Your Character's Background

Summary - Key Points

• DuD happens hundreds of years before mainline canon, you are better off not mentioning/including events and characters from the canon because they likely don't exist yet.
• Your character was probably born in the Prosperitas Sector, likely on one of the Planets listed on the Wiki.
• Your character works for the Inquisition, willingly or otherwise.
• You cannot begin play as one of the following concepts: Inquisitors; Navigators; Orks; Space Marines including Serfs; Rogue Traders; Heads and Direct Heirs of Noble Houses; Imperial Guard from a main-line canon Regiment.
• You may play an Adeptas Sororitas character regardless of your OC gender identity; your character must identify as female.
• You are encouraged to create links with existing and other new characters.
• The Game Team will write custom material based on your character background, including assigning you to an appropriate Inquisitor, so please do send them a copy.

Who is the Death Unto Darkness Story about?

Death Unto Darkness is a story about the Servants of the Holy Ordos of the God-Emperor’s Inquisition. It is a story about those who carry out the grim work of the Inquisition - not the powerful Inquisitors themselves, but their Acolytes and Servants who sweat blood and tears in the neverending struggles hidden in the shadows of the Imperium. These people are not heroes, though they may be heroic, because heroes get recognition and glory. These people do not. They might lead double lives where their aliases’ deeds are recognised, but only so far as they are permitted by their true masters, the secretive figures that guide the Imperium. If they try and leave then, by velvet glove or iron gauntlet, they are always dragged back despite their wishes. Ultimately, they know - and the Inquisition knows - that they have stared the truths of the universe in the face; and innocence, once lost, cannot be recovered.

That’s who your character is now: an Agent of the Throne, a servant of the Holy Ordos. Whether reluctant or willing, they are forever bound by threat of death or worse should they abandon their duty.

But how did you get here?

Your Life Before the Inquisition

Death Unto Darkness takes place in the middle years of the 41st Millennium hundreds of years before many of the events you would know from the mainline canon, as such drawing connections to canon events and characters in your background is generally not recommended, as they will have either not happened, or happened so distant from the sector as not to be known of, or (in the case of characters) likely not been born yet. Races such as the T'au, Necron and Tyranids have not even been properly encounter yet and are certainly not known about by those in the Prosperitas sector, at least in terms of familiarity.

You are, generally, encouraged to have been born on a world within the Prosperitas Sector - this gives your character roots and a talking point of collective identity with others from that world, as well as investment in the game’s stakes. If none of the worlds appeal to you, don’t forget many are born in the void of space: Voidborn is an identity in and of itself, be it those born into Imperial Naval crews, on orbital stations, freight haulers or asteroid-mining platforms - or to other more esoteric void-craft.

Our wiki covers the majority of the established Worlds of the Prosperitas Sector, as well as a few that sit outside of Imperial control. However, there are many places with habitable moons and void stations to choose from, if the worlds we have don’t fit your character backstory exactly. Indeed, in Subsector Secundus and Subsector Tertius, there are barely established colonies that have a generation’s worth of inhabitants living on them at best and are far outside of Imperial notice until they earn the Imperium’s interest. If you want to add something to the sector, though, please send an email to the Writing Team first - it may be that you’ve missed an appropriate planet or location, or what you have in mind could need to be adjusted to fit our setting.

Note - On the Annwfyn and the Ruwwadi: The Prosperitas Sector is home to two unfairly oppressed ‘native’ populations of humans - the Annwfyn and the Ruwwad. Most Imperial agents, including of the Inquisition, are from the colonist Imperial population. Playing an Annwyfn or Ruwwad character will mean that your character is likely to have a difficult or broken relationship with their family and home culture: they are likely to be seen as the servant of the oppressor while also experiencing bigotry from the broader Imperium as a result of frictions between the rebel groups drawn from these populations. When considering playing one of these groups, please think about both whether you will enjoy roleplaying the experience of prejudice and exclusion, and about how to portray the harm it cause with sensitivity. An entirely ‘loyalist’ Annwyfn or Ruwwad character, whose first loyalty is to their home culture ahead of the Imperium, is not an appropriate choice for a Death unto Darkness PC.

The Citizen

The majority of characters were raised identifying (generously) as Citizens of the Imperium - but their life experiences will be more like that of Serfs and Helots, and some might have openly been called Slaves. Slavery is what the majority of citizens born into the Imperium experience in practice - born into communities maintained to supply labourers for a specific industry or servants to a noble household. The common Imperial citizen lives a life barren of luxuries. Many of their needs such as food, water and shelter are seen to by the Imperium, but Imperial welfare can be unreliable and sometimes cruelly withdrawn in acts of communal punishment. It is the expectation of most Serfs to keep their head down, serve and do their duty; the majority go from birth to death never leaving their homeworlds, rarely leaving their settlements or even zones.

The Citizens the Inquisition does pick up are the ones who stepped out of line: the ones who were smarter than they should be, or who showed promise or gifts or mere capacity to survive when confronted with something they should not have seen. These are the traits that marked them for a life of service to the Inquisition, rather than being euthanized to extinguish the knowledge of what horrors they had witnessed.

