Chief Arbiter Jane Oakheart

## **Jane Oakheart**

### Relatives

Jacob (adoptive son), Fredrick Rotbart (Oath Brother), Blood sibling to many in Avernus's upper command

## Physical description

### Gender

Female

**Jane Oakheart "The Inevitable"** is the current head of Avernus's intelligence network and psyker hunting apparatus.

## The Chief Arbiter

One of the last few original advisors remaining from the start of the quest, Jane Oakheart has been a steady presence the entire time. Developing from a terrifying hunter of cultists and keeper of order to an equally terrifying psyker slayer and teacher, Jane has consistently been one of the greatest warriors of Avernus.

Indeed Jane is one of if not the greatest purely human warriors alive. Completely unaugmented, she has slain psykers from every level of the assignment, battled and won against greater daemons and even defeated the Changling in one on one combat, earning her duel paragons.

Inspite of the scars she has sustained securing these victories, Jane remains determined to make Avernus as safe as it can possibly be from the ever-growing threat of rogue psykers, and in pursuit of that, has trained another superlative warrior in her own son Jacob Oakheart, and created the greatest human psyker hunting apparatus in the galaxy.

## History

The now Chief Arbiter likely started out in the Schola Progenium where she was trained as an arbiter where she later graduated. During this period of her life she was recruited as an inquisitorial acolyte by an Inquisitor Vahn after a raid on a cult where her skills with both investigations and the blade impressed him.

Eventually, she was recruited covertly by Lord Inquisitor Klovis-Ultan to head up the cultist hunting apparatus on the nascent colony of Avernus, where she created the police force, arbiters and started her presently longest-running project yet, the secular psyker hunters.

During this long period of training and building her own organisations from scratch, she also drilled Governor Rotbart into a master of the blade, and learned of her own skills as a teacher.

When the Emperor died she had a brief crisis of faith that was eventually resolved by Saint Lin. From then on she continued her roles, growing as a blade master, spy master and psyker hunter. Most importantly was the creation of the Last Hunter programme, which Jane designed and masterminded. When Rotbart's wife Freya was cruely taken from him, she was there to help bring him from his own sorrow.

Her level of ability and prestige accelerated in the aftermath of waagh Garkill. Having been in the middle of setting up a school to teach her style of sword fighting, she found that one of her students was being impersonated by a chaos daemon. She confronted the daemon, but discovered that it was in fact the Changeling, one of Tzeench's most powerful daemons, which copied her appearance and skills, while supplementing them with untiring daemonic strength. This was a battle she should have lost, but instead, Jane pushed beyond, growing into a paragon and as far as even the Eldar can tell, permanently slaying the Changling.

In the aftermath of this Jane decided to adopt a child, both to train as her successor, and also out of a desire to experience the same bond as Rotbart had. After fifteen years of looking she found Jacob, recently orphaned after his parents were killed by an Ammut Crocodile. The reason she chose him was that the five-year-old had subsequently killed the one-ton crocodile with a kitchen knife. Adopting him as hers, she personally trained him into one of the most dangerous fighters on Avernus before he was even 20, laying the foundations for his rapid growth in the caverns.

Since then her list of accomplishments has only grown, with the death of the Grandmaster Sorceror Malus Tagai the Annihilator during the War on Two Fronts, her and Jacob banishing the Honoured Bloodthirster Kurrun Ashstriker during the Crimson Skies, striking down numerous Archangyls during the Gilded Skies Incursion, slaying an Alpha-Plus Psyker possessed by a Lord of Change, and killing the Dark Whisperer that was stealing the corrupted psykers of Avernus to freedom.

During the battle of Hvergelmir Jane hunted down and killed four of the horrific alpha broodlords, cementing her status as a psyker hunter without peer, and raising her loyal blade to the level of artifact.

Since then, numerous other Alpha-Plus psykers fell to her blade. During the Green Skies Incursion, she ended the existence of Festirstrol Bilgefinger, an Honoured Daemon of Nurgle, with a single strike of her blade. During the Incursion of Doom, she destroyed Sor Amphion, an Honoured Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided.

