Varrus Vass

*"The chain is only as strong as its weakest link."*-Varrus's motto

**Varrus Vass, Crucible Champion**, is a veteran Titan of the Last City of Earth, and the present inheritor of the Mark of the Voidborn. He currently serves as the support member of Fireteam Argus.

## History

### Pre-Collapse

While other Guardians can remember bits or even swathes of their lives before the collapse, Varrus cannot recall even the slightest hint of a memory, aside from his name.

### Awakening

The human known as Varrus was resurrected by a Ghost in the depths of a buried tower of Clovis Bray, deep beneath the sands of Freehold, long after the Collapse had left it a sand-swept husk of a city.

After the tiny machine had explained the newly-resurrected Titan's purpose, the two searched for a way back to the surface. Unfortunately, the way the Ghost had come was sealed by sand, trapping the pair in the depths of the sunken facility. With nothing but the words of his tiny companion, and the bones of the long dead to keep him company, Varrus waited.

After a month of listening to tapped Cabal battle chatter and scavenging for any still sealed packets of ancient food, salvation came crashing through the roof. A Titan, attempting to escape the Cabal, was shot down, his jumpship plummeting through several levels of the tower in which Varrus was located, and nearly flattened the new Guardian. After barely fending off a squad of Cabal that came in search of the crash with the other Titan's Auto Rifle, Varrus approached the wounded veteran. The other Titan had lost his Ghost and was dying of his wounds. With the last of his strength, he gifted Varrus The Mark of the Voidborn and the remains of his jumpship with which to return to the City. After some hasty field repairs by his Ghost, who the titan had taken to calling "Vigil', the novice finally made it to the City.

### Early Career

Upon his arrival, the novice Titan was given a formal introduction, and let loose to make a name for himself. After completing his basic training, Varrus drifted, taking part in patrols of the wall until he seemingly found his calling. The Peacekeeper Order, a small order of Titans dedicated to policing the city as well as patrolling the wall, appealed to the young Titan.

After joining the Peacekeepers, Varrus progressed quickly, earning the respect of his peers for his flawless performance upon the wall and in the city. He had trouble relating to the common people of the city, though, as his unusual size and constant combat readiness were somewhat off-putting to the average citizen. The Titan continued to accumulate the respect and admiration of his peers, until one fateful night...

### Exile from the Peacekeepers

On a warm mid-summer night at the wall, Varrus was watching one of the gates to the city alone, waiting for the other guards for that shift to arrive. At this time, he was approached by a collection of migrants who wished to leave the city to meet up with more of their relatives. When the lone Titan denied them access on account of heightened Fallen activity outside the wall, the leader of their group began to bicker with the giant, chastising him for keeping them from the rest of their families.

Eventually, after much arguing, the Titan lost his temper an opened the gate, calling the migrants fools and daring them to leave. After the unhappy migrants had left, Varrus began to regret his decision of allowing them to leave unprotected, at which point the rest of the guards showed up. When the giant told them of the migrants, they too were angered with him, and immediately set off with the shamed Titan to find the group before it was too late.

The three other Titans and Varrus tracked the migrants trail into the forest, following it for miles before finally caching up with the caravan. What they found, however, was a massacre. The Fallen prowling the forest had butchered every last man woman and child of the group, and hung their mutilated bodies from the trees near the road. Varrus was horrified that he had caused this to happen by losing his temper and letting the migrants go. And when his fellows began to exclaim in anger what the giant had done, the Fallen sprung their trap.

The Devils poured from the surrounding trees, rushing the four Titans at the site of the massacre. The four formed a defensive circle and held the line, gunning down the Fallen. This continued up until a Captain de-cloaked next to Varrus as he was reloading. The Fallen slammed the butt of its Shrapnel Launcher into the side of Varrus' helm, at which point everything went black.

When the giant awoke, the Fallen were long gone, and the corpses of his three friends lay where they fell, next to their sundered Ghosts. The Titan hung his head in shame and grief, haunted by his failure to protect both the innocent migrants and his friends. The Peacekeeper Order cast him out of their ranks for his failure, after which Varrus returned to drifting, vowing to never again be the weak link in the chain.

### The Call of the Crucible

After some time running patrols and strikes, Varrus' attention was caught by the notion of Lord Shaxx's "Crucible". The giant had been looking for a way to improve his skills and strength since his failure. Like all others, he was granted entry, and soon found his calling.

In the forge of the Crucible, Varrus tempered himself, learning to play to his strengths to make up for his weaknesses. He was slow, but he hit hard. He was a large target, but he was tough. As the Titan rose through the ranks of the crucible, he modified his gear to fit his play-style, and gained a reputation as particularly hard to kill, even for a titan. Eventually, he reached the pinnacle of achievement for those who fought their fellow Guardians: the rank and honor of Crucible Champion, not to mention the respect of Lord Shaxx himself.

At last satisfied with himself, Varrus looked outward, seeking to forge better warriors out of his fellows. He was strong, but the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The giant re-dedicated himself to the Crucible, but no longer for the betterment of himself, but for the betterment of others. He set out to offer the best training possible for those who sought to hone themselves on the blades of other guardians.

Not one to neglect his own might, Varrus occasionally entered the Iron Banner, to test his strength and keep his skills sharp. Eventually his flawless performance, and persistence on the Crucible leaderboards, caught the eye of the Disciples of Osiris. The giant received a much-coveted invitation to Mercury, venturing off to participate in the fabled Trials of Osiris. What exactly transpired between the giant, the secretive cult, and the other competitors remains a closely guarded secret, but Varrus undoubtedly returned a victor, a prized void Auto Rifle and advanced custom jumpship his trophies.

### The Ceres incident

One fateful day, upon returning to the tower from his usual activities, Varrus overheard part of the de-briefing of Fireteam Argus, and the threat of the Hive God Enxor reawakening. Deciding that the threat of a Hive god was too much to ignore, and somewhat regretting not being there when Crota was ended, the giant decided to join the force Avgust Boris was putting together to journey to the remnants of Ceres and end the threat.

To be continued...

## The Mark of the Voidborn

Varrus' unique Mark is an ancient heirloom gifted to him by the unidentified Titan that unintentionally freed him from his sandy prison a month after he was resurrected. It is composed of a voidmail sash and loincloth, bound to a tough synthetic belt with a black relic iron buckle fashioned as a pair of interlocking fists.

The Mark is as ancient as it is ornate, dating back to some of the city's earliest days at the Battle of Six Fronts. A Titan, whose name is long lost to the tides of history, being remembered only by her title of "Voidborn", with her dying breath fashioned her void light into a single tiny ring, and passed her mark on to an heir. The heir repeated the process when she fell for the final time, adding her link to the first. This process repeated through history, with each bearer adding their light to the voidmail, and passing the mark on. Now, the voidmail formed of the links of light from each Guardian to bear the mark forms a radiant loincloth and sash, stretching a good way down even Varrus' unusually long legs.

It is said that the collective knowledge of those Defenders to bear the mark still resides within its links, allowing its bearer to call upon their lost arts and collective strength to form a gleaming tower shield with their disintegrate to ward against the foes of humanity, and the minions of the darkness.

## Trivia

* Varrus Vass is the (sort of) main character of user NegativeZero.0.