Inquisitor Darian Rameos

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> ++VICTORY NEEDS NO EXPLANATION, DEFEAT ALLOWS NONE++
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### Appearance

A tall but gaunt man of middling years, not yet marred by the ravages of rejuvenat treatments but it is hard to imagine him ever having been a child. Skin a grey pallor, piercing flint-grey eyes, and grey flecks peppering his close-shorn beard and temples. Possesses fingers of unnerving length - a quirk of his voidborn ancestry - which he has a habit of steepling when in thought.

### Background

Inquisitor Rameos is known to be a moderate Amalathian in outlook, though he harbours sympathies for the [REDACTED] faction within the Inquisition. Only a full-blown Inquisitor for a few years, Rameos has nonetheless gathered substantial political and material support to his cause, not least thanks to the help of his benefactor, [REDACTED], and his deep understanding of the threat posed by the Tau.

The Inquisitor grew up aboard a vessel belonging to a Rogue Trader fleet under the warrant of the [RECORDS EXPUNGED] dynasty. Though his family branch was low within the dynastic rankins, he excelled at the scholum and quickly found his way to a senior seneschal position. This gave him an unusually extensive practical education in trade, logistics, and - crucially - in dealing with "civilised" xenos species. However, the Rogue Trader dynasty was rocked by scandal after trading in [REDACTED] was exposed and an Inquisitorial investigation was launched.

The purges that followed were extensive, resulting in most of the [RECORDS EXPUNGED] dynastic lineage being eliminated. Rameos nonetheless survived thanks to a combination of extensive covert cooperation with the Throne Agents conducting the investigation, and his valuable experience, meaning he could serve The Emperor better as an Inquisitorial sage than a mindless servitor. Though his ascension was arduous, a few short decades took him to the lofty rank of Inquisitor, afforded all the rights and privileges that title entails. He was equipped with a voidship and a contingent of the finest warriors, and let loose upon The Shattered Sector in the name of The Emperor's Holy Ordo Xenos.

### Deeds in The Shattered Sector

Arrived in the Saletera system aboard *Oculum Tenebris* with a contingent of Deathwatch operators.

## Warband

### Explorator-Enginseer Rho-27-Alpha

Serves as head of the Mechanicum contingent aboard Oculum Tenebris, overseeing the vessel’s systems. When Rameos is disembarked, they are relied upon to provide technological consultation and archaeological insights.

Genderless tech priest from the Forge World of Triplex Phall. Particularly knowledgeable about the heretical technologies employed by foul xenos races.

### Maj. Jayne Zarkov

Liaison between Rameos and the military forces under his command, doubling as leader of the Inquisitor’s personal protection detail. When liaising with other Imperial forces her voice carries the authority of The Inquisition, and few generals would refuse an order despite her relatively lowly officorial rank.

Square-jawed brick of a woman, unflappable in any crisis and utterly incapable of switching off her intense military professionalism. Salutes with sufficient force to knock out the average Ork.

### Magister Pym

A senior “Magister” in the Death Cult aboard Oculum Tenebris and among the more socially capable of their order. His primary task is relaying the Inquisitor’s will to the faithful aboard in a manner that fits with their belief system, though he is also more than capable of employing the various poisoned blades secreted throughout his robes.

Younger man with ritualistic facial scarring. Gives off the impression of being a Ministorum priest, with that same confidence and zeal, but listening to his exegesis for any length of time reveals inconsistencies with the default Imperial Creed.

### Sergei Alandrovitch

Spymaster, working to acquire and analyse all-source intelligence. Responsible for providing intelligence briefings to the Inquisitor and deploying intelligence-gathering and counter-intelligence apparatus upon arriving in a new location

Middle-age-looking man made somewhat odd-looking by decades of rejuvenat treatments. Dour Veteran of a specialist Administratum investigative unit, with many years’ experience within the Inquisition.

### Lady Skyfire

Hot-shot small craft wing commander. In charge of piloting Rameos’ personal craft and leading flight operations in battle. Served aboard the Rogue Trader fleet to which Rameos was born, and was brought to serve on Oculum Tenebris at his request.

Striking older lady of noble birth with extensive augmetics that have tuned her reflexes to superhuman levels and allow her to interface with almost any Imperial small craft.

### The Commodore

Revered naval commander permanently seconded to Ordo Xenos. Enacts Inquisitor Rameos’ orders to operate Oculum Tenebris and coordinates joint actions with other Imperial voidcraft.

