Summary: A rook advances to shield a knight. Zugzwang locks the board. The king remains sovereign.
Or, Abelard confronts Heinrix about events in Commorragh and their mutual paramour.
The ship was quieter in the small hours, the endless hum of its engines a kind of heartbeat that few ever noticed, but Abelard always did. He’d made a life out of listening to machinery and men alike.
The wardroom was never empty; a thousand officers with service mandates spread across every rotation of the chrono, there was always someone seeking sustenance for the next watch or a restorative after the last. The lack of life in the officers' mess primed Abelard’s senses, a silence that shouldn’t be.
He reached the open hatchway and spotted the cause: a swathe of crimson near the viewport, staring at the open void beyond. Of course. There was nary an officer on board who would willingly breathe the same air as an agent of the Inquisition. Given the choice, an empty belly was the obvious preference.
Abelard was the rare exception.
His bulk filled the doorway, silent as a breath. He saw the moment his presence registered, whether by sorcery or instinct. Heinrix’s shoulders stiffened, the hands clasped behind his back gripped tighter for an instant before the psyker forced calm upon himself.
Heinrix’s head turned, expression set in its usual stoic mask. His chin dipped in a curt greeting. Abelard did not return the nod. He studied the other man, his rigid posture, the too-loose fit of his inquisitorial garb, notable changes since his return from…
“...Janus,” Abelard lied to himself. The truth of where the Interrogator had been, and with whom, still crushed the air from his lungs, threatening to drag him to his knees.
Abelard took a breath, watching himself being watched. Heinrix didn’t look away. He stood like a shadow among shadows, trying to disappear, too still, like a cornered thing, deciding whether to fight or flee.
Abelard’s jaw tightened. “Spit it out, Van Calox. You’ve been circling me like a carrion bird since we made dock.”
Heinrix didn’t flinch, but he didn’t quite meet Abelard’s gaze. He had the good sense not to skirt the matter.
“If you think me a threat to him, I will step aside. Whatever passed between us in Commorragh… it should not continue. It was circumstance. Weakness.”
That word, weakness, landed like an insult.
Abelard crossed the breadth of the bay in a dozen strides. The chain at his belt clinked softly with each step, silencing abruptly as he planted himself in front of Heinrix with all the immovability of a fortress wall.
“Weakness?” he spat. “You will not insult me thus. You will not insult him!”
He leaned in, voice dropping to a growl. “I’ve known since the day you set foot aboard this vessel that he’d have you in his bed. You weathered temptation longer than I managed to, I’ll grant you that. But don’t you dare pretend it meant nothing. Don’t you dare discard him like something used.”
Heinrix’s composure cracked, just a hair, just for an instant. His lips parted as if to reply, then shut again, at a loss.
Abelard’s gaze didn’t soften; instead, it sharpened, not with anger, but a grim, unyielding protectiveness. “All that matters to me is that he found his way back from--” he choked on the name, “that he’s alive. For that… for whatever hand you had, you have my thanks. But hear me well, Interrogator: if you disrespect him, you’ll answer to me. And I do not mean with words.”
A silence fell between them, heavy as iron. Heinrix swallowed. His voice, when at last he found it, was tentative. “You… approve?”
Abelard huffed, not quite a laugh. “You ask as if my disapproval would sway him." His remaining eye hardened with ruthless candour, the augmentation flashing. "Do not mistake me, if I’d thought for even a moment that you were a threat to him, you would have found yourself unfortunately close to a malfunctioning airlock many a watch ago. What is at issue here, is that you stood with him when I could not, that you returned with him with all your limbs attached, and that he sees something worth pursuing in you. If you want him in return, if you have something to give… then give it. But do it honestly. He deserves more than feints and half-measures.”
Abelard hesitated, then clapped a hand onto Heinrix’s shoulder. Not unkindly, but with weight enough to embed the warning in his next words. “Remember this, Van Calox: he belongs to himself. Not to you. Not even to me. Don’t mistake the way he surrenders for weakness. He is stronger than either of us.”
Abelard released the Interrogator. He turned and strode from the wardroom, the hunger that drew him there forgotten.
Heinrix remained, just beyond the lumens' glow, veiled in the darkness of the Expanse.
The Seneschal’s words thrummed in his mind, soft yet transforming, like a stilled heart resuming its rhythm.
