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rats-and-robots · 2 months

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Hi I'm info dumping about my RT, Garion and his whole arc in the game.

Um. This is long as hell.

TL;DR: Garion von Valancius is a buff theater kid cyborg who be gay, do crime, and has an eldritch god in his head. He was taken to Commoragh before the game, met an OP new bestie and escaped. Oh yeah, and then the game happens and he falls in love with a traitor and then a loser dark space elf.

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Garion was born on a very, very hot Forge World, one that lived up to the title of a 'forge'; Metals from other worlds sent to the world to be refined in the world's ever-erupting heats. Garion worked with much of this and has numerous burns and heat-proof augments, including his left arm and lower legs. He learned and sung hundreds of working songs and tech-hymns his entire life.

The presence of tech-priests here was minimal by their standards, only enough to maintain the machines which worked the beating metals and to keep the workers in line.

Because of this, crime is readily common, and Garion managed to claw his way up the ranks. His use of the songs they sang as code became his calling card. His sudden rise was due mostly to strange curling whispers deep in his mind that advised him with a soft smile. He ended up in what squalor passed for a life of leisure among the billowing fires and churning magma. His work quotas met by those beneath him as he worked, instead, by maintaining a steady ebb and flow of stimulants and food to keep a large measure of the planet under his control. Because his quotas were met, he went under the radar for a very, very long time.

Those who sought to join his close ranks were tested with one-on-one fights with the crime lord himself. Whoever won didn't matter, and he was not ashamed by losses. Rather he was testing their compatibility with him in battle. Would they dance with blades and bullets with him or simply stumble around him?

His life was... well, not good, but as good as it got. He was, and still is, more devoted to the Omnissiah than the God-Emperor and thanked the Machine Spirits regularly for his success, little as it was... Until a drukhari raid on their planet ripped everything out from beneath him.

They captured many, and Garion with them. The Wyches took him and a number of his personal council, all heavily augmented fighters who killed many in the raid, and pitted them against beast after beast in the arena, only their songs keeping them... somewhat sane, driving them deep into Garion's subconscious. During this time, he learned to speak some Eldarian by listening and watching, though it was very broken and brutish until much later. He listened to the songs of torment and excess and committed some of those to memory as well, learning more of their language as some Drukhari tauntingly corrected him when he remembered wrong. For a short time--at least, it seemed that way--the small group were a favorite plaything of the arena. But they wouldn't last long. One by one they fell around him. Soon enough, he was alone, only his working songs, the mad discordance of the drukhari song, and the voice in his head to keep him company. The soft whispering and smiles had become cackling screams and grins filled with blood-stained teeth here.

It was clear the Wyches were bored of him, and placed him against a disgraced incubus warrior and some beast they were both clearly fated to finally die against. Farris, the incubus, already ashamed and beaten down with the terror of facing down the throat of Slaanesh as much as the throat of the beast before them, agreed to fight alongside the Crime Lord, not against them both.

It was not through some luck, nor some hidden skill, nor of Garion's doing that they broke the beast's limbs and gutted it. No, it was Something else that turned the hand of fate with a purposeful touch. It was the same Something that laughed and grinned and spat in his head.

It was through this same Something, through this same grinning beast, that he would be one of the very, very few to flee the blackened city, a disjunction cracking through it in his wake. To think of what happened still makes the now-Lord Commander ill. The burn on his face shimmers faintly with the horrid purple of the Warp that caused it. His throat is forever raw and gravelled from his fevered song.

Farris remained with him, rationalizing that Garion had paid him higher than any Archon could have ever offered. Their small ship managed to limp them back to Garion's home planet, as torn that it was. Unfortunately it was only barely clinging to life. With Farris's help and the decrepit state of the Forge World, he had no struggle in the wake of Commoragh to regain his standing... But his following reign was far more... Iron fisted than before.

Farris was augmented by the corrupt tech-priests that Garion managed to regain command of in return for being more properly taught the Eldarian language. Farris, the terrifying former Incubus that he was, was allowed to Feast upon Garion's enemies and soon enough all of the Forge World was under his heel. It began an upward swing in prosperity, with Garion controlling from the shadows and Farris even deeper in the shade than he.

Garion did not participate in Farris's feasts, but understood the man's need for them, until Farris would find a new way to fight off Slaanesh's draining.

Farris turned to worship of the Omnissiah as the tech-priests who altered him also taught him, turning to making his body metal, to tear from himself the weakness of flesh to keep himself from She-Who-Thirsts. Committing himself to the strength of metal. Farris became a horrifying sight to behold, augmented with black, twisted metal and, by the time Garion received summons from his distant relative, he appeared more machine than xenos. A Klaive-like weapon melded into his new body, becoming a literal extension of himself and adopting a cloaking mechanism to hide himself when the Imperium began to peer too closely at the planet and attempt to sniff out the corruption. Garion's sigil was engraved into his steel amidst prayers to the Omnissiah. He became Garion's shadow, always there, hardly noticed unless he was needed. Their bond was that of equals, but not the same way Garion would one day have with another Drukhari.

