Liber Challenge IV - Inquisitor Lord Viktor Hatinel

[Erasus]

Inquisitor Lord Viktor Hatinel

 

 

 

 

 

 

Origins

 

Hailing from the planet of Maltora Prime, Viktor was born into a noble family with links to the Inquisition dating back centuries. As such Viktor was trained by the family tutors in the arts of combat, observation and strategy from a young age, all with the intent of being handed over to the Inquisition's ranks in time. The Hatinel family was also prone to producing psykers and so Viktor was also trained in how to contain his abilities and ward off the evils that would prey on his mind. The boy showed an aptitude not seen in the family records for an age and was quickly hailed as the next champion of the rich lineage and reputation his family had so carefully built. This however led to something that Viktor Hatinel has had to deal with ever since; political scheming; there were family members, distantly related, who had taken to Viktor's praise with envy and anger. In fact it is rumoured that the deaths of Counts Jase Hatinel and Arlen Casta were in fact due to an assassination attempt on the youth that had been thwarted shortly before the Inquisition's Black Ship had arrived to take him away, rumours abound that the youth had foreseen the attempt. After he had been taken from Maltora Prime he was selected as a candidate for the Ordos by those with links to the Hatinel family.

 

Soon the recently matured Viktor was attached to an accomplished Inquisitor in order to shadow and learn. His new title of Interrogator weighed heavily upon him but as a Hatinel he was expected to bear it and succeed, and so he bent all of his efforts and will to proving himself worthy of such trust. Now in place of the retinue to renowned Inquisitor Askeus Tyrak of the Ordo Hereticus, Viktor would travel the galaxy routing out the bitter seeds of heresy and corruption that inevitably grew in the oppressive Imperium. Tyrak groomed Viktor to be Thorian in philosophy; to believe that the Emperor acted through certain individuals and that one day He may be reborn through such a vessel. Although Viktor believed this he never considered himself to be such a vessel for His will, instead he felt he was an agent dealing with matters too insignificant for Him to manifest, he was proud that in this way he was aiding the God-Emperor's efforts. Another lesson Tyrak imprinted onto the Interrogator was that Man was innately corrupt, without the guidance of He that sits on the Golden Throne many would inevitably turn to heresy or worse. This notion seemed to prove itself as truth each time Viktor was exposed to those who sought to slip out of the grip of the Imperium. As Inquisitor Tyrak's exploits and campaigns grew so too did the eager Interrogator at his side, soon Viktor was creating relations with other Inquisitors and those related to the shadowy organisation. Under Tyrak's tutelage Viktor added to his wealth of knowledge, broadened his understanding of politics and mastered new arts of combat and war. His psychic talents were also rigorously tested and developed in order to better apply his abilities to the task at hand, soon Viktor was able to read the minds of those he was called upon to judge as well as channel his abilities to power such weapons as the infamous Force Swords. Together the two agents were responsible for the purging of the Kelin Dominion, the burning of the Tascur III heretics known as the Lux Gladia, the overthrowing of the rogue Ulessar system planetary governors and commanding Imperial forces in the sieges of the Jadak Hives.

 

 

 

Inquisitor

 

In time Viktor Hatinel was let loose as a newly inaugurated Inquisitor. He never forgot the valuable lessons imparted by this master. With a combination of fiery zeal and a chilling patience Viktor soon manoeuvred himself through the web of rivalries and schemes that is such an intricate part of power. He had bought, earned or gathered allies and friends while doing his best to distance, silence or eliminate his enemies. In time he had amassed an array of resources and a hard-won collection of Throne Agents able to aid him wherever he went. As his political power grew with every subjugation, redemption or purge so too did the need to delegate tasks; for this reason Inquisitor Hatinel acquired himself a retinue.

 

In his possession he already had one 'follower'; a polished Servo-Skull. The small machine had been crafted by the artificers of Inquisitor Tyrak's retinue, a gift for a job well done; for the Skull had once belonged to Alexius Griss, leader and mastermind behind the Lux Gladia on Tascur III. The Gladia had proven themselves a worthy, if heretical, foe and Tyrak had felt it appropriate to gift the then-Interrogator with a memento of the struggle. Now the Skull acts as a small guardian, watching over Viktor with its array of small digital weapons. One of the eye sockets has been equipped with a pict-recorder as well as the equipment required to project what it captures at a later time. The other eye is given over to a variety of scanning equipment, which when combined with its small size makes the Skull an ideal scout. But in time Viktor realised he would need more than the macabre prize to fulfil his duties.

