so I'm new fairly new to gming for black crusade group and I have a question, Is a flesh shaper skilled enough to impersonate an imperial saint?. My group is trying to corrupt a shrine world and my groups alpha legion marine thought of having a npc flesh shaper forge him into an image of a saint and turn the zeal of the pilgrims against the eclissacrchy. the other problem is i would have no idea how to go about this and i would appreciate any advice you guys have

This sounds like an interesting idea.

Technically, you wouldn't even need a Flesh Shaper, since it stands to reason that very few people will have ever met the Saint in question (it's why this sort of stuff worked in real life too ), but if there are statues or images on the location, I'm sure it would help to craft an appearance somewhat similar to those - regardless of how closely they actually resemble the original!

The tricky thing would be to lure away the people from the clergy, for the masses would still look to the priests who have guided them since their youths. I suppose the "easiest" way to go about would be to fake various miracles (either using technology or Warp magiks, plus lots of resources to fund your manipulation of the masses mercy and generosity) and thus build an aura of legitimacy, slowly increasing the amount of people who actually believe who you say you are in spite of missing Ecclesiarchal approval. Once you have reached critical mass, an attempt may be made to denounce the priesthood itself as heretics of the faith. Perhaps there would even be some clerics willing to join your side, all depending on how the character in question and their entourage behave and interact with the people .. and the emissaries that are bound to show up.

It would likely turn into some sort of race against time, because the local clergly will immediately launch an investigation into these claims. Submitting to it would obviously carry a high risk of discovery and immediate incarceration, unless this was part of your plan and you have made preparations. Refusing too long, however, would sooner or later force the clergy's hand and they would either attempt to arrest the supposed saint or denounce them outright, possibly triggering a holy war. They might even call in the Inquisition and/or the Adepta Sororitas to prevent such an escalation, although such operatives would of course take some time to arrive in force (since it is a shrine world, it would be likely for a small garrison to already be on site).

Just keep in mind that when it comes to pilgrims and zealots, you're dealing with uninformed peasant rabble, which can make them a very unreliable force to count on - as many Ecclesiarchy clerics whipping the masses into a frenzy already had to discover. They are easy to manipulate, up to a breaking point where their belief becomes so established that they're no longer open for arguments, and you better hope that by this point you've managed to convince them of the Ecclesiarchy being the bad guys here.

Also, don't forget that the nobility may be a factor, too. Even an army of unarmed, untrained civilians will only get you so far!

Oooh St. Alpharia of Serpentis!

I guess a powerfull psyker could pull it off. Using his powers to create "miracles".

If you have a Nurgle worshipper amongst your band of renegades, have him infect the local priesthood so it looks like they have become corrupted and then have your "saint" decry the priests as sinners who have fallen from the Emperor's light and are now being punished with disease, and that only you can save them from the Emperor's wrath.

Setting up the eccleciarchy against itself isn't that hard. After all Sebastain Thor stood up against high lord Vandire, and they made him a saint.

The appearance of an imperial saint is sure to draw the attention of a lot of people, most of those people will have bolters and/or evicerators... And even if you have swayed an entire planet to become your folowers, the officio assassinorum might come for you.

thanks for all the advice. so the groups plague marine decided to gift both rabble and the clergy with numerous plagues from papa nurgle via infecting the planets "Sacred healing river". Then saint Alpharia of serpentis "cured" them with the help of the groups heretek. however the nobles were unimpressed with the saint and so were the higher ranking clergy members. I had tensions between the the followers of the saint and the followers of the local heriophant that led to a huge social combat encounter between the faint and the high priest. on the opposed fellowship test both of them succeeded and a fight broke out between the opposing mobs which led to a mass combat and that ended in a minor victory for the heretics. now the planet is engulfed in civil war and my group is consolidating resources. once again my devious alpha legion marine thought of another plan, get his minion to impersonate the saint and then gun him down in front of his adoring worshipers to turn him into a matyr in an attempt to whip up the masses. now I need to know how this would work because in my opinion there would be like a fifty fifty chance of the saints death whipping the faithful into a frenzy or making them lose hope,how should I handle this

Oooh St. Alpharia of Serpentis!

That honestly made my day