Name: Dravian von Valancius af Tempestus, the Flame-Eyed Prophet
Previous Titles: Custos Sacrarii, Purgator-Legate
Faction: Imperium of Man
Service: Penitents of the Fiery Gaze
Homeworld: Cruciform Ark, Tempestus Sector
Origin: Voidborn
Feat of Greatness: Dravian defended the reliquary of the Cruciform Ark against a heretical invasion in single combat until the arrival of the Sacrist-Guard.
Shadow of Torment: To be ordained as a member of the clergy of the Penitents of the Fiery Gaze, a novitiate must pass the Axis Cruciatum - a sacred ordeal lasting seven days and seven nights. Dravian survived and was honoured for his fortitude, but the scars of the experience cut deeper than his skin.
Archetypes: Blade Dancer, Executioner
Age: 29 at the onset of the story
Height: 1.87 meters (6'1)
Weight: 74 kgs (163 lbs)
Orientation: gay 🏳️🌈
Romance: Marazhai
Backstory:
Upbringing
The Rogue Trader Priest began his life as simply “Dravian,” named for a martyr of the Third Ark Exodus.
He was born three millennia after his namesake’s death, carried by the same plasteel and adamantium that witnessed the Chained Saint’s liberation. The Cruciform Ark, Dravian’s birthplace, was a drifting remnant of the Missionaria Galactica, its entire population devout Penitents of the Fiery Gaze – an obscure sub-sect of the Ecclesiarchy, nurtured upon the ancient vessel’s bloodstained decks.
Infants born aboard the Ark were raised communally by the Sacrist-Guard, warrior-priests whose training combined religious indoctrination, blade-dancing, and ritualised duelling. The concept of “family” was irrelevant; everyone aboard was “child of the Ark, child of the Emperor.”
The Penitents’ core tenets encompassed three main points: that pain is the Emperor’s purest communion; the martial perfection of one’s body is a form of worship; the weapons and tactics of Humanity’s enemies should be subjugated, not destroyed – turned against the foe as trophies of the Emperor’s dominance.
Dravian’s earliest memories were of chanting the Litany of the Wound while sparring with live blades, watching ritual executions conducted in the Hall of the Gaze, where prisoners were blinded and set aflame to “see as the Emperor sees.” His sleep was punctuated by the rite of vigil-prayers – being shaken awake at random to recite scripture under duress. He studied the Catechisms of Purity Through Pain alongside practical instruction in alien martial forms.
His most fervent recollections, however, were of the Ark’s great Relic Hall, a vast, forbidden vault of captured Drukhari, Aeldari, and even kroot weaponry. Young warriors were allowed to train with these relics only after a “Penance Duel” in which they fought until first blood with a master – an honour that Dravian claimed well before his peers.
By adolescence, the boy was already marked for priestly training.
In his thirteenth year, he was sent to the Seminary of Saint Halvard the Flayed, a remote voidborn Ecclesiarchy institution. His studies were eclectic by puritan standards. He learned High and Low Gothic, scripture, Imperial history, and xenotheology. He pored over His Lore, Lore Xenos, and the Lex Imperialis. Though encompassing, his understanding of the subject matter remained essentially academic, save for the martial components.
One lesson crystallised above all, and that was a burgeoning understanding of exactly how far the Ministorum was willing to stretch doctrine for political ends – a lesson he would later abuse.
During this time, Dravian also began to develop his peculiar eroticisation of pain, seeing wounds from lovers as covenant marks akin to holy relics.
Rite of Ordination: Axis Cruciatum
Low Gothic Translation: Axis of Torment
Excerpted from the Canonical Litanies of the Penitents of the Fiery Gaze, Void-Archive 446.22.M36:
“Faith is the hinge upon which the galaxy turns. Pain is the pin that holds it fast.” – Saint Halvard the Flayed, Litany of the Hinge
The Axis Cruciatum is a seven-day trial of the body, mind, and soul, conducted within the Hall of Wounds aboard the Cruciform Ark. It is the rite through which novitiates are ordained into the sect’s priesthood, separating the wheat of faith from the chaff of weakness
Among the Penitents of the Fiery Gaze, the Axis Cruciatum marks one who has passed the sacred trial of the hinge – an ordeal of torment that proves the bearer’s body and soul can turn the Emperor’s will. To withstand this trial is to earn the marks of a priest-warrior, entrusted with the holiest duties and the defence of the Ark’s most sacred vaults.
“The Axis Cruciatum is the hinge upon which the Emperor turns the soul of His servant; through seven days of pain, the unworthy will break, and the worthy will bear His weight.” – Ritual Blessing preceding the Sacrament of Axis Cruciatum.
