Ozkhan the Codifier, Harbinger of Transmogrification, Cryptek of the Suhbekhar Dynasty.
Ozkan the Codifier is a Necron Cryptek of the Suhbekhar Dynasty located within the Jericho Reach.
Though loyal to his dynasty, he secretly works behind Overlord-Regent Ahhotekh's back to not only revive the Phaeron Ahmontekh, the so-called "Crimson Scythe," but house his ancient master in a body of flesh and bone.
History[]
Ozkan has served the Suhbekhar Dynasty with unstinting loyalty since the earliest days of the War in Heaven, providing sage counsel to the Crimson Scythe in those comparatively few moments when the phaeron was not shedding the blood of entire species and laying waste to great swathes of the galaxy in the service of the C'tan.
The cryptek was known as the only being his master would tolerate voicing anything other than soothing platitudes, for so often Ozkan was proven to be entirely correct in his advice, even when it gainsaid Ahmontekh's own intentions.
There is one particular matter in which Ozkan advised his master that far overshadows all of the others, and that was the issue of bio-transference. Ozkan, the ancient and wise counsellor, saw through the C'tans' compact the moment it was offered, and despaired when Szarekh the Silent King announced that it had been sealed.
Ozkan knew, as no others appeared to, that the process would leave the Necrontyr far less than they had been before, and he begged his master to disobey the Silent King's command.
Any other counsellor would have been struck down for such a display of disloyalty, but Ahmontekh knew that Ozkan had ever served his dynasty first, and himself second. The cryptek and the phaeron entered closed council together, the remainder of the dynasty's advisers and viziers sent away as the two debated the matter throughout the night.
By morn, the cryptek had been unable to convince his lord of a sound reason to reject the C'tan's compact, for Ahmontekh cared above all else for the slaying of the foes of his people. The phaeron simply could not envision any way the process might lessen the Necrontyr.
And so the mortal multitudes of the Suhbekhar Dynasty walked into the biofurnaces and the living metal legions of the Suhbekhar Dynasty marched out. For Ozkan, to walk willingly into the blazing light of the furnace was the greatest act of loyalty to his dynasty he could possibly have ever performed.
The moment Ozkan emerged from the bio-furnace, his consciousness shattered as his soul was sucked away, he knew he had been correct. Yet, his master clearly revelled in the strength and vitality the process had granted him, barely waiting a solar day before testing his prodigious powers on the foes of his people.
It was only much later, after the calamitous events of the War in Heaven, that Ozkan's words would return to haunt the phaeron, when the red tides of galactic slaughter finally receded and the preparations for the Great Sleep were begun. Only then, at the very last, were the cryptek's words heeded, and by then, of course, it was far too late.
Despite what Ozkan took to be his great failure to turn his master against the Silent King's plan, he remained ever faithful to his phaeron and, by extension, to the Silent King himself. Indeed, after bio-transference it was impossible to be disloyal, so embedded were the Silent King's command protocols in the minds of his servants.
In Ozkan's case, his loyalty has remained so steadfast that he strives continuously to rouse his fallen sire, but not because he has been ordered by the overlord-regent to retrieve the command protocols locked inside his blasted mind.
Rather, the cryptek's tireless endeavours have led him into similar realms of thought as led the Silent King to take his leave of the galaxy in search of a means of reversing the soul-destroying fate of bio-transference.
Unbeknownst to Overlord-Regent Ahhotekh, Ozkan has remained loyal to his phaeron throughout the tumultuous events of the awakening of their crownworld, the Hollow Sun.
Under the guise of carrying out the regent's orders, the cryptek has, in fact, been seeking a means of investing a Necron consciousness into a body of flesh and bone and, in so doing, of reclaiming all they once had.
Ozkan's researches and secret experiments have led him to the conclusion that only a body as strong and as tough as a Necron's living metal frame will provide a suitable vessel for such a reawakening, and this can be attested to by the numerous failed experiments hidden deep within his chambers.
Locked within the lambent glow of pulsing stasis chambers are to be found rank after rank of once sentient beings, including Humans, Orks, Aeldari, T'au, and a dozen others, each of which has had a Necron consciousness transferred into its mind.
In each case, the body has proven too weak, or the mind too strong for the process, and the Codifier has failed, creating some hideous, mindless, insane creature more terrible still than a Flayed One.
But of late, Ozkan the Codifier has come to believe he has discovered a mortal shell strong enough to contain the consciousness of a Necron. Though rare, he even holds that these apex specimens of organic perfection might even be sufficient to host the consciousness of the Crimson Scythe.
The body Ozkan has identified is, of course, that of the Adeptus Astartes, the sacred, transhuman form wrought by the Emperor Himself to serve as the champions of Mankind.
To date, Ozkan has not been able to capture a living Space Marine, so he has not had the opportunity to test the veracity of his blasphemous theories. He has, however, come into possession of the bodies of several fallen battle-brothers -- those that fell undertaking the mission led by the outcast Inquisitor Thaddeus Hakk.
Every moment he is not maintaining the pretence of following Overlord-Regent Ahhotekh's orders, Ozkan spends ensconced in his laboratory, delving into the wonders of Astartes biology, or else coordinating the hunt for a living specimen.
When that happens, the venerable cryptek hopes the process of properly reawakening the phaeron of the Suhbekhar Dynasty can begin.
Sources[]
- Deathwatch: The Outer Reach (RPG), pp. 116-117