My Warband.

[MEHughes]

Greetings all!
I'm hoping to use this thread to display all the members of my warband, starting with my "main character" Lady Camera Des Athena.


Lady Camera Des Athena was raised into an exceptionally rich, exceptionally devout family on the planet of Puntar V. Puntar V is a world heavily influenced by the Ecclesiarchy, and the majority of the world works constructing huge cathedrals in his favour, or in industries that contribute towards the Church of Man.  The richest families compete in providing loyal sons and daughters into either the Ecclesiarchy itself, or into the Schola Progenium. The deeds of their children provide the families with glory; a valuable currency in the shifting politics of Puntar V.
                        Camera Des Athena was proposed to join the Schola Progenium, as a young child she had displayed great intelligence and martial ability that would not have been suited for the church. She was not accepted. The judges who examined her claimed she was ego-centric, materialistic and totally unsuitable for service to the emperor. They recommended either living out her life among nobility, or providing herself to the Ecclesiarchy. Camera chose the first. For a decade, she lived out her life among the nobles and upper classes of Puntar V. She kept keen her skills, practising for the day when the Emperor would provide her with her holy duties.
      Her chance came when Inquisitor Lord Iijah Michallus visited the planet. Being Puntar born himself, Michallus often visited the planet, knowing it to be a good source of pure and devout recruits. He was not looking for a lady to join his entourage. More often, he preferred recruiting young men from the noble families who would be eager to prove themselves. He was not looking for a pampered, egotistic lady with little transferable skills to join him. However, the politics of Puntar V are not that simple. Realising that this may be her only chance to escape the planet and fulfil her service to the emperor, Camera drew upon an old blood debt, claiming that not to fulfil the ancient oath was to bring dishonour upon both the Inquisition and the Emperor.
                              Faced with this accusation, the aging Inquisitor could do nothing but laugh. He had more than lived his life and was looking for an agent to carry out his day to day business. He made an agreement with Camera. If she could pass a series of trials, he would take her on as his apprentice. He did not expect her to succeed, but knew that if he made the offer, his honour was not tarnished.
                           The trials were many and varied. They included the Ordeal of the Blade, where Camera had to hold a sharp, heavy blade above her head whilst the Inquisitors agents listed charges against her. Michallus provided the term that if she could live out for 2 hours every day, he would consider her pure. This she did. Dozens of other trials Camera passed with flying colours, and several she only just scrapped through. Even those trials based on combat and warfare, Camera's passion and faith saw her through. In the end, Michallus resorted to a trial he knew she could not pass. The Trial by Holy Seal, where a hot wax seal is pressed against the hand of the accused, and any sort of burn or blemish implies impurity, is one often failed and often used as a carte blanche to persecute innocents as Heretics. By this point, Michallus was desperate for Camera to fail, he presumed that this most fickle of trials would be her undoing. He was wrong. When the wax seal was pressed to her hand, she felt no pain. There was no scar, no burn. All that was present was faith and purity.
                     Michallus could not go back on his word, and adopted Camera as his apprentice. It was his belief, especially after the final trial, that the Emperor wanted her to be with him on his journey, and he would not fail in his service to the Emperor.
   Since then, Camera has excelled. She has accompanied her master on a dozen in depth investigations, and often represents him in smaller matters. However, her old lifestyle of extravagance has never left her. She still wears the old dresses and wields the elaborate knives she was gifted as a teen. Michallus lets her have these luxuries, seeing as she provides him with a valuable service, and he is wise enough to know when not to argue with a woman.
                              However, now has come a time when Michallus is not the man he once was. There are rumours around his staff that he has seen and heard too much; that voices plague him in his sleep and shadows haunt his every step. He shakes when under pressure, and stutters in the face of his superiors. There are rumours that perhaps the time has come for Camera to adopt the mantle of Inquisitor, and for Michallus to retire into the shadows.


WS   BS   S   T   I   WP   SG   NV   LD
54   57   56   52   73   79   76   64   71

Special Abilities: Word of the Emperor, Blademaster.
Equipment: Two Knives, Padded Clothing on arms, legs, groin, chest and abdomen (Av2), Automatic Combat Shotgun with two loads of Sanctified Inferno rounds, Rosarius, Hexagrammic Wards.

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!

Cheers!

[Dolnikan]

She seems interesting. I have a few questions though.

1) Where did she get the rosiarius and the quite expensive sanctified inferno rounds?

2) If she was such an egoist, why did she wish to serve the emperor that much. If it was her ambition to serve the Emperor the church would probably have accepter her.

3) What kind of role does she serve, does she have great investigative talents?