The Penitents revere Saint Halvard the Flayed as their martial exemplar – a warrior-priest who, during the 36th Millennium, defended the Cruciform Ark from a chaos-possessed boarding force for seven days and nights. Captured and skinned alive, Halvard refused to die until the final relic was secured, his voice still chanting the Litany of the Wound even as the executioner’s blade worked. His martyrdom is the model upon which the ordeal is built.
The sect holds fast to the words of their Patron, immortalised in the Litany of the Hinge. Thus, the ordeal is designed to bind the novitiate’s soul firmly to the Emperor’s will through seven stages of suffering:
Day of Blindness: Eyes are bound for an entire rotation so the novitiate may “see the Emperor’s light within.”
Day of Flame: The body is anointed with sanctified oils and ignited in controlled burns to teach endurance through agony.
Day of Piercing: Relic blades, each carrying a name from the sect’s martyrology, are driven into the flesh while the novitiate recites the Ten Thousand Wounds, a lengthy and complex expansion of the Litany of the Wound.
Day of Hunger: No food or water is permitted, and the novitiate must spar with the Sacrist-Guard while fasting.
Day of Suspension: The candidate is bound cruciform before the Great Brass Eye and made to chant the Litany of Endurance until their voice breaks.
Day of the Lash: The scourge of Saint Halvard is applied, each strike accompanied by a verse of the Litany of Submission.
Day of the Hinge: The bindings are removed, and the novitiate must stand unassisted before the Eye until acknowledged by the Confessor or collapse under the burden of weakness.
Survivors are ordained into the sect’s clergy, often taking on martial or custodial duties within the Ark’s reliquary decks. Those who perish are declared Martyrs of the Hinge and interred within the Ark’s ossuaries.
In the records of the 41st Millennium, only three novitiates emerged from the Axis Cruciatum entirely unassisted on the Day of the Hinge. The most recent, the youth called Dravian, named for the Patron of the Shackled and the Steadfast.
Hagiography Excerpt – Saint Dravian the Bound
“The chains they placed upon him did not hold him; they bound only his flesh, never his will. Through lash and flame, he walked in the Emperor’s light, and those who sought to break him found themselves undone.” – The Canticles of the Bound, Verse XVII
In the year 442 of the 3rd Millennium, the Cruciform Ark, then only newly refitted as a shrine-voidship, was boarded by dark xenos during the long migration known as the Third Ark Exodus. Among the reliquary guard was a priest named Dravian, taken captive in the first hour of the fighting.
The vile aliens revelled in the suffering of the faithful, ransoming the Ark’s relics and the lives of the crew in exchange for the missionary priests renouncing the Emperor before them. One after the other succumbed. Dravian alone refused. For days unknown, he was scourged, burned, and paraded in chains before the captured faithful, yet instead of cries, he recited the Litany of the Wound without falter, inspiring the captured and enraging his captors.
On the final day, in a moment now woven into the Penitents’ liturgy, Saint Dravian shattered his chains upon the altar rail and seized the blade of his tormentor. With the faithful rallying to his side, he drove the xenos from the reliquary deck, slaying their leader with a single strike said to have been guided by the Emperor’s own hand.
The Ark’s High Confessor declared him Saint Dravian the Bound, canonised as a living reminder that captivity of the flesh need never mean captivity of the soul.
Millenia later, the High Confessor of the Penitents would bestow the name upon a child as an act of deliberate devotion – an invocation of the Saint’s endurance and unyielding defiance. Those who bear the name are expected to live up to the Saint’s example, whether in chains, literal or metaphorical.
Dravian was chosen to partake of the Axis Cruciatum in his nineteenth year, after returning from the Seminary of Saint Halvard the Flayed, where he had distinguished himself in scripture, xenotheology, and the martial catechisms of the Ark. His body was strong, his faith unbent, his mind sharpened by both the Book and the Blade.
But the Axis Cruciatum is not a test of learning or skill at arms. It is a trial of holy endurance.
When at last he rose, skin marked, throat raw, but with eyes yet burned with purpose, the High Confessor pronounced, “The Emperor’s gaze turns upon you; your pain has pleased Him. Hold fast to the pin that anchors the hinge.”
After his allotted recovery time, Dravian was ordained as a Custos Sacrarii, a martial custodian of the Ark’s most sacred vaults and relics.
While serving as Custos Sacrarii, the Cruciform Ark came under attack by pirates in service to heretics. They breached the reliquary decks, seeking to steal or defile the relics of saints and the captured weapons of hated foes. Boarding parties swarmed the vault corridors, seeking to seize the sacred spoils of centuries: Drukhari splinterblades, shards of saintly armour, the Chains of Orathiel, and the Halo Spear.
