You monkeigh have a saying; "In space, no one can hear you scream"... But I would say; thats such a waste.
Nathi, on the subject of spacing criminals sentenced to execution
Character DetailsName: Nathi Race: Dark Eldar
Vile Pleasure: Lingering Dread (second Pain Token from failing Fear or Stun)
Career: WychAppearance
Gender: Female
Build: Lithe
Height: 6'
Skin Colour: Ivory
Hair Colour: Jet black, thick, and thigh-length.
Eye Colour: Abyssal Blue
Age: Older than you know, Monkeigh
Nathi appears as a youthful Eldar, tall and supple in form, with pale ivory-hued skin, long jet-black hair that reaches down to her thighs in a thick mane and inhumanly deep black-blue eyes. A human so inclined might draw parallels in her appearance to a woman at the end of her teens, but Nathi is much older, though she is relatively young by the standards of her kind, a combination of genuine youth and regular 'feeding' produce her appearance.
Backstory
Nathi is a daughter of the Dark City of Comgorragh, where as a waif she fought her way into the famous Wych cults. To the young Nathi, they represented a place of (relative) safety from the dangers of life on the streets, as well as respect, and power, things every little Dark Eldar crave. How many commoners have looked at the Wyches and wished they could do that? Well Nathi had the will to actually see it done. She worked very hard in her training and began participating in the epic gladiatorial matches, earning renown for herself and the cult of which she was a part, The Riving Blades, for it was rare to see such a combination of youth and skill. However, time passed, and as Nathi grew in skill and fame, others began to see her as a threat for their own self-aggrantizing plots, and once more intrigue and survival became key parts of her life as she was forced to fend off ever more elaborate attempts to end her life, often from her own sisters. Of course, merely saying you have no interest in advancement is pretty much the same as stamping "IM PLOTTING TO KILL YOU" on ones forehead in bright red letters.
This irritating state of affairs was worsened by Nathi's own growing dissatisfaction with the arts of the Wych. As a body, they espouse perfection of the blade... but in reality, they are circus performers, not unlike the clowns of the Laughing God. Theatrics is their true focus, elaborate acrobatics and breathtakingly precise attacks meant to elicit maximum suffering, and so glut their audiences, and satisfy their patrons. But as Nathi was coming to think, this was broadly a waste... what was the point of entire intricate fighting styles that couldnt even be used in real combat? or normal gravity? Further more, as Nathi was discovering, there was more than one way to skin a ork, agony was one thing... but terror turned out to be a fine wine all its own. So she began shifting her style, she adopted heavier, more functional armour, and began trading the elegant acrobatics of her sisters for stealth, using darkness and unknown to torment her opponents, picking them off one by one until those that remained were gibbering fear-racked wrecks, begging for the horror to end. The crowds enjoyed her performances, titillated by their novelty, and Nathi's martial ability grew at a increasing pace, no longer shackled to impractical technique. In public, the Succubus of the Riving Blades lauded Nathi's inventiveness, portraying the younger Wych as her protegee. In private however, the entire cult, Succubus included, became increasingly hostile. Those beneath her sneered at the eccentric in their midst, her peers feared that she would surpass them entirely and therefore dash all their carefully laid ambitions, those above her resented that she was getting such attention, and risking making their carefully honed talents.... obsolete. The one thing they all agreed on though, was that Nathi's particular style could not be allowed to catch on and become popular.
However, before they could act upon that decision, Nathi fled, being gifted with more than two braincells to rub together, she saw it coming from a long ways off and prepared her escape accordingly. To make a criminally short story of this devious and epic turn of events; She evaded their trap and fled, joining on a raider to Realspace, and then shifted to station where her kind and the Monkeigh intermingled, in a place called the Screaming Vortex by humans. Finally, she rotated though a succession of human and eldar pirate vessels, to wind up far, far, away. Finally ending up on Footfall, whos people will trade with anyone. Here, while considering her options for the next leg of her journey, a opportunity arouse; she happened across a monkeigh Captain, or lordling, or merchant, or some such thing, the nuances of the title of 'Rogue Trader' escaped her at the time, but she did join his crew, seeing a opportunity to ply her skills and improve her arts in a environment more stable that that of her previous collusions. She spent much of her early days in his service exploring the ship and leaning its ways... eventually stumbling upon the Brig. Intrigued by this monkeigh holding pen, she queried the guards (politely) and discovered that the men where criminals, violators of the ship's laws, who were confined as a form of punishment.
