Tursari Härkönen

## Early Life

Born into the illustrious ranks of House Härkönen, Tursari was the son of Valtteri Härkönen, Lord Commander of Verivaltas’ military. Though a unified planet, the beasts that lurked within the wilds remained a prominent threat, so it fell to Valtteri to coordinate and delegate global defensive measures; ensuring that the Sentinel Cities were always maintained at the highest order and that Hunting Excursions were routinely sent out to protect the borders.

It would come as no surprise then that Tursari was to follow in his father’s footsteps, beginning training at the earliest possible age so that he might soar even higher.

However, that Surmah took a personal interest in the child, did come as a bit of a surprise, even to the Lord Commander himself, for though the Hound cared for his people, he wasn’t known for overt displays of compassion. A certain amount of detachment was necessary for every ruler, lest their emotions prevent them from being able to make the more difficult decisions such power inevitably brings, and Surmah embodied this in totality.

So it would be from his earliest memories, that Tursari could recall his tutelage under Surmah; being taught math, the sciences, philosophy and psychology to name but a few, though it was his instruction in the ways of war he relished most. Whether training in skirmishing battle lines, personal duels or stalking the woods and swamps for prey, Tursari took to such pursuits with a thirst that never seemed to be quenched. By the time he was ten, he was accompanying Surmah and his retinue of Hunters on excursions into the deepest parts of the forest, having proved that despite his young age, he was a killer born. It would be on one such hunt however, that would see his life forever altered; though to what degree wouldn’t be understood until long after the Emperor had claimed Verivaltas.

Answering a distress call from the northernmost Sentinel City, Tursari joined Surmah in a hunt to cull the sudden influx of beasts that were rampaging around the Serrated Crown Mountains. Thick forest met dark, jagged stone as the collosal mountain range plunged into the sky, a result from some antediluvian cataclysm that had created to sole ocean on Verivaltas. As the hunting pack stalked through the treacherous terrain, the felled countless monstrosities that had crawled from the deepest parts of the woods to gather, to what end though, they had not yet divined. By rifle and by blade, the returned the beasts of the woods to the earth, years of discipline and the presence of the Hound keeping their humors determined and cool. While several hunters would engage a horror as a team, using precise fire and coordinated thrusts to bring it down, Surmah ended each he encountered with a casual firing solution from Rancor, a crimson slurry being all that ever remained.

Several hours into their hunt, the cause of the increased activity became clear, a coven of Witches had begun riling up the beasts in an attempt to draw Surmah out, seeing him as a threat to their way of life on Verivaltas. Unfortunately for the hunting group, they had been cut off from him during a planned ambush and were summarily butchered by the psykers, only Tursari surviving any length of time as they took special interest in the fact a child had been sent out to deal with them. As they used their biomantic powers to inflict horrible wounds upon him, Surmah finally managed to locate his team and upon seeing the horrors they had unleashed, he tore them to pieces with his bare hands.

Finding Tursari dying, his body wracked with corrupting change and heavy blood loss, Surmah took one of the med kits from a supply bag and bandaged Tursari’s wounds as best he could, yet still the boy was dying. Seeing no other option, and knowing his own blood had incredible regenerative properties, Surmah took the transfusion kit from the bag and transferred some of his own blood into Tursari, in hopes such potency might yet save him. Unknown to Surmah, with the biomantic energies still coursing through Tursari, his body changing on a cellular level, a fragment of his Primarch DNA was absorbed and written into the boy’s genetic code. A boon that would later manifest during his meteoric rise through the ranks of the XX Legion; though none would say he hadn’t earned his status through constant showing of skill, there was just something that seemed innately better about him, though none were ever able to place exactly what it was.

## Crusade-Era

Every ready to shed blood for the Imperium and his father, Tursari carved himself a legend out of the flesh of xenos and traitors alike, his tales of heroism reaching all the way back to Holy Terra. To the Verivaltans,Tursari was their paragon; a figure of gory valiance who viciously slaughtered any who dared to refute the Imperial Truth and their father’s will, but to the Terrans, he was something more. He was their successor, for in his hands they saw that their deeds would live on as they faded into the legacies of the Legion, their many victories forever to echo down the ages.

It was during the compliance of Chiros that circumstance would see Tursari elevated to the rank of Stalker-Prime, rallying his decimated company and rushing to the aid of the 1st Company who had been ambushed by a Dark Eldar raiding force. Relying on ambush tactics in the face of their more nimble prey, he and his pack tore apart squad after squad of the foul xenos before finally reaching their beleaguered brothers. A searing lance of unlight wailed as it burst through the ferrocrete wall the former Stalker-Prime took cover behind, atomizing him and the makeshift defenses before him. Taking the initiative as the 1st Company attempted to regroup, Tursari surged from behind the xenos lines, his mean following suit, as they fired on the run. Searing arcs of heat tore through Dark Eldar flanks, their bodies bursting into conflagrations that consumed their allies, while bolt rounds pulped others into gorey bits.

Caught between two wrathful companies, the xenos were annihilated, but not before a number of Hounds had joined their ranks of the dead. Two weeks passed as Tursari saw to the extermination of the Dark Eldar raiding party; bringing down their skimmers with massed Volkite fire before running the survivors to ground. With the last of the raiders dead, he signalled the fleet that compliance had been accomplished and that he and the survivors were ready for extraction. Rather than being taken to his own vessel, he was informed that he was to meet with the Primarch aboard the Sielun Murskaaja, his victory earning him a conference with his father.

During a benighted ceremony in the Mausoleum of Remembrance was Tursari elevated to the rank of Stalker-Prime and given the command of the 1st Company, the Ajattaraenen; his ferocity and icy cunning having earned him their loyalty.

Since then, Tursari has continued to distinguish himself throughout the Crusade, leading his company into the heaviest combat zones during any engagement, ever eager to pit himself against the greatest his foe can throw at him. Wielding his twin Verivaltan Mauls, The Widow’s Fangs, with transhuman alacrity and cold fury, even the most heavily armored prey is rent asunder. Their efficiency doesn’t end there though, as Tursari will often use their hooked edges to catch blades or weapon hafts, usually napping them in the process . Clad in inky black armor, he isolates his prey from any potential avenues of help, this in turn has lead to his widespread moniker, Musta Leski, the Black Widow. Whether greenskin Warboss, Autarch or Archon, no opponent has yet proven to be his equal outside a select few within the Legions, those whose legendary feats are sung throughout the entirety of the Crusade alongside his own.

### The Great Feast

With contemptuous disregard, Tursari battered one opponent after another into the ground, having little interest in pitting himself against an opponent whose life wasn't on the line, his rounds lasting mere fractions in comparison to those of the other duels. This would change however when he entered the arena for the final time, standing opposite Imothes, the champion of the Watchers of Akhet. Day turned to night and day once more as their titanic duel raged about the arena, the roar of those in attendance having long since drifted into silent reverence for the display of martial perfection on display. Sensing his sons predatory thirst rising as the duel changed from a amicable, if chilly contest of arms to a blood feud, Surmah and Khnum both intervened before such reputations would be tarnished with the vehement spilling of blood.

## Wargear & Blessings

* **The Widow's Fangs** -
* **Seethe** -
* **Ebon Carapace** -
* **The Brazen Collar** -
* **Mark of Chaos Ascendant** -
* **Favor of the Four** -
	+ Khorne -
	+ Nurgle -
	+ Slaanesh -
	+ Tzeentch -