[hider=Yndrasil][b]Name:[/b] Yndrasil.

[b]Chapter:[/b] Void Stalkers.

[b]Chapter Demeanour:[/b] The Void Stalkers are extremely rigid and emotionless both in combat and out. They serve their Chapter Master, Gorseval the Dark Star, with unquestionable loyalty, as they engage in a seemingly endless hunt through the dark fringes of the galaxy, beyond the reach of the Imperium and the light of the Astronomicon -- further even than the Ghoul Stars over which the Death Spectres stand vigil. The Void Stalkers do so aboard their fleet of ships and their mobile fortress-homeworld, which has been fashioned from the shard of the crust of a shattered planet broken in ages long past. They are cold, calculating and logical, and don't engage in frivolous activities like small talk or hobbies. Out there, in the Far Reaches, every waking second is spent preparing for the next fight. They often go for hundreds of years without seeing any of the worlds they are protecting in their selfless duty. As a group they care about results only, and spare very little thought for the concepts of honour and glory. One cannot afford to be anything less than utterly pragmatic when help is hundreds, or even thousands, of lightyears away. Terra is very distant indeed, as is the Imperium it represents, and while they are pious and worship the God-Emperor as they are supposed to, one might argue that the reverence they feel for Gorseval borders on heresy. 

In fact, the way that Gorseval uses his psychic powers to strengthen the bonds between himself and his Astartes [i]would[/i] be seen as heresy, if the Imperium knew about it. He erases the previous identities of his Void Stalkers entirely and imprints them with his Brand, a psychic marker that instills them with some of his own insatiable hunger and creates a weak, but permanent, telepathic connection. How can the Void Stalkers ever turn on their Chapter Master when he lives inside of their heads, and the first thing they remember is him presiding over their awakening? 

The Chapter only returns to Imperial space to reconnect with the galaxy-spanning civilization they serve once every 500 years, their records with the Adeptus Administratum lying dormant in the long centuries between their appearances -- to communicate astropathically would be to draw far too much attention to themselves, as each speck of astropath activity in the outer dark blazes like a beacon against the inky blackness of intergalactic space. Many forget they even exist in the meantime, and the Inquisition is usually taken aback by them whenever they return to update the Imperium on their exploits and to donate the required samples of their gene-seed to the Adeptus Mechanicus. But they have avoided too much scrutiny thus far (at least, until recently), mostly by never staying long enough to allow any prying eyes to make it aboard their ships and by never missing one of their bi-millenial ‘appointments’.  

Nothing the Void Stalkers do is Codex-standard. They are in their home element when engaging in void warfare, and are specialised in boarding actions and spaceship combat. The Chapter possesses more battleships than almost any other, some of which are as old as the Imperium itself, though much like the ship of Theseus it is hard to say whether any of the original vessels remain. They intercept alien threats that aim to emerge from the gloom to threaten the Imperium before they reach their intended destinations, like a predator hunting in the abyss of the ocean -- mankind’s answer to the horrors that await beyond the stars. When forced to fight a planetary war, the Void Stalkers use dropships and deep strike teleportation technology to strike surgically and without warning. Once down on the ground they specialize in targeting enemy commanders and demoralizing the enemy through terrorist tactics. The Void Stalkers lay ambushes and prefer to fight inside or underground, bunkering down deep inside enemy territory and delivering devastating strikes before vanishing into the shadows. But perhaps most remarkable is their patience: the Void Stalkers can take a hundred years to finish a single war, waiting for years between engagements if needed, shrouded in the shadows between dead worlds until the perfect time to strike has come. 

When they do fight, Gorseval oversees the battle directly and uses his considerable psychic powers to predict enemy movements and identify weak positions, though he doesn't lead from the front. Captured enemy commanders are brought before Gorseval for him to break so that he may learn their secrets. If necessary, the Void Stalkers will utilize a primitive alternative to the Exterminatus protocol in the form of sustained orbital bombardment to cleanse a world harboring hostile life. Without the direction of their Chapter Master, Void Stalkers become less effective and tend to err on the side of caution when perhaps they should be pressing an advantage.

[b]Personal Demeanour:[/b] Yndrasil is a Void Stalker through and through. Born again through the mutations of the Astartes program and the cleansing Brand of the Dark Star, there is nothing left of the mortal that he once was -- not even memories. As far as Yndrasil knows his life began on the operating table of the Chapter’s apothecaries, lorded over by the haunted visage of Gorseval himself. He has only ever known the Hunt, the Eternal Duty in the Outer Dark, and it has shaped him utterly. Patient, pitiless and precise, Yndrasil is a finely honed weapon, carrying about him the unspoken menace of a sheathed blade at all times. A man of few words and fewer jokes, his waking hours are spent in preparation or prayer in equal measure. Void Stalkers do not feast, they do not boast, and they do not carouse. They are a hive of solitary beings -- to each of them, their relationship with Gorseval, and through him the Emperor, is more important than their relationship to each other. Yndrasil is no different.

