Name: Charne
Age: 13
Gender: Male
Role: Proto-Acolyte, Inquisitor Arakia's pet Untouchable
Ordos: Malleus (through association)
Appearance: Charne is what might be considered physically handsome for his age, given just a few tweaks - he is fair-skinned, slightly taller than average for his age at about 160 cm, with dark curling hair and bright blue eyes, and he is reasonably muscular for an early teenager as a result of various forms of training. This is offset, however, by his tendency to remain a touch too still when not doing something with a particular bodypart, and to stare at whatever he is paying attention to with wide eyes and slightly too little blinking. His typical dress includes dark underclothing, worn beneath a suit of carapace armour styled in Arakia's colours, a light metallic blue with white trim.
Personality: Charne's status as a Psychic Null has left him without the typical emotional responses that one might expect from a standard human, as might be the expected outcome of granting no soul and no connection to the realm of emotions to a living being. Though he can "feel" emotion as a byproduct of biological processes, it is usually heavily muted compared to normal human standards, completely lacking in specific extremes such as intense rage, sorrow, or ecstasy, and very rarely expressed externally regardless, though this last part is more a result of his upbringing than his condition. Ironically, this lack of emotion is part of why he is being considered for Inquisitorial induction so young, as his capacity for logical thought remains comparatively unhindered by emotional responses, combining with a fairly substantial intellect and will and practical immunity to any form of Chaos corruption to provide a formidable mindset even at his young age, though he is presently still at a stage when his knowledge of the Emperor's foes is largely decided by his master.
History: Though Charne was presumably born to parents somewhere in the Imperium, he has never known what sort of people they were, for his first memories are of the Schola Progenium, in particular of being attacked by older children for no apparent reason other than "you're giving me a headache". Shortly after that came an introduction to an apparently new Drill Abbot, who alone out of everyone he had met before or since seemed not to despise him as soon as he laid eyes on him; though Abbot Collan Droht was as harsh as any other to a normal student for failure (though Charne found himself failing but rarely under Droht's tutelage), he was not unnecessarily cruel to Charne the way those before him seemed to be.
The reason for this, of course, was that Droht was a Blank, a psi-dense Untouchable who was not so badly affected by Charne's Warp-nulling, horror-inducing aura as a normal human; Charne himself was a full-blown Pariah, and thus incredibly lucky that he had not been killed as a child (indeed, he has since surmised that it was perhaps the same presumably-high status of his parents that led them to be educated about his soullessness, thus allowing him to be placed into the Schola's care at all). However, Charne did not learn of his condition until some point as a seven year old, when the visiting Inquisitor Arakia took notice of him, and promptly spirited him away despite protests from the Schola (something about some special temple, so far as Charne is aware).
Since that day some six years ago, Charne has remained by Inquisitor Arakia's side almost constantly, through both peaceable training and battles against daemonic creatures of all sorts, and growing reasonably fond of the Inquisitor for his lack of physical violence toward him - alongside Collan Droht, Arakia is one of two people who has ever shown anything resembling kindness to Charne, though it is more of a friendly than fatherly bond, as the Inquisitor holds Charne to the same standards as any adult retinue member of his. Indeed, where a normal human child would likely have been badly traumatised and likely killed off by similar conditions, Charne has rarely done anything less than learn from every experience both in and out of battle, in fact doing well enough for his master to begin considering taking the boy on as a true Acolyte, in spite of his young age. All that remains is to test him, to see if he has what's needed to eventually become an Inquisitor...
Philosophy: Puritan, specifically
Amalathian, though this is more a result of his association with Inquisitor Arakia than anything else.
Skills & Abilities: Charne is, first and foremost, a Blank. More accurately, a Blacksoul with an Omega ranking on the Assignment, whose very presence forms an anti-psychic "hole" in the fabric of the Warp that is anathaema to all such psychic activity. Naturally, it is all but impossible for most psychic powers to function in a substantial area around him, marking him as a highly effective barrier against psychic assaults and psykers in general. This of course comes with the downsides of being at the very least disrelished, and more often despised, by quite literally everybody he passes within a few meters of who is not themselves lacking in the soul department, actively lethal to psykers proper if they pass near him and terrifying should they so much as perceive him regardless of their allegiance (or lack thereof) to the Emperor, plus the lack of an actual soul or any connection to the Warp...
That said, he has been educated to a reasonable extent by the Schola Progenium as a prelude to an aborted induction into the Culexus Temple, and is thus able to handle to at least an acceptable extent various sorts of weapons ranging from chainswords to melta guns, alongside reasonable academic skills for his level and various sorts of indoctrination toward the cause of the Imperium, the Emperor, and the Golden Throne.
Retinue Members: Ha, ha. That's a good one.
Equipment: Charne's equipment is relatively secondary to his role as a psychic blocker, but since it is a fairly valuable role, Inquisitor Arakia has seen fit to provide him with suitable protection. In standard engagements, Charne is equipped with a suit of carapace armour built to fit his pubescent frame, with some leeway built in for his future growth to minimise the need to recommission new suits; the suit proper is otherwise fairly similar to standard Cadian Pattern suits in terms of attachments, including a wrist-accessed Auspex unit and a power source akin to that of a Lasgun power pack to provide an energy source for all auxilary functions for up to a week before needing replacement, whilst the included helmet is equipped with a rebreather, photo-visor, encrypted micro-bead for Vox communications and a clip attachment on the right side for a light source or vid-recorder. Additionally, an implant has been installed directly into his skull that is not unlike a lesser form of the Animus Speculum of the Culexus Temple, dampening his contra-psychic aura to allow him to interact with other humans in a somewhat normal fashion, up to and including those of psychic bent, though he is quite capable of turning the implant on and off with a thought to unleash the full force of his aura as needed.
So far as weaponry goes, Charne is equipped with a mono-edged sword and a bolt pistol - a chainsword, whilst more capable of cutting through armour and rending flesh, possesses a great amount of kickback for even a fairly fit thirteen-year-old to try and control, whilst no power weapon would find itself in the hands of somebody who is only just being considered for Acolyte-hood; meanwhile, a bolt pistol provides the power of a boltgun round (likely superior to the hot-shot lasgun that he might otherwise be equipped with) without being too heavy or obstructive for a young teenager to utilise the way a standard-sized bolter might be.
Miscellaneous: Charne is not presently an Acolyte, but rather a pre-Acolyte of sorts - that is to say, he is being considered for the role of Acolyte, and if accepted into this role, it will ultimately lead him down the route to becoming a full-fledged Inquisitor, if he does not die along the way. The reasons for his presence in Subsector Vos are thus twofold - to protect Inquisitor Arakia from psychic assault as he has for several years already, and to prove himself worthy of taking the first step along the road leading up to the Inquisition proper.
Relationships with Other Characters:
Inquisitor Terrence Arakia - Master and retinue leader.
Merris Larriet - Distant association; Charne has no particular reason to talk much with a Stormtrooper who is nearly three times his age, and she in turn tends be fairly cold toward him, a situation only compounded by the horrifying nature of his soullessness.