It did not take her long after that to install herself as the new Warden (no, she didnt kill the old one) and make the brig into her personal funhouse, plying the criminals to satisfy her hunger for fear. The Trader eventually turned up and they had a chat about limiting the worst of her... entertainments if she wanted to stay there; Nathi agreed, abit put out to have her fun spoiled so, but she was still allowed to scare them, so it was tolerable. Indeed, as time passed, she came to value the limitations placed on her, likening it to killing with a sword vs killing with a scaple, anyone can kill with a sword, but to kill with a scaple requires far more skill, and her methods of generating terror have become far more refined and subtle, feeding her hunger without damaging her charges such that they cannot return to their duties once their time is up. And thus she has served the Dynasty for many years, the Lower Brig having become a dark tale mothers use to scare children, where even the most dire recidivists are turned unto model members of the crew..... unless they want to go back.
So she bids her time, refining her talents; martial and terror, and one day when she is ready she will return to the Dark City, and show them all how superior her ways really are~
The Thing In The Dark
Nathi is a what you might call a combat-purist Dark Eldar. She eschewed the chronic backstabbing and politic subterfuge to aspire to the archtype of a ideal killer, similar to the Wyches, or indeed, the Incubus, though her idealized warrior is quite a different creature from those martial devas and paragons. She is, quite simply, a terror right out of horror picts, emphasising stealth, darkness, and scare tactics, with a fighting style that alternates between precisely tormenting a foe... and vanishing them without a sound.
As you might imagine, she enjoys provoking fear, even trolling, for her own amusement and sustenance... and she does have a sardonic sense of humour, though her victims will rarely appreciate it, her allies could often find much to laugh about in watching her exploits... as long as they dont empathise too much. Beyond that, she socializes little with humans other than the Rogue Trader's retinue (except to unnerve them). 'Loyalty' isnt a word in the Dark Eldar tongue, but that does not mean shes flaky or unreliable, and at no point since joining the crew has she even given any indication of treasonous intentions... even when it may have appeared to benefit her to do so. She would say, shes motivated by a 'enlightened self interest' to maintain the current arrangement.
| Stat | Base | Roll | Mods | Gear | Total |
| WS | 25 | 15 | +10* | - | 50 |
| BS | 25 | 4 | - | - | 29 |
| Str | 25 | 5 | - | - | 30 |
| T | 20 | 12 | - | - | 32 |
| Agi | 30 | 15 | +5* | - | 50 |
| Int | 25 | 8 | - | - | 33 |
| Per | 30 | 12 | - | - | 42 |
| WP | 25 | 15 | - | - | 40 |
| Fel | 20 | 12 | - | - | 32 |
| Stat | Base | Roll | Mod | Total | Current |
| W | 6 | 5 | +1 | 12 | 12/12 |
| Fate | 1 | - | - | 1 | 1/1 |
*Indicates Total Advances or SCs
Movement: 10/20/30(35)/60(120)(Sprint)
Corruption: 0
Skills
=Dark Eldar
Intimidate
=Wych
Acrobatics
Awareness
Chem-Use
Dodge
Silent Move
Speak Language (Eldar, Dark Eldar)
=Acquired
Speak Language(Low Gothic)
Climb
Talents:
=Dark Eldar
-Heightened Senses (Hearing, Sight) [+10 tests involving the senses]
-Paranoia [+2 Init, GM can secretly test Per to notice hidden threats ]
-Catfall [test Ag when falling, each DoS subtracts AgB from distance fell for the purpose of damage]
-Sprint [Can increase Full Move by AgB, or 2x Run, +1 fatigue is used more than twice in a row]
-Jaded [Immune to mundane horror]
-Dark Soul [half penalty on Malig test]
=Wych
-Ambidextrous [No offhand penalty]
-Decadence [must fail TB number of T tests to pass out, +10 to resist addiction]
-Disturbing Voice [+10 scarytests, -10 friendly tests]
-Hard Target [-20BS to hit when Run or Charge]
-Melee Weapon Training (Primitive, Universal)
-Thrown Weapon Training (Universal)
=Acquired
-Exotic Weapon Training (Agonizer Talon)
-Quickdraw [Draw as Free]
Traits
-Dark Sight [No penalty for darkness]
-Unnatural Agility x2 [2x AgB]
-Non-Imperial [-10 all Imperial Lore tests]
-Speak Not Unto the Alien [-20 Fell vs Imperials]
-Power Through Pain [Gain Pain Token when living thing within PerB are killed, stunned, suffer nonlethal crit damage, fail fear or pinning tests, or otherwise expereince great pain. 8 pain tokens form one temp Fate Point]
=Weapons
Splinter Pistol (BC
Razorflail,
Eldar Plasma Grenade (2.
