Hi all,

I've been thinking of writing character backgrounds for my Tech-Priest and Moritat Assassin to add a little depth to them, and to define how they should act during games. The problem we have with our group is that there's only 3 of us that play Dark Heresy (1 being the GM), so the other player and I have to control 2 characters during missions. As you can imagine, this isn't the easiest. As well as this, I seem to be the only one in our group that can be bothered to write a background, and hoped people might be able to cut and paste things they've written to give me some ideas.

Ok ouch on having to play two people that must be bloody difficult but there is a way out of it which I can tell you about later. I have a player in my campaign that want's to play an assasin and one that want's to play tech priest. Unfortunatly the tech isn't giving him a background.... Sigh .... .

The assassin has a very weird background. First off he was born on terra. Yeah terra. He came to the calixis sector in order to hunt down a person they need to assassinate. He has been promised a great reward if he can succed in his mission. Problem with this is that he may very well die before said mission is completed and well I have no doubt that he will just ake another person with the same story which I will have to stop.

But to combat having to have 2 characters which is no doubt confusing as you don't know how they should interact with each other and is probably making things kinda weird for roleplaying. There is a expansion for DnD that allows you to combine two different classes taking the best of both worlds. So you can have a rogue cleric for example. I don't see why you couldn't do this for your group. After all more than a few people dabble in the technology arts. and some tech priests can be very protective of their works. Now it may be a bit difficult to get right because of the add ons the tech priest has. But if you want I might be able to cook something up. There is the problem that my rule book is currently on loan so I won't be able to do it anytime soon. Also your GM might not allow it. So why not ask him see if he is willing to do it or let you/me do it. I am willing to help but it may be a while getting to you as I am very busy atm.

Thanks for the offer Hoodedcrow. I have a strong suspicion our GM won't allow that as we're already several games in now, but its much appreciated all the same. Its an interesting idea though, and I can't say it crossed my mind.

I can see the problem you have there. I don't think i'd allow the same background for a new character either. At least you're able to get players to make up backgrounds, being the only person willing to is a tad annoying.

ah maybe it'll earn you brownnie points when it comes to roleplaying your person out. Besides it will probably mean that you will enjoy the game all the more. If the others in the group see that you are having more fun because of it they may do it too. Don't get yourself down over wanting to bring the game to life.

Three characters short backgrounds from my games..

Trix Roth Assassin

Trix came to her Inquisitors eye after he saw much of her home planet destroyed in an Ork Waaaaaaagh.

The Inquisitor was finalising an investigation, which involved the Planetary Governer who had "sold off" one of his moons to a group of Goff clan orks, in excange for ensuring the rest of his planet would be bypassed by a predicted Waaaaaaagh!

Sadly the Waaaaagh didnt by pass the planet, instead the Goff's had managed to some how disable the satalite defense grid.
Much of the planet was destroyed by the Waaaaagh, which only came to an end when a group of Astral Scorpion space marines answered the plea for help from the Inquisitor.

As the marines performed the counter invasion with surgical precision a group of Goffs had used a "tellyporta" to gain a vantage point over the Inquisitors battle camp.
As one of them raised a gun to shoot the inquisitor, a child no more than 7 years old and who was employed to clean the dribble from the servitors as they worked, saw what was about to happen and grabbed from the table a laspistol and shot the ork in the eye.

The shot did not kill the ork, but it certainly allowed it to make plenty of noise as it bellowed in pain, before half of his group of would be assassins were gunned down by others in the Inquisitors cabal.
The child was heralded as a sign from the Emperor and was promptly shipped off to a training camp where such natural skills could be honed.

A number of years have since passed, and Trix has since been sequestered in to a cell operating for the Inquisitor.
She has worked under Interrogator Magdalena, and has on a small number of times provided valuble last minute assistance to a number of cells as well as operated solo to remove key figures or agents who work against the Inquisition.

She has a number of small scars on her cheeks and arms, which act as a reminder on the volatile nature of some poisons and reagents, whch she refuses to have covered with Synth-skin.

Trix's home world, St Augustins, has never really recovered from the Ork Waaaaaagh and to this day maintains a low technology (1500's Italy) threshold.

She is often found wearing a SynSkin suit under Knights Gown from her world (Fine Quality Flak Jacket).
The Jacket bears a coat of arms microscopically stitched in around the cuffs and collar.

Sister Noviciate Ruby Star Cleric

The line of von-Stellen could perhaps be considered a noble one, and would have been if the great grandfather of the lines current daughter hadnt sold his estates to the Ecclesiarchy so he could run off with what he thought was the secret daughter of a dead king, which it turned out was little more than a cheap joy-girl paid fifty thrones to lure him out of his estates by a corrupt member of the church.

With his estates and family line sold off, he promptly dissapears from history, and his children beget others, all the way down to Rubis vonStellen, who is promptly sold off to an orphanage, hoping to raise some prestige for the family line again.

Sadly Rubis was to much of a trouble maker to pass the tests for the Adeptus Sororitas, and was promptly relegated to mere "Minstorial" duties, something which seemed to quell her rebelious nature.

Her years in the schools and temples have taught her a quiet respect for the Emperor, which at times borders on Heretical in the fact that she does not view him as a God, simply as a Higher form of life, not that she knows how to enunciate such things mind you with out being burned as a heretic..

Most of her life has been spent on (insert planet here), and she has become familier with its worldly relegious practices, and blended seemlessly in.

She remains quiet and unassuming, but is not afraid to get "Biblical" on some one if they spout off about the emperor or the role of the church.

She has little care for the education of the orphanages and looks at the Adeptus Sororitas with a some what sceptical eye, seeing them as overly devout (though this may just be jelousy) and perhaps a bit to inflexible to really be able to operate in "Todays Imperiums".

