Warband 2 - Inquisitor Rayne Serephene

[Hum_Con]

Ruleswise I would reduce his nerve somewhat, he seems to be a strong believer in self-preservation and when shot at will certainly go for cover.

His relatively high nerve is reflective of his recklessness. While certainly a believer in self-preservation, he takes unecessary risks in the pursuit of his goals and will often get carried away in tense situations.

[Hum_Con]

Character 3, the model is in the Painting and Modelling section. The background on this character got away from me a bit, but it also reveals a bit more about Inquisitor Serephene, so I have kept it long.

Salazar Grund - Mutant Revolutionary

Musupel is a world on  the Fringe of the Imperium. Poor and squalid, with a thick, noxious atmosphere, its economy is based on the mining and processing of various useful, but largely toxic gasses and compounds. The small ruling glass, including the planetary governor, made the homes in floating cities, suspended above the worst of the planets atmosphere with powerful anti-grav generators. The bulk of the population, who lived on the surface, were exposed to the worst of the chemical effects. Mutation was rife.

On many other worlds, such mutations would have been purged, but Musupel needed a workforce that could tolerate its extreme conditions, so the mutants had to be tolerated. The ruling classes found an elegant solution, a twisted reading of the Imperial cult. The mutants were taught that they had been the lowest of the low, criminals and monsters in past lives and that their current life was a form of penance. If they worked hard, through the Emperor's mercy they would be reborn in the paradise of the great sky cities above. These teachings proved effective at keeping most of the mutant population in line.

It was into this world that Salazar Grund was born. A mutant from birth, he worked in the surface of Musupel. But his charisma, strong work ethic and fierce religious zeal saw him recruited as lay-preacher, the highest rank a mutant could obtain. He was taken to the greatest of the sky cities to received instructions from the Imperial cult. He was then sent back to the surface to spread the word of the Emperor to the mutant communities below, fired up by all that he had witnessed in the world above.

However, although their religious beliefs served to keep the mutant population in line, it had an unintended side-effect. The ruling classes had also been taught that mutants were the worst kind of sinners and scum. Any and all problems, real of imagined, were blamed on mutants. Delays in production were the result of mutant sabotage, transport delays were mutant saboteurs, outbreaks of disease were mutant contamination. Ambitious politicians used mutants as scape-goats for all their problems. The backlash came in the form of frequent purges of the mutant population as mutants were hunted, tortured and killed on the most flimsy of pretexts.

After centuries of oppression, the mutant population could only be contained for so long. A resistant movement started to form. The charismatic and zealous Salazar Grund was at its head. He had seen the cities above the clouds, and he had come to believe that the population above had turned away from the Emperor's light and become corrupt. He preached his new creed with fiery determination and the mutants started to listen.
About this time Inquisitor Rayne Serephene came to Musupel. Believing that the Imperium's casual purging of its mutant population was a waste of resources, she was intrigued by Musupel, where they had been put to productive use. But she quickly came to realise that the system was inherently unstable and decided to support the nascent mutant revolution. She contacted Grund, posing as a revolutionary from a distant world (not far removed from  the truth) she was able to supply them with weapons and information. The revolution began.

Outnumbered, hundreds to one, the ruling classes were forced back. The mutants occupied the tethers that linked the cities to the surface and, when the elevator cables were cut, either built their own or simply started to climb. The cities were overrun, and the planetary defence forces forced to fight a failing rear guard action. At this point, the Governor, overtaken by events, desperately called for help. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, a Space Marine Battle barge of the Black Templars chapter, was nearby and redirected its course to Musupel.
Recognising that revolution was doomed, Serephene contacted the Space Marines and provided them with vital information on the revolution. However, she was loath to let the charismatic and intelligent revolutionary leader Grund be slaughtered by the Astartes. Recognising he would not abandon his colleagues, she waited for a meeting of the revolutionary leaders, sedated Grund and then blew up the building. When the Space Marines arrived, she was able to claim that Grund and the leaders had all been killed in the bombings that proceeded the initial attack. Most of the rest of the mutants were slaughtered by the Space Marines.

