Sergeant Major Elva Bullen

[Elva]

You ever start to work on a character and then another starts to come to mind? That's what happened to me today. I was going to work on Enforcer Church, however I thought I had a decent idea for Elva and this is the result. I did throw in some bellow the belt humor, which I hope gets more laughs than disapproval.  She has been rehauled for the purposes of Inquisitor and I was slightly inspired by Milly Thompson from Trigun(mostly the obliviousness and the size). Anywho, I hope this continues my streak and it is slightly late so any errors that I made, especially major ones I'd be happy to hear about so I can fix them. And once again Inquisitor Blank makes an appearance. I think I'll end up working on him(or her) once the rest of the warband is finished at this rate.

Enjoy

MacK

Guardsman(woman) Elva Bullen

History

Elva is a native to the desert world of Ishigosh VII, known for its large sedimentary deserts and remnants of a once thriving ocean world. Only few examples of life that was able to adapt to the dramatic change in the planet's recent geological past exist, such as the giant riding crabs that proved quite useful for their mobility in  the unstable sands, not to mention being quite intimidating to most bandits. Ishigosh VII's main purpose was a space port, with few other assets other than its low gravity and strategic position relatively close to Lastrati.

Elva was born in the city of Jorock, an Imperial Air Command center located close to the Jade Ruins, an ancient human metal city that had turned green when partially submerged in a tidal shift for several centuries, before the Emperor took power. Elva was rather large for her age, being six foot four when she turned sixteen. Socially awkward and clumsy as sin, she was often shunned by most of her peers. She found work as a laborer in the shipyards down the dune valley and started on a career as a skilled metal shaper.

However the winds of fate would blow in a different direction as she caught the eye of an ambitious guard press gang captain. He spied an opportunity in her naïve personality, as his men would have trouble subduing her physically. The Sergeant was even more impressed when he saw her pick beams up over her shoulder that took two men to lift normally.

The girl did not stand a chance against the sly officer's silver tongue and found herself stationed on one of the orbiting stations, luckily not joining the thousands of others going off to the hellish warzones of the Segmentium Ultima.

Determined to lay waste to the Imperial manufacturing worlds that Ishigosh defended, the traitor; Warlord Poxus the Infector attacked the world while the local Imperial fleet was engaged near Kato. Striking from the Maelstorm with his respectably sized fleet, Poxus laid waste to the unsuspecting Imperial ships on sentry and in dock.

The warlord's Plague Guard, drabbed in ironic ancient lime green quarantine fatigues, stormed the surviving installations with lighting speed. Luckily, before the planet could be overrun, the fifth company of the White Scars managed to intervene, destroying the enemy fleet and cutting off retreat to the landed enemy.

Elva and her platoon held out in a mess hall using air rebreathers often used by repair staff in the void, to stave off the pestilence, and guarded two senior officials who happened to be on inspection at the time of the attack. Her notable kills where snapping a Plague Guard's neck with her bare hands, and smothering one's filter with a contraban image.

During the cleanup, those personnel who had not been tainted where debriefed and questioned by Inquisitorial staff. Inquisitor ________ happened to receive the task of interrogating the Sergeant Major, and was quiet taken with her stature and unorthodox fighting techniques. After a few weeks of observation, Elva found herself once again re-stationed, this time amongst the Holy Order of the Inquisition.


Looks/Physical Description

When one first lays eyes on the Sergeant Major, they notice the towering six and a half foot woman with distinct messy blonde hair and steel blue eyes that look as if they've seen oblivion. She wears a fitted carapace breastplate and a large Praetorian style great coat that she was said to have received from a dying officer during the cleansing of Kalos Station for saving valuable data from being captured by cultists.

Personality/ Demeanor

Elva is a gentle giant, at least when not on the battlefield. She often sits and stares into space in her down time, as if spending time in a safe haven realm of her imagination. She doesn't like to talk much, refraining from dealing with people unless she has to. She tries to keep contact with her family and will jump at any opportunity send them a message, approved and censored by the Inquisitor of course.

Gear and Combat Notes

Elva carries a Necromunda pattern las rifle with a single shot shotgun attachment colourfully known as "Room Clearer". For close quarters, she has a standard sword manufactured on Lastrati.  In combat, she works her way through cover, giving suppressing fire with her las rifle until she gets close enough to finish the job. Disarmed her you say? She is never truly disarmed and can fight with anything. Anything.

Quotes:

"Crab meat, that's the secret, lots and lots of crab meat."-Elva when asked how she grew to such size.

"If you look around you, you can find all sorts of weapons. That rock could be a club, that pry bar an impaler or that spoon could go for the eyes."

