Inquisitor Pacifica Wolfe (1st draft)

[Elva]

As I reworked Elva's backstory, she  ended up like this, new name and everything. I posted it earlier but there were a couple issues with my internet so I had to take it down. She's still incomplete , I need stats for a las carbine and maybe a trait, and I'm a bit iffy on my description of her personality. I'd love to hear your thoughts, that's why its the first draft after all hehe. So, what do you guys think?


Inquisitor Pacifica Wolfe

History

Pacifica Wolfe was born on the ocean world of Kalour, a planet with less than a 6% land mass that functioned largely as a forge world and fishery. She was a native and noble of the capitol of Mactum, though she was born on her father's resort island in the northern hemisphere. She was outgoing and likeable in her early years, with many possible suitors lined up. However, when the natives who were thought to be harmless and only basically intelligent, staged a massive rebellion, the entire population was assigned to either the planetary defense or manufactoriums. The nobles were no exception, other than receiving cushier assignments.

Pacifica was made Captain of the vessel "Victory" under her father as an Admiral. During the battle of Ezoda, when the Mactum it's and allied fleets attempted a first engagement with the natives at the fallen city, the Imperial fleets were taken off guard by the massive titanic sea creatures that the natives used as weapons. Both sides suffered heavy casualties in the opening stages; however the Imperial forces managed to force their way through and scatter the native sea born defenses. When they reached the hive, the natives unleashed their behemoth, a kraken the size of a hive city. Drunk with confidence, Pacifica's father ordered a full on assault, however, his daughter did not participate, which she later explained why as having "a strong feeling in my gut." The Victory sailed out of the gargantuan monster's reach, taking a position on its flank.

The assault lasted two minutes and was a massacre; ninety nine percent of the fleet of just over one thousand ships were completely destroyed by the beast's enormous tendrils, eleven barely managing to make it out. The command ship, which had stayed back at the first sign of loss, ordered a retreat, while the surviving sailors and marines were butchered in the water by the natives riding the monstrosity. Angered by the loss of so many, Pacifica countered the order, ordering all surviving ships to take up safe positions on the creature's flank, where it could not sense them, which was followed without question. On the bustle of the command deck, the captain noticed several large holes, somewhat covered by flaps on the giant squid's head. After a brief cogitator analyzation, her suspicions were confirmed. The holes were part of its breathing system, similar to gills. She ordered all ships to fire on the six targets one each side.

The missiles and guns opened up and made their mark, taking out the airways of the beast, suffocating it as it thrashed in agony. The small flotilla gave it a few more blasts then headed over to the worn down city and made quick work of the natives still holding the city. A couple days later, they were reinforced by Imperial forces and Pacifica left for home to take care of unfinished business.

With the main native fleet destroyed, the clean up had already begun, and with it, justice had to be served.

Inquisitor Tokugawa came to the world to punish those responsible for both ignoring the native's ambition and dealing with the resulting rebellion improperly. His first stop was Mactum, were he found his first job already done for him; a young girl in a naval officer's uniform with a las pistol in hand, standing over the dead corpse of his first target, the Admiral of Mactum. Tokugawa quickly pulled Pacifica's record and after reading of the Captain's exploits, ordered the execution annulled. He offered her a position in his warband, as he had need for one with such competence. She accepted, and soon was travelling with the Inquisitor on his investigations.

A few years later, Pacifica was offered a position as his acolyte after storming a traitor stronghold on Charon V, her close quarters, ship based combat training at its finest. She again accepted. After twenty nine years, at the age of sixty nine, she was given the rank of full Inquisitor.


Appearance

Pacifica has long blonde hair, which she wears tied up with a braid on the back of her head, making it look short. She also has two curls that come down in front of her ears. She has steel blue eyes. Her outfit is a blueish grey naval officer's uniform with some flak armour. She is around six feet tall.

