Ignatio Pulsanus - Explorator

Electro-graft (Pinky finger of left hand.)
Electoo Inductors
Respirator Unit (+20% bonus to resist airborne toxins and gas weapons, includes vox synthesizer)
Cyber-mantle
Potentia Coil
Cranial Circuitry

On the Iron Law, the Chief Chirurgeon was a man named Quinnius, who was mortally wounded when the ship was damaged. The good Chirurgeon did his best to keep himself alive, for painful weeks, as he dutifully saw to the rest of the crew. Ignatio considered this a prime example of a human being, even without being a member of the machine cult, performing their function as well as they could even in trying circumstances.

When Quinnius eventually succumbed to his injuries, Ignatio converted his head into a servo-skull to allow him to perform his duty even beyond death.

WS BS S T Ag Int Per WP Fel
15 15 10 20 30 15 35 20 ––

Skills: Awareness (Per ) +10, Concealment (Ag) +10, Dodge (Ag), Silent Move (Ag) +10, Medicae (Int) +20.
Talents: Fearless.
Traits: Dark Sight, Flier 6, Machine (2), Size (Puny).
Armour (Machine): All 2.
Gear: Inbuilt vox and cogitator, Surgical tools (As Medikit), Injector. Pict Recorder
Rolls Medicae at 55, heals 1 wound regardless of damage level.  

1) The blood or the precedence:
Vassal, for many years Ignatio served as an Enginseer aboard another Rogue Trader's ship. Before it was defeated and left as a drifting hulk in the void.

2) The path:
Explorator. Ignatio has been on the path of the Omnissiah for as long as he can remember.

3) The cradle:
The Forge World Echidna, in the Capital Subsector. Echidna is a forge world focused on cybernetics. (as in 'Echinda-pattern augmetic arm.) An unusually sterile forge world, all brass and white permacrete, filled with factories and experimental clinics. Those who cannot or will not become good workers are typically supported as experimental specimens for new cybernetics. Cyborgs are often made to fight in arenas, as 'proving grounds' for the effectiveness of their implants. At the highest levels, these fighters barely resemble human beings at all, and the most successful are often auctioned off as bodyguards or shock troops. Echidna often plays host to wealthy visitors from nearby worlds, who are brought here to receive the finest implants available in the sector. Mechatendrites are somewhat less popular among Echidna tech-priests.


4) The birthright:
Ignatio was picked out for training in the machine-cult from an early childhood, especially after an industrial accident broke open his skull and rendered him from a bright and quick boy, into a vegetable. A kindly magos saw fit to repair the damage to the boy's mind, and indeed went further than that, using him as an example of the mastery of his craft.

5) The lure of the void:
Ignatio was prepared to be a ship's enginseer in order to meet the requirements of his Magos' agreement with the Filianatis dynasty. He was expected to ensure that the Omnissiah's will was being properly followed, even on such vessels.

6) Trials and travails:
The ship that Ignatio served on was defeated, and left drifting as a hulk for more than a decade, it's Lord-captain dead. Ignatio rallied the surviving crew and managed to hold out for many years. In that time, Ignatio took control of the machine cult on the ship, and inducted many surviving members of the crew into the ranks in order to keep the ship functional enough to keep them all alive. Once his subordinates numbered enough to justify it, he claimed the title of Magos. Eventually, he was able to arrange to repair the engines enough to allow the ship to limp back to the inner system and make orbit around a small colony, so he could call for help.

7) Motivation:  
Ignatio is greatly honored to have been given another ship, and the highest status of authority among the enginseers of that ship. He is driven to prove himself worthy of that status, and to show the Rogue Trader that the Omnissiah may still show him a lighted path, even in the darkest times.

8 ) How you came to walk:
The path Ignatio walks has been set out before him, as if each event, as unlikely as they were, were placed in front of him intentionally.

9) The even more specific path:
Regular Tech-priest, working as an enginseer on the Rogue Trader vessel The Iron Law.

10) Religious leanings:
Ignatio was already pious and devout, and his experiences have made him even more fanatical. He believes that the Omnissiah is guiding him personally within the great machine of the universe he created.

11) What is your greatest strength and weakness?:
His greatest strength is sheer determination and ingenuity to get out of any situation. His greatest weakness is his straightforward nature and struggle to understand why others do not see what is clear to him.

12) How would others describe your appearance?:
Most will never see beneath the robes and armor, though they might note that both are immaculately kept and even more engraved and embroidered with machine cult symbology. They might also notice how his eyes move constantly, always taking in new information. Those who see under the hood and mask would notice his ashen complexion, and the part of his skull that was lost in an accident and replaced with cybernetics.

