Pasqal Haneumann

"Everything that bears the blessed seal of machinery comes from our hands, and it is we who make sure the operating rituals are performed as they were meant to. We are everywhere -- we are the Mars-forged steel bars that give the Imperium strength."

—Pasqal Haneumann

Pasqal Haneumann is a magos explorator of the Adeptus Mechanicus currently in service as enginseer prime for the flagship of the House von Valancius Rogue Trader dynasty in the Koronus Expanse of the Segmentum Obscurus.

Rogue Traders may be brave explorers of star systems beyond the Imperium, but the privilege of pioneering uncharted space is not theirs alone. On their hunt for the mysteries of the universe, they are accompanied by the enormous fleets of the Explorators, which consist of countless battleships, Arks Mechanicus and research vessels steered by the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus. This religious organisation of scientists, engineers, soldiers, and artisans worships the Machine God, also known as the Omnissiah, and keeps the sacred mysteries of technology gifted to Humanity by Him.

Everything in the Imperium, from a common soldier's lasgun to the divine and deadly combat walkers known as Titans, was crafted by the Forge Worlds of the Adeptus Mechanicus. As they rule over thousands of Forge Worlds that supply Humanity with the tools to survive in an inhospitable universe, the scarlet-robed tech-priests' advance fleets explore the Imperium's outer limits: that is the mission of Explorators, who travel to the depths of the void to reclaim the archeotech gifts of the ancients, uncover long-buried secrets, and bring sacred knowledge back from oblivion.

Pasqal Haneumann, bearer of the lofty title of magos explorator, has spent many solar decades on the march toward planets yet unknown and systems yet unconquered. His memory unit is now a treasury of priceless knowledge, unavailable even to the highest-born of the Imperium's aristocrats. He has been doing his duty to the Omnissiah while tempering his relentless craving for knowledge with discipline and loyalty to the precepts of his faith. And it was there, in the light of alien stars, that he confronted a most terrible enemy: dissent among his fellows, a schism that could shake the Imperium to its foundations. Pasqal stepped away from the Explorators' enterprise for several standard years in order to ponder the dilemma he was facing.

However, a cryptic message from a former mentor, the Archmagos Amarnat, made Pasqal abandon his duties and join a Rogue Trader's retinue. He hopes that the protection of such a powerful figure will help him find his venerable teacher and decide just how firm the boundaries of dogma are for a seeker of truth. Some revelations are painful, but Pasqal is prepared to endure anything for his thirst for knowledge. For such is the will of the Omnissiah.

History[]

There are few honors greater for those in the Adeptus Mechanicus than being able to serve and further the unending Quest for Knowledge, the most important cornerstone of the faith of the Cult Mechanicus. Said prestige often falls to those afforded the right to join the vaunted brotherhood of the Explorators. Pasqal Haneumann is one such individual, a capable and ambitious seeker of truth who has made his mark upon those within his order.

He was a proud child of Mars and upheld the prestige of hailing from the Mechanicus' first and most important ancestral Forge World in everything he did. To do so, he dabbled in multiple technological and scientific disciplines until attaining the lofty rank and title of magos. But this was only one step on the path toward absolution for him.

When he attained the rank, he found and became a pupil of a truly enlightened tech-priest among the Cult Mechanicus clergy, the Archmagos Amarnat. His newfound mentor was of unparalleled genius. Yet that genius, which made even Pasqal's vast memory unit seem paltry in comparison, was a danger and might well have caused a schism. Something happened, a revelation or a shift in the doctrinal spectrum of the Explorator fleet Pasqal was a member of that would have caused a schism. And when the Mechanicus schisms, Titans walk.

In order to contemplate this new development, to discern what move was best to take, Pasqal pulled away from his brothers and sisters among the Machine Cult aboard a remote void station in a system explored and monitored by his fleet. Until, at least, a cryptic message from his one-time mentor found its way to him and galvanised him to return to the Koronus Expanse in search of him.

However, he could not do what he needed to do alone.

It is then fortuitous for Pasqal that, in his pursuit of his mentor, he would chance an encounter with a Rogue Trader on the planet Rykad Minoris which was the last known position of Amarnat. With this auspicious meeting, Pasqal now has an opportunity to accompany an individual of great political and military power who can help him with his vital mission. And, thankfully for the tech-priest, the newly-installed Lord Captain of the von Valancius dynasty was in desperate need of a new prime enginseer for their flagship.

Together, they carved a path through the planet and discovered that while Amarnat had indeed been there and had spread his teachings to the priesthood of the Adeptus Mechanicus present on Rykard Minoris, he was no longer present on the world. In the process, however, Pasqal and the Rogue Trader found several inconsistencies between what the tech-priest thought he knew and what they had learned in the process. But while there was no satisfying resolution to be found, it did assure continued cooperation. Pasqal would be an enginseer prime for the dynasty while House von Valancius served as an anchor by which to moor Pasqal amid a growing storm of uncertainty.

Why did his memory seem at odds with what he was learning? Where had his mentor, the near-cause of the schism, vanished to?

Every solar hour that passes brings with it two questions for every one answer Pasqal manages to pry out from the Koronus Expanse. But the teasing taste of insight into this erudite mystery pushes him on. What might be at the end of this road: the master he forsook in trying to keep the peace or a new revelation that might shake the dogma of the Machine God that has long dominated his life? Only time will tell.

Personality[]

Within the Adeptus Mechanicus, relationships and intimacy have taken on radically different forms from what might be recognizable by layman outsiders. They have transcended many of the deceits and distractions of meager Human flesh. The tech-priests have found ways to rely upon the certainty of metal, using technology to remove themselves from what they might consider base and primitive desires. And Pasqal Haneumann is no exception to this. He will respond to neither a man nor a woman's romantic advances.

If the labyrinthine and twisting nature of the Ecclesiarchy might overwhelm or confuse the everyday man and woman of the Imperium, then the kaleidoscopic fractal nature of the Cult Mechanicus and its ever-shifting landscape would drive lesser mortals mad from the effort of trying to parse the church's internal workings. But their devotion to the Machine God, and His living avatar, the Omnissiah and God-Emperor of Mankind, are foremost amongst their religious dogma. And so does their devotion go, to the Master of Mankind and His domain within the Imperium.

As a diehard fanatic and adherent to the Machine God, Pasqal would be considered an adherent of the Puritan school of thought as the Inquisition defines such things.

Abilities[]

Of the multitude that serve within the august ranks of the Adeptus Mechanicus are the tech-priests, the official clergy of the Cult Mechanicus and direct servants of the Omnissiah in their eternal Quest for Knowledge. They possess many strange, unique abilities that derive from their knowledge, their technology, their multiple cybernetic augmentations, their dogma and the odd connection they have with the ill-understood Machine Spirits that inhabit all of Mankind's technologies. And Pasqal is a magos, a high-ranking eminent member of this metal order.