My Leader of the Dark Light Cult

[Hiver20]

Hi there,
I this is my new character which I am doing instead of my old one as the background is just to unfollowable.

My leaders name is Luther Maxima.
He comes from the manofactorum sector of the Hive City 13 of the planet Pal-mer 9.
His family did consist of his father, mother and two sisters, who were killed by a raiding party when they were traveling to Hive City 13.
Luther has a very dark and sombre look, because he has never got over his grief.
He dresses up in a morbid style, no one really has seen his face as he hides it away.
When he is angry he will look at you with venom in his eyes, when he is relaxed he is nonchalant about everything he does.
Luther learnt all his swordsman skills from a retired Navy Officer as well he learnt to be capable in firearms.
Luther has a passion for Starships as he learnt all the Imperial variants by heart.
Luther came about his Power Sword, Hellpistol, Carapace armour and Refractor field from the old Navy Officer as he no longer needed them.
Luther lives with the old Navy Officer after the murder of his family  as the Officer had been one of the first response squads to find the transport Luther was on and where the raid had taken place.
Luther has no enemies to speak of but
there will most probably someone to take something personal.
Luther likes to read things that the is demend heretical and also he loves to find out about STCs.
Luther doesn't suffer injustice or wrong but he also sees the Imperial Creed as something that can used as guidelines and not strict rules.
Luthers goals are own his Starship but also to gain power so he can be his own man so to speak.
Luther does not follow the Imperial Creed to the letter but then he could also be classed as a renegade to a certain extent as does his own things for his own gain.
Luther is quite the laid back sort of person when things go his way but when things don't he becomes quite arrogant.
Luther would be considered a Rouge Trader though he sees himself as a Free Trader.
He sees himself as a Pirate Captain of old Terran times.

So here is my new guy, please comment and critique, also he anyone can come up with some rough stats and skills for him would very welcome.

Hiver20

[Koval]

The main obstacle here is the retired Naval officer. You could replace "he was taken in by the Naval officer" with "he went to a Schola Progenium", which could arguably be arranged through the Naval officer if he's the sort that would offer charity to a recently orphaned small child. This would also give your character an education*, and the opportunity to know firstly about warships, and secondly that STCs exist**, without much difficulty.

*Which is not something you can take for granted like modern Western civilisation does. Bear in mind that a startling number of characters in 40K are likely to be illiterate.

**But not necessarily much other than "STCs exist", as the masses of the Imperium do tend to be rather ignorant where technology is concerned.

This would admittedly mesh rather poorly with your intention to make him a renegade character, unless he actually became tainted by Chaos in some form or another -- especially since you'd find that equipment loadout on a Storm Trooper officer, who by and large are indoctrinated Imperial loyalists. You could, for that matter, weave in elements of your other (scrapped) character's backstory, especially the Horusian Inquisitor; in fact, if you want a heavily armed renegade, there's a lot of scope for this guy (whoever you decide to make him) being attached to, or recruited by, an Inquisitor who slowly started sliding down the slippery slope, and dragged your character down with him.

What's wrong, however, with having a loyalist Imperial character? A lot of people make what I feel is the mistake of starting off with renegades or Radicals, without fully appreciating the behind-the-scenes nuances of 40K fluff that can influence character design very heavily. Sticking to established principles more closely will eventually enable you as a player to get a feel for what does and doesn't happen within the Imperium. By no means am I saying that your character is unsalvageable -- in fact, he's very workable -- but do keep in mind that 40K background can be quite the minefield when we start to go behind the scenes.

[Hiver20]

Thank you again for your input,
The Naval Officer would of taken in Luther when he was a boy in the raid. Also you are most very right with Luther being put into Schoola Progieum where because of the officer connections he was able to get a command on a Starship, where he serves for a period of time then he meets the Inquisitior who begins out as a Amalathian but he slowly falls into the Horusian ideals.
I'll most probably do the Inquisitior and two hired guns

[Koval]

If the Inquisitor's moving into Horusian philosophy, then starting him off as a Thorian rather than an Amalathian strikes me as more natural -- if the Inquisitor starts out as Thorian, then he already has an interest in resurrection, saints, Divine Vessels et cetera that can be subverted.

[Hiver20]

Thank you so much for your input its really helped me flesh out my character and also the beginnings of my Inquisitior that goes rogue  but I don't know what hired guns to take also I think I'll give my Inquisitior so psychic powers but nothing to powerful or it just takes the pee.

[Koval]

A lot of Inquisitors are psychic, and I suppose it helps if you're studying the interaction between Humanity and the Warp -- it is something you'd expect a psyker to be interested in.

As for hired guns, I assume you're talking about people other than Luther if we're shaping him into a Naval officer in his own right. You do get naval armsmen on board most voidships, and then we have the Imperial Guard -- having a Guard character is a fairly common thing, as they already know how to use weapons and are trained to follow orders.

Then, of course, there are such things as hive scum that an Inquisitor may well pick up because "they're interesting" or because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and didn't warrant being killed off.

You could also opt for a non-combat type, such as an adept whose primary stat is Sagacity -- the Inquisition doesn't always need fighters.

[Hiver20]

I've decided to make Luther into Lexus as I want to try out a female character so how would I go about getting her from a rusting child in a raid massacre to a Naval officer?

Hiver20

[Koval]

...rusting?

Everything we've discussed so far will fit together in exactly the same way no matter what your character's sex is. So if you want your Naval officer to be a lady called Lexus, that's absolutely fine, just replace every instance of "he" with "she" (et cetera). Bump her up to Commander if you feel she needs a frigate-level command position, though lower ranks can potentially be more interesting to explore -- what, for example, might a lieutenant's ambitions be? If we had Lieutenant Lexus, might she perhaps want her own command? Maybe she's getting tired of playing second fiddle to a more domineering higher-ranking officer? If, instead, we had Midshipman Lexus, she'd be under constant scrutiny from her superiors, and she might be looking for a way to impress the brass only to find she's caught Inquisitor X's attention instead. There's plenty of scope for ideas, whatever you do with her.

[Hiver20]

I think I'll go with Lexus as a Lieutenant who catches the attention of Inquisitior Jerahmiah Newton who is a Solarian looking for person who wants begin a crusade into the unknown space and Lexus want to prove herself as being more capable than her Commanding Officer who just see's her as a sexual object and stain upon traditional Navy values.

Thanks again for your guiding hand Koval:-)