Ciaphas Cain
From Lexicanum
Ciaphas Cain was an Imperial Commissar. He was in active service in the last century of M41, and was over 200 years old when he was recalled into service during the 13th Black Crusade of Abaddon the Despoiler, and it is certain that he survived more than a quarter of a century into M42. Propaganda made him out to be the hero of the Imperium circa late M41 although in truth he was mainly focused on surviving. (However he differed to many other Imperial Commissars in that he would not readily sacrifice soldiers unless it ensured his own survival.) Cain tried his utmost to avoid engaging in actual combat, but would have to anyway to maintain his status as a Hero of the Imperium, which ironically, would involve him in more dangerous situations than any he would usually see as a Commissar. He was responsible for many successful campaigns throughout his career and retired to become a professor at a Schola Progenium.
In M42 his Memoirs were published among the ranks of the Inquisition. They are sequestered by order of the Holy Ordos, and are kept and organized as the Cain Archive by Ordo Xenos Inquisitor Amberley Vail with whom Cain had many encounters over his career, and shared a close working relationship and association. It is worth noting, as Inquisitor Vail does in footnotes throughout his memoirs, that Cain was a skilled liar and dissembler, and therefore anything to which he refers that is not independently documented could well be a fabrication to maintain his reputation.
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Origins & Early Life
Cain makes numerous mentions to his home world, apparently a Hive World, though he never mentions a name or any feature which could lead to it being identified. However, he shows a definite affinity for underground passages and has a natural sense of direction when underground. He claims that his parents were killed while serving in the Imperial Guard, which is why he was sent to be trained as a Commissar. However, it has not been stated in which regiment they served. His record at the Schola Progenium where he was educated and trained shows that his marks were at the low end of average in everything save sports and combat training. He also had a clear disciplinary record, however this probably means he didn't get caught.
Service History
Throughout his service in the Commissariat, Cain seems to have served predominantly with regiments raised from the Ice World of Valhalla. He picked up a number of their habits and slang terms, although he never became enamoured to the cold they enjoyed, or their habit of taking showers in ice water. His loyal aide Ferik Jurgen was a Valhallan guardsman who happens to be a blank, and served Cain faithfully for many years. Also with him was General Jenit Sulla.
He began his service with the Valhallan 12th Field Artillery in 919.M41, apparently as a Commissar attached to the command battery, but soon took up duties over the entire regiment. His first taste of battle was on Desolatia, where the regiment had been defending against Orks, but soon they were faced with a Tyranid splinter fleet, which they held out against until an Imperial fleet arrived to pick up the Imperial forces on the planet.
His, and his regiment's, next destination was the planet of Keffia, where he spent a restful few years of the 920's, with the only major battle he participated in was assisting the local enforcers (calling themselves Custodes, though the title is unrelated to the Adeptus organisation of the same name) in unveiling a genestealer infestation in the sector and assisting in the defence of the enforcers headquarters.
From here, he went to Perlia, where he was first earmarked for greater things. After a space battle, he and his adjutant Jurgen were left isolated on the ground of Perlia, presumed dead after their escape pod crashed behind ork lines. From here, he raised an army and, in what became known as the March of the Liberator, successfully fought his way through the orks to the front line, killing the warlord personally. The Imperial forces took the opportunity to attack the remaining ork forces, who were in disarray.
On Slawkenberg, he and three troopers were nearly seduced by a Chaos sorceress whilst accompanying scouts, but managed to destroy the enemy position with artillery.
From here, he was assigned to Commissariat command for a few years, which was at first a simple desk job, but his reputation meant that he was sent on risky missions, such as a trip to Interitus Prime, a Necron Tomb world, Viridia and Viridia Secundus, the cleansing of a space hulk, fought against the Eldar, and participated in the cleansing of Sanguia. He survived these purely by being able to keep his head down, and commonly being the only survivor. Before long, he requested transfer back to a regiment.
Currently the majority of extracts available from the Cain Archive tell of his time serving with the 597th Valhallan Regiment. While serving with them Cain appears to have been very close to the troopers, particularly with the senior officers with which he had a personal friendship.
Cain was present with the 597th Valhallan Regiment for their first action during the Gravalax Incident of 931.M41, where he was awarded the Order of Merit of Gravalax, Second class, for his part in preventing the Tau annexation of the planet. (Cain was to joke in later years that if he had allowed the Tau to kill Governor Grice, the grateful populace would have given him the first class decoration.) In truth, the planet had been infested by a Genestealer Cult who had been trying to spark off a meaningless war over a backwater planet between the Tau and the Imperium in order to distract them from the approach of the Tyranids. It was during this affair that Cain first encountered Inquisitor Amberley Vail, and also discovered that his aide Jurgen was in fact a Null: a trait which saved Cain's life as he duelled the Genestealer Patriarch.
The next year, he served on Simia Oricalcae, defending a refinery against ork predations and an awakening Necron threat beneath the ice. Shortly after this, he was sent to Periremunda after a civil uprising occurred. It was discovered that Genestealers were behind it, and the infection was cleansed.
After fighting Hrud on Skekwi and Orks on Kastafore, Cain arrived at Adumbria in 937, where he assisted in uncovering a Chaos ritual and defending against landing Chaos forces. His actions defeated a Daemon Prince and the transformation of the planet into a daemon world. He later attended his court-marshal, initiated by Commissar Tomas Beije, for leaving the front line to attack the Daemon Prince's summoning, but Cain was cleared of all wrongdoing, and Beije was charged and later acquitted.
Cain was recalled into active service in 999.M41 to defend the Schola Progenium at which he had become a professor. His participation in these events has not yet been published nor has it been recorded, though he would have been of considerable age. Given his illustrious past he would most likely have been deployed to the front line, despite any protests he would surely have made.
Cain remains the only person in the known galaxy to be listed in active service even after he died and was buried with full military honors (probably at some point in the first century of M42). This is as a result of a confusion in the Departmento Munitorum during the Perlia campaign, in which Cain was listed as killed in action until some point after he rejoined his regiment at the campaign's end.
It maybe interesting to note that there is a small sect in Tallarn regiments, who consider Cain as physical conduit of the emperor's divine will. There is even a book dedicated to Cain, called the "Book of Cain".
Personality and Skills
Although Cain performed acts in his long commissarial service that were nothing short of heroic, they were always - by his own admission - done reluctantly. He chose the posting with the Valhallan 12th Field Artillery specifically to avoid front-line combat, as artillery regiments generally remained at the rear of any army. After the events on Desolatia, however, Cain often made the observation that his commanders were bent on sending him into deadly situations simply on the basis of his reputation. The first thing on his mind was always his own safety, and how he would be able to escape the situation he was in.
Despite his unwillingness to engage in combat, Cain was by no means unprepared for it, as one of the things he focused on while at the Schola Progenium (in addition to sports) was combat training. He was described as an exceptional swordsman - a skill which "undoubtedly came from the sort of combat experience no amount of practice could emulate", in the words of Inquisitor Vail, though he still practiced his technique anyway. In his memoirs he describes his chainsword skill a habitual and instinctive one. He was also skilled enough with a laspistol to actually hit his target well beyond the weapon's operational range, even against Necron Warriors.
Sources
- For The Emperor by Sandy Mitchell
- Caves Of Ice by Sandy Mitchell
- The Traitor's Hand by Sandy Mitchell
- Death Or Glory by Sandy Mitchell