Though so reticent and so reserved that one almost can’t avoid considering him aloof, there is an intense awareness and perceptiveness in his eyes that betrays that Yndrasil does not consider himself above his surroundings or his peers -- indeed, he is keenly interested in all that goes on and all that is said, for information is power, and instead one realizes sooner or later that he is simply always [i]ready,[/i] always [i]on.[/i] The gears in his head are turning whichever way he looks, analysing and processing what he perceives in order to be prepared for anything. This is the hunger that lives within him, courtesy of the Chapter Master’s psychic imprint, which overrules all other impulses: the desire to win. It is a cold, implacable ambition, more akin to a glacier than to a raging fire -- methodical and inexorable. 

If there is anything that sets him apart from his brethren, it is perhaps a latent, but untapped, openness to others and their way of thinking, or being. Most Void Stalkers have no greater curiosity about the universe at large, or even about their enemies beyond what they need to know to defeat them, but Yndrasil is given to wondering about the why in ways they are not. But only ever briefly, before the conditioning takes over again. It remains to be seen whether or not this trait will be allowed to develop once Yndrasil is away from his Chapter and, indeed, his Master. 

[b]Speciality:[/b] Marksmanship and reconnaissance, and he doubled as a ship captain -- like most of the senior officer cadre -- in the Void Stalkers. 

[b]Rank:[/b] Stalker-Master of the Third Company (The Unseen), Void Master of the [i]Venom[/i]-class Destroyer, the [i]Phantom[/i], and member of the Black Guard. 

[b]Power Armour History:[/b] Not given to sentimentality, the Void Stalkers do not keep records or long honour rolls of the achievements of individual Astartes, and they certainly place no importance on something as mundane as a piece of equipment. The armor that Yndrasil wears is only remarkable in that regard by being old; the Mark VII Aquila suit has been in use for several thousand years, carefully repaired and returned to serviceable condition by the Chapter’s unusually resourceful artificers time and time again. Where the Void Stalkers themselves have not kept tally of who wore it where and when, the armor itself, in its many notches and blemishes, speaks volumes. What [i]is[/i] remarkable is what the armor has been and continues to be used for. Part of the Third Company’s armory for centuries, its servos and coils have been fitted with noise-dampening modules to reduce the sound it makes while in motion. This affords the wearer significantly greater stealth than a standard suit of Mark VII Aquila armor. 

As for its appearance, purple pigment is hard to come by in the outer rim and the paint job has been slowly flecking off for a few hundred years, in places revealing the gun-metal adamantium beneath. Yndrasil suspects the armor shall enjoy being repainted. 

[b]Description:[/b] The Void Stalkers are not a particularly physically imposing Chapter and Yndrasil stands a little bit shorter and weighs a little bit less than the average Astartes, courtesy of the poor nourishment that they often endure while prowling between dead worlds. Pale skin and a gaunt face await any who look upon him, with high cheekbones, thin lips and a brow that seems perpetually furrowed. Dark hair is kept short on the sides and a little longer on top, its inky blackness fiercely at odds with the icy blue of his eyes, so bright that they almost appear to glow in the dark -- a rare splash of color in an otherwise gray and pallid visage. Aside from appearing underfed, Yndrasil seems quite youthful, and he has remarkably little scars or deformities for an Astartes of his standing. In the chess match of a void battle or the close confines of a boarding action, there is no room to be wounded: one either escapes unharmed, or one dies. And Yndrasil has not died so far. 

He moves with curious restrain, as if he is an automaton merely imitating human mannerisms. In fact, when not strictly necessary, Yndrasil generally doesn’t move at all, and when it is necessary, he moves with blinding speed and precision -- each thrust of his blade is exactly up to the hilt, and no further. When he pulls the trigger on his Stalker-Bolter, recoil barely moves the weapon at all. And for a being of his size, clad in armor as bulky and heavy as it is, he moves in alarming silence. 

[b]Skills:[/b] As the Stalker-Master of the Third Company, the Unseen, Yndrasil embodies the Chapter’s preference for subtlety and stealth. He is a master at striking from the shadows, waiting until he has obtained the absolute advantage before destroying his foes without giving them a chance to react. He is a crack shot with a rifle and a deadly assassin with his nocticite blade. This is accomplished through the use of a hooded camo-cloak, large enough to hide a whole squadron of regular Guardsmen, that Yndrasil wraps around the torso of his power armor. Combined with his unnatural stillness, it allows him to fade from sight almost entirely. Like in many other ways, the Void Stalkers’ isolation has forced creativity and inventiveness in combat doctrine, and Yndrasil is essentially an example of a Firstborn Vanguard Eliminator Marine, predating the deployment of the Primaris Marines and their tactics by a significant margin.
 