How aware were you that you were a slave? Did you know poverty or were you content?

How did you fail to conform?

How, if at all, were you educated?

When did you stop being innocent about the dark and twisted galaxy around you?

The Colonist

On frontiers such as the Prosperitas Sector, some Citizens live quite different lives to those of the average citizen. At the fringes of the Sector there lie worlds freshly claimed by the Imperium, where settlers form the first generation of humans… or at least non-native humans to settle those worlds in a long time. On these worlds, life is harsher and different: law enforcement is sparse, and supplies are often spotty due to the colonies not yet having established routes for void-trade and spaceports. Such a life breeds a different kind of citizen - sometimes apathetic to the presence of an Imperium that seems distant from their lives, sometimes far more hopeful for the future of their world or a life away from the drudgery of general citizenhood. In the Prosperitas sector, many Colonists are the families of former soldiers, their worlds won by the military service of previous generations. Such a life can be brutal: supply issues, faulty hab-structures and hostile aliens are daily challenges for these individuals. Such individuals also learn quickly to adapt to surviving without the ‘comforts’ that most Imperial citizens have. They learn to live in extreme climates or fight alien threats. This hardiness leads them into the service of Inquisitors who prize their resolve, alongside hard-won knowledge of living on the frontier.

At what age did you learn to handle a weapon in defence of your homestead? What threats faced your settlement on a regular basis?

How distant was the Imperium and the God-Emperor in your life? Did you regularly attend or take comfort from religious services, or is your experience of faith more distant?

How was your colony founded? Was it awarded to military heroes as an award for their honour, or was it founded to exploit a resource?

What strange alien vistas did your home support, and why do you yearn for them or do they haunt your nightmares?

The Noble

Though there are some individuals who manage to rise from the bottom, the haves and have-nots of the Imperium are primarily divided by blood, not economic power or political prowess. The Imperial Nobility or Praefectus Imperialis are those born into families that claim ancient right to rule at the behest of the God-Emperor - although the veracity of such claims is hard to test. The majority of the Noble Houses of the Prosperitas Sector are either drawn those of Warrant-holding Rogue Trader dynasties (Houses Durovera, Majid and Di Firro); those who either financed the Traders’ expeditions into this sector (House Villas-Lobo) or who draw their hereditary rights from boons granted by the Rogue Trader Houses (Houses Palamyr and Caerlyn); or those granted to heroes of the Prosperitas Crusade (such as the late House Monforte).

It is rare that the Inquisition recruits members of the Nobility. The majority are too well known to be valuable agents; in the most part they are retained via blackmail as a source of financing and social lubrication. There are, however, a handful - the disgraced and cast-off, scions of minor families in thin-blooded lines with no hope of advancement, or simply overly curious and too annoying to kill - that the Inquisition retains as agents. These are highly educated individuals, bred for a life of cut-throat competition and violence at the top.

Was yours a life of luxury? Or was it one of brutal social conflict? Who was the first person close to you to die with a knife in their back?

Do you still know wealth? Or are you surrounded by the scraps and remains of a once-glorious life now gone to ruin?

Do you still consider yourself better than those around you of lower birth?

Why are you unimportant to your family in such a way that they would not step in to shield you from the Inquisition?

The Martian

The Machine Cult, though subordinate to the rule of the Imperium, enjoys considerable political power. The people of Mars have spread alongside the Imperium across the Galaxy, trading their technological knowledge for a form of religious and cultural independence rarely found in the Imperium. They now reside on Forge Worlds devoted to their Machine God, the Omnissiah, or in Forge-Fanes - segregated territories on worlds they share with the Imperium. All those who have grown up as Martians are almost as alien to their Imperial human kin as the Xenos. Not least, the Martian belief in the superiority of bionic replacements for fleshy counterparts means many have undergone voluntary or mandatory surgery to augment them so they can best perform their designated role within Martian society. The Tech-Priests who lead the Martian Cult and its people and the militant order of protectors known as the Skitarii are the most well known of the Martian classes, but generations of cyborg labourers known as Menials or Tech-Thralls join them to provide what actually keeps their society functioning.

Because even the laity of the Machine Cult has technological knowledge far outstripping that of the average human, they are often targets for Inquisitorial recruitment. They provide the Inquisition with much needed technicall knowledge, as well as providing an air of legitimacy to some of the more unusual and dubious technological items used by the Inquisition in pursuit of its task.

Were you blessed as a member of the Priesthood, or did you serve it as a menial or a Skitarii?

How much of your body is the flesh you were born with, and how much of it was replaced - electively or otherwise?

Do you believe the Omnissiah to be a god separate from the God-Emperor, or do you believe that both are one and the same?

If you were a menial, then what did your servitude cost you? If you were a Priest, then what did you sacrifice to prove your faith?

