Indifferent leather tips defiance into forced regard. The scrape, the forced angle, then the voice like fractured ice: “Eyes up, Inquisitor.” Submission demanded. Acknowledged.
good pets. they made quite the mess, just as instructed.
Even as a Dark Eldar, Saren retains his fascination for rare things, his demands for obedience laced in sharper teeth.
His Dracon, Marazhai, took a particular liking to the former Interrogator and- for his loyalty- would be allowed to play as he liked with the lord’s pets. As long as he didn’t mar their faces and unique features or break them beyond their ability to entertain the Archon with their intellect. He did so love to make them debate the hypocrisy of Imperial Doctrine with one another.
Your art is so very pretty and your RT!OC is so very cool! I love all of his vibes and learning more about him and even AUs of him. An instant favorite of mine the moment I laid eyes on him, and the thought and detail you've put into him is a big part of that. It seems like you're really having fun with this OC and it is infectious. Thank you for the lovely art and the awful wonderful character!
Thank you for this!! I just heard about the RT appreciation week from kredous yesterday. I thought for sure I would fly under the radar for being new on tumblr. <3 ty for making me feel welcome and I’m really honoured you like my nasty RT.
Hello! I have a few questions about Cassian, if you don't mind. Firstly, I'm not sure if you mentioned which ordos of the Inquisition he belonged to?
Secondly, how would you describe his fighting style? In a short description, he looks like a fierce melee fighter, but it's interesting to know the details.
Finally, he seems to be somewhat passive-responsive. Is it correct to assume that he is more interested in the combat part of the inquisitor's work and does not interfere in the political side?
ordo. he’s definitely Ordo Hereticus. (i knoow, boring option, but he needs to come into conflict with a setting in the story.) his background is tied to a catastrophic encounter with internal threats (rogue elements, cults, etc.), so his focus is firmly on rooting out heresy and mutation within the Imperium.
more under cut!
2. fighting style. ur right, he’s a fierce melee combatant. 🔪 think coiled predator: unnerving stillness that explodes into sudden, precise, and brutally efficient close-quarters violence with his blade. it’s less about dueling finesse and more about swift, decisive termination, often using his masked presence and abruptness as psychological weapons.
3. political involvement. i’d say he’s selectively engaged rather than purely passive or a political mastermind. he’s not driven by ambition for influence within the ordos, but by a pragmatic desire for results and stability. he’ll engage in politics if it’s the most efficient path to his objective (eliminating a threat, restoring order), but he likely views combat as a more direct and often necessary tool when investigation or subtle pressure fails. he’s probably impatient with bureaucracy that hinders effective action, which lends him well to working with RT’s like Aura.
he’s definitely a ‘results-oriented’ kind of Inquisitor, where the 'result’ is often a very quiet, very still room after a brief period of intense activity.
Firstly, you are all my biggest inspiration, motivation and admiration. Crane, Kia, Deadstar, I love your art as much as I love your Rogue Traders!
Sandra for @theoldcrane One of the first artists I saw RT fanart from. Your art made me to buy the game eventually. I love Sandra, and her relationship with Marazhai and Heinrix. Her imperturbable expression and rare light smile always hit my heart. She is so cool. 🖤
Quincy for @atomeja Met Quincy when I was working on my own RT. Your character’s reference sheet blew my mind, tbh. You inspired me to continue developing my own. I love your charming, insidious, elegant boy. I think Q smells like the most expensive cologne you can only find in the Imperium. Love at first sight. 🖤 I’m still patiently waiting for new art of him and already him and his mom, Morlaine.
Saren for @dead–star Met Your Majesty Lord Aurastor a month ago. The very art, in which he marches towards the viewers, devours us in his dark charisma. Aurastor instantly became one of my favorite Rogue Traders. You’ve heard many times how much I love Aura and his character design. I can’t resist. Also, accept it as my thanks for sending me the Rogue Trader rulebook and other WH40K books earlier. I mean it. 🔪🖤
Thank you, @arcandoria for awesome template. Love your work 🖤
not only is your art beautiful but your kind words made my whole week… thank you kredous, getting a chance to meet you and your RT and art has been such a warm welcome. all of them look tremendous. thanks for inspiring me so much🫀
nero for @kredous stumbling on your RT about a month ago was a great memory for me because the love and enthusiasm you had was infectious. Nero is so precious to me and i just love thinking about his adventures and he’s become an easy favourite. his thoughtful expressions contrasted with his eccentricities are inspiring. it’s been a great pleasure to hang out with you and talk about warhammer. I look at the art you did of Nero and Aura every day. And I thank you for including him on your own RT appreciation post!
isolde for @arcane-vault i wondered if i could get your ass into warhammer eventually. hearing you be passionate about ur RT has been so exciting. love watching you play the game, too.
sandra for @theoldcrane 你的艺术很美丽. I saw Sandra for the first time a couple of months ago. the expressive comics and sketches are so inspiring. whenever i see your work, i just want to draw. sandra has such gravitas and is one of my very favourite RTs.