Ancient and frail man with a small coterie of medicaes and aides following him everywhere. Spends most of his time plugged into the voidship’s command throne.

### Navis Scion Kortoth of House Mephelius (Shrouded House)

Mysterious, doesn’t leave the tower much, spends most of its time in a tank of nutrient goo. House Mephelius has a long history of service to Ordo Xenos, believed to be the result of a secret bargain of penance for a deed long excised from the records.

## Assets of Note

### Personal Equipment

*"Mauler" Bolt Pistol:* .75" of mass-reactive death, in a more manageable package than the heavy Sacristan pattern often carried by Agents of the Throne, let alone those carried by Astartes. The Mauler was ceremonially gifted to Rameos by the senior shipwright at the Triplex Phall dockyards, who oversaw the restoration of *Oculum Tenebris* at hand-off following shaking out procedures.

*Digesta Emporia:* A treasured collection of sacred economic texts, trade notes, ledgers, and associated documents collected throughout Rameos' career, which assist considerably in his commerce-related endeavours.

### Inquisitorial Black Ship, *Oculum Tenebris*

4.1km long, 0.4km abeam at fins approx

24 megatonnes approx

63,500 crew approx (not including passengers)

4.9 gravities max sustainable acceleration

An ancient voidship, originally laid down c.M34, though some of its components are older still. Raised from the ashes after millennia of languishing planetside following a battle c.M37 that forced an emergency landing. Assigned to Inquisitorial oversight due to certain anomalies and rebuilt for duty as a Black Ship of Ordo Xenos. Sleek yet angular, Oculum Tenebris is 4km of sheer darkness set against the cold void. Largely lacking in the gothic adornments that characterise Imperial vessels, though still plenty baroque, the voidship is built for both stealth and destruction.

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#### Bridge Complex

The most ancient part of the ship, likely dating back to before The Great Crusade, the bridge complex is almost austere by Imperial standards. Black marble and crisp holo-displays abound, though wheezing devices of more recent design sit atop the incomprehensible archaeotech, marring its perfection. The baroque Mechanicum-designed captain’s throne sits on a raised dais at the centre of the amphitheatre-like domed chamber, into which The Commodore is typically plugged.

Surrounding the central command pit are steep tiers of adepts, analysts, servitors, and officers; all serving to make sense of the data streaming into the complex and operationalise their master’s orders. Radiating out from the main chamber are various offices, conference vaults, sub-strategia, and the infrastructure required for most staff to live (minimising the foot traffic in and out of the secure complex).

Overlooking the main chamber is a monolithic diamondoid window with a commanding view of proceedings below. This is the location of Rameos’ personal strategium, from which he exerts his power.

#### Training Vaults

Modest but well equipped practice facilities for Deathwatch and Stormtroopers, also used by the more capable death cultists. Larger-scale operations can be simulated in environments mocked up in the cargo hold, but day-to-day training is undertaken here. High ceilings and robust practice equipment throughout given the Astartes use of the facility.

#### Landing Decks

Instead of the usual adamantine ramming prow are six vast hangar bays, protected with ceramite blast shields, which store the plethora of small craft that the vessel employs. A mag-lev train runs down the entire length of Oculum Tenebris' spine (with multiple security checkpoints along the way) to speedily transport VIPs between the landing decks and the aft of the ship.

#### Deck 13

Laboratorium deck. Highest security area on the ship given the potentially dangerous xenos secrets hidden within. Staffed by well vetted techpriests of Triplex Phall and trusted Inquisitorial sages with access to the best analytical and manufacturing equipment outside of a Magos’ private lab.

#### History

Oculum Tenebris was laid down sometime around M34, incorporating a variety of technologies older still. More than three thousand years of distinguished service are sketchily recorded in the crew’s oral history, followed by an event remembered with mythical reverence: The Fall. The many legends of this calamity are often contradictory, but it is apparent that the Oculum Tenebris faced a ramming action from a larger vessel during a vicious battle c.M37. Faced with certain destruction, the captain was forced into evasive maneuvers, avoiding the hostile collision but crashing into the gravity well of a sparsely populated late-feudal era planet.

Though serious superstructural damage had been sustained, a post-battle AdMech salvage assessment mission indicated that recovery was entirely feasible, with the vessel’s most prized subsystems being relatively unharmed. But the war that had left the Oculum Tenebris stranded moved on and resources were needed elsewhere, the vessel’s fate eventually being forgotten amidst the ever-expanding Imperial bureaucracy. Decades turned to centuries, centuries to millennia, and the great voidship lay stranded.

