Culexus Temple

The Culexus Temple are one of the most sinister and feared orders of the Officio Assassinorum and have been described by Eldar warlocks as nothing short of pure evil.

Those chosen to be Culexus assassins are born with the rare Pariah gene, which means they do not have souls or presences within the Warp. Even normal humans (friend or foe) find the presence of a Pariah extremely disturbing, but the effect is most pronounced on Psykers, who find them genuinely terrifying, as though staring into a hole in the universe. They can nullify psychic powers, and if in close quarters their very existence drains the souls from psykers. Culexus assassins therefore specialise in psyker hunting, most notably of Eldar warlocks and rogue psykers. Culexus assassins have also been shown to be useful at combating daemons, as Daemons are entirely made of psychic power.

Their most notable piece of equipment is the Animus Speculum, a stylized helm which conceals much of their soulless nature, but during battle the arcane 'eye' of the helm opens, bringing their full terrifying abilities to the fore. The Animus fires bolts of negative psychic energy, and can drain nearby psykers to increase its power. They also use the exotic psyk-out grenades which induce psychic feedback in their targets. Finally, the Culexus carry an Etherium, which induces confusion and disorientation, making it near impossible to target the assassin with weapons. Due to the fact that any nearby enemy is already disconcerted by the soulless Culexus, this makes him extremely difficult to target.

Not much is really known about the internal goings on in the Culexus Temple. There is a belief that the Pariah gene was implanted in the human race by the Necrons eons ago for use as weapons against psykers, in response to the creation of psychically-charged races bred by the Old Ones to fight the Necrons.