However, the putting down of the revolution did not save the Governor, or much of Musupel's leadership, who were summarily executed by the Templar commander for their heretical perversion of the Imperial Cult. A new Governor was dispatched and Musupel's gasses were processed by indentured slave workers and convicted criminals, who rapidly began showing signs of mutation.

Grund woke up on Serephene's ship. She told him about the fall of the revolution and the fate of the Governor. She claimed he had been knocked unconscious in the blast that killed the other mutant leaders and that she had dragged him to safety. Grund had no reason to doubt her. Serephene explained that Musupel had only been one small world in the vastness of the Imperium. Grun's revolution had failed, but there were more and greater revolutions to come. The Imperium had to reform or die and that she wanted him to be part of her great work.

Fiercely devoted to Serephene, who he regards as his saviour, Grund supports her with the zeal of an Apostle. He acts as her bodyguard and protector. Despite his unpleasant appearance, Grund is gregarious and friendly. He is also fiercely religious, with a deep faith in the Emperor, even though he believes that the Ecclesiarchy has lost its way and become corrupt. He has formed an unlikely friendship with the Tech Priest Martel Cranch and the two can spend hours trapped in debate about revolutionary politics and the best way to bring about the radical change they both feel the Imperium needs.

WS BS S   T   I    Wp Sg Nv Ld
48  43 66 72 43 53   51 61 65

Right Handed

Equipment: Musket, with powder and shot for 20 shots, big knife (short sword)

Armour: None

Talents: Scales*, Mutated lungs**

* Grund is covered in bony scales which act as natural armour. He adds 1 to his base injury value (.
** Being brought up in the highly noxious environment of Muspel, Grund's lungs are capable of processing most toxic gasses. He received +40% resistance to gas weapons.

[Dolnikan]

I like the background, but the rules don't really match it. Someone who can be a leader for such a revolution, going against centuries of indoctrination, would probably have a higher leadership and perhaps the leader skill, he would be a very charismatic person. That would show him as a true revolutionary leader. Of course, non-mutants would be unlikely to listed due to their prejudice but he would still be capable of giving impressive speeches.

[Hum_Con]

This is the last character. I have had the model and the concept sorted for a while, but it took me an age before I was happy with the way the background was written. I'm still not one hundred percent. The model will shortly be up in the painting and modelling section.

Keeva Shiv

Keeva Shiv was born in the ruins of Hive Octus on the planet Radolphus. The Hive had been destroyed during the Waagh of the Ork Warlord Bazagrag. The bulk of its population evacuated or killed, all the remained was the ruins of the Underhive and its gangs. Contrary to expectations, the gangers didn't simply die out, but managed to eke out a living scavenging from the wreckage and raiding wasteland settlements and the rare transports that ventured to that part of the planet. Over the centuries their primitive society became even more primitive, devolving into a tribal culture in which gangs became clans.

Keeva was the daughter of Arka Shiv, a Warlord of some repute who had managed to unite several clans under his banner and was on the way towards conquering the entire underhive. Keeva was brought up with an autopistol in each hand and became an accomplished gun slinger. Arka's success spawned powerful enemies. The Spike-Bone, Straken and Asgar clans formed and alliance against the Shiv. They invited Arka to a meeting of the clans, where the Shiv were ambushed and massacred. Only Keeva survived, fleeing into the ruins.

The young Keeva vowed vengeance against her father's and her clan's killers. Armed with her trusty auto-pistols she became a silent avenger, striking from the shadows and then disappearing. She successfully assassinated Krarl Straken and his entire family without being seen, marking each body with the sign of the Shiv clan. The clans came to believe that the Spirit of Arka himself had arisen to claim vengeance. But, when she made an attempt on the live of Gurren Asgar, she was scene. Now knowing that their enemy was flesh and blood and not supernatural, they clans began a ruthless hunt.

