William Laurence

"I have yet to find a means, which does not justify our ends." - **William Laurence** to Captain Nicholas Byrne, upon the second exterminatus of Olympia by means of the Life-Eater Virus.

## Early Life

Born to unknown parents, William's own theory is he is the child of a whore, he spent his early life in the care of the church. A particular sect which concerned itself with the proper education and upbringing of the lost waifs and strays common to the underhive. Much like the schola progenium, the sect accepted orphans and unwanted children, albeit with far lower standards. Children were cared for and tutored according to the Lectito Divinatus. Laurence was an unexceptional student, showing more aptitude in the physical, and oftentimes violent games the children would play. The priests as such, had him marked for a future missionary.

## Coming of age

William first showed signs of psychic aptitude at the age of ten, where he began to outstrip the other children in terms of physical strength considerably, coming to the point where the young boy could resist attempts to restrain him by the temple's priests, fully grown adult men.

At this point, the decision was taken by the priests to give William the God Emperor's Mercy. Believing him to be infected by chaos taint, the Ayatani, head priest of the temple had the boy restrained by multiple other priests, and taken out to be "put to peace". After some time, and the three priests having not returned, he gathered together the rest of the priesthood, and went to search for them. They found the bodies.

## Descent

From this point onward, William would be a complete outcast from underhive society. The physical changes his body was undergoing were sufficient to identify him at some distance. The level of muscle mass his body was creating far exceeded a normal child's development, and after some time living along in the sump, the lowest level of the hive, he took on a hunched, animalistic posture.

Over time, his body would continue to change, producing a creature more animal than human. These changes were not conscious, as his later developments would be, but were simply a form of adaptation. He was cold, living outside, far from the geo-vents where underhive society clusters, so his body grew more hair. He had to hunt small animals to eat, his senses improved to better track them, his canines lengthened, and his adult teeth, when they came, would be sharp, regardless of position. This would lead to a overall bestial appearance. With filthy grey fur, better to hide among the pipework, long hooked claws to climb through the hive, almost perfect night sight, and a sense of smell and hearing to rival hounds. He became a hunter.

## Hunted

Over time, the priesthood, and the various gangs and residents of the underhive made multiple attempts to eliminate this unholy creature. William hid from them. Then, realising his own increasing abilities of stealth, he began to watch them. Then he stalked them. And finally, he began to hunt them, for he had to eat, and while they hunted him, chasing small rodents and the like, was next to impossible. Once the killing started, the hunts were abandoned, and the area of the sump Laurence had taken residence in was sworn off. Signs were painted on the entryways to the area, warning of the beast within.

## Worship

Some time into this period of solitude, the actual length left unknown, for he did not count days, but later speculated by himself to be a multitude of months, food began to be left near one of the doors. Ration bars and the like. Laurence was wary at first, but soon found this new source of food a pleasant supplement to his usual diet of whatever he could hunt. It was never enough to completely sate his furious appetite, but it was a welcome addition. Curiosity soon followed, and he sought to find who was leaving these packages. He watched the doorway, and every time, a man in a red robe would open the door a crack, leave the box, and then run. This was no surprise, Laurence had come to understand the fear humans regarded him with. The beast that Laurence had become, for he no longer truly could be referred to as Laurence, referring to himself in his own thoughts simply as "Me" and, as time ground on, his internal monologue continued to deteriorate, ceasing to use language almost entirely. On one such occasion, he decided to follow one of the men in red.

## Purge

Following the man in red, utilising his hard learnt skills of stealth, Laurence discovered the source of these packages. A small chaotic cult, no more than a few dozen people, made up of a number of families, had taken to worshipping him has a creature of the dark gods. This, no doubt due to his brutalisation of the priesthood's hunting parties.

Watching them for a number of days, their comings and goings, Laurence came to observe a ceremony of the group. During the ceremony a copy of the Lectitio Divinitatus was brandished by the cult's leader, and tossed into a bonfire. Despite the attempt upon his life by the priesthood, Laurence still held to his belief in the emperor, and fell upon the congregation with fury. The slaughter of the cult was complete and total, the shock of their icon of the ruinous powers assaulting them led to many of the group not even defending themselves.

This act, brought the beast which was Laurence to the attention of the Arbites, which in turn, via an agent inserted within the local Administratum, brought him to the attention of an Inquisitor.

## Capture

Laurence was determined, by reports from the agent embedded within the administratum, these pieced together from underhive rumour and supposed first hand account, to be one of two things. An asset, or a target. As such, the Inquisitor sent a group of acolytes to capture intriguing specimen for study, and perhaps, use. Necessarily for the consideration of such a thing, the inquisitor in question was a radical, by some degree.

More than a match for groups of priests, gangers and cultists, Laurence was however, out of his depth when faced with an Inquisitorial team. The team first attempted to trap him using a food parcel as bait, but underestimated his well founded paranoia, and he discovered them, and fled deeper into the sump.

Over the next few weeks, the team and the beast played a game of cat and mouse, with ever increasing stakes.The team would uncover Laurence's hiding place, only for him to escape by the skin of his teeth, and disappear back into the warrens. The exchange which was to end their game would occur after thirteen days, Laurence was beginning to weaken, the relentless hunting of the inquisitorial team preventing him from hunting for food. His skin grew tight around his bones and his preternatural abilities of stealth and acrobatics grew progressively more sluggish, and clumsy.

Backed into a corner once again, up against the impassable bulk of the hive cities geothermal heat pump, the monumental machinery which draws heat up from the core of the planet, and suffuses it across the hive at large. The team had, over the course of many days nudged and chased him into a dead end. In panic, Laurence attempted to bull his way through the team, and flee back out into the underhive. Believing the the beast to be attacking them, the team fired upon him with live ammunition, rather than the tranq rifles they had intended upon using to capture him.

Wounded, and half starved, Laurence managed yet again to escape, but this would be the last time. He was once again tracked down by the inquisitorial team, and this time, captured.

## Pressed

Delivered to the Inquisitor, Laurence was examined. Medically, telepathically and biomantically. Medical and biomantic examination showed his human origin, and the various mutations undergone to be self inflicted by biomantic methods. Telepathic examination revealed the truth and the falsehoods of the hive folklore reported by the administratum embedded agent. Most importantly however, the telepathic intrusion revealed the beast's still very real faith in the God Emperor.

The process of rehabilitation to be undergone was by no means simple nor without risks. Such drastic self modification is considered anathema by many within the Scholastia Psykana, as the possibility remains that the changes may become irreversible. However, the most difficult damages done were not in his body, but his mind. The mental regression, loss of his capacity for spoken language, his paranoia and animalistic thought patterns would all have to be slowly and carefully addressed. Then, the newly reformed Laurence would have to endure the painful and fraught process of sanctioning, and Soul Binding.

Only then, could the Inquisitor employ effectively the asset he had acquired.