Note - On Appropriate Home-Forges: Although the Prosperitas Sector contains no less than three Forge Worlds, the Forges of Castellum and Naximus Prime are not a good choice for new player characters to originate from (due to current plot events). The Forge World of Ferraeus is not the only option for a Martian character, however: many worlds and void stations of the Sector have enclaves of the Machine Cult attending to their machinery, as well as the myriad of Explorator fleets that scour the frontiers of the Sector for technological treasures. We are not, currently, accepting Scions of the Knight-World of Anaximund Alpha as characters as they are currently unusually heavily represented amongst existing characters.

The Voidborn

The Imperium claims not just the worlds of the Galaxy, but the space between them as well - in the vastness of the void lie realms of vessels and space stations, some with greater populations than cities on ancient pre-Imperial Terra. The great ships ply the void, taking journeys of weeks and sometimes months between systems, with the occasional dive into the other realm of the warp. Whether in otherwise-empty systems or hanging above Imperial worlds, voidstations are fiefdoms unto themselves. Aboard both, whole generations live and die: they are their own cultures, with people unused to planetary gravity and non-recycled air, who find natural environments unsettling and upsetting rather than being accustomed to them. Much like the Martian, the Voidborn is an alien to the planet-bound common folk of the Imperium. Some are raised educated amongst the Officer-caste of various trader and Naval vessels, their lives surrounded by examples of the high technology of the Imperium; others are born in the dark of ships’ holds, living in isolated worlds in servitude to the officer-caste of their vessel. Some in the lowest decks of the largest voidcraft don’t even know that they are aboard a spaceship, believing that the metal walls are the extent of the world.

The Inquisition is often drawn to recruit from amongst the Voidborn because living even dimly aware of the horrors of the void and the warp may harden the mind against exposure when facing those horrors down. Though many Voidborn are cultural oddities and idiosyncratic in their observation of naval and mariner ritual, they make for capable fighters in grimy close-quarter battles and a source of pilots and ship crews for the clandestine vessels of the Inquisition.

Were you born into the noble officer-caste of your vessel, or were you one of the teeming thousands of lower-deckers who live a life of servitude?

Did you serve on a military vessel of Battlefleet Prosperitas, a militia System Defence vessel, or one of the myriad of civilian ships or void-stations?

Interstellar vessels are equipped with Warp Engines: what was your experience of the Warp before you became a servant of the Inquisition?

When was the first time you saw someone die to the pitiless nature of the void?

The Devout

While devotion to the God-Emperor is an expectation of all Imperial Citizens, the Devout are those who have given their whole lives over to Their veneration. Those who walk this path are the Priests, Pilgrims, Sororitas and Faith Militant. These Imperials have given themselves so fully to the service of the Throne that some might well find their devotion unsettling or fanatical. The Devout often find themselves thrust up against the supernatural, as the Imperial Cult is frequently the first target of heretics when they rise up against the Imperium. Faith in the God-Emperor is undeniably a shield against the corruption of the Dark Gods, yet in the blinded form the Imperium demands it is all too easily misled by agents of the Archenemy.

The Inquisition, especially its more puritan elements, finds many agents from amongst the Faithful: Battle Sisters and Crusaders are used as spearheads against invasions of the unclean, while Priests provide spiritual aid and guidance to the myriad servants of the Holy Ordos.

Did you have a life before giving yourself fully as a Servant of the Faith, or have you always been bound to the Imperial Creed?

What was a moment where your faith was tested?

What have you given to Them-on-Terra in the service of the Faith?

What would you do for the God-Emperor, if They commanded it?

The Soldier

Whether groomed from birth for service in one of the elite Regiments of the Prosperitas sector or pressed into unwilling conscription, you are one of the countless millions whose youth was spent in service to the Imperium’s endless wars. The Astra Militarum has an endless thirst for troops, recruiting from every world and station under Imperial control. The harsh discipline, camaraderie, self-sufficiency and brutal pragmatism of Regimental life has been the making of many successful warriors - and the breaking of countless millions more. The brutal reality of the Soldier is that many who are exposed to the horrors of the universe do not survive contact: if they are not spent as fuel against foes, they often they are euthanized or mind-wiped by the Inquisition to bury the secret foes that the Imperium doesn’t wish to publicly acknowledge.

Occasionally, an Inquisitor will see something in a soldier, or an entire group of them, and spare them the sword. Some might come to consider that to be the worst option, as their new position sends them into secret wars where their sanity and bodies are eroded just as surely by their new duties.

Were you born into a military family or were you the first to serve? Were your family proud of you?

Did you serve in a prestigious, well-funded regiment, trained and equipped with everything you needed, or were you thrust into a scratch-built outfit and given a tattered uniform still bloodstained from its last unfortunate owner?

When was the first time you were given an order you were tempted to disobey? What did you do?

What was your rank before you were recruited into the Inquisition? Do you still think of yourself as that rank? Are you proud? Ashamed?

