The Amarr Empire has had its share of religious cults and fanatics in the past, but few have been as successful, or been feared as much, as the Blood Raiders. The Blood Raiders are a sect of an ancient cult called Sani Sabik, which uses blood in their rituals. The Blood Raiders believe that cloned bodies have 'purer' blood than other bodies and this explains why they operate mainly in space, attacking unwary space farers and draining their bodies of blood.
The Blood Raiders are led by the fearsome Omir Sarikusa, who has remained at the top of the DED's most wanted list for many years now. Under his leadership the Blood Raiders have become more organized and they have established several bases in the Bleak Lands region.
The Blood Raiders
Regarded as one of the most frightening groups in the cluster, second in most people’s eyes only to the never-ending scourge of Sansha’s Nation, the Blood Raider Covenant has gained a reputation as one of the most savage forces an individual can cross paths with in New Eden. It is a particularly well-known sect of an ancient cult by the name of Sani Sabik, which literally translates to “blood seed.” Under the leadership of the legendary Sabik priest Omir Sarikusa, they have made their way into the minds of the general populace as perennial bogeymen, people of tainted minds and ghastly appetites.
The Sani Sabik cult first appeared thousands of years ago on Amarr Prime as a schismatic sect of the Amarrian faith, long before the advent of space travel. This sect’s guiding belief was that some people were born for greatness, and other people lived only to breed and serve these exalted few. To this, they added the obsession with eternal life that permeates the upper tiers of the Amarrian elite, and the result was a cult so pervasive and destructive that Amarrian religious authorities immediately stamped down on it. Depleted but not defeated, the sect lived on in the shadows, every so often mutating itself anew. Today the cult exists in a multitude of independent sects throughout the Amarr Empire, with some even having moved their business to other empires or out into neutral space.
At some undocumented point in their history, the Sani Sabik began using blood in their rituals, and though each of the different sects of the cult varies in their rituals and doctrine, blood is always the focal point of their search for immortality. A few sects have taken “blooding”—as they call the draining of blood from a body—to new heights. Rumors exist of “blood farms,” where people are kept against their will, their blood regularly harvested. Other stories tell of sects that engage in necrophilic and even cannibalistic activities. As little is known of the inner workings of most of the sects, it is difficult to say whether these stories are true or just urban legends.
Before Omir Sarikusa took leadership of the covenant, the sect was already infamous for killing children, who were considered to have “purer” blood. Omir added to this practice by beginning to target those who were clones, believing their blood better suited for their arcane blood rituals.
In their search for cloned people, Omir’s sect has taken to space. In the time since, their frequent attacks on passenger ships and other space vessels have made them feared and hated across the entire cluster. While the fact that they originated within the Amarr Empire is still a sore point for the Amarr (and rarely brought up in conversation), the covenant do not return the Amarr’s hatred. Instead, they are inclined to view them as believers who have been led astray, faithful who could realize their true potential if they could only accept the true uncompromising and savage nature of their own faith.
The fact is that the Sani Sabik doctrine still shares a substantial number of beliefs with the Amarrian faith. It simply applies a different approach, paying particular attention to a number of scriptural passages that the Amarr would just as soon gloss over.
