By Stuart Ellis

Squads of Purifiers are maintained by nobles and Guilds to combat the threat of plague by whatever means necessary.

Squads of Purifiers are maintained by nobles and Guilds to combat the threat of plague by whatever means necessary. Since most of the population do not travel but a small number of individuals move around and between planets diseases are often brought into areas that had little experience of them before and little resistence. This has become an increasing problem during the late stages of the Emperor Wars and the peace which followed. When an area was taken over by new rulers they often brought their own Purifiers with them, who seemed particularly active around rebellious settlements or a few notorious places where the whole population died suddenly from some mysterious visitation.

The Purifier, hidden in white armour and a helmet with the face of an unknown beast, has become a mythic figure in Masque plays and peasant tales. They symbolise not just plague and sudden death but also harsh mercy and evil acts for good ends. Stories have them taking peoples blood and making them drink potions or bathe in strange liquids to save them from disease, burning down houses, judging the innocence or guilt of suspected poisoners with alchemical rituals and ordering the destruction of food stocks, the repair of wells and sewers or the isolating of plague-ridden villages until all the inhabitants are dead before carrying out peculiar mass cremations. Miraculous cures and bizarre acts of cruelty are expected from Purifiers, and their presence indicates at least the threat of an epidemic or strange deaths.

Peasants do not always make distinctions between disease, poison and magic, leading to accusations of witchcraft, plague-spreading and well poisoning during epidemics. More educated people understand the principles of infection, innoculation and quarantine better, and co-operate with the Purifiers to prevent outbreaks and the civil disorder these cause. But rumours continue to circulate that Purifiers of the Royal Houses have used disease to justify show-trials and cover up their use of poison or even whole-scale chemical and biological warfare for the advancement of the House.