The Progena

For the great majority of Imperials and within the confines of their origins, childhood is relatively normal. Despite being born into service, they grow up in (although perhaps non-standard to us in M.2) fairly stable family units, and enter service in adulthood. This is not so for those sent to the Schola Progenium: the Progena are, for the most part, orphaned children of servants of the Imperium who were valued enough that their children are considered worth fostering by the Imperial state. Some come to the schola for other reasons: for example, the unacknowledged scions of noble Houses who would be a political inconvenience to one or both of their parents. Under the care of the Imperial State, Progena are raised from an early age to be devoted servants of the God-Emperor, moulded into obedient servants by the doctrinal hatreds of the Imperial Creed. Those who demonstrate tactical competence are filtered into the Militant Orders of the Adepta Sororitas, the elite Stormtrooper Regiments, and the political officers of the Commissariat. It is not a kind environment for a child to be raised in: discipline and training regimes in the Schola are harsh, and often physically and mentally painful experiences for a young person to go through. The Imperium justifies this as having a ready source of the indoctrinated and highly trained individuals essential for maintaining its control. In truth, what it puts these children through is indefensible.

The Inquisition recruits both indirectly and directly from the Schola Progenium. Some are picked out at an early stage based on natural abilities or promising auguries about their future; these will be raised for some years by the Schola before they are transferred to their Inquisitorial masters to complete their induction into the Holy Ordos. Some Progena serve a number of years as Stormtroopers or Battle Sisters before they are drawn into the Inquisition in many of the same ways that Soldiers are.

How young were you when the Schola took you in? What dim memories of the life before the Schola do you retain?

How was your education? Did you excel and find the Schola something more of a military boarding school, or do you have traumatic memories of your time there?

Where did you want to be placed while you were being raised? Did you achieve it, or did you fall short and find yourself assigned to another service?

What is the one phrase, drilled into your head by the Drill Abbot responsible for leading your Schola, that sticks with you to this day like a mantra?

Note - On Commissars as PCs: Commissars are iconic characters in 40k but they often don’t fit well with the Inquisition as servants; their very nature as political officers makes them better embedded amongst the military of the Imperium. An Inquisitor might make an unwilling contact out of a Commissar, but rarely does one enter the service of the Ordos; when they do, it’s more common that they hang up their badges of office, leaving that life behind them. We don’t recommend playing one for this reason: wearing the finery of a Commissar doesn’t fit the covert nature of the Inquisition and better suits a different style of game, although it’s still a viable past life. Some previous players have not enjoyed PC Commissars due to this stylistic conflict, and as a result we do not currently recommend them as a good route into the game.

Note - On Sororitas as PCs: The Sororitas, on the other hand, are very commonly found in the presence of the Inquisition: their faithful nature and access to some of the best technology in the Imperium makes them prized in service. When the Ecclesiarchy were stripped of much of their power and military might millenia ago, the architects of the new doctrinal canon used gendered terminology in denying the priesthood the right to command “men under arms” - and with unfailing Imperial devotion to the word of the law, the Sororitas were permitted to retain their weaponry and fleets due to the fact that their order had previously only accepted those who identify as female. This has been maintained into the current era; as such, any character who is a member of the Adepta Sororitas must identify as female. On an OC level, this identification must be sincere; we will not be including narratives that suggest any character transitioning for perceived social gain.

It is uncommon in the Prosperitas Sector for high ranking Sorors to be found in the company of Inquisitors, as the Order of His Sanguine Tears needs much of its fighting strength consolidated together. However, due to longstanding relationships between the Ordo Hereticus and the Order, it’s not uncommon for the Canoness to send a recently initiated Battle Sister to serve a few years under an Inquisitor in order to gain experience against the most vile foes of the Imperium.

The Psyker

Of all the evolutionary advances of humanity, psychic ability is the most feared by the Imperium. Those who visibly differ from ‘normal’ humans are invariably treated as mutants to be oppressed, enslaved and exterminated, or as abhumans to be exploited. A human whose mind can touch the warp, however, has the dubious advantage of not being as obvious as other such outsiders until their potential manifests. Psychic potential can go undetected for years; but when it is identified or manifests, whatever life the unfortunate soul had before abruptly ends. Those who survive both the manifestation of their powers and the brutal processing they are put through are irrevocably changed by the experience. Such an individual’s awareness of the fragile nature of reality and what lies beyond - and the traumatic training designed to bind them as obedient servants of the Imperium - frays their sanity. These experiences further separate them from their peers and mark them as Psykers - the least pejorative of the many terms designed to exclude and other them. Feared and shunned even as they grapple with the powers of the Warp, they are mentally hardened, aware of most of the horrors awaiting them. At the same time, their powers are also a curse, giving them uniquely perilous vulnerabilities that normal humans lack.

Unlike many Inquisitorial agents, Psykers often find Inquisitorial service to be paradoxically liberating: despite the risks attendant on their nature, the Holy Ordos are one of the few organisations within the Imperium where a Psyker can gain power and influence despite their condition; some even rise to the rank of Inquisitor.

Who were you before your Psychic powers manifested? What did you lose when you were dragged into the Black Ships?

What horrors did you encounter while being transported aboard the Black Ships or trained to use your powers, and how did it warp your mentality?

