Hyperion

Zael Effernetti was born c. 390.M41 in the lower levels of Petropolis, a major hive in the industrial world Eustis Majoris in the Angelus Sub Sector. His parents died in a hivepox outbreak when he was a child while his last surviving family member, a grandmother, died when he was eleven years old. Like many low hivers, he became addicted to the illegal psycho-active drug flect around that time. A street urchin, and physically stunted because of the polluted environment and harsh living conditions, he lived in abject poverty, using his wits to score the next flect hit or "look." It is likely that his addiction triggered innate, unique psyker abilities that eventually brought him to the attention of Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor.

Ravenor and his retinue were investigating the flect trade in the Scarus Sector as part of a larger investigation involving the recidivist Cognitae Zygmunt Molotch, and arrived in Eustis Majoris in 404.M41 during the course of the investigation. Ravenor's team came across Zael and was using him as a way into the lowhive flect-dealing syndicates, when Zael's abilities were revealed -- Zael himself was unaware of his unique "gifts." Ravenor described him: "A low-hab stack-runt from Petropolis, a vagabond kid, and also a nascent psyker, undetected by the periodic sweeps and examinations. Not just a psyker, a mirror psyker, that rarest of rare beasts." Subsequently, Ravenor took Zael under his care in order to find out more, and possibly exploit his abilities. Mirror psykers can passively pick-up telepathic communications, even private ones, which they can amplify and "resend." This property is usually just the visible tip of additional, and extremely powerful psyker abilities.

Ravenor and team had been given information that an extremely powerful daemon of the Major Arcana called Sleet or Slyte was going to incarnate in the early years of the 4th century M41 in Eustis Majoris. Supposedly this would happen because of Ravenor or one of his entourage; interpreting a complex series of clues and events, Ravenor suspected that Slyte would manifest through Zael. Zael in the meantime had collapsed under "psychic assault" during a Cognitae-related mission. In a highly unorthodox move Ravenor did not execute the boy outright (as most Inquisitors would have done); with Zael under coma, he tasked Wystan Frauka, a member of his entourage who was an untouchable, to guard him, with instructions to kill him at the slightest suspicion of daemonic manifestation.

However, Zael's coma was self-induced. Zael had realised that Carl Thonius, Ravenor's Interrogator, was actually Slyte in-waiting, although he had no visible (to others) proof. He knew that Thonius/Slyte was suspicious of his abilities and would kill him as the only threat to final incarnation, so he faked his "collapse" and coma, hoping to stay alive and take advantage of the situation at a better time. Thanks to his psychic ability and natural intelligence, he achieved an impossible feat: he managed, while under coma, to psychically communicate with Frauka who was an untouchable, eventually imbuing him with psychic touch. Frauka, grateful over this proof that he had (or had acquired) a soul, kept their communication private, and vowed to protect Zael and help him in thwarting Slyte.

Eventually Frauka, "worn" by Zael, manage to tell and convince Ravenor that Slyte would use Thonius as a gateway, which lead to Ravenor's subsequent banishment of the daemon. In the meantime Ravenor had declared Rogue status, which the Inquisition authorities charged he overstepped, and after the Slyte affair was subjected to an Inquisition inquiry in Gudrun over this and other matters. As his retinue disbanded, Zael was put in the care of Ordo Xenos Inquisitor Lilith Abfequarn.

After initial processing, Inquisitor Abfequarn took Zael from Gudrun via Black Ship to Titan, and the Ordo Malleus headquarters base. In 406.M41 Zael, based on Abfequarn's report that his psyker potential could be "unlocked" in a controlled manner, and in the judgement of Grey Knights Prognosticars that he could make either an excellent Prognosticar or a consummate combat psyker, he was accepted as a candidate Grey Knight, and after passing the initial 99 day conditioning, he started the decades-long training to join the Order.

Following his acceptance as candidate he was given the name Hyperion. He eventually received the "Emperor's Gift" (ie gene-seed and implants grown from the Emperor's own DNA) and around 443.M41 became a full knight. He was assigned to Squad Castian of the Eighth Brotherhood, under Justicar Galleo.