[b]History:[/b] Harvested from a remote Feral World that the the Void Stalkers have used to replenish their ranks since time immemorial, Yndrasil does not remember anything of his life prior to his rebirth as an Astartes in the Emperor’s Service. Gorseval’s Brand made sure of that. There was only the awakening, the training, the assimilation into the collective -- and the Chapter Master and his relentless hunger, ever driving them all onward through the Outer Dark. The Imperium was nothing to Yndrasil but an idea, observed only in reliefs on the walls of the fleet’s prayer rooms and in the words of the tomes he read, and it was not love that he held in his heart that compelled him to fight the enemies of mankind at the edge of their realm. It was only his Master’s indomitable, inscrutable will. 

Why the Void Stalkers were consigned to haunt the dark space outside of the light of the Astronomican was a mystery to Yndrasil, but one he did not question. The necessity of the task was self-evident in the multitude of horrors they faced and methodically exterminated over the centuries of his life, and the seemingly endless list of vanquished foes that the Void Stalkers had seen to before he was born. They kept no records of who their most valiant heroes were, but they did meticulously keep note of who -- or, more aptly, [i]what[/i] -- they defeated over the millenia. And it was a long list of many long wars. 

The one that forged Yndrasil the most and defined him as a warrior was the campaign against the nameless terrors of Styx, a Dead Planet on the furthest fringes of the Ghoul Stars that was once home to one of the most remote human colonies to be founded during the Dark Age of Technology. Records showed that the Great Crusade had never made it to Styx, and none now lived to remember how its civilization had fallen. All that was clear was that the ten-thousand year old ruins of the lightless planet were now home to a vicious breed of xenos -- as tall as an Astartes, musclebound and winged, with claws that could tear through adamantium and a fanged maw that split their face from top to bottom. Scans revealed that the planet possibly contained valuable archeotech so the decision was made to descend to the surface and try to recover it. Things did not go according to plan, of course, and Yndrasil’s strike team was picked off one by one by the beasts until only he remained. Forced to adapt a strict stealth protocol to avoid detection by the monsters’ supernaturally sharp senses, Yndrasil survived alone on the surface of the planet for two weeks, taking down a few of the winged creatures here and there before disappearing back into the shadows. Through the Brand, he could sense that Gorseval was observing him the whole time. Why did he not send help? Was it a test? The Void Stalker fleet merely hung motionless in upper orbit. Until, at last, vox contact was re-established and a shuttle sent to pick him up from the very tip of the highest, half-crumbled spire in the haunted hive city. 

Once Yndrasil was back aboard the [i]Phantom,[/i] Gorseval gave the order to destroy the planet from orbit. The archeotech wasn’t worth the retrieval effort, as the further preservation of Void Stalker lives was deemed more important. Yndrasil watched the orbital bombardment through the observation window of the med bay while his wounds were treated and his body stocked back up on vital fluids, and he wondered what it had all been for. A few solar days passed before Gorseval summoned him. Only they know what words were passed between them, but Yndrasil emerged as the new Stalker-Master of the Third Company, the Unseen, and a new member of the Black Guard, Gorseval’s inner circle of most trusted lieutenants. 

Yndrasil entered the Imperium proper for the first time since his creation as an Astartes while chasing after a Tyranid splinter fleet with the entirety of the Void Stalkers, a rare incident in which Gorseval deemed it necessary to break from their vigil on the outskirts and pursue a threat into the borders of the Imperium itself. A series of poorly defended worlds lay in the Tyranids’ path and the rest of the Imperium’s forces could not be counted on to respond swiftly enough to this breach, especially given the recent events surrounding the Cicatrix Maledictum -- something so distant that the Void Stalkers could only speculate on its meaning. The Tyranid advance was hindered and hamstrung by the Void Stalkers at every opportunity, but they were too few and the splinter fleet too voracious to stop. Its progress wasn’t put to a halt until an Imperial defense force, led by Lord Inquisitor Roxtius from the Ordos Xenos, emerged from within the galaxy to meet the threat head-on. Now caught between the Void Stalkers and this newfound resistance, the splinter fleet finally had to stop and fight for its survival. On the once-pristine surface of the Shrine World Ecthelion, the Void Stalkers fought side by side -- for the first time in millennia -- with other Astartes, including a Chapter of Primaris Marines, and the Tyranid splinter fleet was annihilated for good. 

After the fighting was done, communications between Gorseval and Roxtius were established and the two leaders agreed to meet...

[b]Equipment and Armament:[/b] Yndrasil is a highly skilled marksman and a specialist with the Stalker-Bolter, and he brings his own customized rifle to the Deathwatch, featuring an elongated barrel and an improved firing mechanism for additional velocity and accuracy. He wears an oversized camo-cloak over his suit of Mark VII Aquila power armor and wields a black blade, forged from glass-like minerals found only in the distant, shattered world that the Void Stalkers crafted their mobile fortress-homeworld from, to take down foes silently from the shadows. 

[b]Miscellaneous:[/b] Can’t think of anything.
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