| abstract | - Gideon Ravenor was born in 304.M41. His planet of origin is unknown, though due to the Inquisition's stringent recruitment standards for psykers Ravenor was likely indoctrinated at the Adeptus Astra Telepathica's Scholastia Psykana from childhood. As a young man Ravenor was assigned by the Ordo Xenos as an Interrogator to the (in)famous Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn. In time, Eisenhorn came to regard Ravenor as his foremost pupil and the ideal Inquisitor. One of his early missions was his effort to silence Zygmunt Molotch, a Heretic from the dangerous Cognitae, a Chaos Cult disguised as an academy in the Scarus Sector. Molotch was appointed, by the Cognitae's Madam Chase, to be part of Cognitae Ordion's team to help with a venture involving setting up several arcane mechanisms on the Sleef Outworld in 336.M41 intended to capture and control Warp energy. The planet was covered in thousands of plasma vents that contained the energy of the Warp and which the Cognitae devices could capture and store. Ravenor and his team caught up with the Chaos Cultists and stopped them. Ravenor assumed Molotch -- who was the lone remaining survivor of the Cognitae operatives -- was dead after he threw himself into one of the plasma vents. What Ravenor did not know was that Molotch had been teleported to the starship Oktober Country moments before his death, though he had been burned very badly by the plasma and his face had been largely disfigured by the burns. Although Molotch was silent for many years, this incident would not be the last time he threatened the Imperium. During his time as an Interrogator in Eisenhorn's retinue of Acolytes Ravenor enjoyed a long relationship with the Carthaen swordswoman Arianhrod Esw Sweydyr. This love affair came to a swift halt when Arianhrod was slain by a Dark Eldar Haemonculus from the Kabal of the Fell Witch, during the cleansing of a xenophile cult on the world of Lethe XI in 338.M41. Shortly after this grave personal tragedy, Ravenor participated alongside his master in a great triumph on the world of Thracian Primaris, to celebrate the success of the Ophidian Crusade. Due to the machinations of the Radical Inquisitor Quixos, the triumph ended in blood-soaked horror when the parade was attacked by Chaos-influenced aerospace fighters and 33 Alpha and Alpha-Plus rogue psykers whom were freed from their holding tanks. Eisenhorn escaped unharmed thanks to the daemonic intervention of the Warp entity Cherubael, who saw future potential in Eisenhorn's existence. Ravenor on the other hand was horrifically crippled -- suffering third degree burns over the entirety of his body, and he was reduced to a barely animate shell. Unable to move or speak he had to be consigned to an enclosed Force Chair, unable to survive without the chair's elaborate life support systems to sustain him, and incapable of physical interaction with his environment except through the chair's auto-senses and voice synthesisers. Though physically incapacitated, Ravenor's psychic abilities flourished, despite (or perhaps because of) his injuries and sensory deprivation. Thanks to his psychic power Ravenor was still able to continue his service to the Inquisition, and after his health had stabilised he was promoted to full Inquisitorial status in 346.M41 on the recommendation of Gregor Eisenhorn. In 402.M41 Ravenor and his team investigated the illegal trade in Warp-tainted glass, so called “Flects”, which had surfaced as a drug on the Hive World of Eustis Majoris. After a long and perilous inquiry Ravenor discovered that the Flect-trade was just a by-product of a far greater conspiracy. The government of Sub-sector Angelus had hired a cartel of Rogue Traders to illegally import high-powered Cogitators (computers) from the desolated and heavily Warp-tainted Vinicies Sub-sector. These Chaos-infused machines were then used to crack Enuncia, the fundamental control code of the universe. With the right command words and the empowered patterns he had laid down in the architecture of Eustis Majoris' hive cities, the condemned Heretic Thedor Cadizky, the Lord of Sub-sector Molotch, planned to make himself into a god-like daemonic being. The Lord Governor of Sub-sector Oska Ludolf Barazan -- also known as the Diadochoi -- and Chief Provost Jader Trice were in charge of the plot and they made use of Magistratum Interior Cases to enforce the plot's security and make sure the truth of what they were planning did not reach unwanted ears. In truth, Barazan was actually Zygmunt Molotch, Gideon Ravenor's old enemy. In the attempt to activate Cadizky's mechanism that was actually the city of Petropolis, Molotch used the Enuncia to restore his ravaged body. Ravenor once again thwarted him, but not exactly as planned. Ironically the Flects, which spread only because of the greed of the government’s hired traders, was what made Molotch's masterplan fail. Ravenor's vain Interrogator, Carl Thonius, who had become addicted to Flects during the investigation, happened upon a Flect which contained the essence of a unimaginably powerful daemon named Slyte. Step by step, and without Ravenor's knowledge, Slyte manifested itself through Thonius, a process that granted the Interrogator terrible powers. Only the intervention of the possessed Thonius allowed Ravenor's team to foil Molotch's plans and the Heretic was forced to flee. Thonius successfully contained the daemon within himself for a long time but during Ravenor's final confrontation with Molotch on Gudrun in 404.M41 Slyte finally manifested itself fully and thereby destroyed the body and soul of Carl Thonius. Only the combined powers of Ravenor and Molotch, aided by a stable Warp Portal and psychic sorcery, allowed the team to banish the daemon back to the Realm of Chaos. Afterwards Ravenor executed Molotch for his crimes against the Emperor and turned himself over to the Inquisition, confessing everything. After a long and thorough interrogation and purification process, Ravenor was acquitted of any Chaotic taint, but his good reputation was forever soiled and he was for the rest of his career as he was labelled as a Radical by his Puritan peers in the Inquisition. He was retired from the Inquisition for a time, though he eventually was placed back into active service to hunt down and sanction his former mentor, Gregor Eisenhorn, on the planet of Sancour in the Angelus Sub-sector. Whether he has succeeded in this endeavour is still unknown.
|
