Homeworld: Ismidus was born and raised on Epsilon Kappa Pentium, a Mechanicus research station dedicated to studying archeotech ruins on the frontier world below, Iracothus. Epsilon Kappa Pentium itself is primarily populated by Mechanicus researchers, although several families of the smartest from the planet below are brought up to serve as servants and workers for tasks too complex for a servitor.
Iracothus itself is something of a desert world. The surface of the planet is populated by giant burrow worms that infest the land. The residents of the planet survive by living on large platforms suspended above the surface, and by drawing water out from below the surface. The entire infrastructure of the planet is a variation of old archeotech, hence the mechanicum's interest. Since the locals barely understand the machines that keep them alive, they are completely indebted to the cult mechanicus.
Age: 135
Gender: Male (Note: As a higher ranking member of the Cult Mechanicus, Ismidus's body has been augmented past the point of a noticeable gender. While he does remember that he is male, it is only because of his obsessive need to horde knowledge.)
Height and weight: 6ft 8in, 400lbs
Alignment: Mars
Specialty: Tech Expert, Secondary Medic
Appearance: If you ever manage to get a good look under Ismidus's gear, don't expect to live for much longer. The inner cybernetics holding his frame together are considered sacred, and above the gaze of the uninitiated. Beneath his robes is a whirring fusion of man and machine. Wires and couplings expand all across his body, and electoo implants channel energy throughout his body from his internal potentia coil. Since he is not yet a Magos, small portions of skin still remain, such as his forehead and parts of his chest. However, Ismidus is eager to rid himself of these impurities as soon as he has earned the right. As if his form wasn't unnatural enough, equally intimidating is the array of mechedendrites, both weaponized and utility, that can uncurl from his back and raise several feet above him.
Uniform: While Ismidus does wear a suit of carapace armor, bolstered by a layer of sub-dermal armor, it is quite rare that anyone would see it. This is due to Ismidus's Mechanicus robes. The robes are a bright red, and cover his entire body, save for his lower face beneath his hood, and a hole in the back for his Mechedendrites. Additionally, none of his gear is customized, as to do so would imply defects within the perfect construction of the machine spirits.
Armament: Plasma Gun Power Axe Human Bolt Pistol Mechedendrite Servo Arm Various Utility Mechedendrites Baleful Eye (emergency hotshot laspistol in the right eye) Luminen Capacitor (upgraded and weaponized electoo implants) Ferric Lures Maglev Coils
Personality/Demeanor: Most would consider tech priests to be highly eccentric, though they would respond that they simply have "purer thought". Ismidus is no exception. Ismidus possesses a strange bond of aloofness and obsession. When it comes to things that interest him, be it technology, study, or the mere chance at knowledge, Ismidus will devote nearly his entire focus to it. Ismidus is something of a hoarder of knowledge, and will store any source of knowledge he can find within his quarters.
On the other side of the coin, Ismidus is frankly bored by the mundanity of the lives of those of flesh. Outside of the study of the functions of living bodies, he cares little for their affairs. He'll even go so far as to completely tune out of a conversation, if he even entered it at all, and run calculations instead. However, in the rare event that a human peaks his interest, the unfortunate soul may find themselves stalked by his looming figure more often then they'd like.
Biography: Ismidus Valkoran has spent his entire life within the shadow of the Mechanicum's influence. He was born on research station Epsilon Kappa Pentium to a family of workers in service to the Mechanicum. After they died, in a mechanical accident, Ismidus resolved to be more then an orphan rat in the cogs of the machine. He took the Mechanicus's aptitude test, and scored high enough to be inducted into the Cult Mechanicus on a nearby forge world.
Even while Ismidus's mind was slowly converted to more logical, ordered thought, he retained his ambition to succeed in the Cult Mechanicus, and contribute to the quest for knowledge. He was assigned to the station of his birth, as he was familiar with its operation already. It was here that he drew the attention of Magos Errant Balthazar Cheugeon. The Magos was interested in his constant desire to learn, and sought to mentor him so it would not turn into the heresy of idle curiosity. Under his guidance, Ismidus slowly began to ascend the ranks of the Mechanicum.