When did you have your first brush with one of the horrors that live within the warp?

How do you view your abilities as a Psyker? Are they a disease or curse deserving of the treatment you receive as chattel of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, or do you view them as a gift and your rankle against your control by the Imperium?

Note - On Limits on Psyker Characters: In the current timeline of Death Unto Darkness, Psykers are rare and precious resources, deployed only when it is deemed necessary by the Inquisition. To reflect this, we limit the number present in the player party at any given time, to better reflect the setting and avoid diluting the concept. If you wish to play a psyker, please talk with the Writing Team to avoid disappointment should we not be accepting psyker characters at the time.

The Outcast

Not every human who enters Inquisition service grew up within the boundaries of the Imperium. There are Ruwwad and Annwfyn communities and settlements on less established worlds that largely isolate themselves from Imperial authorities; closer to home, there are criminals, outcasts and scum that live in the wastelands between Imperial settlements, or simply down in the depths of urban underhives so vast that they are largely forgotten. Their lives are very different to those citizens who live under the Imperial regime, trading freedom from toil and service for the need to scavenge for the basic resources. For most Outcasts, life is brutal, violent and short. Many are drawn into dangerous criminal lifestyles, stealing from Imperial citizens or trading illicit goods or salvaged treasures. These unfortunates often fall under the rule of gangs or warlords who carve out territory and war with rivals to defend it. If they do not die of starvation, disease or violence, many Outcasts die at the hands of Imperial forces who regularly purge such communities or round up their denizens to be processed into labour camps. Many are outright killed simply because the lives they lead left them exposed to toxic waste and harsh conditions that result in minor mutations and deformities - still seen by the Imperium as a sign of spiritual corruption, even if this is rarely justified.

The Inquisition, on the other hand, has a talent for finding diamonds in the rough amongst these individuals. In Inquisitorial service, they are used as informants to track criminal activity and chaos cults that occasionally emerge in their neglected communities. Some Inquisitors believe the hardships that Outcasts experience creates a rougher and more pragmatic sort of agent that understands the hard choices that they have to make. Furthermore, being uplifted to Inquisitorial service can create a dependence on previously absent luxuries - and this breeds a form of bought loyalty that Inquisitors can depend on for useful, if disposable, agents.

When did you first hear about the Imperium? Was it always distantly present amongst the outcast community of your childhood, or was it something that you learned of later in your life?

What age were you when you first had to kill to survive? What or who was your first kill?

What was the nicest thing you had when growing up, and what did it cost you to get it?

What marks do you have from your life? What tricks did you pick up? What wounds still linger, and does the Imperium consider you a mutant in their eyes?

Note - On Feral World Characters: A character born on a so-called ‘Feral’ world - where all authority has collapsed and most technology is either absent or scavenged from a fallen past - would largely be considered an Outsider, regardless of whether the Imperium rules their world or not. The Imperium sometimes makes no effort to save or civilise such worlds, viewing the situation on those planets as an ideal breeding ground for stronger warrior-stock. In such cases, the members of the Imperium live like uplifted beings, in orbital stations and walled cities, only venturing out to harvest stock. Characters from a feral world are likely to be highly superstitious and primitive, which normally makes them a poor choice as Inquisitorial Agents. Still, as with all Outcasts, there are those who show great promise - and sometimes an Inquisitor is just looking for muscle and a blank slate to mould to the Holy Ordos’ liking.

The Other

Some Inquisitorial Agents do not fit in any of the categories above - the Game Team are open to concepts that exist outside the origins above. These characters will be unique, and are less likely to be approved as a group concept. We have previously approved Abhuman characters such as Beastmen and the local Raivan population - but please be aware we do not routinely approve such character concepts unless the player is willing to commit to a high standard of costume and makeup. This is in order to ensure that these characters are both distinctive and unique, as well as being as rare as they would be in the setting.

We have approved Xenos (alien) character concepts in the past, but have yet to have one enter play. The physrep quality expected of an alien character is understandably prohibitive: in the event that we have one or two such characters join the warband, we want them to enhance the player experience by allowing them to interact with someone that is not only played as alien, but looks distinctly alien in appearance. For example, in the case of an Eldar character, we would expect their costume to reflect the styles of their race and expect a player to remove or completely conceal any beard, as Eldar are a beardless race in canon. While this example might be seen as extreme, we would rather not have players pursuing these concepts unless they are willing to commit to enhancing the visual and roleplaying experience of others as much as their own.

Furthermore, anyone playing an Other should be aware that their characters will have difficulty integrating with all members of the player party, or have tense interactions with Imperial NPCs. The Imperium is a cruel, suspicious and xenophobic society, and abhumans and especially aliens are hated and feared by the overwhelming majority of its citizens. Some areas of the game such as Imperial politics will be socially inaccessible, and players should consider if they will enjoy roleplaying subjection to significant prejudice as an Abhuman/Beastman, or relentless prejudice when considering a Xenos concept.

