The Burning Princess

“We are shackled gods. It is not others that restrain our potential but ourselves. We shackle ourselves because we know what we dream ourselves to be and fear it.”
–attributed to the rogue psyker designated as “The Burning Princess”
The life and true nature of this appallingly
powerful rogue psyker, known by rumor
and dark repute over the last few
years (since her first recorded
appearance during an
uprising on Pellucida IX) as the “Burning
Princess,” remains a
mystery to the Holy Ordos. It is a mystery
made all the more
poignant and galling
by the clear presence
of a witch hunter’s brand
on her cheek.
The Burning Princess
is an alpha-plus level rogue
psyker and by some estimates
the most powerful currently at large
in the Calixis Sector. She still appears
to be a young woman in her late
teens, and if this is true, it may be
possible that her powers will
only increase with maturity
should she survive. The files the Tricorn keeps on her are both extensive,
and frustratingly vague. The Inquisition knows that she is
an extremely powerful pryokine, and is a dangerously strong
telepath as well. Although the Scholastica Psykana classifies her
as a ‘low level alpha’ psyker (especially in comparison to some
far more dangerous examples the Inquisition and Imperium
have had to deal with), she is still extremely dangerous.
Already a pyrokinetic
of extraordinary ability,
she can transform herself
seemingly without effort or
risk into a walking holocaust
of flames, able to focus her
abilities with pinpoint accuracy
to char a hole through warship
armor. A wanderer, she
has been encountered
working alongside several
renegade and mutant
groups, including the Stigmatus Covenant, and even for a time upon the pirate
raider vessel Storm Walker operating out of the Hazeroth Abyss. Such is her threat that a specially
equipped taskforce under the noted Witch Hunter Fhendahl was founded to trace and apprehend her. It successfully tracked her to
an abandoned settlement on the ill-reputed world of Dusk, where she prevailed and everyone in Fhendahl’s mission burned, including the Witch Finder Himself. She is
still at liberty, and her current whereabouts remain unknown. She also believed responsible for the Cathedral Mount Firestorm on Acreage (slaying the senior clergy of the planet along with more than ten thousand pilgrims, worshippers, and local citizens).
This witch’s motivations remain as mysterious as her identity and true origins. After-action reports by traumatized survivors
have claimed her both to be a dead-eyed marionette, seemingly uninterested in the horrors she inflicts, while others paint her as a
laughing devil, filled with malice and sadistic glee. The truth remains unproven. She is a known associate of the radical Inquisitor Hettesh Kane, though the extent of this relationship is not known. However, little else is known about her. Savants of several
notable Inquisitors have searched the deepest info-tombs in
the Tricorn to little avail. All they have discovered is charred
records of a young child named “Lottie,” who manifested
powerful abilities before her tenth birthday. The records
indicate a Witch Hunter team was sent to apprehend her for
the Black Ships, but the parchments recording the results of
that action are destroyed. Researchers cannot even discover
which planet she is from.
The Inquisition has declared her Hereticus Extremis, and
ordered her termination. However, since the fate of the last
team sent to kill her, the Conclave has had no success in
this matter.
There are two likely reasons a team of Throne Agents could
come into contact with Lottie. The first is that they are sent
as a kill-team to prosecute and eliminate her. In this case, the
team’s problem is two-fold. The first is finding her amongst
the vastness of the Calixis Sector. They may have to infiltrate
or interrogate their way through several heretical organizations
just to find her. Once they do, the problem becomes one of
killing her. If the Throne Agents are smart, they requisition (or
otherwise acquire) powerful anti-psyker weaponry and have
a brilliant plan. The only up-side is that Lottie does not seem
to travel with a retinue or bodyguards. She prefers a solitary
existence, which could prove to be her biggest weakness.
The other possibility is that the Throne Agents encounter
her in the process of another investigation entirely. Lottie does
not appear to lead uprisings or instigate rebellions. Rather,
she seems to prefer to work as a mercenary, hiring out her
considerable skills to others. In this case, the Throne Agents
may not be equipped or prepared to deal with her, and she may
prove to be merely a distraction leading the Throne Agents
away from the true mastermind behind whatever diabolical
plot they are investigating.