 

From the rubble of the Jadak Hives, Viktor acquisitioned his next companion. Under Inquisitor Tyrak he had once organised the remnants of the planet's loyalist defender, among them was Marshall Greigson of the Adeptus Arbites. A man of grit and resolve, Greigson had survived the horrendous onslaught that had befallen many of the Precincts of the Hives through sheer determination and a lethal aim. Wielding his shotgun and suppression shield he was able to hold the renegade forces at bay in the tight corridors of Jadak's main Precinct, rallying what little of the Arbites remained into a near unbreakable force. At the end of the conflict, Greigson was presented before Inquisitor Tyrak and Interrogator Hatinel where he was offered a place as Viktor's first Throne Agent. With the Abrites presence on the world essentially dissolved Greigson accepted the offer and followed Viktor when the newly inaugurated Inquisitor set off on his own path. Since joining Viktor's entourage the Marshall has been a key figure in many investigations; not only is the man adept at combat but he is able to recite the Lex Imperialis in order to deliver due punishment upon transgressors and has full authority to make arrests and detain suspects without drawing attention to the Inquisition. His rank as Marshall also allows him to smoothen the process of requisition should Inquisitor Hatinel require the crowd suppressing abilities of an Arbites Squad or the records a Judge has compiled on a certain individual or group.

 

During Viktor's rise was able to permanently attach what many refer to as 'The Sisters' to his personal retinue. Sister Katalin hails from the Order of Serenity and is trained in the arts of the Order Hospitaller, making her the team's prime medical personnel. Katalin is able to treat the gravest of wounds under battlefield conditions due to the specialised training given to her Order, a skill she has had to use many times since joining the Inquisitor's retinue. Her intricate knowledge of the human body has another, darker use however; interrogation. As much as Viktor finds torture inefficient and unreliable, he may find the subject resistant to psychic intrusion and so requires Katalin to physically weaken the subject to put a crack in the psychic defences. Katalin's expertise can also pick out cases of mutation, as was the case in the culling of the radical Progressionists on New Tars Primus. The second of the The Sisters is Sister Ethel from the Order of the Lexicon, one of the largest of the Order Dialogous. Ethel's specialities lie in the written and spoken word, the power of language is hers to command whether it is to inspire a mob to do the God-Emperor's work, negotiate in hostile situations or translate alien languages and cryptic codes. Ethel is also able to speak a large number of Low-Gothic sub-dialects, placing here as Viktor's occasional translator. The Sisters were another acquisition from a warzone; the intrepid Inquisitor discovered them during the Rechona Schism, where the nobility of the planet had divided into those loyal to Terra and those loyal to the planetary governor. The civil war that ensued ensured the arrival of the Ordo Hereticus along with several Orders of the Adepta Sororitas, not all of these orders were formed of Sisters of Battle and among the blown out ruins of hab-units and jury-rigged command posts Inquisitor Hatinel discovered tw very useful Throne Agents.

 

As Viktor Hatinel's political powerbase grew so did the sway he could have over more powerful individuals, Magos Errant Gallix Zhule was one such individual. Originally attached to a Rogue Trader expedition, the Magos Errant was prepared to study all the new wonders the journey would uncover as well as keep the expedition in working order. As a Magos Errant, Zhule was not specialised in one subject of study as many of the Magi of the Adeptus Mechanicus often are, instead Zhule is a jack of all trades from chemistry to metallurgy, engineering to genetics and many more disciplines. Gallix Zhule's rank would normally place him out of reach for many Inquisitors when it came to chaining him to their side, the political power required to convince not just him but the Magi Dominus responsible for maintaining the Quest for Knowledge would need to be significant indeed.  Fortunately for Inquisitor Hatinel the circumstances that surrounded the Magos Errant at the time levelled the political playing field.