When he was around 50, Ismidus was finally granted access into the Archeotech ruins on the planet below. There he studied and toiled for the next 70 years, until something went wrong. Ismidus was authorized to examine the power supply of what was assumed to be an inner security system of the complex. However, a heretek hidden within the ranks began to sabotage the work of his fellow priests. Ismidus was successful in stopping the corruption of the facility, but several of his brothers died in the clash. Not wanting to lose such a promising student to the laws of the Mechanicus, Balthazar declared that as penance, Ismidus would serve an old associate of his in the inquisition, Lord Inquisitor Aemellius. Ismidus agreed, and desires to be rid of this responsibility as soon as possible, so he can continue his work towards becoming a Magos Errant himself.
Appearance: As one would expect from an Inquisitor's servo-skull, the crown and forehead are carved with the symbol of the Holy Inquisition. A glowing, haphazardly-hewn ruby lens is fitted in the skull's left eye socket, in honour of Zael Merikk's original bionic eye. Wires festoon from the anti-grav generator stored inside the brainpan of the skull, dangling like tentacles. The bone itself is yellowed with age, and jagged growths remain from the disease which claimed the life of the skull's owner.
Uniform: N/A
Armament: Upon the right side of the skull's surface, just above the upper jawbone, is a modular magna-seal mount for attaching various pistol-sized weapons. Two mandibular arms emerge from below and behind the remaining upper teeth, one of which ends in a combination melta-cutter and power-stiletto for welding and cutting purposes. The skull is also equipped with a vox-corder and the ruby lens functions as a video recorder/projector.
Personality/Demeanour: As a servo-skull, there is very little that can be detected in the way of personality, though the relative eagerness with which the skull's logic engine handles combat-related directives is oddly reminiscent of Zael Merikk's own attitude.
Biography: Zael Merikk was an Imperial General in service to the Cadian Shock Troops, the famed and oft-praised as the best of His Guardsmen. It was not always so, and despite being born on Cadia, Zael spent very little of his youth upon the planet. He was arrested in his teenage years and sentenced to penal labour upon Forge World Kathiss VI in an unimportant quadrant of Sector Secundus, shackled to a manufactoring line of lasguns. After six gruelling years of labour, Zael's original crime of grand larceny was virtually forgotten, he was but another soul lost in the immutable cogs of the Imperium.
During his seventh year upon Kathiss VI, an opportunity for a second chance presented itself, when a minor rebellion flared in the hab-units set aside for the Forge World's menial workers. Between the guns of the Kathiss PDF and the questionably righteous fury of the workers, Zael masqueraded as an ally of the rebellion. In truth, he was feeding precious information back to the PDF regiment in his sector, risking his life to prove his loyalty to the Imperium of Man. For while slaving away, Zael had plenty of time to outgrow his childish entitlement and to learn the nature of life in the 41st Millenium. Awoken to the true worth of the Holy Emperor and the Imperium, idealistically infused, Zael willingly helped quash the rebellion. For his efforts, Zael's sentence was stricken to a paltry additional month. Upon the thirtieth and last day of his confinement, Zael was conscripted by a Cadian recruitment detachment that was passing by Sub-Sector Kathiss en route to combat a small Ork assault on Kathiss Primus, the system capital.
This was the last crucible that burned and assembled Zael Merikk into a Guardsman beyond peer in his regiment. Constant, unremitting warfare for an entire four years saw the ex-convict and labourer become a Staff Sergeant, leading his men from the front with lasgun shining a bloody red light upon the hated green tide. Springboarding on the success of this quelling campaign, Zael cris-crossed the galaxy bringing a tangible mark of the Holy Emperor to all and sundry, defying death time and again and even standing tall beside an Adeptus Astartes of the Salamanders Chapter to lay low a Chaos Sorceror.
Zael Merikk was a lauded hero of the Imperium. But death comes to all, and to General Merikk it came in the form of a horrific mutagenic disease, foul gases exhumed from a Tyranid plague spore that warped the heroic human's bones into jagged implements of pure pain. It was not a swift death, nor one worthy of song.