The summons from the Rogue Trader was fortuitous, indeed. Not long after his departure, with a small group of his most trusted with him, those he had left in charge crumpled under a sudden investigation. Farris's unique methods of... Conditioning... However, kept their mouths shut to the identity of their leader.

Garion would go on to claim his heritage, the Warrant. The warp jump of the prologue would catch Farris off guard while he was sent to scout out the flagship while Garion met with Theodora and his other companions forced to wait behind for the meeting. Farris had been certain that the Omnissiah would protect him and guard him, but once blood was spilled, the whispers of Slaanesh would send him into a shrieking fit throughout the entire prologue, separate from the rest and entirely out of control. Many, if not most, of the heretics' losses in the middle to lower decks were his doing, Farris hardly able to differentiate between friend and foe.

Garion's old companions were all killed in the fight, but Farris would remain, injured and holed up in the mechanical crevices of the ship during the first act. It was only the absence of his body when the dead were gathered that prompted Garion to track him down alone, to follow reports of a strange black beast in the battle now bleeding out oil in the lowest places. He knew the Drukhari would not be welcomed, and sought to save him.

But Garion was no tech-priest, and he did not know if he could trust the ones who were now under his command. He patched the wounds of the flesh, but the tech far escaped him, even if his knowledge was greater than that of most laymen. He ends up threatening one of the tech-priests to repair him, but the repair is only just enough to keep him standing.

Farris remains in the shadows for the majority of Acts 1 & 2. He acts as a Master of Whispers for Garion. This makes Garion seem nearly omnipresent on the ship, receiving information from Farris regularly. Abelard one time confronts him about this and this quote sticks in my head for this encounter;

"I have my own Master of Secrets, just as Theodora had. If everything goes as it needs to, you will never have to meet him. He answers to me, and that's all you need to know."

Idira knows something is around but doesn't know what. She suspects it has to do with whatever it is that makes her mind race with gnashing teeth and glinting grins around the Lord Commander. Cassia doesn't know what to name the colors that swirl around the Rogue Trader, but she does know she sees smears of red and black horror down the corridors of the ship, especially after the next warp-jump. Garion had, at that point, ordered him to seek out any heretics still remaining among their ranks and to target them when he needed to for warp-jumps.

On Dargonus, Garion meets Achilleas and absolutely falls hard for him. No one else on his mind, he courts the man shamelessly. To some end, he succeeds. Achilleas refuses to believe there's no ulterior motive, not from someone like a Rogue Trader, but he accepts the advances hesitantly.

...

...at least until Marazhai ensnares him.

He's distant, suddenly, and Garion tries everything to pull him back in.

I still have to plot how the meeting between Marazhai and Garion goes, but I do know that;

-Garion is immediately a thirsty bitch,

-Yrliet gets markedly pissed off when the Rogue Trader speaks Eldar to Marazhai(he never did so for her),

-speaks it with drukhari slang,

-and is openly fucking flirting with him.

Not to mention Marzi's reaction, along with his group. Haven't decided if he will recognize Garion from the Arena or not. I'm gonna say 'not' for now, but boyyyy does he recognize Farris later on.

Garion is probably the first to notice Achilleas' disappearance and is insistent on finding him. Even when Yrliet tries to urge him to leave to the place she indicated, he refuses to leave until he knows what happened.

It's a shame he's the one who finds the body.

I'm still plotting out most of Commoragh/Act 3, but Garion is ROYALLY FUCKED UP because PTSD is a WHORE-ASS BITCH. Not to mention he literally just lost the love of his life and now he's basically in fucking *hell*.

Farris is there with them but disguised AS FUCK and trembling a bit himself. He may be strong in the realspace, but he is surrounded by those he knows want him dead. Pasqal is the first to meet Farris in Commoragh and to learn Garion's past in the hellish place with Farris, Garion willing to risk the Magos's wrath to get Farris in a proper state to fight with them. Thankfully, Pasqal is willing to work with them after the tech-eldar professes his loyalty to the Omnissiah and what he wishes to cast off his xenos shell for blessed metal.

Most of the inhabitants don't recognize Garion, so a lot of it will go as the game does, up until meeting Tervantias... The grinning thing in his head seems to adore him. Garion is thankful that the grinning thing is now not always in his head, but worries what it will do coiling in that xenos' head.

I'm writing the scene with Marazhai being given the offer to join Garion's side, but basically it ends with Garion speaking their language to taunt Aebys and telling her to send Sinisthora(spelling??) his regards.

Not long after... Yrliet confesses to how she betrayed them. And Garion would forgive her for just wanting to find her people... But she killed Achilleas. And for that, he puts a bullet in her brain.

The arenas scene are different, too. During the second, word has gotten out and the Wyches remember Garion, now. They send their worst against him. Even with Marazhai's betrayal, they get their asses kicked up until Garion whistles a tune, prompting Farris to finally lash out and reveal himself to protect his charge.

Marazhai's neurons are fucking activated seeing Garion's name 'branded' into the body of a fucking incubus(former or not!) for better or worse and he absolutely joins the retinue, much to the dismay of said retinue who are already a little fucked up about Garion recruiting one drukhari... Now there are two?

Thankfully, Garion is a royal asshole to Marazhai at this point, constantly driving in that he's only using him to get out, especially after Marazhai tells him how he tortured Achilleas. Marazhai was lucky to not get a bullet himself, but Marazhai is his ticket out--without causing another disjunction.

Once they get back, Farris revealed and the wounds now raw, Garion finally spills his secrets to Abelard and eventually the rest of his retinue. Pasqal is initially still very cautious about the tech-eldar's existence, but eventually this subsides as Farris is fairly dogmatic to the Omnissiah himself and openly lets Pasqal examine how the tech interacts with his very different body, giving Pasqal something to study. Once tensions about his existence relax, he hides himself less often and is allowed to work with the tech-priests, who agree to help him find a way to quell his panic during warp-jumps.

[The Agoraphobia one-shot takes place around this time, before the first warp-jump after Commoragh.]

Heinrix is the one to join Garion during that first warp-jump, and Garion almost let him get taken... But Marazhai is history to torture. He's also a touch more concerned about Farris, so he immediately sends Pasqal to go check on Farris the INSTANT he realizes he might also be in danger with servants of Slaanesh on-board. Pasqal, who is absorbed in how the former incubus's spirit has melded with his tech and reciting pleas to the Omnissiah, helps him fend off the servants of She-Who-Thirsts.

Marazhai is thrown into a cell, but Garion also, in the same breath, makes the order for a few prisoners and heretics to be sent there. (Later, Garion will eventually let him have the lower decks at some point. From that point onwards, he may even purchase prisoners from planets in the future if Marazhai runs low as people become terrified of that fate and rule-breaking/heresy drops significantly.) Garion is... Intrigued, to say the least, by Marazhai's reaction to being locked up.

Marazhai and Garion begin to play their game, Garion fully invested in making Marazhai his. The former dracon is initially confused that Garion reciprocates in his game, given the man's history with the would-be traitor and that Farris seems to be bonded to Garion. Yet, as he plays his little game with Garion, Farris is neither jealous nor angry about the other drukhari's actions. Marazhai is somewhat disappointed about this, having wanted to see how Garion kept his dog on a leash, even going so far as to taunt Farris for being so thoroughly owned.

Farris is the one to reveal that the nature of his possession is not the same as the game they play. He bears Garion's brand out of the debt he owes him, the following of a contract he is bound to for life, owned by way of payment. He is bound to Garion as any Incubus is bound to an Archon who pays them handsomely beyond measure. That is all. He has no part in their game, though he sees it for what it is.

It isn't until Marazhai kneels before him to ask him, properly, to feast with him, that Garion realizes he's caught some semblance of... feelings.

And the feast satiates the smiling thing in his head, flashing teeth falling back to soft smiles and maniacal laughter into gentle giggles. And he's not sure if he likes that or if it scares him more.

...in the mean time, well... his concern about where Tervantias has disappeared to is beginning to build up. Especially when the grinning thinks slips out of his mind. Rather than being happy for the silence, it fills him with dread.

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I haven't gotten much further in the playthrough I'm watching from here, but the thing in Garion's head is not Tzeentch, it's a homebrew deity I made, The Smiling One, back in the day when Warhammer was more like DnD in setting. I might go into detail about it later, but it's basically a god of creation, life, discovery... as well as necromancy, flesh crafting, and sacrifice, created by a massive world-spanning war. Here it's literally an invader in the world of 40k and the chaos gods do not like it being here. Especially Tzeentch, who previously had claim lm the von Valancius bloodline.

PS, I don't really care if certain things aren't lore-compliant, I'm shoving in two OCs besides Garion and The Smiling One would absolutely fuck with reality to make things go smoothly. (That said if you have suggestions I'm down to hear them!)

#ress talks #warhammer 40k #warhammer 40k: rogue trader #garion von valancius #marazhai aezyrraesh #farris needs a last name #potentially a new first name cause its not. drukhari. but idk #maybe he renamed himself #we'll see.

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