Disallowed Concepts

We cannot be exhaustive about what we will not allow, but the following concepts are not playable. The reasons for this vary: some may be too powerful within the Imperium; others we do not wish to create rules for, or we simply feel they do not fit the game we are choosing to run.

• Inquisitors
• Navigators
• Orks
• Space Marines
• Space Marine Serfs (at creation)
• Rogue Traders (but Noble Scions of Rogue Trader Houses are fine)
• Heads of Noble Houses and characters in positions of political power (at creation)
• Imperial Guard from canon regiments (local regiments inspired by canon regiments are fine, so long as effort is taken to make them look and behave a little different - like gas mask wearing trench troops in tommy hats instead of stahlhelms, for example)

Your Service to the Inquisition

There are as many ways to come to the Inquisition's notice as there are Agents - many of them unpleasant. Below are a few ideas to inspire you to consider how your character might have ended up serving an Inquisitor.

Promised from Birth, Raised to Serve

Inquisitors are a long-lived breed, and some grow the talents they require in programmes lasting decades. Whether adopted into an Inquisitor’s household as an orphan, raised in a remote blacksite training facility, or even gengineered for purpose in a Magos' womb-vat, you have been promised to the Inquisition since your earliest days. Whether you knew it or not, your life has always been devoted to the Imperium's most secret service.

Recruited for Talent

An Inquisitor’s needs are many: perhaps your master required a bruiser, a scholar or a technical expert. Whatever the reason, you were plucked unceremoniously from your old life and co-opted into your new role. Perhaps the reason you were originally recognised is still your main focus - or perhaps you've discovered a talent for skulduggery which has seen your utility to the Holy Ordos expand.

Seen Too Much

Innocent Imperial civilians often stray into the edges of Inquisition operations. Some might have caught a glimpse of a forbidden Xenos or Daemonic incursion, while others uncovered a fragment of forbidden lore in an ancient tome, or just simply happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The lucky are mindwiped; most are summarily executed. A rare few, however, are swept out of their lives and recruited - perhaps their situation sparked an Inquisitor’s last jaded vestiges of compassion, or good fortune meant their skills filled a niche. They get to keep their lives and memories, at the cost of never being able to return to their old existence.

Rescued from Damnation

There are always those the Imperium has no need for: convicts, survivors of holy purges, the condemned and the damned. Given one final chance to redeem yourself and owing everything to your Inquisitorial masters, there is no going back for you: only the hope that your suspended sentence might not fall on your head once again.

Your Decline

Characters in Death Unto Darkness suffer from two degrading conditions: Corruption and Madness. We do our best to personalise these effects to your character, but, in order to do so, we need to know your character well - this gives us details from which we create custom-made Madness and Corruption for each character.

While these effects are meant to be bad for the character, they are meant to be fun for the player: we don’t want to force you to endure stressful, boring or uncomfortable roleplay. This is meant to be a fun part of the system for you, even as your character experiences horror at their downward spiral.

We have two questions that we ask for this section in order to establish player comfort;

• What negative behaviours do you feel comfortable roleplaying? - This is an opportunity for you to tell us the kinds of "bad" behaviour that you as a player can enjoy acting out, this can be anything from being very comfortable engaging in PvP violence, to a joy of sneaking around sabotaging your friends, to simply being comfortable roleplaying addiction, or paranoia, or loss of intellect/spikes in violence...and so on, the kinds of behaviour that, if trapped by a Madness or Corruption card into doing so, you would be comfortable playing out for potentially an entire event.
  • As a note, please don't include behaviours in here that would take you out of play, for example 'laziness' or 'being by yourself' we have no issue with you roleplaying these traits but we're not going to issue you with roleplaying effects that encourage you to disengage with the game.

• What negative behaviours don't you feel comfortable roleplaying? - The obvious inverse of the above, please do tell us what kinds of behaviour you aren't comfortable playing out - you do not need to explain why no questions will be asked, we just want to make sure that things remain -fun- for you.

Your Madness

Madness is a supernatural effect, and is not related to any real life mental health conditions - this is the reaction of the human mind to being exposed to something it was not created to comprehend. The mental limits of individuals might differ: a soldier is likely to be less traumatised when exposed to a charnel house than a scholar would, but this is still a cinematic reaction rather than an exploration of real life mental health and trauma. When in doubt, or where the effects of Madness superficially resemble a real symptom, please roleplay with consideration for the impact of your portrayal: the game community is neurodiverse and if you are unsure how to roleplay an effect comfortably, discussion with the Writing Team is welcome.

The questions we ask are;

• What obsessions or addictions does your character have? - Many characters has some sort of obsession, be it common things like protecting those they love, keeping their uniform pressed and neat, or keeping themselves clean of taint and sickness. But unhealthier obsessions do exist, be it an addiction to the weird and wonderful chems of the Prosperitas Sector, or the cannibalistic beliefs of some Death Cults or simply something as simple as hatred of the Witch or Mutant pushed to logical extremes. We tend to avoid addictions with real-world analogues as largely they don't make as interesting drawbacks for gameplay as addiction to, for example drugs that make you temporarily able to see the future, or something equivalent, it's not to say these flaws are invalid and can't be part of your character just that we're not looking for that style in this context.

