Gideon Ravenor

"I saw my face. The face I had once had. Gideon Ravenor, young, strong, determined. How I had missed that face..." -- Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor

Gideon Ravenor was an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos of some renown and one of the Inquisition's most powerful psykers. During his time as an Interrogator for the Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn he was severely wounded during a terrorist attack on the world of Thracian Primaris. Thanks to the technological marvels of the Adeptus Mechanicus and Ravenor's own unbending will, he survived his injuries, but due to extensive tissue damage and burns, he was doomed to spend the rest of his days in a life-supporting Force Chair. The sensory deprivation caused by his injuries and the chair's built-in psy-boosters allowed Ravenor to continue in the Emperor's service with significantly enhanced psychic abilities. As an Inquisitor he won many great victories that helped to preserve the Imperium and at one point he actually help save the material universe itself from destruction. Ironically, Ravenor gained much greater fame amongst the Imperial elite as a philosopher than he did as a warrior. His esoteric philosophical book, The Spheres of Longing, is generally considered to be his greatest work.

History
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. During his time as an Interrogator in Eisenhorn's retinue of Acolytes Ravenor enjoyed a long relationship with the Carthaen swordswoman Arianrhod Esw Sweydyr. This love affair came to a swift halt when Arianrhod 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 enquiry 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 godlike daemonic being.

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 thru 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 labelled as a Radical by his Puritan peers in the Inquisition.

Philosophy
In his early years as an Inquisitor Ravenor subscribed to the more Radical Inquisitorial philosophical sects. He has been known to cooperate with “worthy” aliens and to use his psychic abilities to predict the future.Some years after the disaster on Tharacian Primaris, Ravenor even apprenticed himself to an unknown Eldar Farseer to learn divination. The knowledge and allies he gained through this pact made it possible for him and Eisenhorn to defeat the Arch-Traitor Pontius Glaw on the planet 5213X in 345.M41 and thereby, according to the Farseer, save the galaxy and the Imperium of Man from utter destruction.

In time, Ravenor's stance towards divination seems to have changed. During his investigation of the Contract Thirteen Cartel on Eustis Majoris in 402.M41 he claimed to loathe farseeing because of the confusing and madness-inducing aspects of the resulting prophecy. It is unclear when Ravenor changed his view, but his newfound aversion did not stop him from using Eldar artefacts or from trusting prophetic visions when they present themselves.

Despite his often unorthodox methods and powerful psychic ability Ravenor was for a long time seen as a Puritan by the political factions within the Inquisition. This view was probably a product of Ravenor's published philosophic works and his reclusive lifestyle. In the end Ravenor's own conscience was what destroyed his reputation. In 404.M41, after the Slyte incident, Ravenor turned himself and evidence of his sorcerous activities over to the Helican Conclave. In the end Ravenor was acquitted of possessing any Chaotic taint, mostly due to the help of his master's old friend Inquisitor Lord Rorken who at the time was the Grand Master for the Helican Conclave. Even though he got away with only a warning, Ravenor was, like his master before him, labelled a Radical.

Psychic Abilities
Ravenor has on occasion been referred to as an Alpha-Plus psyker. This claim seems to have originated after the canonical introduction of the psyker assessment scale but before that hierarchy of psyker power had been strictly defined. Ravenor is later described, after the psyker assessment scale was better defined in the lore, as a high Delta or low Gamma-grade psyker, a claim that corresponds well with his described abilities and the fact that Ravenor is weaker then the rogue Gamma-grade psyker named Toros Revoke.

Ravenor's psychic abilities are most potent in three areas: telepathy, telekinesis and divination. He can mindskim whole hive cities in a search for specific persons, crush individual enemies with his mind and, with great difficulty, see faint images of possible futures. To strengthen his abilities, Ravenor uses several psychically-attuned artefacts. His anti-gravitic Force Chair is equipped with technological Psy-Boosters that increase his raw psychic strength. Some of Ravenor's Acolytes also wear Eldar Wraithbone amulets that allow the Inquisitor to more easily contact or possess his servants telepathically.

Physical Appearance
At the time of the death of Beldame Sadia before his injuries on Thracian Primaris, Ravenor was tall and handsome, with long black hair pulled back in a long pony tail, high cheekbones and a finely-sculpted face. He possessed a noble and ageless quality in his eyes faintly reminiscent of the Eldar. After being horrifically crippled on Thracian Primaris, his physical body was reduced to a charred, barely animate husk, unable to move or speak, and with his limbs and physical senses scorched away. Now he can only survive through the use of the life support systems of a specially-designed Force Chair; its elaborate systems enable him to move, speak and breathe. Physicallyy, Gideon Ravenor is but a shell of his former self, but psychically, his mind has vastly expanded the wealth of experience available to him.