Personality

Pacifica is smart and cunning. She is an opportunist in many senses of the word, and she's not afraid to use the advantages at her disposal, though, she is known to follow a code of "engagement" when choosing her targets and methods. One of her flaws is her vanity, which has almost been the death on many an occasion. Another common setback that she suffers is that she insists on looking her best, even when it could be detrimental to the situation at hand, combining with her stunning looks, she is often easily remembered and recognized. However, despite her flaws, she can out think herself out of almost any situation she gets herself into, and inspire others to when she can't.

Combat Style

During battle, Pacifica prefers storming tactics above open-field combat. She attempts to get close, stalking them with her infrared scope then taking the enemy by surprise with a stunning blast from her shot gun, followed by several precise blasts from her las carbine, preceded by a frag grenade if necessary. If the enemy is still a threat, they are quickly put down by her knife. Her style was heavily influenced by her naval training and experience, as well as personal preference.

Beliefs

Pacifica's days in the navy and mentorship under Tokugawa have given her a unique perspective on the universe. As she was taught by her mentor, she respects her foes and doesn't underestimate them. Every soldier, be they human or Xeno, are still soldiers and are doing their duty, even if she must stop them, and that fact should be respected. Only the strongest will survive, it is a fact of nature. However the difference between civilized beings and barbaric ones, is that they see were their enemies are coming from and factor that in the equation of victory.

Personal Quotes

"Guardsmen die for the Imperium, priests die for the Emperor, I die to make sure they do just that."

"Show me a Xeno without contempt for the Emperor, and I'll show you someone better looking than me."

"To other races, humans are the Xenos."

"Be respectful to a foe if you can, it might just save your life."

"A mistake looses lives, error looses battles, incompetence looses wars."

Pacifica Wolfe

WS   BS     S    T    I    Wp   Sg    Nv  Ld
76    69  49  45   71   68   69    81  82

Right Handed

Weapons: Las Carbine with pump action shot gun attachment(standard naval marine issue, 1 shot per clip), las pistol, 2 frag grenades, combat knife, naval sabre.
Armour: flak on chest and groin.
Equipment: 2 las clips, 6 shotgun shell reload shells, infra scope on las carbine

Skills: leader, blade master, heroic

[Shannow]

As a first draft, it is generally very well done. The story is good and well thought through, my main criticism is that you gloss over the killing of her father very quickly and that seems like something that warrants a little more depth tbh. That is to say I'm pretty sure she killed her dad, I did find it a little muddled, perhaps if you gave him a full name that would make it more obvious (unless of course I am just being thick!).

The stats are fairly high, but considering she is equipped fairly low key that balances nicely. The only major comment I have is that blademaster, at least in its rulebook incarnation, is viewed as being very powerful and as such a good account of why she is so skilled with knives would be nice to justify its use. There are alternative rules somewhere on the 'clave but I couldn't find them annoyingly.

As far as the las carbine goes have you downloaded the revised armoury in Marco's signature link? He has made las pistols and las rifles incredibly customisable so you can pretty much patch together any particular kind of las weapon that you have envisaged

Hope that helps a bit anyway, generally very solid and I like the story, just a bit more detail on Dad and  knives (odd sentence there!), the lack of explanation of her training years may bother some but I like that level of unknown personally!

Rob

[MarcoSkoll]

After a brief computer analyzation, her suspicions were confirmed.

Computer is not a word that gets used in 40k - it gets called a cogitator instead. However, more likely, that kind of task would get handed off to a couple of lexmechanics or savants.

Also, I find it a little unlikely that with a fleet of over a thousand ships, nobody else possibly hit the gills. And on that note, you'd signal a retreat rather before you got to 99% losses.
Those two points need a little more thought or explanation.

Personality

You might not like what I have to say here, but then again, you did ask for my opinion.

As far as I'm concerned, the lively person who turns into a stoic warrior is a rather clichéd concept. I'll admit that it's true in many real life cases, but it's so overdone in roleplay that I generally steer clear.
I also find it a rather dull concept to roleplay someone who hasn't got a bit of zest to their personality.

It's not exactly a problem as such, and it obviously depends on personal taste, but you might want to think over alternative personalities.

[Elva]

I'm glad this one went over so well . Now onto the problems.

