Coriolanus Vestra

“‘If you set yourself against me you will die, it is inevitable.”
—Coriolanus Vestra
Brother Missionary Coriolanus Vestra was a loyal, even revered,
Imperial Missionary who fought to bring the light of the
Emperor to those who knew it not. His zeal was
marked by his superiors---Cardinal Fortis noted
on several occasions how Vestra undertook
missions in totally uncharted regions
of space, always returning to
bring news of thousands of new
followers of the Imperial Creed.
The final mission undertaken by
Coriolanus Vestra records that
he ventured into the Halo Stars
in search of human communities
lost for millennia. He did not
return and was presumed to have
perished.
What exactly occurred to
Vestra on his journey into the
Halo Stars is not known, but
it can be easily inferred that
something occurred that caused
him to break his faith and turn
him against the Imperium that
he had so devoutly served.
The fact that Vestra uses
the phrase “bathed
in the light of the
black sun” in some
of his blasphemous
addresses, has been
the focus of much
analysis and may
pertain to some
dark revelation that
turned Vestra into the arch-heretic
he is today.
Fifty years after his disappearance, Coriolanus Vestra secretly returned to Imperial space. He slipped onto the world of
Lassiv in distant Hecuba, a disheveled shadow among many. Two years of meticulous and brutal endeavor saw Vestra
dedicating Lassiv and the souls of its people to the ruination of the Emperor’s realm from beneath a banner topped with
the planetary governor’s severed head. It was not, however, until after ten more years, three befouled worlds, and countless
acts of heresy that the true identity of this arch-corruptor was uncovered. The anger and shame of the Ecclesiarchy has not
abated in the eight decades that have passed since that revelation.
Coriolanus Vestra’s chief treachery is his association with a great number of cults and heretical organizations, including
the Serrated Query, the Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness, the Pale Throng, and the Masqued of Malfi amongst many
more. He is, however, only ever a peripheral figure and an intermediary who prefers to work alone as a freelance agent of
sorts for the duration of a particular task or objective. He often incites rebellion through demagoguery and acts as a go-between
and facilitator for different heretical and malefic cults in order to create a larger force of disorder. He is also responsible for the corruption of an Adorian sect of the Cult Imperialis, founding of the Bearers of Mirrored Visage and inciting the second rebellion of The Lost on Baraspine.
Coriolanus Vestra’s spite and zeal in persecuting his personal war against the Imperium cannot be doubted. It is unknown
if Vestra, beyond a desire to simply bring anarchy and destruction, has any discernable grand scheme.