Lucius Veridian

### **Affiliation**

The Holy Inquisition; Ordo Malleus, Amalathian sub-faction, the office of Internal Prosecution

## Physical Description

### **Weight**

98Kg

"*Curiosity is the crime of the ignorant. Curiosity leads to discovery. Discovery is the crime of the heretical. Discovery leads to heresy. Heresy is the crime of the damned. Heresy leads to death*"
—Inquisitior Lucius Veridian
**Lucius Veridian** is an Holy Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus. Singled out when he was younger due to his immense pysker power, Lucius is a Beta plus level pysker making him one of the rarest types of human pysker in the Imperium. As a member of the Almalathian sub-faction, Lucius leans towards the more Puritan side of Inquisitorial belief despite his high pysker rating which would be put to better use as a Radical.

Attached to the Office of Internal Prosecution of the Inquisition of Mankind, due to his extremely high pysker rating and nearly impossible psychic powers Veridian is one of the most effective investigators and hunters of the Inquisition. Extremely effective at finding rogue and too far gone Radical Inquisitors Veridian is an expert at finding and prosecuting excommunicated Inquisitors. Garnering a reputation as a faultless hunter, many a Radical Inquisitor have turned themselves in to lesser Inquisitors rather then be caught by Veridian. Sometimes called the ‘Watchdog of the Inquisition’ Veridian is the final authority when it comes to hunting the Radical.

As a long standing member of the Inquisition, Veridian has created a significantly large retinue over the centuries to an extent where he has several fleets at his disposal, entire armies at his fingertips and such a large network of spies in almost every key system for Ultramar to Terra itself.

## History

### Early Life

Born on the grim, tempest-wracked world of Uplixion III, Lucius Veridian demonstrated unimaginable psychic talent from a young age. The volatile warp storms that frequently engulfed the planet, alongside its rich history of ancestral shamans, imbued the inhabitants with latent psychic talents. Lucius's talents, however, were no mere latent whisper; they were a roaring tempest. As a child, Lucius could hear the murmurs of the warp and see visions of the future. These visions saved his village from several deadly storms, earning him a reputation as a savior. However, it also attracted the attention of the Black Ships of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, which came to harvest the planet's psykers.

While travelling on the Black Ships back to Terra, the Ship Veridian was on would be attacked by Traitor Space Marines looking for hosts for various demonic and heretical entities. Due to the attack, the ship's anti-pysker defences would be deactivated leading to a breakout of the pyskers in holding. While many pyskers would be latent and weak, on the ship were three of rogue pyskers who began to kill the other prisoners onboard the ship and try and make their way to the Heretic Astartes. While looking for a way to escape the ship Veridian ran into two of the three rogue pyskers, looking to kill Veridian the pyskers both unleashed their power on Veridian expecting an easy death from the young boy but instead they had their power rebounded back at them. A massive battle of psychic forces erupted with Veridian managing to hold off both pyskers with little training and mainly instinct. Managing to defeat one, Veridian would face the other pysker and unleash all his power before getting knocked unconscious.

Veridian would then wake up, fully recovered, chained to a medical bed of an unknown vessel. Veridian would then break the chains before trying to explore the ship. Triggering some sort of alarm Veridian would be chased throughout the vessel before being subdued again. Waking up in a cell Veridian would find himself sitting opposite a figure who would reveal herself to be Inquisitor Hersha Arshnek of the Ordo Hereticus. Arshnek would then reveal to Veridian the events on the Black Ship.

Arshnek was travelling on the Black Ship and was present while the ship was being attacked. Managing to kill the other rogue pysker with her retinue Arshnek, a pysker herself, would detect the psychic backlash of Veridian’s battle with the other rogue pyskers. On arrival, Arshnek would find half the floor and wall melted to the bare hull of the ship, a feat that would require incredible psychic power due to resistance of the ship. Arshnek found Veridian unconscious on the floor surrounded by the two dead pysker's body. Feeling the power emanating from the young boy Arshnek took the boy. After recounting this tale Arshnek then offered Veridian a place in her retinue.

### Acolyte

Upon joining Inquisitor Arshnek’s retinue Veridian was initially trained as a astropath and psychic support for Arshnek. This was until an investigation of a heretical organisation on the plant Ravrer led to a daemon incursion of the planet. While told to stay on the ship that had landed on the planet Veridian instead broke into the ship’s armoury, stole a supposed force weapon and made his way into the building in which his mistress and her retinue were in. Entering the building Veridian would attempt to find the retinue but instead would discover a group of cultists. A battle would then ensue resulting in the death of the cultists and minor injuries for Veridian. Travelling deeper into the building Veridian would find his Mistress and the few left of her retinue fighting against a Greater Daemon. With the retinue taking losses the Daemon would wind to strike the final blow on Inquisitor Arshnek but instead the blow would be deflected by the psychic might of Veridian. With the Daemon’s full attention on Veridian, he would fight well but ultimately succumb to a number of injuries and both him and Arshnek would likely die to this Daemon until a detachment of Grey Knights and other Inquisitors would arrive driving off the Daemon and banishing it into the warp.