An opportunity for even greater feats came to Jane over sixty years later. Drawn into the Caverns, she spent years there fighting ever more powerful opponents, ending with her claiming the Archetype of the Fencer. With that, she completed several missions for the Eldar, slaying even more Honoured Daemons. Fifty years later, the combined weight of Jane's achievements made her Transcend, making her enemies depend on nothing but their combat ability when facing her. With that, she participated in an attack upon Ahzek Ahriman as he attempted to finally ascend into Tzeentch. However, two steps before his success, Jane ended both the attempt and his existence in a titanic battle and her greatest achievement yet.

During the assault on Sicarus, Jane led an attack by the Psyker Hunters on the temple dedicated to Tzeentch, taking it out in a day. Later, her, Corvos Naydem and Lelith Hesperax took on the Exalted Daemon Aetaos'Rau'Keres, with Jane delivering the Truekilling blow at the end of the third day of battle, after the other two heroes were forced to withdraw.

## Personality and Relationships

Jane is in many ways a cold, focused, and utterly ruthless woman. Utterly unflappable, and prepared for any situation, she has seen many horrors and is willing to do whatever it takes to fight enemies like chaos and rogue psykers, hence her easy support for selling corrupted souls to the Sirens.

However, she is not without empathy or pride. This is expressed most keenly through her blade and her students.

For the first, she is the most skilled sword fighter in the Trust, with her only rival being her own son. This has reached a point where she communicates best through clashing steel with another, as opposed to talking.

For the second, her surprising skill as a teacher, able to tailor her style of instruction to a student's individual needs to help them flourish has been her most surprising skill, but one that has benefitted her greatly. Her pride in those who master her way of sword fighting, her Last Hunters, and especially Jacob cannot be matched.

* **Jacob Oakheart** - Jane's son, the two share an extremely odd relationship, formed as it is from bonds of incredibly strong love and tested in the fires of their insane dedication to self-improvement that to outsiders seems extremely dangerous. This is in addition to various other small details of their relationship, like Jacob's brief experimentation with maces that convinced her to send him to school as a young teen. Even so, the two are as close as mother and child can be, and possibly a bit more than that, as they are the only two capable of challenging one another to a true fight within the Trust, save for Master of Sanctity Horatius.
* **Fredrick Rotbart** - As one of the last members of Rotbart's original council, the two have grown very close over centuries of working together, supporting each other through the lowest of lows (the death of the Emperor and Freya) and the highest of highs (the discovery of the STC, and grand conclave). Indeed, having fought together for so long, by Avernite common law Jane and Rotbart are brother and sister, and while their sibling relationship is hardly normal it certainly is close enough.
* **Grandmaster Ridcully** - After so long working together the Grandmaster and Jane see very much eye to blindfold, with his words of prophecy saving her life and the lives of many others from rogue psykers over the years. They both also highly respect each other for being supreme in their respective fields, and for the impossible feats of skill both have carried out.
* **Archmagos Explorator Extremis Tranth** - One of the last survivors of the original council, Archmagos Tranth and Jane are not particularly close, but they are very friendly, especially as it is Tranth's continual technological finds that have given her Psyker Hunters as many advantages as they have.
* **Grandmaster Aria** - Jane's opposite number responsible for searching for and deploying psykers to fight rogues, Aria and Jane respect each other even if Jane feels Aria can be ruthless even by her standards. In spite of this Jane aknowledges that Aria's null zone is one of the best anti-psyker tools imaginable.

## Character Sheet

#### Stats

Age: 542, rejuved to 25

Fame: 182 *- Her actions in the Grand Incursion have made Jane a much-feared figure among the local daemons, a reputation that has spread into both the general forces of Chaos and to an extent the Imperial Trust. Her steps along the Path of Ascension have enhanced this reputation greatly, and spread it over distant sectors.* Prestige: 186 - *Among those who know of her the terrifying leader of the Avernite Security forces is viewed with awe, a feeling that is only enhanced by those who know her true nature.* Standing (Avernus): 90 - *While Jane's name remains unknown, her position as the leader of the Avernite Security Forces shows just how trusted she is.* Standing (Imperial Trust): 75- *The Avernite Security Forces have a strong reputation among their peers in the Imperial Trust, and their leader is much respected by the few who know of her.*

**Martial**: 14 + 19 = 33 (+65 martial bonus) – *Jane is a gifted commander of small units, and can command larger forces with a level of skill usually associated with generals if necessary.*

**Intrigue**: 15 + 35 = 50 – *Jane is a master of intrigue in all of its forms, whether it is overseeing or detecting system wide spynets or sneaking past sentries.*