=Armour
Wychsuit
=Misc
Micro-bead
Translator Unit
Kill-Recorder,
Nightmare Philtre (2. )
=Not Carried
EXP
Rank: 1
EXP remaining: 1000
Total EXP Spent: 5000
=Starting
Speak Language(Low Gothic) [200]
Exotic Weapon Training (Agonizer Talon) [300]
=Rank 1 (5000-6999) [0/999]
+1000
-Simple Agi Adv [100]
-Simple WS Adv [100]
-Intermediate WS Adv [250]
-Quickdraw [200]
-Climb [200]
Acquisitions
Dark Eldar And You!
Now, DE are somewhat unpopular among RT players, who cite their sociopathy and sadism as being caustic to a party of non-evil Explorers. This is not wrong, but there are ways around it, supported by fluff and mechanics. The first at most obvious is that Stereotypes are just that, stereotypes. They are not universally true and in all their billions (and there are, billions) I'm sure there are non-evil DE who either do the reluctant vampire thing, the pure hunter thing, or the drizzt thing. Playing one of these however is, I think, perfectly valid reason for a player to be flogged, flayed, and then shot. On a similar note, some propose using DE rules to produce some other form of Eldar, though again, I feel this is somewhat inappropriate, since DE are physiologically reliant on a diet of suffering to sustain themselves and this is represented in the rules, simply ditching the whole pain token thing seems like trying to have ones cake and eat it too.
Instead, I plan to play a proper DE, one who is amoral and evil, but not stupid. She favours a diet of fear, rather than pain, much like how a drunk might prefer scotch to rum. And, this is my favourite part; her role on the ship. For her purposes, she installs herself as the warden of the ships brig/main brig, this gives her a population of criminals to torment, getting her fix, without killing or marauding through the ship, in mechanical terms I like to write this as a custom Ship Role (Warden) that nullifies her morale penalty (those who obey the regs and dont engage in criminality have nothing to fear from her) to the ship and gives a modest increase to discipline. Verdict on this is of course, up to the GM.
It is worthwhile to keep in mind that she doesnt kill her prisoners, and she doesnt torment them 24/7 either, people dull out if you keep them on edge all the time. Shes not a glutton or a blunt hammer, her tastes in fear are far more refined than that. Instead, she will do things like; during meal time, bring two prisoners in adjacent cells fine steak dinners.... one of which is poisoned with a nightmare toxin, and then sit back and watch them, grinning, as they try to get the other to eat their's first, until hunger and aroma propels one of them to take that first terrified bite..... ah, exquisite. Of course, attempted jailbreaks or assault on her person make the involved prisoners fair game for some more intensive fun. Naturally, re-offences, career criminals, and similar such folks are much less common among the crew than is to be expected.
Given that she is basically living in a flying buffet, where she doesn't have to worry (seriously) about a knife in the back, and has ample opportunities to develop both sides of her craft; fear and combat, she really considers her current situation very ideal, one can get used to humans, if one must. As such shes well aware that its in her best interest to maintain her current arrangement to ensure her long term prosperity. All together, shes the NE member of a TN/NG/CG party, played in the very best possible way; her distressing talents turned reliably towards the party's goals, driven by the kind of enlightened self interest that holds to the long term benefit of working together with the group, rather than engaging in disruptive dickery.
And dont try to tell me that her former Wych cult doesnt provide a interesting plot hook for a enemy. :smalltongue:
