Malleus Skotus

Malleus Skotus is a Lord Inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus of almost legendary repute operating chiefly in Sector Occident Prime.

Early Life
Malleus Skotus was born on Holy Terra herself and spent his childhood in the palaces belonging to his Famous Family on Earth and New Venus. His high rank got him special treatment when he showed signs of psyker ability at adolescence. He was promptly enrolled in the Schola Psykana but entered that institution with a small entourage consisting of valet, pedagogue, private cook and bodyguard, along with a pile of luggage. Despite these luxuries his training was as harsh and testing as that of any young psyker. He was rated a midrange Delta which is about the highest level of psyker that can be considered completely rational and controlled. It did not require his Famous Family's influence to get him immediately earmarked for service in the Inquisition. In fact he had senior Inquisitors from all three Ordos literally fighting over him. Lord Inquisitor Yuri Genji of the Ordo Malleus emerged victorious from the struggle. Malleus entered his service as acolyte at age seventeen unattended by House servants and with only one small bag containing a loaded dataslate and a few changes of clothes. Malleus always says that this was the true beginning of his training.

Professional Life
He began his career in the Ordo Malleus as a fervent Thorian but decades of disappointment wore off the shine of his ideals. First he turned to the Casophilian faction and from there it was an easy slide to the more extreme Revivificators until he hit bottom with Horusianism. Fortunately he came to his senses before too much damage was done and resigned himself to the patient watchfulness of an Anomalian Beholder. It was at about this time he shifted his activities from Daemonology, which he had decided was dangerous to his soul, to witch hunting, from Ordo Malleus to Ordo Hereticus.

His current arena of activity is Sector Occident Prime where he is a senior member of the Inquisitorial Conclave headquartered on Trianguli Prime. But he has been known to extend his range into Segmenta Pacificus and Obscurus as well as all through the Segmentum Solar.

Personality
Age has somewhat mellowed what was originally a dangerously intense nature but he still has a presence that hits the beholder with the force of an iron hammer and the heat of a burning fuse. Skotus' equanimity is in fact rarely disturbed but those unfamiliar with him tend to tip-toe in expectation of an incandescent blast at any moment.

Appearance
Skotus is a full two meters tall and blade thin with a face like a sword's edge and eyes that could burn through solid neutronium. This intimidating quality is increased by the severe cut and dark hues of the austere quasi-uniforms he affects.

Abilities and Traits
Skotus is a powerful Biomancer with the full spectrum of related powers. He can boost his own strength and speed to supernal levels; smite his foes with lethal bolts of bio-lightning. He can boil the blood or choke off the breath of a subject with a gesture of his hand, and heal by the power of his mind. He still possesses but rarely uses his Daemonological powers save at urgent need.

Skotus is the fortunate owner of a large, fluffy ginger Gyrinx cat named Flambeau with an unnervingly piercing blue stare. Flambeau serves as Skotus' familiar, heightening his psyker powers and other mental abilities. The cat follows his master everywhere unless physically prevented. Flambeau sulks when left behind and becomes agitated if his master is in danger or difficulty. When Skotus returns he is generally treated to several hours of snubbing before his cat deigns to forgive him.

Equipment
Lord Skotus rarely uses any equipment beyond his master-crafted inferno pistol and his personally designed power-sabre with its single edged, slightly curved blade that glows red when activated. His days of storming into battle encased in a hulking suit of terminator armor plentifully embellished with Inquisitorial icons waving a gigantic relic blade in one hand and storm shield in the other are - for the most part - over. He prefers a more subtle approach in these, his mature years.

Family
Lord Skotus is a senior member of an ancient and powerful dynasty of the Terran Aristocracy. The Skotii can trace their clan's origins back to the dim depths of the Age of Terra and prides itself on being older than the Imperium. As a House Palatine the Skotii have absolute control over their Terran enclave and their fief worlds (in the Centauri systems of Sector Solar and Skotia in the Brittanica Sector). The Skotii are well represented in the Adeptus Terra and many have sat on  the Senatorum Imperialis.

Though he has never married he has sired three daughters by his psyker and long time lover Cuma Sybbyl;

Kymbeline Skota
Skotus's firstborn child followed in his footsteps, not entirely by choice - but then nobody in the Imperium gets to choose their life. Kymbeline inherited the psyker curse from both parents and was earmarked for the Inquisition almost from the day she entered the Schola Psykana. As an Inquisitor she is determined to make her own reputation unshadowed by her father's legend, to which end she has spent most of her career as far from him as possible. She was originally a Witch Hunter but when she heard Malleus had changed orders she immediately did the same becoming a Ordos Malleus. Her usual area of activity is the Eastern Fringe specifically the Hagar Cluster.

Devorguille Skota
Skotus' second child was claimed by the Adeptus Astra Telepathica for it's own purposes. She is one of their specially trained Astral Agents, equipped with ancient psy-tek and cybernetics and commissioned as an agent at large. Her curse falls midway in strength between both her parents in the 'zeta' range on the 24 point chart. Like her father she is a talented biomancer and fully trained in the combat applications of her powers but she is also a sensitive telepath and a gifted clairvoyant - gifts inherited from her mother. Her cover as a command and control officer of a Black Ship keeps her circulating around the Segmentum Obscurus safely clear of the rest of her family.

