Marius Hax

"Knowledge is power. Do not waste it on the masses."

— Sector Governor Marius Hax

Marius Hax is the sector lord of the Calixis Sector, an Imperial sector located in the Segmentum Obscurus on the northern edge of the known galaxy, adjacent to the Halo Stars and the Eye of Terror. As sector lord, Marius Hax is the most powerful man in the Calixis Sector, who rules over his vast domain in the name of the Adeptus Terra from the Lucid Palace on the sector capital world of Scintilla.

History

Marius Hax (whose formally correct title is "Lord Sector" or "Lord Calixis"), sector governor of the Calixis Sector, is descended from an ancient family of Terran stock, a bloodline bred for leadership in the Imperial heartland of the Segmentum Solar. He was appointed governor of the sector by the High Lords of Terra more than one hundred and fifty standard years ago, and maintains a firm, unflinching grip on the planets under his control. The Lord Sector is a man of immense gravitas and solemnity, a glowering, intimidating presence at the heart of the Lucid Palace on Scintilla. Hax makes few public appearances, and personal audiences are rare. His devotion to the minutiae of leadership is legendary. It is said that he sleeps just four solar hours a night, and personally reviews the daily fiscal and economic reports in great detail.

His reputation in the sector at large is therefore chilly and austere: he is popularly mocked as an unsmiling hardliner and administrative stickler, and also feared as a figure of unsympathetic authority. This widely accepted image, however, misses the essential truth. He is a painfully fair, even-handed man, devoted to the principles of ordered rule. In person, he is tall and granite-featured, and dresses in starkly simple dark robes, eschewing all aristocratic finery. He is over two hundred Scintillan years old, though modest rejuvenat treatments and other life-extending methods make him appear to be a robust fifty-year-old. Hax is not a man to be trifled with, nor underestimated.

The Lord Sector is driven by his convictions, not in the right or even divine authority of the Imperium, but in the absolute necessity of order and obedience for the survival of the Human race in a relentlessly hostile galaxy. Hax cares little for events on individual planets and is even dismissive of happenings on Scintilla (of which he is nominally also the planetary governor). He cannot be distracted by the fates of a few million citizens here and there and is more concerned with the big picture, levying correct tithes and collecting them, monitoring psykers and rebellious groups (Hax despises rebels above all others, includingChaos Cultists and witches) and maintaining the conspicuous majesty of the Imperium.

Hax is surrounded by a lavish court populated by representatives and advisers from organisations and worlds across the sector. He values good advisers and is willing to listen to them, as long as they do not overstep the mark and openly contradict his philosophies. Hax has the power to request military assistance from the segmentum governor on distant Cypra Mundi, but he is loathe to do so. The Calixis Sector is his, and his presence and the activities of his adepts should be enough to awe its citizens into obedience.

Sources

Dark Heresy: Black Industries - The Calixis Sector Encyclopedia, pp. 4, 32
Dark Heresy: Core Rulebook (RPG), pp. 286-287, 290, 293, 311