Zar-Quaesitor
"It was a vessel like no other, one of the rare Ark Mechanicus explorator vessels, and even among those behemoths it was reckoned large for its kind, a vast city in space, bristling with weapons, and containing manufacturing and research laboratoria beneath its adamantium skin to rival a forge world."
The Zar-Quaesitor is a massive freighter-hulk and Ark Mechanicus of the Adeptus Mechanicus. It serves as the flagship and mobile laboratory for Magos Dominus Belisarius Cawl.[1] It is both Cawl's home and research facility,[3a] and is so large that is has been described as Cawl's "roving kingdom".[4]
Overview
For the better part of ten millennia, Cawl crafted legions of Primaris Space Marines inside its hull.[3a] The vessel is capable of holding great armies within itself, providing several Skitarii and Cybernetica armies alongside three lances of House Taranis Knights during the Indomitus Crusade.[2a]
The ship is able to make Warp Jumps with remarkable precision, exiting the warp within a system's Zonality Gul Du Lac of the star and dangerously close to a planets and its satellites.[3a][3b] The Archmagos had a habit of dramatic warp egresses.[2c]
Landing Bow
The blunt, aggressive bow of the ship can detach itself from the rest of the ark, acting as a self-contained subsidiary vessel. Cawl sometimes uses it as a landing craft. When detaching, it slides along and then off a connecting arm with many pipes and cable popping free and reeling themselves into the larger part of the ark. Although the bow is but a part of the ark, it is large in its own right, big enough to land several lances of knights.[3b]
Shipyard
The underside of the Zar-Quaesitor is a mass of cranes and piers. The ship is of such large scale that it possesses its own shipyard[2d] capable of independently building and launching Escort-sized craft whole. Larger vessels can be built in pieces and then assembled in the void.[4]
History
In the many millennia between M31 and M42, Cawl created thousands of Primaris Space Marines, filling massive holds aboard the ark with marines slumbering in methalon caskets.[2c]
In M42 the ark is now largely deserted with only a few tens of thousands of crew on the vessel. After taking part in the main crusade of the Indomitus Crusade Cawl had given the majority of his military assets to Fleet Primus, most of Cawl's many magi clades had been despatched across the galaxy to sped his next great plan to fruition. The many great holds once bustling with magi and slumbering Space Marines were now empty.[2c]
During the Indomitus Crusade, the Zar-Quaesitor was invaded and boarded by the forces of Fabius Bile, who Cawl suspected was after the Sangprimus Portum. In truth however Bile sought Alpha Primus, the original Primaris Space Marine, and was able to escape with the Marine's Progenoid Glands. During Bile's attack, the Zar-Quaesitor was invaded by large numbers of Beastmen, Terata, Mutants, and other abominations and was subjected to a massive cyber-attack that disabled most of its key systems.[2b]
Crew
The entirety of the Zar-Quaesitor's crew has been mind-swept multiple times to maintain Cawl's desired level of secrecy. There is no actual shipmaster aboard the Zar-Quaesitor. Instead of this it has the solid system created by Cawl, where the impressive "personality" of the ship interacts with the network consciousness of the ship's tech-priests. Although Archmagos Cawl does occupy the captain's post himself at times.[2a] If Cawl isn't present then Alpha Primus will sullenly take up the role. If neither are present, then Integerarian Wocolos will typically take up the role as ship captain.[4b]
Archmagos Cawl has attracted numerous mavericks and freaks of the Cult Mechanicus to join his disciples aboard the Zar-Quaesitor. All of them were fugitives of one sort or another, ostracised variously for experimentalism, free thinking, empirical practices, and open questioning of cult dogma.[2c]
- Qvo — Cawl's cloned Tech-Adept assistant and friend.[2e][3]
- Datasmith X99 Bolus — cybernetica cohort leader[2c]
- Scion Magnus Baron Roosev Maven Taranis of House Taranis[2c]
- Marshal Melissima Artos-Septus Iota — de facto commander of all the Mechanicus forces aboard the Zar Quaesitor.[2c]
- Wocolos the Integerarian — Tech-Priest[2a] and occasional Shipmaster[4b]
- Navigator Prime Helenka[4b]
- Oswen — cartophraser to the Fourth Clade[2c]
The military forces aboard the vessel consist of 3,000 Skitarii, 400 Legio Cybernetica Battle-Automata, and a lance of House Taranis Knights. However the Zar-Quaesitor also has a number of naval escorts with additional forces.[4c]
Sources
- 1: Codex: Space Marines (8th Edition), pgs. 20-21
- 2: Genefather (Novel):
- 3: Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work (Novel):
- 4: Archmagos (Novel):
