Background on the Black Hand Nod splinter faction

A cult within a cult, the origins of the Black Hand date back to soon after the founding of Nod itself. Initially established as a form of religious police and tasked with enforcing adherence to the teachings of Kane, in the ensuing years the Black Hand saw their purview expand significantly. By the time of the Second Tiberium War, the cult had become Kane's chosen wardens of all things religious, charged with the distributing and proselytizing of his prophecies while also maintaining spiritual discipline within the Brotherhood...by force if necessary.

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The Black Hand maintains a parallel organization within the Brotherhood with political, religious and military wings.

Yet, for all of their power and influence, until recently the Black Hand had managed to maintain a surprisingly low profile, shrouding their rituals, beliefs and, to the world beyond Nod, their very existence in a veil of mystery and obfuscation. However, as the Second Tiberium War drew to a close, all this would change. With Kane's 'death', Anton Slavik, a respected military leader, rose to become leader of the Brotherhood of Nod - and revealed himself to be a Black Hand prelate, raised from childhood within the cult. Needless to say, Slavik's ascent drew significant attention to the Black Hand, attention that was not always welcomed.

Unsurprisingly, many within the Black Hand chafed at the cult's new public profile, with internal dissent quickly escalating into a series of impassioned public confrontations between Slavik loyalists and those who claimed the Nod leader to be a traitor to the Black Hand's true purpose. From within the anti-Slavik ranks there soon rose a figure who could stand toe-to-toe with Slavik, an impassioned and popular preacher by the name of Brother Marcion. With leaders chosen and battle-lines drawn, what had started as a doctrinal disagreement had quickly escalated into a schism that threatened the very existence of Nod itself.

Despite the Inner Circle's repeated attempts to heal the rift, the situation soon spun out of control, leaving Slavik dead at the hands of an assassin and Marcion and his followers retreating to self-imposed exile in the Australian outback. These cataclysmic events splintered the remainder of the Brotherhood into countless sub-factions, each claiming to follow the 'true' word of the Prophet, with, ironically, Marcion's new Black Hand serving as one of four surviving links to the Brotherhood's storied past.

Now claiming himself to be the one true prophet, and, in turn, branding Kane a heretic and charlatan, Marcion sets forth to make his own mark upon the world.

Excerpt from 'Marcion - as I Knew Him', by Elbert Goldman

黑手Nod分裂派系的背景

教中之教，黑手的起源可以追溯到Nod成立后不久。最初是作為一種宗教警察的形式建立的，其任務是強制遵守凱恩的教義，在隨后的幾年里，黑手的職權范圍顯著擴大。到第二次泰礦戰爭時，此教已經成為凱恩選定的所有宗教事務的管理員，負責傳播和勸信他的預言，同時也在兄弟會內部維持精神紀律…必要時使用武力。

黑手已是兄弟會內部的一股獨立勢力，與兄弟會共同掌控著軍政教三大權力。

然而，盡管他們擁有強大的權力和影響力，直到最近，黑手一直設法保持著令人驚訝的低調，掩蓋了他們的儀式和信仰，對Nod以外的世界來說，他們的存在都籠罩在神秘和模糊的面紗中。然而，隨著第二次泰礦戰爭接近尾聲，這一切都將改變。在“凱恩之死”后，Anton Slavik，一位受人尊敬的軍事領袖，后來成為Nod兄弟會的領袖—并透露自己是一名黑手高級教士，從小就在黑手中長大。不用說，Slavik的崛起引起了人們對黑手的極大關注，這種關注并不總是受歡迎的。

毫不意外，許多黑手內部的人對邪教的新公開形象感到惱火，內部的異議迅速升級為Slavik擁護者和那些聲稱Nod領袖背叛了黑手真正目的的人之間的一系列激烈的公開對抗。在反Slavik的隊伍中，很快就出現了一個可以與Slavik針鋒相對的人物，一位熱情而受歡迎的傳教士，兄弟Marcion。隨著領袖的選定和戰線的劃定，最初的教義分歧迅速升級為一場分裂，威脅到Nod本身的存在。

盡管核心集團一再試圖彌合裂痕，但局勢很快就失去了控制，Slavik死于刺客之手，Marcion和他的追隨者撤退到澳大利亞內陸，自我放逐。這些災難性的事件將剩余的兄弟會分裂成無數的分支，每個分支都聲稱遵循先知的“真實”話語，諷刺的是，馬吉安的新黑手是兄弟會傳奇過去的四個幸存聯系之一。

現在，Marcion聲稱自己是唯一真正的先知，反過來，給凱恩貼上異端和騙子的標簽，他開始在世界上留下自己的印記。

摘自《Marcion——我所知的他》Elbert Goldman著