Keeva fled to the deepest part of the Underhive, but even there she would not have been able to stay hidden for long. Stopping for a drink at a one of the Underhive's small lakes, she came across a mysterious woman carrying a staff. Keeva readied her auto-pistols to defend herself, but before she could act her pursuers caught up with her. Keeva was astonished when the woman raised up her staff and the men fled in horror.

The woman, was Inquisitor Rayne Serephene. She had come to Radolphus hoping to learn something about this society that had survived in extreme conditions. She had considered that it might be worth radically reforming a few hive worlds by destroying the hive cities. But she had not been impressed by the superstitious primitives she had encountered and was intending to leave. Keeva's pursuers had been little more than an irritation.

However, Keeva's clan pride would not allow her to owe her life to this woman. She insisted that she accompany the Inquisitor until the debt was repaid. Serephene, impressed by the young woman's skill with an auto-pistol and her sheer nerve decided to take her up on the offer. She could always be abandoned later if she did not prove useful.

In fact, Keeva adapted fast to the wider Imperium. Brought up on primitive clan tales of an Empire beyond the stars, the worlds she encountered were no stranger than the stories she had been told. An excellent gun-slinger and fiercely loyal to Inquistor Serephene, she has more than proved her worth. She has formed something of a rivalry with Salazar Grummond, both of them seeing themselves as Serephene's bodyguard and anxious to demonstrate their superior skills. She is fascinated by Martel Cranch, the metal man as she calls him, less because of his outlandish appearance than because of his ability to repair her weapons. Serephene she regards as something between a legendary hero and a mythological monster, simultaneously afraid, fascinated and devoted to her.

WS BS S   T   I    Wp Sg Nv Ld
47  69 53 51 71 54  57 74  48

Left-Handed

Equipment: Two Autopistols, Frag Grenade

Armour: Carapace (6) on Chest, Flak on all other locations except abdomen and head.

Talents: Fast Draw, Gunfighter

[Koval]

"seen" rather than "scene"

One thing about this girl sticks out -- in what you've told us, Serephene didn't see much of Shiv's gunslinging prowess beyond the fact that she was carrying two pistols, and yet that's a reason Shiv's been brought on board. Unless Serephene actually sees Shiv using those guns of hers, then Little Miss Underhive's basically being hired for her sheer chutzpar and nothing else, which says more about Serephene than it does about Shiv.

On a more minor note, autopistols are noisy, so her being a "silent" avenger seems a little strange. Perhaps "relentless" might work better if she manages to gun down a rival family (though again, her doing it without being noticed seems a little off given how loud her guns are likely to be... any chance you could expand on this part?)

She also doesn't seem to be carrying any spare ammunition, which is mildly off-putting...

[Hum_Con]

Actually that's chutzpah

I take your point on the auto-pistol noise, relentless probably does work better than silent.

One point that got lost in the multiple drafts was that Serephene had been watching the Underhive for some time and would have been well aware of the mysterious Shiv clan avenger and her one-woman crusade. I did make that point clearer in other drafts, but it just wasn't reading right. I said I still wasn't entirely happy with it.

The extra ammunition was just something I overlooked. I will iron that out when I get round to putting some character sheets together.

[Koval]

Actually that's chutzpah

When you're transliterating a Yiddish word, I think anything goes.

I take your point on the auto-pistol noise, relentless probably does work better than silent.

Probably for the beDAKKADAKKADAKKADAKKADAKKADAKKA

One point that got lost in the multiple drafts was that Serephene had been watching the Underhive for some time and would have been well aware of the mysterious Shiv clan avenger and her one-woman crusade. I did make that point clearer in other drafts, but it just wasn't reading right. I said I still wasn't entirely happy with it.

Well, this is why we're here -- so that you can take something and make it into something that you're happy with, that we're happy with, and that everyone's happy with. There's plenty of room to squeeze it in, so don't sweat it.

[Dolnikan]

I would also put in the bit about the reputation, gunning down an entire family on her own would give her a huge reputation, and survival an even greater one.