Stats for an Istvaanian inquisitor?

[Uilleam]

I had an idea to write a piece of background for a character, but rather than writing the stats and asking for conclave feedback I'm going to leave the whole rules for the conclave to decide. Then over Easter holidays hopefully I'll get the time to build the model based on what you make this character into. The background is fairly vague leaving plenty of room for manoeuvre so I'll be interested to see what the response is.

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Acanta Riccio was born on a massive space station in orbit of the feral world Avonnell III. The space station was essentially a city in space and operated as the capital of the planet below. Adrius Riccio –Acanta's father was the planetary governor, he was very young to hold such a position as it had originally been rewarded to his father, a great leader as a reward for his many services to the imperial war machine, Acanta's grandfather however had died in transit to the Avonnell system leaving Adrius to take up the position of governor of a recently rediscovered feral world.

Adrius was not happy with the governorship of Avonnell; he came from a long line of military men and resented the fact that his father's untimely death had robbed him his chance at battlefield glory. Because of this Adrius took many trips down to the surface to engage in warfare with the primitive but strong warriors of his planet. He soon tired of the unfair advantage his technologically superior troops gave him, so he began to build his own tribe composed of the champions of other tribes. It soon became a great honour for a warrior to be selected to join the sky tribe and many strived to be worthy of living in the great star castle. Soon the once organised rooms of the orbital city became halls for warriors to feast, drink and train in. The civilised imperial citizens that could afford transit away from the Avonnell system left, with those that couldn't either proving their strength amongst the warriors or becoming slaves to them.

During this time Adrius sent the tiny tithe of Avonnell back to the Imperium with ever decreasing frequency, it was only the fact that it was originally a very small tithe, and the previous emigration of the Avonnell administratum officials that prevented the detection of this. By the time Acanta, Adrius' third child, was born the tithe had become totally neglected. Although the major export of Avonnell –its human tithe of warriors continually exceeded imperial expectations. Ironically it was the quality of Avonnell's soldier tithe that attracted attention to the remote imperial outpost, upon first inspection imperial authorities were willing to drop the meagre resources tithe of Avonnell in favour of keeping Adrius in command of the planet and supplying exemplary warriors. However it soon came to light that the very best warriors were being maintained by Adrius in his sky tribe and only second tier warriors were ever sent to fight for the emperor.

So it came to be that 3 months after Acanta's 13th birthday an agent of the inquisiton made Adrius an offer- he would either be executed as a traitor along with all his family or he could take the warriors of his sky tribe and die in battle for the glory of the emperor, in which case his family would be spared and he would be honoured in death. Adrius was pleased to choose the second offer and finally realise his dream of fighting against the enemies of the humanity, he left as soon as possible taking Acanta's two older brothers with him on his death crusade. Acanta, her two sisters and youngest brother were sent to the schola progenium.

At the schola Acanta's youngest brother died in a training accident, and her youngest sister poisoned herself after a being punished for a failed escape attempt, Acanta made several escape attempts herself but was manipulative enough to transfer most of the blame to other progenae and so escaped severe punishment. Acanta's last surviving sister was less rebellious and became a sister of battle whilst Acanta herself was recognised as having a great mind and was earmarked for further observation by the inquisition. After a she had completed her time at the schola inquisitor Geth, a monodominant who was impressed with the military history of her family as well as her sharp mental skills took her as an acolyte, a life she took to with gusto. It was during this period of her life that she attended the purity inspection of the last survivors of a guard regiment that had been fighting a vicious war against chaos cultists thus beginning her fascination with imperial guard remnants.

After an impressively short period of time as an acolyte Acanta's master nominated her for membership of the inquisition, and was shocked when two of the first three inquisitors that backed the nomination were not his monodominant allies but istvaanians. On reflection though there had always been subtle signs of istvaanian ideals in Acanta, and upon becoming a full inquisitor she soon gravitated to those who shared her survival of the fittest vision. Acanta's first years as an inquisitor were relatively uneventful, she focused on soft peaceful worlds where she engineered bitter feuds and blood-rivalries between PDF regiments to toughen them up and weed out the weak amongst them. One of the most significant events of Acanta's life came when she subverted two local versions of the imperial cult against each other which dragged an entire system into turmoil, Acanta's sister's order was drawn into the conflict and Acanta's sister was killed in the bitter fighting at the height of the conflict.

Obsessed by her sister's death Acanta is currently on a personal mission to find out what happened to her older brothers. Though she remains as manipulative as ever Acanta's actions appear somewhat erratic, sometimes putting herself in the thick of combat rather than leaving the fighting to her pawns. Her network of agents has shrunk considerably after the death of her sister since she has taken to covertly subjecting them to poisons, her disciple has increasingly become a worry to her as he grows stronger both mentally and physically. Should he decide he has learned enough to kill her and manages to succeed it is likely that other istvaanian inquisitors will raise him to inquisitor status. This leads her to send him on more and more dangerous assignments in the hope of killing him off, however he is the perfect subject for an istvannian inquisitor as the adversity just makes him harder. As such Acanta has began to take precautions against betrayal from her greatest pupil, though whether or not it's all just paranoia and the early signs of metal collapse under the strain of her duty is uncertain.