**Administration**: 16 + 4 = 20 – *Jane is a competent administrator, able to handle her administrative responsibilities without causing any problems.*

**Learning**: 12 + 7 = 19 – *Jane has a very good education within her interests but does not have the broad education that you or many other Avernites have gained.*

**Willpower**: 13 + 41 = 54 – *Jane's faith is rock hard and certain, and her will is even stronger.*

**Diplomacy**: 7 + 5 = 12 – *Jane prefers to talk with her blades or though intermediaries rather then engage in diplomatic talk that she has neither the skills nor the patience for.*

**Combat**: 18 + 45 = 60(63) (+1,625(+1805) combat bonus) – *Jane is a force of nature on the battlefield, able to cut her way through even elite units and champions without slowing down, and with an uncanny ability to dodge and deflect incoming attacks.* (142/7+9=29)

#### Equipment

**Artifact: Buckler of Nohon-Qre** (+400 to resist Warp effects, +1 Armour, +20% chance of dodging) – *Nohon-Qre was a Saurus Elder famed for his ability to avoid being hit, whether by spell or attack. His buckler bestows a level of that skill on its wielder.*
**Artifact: Blade of the Tempest** (Pen 22, +3C, +100 to rolls to resist or cut Warp effects, +1 to true kill level, double damage vs psykers and daemons, increase crit range to 96-100, +50 to all rolls, add half of enemies base damage to your own, can increase base damage by up to 100% + 50% = +150%)*– In its centuries wielded by Jane Oakheart the Blade of the Tempest has tasted the blood of countless psykers and daemons, ranging from the most minor to Alpha-Psykers and Honored Greater Daemons. This has forged it into a blade out of legend, the bane of those who wield the Warp.*
**Artefact: The Right Moment** (+30% chance of dodging all hits, 50% chance of negating all hits, +100 to all combat rolls) – *Jane has been provided with Chrono-Displacer made by First Artisan Granalf of Svartalfheim. This device allows her to move forward or backward on their personal timeline, allowing her to dodge or rewind from wounds and attack from unexpected directions. Given just how well this added maneuverability goes with her style this is a deadly addition to her arsenal. Jane Oakheart's Chrono-Displacer has developed greatly over the years, and since she fought Aetaos'rau'keres the Slayer of Souls it seems to know exactly when to move her to avoid damage even without her input*
**Artefact: The Armour Unmarred** (+14 armour, +200% HP, +50 to all rolls, +150% melee damage, +60% speed, +200 to resist psychic effects, +100 to stealth, flight, ignore first successful hit each duel)- *Jane Oakheart's set of Recon Power Armour has lasted her centuries, yet seems to be utterly unmarred despite that. The Runes of Warding and Reinforcement inscribed on its Orichalcum glow with unusual power, and the armour aides her dodge with unnatural speed.*

#### Traits

**Eighth Step on the Archetype of the Fencer** (+110 to all sword-related rolls, +110 to duels, +70% pen with swords, +170 to resisting psychic effects, +10 to dodge chance, double critical hit damage, re-roll first crit fail every duel) – *After being put through a gauntlet of swordmasters of incredible skill, both real and not Jane Oakheart has gained the Archetype of the Fencer, or Agile duelist with a single light blade. Since then she has taken seven more steps along the path, pushing her skill with the blade to ever more supernatural heights.*

**Combat Transcendent Trait: Arbiter of Fate** (current target can't use any esoteric effects to fight or escape from Jane, or have any used to support it or hinder Jane, just simple physical powers, attacks and defences) - *Those hunted by Jane Oakheart find all their esoteric tricks and techniques useless, and everything but simple physical attacks failing them.*

**Swordsmanship Paragon Trait: The Inevitable** (can dodge anything totally, kills anything that isn't a paragon or colossus on crit, x50 damage on crit, double damage) – *Jane Oakheart is the creator and paragon of the Oakheart style of swordsmanship, which emphases quick kills and dodging incoming attacks. She has developed these skills to the point where she can kill almost anything with a single blow when given a good enough opportunity and can dodge attacks that should be impossible to dodge.*