Upon the recovery of the both Veridian and Arshnek, Veridian’s psychic might and natural martial talent would be pointed out to Arshnek who would officially take Veridian under her wing and train him in the ways of the Inquisition. Introducing him to her faction of the Inquisition the Amalathians. Veridian would find merit in this belief and align himself to this faction as well. After years of service and successful investigations Lucius Veridian would be elevated to full Inquisitorial status. But as he was to pick his Ordo of choice he was approached by a close friend of Inquisitor Arshnek, Inquisitor Rolan Satavar of the Ordo Malleus. After seeing Veridian’s enormous psychic power in a previous investigation Inquisitor Satavar inquired if Veridian would interested in joining the Ordo Malleus as his psychic power would be put to better use. Agreeing with this statement Veridian would become a member of the Ordo Malleus with blessing of his old mentor.

### Inquisitor

As a full on Inquisitor Veridian would spend time and follow Inquisitor Rolan Satavar in investigations to learn the fine details of being an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor. This coupled with his training as Ordo Hereticus acolyte has made Veridian an extremely effective hunter and investigator. After years of investigations with Inquisitor Satavar, Veridian would take his leave from Satavar’s retinue and venture out into the galaxy to pursue his own career as a Inquisitor.

### The Wrath of the Traitors

One of Veridian’s first and most famous investigation was the investigation on Salco Prime. This investigation was triggered by a series of alarming reports indicating increased heretical activities in several sectors of the Segmentum Obscurus. Unusual warp anomalies, ritualistic chaos symbols, and whispers of forbidden rituals led Inquisitor Veridian to suspect the presence of the numerous heretical elements . Upon arriving in a sector Veridian and his retinue would travel to the planet and commune with the ruling government of the planet, the Planetary Governor would profusely deny any involvement or knowledge of uprisings and discord on his planet blatantly cursing Veridian for assuming so. On the discovery of heretical cult in hiding in one of the hive cities on the planet, Veridian would requisition the Astra Militarum stationed on the planet and purge the city resulting in the destruction of nearly half the cities population due to the cult committing mass killing in a attempt summon daemonic aid. This would anger the Planetary Governor under the pretence of crippling the planets manufacturing capabilities. After further investigation. Veridian would find the capital city of the planet nearly fully invested with cults and organisations all bearing the same name ‘the bearer of words’.

Upon another purge of a district Veridian would be able to take a prisoner from one of the cults. Upon interrogating the prisoner with his Interrogater and aide Selena Orin, they would discover that all the cults and organisations have been receiving support and immunity from conviction from the Planetary Government. They were also able to find out that there are mysterious benefactors supporting this heretical project. Given a location where these supposed benefactors are located. Taking fighters from his retinue. Veridian broke into the massive factory and what he found was dangerous. In the factory lay a large contingent of the Word Bearers Traitor Astartes along with their daemon companions. They would also find agents from other Traitor Legions with there being elements of the Emperor’s Children and an an extremely large number of the Iron Warriors. But perhaps most interesting was the appearance of member’s from the Black Legion showing Veridian that this was not an isolated event but instead a unique collaboration between the forces of Chaos. Realising that they would not be able to take on this force alone Veridian ordered the retreat of his retinue. Once escaped Veridian would send a message back to Inqusitorial command and to the Ordo Malleus requesting major back up and reinforcements to deal with this problem. After sending the message and while waiting for the reinforcements to arrive Veridian would once again sneak into the factory but this time be captured by the Word Bearers and be psychically tortured. However to the Word Bearers disbelief their psychic probes were deflected due to Veridian’s immense psychic power. This lead to an outrage among the Word Bearers as they could not believe how a human was able to resist their psychic power. How ever thanks to the genius of his retinue Veridian would freed just in time to see the reinforcements arrive.

After being alerted by the urgency of the situation a mass of Malleus Inquisitors would arrive each with various forces and retinues. Also summoned were a sizeable task force from the Grey Knights ,the chamber militant of the Ordo Malleus, 5 companies of the Red Hunters Space Marine Chapter, 3 companies of the Imperial Fists also translated in system after they found out that the Iron warriors were on planet and after using the Malleus remit due to the severity of the situation the High Lords sent the Minotaur Chapter as well. There was also a large number of Astra Militarum regiments and forces.

Launching an all out assault on the world, the forces of the Inquisition landed on the world. Veridian himself led the Grey Knights a well as the Minotaur Chapter straight to factory in which he found the traitor forces. Upon arrival Beridian and his forces would catch the Word Bearers mid ritual and launch an attack. This forced the ritual to be unfinished and caused an unstable warp gate to be opened. The warp immediately began tearing the factory until Veridian held the gate shut with his mind, a feat nearly impossible for a mere human, which have the Grey Knights enough to slaughter the Word Bearer.

However the planet would be tainted by the warp and after withdrawing from the planet Veridian would order the Exterminatus of the world to prevent any corruption from spreading.

## Appearance

A man of average height, Veridian has the dark skin of the Pan-African descent. A mysterious figure to outsiders due to his hood on his long storm overcoat which shrouds his appearance.