"Here, here is your answer! I have told your disbelieving ears that the Emperor protects, and the proof stands before you. These men are his holy champions, and the mightiest warriors in the galaxy."
- —Father Marius to the populace of Haistand, Aurum
Father Marius was the Imperium's Chief Missionary on Aurum, having been present during the murder of Sister Rachayel of the Orders Hospitaller.
History[]
A gaunt, balding man, by the time of the early 9th century of the 41st Millennium, Marius had been in Haistand -- the planetary capital of Aurum -- for many solar years. He was able to offer offworlders a great deal of insight into the city of Haistand, the people of Aurum, and their leader -- Rylus Darkscourge.
To the Deathwatch, Marius related the details of Sister Rachayel's death. He was the one who found the sister's body in the Word of Faith mission, located adjacent to an altar dedicated to Saint Alicia Dominica. The body was later returned to her order for final rites.
According to Marius, Rachayel had been deeply suspicious towards the faithless present on Aurum. Towards the end of her life, she had begun to suspect that they were hiding a dark secret.
She confided to Father Marius that she sometimes saw flames dancing on the western horizon and small convoys of Humans setting out from Haistand through its back gates in the dead of night -- always heading north.
Rachael thought the recent deaths were the work of a daemon, and spent many nights searching for it. Marius is not sure whether he believed her assertion or not, but he could not deny that she must have encountered something dreadful during the midnight hunts.
He does not believe she would have been so cowardly as to kill herself, even in the face of a daemon. Marius knows she ranged at least to the cliffs beneath Haistand and the surrounding lands, but claimed she was sometimes gone for solar days at a time, so her search might have extended further.
The last time he saw her alive, she had been planning to follow the next suspicious train of wagons north.
Sources[]
- Deathwatch: The Emperor Protects (RPG), pg. 18