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。最初是作为一种宗教警察的形式建立的，其任务是强制遵守凯恩的教义，在随后的几年里，黑手的职权范围显著扩大。到第二次泰矿战争时，此教已经成为凯恩选定的所有宗教事务的管理员，负责传播和劝信他的预言，同时也在兄弟会内部维持精神纪律…必要时使用武力。

黑手已是兄弟会内部的一股独立势力，与兄弟会共同掌控着军政教三大权力。

然而，尽管他们拥有强大的权力和影响力，直到最近，黑手一直设法保持着令人惊讶的低调，掩盖了他们的仪式和信仰，对Nod以外的世界来说，他们的存在都笼罩在神秘和模糊的面纱中。然而，随着第二次泰矿战争接近尾声，这一切都将改变。在“凯恩之死”后，Anton Slavik，一位受人尊敬的军事领袖，后来成为Nod兄弟会的领袖—并透露自己是一名黑手高级教士，从小就在黑手中长大。不用说，Slavik的崛起引起了人们对黑手的极大关注，这种关注并不总是受欢迎的。

毫不意外，许多黑手内部的人对邪教的新公开形象感到恼火，内部的异议迅速升级为Slavik拥护者和那些声称Nod领袖背叛了黑手真正目的的人之间的一系列激烈的公开对抗。在反Slavik的队伍中，很快就出现了一个可以与Slavik针锋相对的人物，一位热情而受欢迎的传教士，兄弟Marcion。随着领袖的选定和战线的划定，最初的教义分歧迅速升级为一场分裂，威胁到Nod本身的存在。

尽管核心集团一再试图弥合裂痕，但局势很快就失去了控制，Slavik死于刺客之手，Marcion和他的追随者撤退到澳大利亚内陆，自我放逐。这些灾难性的事件将剩余的兄弟会分裂成无数的分支，每个分支都声称遵循先知的“真实”话语，讽刺的是，马吉安的新黑手是兄弟会传奇过去的四个幸存联系之一。

现在，Marcion声称自己是唯一真正的先知，反过来，给凯恩贴上异端和骗子的标签，他开始在世界上留下自己的印记。

摘自《Marcion——我所知的他》Elbert Goldman著