Role Penitent

Driven by atonement and contrition; having learned their sins
through self-discovery or external excruciation, they are eager to
suffer and prove their dedication to the Emperor.

“Let the heretic strike and scar me. He can do nothing as terrible as what
I truly deserve.”
–Tarrantine Erasmus, Askellian ligatured psyker

Role aptitudes
Agility, Fieldcraft, Intelligence, Offence, Toughness

Role talent
Die Hard or Flagellant

Role bonus
Cleansing Pain: Whenever a Penitent character sufers 1 or more points of damage (after reductions for Toughness bonus and Armour), he gains a +10 bonus to the first test he makes before the end of his next turn.

Most heretics end their deluded lives burnt on righteous
pyres, devoured by Daemons, or torn apart by loyal
citizens, but for a small portion there are fates perhaps
worse. A Penitent must continue living, both knowing his
damnable transgressions against his fellow humans and denying
himself cleansing death until he redeems his soul. Even this mental
sufering is not enough—for many, similar punishment of the lesh
is also necessary. He might obsessively lacerate his own skin with
a small whip he carries in one hand, or he—humble even in his
sufering—might employ such devices as an inner waistcoat of
tiny barbed chainmail or gloves lined with burning chems. The
Penitent fully believes in his woeful state, and his sins dominate his
thoughts. He might share them with others, but most keep such
transgressions private. He knows he has erred in the eyes of the
Emperor, and that is enough in his fervent desire for utter purity.
The Penitent knows of his terrible sins, be they real or imagined,
and devotes himself to using pain, denial, and other mortiications
of the mind and body in his quest for redemption.

The role of the penitent
The Penitent welcomes opportunities to sufer for his sins; as an
Acolyte, he can not only ind these but also use them for the
protection of Mankind and his fellow Acolytes. He not only shrugs
of injury, but welcomes it as proof of his devotional penance. His
needs are few, and he might survive only on sips of water and stale
corpse starch rations as part of denying his lesh any semblance
of pleasure. He can also be a steadying force in the warband,
humble but forceful, ensuring that the right is not sacriiced for
the expedient, or that the warband does not drift into worldly
comforts during its investigations. Where others might seek out
lavish appointments or ine clothing, the Penitent refrains from
anything that diverts the essential sufering necessary to properly
focus on these critical endeavours. Even if such items are required
for disguise or subterfuge, he always ensures his own penance
continues—from simply adding sharp stones into his stylish
footwear to stuing his ornate belt with biting metal shards. His
weak lesh and spirit need constant reminders of his sins, and only
through these reminders can he hope to ind atonement.
Though a Penitent can become absorbed with harming
lesh, he can also become a useful medicae from learning how
to mend his own lesh after particularly egregious self-inlicted
tortures. No Penitent wishes death, as that would be a cowardly
abrogation of the debts he owes for his sins; maintaining his own
scoured form for continued sufering is absolutely necessary. Of
course, he is often more than willing to share this sufering with
others the warband meets and convince them to repent as well. If
these sinners live, then they might join him on the long path to
forgiveness. If not, perhaps they were too far gone for redemption
and are better consigned to death.

A Penitent can have a useful role in combat. As someone
familiar with pain, his ability to ignore or even appreciate the
burn of lasgun blasts or agony of chainsword slashes can ensure
he keeps ighting while others might falter. It is not uncommon
for him to lead his warband into battle, eager to accept withering
castigation while his allies advance behind him.
He also may have hidden abilities or connections, perhaps
long forgotten or expressly kept concealed, as they reveal or are
otherwise part of his prior life. There are hosts of once-powerful
lords, generals, and magnates who now walk humbly throughout
Askellon in hair shirts or thorned tunics for their sinful pride that
may have lost ships or even worlds. Other Acolytes may have
diiculty uncovering the Penitent’s secrets, though, as this requires
establishing rapport and trust—not an easy task, given that Acolytes
can rarely trust anyone, least of all each other.

