Valdemar Tuomas Ove-Kaale, plus new Pyromancy power

[Simeon Blackstar]

Alright guys, this is a long one, so settle in to read...  



Valdemar Tuomas Ove-Kaale was born under the name Sumi on the backwater world of Oakenhawk, a world isolated from the Imperium and then passed by during the Great Crusade.  Due to the harsh conditions and lack of available resources, technology had regressed over time to Iron Age levels.  The world Sumi grew up in could be violent and brutal, with raids between clans commonly leaving young men dead and women stolen as wives for the victors.  His natal clan, Kaale, was large and wealthy though, meaning that it suffered fewer attacks than usual.

From an early age it was clear that Sumi was a fast, clever young boy.  He could run rings around his peers and had extraordinary reactions, but preferred to avoid fights rather than put his ability into practice.  Despite excellent hand-eye coordination, he neglected his training in the spear or bow, preferring to learn from the elderly wise men of the village.  It was just as his parents were losing patience with him at the age of twelve when his psychic talent first manifested.  Upon lighting a fire, the flames seemed to leap across onto his hand, where they burned without causing him any physical discomfort, though he was naturally rather frightened.  This was excuse enough for the village to send him to live with the Bards, the roving, pacifistic story tellers who kept the ancient stories alive, carried news between the clans and trained those who developed the Talent.  

Luckily for Sumi, the Bards knew the stories of what happened when Talented youngsters tried to do too much, too fast.  Tales of horrific creatures tearing their way into this world and killing whoever they could reach with dark talons terrified the child into obedience.  It took him a year before they would let him create a flame spontaneously, and another before he was allowed to grow it beyond what he could hold in his hand, during which time he learned many other things – woodsmanship, carpentry, singing, oration and playing the Ragi pipes amongst others.  By the time he was sixteen, he could project the fire some distance from his body and extend it to cover his whole arms.  It is telling though, that his adult name contains nothing fire-based.  Valdemar, meaning woodsman, for he had become quite proficient in the forests of Oakenhawk, Tuomas, a traditional name passed from eldest son to eldest son within his family, of the clan Kaale. He spent thirteen more years with the Bards, by which point he was taking on students of his own.

It was at this point that the Imperium rediscovered Oakenhawk.  The notion of having an independent world left ungoverned within its borders was unthinkable, and within months the planet had been suppressed by regiments of Imperial Guardsmen.  Spears and bows were no match for lasguns and tanks, let alone how outnumbered the inhabitants were.  The various groups of Bards went undetected for almost a year longer, but Sentinels with auspexes tracked the bands down one by one until all had been found.  The Bards put up no resistance, peaceful to the last.  Valdemar was corralled with the other psykers to be part of the planet's first tithe when a Blackship arrived for them.

He cannot remember what happened to him on board the Blackship.  Faint echoes of screams are all that get past his minds blocking of the memory, but from time to time something will jog something loose and leave him in a state of panic attack.  The first thing he remembers is having his psychic ability tested by agents of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica.  With nearly two decades of training, he had a surprising degree of control over his psychic abilities, and his intelligence and quick wit made him a natural candidate to refer for Inquisitional assessment.

His first assignment was to a moderate Monodominant named Hatherlough.  Although Inquisitor Hatherlough's main interest was in hunting down rogue psykers, he saw the benefit of keeping one with him to provide protection from his foes' powers.  While Valdemar managed to perform this role admirably – especially considering he had received little training as such – he was rather disappointed that Hatherlough refused to allow him to use his natural pyrokinetic talents on pain of corporal punishment.  It was thus a relief when Hatherlough was killed three years later – by psychic immolation, no less – on one of the few times he did not bring Valdemar with him.

Valdemar's next master, Inquisitor Rothwald, was rather more accepting of his ability, having requisitioned his services precisely to lend his retinue some firepower.  Giving Valdemar a psychic hood and force staff, Rothwald encouraged him to go to town with his ability, and it was during these years that he became a truly deadly force.  He could now extend the burning flames to cover his entire body, even appearing to glow from eyes and mouth, and could conjure up ravening firestorm to consume the Inquisitor's enemies.  His powers came to a peak when he learned to channel the heat burning around him into a foe at a distance and heat up his blood to lethal levels.  It was also during these years that he first truly experienced the dangers of psychic power.  More than once he experienced psychic backlash when he tried something beyond his ability, and on a few occasions battled for his very soul.  Fortunately, he regained control on both occasions before Rothwald would have been forced to execute him, and subsequently tested clear of any taint.

He and Rothwald came to a deep understanding over the time Valdemar spent in his retinue, if not what could be called a friendship.  Deciding to put Valdemar's obvious intelligence to use, Rothwald promoted him to Explicator at the age of 41 after eight years of service, and after he excelled in the role, nominated him to join the ranks of the Inquisition proper.

Valdemar Tuomas Ove-Kaale was bestowed with a rosette and the authority of the Emperor a few days before his fiftieth birthday.