• What horrors does your character's mind dwell on most? - Horror stalks any character who has stepped outside of the "normal life" of the Imperium to become the Agent of the Inquisition they now are, it is unavoidable that your character has seen things that have tested the limits of their sanity, it's likely why they were drawn into the Inquisition in the first place. What horrors does your character see when they shut their eyes, what sights are burned into their retina? What nightmares stalk them when they sleep? What conspiracy theories now weave themselves together in their head as they are forced to reflect on what they've seen? Be as detailed as you can: the more we know, the more personal hooks we can find for your character’s madness effects.

• What events haunt your character still? - The Inquisition often demands that its Agents carry out acts that are, to us in the modern world, horrific and evil, there is a toll for that, and it can haunt a character for years after it. Even without those, many characters come from unhappy pasts and backgrounds and continue to be haunted by them and have lived through experiences that continue to scar their memories...what are these, and how do they torment your character? Have they committed some act they have come to regret? Are there ghosts of lost friends or victims that haunt them? Be as detailed as you can: the more we know, the more personal hooks we can find for your character’s madness effects.

• What weaknesses of personality does your character have? - This is a question about a character's exploitable flaws: a character who has specific prejudices might be goaded into acting on them more and more intensely. The ways in which these cracks manifest will be defined by the Game Team for you to discover in play, but your input in providing us with these hooks is key to this part of your story. What outlets do they rely on when they are under stress: Do they turn to some past addictions? Do they lash out, or take their feelings out on the innocent or those they perceive as weaker? Do they show a compulsive habit? ny information about how you think your character’s flaws could be used against them helps us a lot.
  • Please keep in mind the scope of a LARP game, however: answers such as “desire to gain political power”, while good to define personality, don't really offer something we can reflect with these mechanics, similarly "I want to keep my friends safe" is quite a standard desire and not one that offers much creative options to us.

Your Corruption

Corruption represents the growing taint of Chaos within reality, be it through whispered promises or exposure to warp energies from the tainted Realm of Chaos within the Warp. You can find its full details for the mechanic here. This taint affects every person differently, with physical changes occuring only in extreme cases of exposure; in most cases, it first twists the mind, often enhancing an individual’s negative traits in ways that fuel the powers of Chaos or assist the goals of the Dark Gods.

Characters with Faith and Fire are asked instead to answer Your Fanaticism questions.

The questions we ask are:

• What does your character value most about themselves? - The things that a character holds most important and dear are the things that the Dark Gods target first - this doesn't mean friends, or items, or possessions though - this is the PERSONAL traits and capabilities of a character that they value most and that losing would hit them hardest. The In the initial levels of the corruption track the Dark Gods sap and mutate your character in ways that degrade and rob them of what they value most try to be honest, having Corruption that impacts your character meaningfully is a part of the system.

• What does your character's "Darkest Self" look like? - There are always paths not taken, and roads unwalked, especially in this dark era, if you looked at your character, how could you imagine them at their very worst, what would that look like? Who would they be. This shouldn't be a full profile of some sort of mirror universe version of your character but just some sort of insight into the darker parts of their soul if they were less inhibited by the strictures of the Imperium.

• If your character could have any supernatural power what would they desire? - The Dark Gods offer things that twist reality and break its rules, it is a part of the temptation that Chaos offers to mortal souls that they can provide tangible supernatural aid - this is very much the wishlist question, the thing your character dreams they could do. Preferably while answering this honestly from your character's point of view, try and focus on practicality of the wish within the limits of a LARP?
  • We strongly discourage "the power to protect their friends" as an answer, a more practical way to protect them is being 'better as a doctor' or 'fast enough to intercept bullets' but to be clear we get this quite a bit in submissions and it's just a little too selfless to be useful as a tool.

Note - On “I want a specific God” Requests: In the past, we included questions about which power was likely to take an interest in your character.. We’ve moved away from that because we feel that it lost an element of surprise that comes with the final step of the tracks. In the same vein, we discourage trying to think up flaws based on the specific tropes associated with a specific god: it produces a less organic writing process and makes your specific path less unique. We recommend doing your best to disregard what you know about Chaos when answering these questions. This will also help to avoid disappointment if the narrative elements the Writing Team sees in your background do not match the dark power you had in mind.

Note - Prohibited Themes: We will not include anything in your Corruption effects that would breach our prohibited themes. Additionally, we will not include anything about sexuality, gender and sexual acts in Corruption effects (or in any mechanical effect). Death unto Darkness is a sex- and kink-positive game, but we don’t want to force players to interact with such themes. While we don’t discourage you from having them or roleplaying them as part of your character’s story, we find that they are better contained to controlled spaces, where only people who actively consent to interacting with them will do so. Importantly, in this setting, themes such as sexual promiscuity or experiencing sexual attraction are not considered inherently ‘corrupt’ or a marker of the taint of Chaos.