She did kill her father, though I had a bit of a hard time writing it because I wanted it to be from Tokugawa's perspective. I will revise that section ASAP.

And I found the carbine stats. The problem is that they can't take auxillaries, though I'm sure I could get away with it by saying its regional, or by making it an "attachment" instead.

The blade master was to represent her marine close quarters training. Which she probably received a bit of before they set out and got to practice in retaking the hive. Though I'll take a look at the alternative rules if I can find them.

I learned something new lol. I'm surprised I didn't already know the 40k term for computer, but I guess I got a  bit confused since my mind was picturing the ships to be more of a twenty first century design, which I will have to remedy.

The orders to retreat were given after a minute or two, the command ship just stayed behind after the first tendril knocked out a wave of ships(the Kraken was almost the size of a hive city). Also, the main assault was at the front of the beast, not the flanks where the soft spots were located. Plus her father was not the best officer/tactican in the galaxy. Though I guess I should put all those details in to help justify my points.

The personality I was not happy with. So I'm glad it was pointed out. It'll go through some serious revisions.

Thanks for the input, I look forward to more. I'm also starting to work on her first warband member, a Vietnam style guerilla with a couple WWII Japanese elements thrown in and I would love to hear any ideas you might have for her as well.

[MarcoSkoll]

And I found the carbine stats. The problem is that they can't take auxillaries, though I'm sure I could get away with it by saying its regional, or by making it an "attachment" instead.

Feel free to adapt the rules as you see fit. When I say carbine, I'm thinking REALLY short and not just "a teeny bit shorter than the full rifle" (and thus, I should probably call it "ultra carbine" or something and put in a regular "carbine"). More like the L22A1, where there's literally no room for a hand in front of the trigger, and it needs a vertical grip instead.

[Brother_Brimstone]

On the stats front i think the SG and WP are unnecessarily high. Okay, so she's a noble, she had a good education, i still wouldn't expect an SG of that level. SG isn't intelligence it's more like 'learnedness' and i donMt see much in the fluff to suggest she has spent a particularly large amount of time in research. Similarly the WP is close to what I would expect a reasonably strong psyker to have - as a battlefield commander i would expect a high Nerve, but once again, what justification is there for her to have such a high level of mental fortitude (bear in mind WP isn't entirely how determined a character is (although it may be effected by that), but how strong willed they are in the sense of using and resisting psychic power or resisting daemonic possession etc...). With a WP of that level, i would say some justification is needed.

Fluff-wise, i quite like it. One thing i questioned was about how you said it was a forge world, but that it had hives. I thought only hive worlds had hives? I could be wrong, but i thought that hives were only used because on hive-worlds, hives were the only way people could live in the planetary conditions. Surely a world so inhospitable that it needs hives would be a poor choice for a forgeworld? Even if it were rich in minierals, if conditions were that bad, you would expect that they would extract the minerals and take them to a world better suited for manufacturing. If conditions aren't too bad and the water is the only issue, then it may have artificial cities created to exist on water but i wouldn't have thought it would have 'true' hives. Perhaps I am just nitpicking.

Anyway, overall, other than those rather minor points i think it's solid stuff and i like it.

[Elva]

I'm glad that those were the only issues with the stats, (1/3rd isn't that bad). since this was my first time using the 'clave standard.

About the Hive/Forge miss-judgment, I have always had a tough time telling the difference between the two, and its becoming the bane of my existence hehe. Basically the cities were built from the sea floor and part of them raised above the surface, were the main ports and aristocracy lived. So the bottom was were they mined for oil, minerals, ect. while the lower part of the top was were the fishing and naval boats docked. So the middle was probably were the raw materials were refined, both food and mineral.

And I'm pleased that it went over so well, I had to revise it a bit, but its a real confidence booster to hear such good things from such talented and experienced people. I'll get right on those changes.

[MarcoSkoll]

SG isn't intelligence it's more like 'learnedness'

For a while, I've been doing it in the vein PrecinctOmega talked about at some point. Assign 0-50 points for intelligence, 0-50 points for education/learning, then add the two.

