Ciaphas Cain

Ciaphas Cain was an Imperial Guard Commissar. He was in active service during the last century of the 41st Millennium, and was over 200 Terran years old when he was recalled into service during the 13th Black Crusade of Abaddon the Despoiler. It is certain that he survived more than a quarter of a century into the 42nd Millennium. Imperial propaganda made him out to be a great hero of the Imperium of Man in the late 41st Millennium, although in truth he was primarily focused on his own survival during his long career. However, Cain differed from many other Imperial Commissars in that he would not readily sacrifice his soldiers unless it ensured his own survival. Cain tried his utmost to avoid engaging in actual combat, but usually was required to do so to maintain his status as a Hero of the Imperium, which ironically would involve him in more dangerous situations than any he would usually have seen as a simple Commissar. He was responsible for many successful campaigns throughout his career and retired to become an instructor for new Imperial Commissars at a Schola Progenium.

Cain's Memoirs
In the early 42nd Millennium his Memoirs were published amongst the ranks of the Inquisition. They were sequestered by order of the Inquisition, and were kept and organised as the "Cain Archive" by Ordo Xenos Inquisitor Amberley Vail with whom Cain had many encounters over his career, and shared a close working and personal relationship. Vail edited Cain's chaotic notes, and using information from additional sources, such as the memoirs of Valhallan General Jennit Sulla, published 101.M42, made available -- for the internal use only of the Inquisition -- first-person accounts of several Cain missions, often annotated by herself. It is worth noting, as Inquisitor Vail did in footnotes throughout the memoirs, that Cain was a skilled liar and dissembler, however his narrative is refreshingly honest concerning his shortcomings, and even, according to Vail, overly modest in recording his victories against the enemies of the Imperium.

Origins and Early Life
Cain makes numerous mentions of his homeworld, apparently a Hive World, though he never mentions a name or any feature which could lead to it being identified. At one point in the archives, Inquisitor Amberley Vail speculates that Cain may not in fact know the name of his own homeworld. However, he shows a definite affinity for underground passages and has a natural sense of direction when underground. He claims that his parents were killed while serving in the Imperial Guard, which is why he was sent to be trained as a Commissar. However, it has not been stated in which regiment they served. His record at the Schola Progenium where he was educated and trained shows that his marks were on the low end of average in everything save sports and combat training. He also had a clear disciplinary record, however this probably means he didn't get caught that often in bad behaviour.

Service History
Throughout his service in the Imperial Guard Commissariat, Cain seems to have served predominantly with regiments raised from the Ice World of Valhalla. He picked up a number of their habits and slang terms, although he never became enamoured to the cold they enjoyed, or their habit of taking showers in ice water. His loyal aide Ferik Jurgen was a Valhallan Guardsman who happened to be a psychic Blank, and served Cain faithfully for many years. Also with him was General Jenit Sulla. He began his service with the Valhallan 12th Field Artillery in 919.M41, apparently as a Commissar attached to the command battery, but soon took up duties over the entire regiment. His first taste of battle was on the world of Desolatia, where the regiment had been defending against Orks, but soon they were faced with a Tyranid splinter Hive Fleet, which they held out against until an Imperial fleet arrived to pick up the Imperial forces on the planet.

Cain, and his regiment's, next destination was the planet of Keffia, where he spent a restful few years of the 920's, and the only major battle he participated in was assisting the local law enforcers (calling themselves Custodes, though the title is unrelated to the Adeptus organisation of the same name) in revealing a Genestealer infestation in the sector and assisting in the defence of the enforcers' headquarters.

From Keffia, Cain went to the world of Perlia, where he was first earmarked for greater things. After a space battle, he and his adjutant Jurgen were left isolated on the ground of Perlia, presumed dead after their escape pod crashed behind Ork lines. From there, he raised an army and, in what became known as the March of the Liberator, successfully fought his way through the Orks to the Imperial front line, killing the Ork warlord personally. The Imperial forces took the opportunity to attack the remaining Ork forces, who were in disarray.

On the world of Slawkenberg, Cain and three Guardsmen were nearly seduced by a Chaos sorceress whilst accompanying scouts, but managed to destroy the enemy position with artillery.

From there, Cain was assigned to Commissariat Command for a few years, which was at first a simple desk job, but his reputation meant that he was sent on risky missions, such as a trip to Interitus Prime, a Necron Tomb World, Viridia and Viridia Secundus, the cleansing of a Space Hulk, campaigns against the Eldar, and participated in the cleansing of the world of Sanguia. He survived these campaigns purely by being able to keep his head down, and commonly being the only survivor. Before long, he requested transfer back to a full regiment since it seemed to be less dangerous work. Of these experiences, Cain notes that his encounter with the Necrons was the most horrific, and left the most lasting impression on him.

Currently the majority of extracts available from the Cain Archive tell of his time serving with the 597th Valhallan Regiment. While serving with them Cain appears to have been very close to the troopers, particularly with the senior officers with which he had a personal friendship.

Cain was present with the 597th Valhallan Regiment of the Imperial Guard for their first action during the Gravalax Incident of 931.M41, where he was awarded the Order of Merit of Gravalax, Second Class, for his part in preventing the Tau Empire's annexation of the planet Gravalax on the Eastern Fringes of the Imperium. Cain was to joke in later years that if he had allowed the Tau to kill Governor Grice, the grateful populace would have given him the First Class decoration! In truth, the planet had been infested by a Genestealer Cult that had been trying to spark off a meaningless war over a backwater planet between the Tau and the Imperium in order to distract them both from the approach of a Tyranid Hive Fleet. It was during this affair that Cain first encountered Inquisitor Amberley Vail, and also discovered that his aide Jurgen was in fact a psychic Null: a trait which saved Cain's life as he duelled the Genestealer Patriarch.

