Ebonclaw
Ebonclaw was a superb warrior who became an Imperial Guardsman in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy and to whom war was a natural environment. As a Guardsman he was a savage combatant and a canny commander, attributes which allowed him to quickly become a Sergeant in his Regiment. It soon became apparent to his Regiment, however, that Ebonclaw was gifted with a kind of dark immortality, as no matter what the odds, or what mission he was undertaking, Ebonclaw would be the only one of his squadron to walk away alive. There were other times where Ebonclaw' squadron was caught in an ambush or trapped behind enemy lines – situations where by all accounts he should have died. Yet it in the aftermath of every single skirmish, he would be the only one to emerge, bloodied but unbroken. This eventually made Ebonclaw a hero and living legend, but would also prove to be his undoing.[1]
After surviving yet another battle that left his entire squadron dead, Ebonclaw was re-assigned, but he did not receive a warm welcome from his new squadron. They feared that the fearful rumours about the Sergeant were true and that Ebonclaw's constant survival was made possible by a dark pact, paid for by the souls of his fallen comrades. In order to save themselves from the fate of Ebonclaw's previous squadrons, they murdered the Sergeant in cold blood and left his body behind. When the Sergeant was eventually found, it was believed he had finally fallen in combat and was immediately hailed as a martyr. Afterwards, Ebonclaw's body was placed in stasis and sent to the Mortifeco Sector, where it was interred within a small shrine on the world Teldus. The Sergeant would remain there for millennia until M41, when it was discovered that Ebonclaw's shrine had been destroyed and his body was nowhere to be found, though the seals on his stasis chamber were reportedly broken from the inside...[1]
When word of his disappearance reached the ears of the Inquisition, they arrived on Teldus in full force. The assembled Inquisitors divided their weight behind two powerful Inquisitor Lords, each with their own opinion as to what happened to the Sergeant. Lord Coteaz believes that the Sergeant's disappearance is a miracle of some kind, while Lord Karamazov sees nothing but deception and heresy. Regardless, each side now seeks to unravel Ebonclaw's final fate.[1]