It was this blasphemous invasion that caused Dravian’s name to spread beyond the Ark.
In that dark hour, Dravian fought as if the Emperor Himself watched through his eyes. He met the boarding leaders in single combat, cutting them down with a xenos blade taken from the Relic Hall – an act not of heresy, but of subjugation, turning the alien’s craft to the Emperor’s glory.
By the time the Sacrist-Guard retook the reliquary decks, the treasures were intact, the floors ran red, and Dravian still stood at the vault doors, bloodied but unbroken.
The High Confessor declared his deed a miraculum. Recognising both Dravian’s faith and his ferocity, he was granted the title of Purgator-Legate, along with the Right of Wandering Mandate – the rare privilege of carrying the Ark’s faith beyond its hull, to take relics into battle, and to speak as the Ark’s voice in the void. It was a reward and a test, for the Right demanded results: victories, conversions, spoils.
In this new role, Dravian was granted personal use of the Drukhari blade he had used to ward off the heretics and, in Dravian’s hands, the sword would earn a title of its own: The Woebringer.
Dravian left the Ark not as a free agent, but as a missionary-martial, a priest with a xenos blade in one hand and the Emperor’s fire in the other.
How to romance Marazhai (mainly dom!Rogue Trager focused)
First of all, I need to send a thousand thanks to @pjenn @chonker-chan @wretchedelights and @milleart because without their comments, suggestions, warnings and guides I would have not been able to successfuly romance Marazhai as dom!RT. Also a thousand thanks to reddit user u/TohnoRin who also helped me fix the romance.
for an in detail guide on the flags this romance has, and how to avoid bugs and get the ideal ending please check wretchedelights post at this link!
Jan/2024 his romance is currently slightly bugged if you play as a dom!RT. I will update this in the future.
CHAPTER 2 (meeting Marazhai)
While I do not know if other options would also end up in romacne/recruitment, I made sure to choose the answers that were not "I will kill you" (or maybe he would have loved that).
Options and dialogue from act 2 is fromt he Marazhai romance playthrough 1/? post to the 7/?, and you can find them at this tag: Marazhai romance chapter 2.
The quest to meet him the first time is called "Blades in the Void".
CHAPTER 3 (recruiting Marazhai)
In the playthrough tags it is from n 8/? to n 20/?, all tagged Marazhai romance chapter 3.
Plus, I did not have some scenes in this chapter so I posted them separately: Argenta and Heinrix about Marazhai; Marazhai's killing blow quest.
Before starting the chapter
Effectively, the chapter is triggered by the point of no return in chapter 2, which is Yrliet asking you to look into a lost ship. The quest is named "Following Breadcrumbs" and at this point just know that whatever characters you bring they will be the only characters with you in chapter 3.
In particular, if you have two between: Ulfar, Heinrix and Argenta, you will unlock some extra dialogue with Marazhai and will have to defend your recruitment of him. Given Ulfar is recruited in chapter 3, you should bring at least one between Argenta and Heinrix. Also, Ulfar needs to be recruited before Marazhai in this case.
Chapter 3 starts with your kidnapping. You will have to find all your companions but one (in a separate map) before your first fight in the Arena. After your first fight in the Arena, you can access Tarvantias' Anatomical Opera where you can recruit Ulfar, find one of your missing companions (for me was Cassia) and talk to Marazhai. Marazhai is on an elevated platform, right from Tarvantias. Here you can ask him to join you.
Recruiting Marazhai
Next is the Arena fight where, if you were successful, Marazhai will join your side, and this is where you recruit him. Back at The Pit you can chat with him and your companions.
Make sure to choose "you intrigue me" when he asks you why you decided to recruit him.
Sub/dom choices unlocked
Chapter 3 is the one that has the messy dom/sub flags, at least until Jan 2024, hopefully it will be fixed later. This means that if you want to be a Dom!RogueTrader you need to choose to sub-adjacent options (in particular at the Pit allow him to grab your chin, and later allow him to use the agoniser on you). If you want to have your character be submissive, then choose the dominant options.
In any case, you will be able to change these values with Toybox mod.
The Spire
Once you are out of the streets you can get to the Spire. In my list of playthrough I missed a scene (I did not look for it and did not get the Killing Blow quest), but it seems like it did not change my game or romance.