 

Having served for nearly two Terran years with the Rogue Trader fleet of Ichabod Vintoris, Gallix Zhule became lost in a seemingly unending study of technological artefacts the expedition were uncovering on a dead world. The planet, briefly recorded as Vintoris Hold, was actually a Necron Tomb world. The tombs had fallen into disrepair over millennia, although some point to evidence of Eldar sabotage, leaving the vast hoard of xenos technology at the whims of the Vintoris fleet. Ichabod saw a way for his line to carve out a realm of their own; a Vintoric Empire that could in time grow to rival if not surpass the ancient Imperium using the clearly superior technology buried here. Weapons soon became a key priority of the search teams sent into the crypts, and with the Magos Errant content to seal himself away to study the rare components brought to him he was none the wiser. Alas, the delusions of the Rogue Trader did not go unnoticed; word had been sent to the nearest Astropathic Relay, soon a small fleet under the command of Inquisitor Viktor Hatinel was en route to end these clearly heretical ambitions. The conflict that erupted was cut brutally short when Ichabod attempted to use one of the Necron super-weapons, he instead vaporised the vast majority of his military forces, including himself. During the clean up Inquisitorial forces discovered Magos Errant Gallix Zhule. Declaring his innocence but being unable to display any attempt to subvert the heresy he should have been executed as a conspirator, perhaps going rogue to gather more xenos technology. Instead Viktor conducted a psychic interrogation before offering the Magos Errant a single route to survival; he would serve the Inquisitor as penance for failing to prevent the Rogue Trader falling to techno-heresy. The lax actions of Zhule would see  him suffer a worse fate on Mars and so he agreed. Since then he has been responsible for the mechanical upkeep of the Inquisitor's forces as well as applying his broad knowledge to many of the problems they encountered; from hacking into local defences, turning machine spirits against their users, creating poisons and acting as a figure of authority when facing down other members of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

 

As a member of the Ordo Hereticus the Inquisitor often found himself chasing the hints of heresy in many disgruntled societies, unfortunately these heresies would erupt into full blown rebellion before Viktor could quell the source. In these instances he often found himself woefully outnumbered and outgunned. Regiments of Imperial Guard, Convents of Sororitas and even Companies of Space Marines were his to command if he called for it, but therein laid the problem; in many instances the need for these forces was often realised too late. Inquisitors could rarely chain these groups to stand beside them on every mission, at Viktor's political weight a Company of Guard was the only realistic option as a whole Regiment was a lot to ask for. Hatinel soon found the answer to this recurring problem when he requisitioned a Company of Tempestus Scions. The 501st Sigmic Gryphonnes were truly a force to be reckoned with; the stortroopers were each worth ten normal Guardsmen, armed with powerful Hellguns and clad in the highest quality Carapace Armour. The 501st were assigned to Inquisitor Hatinel in order to supress a rebellion that was sweeping across the surface of Ithon Secundus. Under his command the Sigmic Gryphonnes proved themselves to be a brutally efficient and adaptive tool. Squads of stormtroopers held bastions against hordes of the dispossessed rebels, carved through the dissidents' assaults and butchered whole mobs of shouting, chanting heretics. Soon Ithon Secundus was again firmly under Imperial control. Viktor relished the greater reach of influence the 501st offered, with them he could essentially carry out the more militant actions of his work on a much grander scale than his retinue allowed. Unable to relinquish this advantage, and with a little help from more influential allies, he took permanent command of the 501st Sigmic Gryphonnes, a force he has used proficiently and resourcefully since Ithon Secundus.

 

 

 

Monsters from the Past

 

Tragedy would strike when Inquisitor Hatinel was called upon to uncover the truth of the disturbing reports coming from Yenitar, a planet on the outskirts of the nefarious Maelstrom. Standing no longer as a lowly Interrogator, but as a fully sanctioned Inquisitor accompanied by a hardened cor of Throne Agents and a small army, Viktor was sure of his ability to silence whatever heretical or separatist maladies had befallen the planet. On reaching Yenitar however, he discovered something of an altogether darker nature; daemons. The rebels on Yenitar had aligned themselves with Chaos and were now bringing unnatural monstrosities from the Warp to aid them in tearing down the Imperial order on the planet. After months of vicious fighting, and in command of the local Yenitaran Skirmisher Regiments and his own Sigmic Gryphonees, he finally beat the enemy back to a single stronghold; a citadel built into the side of a mountain now infamously named the Dread Keep. While the last climatic battle raged along the battlements of the Keep, Viktor and his retinue delved deep into the bowels of the evil fortress. Moving deep into the heart of the mountain they found their foe; an Inquisitor whose beliefs had become twisted by the insidious whispers of Chaos, one who had become to believe that all of Man must be punished, that they did not deserve the Light of the God-Emperor for they so readily turned their backs on it. An Inquisitor who knew Viktor Hatinel very well, Inquisitor Askeus Tyrak. The realisation tore at Viktor's heart, for he had come to see his old master as a father figure and a man to be admired and emulated. Now the dark remnants of a broken man laughed at his naivety and called him a coward for being unable to what Tyrak claimed was necessary. As the daemonic servants clashed with those of Viktor's retinue, the Inquisitor battled his fallen comrade. After a grand struggle Viktor stood over the crippled and broken form of his old friend. His fingers itched to kill the traitor then but instead he chose a different path. Inquisitor Tyrak now serves Viktor in his work, often placing himself between the Inquisitor and danger, chained into a Penitent Engine. The heretic had been enslaved to the machine as penance for his treachery. The machine had been brought to Inquisitor Hatinel through the machinations and dealings of Magos Errant Gallix Zhule. Now Tyrak rampages across battlefields in a mad fury, his face forever contorted into a silent scream as his soul begs for His forgiveness.

