Amar Astarte
Amar Astarte was a Terran scientist during the Unification Era instrumental in the creation of the Adeptus Astartes.[1]
Amar was born on Terra during the Age of Strife and for a time served the brutal warlords of the planet, surviving by offering them her intellect. She attempted to fashion for them genetically modified super soldiers, but these attempts all ended in horrific failure. Eventually Amar met the Emperor and became convinced he was a truly great leader.[2a] Amar became the first director of the Emperor's Biotechnical Division and worked on the creation of the Space Marines. She was known as one of the greatest geneticists of her era, outshining even the Selenar, and was known to be personally liked by the Emperor himself.[2c] She attempted to develop the Black Carapace, but the design was flawed and had to later be perfected by Ezekiel Sedayne.[1]
By the end of the Unification Wars Amar had become withered, having apparently refused much in the way of Rejuvenat treatments or bionics.[2a] She wielded impressive artifacts from the Dark Age of Technology, most notably a personal Void Shield generator that not even the greatest Imperial servants could easily acquire. She had however come to believe that the Space Marine project was doomed to the same failure as the Thunder Warriors due to the absence of the Primarchs, who provided an anchor of genetic stability. Believing the Space Marines were doomed to failure and would bring disaster to the Galaxy, she plotted with Uwoma Kandawire and took part in the Palace Coup. During the coup she deployed her contingency plan, the Castellan Exemplars, which consisted of warriors she had secretly genetically engineered to be loyal only to her. However in the end the conspiracy unraveled in the face of the newly unleashed Angels of Death and amid the chaos Amar infiltrated her lab in the Imperial Dungeon and attempted to destroy all of the genetic lore on the Primarchs. She was confronted by the Custodian Samonas, but despite grievously wounding her the warrior was unable to prevent her from detonating the lab.[2b] Amar Astarte died in the explosion, but was apparently unaware that the Emperor had backed up her data and moved it to a safe location.[2c]
Trivia
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Astarte was the Phoenician goddess of fertility and war, two things Amar is heavily associated with due to her role in creating the Space Marines.
Sources
- 1: Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work (Novel) - Chapter 19
- 2: Valdor: Birth of the Imperium (Novel):