Here Marazhai will also asks you to stop by and grab something of his (the agoniser, which is on the last floor of the map, the same where his sister is located). I can't confirm but I also read online that picking this up seems to be fundamental to unlock the romance. After you kill his sister, this is the end of Chapter 3.
CHAPTER 4 (romance)
Here is the full playthrough of chapter 4.
Back to the Voidship! This is also where the romance starts. From this point on, the dom/sub flags are correct so you can choose the correct dialogue options.
If you activate on toybox the chance to see dialogues flags and consequences it will be pretty easy, as you can see the tag for "ascension". This is basically an approval meter, the higher it is the more likely to get his true romance ending.
The order of the romance is:
1) In voidship, dialogue with Marazhai, ask him why he needed the services of Tarvantias.
2) First voidship warp jump, you will get news that Marazhai is on a rampage. Go to him, try to break him free from the demonette (I used persuasion, Yrliet's help and coercion) and then warn him of her attack.
3) The post fight dialogue has the romance trigger. Choose between giving him free hunting range (Sub!RT) or giving him a limited area (no dom/sub points but the only option for Dom!RT).
4) Go talk to him back in the bridge of the ship and he will give you the quest "Shards of Tempest".
5) Two jumps or more from this point, there will be a cut scene with him asking you to kill together. The sub!RT option is asking him to guide you; the dom!RT option is to tell him to ask properly and in this case if you did things correctly he won't complain and won't be annoyed with you. With dom!RT, he will just kneel and ask you to join him.
6) Go along with his murderous desires. Just know that for now the aftermath bed scene is sub!RT coded even if you have the correct dom!RT flags, it's okay! Also try to kiss him, I have been told it leads to a later scene!
7) Now you can do his personal quests. While the quest is pretty vague and open, the real quest is three rumors: Suspicious Ships (in Langrenn's Belt), Xenos Skirmish (in Orsellio Prophecy, the planet is Arid World), Fall of Santiel's Pride (in Nolla Septum). You will get fights (ex. clear the Nolla Septum planet and the Drukhari ships) or dialogue options where you can send Marazhai. Do not worry if the rumors don't clear, for me only the Fall one cleared as completed.
8) Go back to the bridge of the ship and you should have a cut scene where Marazhai gives you a gift. Accept one of the three gift options, and then use it accordingly to the role chosen (don't mix it up!), I am playing dom!RT and I chose to use a torture device on him, he was very happy. There is no dialogue difference between the three gifts, only the description.
9) At this point you can proceed with the main quest.
10) If everything goes well, you will get some ascension points (this will give you true romance at the end) and dominant (or submission) points through the main quest (be cruel, eat the brain, re-establish your dominance or submission role when he tests you)
11) After the main quest (the siege) you will get the branding scene. Remember to follow your role! I am playing as dom!RT so I branded him and he was pretty happy.
12) Talk to him on the bridge for some extra dialogue (he flaunts the mark).
CHAPTER 5 (ending)
Chapter 5 videos of the playthrough are here. (to be posted soon)
Chapter 5 is very short so it is almost impossible to miss Marazhai's tempest quest. Visit the few planets around you and you will see some Drukhari ships. Marazhai's old kabal will want to meet him so invite them on the ship.
If you are playing as dom!RT you can get more ascension points (this is for the true romance) by re-establishing your role. Do not be afraid to humiliate Marazhai in front of his people, he wants that and will be disappointed if you do not remind him of his place.
Follow the quest and go to the trap and kill Marazhai's old kabal. This is the final quest for him. I know there are other endings, so I am sure there is a way to make Marazhai into an archon, but for me I had no chance to.
At this point you will get his ascension scene. You will get this scene if you accumulated enough ascension points by re-establishing your roles (these are more or less "approval" points). The scene will start with Marazhai asking you for a bigger feast (murderous killings!).
If you refuse you will lose precious ascension points. If you accept you might have to kill one of your advisors. There is an iconoclast option so I suppose there might be a dogmatic or heretic one, and if you choose that you can reign in Marazhai and make him kill only on a limited side of the ship (the iconoclast option tho is very dom!Marazhai at the moment).
After, you will get him declaring his loyalty and affection for you!!
If you tried to kiss him before, remember to pretend to want to break things off so he will desperately pleade and you can actually kiss him:
(remember that you can add ascension points with toybox if needed).
This is the end of his romance, if everything goes well by the epilogue you will have a slide where it is said that Marazhai is often by your side and you have an unbreakable bond!
the torture brothers every other day asking my rogue trader, "is this guy bothering you? we think this guy is bothering you. please tell us this guy is bothering you."
