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Briseis Ligeia

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Briseis Ligeia was an Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus who was instrumental in the banishing of the Daemon Prince Ghargatuloth in 999.M41.

Biography

Spoiler!
This page contains spoilers for: Grey Knights (Novel)

Early History

Briseis Ligeia was born from nobility, taken from the planet Gathalamor by the Ordo Hereticus because of her psychic abilities. Her particular talent was the ability to absorb information, through extrasensory means at a rate much faster than an ordinary human could read books or data files. Combined with her memory and logically ordered mind, this made her a superlative researcher, especially at deciphering ancient or cryptic texts. For this ability, she was headhunted by the Ordo Malleus, where she continued to hone her abilities, and eventually was promoted to full Inquisitor.

Ghargatuloth

While studying the personal effects of rogue Inquisitor Gholic Ren-Sar Valinov, she stumbled upon the Codicium Aeternum, which had been presumed lost after Valinov had stolen it from the Malleus. Based on the information inside, she petitioned the Grey Knights for an expedition to the Trail of Saint Evisser, predicting that the Daemon Prince Ghargatuloth was preparing to re-manifest itself. Although the Knights were severely shorthanded, having deployed the majority of their chapter to combat the 13th Black Crusade around the Cadian Gate, a small strike force was formed led by Justicar Alaric to assist the Inquisitor.

Ligeia traveled with the Grey Knights to the Trail, where she uncovered a cult on the planet Sophano Secundus being led by a 1,200 year old sorcerer in the guise of an Imperial priest. Ligeia and her six Death Cult Assassins were able to fight their way out of the city but not without losses. Ligeia was able to recover various documents and a tome describing the life of Gharagatuloth. Ligeia pored over these in hopes of discovering a means to defeat the daemon.

Fall from Grace

Ligeia turned against the Inquisition when she dispatched her Death Cult assassins to prevent Valinov's execution and free him from his Inquisitorial prison. After Valinov escaped, Inquisitor Nyxos had Ligeia arrested. Under brutal interrogation, she refused to explain her actions, but only repeated apparent nonsense words. She continued to repeat these words right up until the moment of her execution, when she was sealed in an airtight pod, which was then opened to the vacuum of space.

However, Ligeia had remained loyal to her mission. Absorbing information from the tome had allowed the essence of Ghargatuloth to invade and corrupt her mind, but in the process she managed to glean one piece of information that the daemon wanted to keep hidden.

Ligeia had formed a rapport with Alaric during their voyage together, and he did not easily accept the Ordo Malleus's account of her treason. Alaric requested the transcript of her interrogation, read it carefully, and realised that she had learned Ghargatuloth's True Name, which he recited aloud when he confronted the daemon, allowing him to banish it back to the Warp.

Afterwards, the Malleus also realised that Ligeia had correctly surmised that Ghargatuloth could only be banished after he was fully summoned into realspace, which was why she freed Valinov and let him complete the summoning ritual.

Correctly interpreting her apparently nonsensical ramblings as a vital message required a leap of faith and a firm belief in her loyalty, which only Alaric made in the aftermath of her death. After the daemon was banished, Alaric traveled to the site of her execution, and said a solemn prayer in valediction for her soul.

Based on Alaric's report, Nyxos returned the Codicium Aeturnum to the Malleus's fortress and carefully inscribed Ghargatuloth's True Name into the tome, knowing that the daemon would rise again in another one thousand years.

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