The twenty years spent in service to Inquisitors had made it clear to him that mankind was under threat, and his own personal experiences convicted him that the powers of Chaos were of the most significance.  Battling them wherever possible, he began to make a name for himself as a hunter of Traitor Marines, purging a number of cults lead by the fallen Astartes.  On one unfortunate occasion, he couldn't summon the concentration necessary to use his power before he was snatched up by the superhuman monster, who laughed in his face before spitting in his eye and laughing again as the eyeball sizzled under the acidic saliva.  A valiant Guardman was his saviour, clamping a krak grenade onto the preoccupied Marine's back before taking a rusty bayonet to the throat.  The grenade gutted the Marine, but the concussion blew out both of Valdemar's ears.  Regaining their advantage with the death of the cult's leader, the soldiers he had requisitioned pushed forward to retrieve him and made sure none of the heretics left the place alive.  He only found out his rescuer's name afterwards, making sure a substantial sum of money found its way to his family as a reward.  Bionics were found to fix his eye and ears, as well as a casket which had been mysteriously delivered to his apartment.  Inside was a finely crafted meltagun, along with a note, reading "Next time, don't let him get so close. –Rothwald".  He has carried it ever since, though the number of times he has actually used it remains small.

These days he continues to track and slay these lethal warriors wherever he finds them, not affiliating himself with either Hereticus or Malleus but cultivating close links with both.  In the main, he is well regarded by both orders – whether they approve of his psychic ability or not, none can doubt his zeal in seeking out some of the Imperium's foremost enemies.




Valdemar Ove-Kaale

Code Select Expand

WS BS S  T  I  Wp Sg Nv Ld Speed
55 65 53 61 86 83 78 67 84 5            
Weapons: Laspistol, Meltagun, Force Staff         

Equipment, Reloads, etc.
Reload for Laspistol
Conversion Field
Average bionic ears and left eye with Range Finder and Bioscanner
Psychic Hood
Inhaler with 5 doses of Detox

Special Abilities
Talents: Heroic, Ambidextrous, Preferred Foe (Space Marine)
Psychic: Burning Fist, Burning Body, Fireball*, Firestorm*, Bloodboil
Exotic: Psychic Guard

* To use Fireball or Firestorm, Valdemar must first be under the effects of Burning Fist or Burning Body.

Psychic Guard – may nullify powers targeted within 5 yards of himself

Preferred Foe – Valdemar has extensive experience combating Chaos Space Marines, and no longer suffers any fear-related effects related to these enemies.

Burning Body - Difficulty:5
This is a persistent power.  The character's entire body is sheathed in flames and bright light blazes from his eyes and mouth – he is fearsome while under the effects of this power.  Any unarmed close combat attacks made by the psyker or successfully dealing extra damage with a force weapon may set fire to a target using the rules for a flamer.  Additionally, any attacks made against the psyker with a weapon of reach 0 or 1 have a 25% chace of setting the opponent alight.



Model should be along shortly, though it'll be missing the Force staff until I can acquire Eisenhorn's off the ASR.  The meltagun is entirely because it looks awesome on the model, I won't be using it against anything outside of power armour.  What do you reckon?

[Adlan]

Very nice Simeon, I like it. Black ships, multiple masters, very nice.

The only thing I'd question is Ambidextrous, which isn't mentiond in the background, and dosn't really have any bearing on the character.

[Simeon Blackstar]

Thanks for taking a look.  I couldn't really say there was much reason for putting Ambidextrous in.  The background mentions that he has "excellent hand eye coordination", but I suppose it never played a large enough role in his life to warrant a mention.  To be honest, I just thought it would be amusing to have the only ambidextrous (non-alien/Space Marine) model I own have little or no use for it rather than the multitude of dual pistol/dual knife/pistol and sword combos you see as a way to avoid penalties for their character's off hand.

[Inquisitor Cade]

I think that ambidexterous is a nice way of representing the physical aptitude of the character, esspecially as he has for the most part neglected combat training and the only other way I can think to represent it would be with an arbitrary Ws/Bs buff. Ambidexterous gives the character a very small but very characterful advantage. I think heroic fits too, if the character goes out of his way to take on space marines.

I'd suggest that he has both burning hands and the full on burning body power at +5 difficulty. I'd also say that characters that hit him in close combat with a reach 1 or 0 weapon could catch fire as per burninmg fist.

Assuming he uses the laspistol over the melta gun under most circumstances, how does he carry the melta? It is more an asthetic question than anything else, but meltas are heavy so would not be the easiest to just slig over a sholder.

[Simeon Blackstar]

Hi Cade - the meltagun will have a sling which it will normally be carried by (the gun I used is about carbine sized) but for aesthetic purposes it's replacing the naval Bodyguard's pistol on the model.  In any event though, I anticipate that he'll rarely use either that or the laspistol - the laspistol especially is just there for last chance back up and as an overt sign of being armed (should he not be carrying the meltagun).

With Wp 83, a force staff to halve range penalties, Heroic reducing the riskiness of the psychic power and psychic hood to reroll any powers that fail, I anticipate him happily causing mayhem at the next IGT by setting lots of stuff on fire.  Watch out for the ubiquitous barrels of promethium! 

The idea of separating the 'body on fire' power into standard Burning Fist and Burning Body is a good one, I'll implement that now.  I should also note down on there that the idea was for him to have to be using Burning Fist (or Burning Body now) before he could throw Fireballs/Firestorms.

[RobSkib]

Practical question: would Burning Body cause all his clothes to catch melt off? Would it be an aura projected a few inches away from the psyker's body, literally a forcefield made of fire, or would it be the psyker's body heating up so much that it ignites?

[Simeon Blackstar]

I imagine it as not affecting anything the psyker doesn't want to, in the same way you don't have to test for Burning Fist setting sleeves alight, burning weapon hilts, melting ladders etc.  If you've seen the old trick about mixing alcohol and water to make things appear to burn, I imagine it looking like that: http://media.rsc.org/videoclips/demos/nonburningnote.mpg