Tyban Gharz

Recruited from Terra during the earliest days of the IVth Legion, Tyban Gharz was one of the first to be identified as a master of the machine, trained first on Terra by the Emperor’s own teachers, before the alliance with Mars was solidified and he was seconded to train with the priesthood. For many years Tyban both learnt and unlearnt the ways of the machine, the Mechanicum ensuring he rejected the philosophies of the machine that were not of their world, before finally striding forth not merely as a techmarine, but as the overseer of the honoured battle automata that accompanied the Dark Watchers into the depths of space.

It was during this time that Tyban found that not only could he direct his charges through the technology of the Mechanicum, but indeed through his very mind, long dormant psychic powers slowly growing within him. Working closely with the fledgling Librarius, Tyban began to learn to harness these powers, but this would not last.

For most, Shaaa’s reunification with the legion was a joyous occasion, but for Tyban it was one of forced surgery and suppression, psy-dampening technology implanted in his mind as it was with all others who bore the touch of the warp. Shaaa’s disdain for their kind was clear, and for most, this was a death sentence as they were folded back into a battle company, the implants clouding their minds and making them easy prey for the foes of mankind. Tyban however was one of the few exceptions, retaining his position as a Praevian throughout the Squat Wars and beyond.

Shaaa never hid his disdain for his son, but also conceded the point that Tyban was as skilled a warrior as any in his legion, and had accepted his new lack of his sixth sense without complaint. Eventually, Shaaa could ignore his sons merits no longer, and with a single order, Shaaa saw Tyban removed from the role of a Praevian, instead placed in the Hydradyne, set to rise to the heights of high command within the IVth.

This however was put to grass in the wake of Ullanor, Tyban’s first deployment as a member of the Hydradyne. With the legion being withdrawn to Terra, many of the Hydradyne were removed to serve as new commanders of the fledgling SGA or the burgeoning legion, but Tyban, as one of the newest members of their order, was passed over, languishing in the Hydradyne for decades, unable to progress or escape its ranks back to his beloved robotics. As the years stretched on, something had to give for the now oldest member of the Hydradyne, and that give came in the form of Surmah.

Like the rest of the Hydradyne, Gharz was assigned the mission to Verivaltas, the ill fated grave of almost all of the Hydradyne. Gharz was one of the few survivors, though he was anything but lucky, captured and imprisoned aboard the Sielun Murskaaja as the personal ‘guest’ of Surmah himself, the secrets of the Primarch’s new masters and what would soon happen to Gharz was his only companion as the Hounds made for Osiris. His fate was sealed, his own hands unable to affect what lay ahead, but another could. Reijo, a Hound of Surmah who rejected his own namesake, staged a breakout from the bowels of the XXth’s flagship, Gharz being amongst those he freed. Armourless and weary from the tortures he had already been subjected to, Gharz refused to go quietly into the night, taking up a Plasma Cannon from a fallen Hound, providing punishing firepower to cover the flight from the Sielun, heedless of the burns that soon covered his body from the feedback of the mighty weapon. Those burns soon revealed they had a greater blessing. The long buried cybernetic dampener burning from his mind, allowing Gharz to dip into the psychic ocean once more.

Expecting to die, Gharz managed to escape alongside Reijo and a few others, making for Terra to bring word of the unfolding Apostasy, word that had already reached the Praetorian from the lips of Jean Davoust of the Warmasters Justicars. Shaaa however was not overjoyed to see the survival of his son as he learnt about the methods of his survival, breaking both the Emperor’s and Shaaa’s own decree on the use of psychic powers, something that was answerable by only one punishment; execution. Before he could give the order however, Malcador stepped forth, spiriting the warrior away for his own machinations.

Now serving as one of the Sigillite’s chosen Knights, Gharz aids in the fight against the Primordial annihilator with his intimate knowledge of machinery and robotics, often striding to battle alongside two Battle-automata, the Castellax “Azeator” and the Vorax “Ekzator”, both modified by Tyban himself to better serve in his new role. Forgoing any sort of ranged weapons, Tyban instead directs his charges with but a thought, forgoing traditional cyber vortex connections in favour of the faster and frowned upon direct mind link. When he approaches an enemy however, he is not so unarmed, rending his foe limb from limb with a terrifying rotating rock saw, inscribed with psychic runes through which Tyban’s long suppressed power can be channeled, severing limbs from bodies and heads from necks in a brutal, blunt combat style that perfectly embodies the IVth legion. Eventually, just as he had cast off his old legion identity, Tyban cast off his very name, truly a warrior of the IVth legion no more, striding forth instead as Iapto, a future founder of the ultimate weapon against daemonkind, the Grey Knights.