Igori
"More than once I have questioned the Emperor’s wisdom in bestowing his gifts upon but one half of the human race. For in man, as in all beasts, the female is the deadlier of the species. You are a thing of furious beauty, my dear, and never let anyone tell you different."
| Title(s) | First Hound-Queen[3d] |
|---|---|
| Active Period | ~M34[2a]-993.M37[3a] |
| Species | Human |
| Type | New Men |
| Gender | Female |
| Relatives | |
| Occupation(s) | |
| Affiliation(s) | |
| Preceded by | Faethor (As First of their pack)[2d] |
Igori is a human genetically altered by Fabius Bile into a race known as the New Men, an engineered strain of humanity infused with a lesser form of Astartes gene-seed.[1a]
Contents
Overview
In appearance, Igori is disturbingly perfect. Like a sculpture carved from marble, her square face and muscular body are unnaturally symmetrical.[1a] One accessory she typically wore was a necklace of Astartes' teeth, which only grew in number as time progressed.[2c]
Igori was the First of Fabius Bile's "gland-hounds", both a leader and progenitor, created with a modified lesser form of Astartes gene-seed implants. She wasn't the first gland hound to be made, but is First in regard to leadership and prominence amongst her kin.[1b] She led a pack of over a hundred gland-hounds.[2g] Faethor had been the First of her pack prior, however, he was put down by Bile due to a genetic flaw that progressively impeded movement to the point of crippling him. His autopsy provided the knowledge Bile needed to correct this error in others.[2d]
History
Igori's generation of Gland Hounds consisted of 500 individuals. Of those, Bile chose to keep Igori and her closest siblings in his company, the rest were disseminated throughout the galactic rim. Survivors bred to carry on the teaching of Fabius, bring about the death of the dying Imperium, and replace the weaker baseline humanity of the galaxy. The final battle after the ashes of the Imperium fall will be Gland Hound purging all Astartes, Chaos and Loyalist alike, as Fabius imagines, himself included.[2d]
Igori was Bile's most favoured Gland Hound.[1a] At some point over her many centuries of life, Fabius' fleet stumbled into a Hrud migration and she single-handedly killed one of the xenos, keeping its skull as a trophy.[2d] Igori ruled the rest of Bile's creations through strength and a higher degree of intelligence than the rest of the mostly primitive creatures, killing her second, Oritz, for continually challenging and testing her leadership in his brutish ways.[1b] Fabius had a degree of fondness for Igori and the rest of her kind, believing that they will one day inherit the galaxy as the superior species of humanity.[2b]
Over the decades following the raid on craftworld Lugganath, Igori would retain her prominence as the Vesalius travelled the Eye of Terror. She would sire a new generation of New Men, having many children and grandchildren, becoming a matriarch of her race and passing on much of her knowledge earned under the tutelage of Bile.[2a] The twins Maysha and Mayshana were two notable children or grandchildren of hers.[2e] Even in her advanced age, she would continue to hunt with her packs and put down traitors aboard the Vesalius. The New Men and those loyal among the Consortium would intermittently stop several attempted coups aboard her Benefactor's vessel.[2a] As the centuries caught up with her, her joints grew stiff, her hair turned white and frame thinned. She would teach others to hunt, rather than doing so herself.[2d] Despite her infirmity, she could still go toe-to-toe with an Astartes.[2g]
After the events on Solemnace involving the clone of Fulgrim, Igori chose to go into voluntary exile on Belial IV, along with a pack of gland-hounds who chose to follow her. Even at well over two centuries old, she continued to defend her position as pack leader for decades, all without regular rejuvenat treatments.[3d]
During the Battle of Belial IV, Igori was mortally wounded defending Fabius from the Dark Eldar. Dying, she was met by Melusine, who offered her a way to survive.[3a] After the battle, a dying Fabius was later discovered by Melusine and Igori, who had merged into a single being. They told him that he was not dying but simply going to sleep and when he awoke his work would begin anew. He was taken by the Daemons and placed inside a casket in the Webway, where he would sleep until he was needed again.[3b]
Equipment
Igori typically weilded a shuriken pistol and knife as her weapons.[2g]
Trivia
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- Igori's name is possibly a pun on Igor, a character who serves as an assistant for Dr. Frankenstein and Count Dracula in gothic horror films of the 1930's.
