Are you, like me, bored of Death Cults being solely represented by the Morteriat? Here's you starter for 10. It's a bit weird b ut it was a background for one of my characters that I got from random character gen. Of course we didn't have the background to use at that point so it's not ben tested. Of course this is written from a Malfian viewpoint, and it seems to fit that world quite well, but could equally be changed to any Hiveworld.

Malfian Foundling Murderers
Prequisites: Age <18, Career Assassin, Homeworld Hive
Cost: 100exp
In the sprawling, dim, warrenous, uncountable streets of hives of Malphi death and tragedy is found in great abundance. There are countless ways that a parent may loose their lives and create an orphan. Usually there will be some remaining family that can take on the burden but sometimes a fire, a riot, a cult incursion or a flood will take a whole a family bar one. The child may end up in one of the Ecclesiarchy's or Guild run orphanage, either way they are condemned to a life of servitude for a meagre existence. A far cry from the Scholar Progeniums that a noble or merchants child might be sent to. But most children will die on those same streets, crying, alone and hungry.
But IF they have the strength to survive they might gain refuge from an unlikely source. The Malfian Foundling Murderers are run like a street gang. With a mean patriarchal adult leader called a Governor and a gang of young orphan children that look after one another. They indoctrinated in to this junior death cult with the belief that they were spared by the Emperor and have taken on a debt of blood. From now on they must take the lives of the Emperors enemies to pay for their own. Typically they will try to foster hatred for Heretic's and they will be quick to blame the child's parents death's on them. Usually the Governor will demand 10 heretic lives for each family member murdered.
These gangs operate in packs the younger ones act as scouts and lookouts while the older members attack. Their preferred method is to attack as a group in a dark alley. Often they will have trailed a victim for while before hand waiting for the best time to strike or ambushing them at a quiet location. In this way many would be dissidents and potential troublemakers are laid to rest. It's for this reason that they favour weapons that easily concealed. Usually the target will be outed by a local gang member, business man or even clergy who will inform the Governor. Unfortunately the veracity of claims may not be fully investigated and it is not unusual for the Governor to receive money in return for guaranteeing a target be eliminated.
But apart from petty street murders or dubiously Heretical individuals they Foundling Murderers play an important roll to the Death Cults and even Assassin Temples. They raise children to become fully capable assassins and provide local intelligence and manpower. Many major assassinations have been committed while a group of youths cause a distraction, or trail a target or slip through a small vent or between tight bars. Because of this the Governor is expected to maintain links with other street gangs and other assassin factions and is valuable go between for both.
After their first kill the trainee assassin earns a tattoo of the Cults symbol, a foetal skeleton, which is applied to discrete part of their body such as upper arm or chest. Most graduates make their quota by the age of 19 or 20 and are usually recruited by one of the the many other death cults that operate on Malfi. As they uncharacteristically discrete for a young death cult a fair number have been known to be recruited by the Inquisition and other Imperial organisations, often this will start as a brief service as a guide around the murky streets.
Statistics: +3 perception OR +3 fellowship.
Starting skills: The player must take unremarkable as a choice at character generation. The gain the Shadowing skill.
Starting gear: (Replaces assassin starting gear)
Auto pistol with 1 clip or sawn off shot-gun 12 shells,
combat knife, short sword or punch dagger,
knive,
compact las pistol with 1 clip,
plain concealing street clothes (common quality clothes),
Corpse hair charm.
Special: May reduce height by up to 10cm. The GM can agree that the character gains this back over the next couple of in game years. The character +1D5 insanity points. Overlooked.

Overlooked: In a crowd, and wearing clothes appropriate the to crowd the character is at an additional -10 to be noticed by people looking for him directly or looking for suspicious people.

Hi FaceEater,

first of all, I think this is a fine one. Good work by you (and your peers?).

Anyhow, I can´t help but to have to do the following suggestions.


1) Remove the short sword
You killer-types emphasize stealth and shadowing. And not matter how short the sword, you will still need something coat-like to hide it. And this kind of clothing normally does raise the attention of skilled (body-)guards. I think, the combat knife (rules from the IH Warzone section?) will do the trick.

2) Remove the "Overlooked" trait
With the "Unremarkable" made mandatory, me thinks the pc will have all that he needs. In addition, I do not really see why these assassines should be even more unremarkable then rest. Skill like Shadowing and Deceive should do the trick here.

Hi Gregorius

Thanks for reading.

And, agreed and agreed.

Yes, now that i've finished the shortsword looks out of place and not really needed with good hidden combat knive.

And overlooked AND unremarkable is not needed. If they had shadowing and deceive an assassin with a fairly good fel roll (and of course being a hiver and having the option of +3) would have far more options, and that's what I was aiming for anyway.