Now all that remains of Zael Merikk is a skull engraved with the seal of the Holy Inquisition, bound to eternally uphold the vow sworn over two hundred years before. This particular gun-skull has served Inquisitor Aemillius since before the loss of his hand, observing and assisting in many of the Inquisitor's escapades.
Age: has served Red Hunter's for about 300 years, exact age unknown
Gender: Male
Height and weight: 8 foot 50 stone with armour
Alignment: Red Hunter's Astartes Chapter, one purtiy seal on left pouldron, another on right lower leg and a final one on his left knee.
Speciality: Close quarters combat of a bunker or tunnel system
Appearance: Typical Black carapace of marine, closely shaved black hair, three service studs along the left side of his head, each representing 100 years of service
Uniform: Red Hunter's Mark 7 power armor, has a purity seal attached to left pauldron and one on his lower right leg and a final one attached to his left knee.
Armament: Ultima pattern Bolt Pistol (Various Prayers carved on to the side of the bolt pistol as well as a tally of those executed by this bolt pistol)
Mark Xf hell's teeth chainsword (Cleaned thoroughly till it shines)
Standard issue Space Marine Combat Knife
Frag and krak grenades
Vulkan pattern Combi-Flamer (On one side a prayer to the emperor is carved, on the other a list of campaigns this weapon has been wielded by Lazarius in)
Personality/Demeanour: Lazarius is not a very social person, during down time he tends to clean his weapons, carve new prayers or tallys, and sometimes he will practice with them. Even deep in battle, Lazarius is eerily quite and cool headed, rarely speaking except to issue orders or ask for orders. Despite his silence, Lazarius gives off a very threatening air, and whatever you do, don't touch his weapons without permission.
Biography: (not sure how good this is as it is 1. my first Wh 40K bio and 2. A retyped version of it because I accidentally deleted the original)
Lazarius was born in a poorer part of Elysia and received little education as a child. From a young age Lazarius was obsessed with the all things military and enrolled to join one of the infamous Elysian Drop Troop Regiments. Unfortunately this did not last; during a training accident Lazarius received an injury to his leg, causing him to be discharged from the regiment. However he refused to give up trying to rejoin.
This unwillingness to give up soon drew the attention of a recruitment scout for the Red Hunters Astartes Chapter and, despite his injury, Lazarius was offered a chance to compete in the trials. Lazarius was soon flown off with a few others to the place set for the trials. Due to his injury Lazarius could never quite keep up with some of the other hopefuls in the trials, however the judges were impressed with his tenacity and ability to work in a team or alone and still get the tasks done. The judges were also strongly impressed with Lazarius's ability to adapt his fighting style to the situation and ability to compensate for his injury. At the end of the trials Lazarius was still alive, and for this he was awarded a place on the next ship to where he would spent the next 2 years of his life transforming from man to the godlike form of a Space Marine.
Over the next 300 or so years, Lazarius served the chapter faithfully, serving under many an Inquisitor and in many a campaign. During one particular campaign, Lazarius developed his particular skill in underground/bunker warfare. The mission of this campaign was simple in theory: use speed to break through the surface defenses of the ice planet (who's government had been taken over by heretics) and use the extensive tunnel system to place an exterminatus device near the core of the planet (Not enough ships were available for orbital bombardment). However this theoretical simplicity did not translate into the real world, Lazarius soon found his strike-team became bogged down and, without tank or artillery support, heavy loses were inflicted to the point where only 100 of the initial 500 imperial guardsmen deployed alongside Lazarius's squad remained and Lazarius was left as the most senior marine of the five remaining marines. Assuming command Lazarius quickly implemented new tactics: sending a few troops forward, to then retreat, drawing the enemy into a trap and never committing his full force to attacking. At the end of the campaign, Lazarius was offered a promotion to Sergeant, however he politely declined.
At the current point in time, Lazarius has just been diverted from a particularity brutal deployment, in which his company had to put down heretic uprisings against a planetary government and then hunting down and executing the families of the leading heretics, to be sent with another brother of the Red Hunters to serve as an Honor Guard to Lord-Inquisitor Aemellius.