Aidana Skota
The third daughter is the family renegade - there is always one. Fortunately for her Aidana's psi assignment was too low to interest the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, somewhere in the high Lambda range, which translates in Real World terms to 'Luck' and trustworthy hunches. Unfortunately she had no interest in the kind of social and political career open to a lady of the Terrestrial nobility. Instead she served a term in the Imperial Navy to learn about ships and command then resigned and applied for a Warrant of Trade, which she had no difficulty in getting with her connections. Like Kymbeline Aidana likes to keep as far from her relatives as possible. Her usual area of activity is the Halo Zone of the Segmentum Pacifica.

Ganter Bay
Is not accounted a member of the Inquisitor's entourage. As a Champion and Errantus of the Watch he is invested with authority of his own by the Lords of Terra and an independent agent. He has however freely elected to ally and work with Lord Skotus for the past sixty years.

Brother Query
The Mendicantine Frater is equally free of official Inquisitorial ties - insofar as anybody knows - though he has been associated with Lord Skotus even longer, over a century at least though when and how he became connected with Skotus remains a mystery to everybody but the two of them.

Roi Dakaur. Acolyte and Interrogator
Keirestellie, Callidus Assassin

Servants:
In addition to his official entourage Lord Skotus is accompanied by a personal staff whose primary duty is to see to his comfort and that of his entourage, though they sometimes serve as combat auxiliaries when numbers are needed.

Jihan Ouyang
Skotus' personal chef and a Master of traditional Terran cuisine. He is a short, rotund little man with olive complexion very straight very black hair and a long thin moustache hanging below his second chin. Ouyang is a wicked knife fighter, he has also been known to throw kitchen knives when disturbed in the throes of creation. So far he's always missed.

The Makkai Twins, Albin and Blanca
Serve the Lord Inquisitor as waiters, errand runners, etc. They are a tall, albino pale pair with eerie yellow eyes, and they are mutes communicating by hand signs. The official story is they are hereditary retainers from Skotus's ancestral holdings in Alba Nord. But the twins' unusual strength, speed and skill with weapons suggests to the discerning that they may in reality be culls from an Afriel hatching. The twins' faces and bodies are criss-crossed with fine scars inflicted by surgery, or battle wounds or torture or all three, but in any case made by very fine, sharp blades.

Orman Rusk
Skotus's batman, is a former Inquisitorial stormtrooper. He is nearly as old as his master and has been with him for well over a century. Rusk has pale gray eyes, a complexion like old leather and a few wintery grey hairs fringing his bald pate.

Enemies
Skotus has made plenty of enemies over his long and eventful career, both inside and out of the Inquisition. He also has a number of active rivals - all within the Ordos and some much too close for comfort.

By:
"I agree the rate of mental illness among Inquisitors is moderately alarming. But then who in the Imperium can be called sane?"

- Malleus Skotus

"It is impossible to maintain one's footing in Chaos. The first concession invariably leads to others and the road goes ever downward. I speak from experience."

- Lord Inquisitor Malleus Skotus

About:
"Comes from a really old family, which probably means he spends his nights chasing the Ordo Redactus out of his garbage."

- Douchard Bagge

"Skotus is what most Inquisitors his age end up becoming. Powerful, renowned, and mentally unstable."

- Greyon Autaris

"He has seen more experience then even me, but his past is shrouded. I wonder-what is he hiding?"

- Ahtar Delcon

"Lord Skotus, you and your associates are welcome aboard the Crimson Beacon. While I will respect your wisdom and advice Inquisitor, should you try to use your authority to command my chapter, I will see fit you are never so welcome again."

- Eulitus Ephrain of the Wings of Salvaxes

"Be wary when speaking to him brother, those who dance on the edge of heresy never entirely forget its entrancing tune."

- Lord of knives to his first Captain, Lophess Ovair, of the Obsidian Blades.

"It is a fool that thinks himself a rival of a daemon. It is a madman that thinks himself an equal. However, I have yet to come across a man such as you, who thinks himself a destroyer of daemons. Allow me, with the power of the Gods, to remind you of your place, mortal!"

- Seddrinth the Gifted, Daemon Prince and Battle-Thrall of the Storm Draugar

"Hahahaha, HAHAHAHA! You think you've won, Inquisitor!? You have no idea. You have no idea what forces are at work here. Terra shall fall. The heart and soul of Mankind shall be flayed open, blooming like a flower of truth and enlightenment! Reality itself shall disappear! There will be no space, no time, only Chaos! You can't stop it. No one can! You can kill me, Inquisitor, but you can never kill the Truth. I die now, willingly, knowing that my Gods await me."

- Anonymous Heretic before execution "Sweet. Loving. God-Emperor. Is the a file or a barcode?!"

- Echo, accessing the Skotus Familial Annals

"I met him once in my younger years, you know. He was quite a legend among acolytes back then. Nowadays I am starting to wonder how he has survived this long."

- Rosanne Thrace

"I once though Malleus was the kind to die young in glory, probably in battle. Now I know he'll die old, more glorious than ever."

- Inquisitor Jacob Flux