The next year, he served on the world of Simia Oricalcae, defending a refinery against Ork predations and an awakening Necron threat beneath the ice. Shortly after this, he was sent to the planet Periremunda after a civil uprising occurred. It was discovered that Genestealers were behind it, and the infection was cleansed.

After fighting the xenos Hrud on Skekwi and Orks on Kastafore, Cain arrived at Adumbria in 937.M41, where he assisted in uncovering a Chaos ritual and defending against landing Chaos forces. His actions defeated a Daemon Prince and prevented the transformation of the planet into a Daemon World. He was later court-martialed, initiated by Commissar Tomas Beije, for leaving the front line on Adumbria to attack the Daemon Prince's summoning, but Cain was cleared of all wrongdoing, and Beije was charged himself and later acquitted.

In 942.M41 Cain and the Valhallan 597th were tasked with suppressing an Ork outbreak on Nusquam Fundumentibus, a remote Ice World outside of major Warp routes, where Cain had been on a mission two standard decades earlier. While pursuing the action against the Orks, Cain discovered the presence of a Tyranid swarm that had been hibernating for millennia (likely since pre-Imperial times) in the planet's permafrost, carried over by a crashed Hive Ship. The swarm was partially awakened by the action on the planet, but the Hive Mind was destroyed before it could become fully operational, largely due to Cain's efforts.

Ghosts of Perlia
Cain's actions on the world of Perlia would come back to haunt him on two occasions during the eighty years between the first and second sieges of that planet. The first occurred during the campaign on Periremunda, when Cain discovered that the Ordo Xenos and the Adeptus Mechanicus had been working on a secret project surrounding an artefact known as the "Shadowlight". This unusual artefact, which predated the existence of mankind itself, activated the powers of latent psykers and boosted the powers of already active ones. The Shadowlight had been contained in a secret Mechanicus shrine located within the dam in the Valley of Daemons on Perlia's eastern continent until it had been taken by a rogue tech-priest named Metheius, in the employ of Inquisitor Killian of the Ordo Hereticus. When Cain arrived at the dam - shortly before destroying it, flooding the valley and drowning scores of Orks - he had found that the tech-priests of the shrine had been killed with surgical precision, and learned later that this had been the work of Killian and Metheius.

Killian had allied with a number of Chaos Cults on Periremunda and intended to use the Shadowlight to boost their psychic powers, turning them into servants of the Emperor without their realizing it. After Killian's death, the Shadowlight was returned to Perlia in the shrine set in the rebuilt dam in the Valley of Daemons, where it would remain for another sixty years.

The other occasion was during the Second Siege of Perlia, in 999.M41. Cain had by that time retired and made Perlia his home, teaching at a Schola Progenium on the western continent, in a mountainous village near the planetary capital of Havensdown. Meeting with the Rogue Trader Orelius, whom he had met on Gravalax, Cain discovered that there was a Chaos force headed in the direction of Perlia, having overrun two neighboring star systems. It was Cain's suspicion (and Inquisitor Vail's as well, as she had sent Orelius to meet with Cain) that the Chaos horde and their leader, Warmaster Varan the Undefeatable, had their sights set on the acquisition of the Shadowlight artefact. Called once again to defend Perlia, Cain coordinated with the commanders of the Planetary and System Defense Forces, appearing in pictcasts calling for civilians to join the militia, and leading attacks against Chaos insurgents, culminating in a final showdown with Warmaster Varan himself. Though Cain succeeded in killing Varan and effectively ending the Second Siege, the Shadowlight was taken by a Necron scouting party, persumably to destroy it as psykers were the most potent weapons that could be used against the Necrons. From the Necrons' actions Cain and Amberly Vail theorized that the Shadowlight may have been built by the Old Ones in order to combat the Necrons, who had a documented fear of the Warp and psychic powers.

After the 13th Black Crusade
Cain spent the years after his service during the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41 teaching at the Schola Progenium on Perlia and writing his memoirs - both his public memoir To Serve The Emperor: A Commissar's Life, and the secret Cain Archive that Inquisitor Vail distributed among her colleagues. Cain presumably died sometime in the first or second century of the 42nd Millennium, and remains the only person in the known galaxy to remain on the active duty roster of the Imperial Guard even after being buried with full military honors. This is as a result of a confusion in the Departmento Munitorum during the First Siege of Perlia, in which Cain was listed as killed in action until some point after he rejoined his regiment at the campaign's end. It may be interesting to note that there is a small sect in Tallarn Imperial Guard Regiments, who consider Cain to have been a physical conduit of the Emperor's divine will. There is even a religious text dedicated to Cain, called the Book of Cain.

Personality and Skills
Although Cain performed acts in his long commissarial service that were nothing short of heroic, they were always - by his own admission - done reluctantly. He chose the his first posting with the Valhallan 12th Field Artillery specifically to avoid front-line combat, as artillery regiments generally remained at the rear of any Imperial army. After the events on Desolatia, however, Cain often made the observation that his commanders were bent on sending him into deadly situations simply on the basis of his reputation. The first thing on his mind was always his own safety, and how he would be able to escape the situation he was in. Despite his unwillingness to engage in combat, Cain was by no means unprepared for it, as one of the things he focused on while at the Schola Progenium (in addition to sports) was combat training. He was described as an exceptional swordsman - a skill which "undoubtedly came from the sort of combat experience no amount of practice could emulate", in the words of Inquisitor Vail, though he still practiced his technique anyway. In his memoirs he describes his chainsword skill as a habitual and instinctive one. He was also skilled enough with a laspistol to actually hit his target well beyond the weapon's operational range, even against Necron Warriors.