Thank you for the template @arcandoria. solos below cut
You have one of the most interesting and charming OCs (I am shameless Aurastor simp, sorry), and I adore that way you write and draw things about them. Thank you for being such a cool artist with interesting stuff to share and for creating the best place to discuss them
thank you hypnostallev! really happy you like my old man and my writing/character explorations. and also ty for being so supportive and enjoying my posts 🫀
Hiii it's me in your inbox again! Slightly reductive maybe and I get you already have plans for him and may not want to talk about them if they overlap here but anyway: if Saren was a companion, what would be his personal questline about? What would it put focus on re: themes etc, or maybe what would be the different paths one could take with it? (I'm not calling it just "good" and "bad" endings because lets be honest, the best written questlines are ones where there is no clear answer.)
i love this question and it only took me a while to answer cause i was rlly thinking about it.
i can definitely conceptualise a character arc within the scope of a companion quest without stepping over any of his existing narrative. he has pleeenty of themes i can explore.
below the cut
focus & themes.
the nature of memory. how much of Saren’s identity is built on the absence of memory? what happens when fragments surface? Are they even real, or are they phantoms created by trauma and the warp?
control vs. chaos. Saren is all about control. this quest forces him to confront an event of ultimate chaos (the warp tear that took his family/friends perhaps) and the uncontrollable nature of his own fragmented past.
value & obsession. what is the true value of knowing a past that is likely only pain? Can Saren resist the curiosity to uncover it, or will it consume him? spoilers, he ultimately sees the value in reinvention and lets it go, as is his nature ultimately. he can likely still be heavily influenced with a higher approval/friendship level on what his priorities may be ordered like and whether or not you’re also “dating” his freaky ass.
i think the ‘good’ ending would be a relatively compliant Aura who actually assists the player without obstruction as long as he sees value in it. the 'bad’ result would likely result in needing to kill him or find him sabotaging and being openly hostile to the player and their ideals. awful.
bonus romance questline.
nature of romance.
it would be a dangerous, high-stakes game of manipulation, power, and intense intellectual sparring, with rare, almost shocking moments of vulnerability from Saren if the player truly gets under his skin. he’d be drawn to a Lord Captain who is intelligent, powerful, perhaps morally ambiguous themselves, and above all, not boring.
dynamics.
he would constantly test the player, trying to “collect” them, to understand their every motive, to possess their loyalty absolutely. the player would need to be incredibly savvy to navigate this, either meeting his games with their own, finding ways to genuinely disarm his defenses (rarely), or becoming a willing, powerful partner in his grand designs.
quest impact. the personal quest would be central. helping him confront (or avoid) his past would be a major bonding (or breaking) point. a player who helps him find a measure of control over his narrative, or who stands by him during a moment of revealed trauma, might earn a unique, possessive form of Saren’s “affection.” true vulnerability from him would be the ultimate “reward,” signifying he sees the player as something more than just another piece in his collection – perhaps an equal, or at least, the most prized part of it.
character profile on LK Overthrown Divine, now slave, and father to his own usurper. His reign over the Dying Star Kabal was pure Draihari aggression, delighting in violence and abuse, his twin venomblades and longsword constant threats. Yet, his deepest, most twisted obsession was his son – a rival he delighted in tormenting, who ultimately repaid him in kind.
The steam in Saren’s private ablutions chamber was a living thing, thick with the cloying sweetness of Terran sandalwood warring with the sharper, ozonic tang the Rogue Trader always seemed to exude – a scent that now felt dangerously close, almost a second skin upon Heinrix himself. He sat ramrod straight on the attendant’s plasteel stool, its chill a contrast to the heat radiating from von Aurastor’s body so near behind him as he worked.
Stripped of his ostentatious greatcoat, Saren’s forearms were bare, a surprising landscape of old scars – pale lines stark against void-tanned skin – moving with an unnerving, focused grace as the straight razor, a sliver of hungry silver, whispered against Heinrix’s bared throat. Each pass of the blade was a drawn-out moment of absolute vulnerability, making his own skin crawl with a complex, unwelcome current that was equal parts dread and a shameful, thrumming awareness he refused to name, leaving him to wonder if this, too, was just another of the Lord Captain’s meticulously crafted games.
Were Lord Captain von Aurastor to ascend to godhood, his domain would be the intoxicating, perilous currents of Desire and Obsessive Love. Mortals, ensnared by his almost gravitational magnetism and a voice that promised exquisite, forbidden ecstasies, wouldn’t pray for gentle affection, but for the searing, all-consuming connection of true eros, the beautiful madness of a devotion that devours the self. He would be the patron of passions that burn with the intensity of a dying star, of desires that tread the razor’s edge between unparalleled pleasure and utter ruin. His divine ‘gifts’ would be potent and alluring, yet always tinged with the subtle poison of control, demanding not just fleeting worship, but the ultimate, intoxicating surrender of will – for what is desire, to a god like Aurastor, but another, more elegant path to absolute possession?
Were Calix von Fellner to be a deity, his dominion would be the stark, silent realms of Winter and Inevitable Death. He would not be a god of joyous harvests or fiery passions, but the solemn guardian of Margard’s enduring chill, the embodiment of the mists that conceal harsh truths. Mortals would turn to him not for boons of plenty, but for the unflinching resolve to face grim necessities, the cold clarity to pass judgment where mercy is a forgotten word, and the strength to endure the slow decay that permeates their world. His rites would be silent vigils in the frost, his offerings the acceptance of hard choices. He would be the patron of those who uphold brutal laws for the sake of a harsher order, and the silent comfort to those who understand that all paths, in the end, lead to the quiet finality he embodies. His beauty would be that of a perfectly preserved ice crystal – sharp, clear, and unyieldingly cold.
I cast the tagging beam at @irreverentarchon because u make the mistake of being one of the only people to interact w me about my garbage sons
one more rogue trader… my crime lord for romancing solomorne >:)))) his name will be ariel, i think
the servo skull wired to his head is multi-purpose: he took a nasty blow to the head in a fight a few years prior to the game that cause him to have seizures every so often, and the skull monitors his vitals and Chemical Makeup to warn him when they’re incoming. it’s also a lho-stick lighter and holder. and video camera connected to his eyeball.