**Combat Paragon Trait: Terror of the Damned** (can cut Warp effects with blade, permanently wounds and kills demons, inflicts terror to Chaos) – *After a lifetime of hunting down and killing psykers and daemons Jane Oakheart has somehow developed the ability to cut the Warp itself with her blade. This allows her to do anything from cutting down psychic powers to permanently wounding and even killing daemons.*

**Psyker Hunter Paragon Trait: Alpha Strike** (gets free attack before each combat, double crit chance for said free attack) – *Jane Oakheart has slain countless Psykers of incredible power by killing them with a single well placed blow before they could react.*

**Combat Paragon Trait: The Final End** (rolls twice and chooses the highest for all rolls against daemons, double damage vs daemons) – *Jane Oakheart has slain countless daemonic heralds and Greater Daemons over her life, including The Changling of Tzeentch and the Honoured Great Unclean One Festirstrol Bilgefinger. This has given her a level of insight into how daemons fight and how to counter it that verges on the precognitive.*

**Will Paragon Trait: Defier of the Chosen** (Damage reduction that scales with attackers significance, maxes at 95%)- *Countless heroes and villains with stories etched into the very fabric of the Warp have come before Jane Oakheart, and met their end without touching her.*

**Inquisitorial Veteran** (+2I, +1M, +2P, +2C)
**Spymaster** (+5 percent chance of spy related intrigue actions succeeding)
**...but you cannot hide** (+3I, +1W, +5% to chance of finding cultists and inner circle cultists) – *Arbitrator Oakheart has managed to personally locate and destroy even the most well hidden cults on Avernus. No matter how a cult conceals itself, she will be able to find it.*

– (+4M, +13I, +1A, -1L, +3W, +1D, +5C, +5 percent chance of spy or psyker hunting related actions succeeding, +5% to chance of finding cultists and inner circle cultists) – *Jane Oakheart has spent centuries as the hider leader of Avernus’ internal security apparatus, time in which she has built it from the ground up into one of the most impressive human organisations of its type in the known galaxy.*

**Mentor** (+3L, +3D, +2C, +20 to melee related rolls +20 to rolls to teach which is doubled for blade related skills, students more likely to get useful traits) – *Jane is an incredible mentor, able to bring out the best of her students, allowing a surprising number of them to reach mastery themselves.*
**Champion of The Fens** (+1M, +1I, +1D, +4W, +2C, +10 to all rolls against daemons and psykers) – *During the First Daemonic Incursion all cities came under heavy attack and all cities suffered major losses - all cities but one, that is. Thanks to the leadership of Lieutenant-General Paulson and the heroism of Arbitrator Jane Oakheart, the attackers of The Fens failed to get past its walls, instead meeting their end on Arbitrator Oakheart's deadly blade and at the guns of the defenders.*
**Hero Killer** (+1C, +5 to rolls in duels, +20 to reaching enemy heroes) – *Jane is an expert at hunting down and killing enemy heroes, as she demonstrated to the Abomination Crusade.*
**Witchbane** (+1I, +3W, +50 to rolls vs psykers) – *Over her life Jane has killed countless Psykers, many of them incredibly powerful. From what you can tell Jane has actually killed more Alpha-level Psykers then any other normal human in history, even taking a broad view of "normal".*
**Broodlord Slayer** (+2C, +3I, +2W, +100 to all rolls vs psykers) – *Alpha Broodlords of Hive Fleet Grábakr are a terrifying combination of a combat monster able to slay heroes of the Astartes, enhanced by the massive psychic might of an Alpha Psyker. In a single fortnight Jane hunted down and killed four of them, along with countless other Tyranids of worrying power.*
**Daemon Hunter** (+1I, +3W, +50 to rolls vs daemons, +1 Fame, +5 Prestige) – *Over her life, Jane has killed countless daemons, including monsters such as The Changling and Festirstrol Bilgefinger despite being a normal if incredibly skilled human. Some of these kills were made in open combat, while others are a result of surprise attacks, often made possible by her foes' dismissal of her as 'just another human'.*
**Master of the Orichalcum Oakheart Style** (+50% base damage when wearing Orichalcum armour, increase maximum damage bonus from Orichalcum weapon to +150%, +1 Fame, +5 Prestige) – *Jane Oakheart has created a variant of the Oakheart style that takes full advantage of the strange ways in which Orichalcum interacts with momentum and kinetic energy. Between the ability to rapidly change direction and speed and better ability to redirect a foes strength the result is clearly a branch of the Oakheart style, but taken to extremes.*

