By now I'm almost finished writing the first class trial, so make sure to read it once it comes out :)
Anyways, today I'd like to talk about some very elite soldiers of the Imperium. As you can probably tell from the title, they are Despair Speakers. But what exactly are they?
Unlike the Reserves, Despair Speakers generally don't subscribe to defeatist ideology themselves. Why would they? Compared to the Reserves, they have a high fighting ability and are treated like nobility. It's not a bad comparison to say that they're similar to Sardaukar.
Although they were extremely trained and powerful, there were never that many Despair Speakers. At the peak of the Imperium army, only five divisions of despair speakers existed compared to nearly a thousand divisions of Reserves and a hundred divisions of Verzweiflung SS, with most of these units under the direct command of the Grand Bashar Mukuro Ikusaba. Notably, five battalions of Despair Speakers were lent to general Alscaen Miller during the Battle of Moscow. Despite being vastly outnumbered, they still did significant damage to the Red Army before being captured in the encirclement.
When they were not engaged in combat, Despair Speakers performed rituals, where they were frequently called to perform dances in grotesque masks or gunning down masses of suicidal civilians, or sometimes both at once. They were well versed in religion, often performing the same functions as Despair Priests.
Following the death of the Padishah Kaiserin, many Despair Speakers escaped to form small guerilla groups. They vowed to uphold the ideology and spirit of their deceased leader, until the hidden no-room containing her journals was discovered and excavated and the nature of her actions was brought to light.