The pinnacle of Hive Cellarius is 16 kilometers high and is the only part of the hive city to reach above the thick black smog that blankets the planet of Andreas’ World. Though the denizens of the hive labour in the gloom of poor artificial light, the nobility up in the great glass Sunspyre revel in the blinding luminosity of their star. On occasion, when the sun is directly above the hive, the nobility – members of a sun worshipping cult – open the vast shutters and let a shaft of sunlight down into the hive. Descending in this light, the cultists commit acts of ritual slaughter and execution for the brief amount of time until the sun moves in the sky and the shaft of light fades. The cultists are trained from birth in the use of ritual weapons, many of which are designed to disembowel and expose their victim’s innards to the cleansing light of the sun. The act of exposing a victim’s entrails to the sunlight – called a sun burial – is sacred to the cult and they believe it purifies the body.

Inquisitor Tsengir was called to investigate the Cult of the Sunspyre for acts of heresy, and on arriving in the Sunspyre found he had underestimated the size and capabilities of the cult. In the brilliant white light of the Spyre he found himself surrounded by hundreds of the softly-spoken cultists in white porcelain masks and flowing cream robes. He saw that infants were taught to worship the purity of the sun and trained to use ceremonial weapons but no sign of imperial creed was present. He recognised aspects of the cult’s beliefs from ancient Terran texts and other heliocultists found in Dalthus but it seemed a strange hash of various concepts with no coherent core tenants other than the ritual of sun burial and the tradition of instruction with obscure weaponry. However, impressed by the martial proficiency of the cult and aware that he was caught in a dangerous situation, Tsengir came up with a compromise. The cult would agree that the sun was an aspect of the Emperor, and the Inquisition would be able to recruit cultists to fight for the Imperium. In return, the cult’s activities would be regarded as a pure and righteous example of the Imperial Creed.

Tsengir recruited the cult’s Prima Carnifexa Absoluta for his personal retinue. Although the cultists have no names they have a strict hierarchy determined by their skill, and the Prima Carnifexa Absoluta is the unquestioned first among her peers in terms of ability. The Prima agreed to join Tsengir readily, seeing it as an opportunity to purify more souls under different stars, and to test her ability as the Prima against champions from other worlds. She does not use any weapons other than the ritual disemboweling sword she was trained with from birth, a flensing knife sometimes used in the ritual preparation of the dead and a combat drug aspirator. Like the other cultists she never removes her porcelain mask, even when a bolter round destroyed the side of her face, leaving it a craterous ruin. She rarely speaks and prefers to fight only in daylight, considering darkness as unholy. She will often perceive any extended eye-contact as a challenge and will fight to the death on such occasions. Due to her unpredictable nature, Tsengir prefers to use her as a weapon and not in situations where diplomacy is required.