Has anyone considered using these characters in their games? Since I'm coming up with suitably epic plots for 40K now that I've decided to run Ascension, the idea came to me to include something like them. If you're not familiar, you can find more info on Lexicanum but in a nutshell, they are rumored to be the actual literal children of the Emperor, conceived with human mothers throughout his life. They are insanely potent psykers, naturally, but more than that they are interesting because they have the ideals of the old Emperor in their genes. They oppose oppression, and they are said to be untouched by the emotions that feed the Chaos gods: hatred, lust, nihilism and deceit. They almost don't register in the warp, despite their crazy powers, and they don't age. They are essentially the counterpoint to the champions of Chaos. They are champions of the Emperor. What makes them BA as a campaign idea, though, is that they are rebels against the foundation of the Emperor. The church, the crazy backwardness, all of it violates their concept of what the Imperium should be and they are actively hunted by the Ordo Malleus among others. Part of this is selfish, because they can be "rendered" into anti-psychic material used to create the psy-charged armament of the Grey Knights and others. Of course, they represent a serious threat because one of their beliefs is that the Emperor should be allowed to die so his soul can be released into the warp to fight the Dark Gods.

Basically, this could be a chance to really make the players question their role. If they have any inkling of what the Sensei really is, who wouldn't be torn hunting him or her down? Is this just too epic? I can easily see running an aspiring champion of Chaos as a nemesis in a large campaign arc, so these guys and gals could work too I should think. Anyone toyed with the idea before?

Sensei? Sure? Though it is not sure if they still are a part of the official fluff?

Atleast they are powerfull beyond imagination and I think the gameplay with them becomes incridible boring. There are just a few threats that can oppose them, especialy of they are packed up in a group. So neraly every combat is a laughable waste of time and any social problem is solved by a blink of their godly eyes.

And if you encounter them with worthy foes the gameplay will only be a grindhouse of the strongest factions in the game, nothing more. No thrill, nothing.

Oh, I was thinking of them as the mastermind behind a plot that my guys are investigating, as in the enemy. You're right, it wouldn't be any fun to play AS them…

And they're not THAT powerful… The Inquisition does hunt and destroy them.

Ye, the Inquisition does hunt them… the most powerfull organisation of the empire. With whole squads of Killteams.

Just because the Inquisition hunts someone down does not mean its an easy task without horrible losses.

And I'm totally cool with that. This isn't something I'd toss at the party for fun. This would be something orchestrating a massive endeavor across an entire campaign arc. If they do decide to go for a kill, they would have some inkling of what they're up against and therefore may be inclined to secure whatever aid they could drum up.

You're right, though, this is a serious thing and I need to be uber careful about it if I include it. I just like the flavor of it.

In my campaign i have an NPC that the emperor has been speaking to for a while (in dreams around the warp) he has made her aware of the fact that the wants to die and that the church is backwards. She is void born (rogue trader) concieved and born during one long "Warp Jump". Her inquisitor is aware of it and is of similar mind as well as her Rogue Trader who through her now has ties to him. Their is ALOT more depth to this but i digress i'm starting to segway the topic.

I like the idea of them as a plot device but if handled wrong could look like a Deus Ex Machima.

I could try to find more relevant info on them if you like?

A couple years ago, there were several threads from GMs proposing the same basic campaign concept: the PCs find out that they are Sensei, and take over the Imperium. Since no-one ever followed up on any of those posts with details about how great the campaign turned out, I assume they all fizzled when the GMs stared to realize the staggering amount work it would take to actually play that out ( hundreds of planets to detail, thousands of supporting characters, etc)- it would be at least a full-time job to do even a bare-bones version of that concept…

Again. Let me stress that I don't want my PLAYERS as Sensei, I want their "mark" that they're sent to investigate to be one. I can't imagine letting a player have access to that kind of power.

As for scale, it seems to me that they're hiding out so I don't think a sector spanning megalomaniac is in order. More of a criminal mastermind who turns out to be about as not evil as it gets.

Personally I like the idea of the Sensei, and the Illuminati, as portrayed in the Inquisition War books and think they could make very good antagonists for a campaign. You could potentially model them on The Serrated Query from Purge The Unclean as they're basically an organisation of atheistic free thinkers and there's no reason to say a similar organisation couldn't be headed by a Sensei or an Illuminati Inquisitor who protects and shelters Sensei from the Ordos so they can fulfill their duty (help manifest the star child/boost the Emperor to full godhood upon death). Unless you've already used him you could use Inquisitor Kaede from the core book as he could fit such a profile with a bit of tweaking and who's to say that the occasional psyker he rescues from Rykehuss isn't a Sensei ;-)

Heck if your players haven't read The Inquisition War you could include the Ordos Hydra too as another player in the grand scheme ;-)

funkwit81 said:

Amazing tips! I hadn't thought about those. I think I will look at doing just that! Maybe not the Hydra, but pretty much everything else you just said. Thanks!

no worries Jeff :-)

I've just been flicking through the radicals Handbook, the groups Psyker has took an interest in the alternate damnation path , and had a thought. What if the groups patron inquisitor, assuming no-one's ascending straight to Inquisitorial rank, is an Illuminati? You could have a mini-arc of him either potentially trying to corrupt and then exorcise a member of the cell or slowly trying to bring them to their way of thinking, slowly revealing truths until one of the group agrees to such a thing. It's been years since i read Harlequin but I remember that being essential to be an Illuminati, namely be possessed and then cast it out yourself…

funkwit81 said:

Again, awesome ideas. You're right about the Illuminati casting out a possessed daemon. Here's the dealio… I like it, but here's what's going to happen. At least initially, they'll be fighting against a shodow organization headed by a Sensei in a remote way. Their Inquis sponsor (I'm actually hoping someone wants to be an Inquis) will not be Illuminati, though. He won't be aware of the nature of the enemy. I do have one nemesis that is a bound daemon, however… I am considering having HIM cast out his daemon and become Illuminati, and end up chasing after the Sensei himself while he builds up a network and tries to actually work WITH my group, whereas he's their enemy right now. This could become really interesting, as it would allow me to A) mess with their heads which I love and B) give them clues as to the nature of their enemy in a way that makes them wonder if it's true.

I'm actually getting pretty excited about the potential here. The only problem is that, as things are, they are in a mission fighting against this bound daemon even though they don't know it yet. It is entirely possible they will kill it or something and that could spoil things. It's too bad nobody in the cell has a strong enough faith background to make it feasible to somehow encourage him to cast out the daemon inside him. How cool would that be?

Sounds like a cracking campaign you have planned there Jeff. In regard to your worry about them killing the bound daemon could he not be orchestrating things from afar rather than be in a position where the players may destroy/banish it? You could always include a few hooks/clues about what the person was before the daemon was bound within him/her that you can use later.

funkwit81 said:

About that… I actually played a bit of a mean trick on my players. The daemon itself has a long history and he has manipulated his way into being bound, but the actual host is a boy (about 10) that the cell knows. A completely innocent child. I literally just did it to mess with their heads, but I've written it in like it's part of the plan. It would be a fun validation of the twist to have the boy turn out to have an extraordinary reserve of willpower, thus throwing off the daemon's carefully laid plans. It all has a wonderful Tzeentchian feel to it. Everything happens for a reason, but nobody knows what the reason really is. Also, wouldn't it be fun to have an Illuminati who's just a child?