Penitent characters
A Penitent might travel to a distant frontier world to live out his
life in isolation and abject denial, or seek out a primitive feudal
world. Another inds solitude in other ways, descending into a hive
world to become just one of the endless, faceless billions within a
steel mountain. The Penitent might instead become a wandering
pilgrim, travelling across Askellon to retrace the weeping steps of
the saints or legendary Explorator leets that uncovered long-lost
relics of the Omnissiah. With each step he wills himself to feel the
pain of all those who travelled before him, often augmenting this
through the application of scourging whips or neural barbs.
The Adeptus Ministorum holds penance as an important part
of faith, and Penitents can be found throughout the ranks of the
Ecclesiarchy. Some are used to hunt down other sinners, knowing
that only through purifying lames can the unrighteous ind the
Emperor’s blessing, and praying for the day they are allowed to
also burn. Tech-Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus might ind their
own version of penance for failures to the Omnissiah, such as
stripping technology from their bodies. Relying only on weak lesh
until they are worthy again of holy bionics, they know there is no
greater form of sufering possible.

Penance can be performed in battle, where penal legionnaires
ight as part of the Astra Militarum as payment for their crimes.
Some struggle against this fate, while a Penitent welcomes this
opportunity to redeem himself. Most sinners die horribly and too
soon for the expurgation of their sins, but any death against the
foes of the Emperor is a better death than most deserve. Some
even survive long enough to be freed for other service. Penitents
know they still have sins to resolve, even if their explosive collars
are deactivated, and may still wear one of the heavy devices around
their necks as a reminder that penance can never truly end.
Many a Penitent seeks his own personal acts of redemption.
He might have been a criminal or heretic who was never caught,
and realised his sins in a lash of light, as if the Emperor turned
His Gaze upon his face. He might have witnessed the horrors
of his actions, such as seeing a Daemon possessing a sacriice or
watching a hab burn due to shoddy work. He may have been the
proud oicer who saw all of his loyal men and women perish in
the futile attack he ordered, or a cowardly Enforcer who led and
allowed bloodthirsty cultists to overrun his comrades. He might
be a hidden mutant, knowing his very lesh is a sin no matter the
actual degree of his genetic corruption. In these cases, the Penitent
could undertake his own solitary path of sufering to gain no
one’s forgiveness but the Emperor’s. He might abandon his life to
become an Outcast or remain in his current vocation, with no one
but himself to determine what, if anything, constitutes absolution.

Sample penitent: Irsten Kallow
Kallow speaks little of his past, though the faded and bloodstained
robe he wears is common on Terminus Prime, and he sometimes
lets slip extensive knowledge of Warp routes and Rogue Trader
dynasties. His past, he says, is of little importance compared to the
sins for which he must atone. As one of the Benailed Mutilants,
a sect that stretches across the Rubicon Sub-Sector, he drives tiny
ritual nails into his lesh anew every day; the number and serration
of the nails he uses indicate that his sins were many and grave
indeed. His devotion to redemption is sincere, but few believe he
will live long enough to inally withdraw his last nail for good.

Penitent sample paths
Only through cleansing pain can the Penitent ind even the
hope of atonement. For this character, though, it is not enough
that he sufers—he must display his penance to others, that
they see the consequences of sin. His ritualistic scourging and
other acts of contrition are done publicly and even as part of
combat. A player seeking to develop a Penitent in this manner
could invest in physical and martial development to better
inlict sufering on himself and his foes, as well as fashion
enthralling spectacles to show his enthusiasm for his penance.

Recommended advances:
Characteristics: Agility, Toughness, Weapon Skill
Skills: Athletics, Medicae, Survival, Trade (Performancer)
Talents: Combat Master, Die Hard, Flagellant, Iron Jaw, Jaded, Leap Up, Swift Attack, True Grit

Many a soulless pariah often spends his life convinced he
deserves the abhorrence others show towards him. Certain he
has sinned greatly against the Emperor, he knows that only
through self-sacriice can he ind redemption. He willingly
stands against psykers—those attached to the unnatural realms
he is forever denied—and weeps at the terrifying abscess where
his soul should reside. The Untouchable elite advance would
be the irst step in creating such a Penitent, along with talents
designed to disrupt psykers and their unholy acts.

Recommended advances:
Characteristics: Perception, Toughness, Willpower
Skills: Awareness, Forbidden Lore (The Warp), Scrutiny
Talents: Flagellant, Jaded, Psychic Null, Warp Anathema, Warp Bane, Warp Disruption
Elite Advance: Untouchable