Tobias Belasco

“The so called purity of the Imperium is a notion worthy of a capering fool. Lurking under every stone there is some glorious eyeless thing, some dark secret of corruption, something branded with darkness.”
–Attributed to Tobias Belasco
Tobias Belasco, born Sira Tobias Ur’Rawthic, was born the third son to an
impoverished wing of the powerful House Belasco on Malfi and is another example of
the ability of certain noble lines to breed
unpardonable monsters. Reportedly a sly
and deceitful glutton from an early age,
Tobias railed against the gentle poverty
in which he was raised and the fallen
status of his line. As he grew, he put
his remarkable intellect and cunning
to work and quickly displaced or
murdered his way to control of his
family’s line, restoring its fortunes
in the process. He was quickly taken
into the service of the Belasco Great
House, where he acted as a dealer in
rare antiquities and brokered many
profitable deals for his clan.
This elevation appears not to have
been enough for him. Soon he took
to seeking thrills by dalliances with
petty cult groups, fellow epicures,
and jaded wantons, living far beyond
even his prodigious means. Rather
than risk embezzling funds from his
notorious clan, he took to blackmail,
murder, and the Cold Trade to fund
his notorious life of excesses, eventually
leading him to dealing in slavery. However,
as the years passed, not even this was enough to
alleviate his boredom. By what means he finally descended into complete criminal insanity
is unknown, although a lifetime of immorality and substance abuse no doubt played some part in it. Not satisfied with killing
his enemies, he instead took to abducting them in secret and eating them slowly, one piece at a time.
When these shocking crimes finally came to light, it proved too much for his infamous noble house to stand. Tobias
fled Malfi via his Cold Trade connections with a portion of his wealth and his family’s assassin cadre at his heels. For more
than 50 years he has been on the run, turning up on dozens of worlds and using many aliases to stay one step ahead of
his former clan.
He is also a fugitive of the Ordo Xenos, whose ire he provoked when he killed and ate several of Inquisitor Van Vuygens’
acolytes who were investigating a xenos-slavery ring that he had instigated on Snowden’s World. Torn between his desire
to remain hidden and a desire to continue his opulent lifestyle through black marketeering, deception, and murder, Tobias
has managed to remain one step ahead of his many hunters over the years thanks to his quick wits, formidable intelligence,
and a thoroughly nasty imagination. Now in his late nineties, his past is catching up with him---his obscenely fat bulk must
be held up by a suspensor chair and he is rapidly reaching the limits of how long his wrecked constitution can be kept alive
through black market implants and chem treatments.
Despite his debased and corpulent exterior, Tobias Belasco is a genius-level intellect who has a talent for deception,
commerce, and murder that borders on the supernatural. He is marked for death not only by the Inquisition but also by his
former family, and attempts to maintain a veil of secrecy at all times. His known aliases include Lord Gault, Master Byros Rawly, Prelate Trace and numerous others.
Tobias Belasco’s only motivation is to continue his life of wickedness and feed his dread addictions. Rumors have reached
the Inquisition that Tobias is searching for a more radical solution to his problems in the shape of the forbidden Halo Devices.