Admiral Mark Sarnow

Admiral Mark Sarnow, Commander of the Avernite Navy

**Age**: 550 rejuve to 25

**Fame**: 12 – *Admiral Sarnow has commanded the Avernite navy for centuries, and has led it to several decisive victories in this time, and pulled off a few impossible ambushes. This makes him a household name on Avernus, and well known over the rest of the Imperial Trust's Navies.*

**Prestige**: 66 – *Admiral Sarnow is one of the best human harassment admirals that the Imperial Trust knows of, a true master of his field.*

**Standing (Avernus)**: 61 – *Admiral Sarnow is the commander of one of the major military branches of Avernus, and as such is highly respected on the world.*

**Standing (Imperial Trust)**: 41 – *Admiral Sarnow is one of the more respected admirals in the Imperial Trust, and his words are listened to within that field.*

## Stats:

**Martial**: 16 + 22 = **38** (+93 martial bonus) – *Admiral Sarnow is a skilled admiral who is counted among the best in the Trust even outside of his speciality.*

**Intrigue**: 28 + 21 = **49** – *Admiral Sarnow is a genius at deception on all levels, able to easily pull of naval ambushes, conduct extensive hit and run campaigns as well as runs a good spy network on the side. You are starting to wonder if he correct title is Inquisitor Sarnow.*

**Administration**: 18 + 14 = **32** – *Admiral Sarnow is a expert administrator whose attention to detail and skill at spotting misleading reports serves him well.*

**Learning**: 12 + 8 = **20** – *Admiral Sarnow has the level of education expected of an naval officer of his rank who does the occasional bit of study on the side.*

**Willpower**: 13 + 5 = **18** – *Admiral Sarnow Admiral Sarnow's faith in the Emperor forms the basis of his will, though it is by no means exceptional.*

**Diplomacy**: 11 + 3 = **14** – *Admiral Sarnow is a warrior not a diplomat, and it shows.*

**Combat**: 18 + 13 = **31** (+380 combat bonus) – *While not a front line combatant Admiral Parnell is still a skilled swordsman even by Avernite standard and can hold his own in a fight, against most foes at least.*

(83/7+3=15)

## Traits:

**The Admiral of Avernus** (+8M, +1I, +3A, +2D, +8C , +25 to boarding actions, can command fleets) – *While not the first Admiral of Avernus it was Admiral Sarnow who built the Avernite navy into the well drilled, deadly force that it can become, proving just how skilled he is in all aspects of naval command.*

**Disciplined** (+2M, +1A, +1P) – *Admiral Sarnow is highly disciplined, and expects the same from his men.*

**Highly Meticulous** (+4M, +5I, +5A, +4L, -1D) – *Admiral Sarnow is always oncredibly meticulous in all of his actions, carefully ensuring that even minor details are as well done as possible, and then double and even triple checking. This leads to him creating plans that both cover for all possibilities and are as close to flawless as he can manage but also cause some social issues.*

**Master Administrator** (+5A) – *Admiral Sarnow is a master administrator under whose command the Avernite Fleets runs smoothly and efficiently.*

**Master Raider** (+3M, +2I, +20 to harassment by ships under his command) – *Admiral Sarnow has spent most of his career commanding light forces and even the Empire of Ashes respect his skills.*

**Master of the Blade** (+2M, +1D, +5C, +50 to melee combat rolls – *Admiral Sarnow has put in a lot of time and effort over the years to developing his swordsmanship and is a highly skilled swrodsman. However while he has developed a mastery of the blade his lack of major combat experience means that his general combat skills are merely average. For an Avernite.*

**Insane Cunning** (+7I) – *Admiral Sarnow has always been very cunning, being able to nearly instinctively avoid trouble and bypass obstacles. Over the years this has developed to the point where this talent verges on precognition. It isn't, you checked.*

***Hidden Dragon*** (+3I, halve penalties from ship size and type in ambushes) – *Admiral Sarnow has shown a uncanny ability to make use of even the largest and clumsiest of warships for ambushes, once even pulling off an ambush with the Einherjar Class Command Battleship **Fólkvangr**.*

**Expert Deceiver** (+3I, +1D) – *Admiral Sarnow is highly skilled at deception, both in war and in person. Hi skill in showing those he interacts with exactly what they wish to see, or fear, has proven valuable in countless situations.*

**Respected Naval Scholar** (+2M, +4L) – *Between his prior studies and his efforts to help create the New Model Navy Admiral Sarnow is considered to be a respected member of the Imperial Trust’s Naval Academia.*

**Proven Faith** (+4P) – *Over the years Admiral Sarnow has developed a great deal of faith in the Emperor, and in the Imperial Trust’ duty towards his last commands.*

**Naval Tactician** (+1M, +5 to all rolls for ships under your command) – *While Admiral Sarnow has a strong preference for skirmish tactics, he is still skilled in other fields.*

## Biography:

Mark Sarnow came to Avernus as a Lieutenant-Commander on the Lunar Class Cruiser Iron Will, a ship with a long and storied history and a reputation for victory. He proved himself a skilled but not exceptional officer in the following decades and soon found himself in command of a Sword Class Frigate.

Commander Sarnow's ship truly proved itself in the assault on Fjol IV, where it managed to locate almost all of the Dark Eldar warships in their field of operation and managed to surprise several of them. This was the best showing of any escort in the Imperial Fleet and got Commander Sarnow promoted to Captain and given command of the Tireless a Dauntless Class Light Cruiser. Over the following decades Captain Sarnow proved himself and expert commander of light forces and when the Avernite Navy started expanding he found himself promoted to Commodore and given command over Avernus' Privateer Class Raiders. He remained in this position for over a hundred years until the third Waaagh Garkill, after which he was promoted to Vice-Admiral and given command over all of Avernus' Light Fleet elements. Shortly after that he was promoted to Admiral after the death of Admiral Parnell and the tainting of all of the naval officers his senior.

Admiral Sarnow seems to be professional disciplined man both his public life and his private life, and spends most of his time on the clock. However this hides the sheer innate talent that he has for deception of all kinds that puts even Jane to shame. As well as having tuned the naval gossip network into a pretty effective internal spy network and effortlessly winning any office politics he was the only officer above the rank of captain to have avoided being tainted by the plot of the Changer of Ways. When confronted with this he said that all of the invitations that he received that would have put him in taints way felt wrong in some way and he made excuses. When you checked you found that in the years leading up to the cults reveal he had spent most of his time one patrols and leading escort missions. In battle he makes full use of his light forces to harass the enemy and lead them int ambushes, and prefers reveling his presence with a sneak attack.

In all Admiral Sarnow is an incredibly gifted commander of light fleet elements and above average in normal fleet situations, though how well he can sue these talents in command of the heavy warships of the Avernite Navy remains to be seen.

Admiral Sarnow as transferred to the Imperial Trust Navy along with the entire Warp capable Avernite Navy in year 44,116.