The human Survivors who work most closely with the Zealots and their religious institutions are known as Converts. They enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship with their pious counterparts, and although they live in their own encampments, as opposed to one of the numerous fortified Zealot compounds scattered throughout the Novus Æterno universe, they receive sustained support from Zealot forces, principally in return for their services as engineers.
The Converts’ ability to restore seemingly irreparably damaged ships and similarly complex machinery to full working order, often with little more than scrap metal and other salvaged refuse, has rendered them invaluable when it comes to the maintenance of deep space convoys and paramilitary patrols, particularly when the nearest suitably equipped Zealot settlement is often hundreds of light years away.
In addition to their skills as technicians, many Converts also offer their services as crackerjack guides on the various worlds they inhabit. To a Zealot dedicated to upholding the Law, one who is in pursuit of a group of dangerous fugitives, or a Demon Hunter seeking to eradicate a den of Azsendi Heretics, an astute Convert can provide passage through labyrinthine subterranean tunnels, treacherous mountain ranges, sweltering deserts, and other remote locales that would otherwise prove to be virtually inaccessible. Some Converts have even been known to act as agents on behalf of certain Zealots, working as spies, couriers, and informants, or performing other surreptitious tasks that a devout Zealot might officially frown upon or generally consider to be unsavory.
Although they lack the formal social structure and rigid hierarchy of the Zealots they associate with, Converts have distinguished themselves as indispensable to their sacrosanct allies. There is little doubt that many Zealots would not be alive minus the aid they receive from these resourceful Survivors.