Your Fanaticism

It is incredibly rare for an Imperial character to not have faith in the God-Emperor, although some outliers such as the Adeptus Mechanicus have their own isolated religious beliefs. Those characters with Faith and Fire are far more than simply faithful in the God-Emperor - they are devoted to the God-Emperor in a fashion that is far more extreme than is normal. Some would consider them unhinged - certainly they are fanatical in their worship of the God-Emperor in whatever form they have been raised to believe in Them. In many cases this faith, while unquestioning and to outsiders quite insane, gives their mortal souls protection against the grasping corruption of the Warp. But the God-Emperor is not a kind God: the daily toil such devotion takes upon mind and body is harsh. The Imperial Cult is one built on toil and sacrifice not care and comfort, and those who give themselves so completely to it as those who have Faith and Fire often suffer far worse then the common Imperial flock.

This trait cannot be used to reflect any other religious belief than devotion to the God-Emperor; consider a Unique Trait if you would like a similar effect.

Update 20/02/2023: We are currently no longer accepting Faith and Fire unless a character comes from an Adepta Sororitas or Ecclesiarchy background as it has become quite common in the player party and risks dilution - this is designed to be an uncomfortable thing to roleplay and relies heavily on playing an unquestioning fanatic.

The questions we ask are:

• How does your character express their devotion to the God-Emperor? - Religious practices vary immensely across the Imperium; there are a myriad of sects each with their own beliefs about how the Emperor should be worshipped. You can find a few details of those beliefs here (as well as others linked off of that page) but each character's expressions of faith are their own. Amongst Inquisitorial Agents it is common to encounter all sorts of deviant and accepted forms of religious practice due to the eclectic nature of the myriad of backgrounds they are recruited from.

• What has your character suffered for their Faith? - The Faith represented by Faith and Fire is not born of a single revelatory moment, rather it is the work of a lifetime of unquestioning devotion, and with that has come suffering for your character. They have put Faith ahead of all other concerns in their life; they have suffered already in order to PROVE that faith, they have overcome obstacle after obstacle in their demonstrations of devotion to the God-Emperor and they bear the scars of that... what is your characters journey of Faith?

• What hatred does your character hold for others amongst their fellow Inquisitorial servants? - The Imperial Creed is built on intolerance, and a character with Faith and Fire is demonstrably more likely to hold those intolerances not only for the enemies of the Imperium, but likely some amongst their allies. The obvious targets of hatred are those who display mutations have have caused them to drift away from the human norm, mutants, psykers, abhumans - but not everyone holds such hate, some hate the Adeptus Mechanicus for their deviation from the Imperial Cult, or those who show insufficient devotion to the God-Emperor or simply those born of low status. This hatred needn't manifest violently, but it will often mean that the presence of such individuals presents a challenge for the Faithful in finding rest and spiritual peace.

• What oath would your character swear to the God-Emperor in order to show their true devotion? - at the Marked level of a character's Faith and Fire track they must swear an Oath to the God-Emperor that they must then enact for the rest of that event and until the middle of the next Campaign Event (numbered event rather than a Tale) that they play or sooner, you can read more about these in the Faith and Fire section

Your Inquisitor

A character does not choose which Inquisitor they serve, and neither does their player. When we receive your character concept, we will select the Inquisitor who best fits the character idea. Keep in mind that nothing prevents the agents of different Inquisitors from working together as a single cell - cooperation is a component of the game, despite the varied philosophies and whims of the Prosperitas Conclave’s Inquisitors.

Your character will not necessarily be from the same Ordos background as your Inquisitor. Your characters’ skills and experience might be best suited to Ordo Hereticus tasks, but they might find themselves serving under an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor. This is a normal part of life in the sometimes chaotic Ordos Prosperitas, and does not mean that your character will be disadvantaged or closed out of plot which is relevant to their skills. In many cases, being the only Xenos expert in a squad of veteran demon hunters or witchfinders can bring more involvement than teaming up with others in the same profession.

Your Companions and Allies

Death Unto Darkness is a cooperative game. PCs may disagree and sometimes have conflicting points of view, but success in many missions depends on Inquisitorial agents working together. You will find it easier to get involved in the plot and hit the ground running at your first game if your PC knows and/or has ties to a few other PCs playing at the same event.

As such, you are welcome to enter play with pre-defined links to other PCs (new or already in game) - either met in your Inquisitor's Retinue or otherwise. Remember to always consult a player before establishing a link to their character in your background: it is never appropriate to roleplay a link to another PC without the player's OC consent.

If you're looking for character links, making a post on the Discord or Facebook group is a good place to start. The Game Team can also help advise on other PCs from similar backgrounds who might be appropriate for your character to know. If a PC has no ties to the party at the start of the game, it is likely that NPC orders from the Inquisitors will place them with a team or assign them a specific role to ensure everyone has a starting point for interactions.

Further Reading

• Building a Character
• Servants of the Inquisition
• The Prosperitas Conclave
• Life in the Imperium
• The Prosperitas Sector
• Factions of the Prosperitas Sector