 

Shortly after Yenitar, Viktor was approached by members of the Ordo Malleus, daemon hunters and wardens against the evils that lurked in the Empyrean. It was here that Viktor Hatinel shed his alignment to the Ordo Hereticus' goals, instead striving to defeat the evils that had claimed the soul of one so close to him. Viktor's cold patience and fiery zeal served him well here, his more militant style of operation making him an ideal candidate to eradicate chaotic uprisings and cultist attacks.

 

Serving near the Eye allowed Viktor to make one last addition to his retinue as Inquisitor; Tiberius. Fighting out on the frontlines of the zone known as the Cadian Gate, Tiberius is unique amongst those others Viktor has selected in that Tiberius is a Space Marine. Stationed near the Eye of Terror, Tiberius' Chapter once fought against the predations of Chaos, containing it to the unstable space of the Eye. Calamity struck however, and whether his Chapter was annihilated or turned its back on the Emperor none but Tiberius and Viktor know, the but the result was the same; Tiberius now stood alone on the battlefield as he continued to fight the traitors and beasts pouring out of the depths of the Eye. Armed with the Crozius Arcanum of a fallen Chaplain and clad in Artificer Armour and an Adamantine Mantle, Tiberius was a striking figure as he cleaved his way through the enemy. He struck wherever the line seemed weakest, shoring up the defences and rallying those around him until the enemy was beaten back. Word of a lone Astartes was bound to reach the Inquisition, and it was Viktor that heard of it first. He immediately set off to track down this enigmatic figure in order to discover the truth. What he found gladdened his heart; a loyal Space Marine fighting because that was what was needed. After the fall of Tyrak, Viktor was determined to find good in those he came across; the need to prove the ravings of his old master wrong was so strong that he could not help but psychically delve into the minds of the many beneath his judgement and find the spark of faith and goodness in their sous. In Tiberius he found no trace of heresy, no taint, no stain marking him out as anything other than loyal to the Emperor and his people. Tiberius was given a place on Viktor's retinue in order to better serve the Imperium and defeat the Archenemy, a place Tiberius stepped into reluctantly but stepped into nonetheless.

 

 

 

Lord of the Inquisition

 

After fighting through the many years of war and bloodshed Viktor was singled out by his peers and made an Inquisitor Lord; the exploits of Inquisitor Hatinel impressing those who had the power to begin such a process. With his step upwards in power so too did his command, and now he was responsible for waging sector-wide wars against Chaos and those who would kneel before such dark beings. Tearing through battlefield after battlefield Inquisitor Lord Hatinel broke heretics and traitors under his attentions. As his missions undertook a more warlike nature, he found he needed to arm himself in a more appropriate manner. Through dealings with his Throne Agents and the connections with other Inquisitors he was able to claim a modified suit of precious Terminator Armour. His weapons of choice were now a mighty two handed Force Sword, allowing him to strike out at his enemies with the psychic wrath of his mind. A storm bolter loaded with Hellfire rounds now adorned his wrist, mounted on the plate of his ancient armour. With these weapons he would smite those who defied the God-Emperor across the many warzones that plagued the Imperium.

 

This is how Inquisitor Lord Viktor Hatinel came to be in command of the Inquisitorial forces fighting in the warzone known as the Crusade of the Corpse Lord. The chants that the figurehead of the heretical forces is in fact the Emperor Reborn fall on deaf ears as Viktor leads the Imperium's might in quashing the turncoat Regiments calling themselves the Emperor's Own. The Crusade stands to be the greatest test of Viktor's strength to date, only time will tell if it is to be his last.