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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
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→History: clean up, replaced: favor → favour
Based on picts from his earlier conquests, recovered from Chaos soldiers captured in the early stages of the siege, Varan was a man of average build, wearing an austere military uniform with Chaos sigils on his coat and cap. His face was unremarkable, except for two extravagant mustaches. He spoke with a voice that was grating and somewhat whining in its timbre, and also made frequent use of theatrical hand gestures.{{fn|1c}} Despite his less-than-intimidating appearance, Varan was also a powerful [[psyker]], who laced his seemingly uninspiring speeches with mental dominance to sway his audience to Chaos, including an [[Adepta Sororitas]] convent on the planet [[Madasa]], as well as members of the PDF of Madasa and Perlia.{{fn|1b}}{{fn|1c}}{{fn|1d}}{{fn|1e}}{{fn|1f}}
Why Varan's force was dispatched to Perlia, while the majority of forces during the Black Crusade concentrated on the [[Cadian Gate]] and its surrounding systems, is not certain. It was speculated that Varan had discovered the existence of an artifact called the [[Shadowlight]], which could awaken latent psychic powers in humans. Varan may have pledged to recover it, in an attempt to curry favor favour with his dark master, [[Ezekyle Abaddon|Abaddon the Despoiler]].{{fn|1a}}
Upon landing on Perlia and laying siege to the planetary capital of Havensdown, Varan assembled his prisoners, including Planetary Governor [[Lio Trevellyan]], into the scrumball stadium and began to speak, swaying the entire assemblage into swearing fealty to him with his powerful psychic influence.{{fn|1e}}{{fn|1f}} In a desperate gambit, Commissar [[Ciaphas Cain]], aiding in the defense of the planet, contacted Varan's forces and summoned him to the defense headquarters, based at the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] shrine at the Valley of Daemons, to discuss terms of surrender. When Varan arrived, he engaged a [[Servo-skull]] equipped with a [[Pict Recorder]] to record the moment for propaganda, and demanded Cain's surrender. Cain (protected from Varan's psychic dominance by his [[blank]] aide, [[Ferik Jurgen]]) took a theatrical moment to laugh and remarked that there was a bit of a misunderstanding, and that he had summoned Varan so that the Warmaster would surrender to Cain himself.{{fn|1g}}
