Asaid Virenus

Early Life

Growing up in the Underhive of Perseus Hive on Olympas is not easy, but Asaid Virenus decided at an early age that she was not going to try to. Aged only six, she ran away from the communal nursery to seek a better life.

Through natural quick wits and an uncanny talent for mimicry, Asaid made her way up the Underhive and into the Hive City above. She stayed here for a couple of years, observing the incessant trade wars between the various hive factory communities, and decided that although better than the nightmarish world of the Underhive, the Hive City was still not good enough for her.

It took a further three years for Asaid to inveigle herself into the society of the Upper Hive, first posing as a maid, but later taking on ever more bold guises, until she killed a distant niece of the governor and took her place. Now aged twelve, Asaid was living a life of privilege in the Upper Hive, attending elegant balls and drinking fresh water, but she was still restless.

She has never revealed what her next plans were to be, and her scheming was never able to take root. Investigating other matters, [[Inquisitor Virtuna] uncovered Asaid's subterfuge. Revealed, Asaid fled capture and managed to avoid the Inquisitor and the governor's forces for several days before she was cornered. She killed two men before being finally subdued.

The governor was keen to have Asaid executed for her crimes, but Inquisitor Virtuna had other ideas. He took the girl into his custody and promised the governor that she would atone for her misdeeds.

Callidus Assassin

Leaving Olympas, Virtuna handed Asaid over to the Officio Assassinorum for testing to see if she were suitable for the Callidus Temple. She passed the physical tests easily, and her intelligence was clearly hyperior to most of the Imperium's inhabitants. There were doubts over her loyalty, but the masters of the Temple believed that through years of arduous training this could be overcome.

As it turned out, Asaid continued to be rebellious and selfish, and aged seventeen it was likely that she would be quietly killed, unsuitable for further training. Though she had perfected many of the skills required of the Callidus, and had even begun to use the shapealtering drug polymorphine, her dubious motives had become too much of a worry for the Assassins' leader.

And so Asaid's story would have ended were it not for the arrival of Inquisitor Dahwrin. Intent on developing a hyperpolymorphine to artificially create a vessel for the Emperor-Incarnate, Dahwrin tested his theories on the Temple's trainees. As failure followed failure, Asaid took a gamble and volunteered her services to the Inquisitor - it was that or be executed. Pleased with her show of faith, the master of the Temple released Asaid into the care of the Inquisitor.

Asaid survived the experimental sessions, her own ruthless determination allowing her to master the side effects of the hyperpolymorphine. However, even as she was plotting to get out of her predicament, the Inquisitor's Techpriest accomplice provided her with an opportunity to escape. As the Techpriests and Inquisitor's forces battled with each other over their successful test subject, Asaid masqueraded as the Temple master and gained access to the Inquisitor's cutter. Overcoming the crew, she stole away from the Temple and into the stars. Using the powers granted to her by the hyperpolymorphine, Asaid took on the appearance of Magos Lurd, the treacherous Techpriest, but hideously burned and maimed. She piloted the craft to the Adeptus Mechanicus vessel and convinced the Techpriests aboard that Lurd's attempt had been quashed and an Inquisition warship was on its way. She then induced a controlled coma and collapsed. The Techpriests quit the system before retribution could catch up with them.

Whilst the vessel was stopping over at a naval station in Aguilana, Asaid took her leave of the Techpriests, killing several before disappearing into the throng of the space station. From here, she was able to stow aboard a naval frigate and soon was light years away from her pursuers.

Rogue Assassin

Since then, Asaid has survived as a freelance assassin, working for Imperial Commanders with political ambitions, and their enemies, and has even worked alongside aliens and subversive cults. One legacy of the hyperpolymorphine is a dependency on certain stabilising elixirs and Asaid uses her mercenary activities to sponsor raids on Adeptus Mechanicus facilities to acquire sufficient drugs to preserve her life. It is through these appearances that her main hunter, Lord Antigonous Balorodin, has been able to follow her trail.

He almost caught up with her on the isolated research facility on Bagrin Fex, near the galactic core. Correctly predicting that the arid moon would be Asaid's next target, Balorodin lay in wait with a force of Techpriests and Inquisitorial Storm Troopers. At the last moment, Asaid spotted the trap and tried to escape. She killed a dozen enemies as she fled, and wounded many more. Though she slipped from the clutches of the Inquisition again, she was unable to procure any more of her life-saving elixirs. It is only a matter of time before she must strike again or risk her altered body changing out of control.

Balorodin's concern is not only for the acts of murder and mayhem that Asaid commits, but also the tacit threat her existence poses. While Asaid lives, anti-Imperial forces could capture her and learn many of the secrets of the Callidus Temple and the Inquisition. Should knowledge of polymorphine be learned by the Emperor's enemies, it could cause untold damage, while the location of any Assassin temple's outposts is a closely guarded secret.

The hyperpolymorphine grants Asaid almost superhuman abilities, coupled with her training and iron discipline. Not only is she able to imitate others almost perfectly, including altering her vocal cords and internal organs to match her subject, but it also makes her able to infiltrate places inaccessible to normal humans. In pipes barely a foot wide she can sneak into the heart of her target's chambers, while she can push her unnatural body through grilles and tiny windows to reach her mark.

Source

• Thorian Faction sourcebook