(+6M, +9I, +6L,+16W, +6D, +19C, +140 to melee combat rolls, +30 to rolls to teach which is doubled for blade related skills, students far more likely to get useful traits, +60 to all rolls against daemons, +160 to all rolls against psykers, +20 to rolls in duels, +30 to starting duels, +50% base damage when wearing Orichalcum armour, increase maximum damage bonus from Orichalcum weapon to +150%, +2 Fame, +10 Prestige) – *Jane Oakheart is possibly the greatest swordsmen that humanity has ever produced, and is the founder of the legandary Oakheart School of Swordsmanship, as well as the schools greatest practitioner.*

**Master of the Shadows** (+5I, +1C, +50 to stealth)- *Jane Oakheart has an understanding of shadows, both literal and metaphorical, that few can match. This manifests in combat as masterful faints, in stealth as blending in with even the smallest shadow in her recon armour and in command with knowing just how to infiltrate an area despite alert guards.*
**Tested Will** (+6 Piety, +30 against mental effects)- *Jane Oakheart has had her will tested by countless daemons and psykers over the centuries, and so far none have found her wanting.*
**Legend of the Grand Incursion** (+4W, +2C, +30 to all rolls against daemons, +26 Prestige, +63 Fame)- *Jane Oakheart has been one of Avernus’ greatest heroes in various daemonic incursions, though it was the Grand Incursion which pushed her into the spotlight. Despite the best efforts of her agents to keep things quiet, her reputation among the daemons of Chaos has quickly made her a figure of terror for the local forces of Chaos.*

(+5M, +12I, +20W, +10C, +200 to rolls against Psykers, +75 to stealth, +30 against mental effects, +50 to rolls against daemons, +26 Prestige, +63 Fame) -*Jane Oakheart has been the greatest guardian of the Avernites since founding, though few know her name and deeds. Acting both as a knife in the shadows and a unmatched sword in war, she has met and ended countless threats to her people.*
**Avernite Bi-centenarian** (+6C, +2W, +1I, -2D when dealing with non-Avernites) – *Having survived two centuries of life on Avernus jane have proven herself to be an expert warrior, the bearer of a strong will, and very alert to danger.*
**Avernite Administrator** (+2A, +1C) – *Over the last decade or so Jane's job has been mostly focused on more administrative tasks, giving her a great deal of experience in paperwork and organisational issues. This quiet period has allowed her to put in a lot of dedicated combat practice and allowed her to further increase her swordsmanship, now having reached superhuman levels of skill. Jane is starting to fit the Avernite stereotype of “Admin Clark” to a high degree.*
**Scarred** (-2D) – *As a result of nearly dying to a Chaos Psyker's warpfire, Arbitrator Jane Oakheart now has a set of burn scars covering the left side of her face, neck and shoulder.*
**Avernus Officers' Academy Valedictorian** (+4M, +1A, +2L, +1C) – *Jane has taken the time to attend the Avernus Officers' Academy, where she did not break any records outside of combat classes, which she was excused from by virtue of having taught the instructor, but was still the top of her class.*
**One Sure Strike** (increase critical damage by 50%)- *Jane Oakheart prefers to kill her foes with a single sure strike to their vitals, no matter how tough they are.*

## Triva

* Jane was one of the first masters we acquired in the quest.
* Jane had one of the first relics acquired in the quest.
* Jane was the first character we saw earn a paragon for her defeat of the Changling, although she was the third character in the Trust to acquire one, behind Master of Sanctity Horatius and Champion Surt of Muspelheim.
* Jane also has had luck second only to Ridcully. Her encounter with the changeling was caused by a nat 1, her defeat of the Changling was on a nat 100. Similarly her defeat of the rogue Alpha + was thanks to a nat 100, otherwise she would have likely died. However, she has nearly been killed at least once or twice by much less powerful psykers, a reminder that all psykers are dangerous.
* Jane also got several crits during Nurgles revenge invasion including one of Nurgles honored greater demons with a perfectly well timed nat 100 which resulted in a Truekill.
* Jane is one of the few heroes in the quest to have never needed a survival reroll from Ridcully over the course of her life on Avernus.
* Durin has stated that Jane is amongst his most favorite characters, in part due to her awesomeness being almost entirely unmodified luck even while fitting into a good narrative for her history and skillset.