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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
→The Malfian Blood Guild
==The Malfian Blood Guild==
On the [[hive world]] of [[Malfi ]] in the [[Calixis Sector]], [[Segmentum Obscurus]], the Blood Guild is an organisations of bounty hunters and man-trackers that have risen to infame acroos the [[Malfi sub-sector|sub-sector]] and beyond. Owning its origins to some long forgotten internecine war in Malfi’s history of vendetta and civil infighting – a history that predates Malfi’s “liberation” during the [[Angevin Crusade]] in [[M39]] – the Blood Guild has long served to track down and apprehend or kill fugitives whose warrants have been issued by the [[Malfian Senate]]. Those [[blood warrants warrant]]s are aptly named, issued in the form of a tough parchment scroll bearing the seal of the authorising body and carrying within it a [[gene-lock]] circuit amulet designed to identify the victim by their blood when spilled over it. The execution of these warrants usually requires the subject’s termination, or more rarely their capture for trial – with some warrants adding further gruesome specifics to the discharge notice. The returning of the bloodstained warrant results in payment drawn on Malfi’s own [[Obsidian Chancellery]]. Falsifying such a warrant in some way is a dire matter indeed, and immediately results in a blood-price of truly staggering proportions being placed on the head of the malefactor by the guild.{{Fn|16b}}
The ''Bloodsworn'', as the members of the guild are called, are professionals, the best it is said that money can buy at their craft. Drafted from the ranks of hardened ex-[[guardsmen]], disgraced [[Arbites]], outcast armsmen from the [[noble house]]s and all manner of killers and gunfighters come up from the [[underhive]] the hard way. They operate under only one rule – a warrant must be carried out scrupulously, but it doesn’t matter what methods are used. Owning little in the way of loyalty to each other either, several Bloodsworn might seek to execute the same lucrative warrant. Such, often lethal, competitions are actively encouraged in the guild as a means of weeding out those not up to the standards of the guild’s reputation.{{Fn|16b}}
Becoming part of the Blood Guild is deceptively simple: the candidates (who can’t themselves be under subject to warrant or are subject to ”higher oath”) must make their way to one of the guild’s [[charter house]]s, offer payment of a thousand [[Throne gelt]], and they are given a ''grey warrant'' to successfully claim by any means necessary (which can include the help of others) – grey warrants are those that have languished uncollected on the charter house’s books for some time, usually because the money offered doesn’t merit the danger involved in the collection. Once successful, the candidate must then swear a blood oath to abide by the guild’s rule, is given a guild symbol as credential and is entered on the charter list. They may then claim the right to the title of Bloodsworn and execute lawful warrants, as long as they survive to do so.{{Fn|16c}} It's known that even some [[mutants]] from the Malfian underhives are among the Bloodsworn.{{Fn|17}}
Many Inquisitors [[Inquisitor]]s are not above hiring members of the Bloodsworn into their own service, and some even back their Acolytes [[Acolyte]]s to become Bloodsworn to take advantage of the cover it can provide during their covert operations.{{Fn|16c}}
==Known bounty hunters==