[MEHughes]

Hey Dolnikan, thanks for the reply
I'll try to answer your questions best I can, but I'll welcome any input from the community.
1) I saw these holy items being gifts to her from the Ecclesiarchy. What with the level of influence the church has on Puntar V I don't think it would be too uncommon to give out some goods in exchange for a favour at a later date. Could make for an interesting campaign at one point actually, when the Ecclesiarchy calls her back on that debt...

2) I think the desire to serve the emperor comes from a cultural thing. She wants to serve the Emperor because that's what everyone else does, it's the in thing. If you're from a noble family and you don't do something to serve the Emperor, you're shunned and seen as rather silly. So the church or Schola Progenium would have seen this as wanting to serve the Emperor merely because that's what she thought she should do, when in fact it would be totally unsuited for her. I hope that makes sense

3) She basically serves as the voice of Inquisitor Lord Michallus. Due to his age and afflictions, he doesn't want to be running around all over the place meeting people and intimidating folks and such. I have the image of the Inquisitor Lord sitting in his ship / command center / living room and just giving her orders, which she follows in her way. She's certainly had some training at investigating and the business of an Inquisitor, but still has alot to learn, especially in regards to the politics and differing ideologies.

Thanks for replying, and I hope that makes sense.

[Dwi]

Hummmm... he seems more of a "Back Seat driver" sort of gal to me. A person who lets/makes others do all the work (girl after my own heart ) So why have her with Blademaster and a shot gun? Needle Pistol or Neddle Rifle seems best and perhaps a ornate saber od some aort if she HAD to get up close. Her stats also seem to comfrim this.

[seiterarch]

There's just one thing that keeps niggling me when I read this.  It's that as far as I know, the Schola Progenum are exclusively for orphaned children so the references to them don't seem to make much sense.
It could just be that I've misremembered/not read parts of the canon on them though.

[MEHughes]

Dwi, That was the kinda impression I was going for. She doesn't really wanna do the work and get dirty, but knows that's her lot and she has to do it. She does have a personal assistant in the form of a servitor who basically follows her around and pampers her To me though, Needle weapons scream assassin, and I wanted her to have a heavy Ecclesiarchy feel.

Seiterarch, Normally you would be correct. However its known for Imperial Nobles to voluntarily orphan their children so that they can attend the Schola Progenium. I see this as a long standing agreement between the Nobles on Puntar V and the Schola

Thanks for your comments, they really help me think through the character

[Dolnikan]

The knives could easily be explained by fighting with a pair of knives being the traditional method of fighting by the upper classes of that planet.

[MEHughes]

I plan on writing up a full report style thing on the planet sometime soon, so I'll post that up when it's done.
In terms of stats, do you think it's okay? I was worried it was a little low, considering she's going to be my main PC for most of the games I take part in.

[Dolnikan]

Stats being too high or low mostly depends on what you will be facing, the only thing that could be trouble is the shotgun, her ammunition has two special types at once, that is a lot of power against specific opponents. I look forwards to the report of the planet, those are always interesting.

[Kaled]

Stats being too high or low mostly depends on what you will be facing

I disagree, her stats would only be too high or low if they over or under represent her abilities - nothing to do with who she's facing.

I don't think it's a problem if she's your main PC and is weaker than other people's main characters. Some characters are just stronger/smarter/faster/whatever than others. And she can always take slightly tougher henchmen to compensate. Honestly, I wouldn't worry if her stats seem low until you've used her and her warband in a few games. Once you've had chance to see how she performs then you can adjust her stats if necessary.

[Dolnikan]

It is important. Different groups have different ideas of how high a stat must be to represent a given level of skill. When everyone in a group gives at least BS50 to someone, even if they are at best an average shooter, a good marksman needs a higher BS than in a group where 30 represents the average character.

[Kaled]

That has nothing to do with who she's facing, that's a question of making sure that everyone in the group has roughly the same idea of what the stats represent. I guess that's what you meant in the first place, but the way you expressed it wasn't at all clear. I originally thought you meant her stats should be higher if the opponents characters happened to be more powerful.

[Dolnikan]

I am sorry for being unclear, english is my third language and I often find it hard to properly express myself.

[Dwi]

Dwi, That was the kinda impression I was going for. She doesn't really wanna do the work and get dirty, but knows that's her lot and she has to do it. She does have a personal assistant in the form of a servitor who basically follows her around and pampers her To me though, Needle weapons scream assassin, and I wanted her to have a heavy Ecclesiarchy feel.

A dueling Pistol or ornate, gold inlayed hunting rifle then, I don't know! Just not a  factory line shot gun thats a dirty commoners weapon!
If you are stuck on it however her haps a old timey side-by-side would be best? you would have to make it fancy dancy of course.

[Kaled]

Why not an old las weapon? A duelling laspistol perhaps? It doesn't make sense that antique weapons in 40k should always be projectile weapons.