Personally, I don't take much gripe with either the Sg or Wp. Low 70s is about what I'd expect an Inquisitor to have for most mental stats. It's only if it gets into the high 70s or 80s that I'd expect much explanation.
That said, I do agree that the fact her background implies quite a lot of time spent practising combat skills, rather than studying, so perhaps it needs a little thought.

~~~~~

One note, women of near six feet in height are rather uncommon. We're talking one or two in a thousand (by typical western standards) - not impossibly long odds, but
(And yes, I know that one of the character sheets I've got on the site is for a 5' 11" female. Just because I've done something doesn't necessarily mean that other people shouldn't think about whether it's appropriate themselves.)

[Elva]

One note, women of near six feet in height are rather uncommon. We're talking one or two in a thousand (by typical western standards) - not impossibly long odds, but
(And yes, I know that one of the character sheets I've got on the site is for a 5' 11" female. Just because I've done something doesn't necessarily mean that other people shouldn't think about whether it's appropriate themselves.)

Actually, most of my female characters are usually pretty tall, especially Elva and ones that are based off of her. Elva's actually always been 6'2", so I've toned it down a bit. Also I wanted to make Elva a bit like a viking, and I felt the height kind of adds to that feeling. And after all, Pacifica is Elva Mark II. Sorry if its a bit confusing.

[Brother_Brimstone]

I think from the description you gave of the planet, Hive world may be a more apt description - the hives exist to mine for rich minerals, which are then shipped off-planet to forgeworlds for use in large-scale manufacture. That, to me, makes more sense than going to the effort of constructing large scale manufacturing plants on water world. As i say, it's no big thing, just 'fine tuning'.

As for the SG point i really like that idea (of it being 0-50 intelligence and 0-50 education), i hadn't read it before. I'm sorry if i was unclear, i didn't mean that intelligence didn't effect SG i just meant SG wasn't intelligence alone. By 'learnedness' i meant how naturally able you are combined with how well learned you are - i perhaps misphrased a bit.  I also didn't want to make it sound like i was saying that SG or WP weren't correct, just that they may require a bit of justification. I'd be willing  to allow that the WP is perhaps from her time as an acolyte etc... she has probably had to endure a fair bit of mental punishment, so i can let that go, but, as Marco says, i just find it odd that one so combat oriented is also presented as so learned, an SG of 74 is only 5 lower than what i thought appropriate for an explorator tech-priest who had spent years researching (i.e. the SG of my heretek armadeus). Still, she's your character and it's your decision.

Also, for the record, i quite like that she's very tall as i think it goes with her vanity well - i imagine her as being very 'statuesque' and being tall contributes to that image. Not that i disagree with Marco that it's rare, but the universe is a big place etc..

EDIT: after seeing your change to SG and WP i have absolutely no qualms with those new values, i think they are perfect, and much more what i'd expect. As i say, if you think you're being short-changed by the WP drop, i'd accept the argument that low 70s can represent her accolyte's training.

[Myriad]

On the subject of height, I've always assumed that chunks of imperial nobility are to a small degree a breed apart (probably due to illicit gene tampering at some point), and hence are all tall, striking and easy targets  .

Like the background and stats, all nice and well rounded.

[MarcoSkoll]

Also I wanted to make Elva a bit like a viking, and I felt the height kind of adds to that feeling.

Well, in truth, the Vikings weren't actually all that tall, despite the records from the time portraying them as such. They were probably a bit above the average for the time, as a successful raider was likely better nourished than an average peasant, but evidence is that they came in pretty much about the same as the modern average.

Go with it if you want, but you're going to need to find a slightly lankier model than normal.

[Elva]

Go with it if you want, but you're going to need to find a slightly lankier model than normal.

Ya, I've got a model in the works, its inquisitor 28 because that's what my group decided on, so I'm using a dark elf female torso, and I found a way to make them fit well with Imperial officer legs. I'm just wondering how I could make her a bit taller, I'm not that experienced in that field of conversion. Maybe I'll switch out the guard legs for a high elf archers. I'm also using the High Elf silver helm head with short hair, so she'll look pretty gaunt.