"Don't be afraid to fight dirty. If you're fighting a man, go for his weak point. If you're fighting a xeno, go for its head, if it has one. If you're fighting a crab like daemon, aim for the same area as the man."

Guardsman Elva Bullen

WS BS S   T    I Wp Sg Nv Ld
76   61  76 62 54 58 39  68  25

Equipment: Necromunda las rifle with "Room Clearer" attachment, carprace armour on chest and 2 points for baggy clothes/great coat on every location except head, sword, extra las clip and four shot gun shells.

Skills: Fight with anything, true grit.

Fight with Anything: The combination of skill and dumb luck make Elva able to fight with anything around her. Even when unarmed her fists can cause lethal damage to most. She always counts as having an improvised weapon if she has no others.

[MarcoSkoll]

I'd say a character having a 21 point difference in (natural) S & T was pretty unusual - after all, both are based, to an extent on physical bulk. If you're going for a six foot six character (unlikely in a woman, but we've had that discussion before) I'd say it's reasonable that you gave her a higher toughness. With the True Grit, perhaps not that high, but 60-something would be justifiable.

Next thing: Leadership 25 for a Sergeant Major?
While I tend to undercut the rulebook a little on Ld (putting an average soldier about 60-ish), I wouldn't let anyone of that rank get away with anything less than 70.
In a similar vein, I'd at least go with a 50s Sg for a character like that, and an initiative in the 60s - you need to be quick and have a bit of smarts to be an officer. (The Leader ability would also be appropriate)

I have to admit, you've listed a few things that just don't go together. Sergeant Majors are not well described by "naive" and "refraining from dealing with people unless she has to". Military ranks are not assigned based on how well you fight, they relate to leadership and command ability, both of which she seems to be lacking.
You either need to make her personality and statline read more like a Sergeant Major, or make her a much lower rank - as she's currently described, she'd be unlikely to even make it to Corporal.

Even in the latter case, I'd put 20-30 pts on her Ld, and would look at a few other things to change.
The main thing is that those quotes don't really strike me having the naivety you've described in other parts of the background - they've got a bit too much nous and wry wit in them. (Some could be rewritten from the perspective of others.)

So, is she a quick witted, charismatic and intelligent leader, or is she a slightly naive, but nonetheless dangerous low-ranker?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the ideas here are bad, but they should be split apart into two characters. As you said it's getting late, can I suggest you blame it anything that hasn't worked on "Matt Ward time"?

[Myriad]

I like this character, but as Marco says she doesn't seem like officer material.  I guess it's possible to acquire a certain rank working for an inquisitor, mostly for appearances.  Leadership 25 is too low for an experienced soldier, even one generally unsuited to leadership, as the background implies.

I like the fight with anything rule.

[Elva]

All good points, and I will fix the Rank and toughness problems, however I am sticking to my guns with the quotes. They where meant to be ironic; she was just making an observation and didn't realize the true significance of what she was saying. Sorry if that wasn't clearer before.

[Jamas Orian]

For an unaugmented but strong soldier, Str 60-70 sounds about right. The disparity between toughness and strength is fine from my perspective, as they represent 2 entirely different things.

A Sergeant Major is very high up in the non-commissioned ranks, either just below or the first level of warrant officers. At least in the present day, they're soldiers of at least 15 years experience. She doesn't seem (at least from your write up) to be someone of a decade and a half of experience. As a straight 'Sergeant' though, I think it would be absolutely fine.

[Elva]

After some consideration on the matter, I think I might have a better take on her that I thought up over the past little while, considering that I actually know what I'm doing now . However, I do like this one, but sadly she's become obsolete too fast. I'll try a to write up my other idea and post it this thread so its easier to compare. I'd like to hear your thoughts, I think I might just be going somewhere with this. I think I will mull it over as well before I post it, so I can be absolutely sure.


Sergeant you say? If this draft survives then I might just make that change.

[MarcoSkoll]

Sergeant you say? If this draft survives then I might just make that change.

I, however, still wouldn't. Not with Ld 25.
Not that you can't have a Sergeant, a Sergeant Major or whatever, but as she is, she is not believable officer material.

The get out clause from that, as Myriad suggests, is that it's a pretty much arbitrary rank that has been later assigned by Inquisitor Blank for the sake of appearances. But that would be a certain amount of vanity on the part of the Inquisitor - not unreasonable, as Inquisitors can certainly be vain, but you need to consider whether that's how you actually envision him/her.
The other thing I'd add is that once you work for an Inquisitor, your nominal rank becomes fairly unimportant - your position is almost undoubtedly more powerful than it ever was before - so a "promotion" doesn't really have much point to it beyond appearance.