In late M41 a Ministorum colonisation team, surveying backwater planets to be re-introduced to The Emperor’s light, chanced across the resting site of the Oculum Tenebris. Their reports told of a society still practicing a somewhat recognisable version of the Imperial Creed with an unusually strict hierarchy, seemingly developed from the ancient ship’s chain of command, and an obsessive focus on mortality and justice, even by Imperial standards. Representatives of the AdMech, Navy, and Inquisition arrived to judge the vessel’s fitness, resulting in a minor diplomatic squabble to determine who should claim such a prize.

The presence of a death cult and suspicious ancient technology, combined with extensive favour-trading between the Admech and Inquisition, enabled the Ordos to claim Oculum Tenebris for their own. Nearly a century of work went into restoring the vessel, including an entirely new fore section with the sleek profile typical of Black Ships, complete with capacious prow landing bays. Stealth features were added, high-security Inquisitorial laboratorium space installed, and the ensemble was topped off with formidable armament for a ship of its size.

As the 42nd Millennium approaches, Oculum Tenebris has finished shaking-out drills and is assigned to the care of Inquisitor Darian Rameos, to carry out the Emperor’s Will.

# The Death Cult

An ancient religious order that developed over millennia, fusing the half-remembered orthodoxy of the Imperial Cult c.M37 with the local animistic beliefs of the feudal world upon which Oculum Tenebris crashed. Several decades of reeducation by the Inquisition and Ecclesiarchy have brought the belief system within acceptable boundaries of Imperial dogma, yet it remains somewhat aberrant. A particular cause for concern is their veneration of The Emperor more as a diffuse spirit of righteous justice from which other world-spirits derive, instead of the singular personal deity as understood by most Imperial citizens. Though not unheard of among the far-flung reaches of backwater planets, these beliefs were not received well by the Ecclesiarchy and were a factor in Oculum Tenebris being turned over to the Inquisition upon its recovery.

Within the cult’s ranks, members refer to themselves as The Magisteria and dedicate their lives to The Great Counting - a never-ending quest to measure those around them and pronounce judgement. This measurement takes many forms -  an obsession with census statistics and numerology, phrenological practices, ritualistic counting chants, self-flagellation that is extreme even by Imperial standards - but perhaps the most prominent is The Weighing of Lives. Magisters of any given rank are tasked with judging those around them and, if found wanting, subjecting the judged to dogmatically prescribed punishment, then recording the balance of their deeds in great ledgers stored deep in the bowels of the ship. Ritualistic corporal or capital punishment are the methods of choice for The Magisteria; this is received willingly by members, but for non-members the cult has become highly adept at enacting their view of justice through a mix of cunning and extreme violence.

Naturally, this desire to quantify and punish all around them makes members of The Magisteria difficult for outsiders to work with. Their highly insular, hierarchical system of governance makes junior Magisters extremely challenging for non-members to command, rendering them nigh-useless as typical soldiery. Millennia cut off from the wider Imperium and a highly atypical belief system have resulted in cultists seeming creepy in the eyes of most Imperial citizens and, though not outright heretical, the Adeptus Ministorum would be displeased if their religious tenets were to spread. Indeed, when Oculum Tenebris was recovered, there was talk of simply erasing the strange little culture. But the Inquisition saw utility in their idiosyncrasies.

The first of The Magisteria’s merits is that their obsession with detail and strict regime has made them ideal caretakers for one of the Ordos’ Black Ships. Rules are followed carefully, mistakes are noticed and ensured to never repeat, and discipline aboard Oculum Tenebris is second to none. The second is that their culture’s quest for quantification and capacity for cunning makes many of the cultists highly effective intelligence gatherers. Though their demeanors and appearance makes them unsuited to social infiltrations, they are capable scouts and observers, able to patiently remain hidden and accurately report information as needed. Finally, their religious obsession with judgement and ritualistic violence produces a surfeit of deadly killers. These assassins are not comparable to the refined specialists of the Officio Assassinorum, lacking their high quality of training, physiological enhancements, and wargear. Nevertheless, they are stealthy and fanatically devoted to their cause, with ample skill in all manner of bladed weapons. Not as suited to execution of single high value targets as assassins of the Temples, but several hundred of them covertly deployed to a city will wreak havoc with all but the best prepared military force.