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The Cult of the Verdant Heart is one of the oldest devotions to the Green Man in the Prigorian Divide. The cult has been practicing communion – times of fellowship with the Emperor Reborn – in the shadows of Prigorian culture since the early days of Imperial settlements in the divide. It is now commonly seen in some of the older settlements in the divide, where decorative architectural ornaments featuring a verdant heart surrounded by thorny branches are frequently found in carvings on both secular and ecclesiastical buildings.

The birth of the cult took place in the early period of Prigorian imperial history. During that period, a solitary, thorne-cloaked wanderer, twice the size of an ordinary human, was rumored to be walking the divide. He was often seen in several settlements and trade stations at the same time, everywhere carrying his wooden staff and praising the long-suffering love of the Emperor Reborn.

The thorne-cloaked wanderer shared stories of how the Emperor Reborn – fomenting his green rebirth – wished to be homaged with images of his verdant heart, asking for the faithful to make amends for any wrongdoing they had done and frequently take communion.

Several cult preachers have since the birth of the cult reached immortality within the cult, Hallowed Jean Aubépin of the Verdant Heart being one of the most venerated. There are different variants of the verdant heart itself, but all share the same physical presence of a physical green heart, mostly symbolic, but sometimes real! In some cases, the heart is depicted with a crown of thorns and different inscriptions collectively foreboding the coming of the Green Man.

Green Man Cometh!

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Where my Green Mechanicvm army for the Thorn Moons Crusade was all about giant Elder Ones – made from Forgeworld Character Series models – and boreal and bio-mechanical beasts, in my new Crataegus Legion army, I am going all human!

With this army, I want to explore what it means to be human in the Imperial frontier, where the only guiding light is your faith!

I am playing the Crataegus Legion army as Thousand Sons (see the Thorn Moons Crusade) and I am – of course – doing a big unit of 30 chaos cultists with auto pistols, brutal assault weapons, 3 flamers and their faith…

First up is a third of those cultists; 9 unpainted and work-in-progress members of the Cult of the Verdant Heart!

/FPOA