13) Who is the person your character trusts the most in the world?:
Ignatio could not have survived the ruin of his ship alone. Lt. Sidonia Tolan, a minor personnel officer who had been deep in the underworld of the ship before it was hulked, formed an integral partnership with the tech-priest as the two worked together to piece the disparate people and supplies that had survived the catastrophe. She's followed him to this ship, and works as a liason between the crew and the mechanicus.


14) What do you think of the political games that infest imperial noble families?:
"Nobility is an irrelevant distraction, an unfortunate concession to superstition and primal behaviors of humanity Their political games even more so. Within the machine cult, those with talent are identified and moved into their proper place, as it should be."

15)Are you married?:
Ignatio is so single-minded in the pursuit of his goals that marriage would be a lie, even if it wasn't heavily discouraged at his level in the machine cult. However, his relationship with Sidonia might be compared to that of a married couple.

16) Are you more loyal to yourself, your allies, or to the imperium?:
Ignatio sees himself as nothing but an instrument of the Omnissiah's will, so his first loyalty is to the Omnissiah above all else. Of course, that's the Omnissiah's will as he interprets it, an interpretation that puts his place in the universe at a high importance. His second loyalty is to the ship, which he sees himself as having been given custodianship over by the Omnissiah. His third loyalty is to the Filianatis dynasty, who have demonstrated by rescuing them the faith behind the promises made to their vassals.

17) How would your parents and family describe you?:
Ignatio was basically remanded into the custody of the machine cult in the aftermath of his accident. His memory of his parents is dim, and if they met him again and knew of his life, they would likely be very proud of how far he's come, though somewhat unsettled by the way his personality has been changed by the cortex implant. His parents are still alive, and they used to maintain regular correspondence whenever possible, though they believed him dead when they were informed of the loss of his ship, and have only recently found out otherwise.

18) How do interact with your social/hierarchical superiors? How about your inferiors?:
He counts very few among his superiors, those being the Omnissiah, the Rogue Trader, and those who significantly outrank him in the machine cult. From those who he perceives as having true authority, he takes instruction well, speaks with honesty that comes to a fault, and goes the extra mile every time, to the point that it becomes expected. Those inferiors for whom he is directly responsible, Ignatious treats with the same diligence and care that he treats any tool he might use to get a task done, which is much more than many might offer them. He tends to treat anyone outside of his direct chain of command as his peer, regardless of their relative social status.

19) Who opposes you most? Who is your greatest foe?:
One of the other Magi of Forgeworld Echidna, Magos Faculas,  feels that the magos who saved Ignatious' life was wasting valuable time and resources on those who had not proven themselves deserving. Faculus has risen high in the ranks of the forge world since then, and now is one of a few who answer directly to the Archmagos. Faculas has followed Ignatio's career, and his intense bias has driven him to put obstacles in the course of the up-and-coming tech-priest throughout the years. He was furious to find that Ignatio was now considered a Magos, and Faculas disputes the validity of his 'field promotion'.

20) What does your character think of the power of the warp?:
"The warp is one of the most dangerous of the Machine God's creations, and has so often been misused as to become dangerous. Only after adequate study to gain a very full comprehension of the nature of the warp should one dare to experiment with such power."

21) What does your character think of xenos?
"The alien mechanism is a perversion of the True Path. But the alien exists, and the Omnissiah must have placed them there for a reason. Perhaps the Omnissiah has a different path laid out before each xenos species, or perhaps they are merely stumbling in the dark without the Omnissiah's light, but either way one must never allow Xenos technology to lead them astray, but the Omnissiah expects his servants to make use of all appropriate tools when necessary."

22) What does your character think of heretics?
"Heresy is an overused term, spat out by small-minded fools at anything that threatens their way of thinking, but true heresy, those who would turn to the Ruinous Powers, or who attempt to integrate xeno and human technology, are a scourge upon the galaxy. The Horus Heresy was the great fall of humanity, the failure to follow the path of the Omnissiah laid out before them, and those who follow in the path of Horus are the continuing emanation from that fall. All true heretics (and hereteks) must be purged if humanity is ever to walk fully in the light of the Machine God once again."

23) How does your character react to archeotech?
"The knowledge of the ancients stands beyond question. Comprehension is the key to all things. To reclaim Archaeotech is a vital step in the path back into the full light of the Machine God. The next step is understanding the mechanism of its function, and then comprehending the principles behind the mechanism. The power to purge all heresy from the universe and bring all Xenos into the True Path is locked in Archeotech, and Comprehension is the key."

24) Do you believe the patriarch and his belief in a curse?
Just as the loss of his ship was a trial sent by the Omnissiah to allow Ignatio to demonstrate his capability, so too has the devastation of the dynasty been set as the backdrop for the inevitable glory of the family's rise. That the Omnissiah would allow all of his work to be in vain is clearly illogical.

25) A train races down a track...:
"Kill the Heretic. Xenos' part in the machinations of the machine god are uncertain, and some may be able to be brought to the True Path one day, but true Heretics are unto a virus in the code of a cogitator, to be rooted out and deleted."

