this does not accurately translate the languages meaning: Kingship, and indeed authority itself in Cyfecti society is vastly different from what we Imperials would understand. For the Cyfecti, the role holds no actual power over anyone, but is instead a great and solemn responsibility, the ultimate objective of which is to protect others; so guardian or warden is a more accurate translation.

The Four Kings themselves guard the Cyfecti from the 4 cardinal directions: North, East, South, and West. They also uphold the four core values of life according to the Cyfecti: creation, truth, unity, and discipline. Cyfecti all follow their own interpretations of these core tenets, but all strive towards an ideal that embodies each of the tenets equally. Fundamentally, the Cyfecti sought to always undertake actions that would lead to at least some creation, unity, truth, and discipline, while avoiding or preventing all actions of pure destruction, falsehood, discord, and disorder. The result was that Cyfecti thought of the consequences of their actions before undertaking them, ensuring that they always acted in a noble and just fashion.

An obscure scroll from a collection recovered from a buried Cyfecti temple complex mentions a fifth King, who's role was to try to undo the Four Kings work, thus maintaining a balance of forces in the galaxy, but this fifth King is never mentioned anywhere else, especially after the 8 Paths movement begins.

The Eight Paths to Heaven

4 Kings teachings weren't enough to protect against the Eldar, so new interpretations were begun.

the 4 cardinal directions were kept, but 4 new directions were added to plug the gaps

destruction/death was attuned to life/creation unpredictability/disharmony was attuned to harmony? secrets and misinformation were attuned to knowledge/truth hardship and expenditure were attuned to prosperity/wealth

The key was balance of those forces. Balancing destruction to benefit creation, disharmony in the enemy to promote harmony in your own, misinformation to your enemy to guard your truth, and expenditure against/for wealth to provide better equipment or to safeguard a future.

While the 8 sided star was successful, it only fought the mighty Eldar to a standstill, and very little land was reclaimed of the Cyfecti empire which had still been reduced to a fraction of its former size. The resulting stalemate made the Cyfecti more chaotic, and hatred began to work itself into their thoughts, blinding them from the danger they were headed for

they are pushed out of the webway completely in this period.

The 9th Way

Cyfecti seeking to regain their lost territory and on some levels exact vengeance (the universe balances itself, so the Eldar will fall in time, but that doesn't mean we should give up and not balance our losses against theirs.)

In their desperate state, only retaining onto the territory they still held, the Cyfecti turned to knowledge and technology to save them. The warp they had used for their psyker-weaponry, but now they had lost the webway, they also turned to it for transportation - its here they developed/copied the warp teleporting technology of the Eldar. It also lead to some seeking answers in the warp, trying to find new ways to weaponise it for use on the Eldar.

One of the Notable Cyfecti makes contact with Tzeentch, who is in disguise somehow, and offers the Cyfecti a means to defeat the Eldar and save the Galaxy from a great evil.

This gets named the "9th Way" and with interpretational rhetoric, it leads the Cyfecti to chaos. Many many years pass.

Before the Cyfecti can launch their new attack, the birth of Slaanesh happens, and the Cyfecti capitalise on it, expanding once more. But then the Humans arrive, surprising the Cyfecti who did not divine this, and couldn't detect beings with such a minor psychic profile. Hordes of archaeotech wielding humans smash the powerful but few Cyfecti and their xenos volunteer auxilias, and their entire empire is swept before the Humans, the worlds being virus bombed and exterminatus'd to lifeless uninhabitable balls of dust and sand.

Several thousand Cyfecti survive the onslaught, teleporting through the warp to other worlds and hiding out. A small enclave sets up a haven in the Eye of Terror, the belief being that the location was the death knell of the Eldar, maybe it would be the death knell of the humans too.

The majority of the Cyfecti spread out into the galaxy during the Age of Strife while the human empires were falling apart. Having now studied humanity for many years, and perfected and learned everything they could about the ways of the warp and of chaos the Cyfecti set out to reestablish themselves in the galaxy, having repopulated their numbers somewhat. Their bitterness towards the Eldar still kept them pursuing the Eldar primarily. This would be a second downfall, as while the Eldar were fractured, they were still stronger than the Cyfecti, and human forces were manipulated into destroying a key Cyfecti haven world, shattering their numbers once more, down to a mere several hundred.

The survivors sought to copy the Eldars manipulative use of humans as unwitting armies, and in the early days of the Unification Wars, through using their zen-like cults of chaos, they infiltrated many human worlds around the galaxy, using chaos as their means of harnessing the humans for war against the Eldar.

The Great Crusade happens and to the Cyfecti's dismay the humans are unified again, and this time they go into hiding, using their cults as their only means of interacting with the galaxy. This catches Uriel's attention (as Tzeentch had intended it) and the Heresy begins.

(Tzeentch gives the Cyfecti his power merely to get this plan of "corrupt a primarch" into fruition.)

History

For a xenos species who would play a central role in the start of the Heresy, very little is known of the Cyfecti in the Imperium, even to most of the Inquisition. However, the Eldar as their long-standing rivals, and some elements of the Forces of Chaos are aware of the long history of the Cyfecti.

The Four Kings Era

The Cyfecti are believed to have begun their rise to the galactic stage in the wake of the War in Heaven.

The Eight Steps to Heaven

The Cyfecti's rapid expansion garnered the attention of the powerful Eldar however, and while their joint use of the Webway was at first amiable, it soon became hostility.

rise to galaxy empire

The Cold Wind

winter is coming

The Ninth Step

turn to chaos (tzeentch especially) but also nurgle khorne and to an extent slaanesh. Slaanesh mainly shunned.

The Star/Snake in the Circle

drawing Uriel to them "For the sake of reason! Always with the 9! 9 this - 9 that. Why 9?!"