She takes to her duties with reverence, but not slavishly, and rejoices in a good job done well.

Her time in the Ecclesiarchy has taught her to fear and distrust those who "traffick with the warp", but she also acknowledges that some Saints could have themselves been Warp Workers and Witches.
If a Witch has been sanctioned, then she fully accepts that the Witch has been deemed worthy of life by a far higher power than herself, and unless one poses a direct risk to her she would not seek to destroy one unless ordered to do so by her superiors.

She enjoys some of the more Physical aspects of her work, including rooting out those deemed Acknowledged Heretics, and is not afraid to put a bullet in one to prevent it from damaging the Imperium or her fellow Brothers & Sisters of the church.

Once she had been "Ordained" she chose a new name for herself, one similar to her family name and her former name.

Constantine Drake Psyker

Constantine wasnt born with that name, nor was he born on the planet which he had decided to call home, at least, home for as long as the Administratum would allow him to call it.

Lugnum was where he was born, his parents were indentured workers to the Omnissiah Cult, working in the Air Reclamation plants, and he often as a young child was called "Tubey" for his love of crawling in the more inaccessable vents and shafts.

During most of his young years accidents would often happen around him, he however often seemed to come out reletively unscathed, with little more than a broken limb where as others would lose their lives.
Often, in the upper tiers of the Air-Rec plants, people would be sucked off of the platforms and in to the propeller blades below.
Whilst he was close to the accidents, they never seemed to plague him.
Just those he didn't like, or those that called him Tube Worm once to often..

One incident however would change his life, leading to many years of misery and torment.
Branch 175-Alpha/Nexus 278-Pi.

A catastrophic failure in the piping led to the deaths of eighteen other "Tubies".
Apparently a propshaft became suddenly thick with ice, blocking it up, and Constantine was sent to clear it, being the runt of the group.
With a curse under his tongue, he cleared the ice with a heat pick, and the intense draft sucked him through before the prop-fan started spinning. Sadly the rest of his group were sucked through, whilst the fan was at full spin, each one being reduced to little more than chunky salsa.

His family was placed under investigation, and one of the tech adepts cried Witch, leading to him being sent to the Null Tanks, awaiting the next Black Ship.
His family were split up, and some were never seen again, rumoured to have been either culled or turned in to Servitors for Breach of their working contract (in giving birth to a Witch and failing to register the birth).

For seven months he languished, devoid of any nascent powers, with the other beasts and so called witches in the Null Tank.
Many of those in there were not in the slightest psychic, simply called Witch as they were in the way of one rising star or another, or caught with a foremans wife.

Once the ship arrived he was carted off, treated as little more than meat, and for eight years subjected to one torment or another.
One day it all became to much for him, and he managed to remove his Witch Collar, he ran through the air ducts of the complex he was captive in, and survived for a full three days before being captured by an accolyte and returned to captivity, this time however the research was stepped up, and he underwent all manner of tests pushing his will to the very edge.

Once more he snapped, after a particularly brutal beating, he managed to heal his wounds and cause the person responsible for his assault to "fall" from an impressively tall (and normally locked) window.

His final round of testing began, and he was found only to have minor powers, the most recognisable of which was the healing ability in some small way.

He was branded Psykana Medichorae Minoris and sent out, after suitable mental reprogramming, as an attendant office worker, and recognised Medicae for the offices he worked in, despite lacking any real knowledge (or atleast any real educated knowledge) of the human body, something he attempts each time he settles down to deal with, and when possible reads about biology and other such scientific things.

He harbours neither love nor grudge against the Adeptus Mechanicus, simply knowing that with out them he would not be where he is in life, and no doubt would not even be alive, or possibly living in the lower levels of some hive city or other.

He affects an air of cowardice, all the while trying to figure out the best way to turn things to his advantage, or atleast to escape as much of a beating as possible..

Ruby is Constantines leash, acting as his conscience some times and other times she's the one with the gun to the back of his head ready to spill the grey matter all over the plascrete.

Three short back grounds to give you an idea

Lexa: Arbitrator

Born in to a Gunnettal City Factorim Clan her imediate family was killed in an induastral accedent caused by Heritic Sabatoage (or so she was told), she spent the next good many years floating from relitive to relitive learning the ways of the Hive and joining her Clans Milita Gang, along the way she lost track of her true age but guesses it's somwhere betwean 17 & 19 Standrd Years. Two years ago she was caught up in an Arbites sweep and given a choice, Join the Ardities Auxiliary, go to a Labor Ghetto or the Guard. Knowing the Auxiliary was her best chance for survival and shortest length of Servitude she cohise it. Nataraly talanted in Combat and with Gang Wars experiance she took quickily to the Arbitrators training learning the skills of the Batton Charge, Fire Disipline as well as the vertue of always keeping her Eyes and Ears open. She would rejoin the Gang Wars this time in the largest Gang of all, The Imperium. Resantaly she has bean placed on indefinate Secondment to the Inquisition.

Edge: Scum

Doran AKA: Edge started life as just an other down hive Juve, the son of a Junky ***** and an unknowen father, after her mother was Eviscerated by one of the other Whores on a bad trip caused by cocktailing Slaught, Frenzion and Slam for a Up Hive client with very strange tastes. He was raised by his Mothers Pimp (Maxis) a member of the Brothehood of Thollos first acting as a Lookout and Runner then a Solidger in his team of Mecanary/Enforcers the Gun-Blades who's trademark is a Bladed Combat Accessory attached to their pistols. To repay the Debt of bean left free after unknowingly talking a messy job for a secret Heretic Maxis has loned a number of his Boys to the Inquisition.

Have you tried looking for more players?