26) The light of civilization:
"The imperium is a vast machine, pieced together directly by the Omnissiah, but maintained by fallible human minds. Much must be done to reforge the Imperium to match the true, ideal Imperium that the Omnissiah intended."

27) Do you have any prejudices?:
Ignatio believes that he is above such foibles as prejudice, but the truth is that he sees little reason to respect anyone who refuses to get their hands dirty and expects to just sit in a position of power and enjoy the benefits. He expects those who are not members of the machine cult to mostly act as ignorant savages, and has been known to express surprise when they demonstrate clearheaded logic. Sidonia is one of the good ones, of course.

28) Do you have any recurring mannerisms?:
His speech is sometimes hard to follow, he will contradict himself suddenly when he realizes he was mistaken and then just move on. He also has been known to explain the particulars of what he's doing aloud when performing complex technical work, in what's referred to in the machine cult as 'Technobabble'.

29) Who has taught you or tutored you? Do you have a mentor or teacher?
Ignatio's training was overseen by Magos Ulirg, who has taught the young tech-priest much of his way of thinking.


30. What is your opinion of the Cult of Prosperity?
Mixed, to the extent that Ignatio bothers to maintain an opinion about a sect of the Imperial Creed, given that they do not understand the true nature of the Emperor as The Omnissiah and instead venerate him as an absurd wish-granting father figure. Still, he sees the purpose of this in calming and motivating the simple people of the imperium. and assumes that it must have been a part of the Omnissiah's grand design when he built the Imperium.

He is uncertain about the legitimacy of the Cult of Prosperity in this manner, given that their theological opponents charge that the focus on individual material wealth is not derived from any command of the Emperor's, but instead from the interpretations of people thousands of years after he took his place on the Throne. Further, the tendency of the preaching of the Cult of Prosperity to be extremely lucrative for those who preach it makes Ignatio suspicious that it is driven more by the base vice of greed than the virtue of faith.

On the other hand, the word of Prosperity has been very effective at motivating people within the Capital sector to heights of industry that Ignatio has realized in his travels are not the standard within the imperium. Perhaps the Cult has stumbled upon something that the Omnissiah intended after all, or perhaps the Omnissiah has given the clerics a vision as a sort of experiment? Either way, Ignatio is glad that this conundrum is not his concern beyond a theoretical interest.

31. How educated are you?
Very well educated, as would be expected from a member of the mechanicus, though his education has been focused on more practical and theotechnological matters. Since recently claiming the rank of Magos, he has sought to expand his base of education, however.

32. What is your character’s secret, and what will happen if it is discovered?
See private notes

33. What does your character do to relax?
"The mind and body can achieve rest independently. When my mind requires rest, I often engage in physical activity that can be accomplished with little thought, such as routine maintenance or the manufacturing of basic items. When my body requires rest, I engage in research, or commune with a machine spirit. Time is a precious resource, not to be squandered."

34. If you were given a single throne, how would they spend it?
On whatever basic but essential supplies he was currently shortest on.

36. What is your most sacred possession?
A piece of the cogitator of the Iron Law's command console, the rest of which was smashed beyond repair by the unknown invaders.

37. Who is your characters closest friend?
Electro-priest Hikari Rai, who was Ignatio's constant companion while salvaging the ship, and who helped put down at least one small mutiny. The two spent many hours together discussing theology.

38. What does your character love, fear, hate?
Ignatio loves the Omnissiah, the mechanicus under his command, and the machine spirits in his care. He fears sudden and overwhelming attacks from nowhere, like what happened to the Iron Law, and is acutely paranoid as a result. He hates tech heretics of course, as he's been trained to, but even more so he hates those who are useless, but still demand respect.

39. Who is your character’s ideal mate?
A toaster This is probably an irrelevant question for a tech priest, but if he were to have an ideal mate, it would be someone who had nearly endless patience for his single-minded focus on other things, who was capable of protecting themselves and contributing significantly to the world in some way, and who could at least pretend to understand what he often goes on about at great length.

40. What advice would you give your character?
Don't let your confidence and sense of self-righteousness carry you away.

41. Who would be your ultimate enemy?
Whoever attacked The Iron Heart, unless it turns out that they were acting on behalf of the Omnissiah somehow.

42. How do you feel about plants & nature?
"Many plants and natural elements show evidence of the handiwork of the machine god, and can be studied as such. They are also useful raw materials for more complex machines that better glorify the machine god."

43. What is your most treasured possession?
His servo-skull familiar, which symbolizes much of his philosophy of the place of a human being in life.

44. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
As the court Magos of the powerful Filiantius dynasty, wielding great influence and guiding the family along the path laid out by the Omnissiah.

45. What would you do to kill time?
"Time is a precious resource, there is always work to be done."