[MarcoSkoll]

Sounds like quite an interesting story to me - although I do heavily doubt that an Inquisitor could possibly be surprised by the arrival of Istvaanian support if "there had always been subtle signs of istvaanian ideals in (her)"

If an Inquisitor wasn't attentive enough to notice such things in a candidate he was supposed to be thoroughly testing and who he had been around for many years, then they weren't much of an Inquisitor - particularly if others who hadn't been around her constantly had noticed!
Unhappy about it perhaps, actually surprised seems very improbable.

I'd also note that you keep wavering between the spelling "Acanta" and "Acantha".

[Uilleam]

I suppose you are right, how about if he is disappointed rather than surprised by Acanta's Istvaanian allies since he had hoped she would follow in her grandfather's footsteps rather than her fathers.

Also on reflection I think the background was a little too vague, so I will add in some more. Geth was the same inquisitor that offered her father execution or a death and glory crusade. Acanta is grateful for this as she sees the crusade as her father's dream, but she might change her mind when she traces the path of the crusade and learns of its conclusion. She is pretty enough to be memorable but not stunningly beautiful, her physical fitness is good and she is an impressive knife fighter but she is no more than average for a progena with other weaponry. She is intelligent but more manipulative then learned and interestingly given her incredibly rapid rise to full inquisitor status she shows signs of mental strains after only 6 years as a full inquisitor.

[Inquisitor Cade]

I'll have a go, sounds like fun.

So she is particularly smart, even for an inquisitor. Driven more by personal motives than most. Manipulative, but that's not to say she can't fight with the best of them.

I see her as having a preference to shooting in accordance with the philosophy of if you can attack them, and they can't attack you, you are bound to win, but because of combat efficiency rather than cowardly self preservation. However I imagine she is aware that this is how others see her, so she keeps her skill with a hidden blade up in order to take advantage of those assumptions.
Ws - 63
Bs - 69
While she would keep fit and strong, her skills and her mind would take precedence over her body, so the physical capabilities of a weaker, but still professional soldier seem appropriate.
S - 45
T - 57
Quick witted, smart, manipulative and not afraid to fight, many of her mental stats are going to be above average for an Inquisitor, but her lack of composure concerning her family speaks of a weaker willpower than most.
I - 74
Wp - 64
Sg - 77
Nv - 69
Ld -83

Skills: Leader obviously. Probably Feint, possibly Rock steady aim.

Kit. Low armour, probably not even flack, but I think a force field would suit. Conversion if she could get her hands on one. A compact needle rifle with a small scope, a large laspistol, more of a small las carbine, for 'day to day' fighting, and a digi-laspistol for concealed killing. A Small blade, poisoned, maybe even powered, that can be drawn quickely.

[MarcoSkoll]

How about if he is disappointed rather than surprised by Acanta's Istvaanian allies?

Sounds good to me - better than a situation where it relies on him being incredibly inattentive.

Also on reflection I think the background was a little too vague, so I will add in some more.

To me, all backgrounds on the forums are somewhat vague.

... but I'm unusual in how much I write on my characters. I just don't work well with characters that aren't well defined and described.

... interestingly given her incredibly rapid rise to full inquisitor status she shows signs of mental strains after only 6 years as a full inquisitor.

Not completely surprising. If you didn't build up enough experience with a lengthy apprenticeship, you'd be likely to fall apart reasonably quickly without that holding you up.

[Sarlen]

I wouldn't use leader for her, I guess something housemade out of the following could be more appropriat, since she doesn't seem to lead with personality, rather with intelligent manipulation.

Demagogue
The character is a master when it comes to making rousing, incendiary speeches that stir the listener into(violent) action by playing on their wants, fears and prejudices. Any friendly or non-aligned character hearing the demagogue's speech must make a Willpower test. If they fail they will become subject to Frenzy for the duration of the speech and move to attack the nearest character (or object) against which the demagogue is speaking

Persuade: The Water Caste Envoy has perfected the art of persuading other individuals to acquiesce to his requests, whether through bargaining, cajoling or even issuing threats. The Tau may attempt to Persuade any other character with a Sg of above 20. The GM is the final arbiter of whether a character may be Persuaded or not, but bear in mind that unless the Water Caster envoy has a polyglot hedron, he may not be able to speak the language of the character to be Persuaded. Characters must be able to hear the Water Caste envoy to be eligible for Persuasion. Needless to say, this is far easier to accomplish under non-combat conditions.


Since beeing a bit tired, I'll just leave this as an input, hopefully someone agrees with the general thought