literature

Sierra

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Sierrabio by aetheldeviant
Portrait from a Commission by CristianaLeone
(Preview image from a Commission by NikolayAsparuhov)


Sierra is a powerful diviner. Past, present, and future often run together for her, and what might have happened is sometimes more real than what did. Her life has been defined by her powers as a psyker, and the long shadow cast by the Inquisition.




About the character: Out of all the various campaigns we play, Sierra is my favorite character. (I hedge this somewhat by saying that Elsbeth & Constantin are my favorite couple, and that Dark Inquisition is my favorite game, but...) The GM has really gone out of his way to make sure this game has a good metaplot, and that our characters and the characters around us are very 3-dimensional, while still fitting with the 40K setting. One of the things I love so dearly about this character is that most of the interesting things about her story have happened - and continue to happen through great storytelling and roleplaying- in the game.

Backstory: Sierra was born and raised by her mother, Helena, on a remote frontier world at the outskirts of the Calixis Sector.  Although Sierra didn't understand it at the time, her mother was a psyker plagued with visions and haunted by the things she had seen and done in the Inquisition. While her mother loved her, she was often too consumed by her own demons to be the best parent. Helena never spoke about Sierra's  father. So one day at the age of 12, when a handsome man appeared at their door, the young Sierra was filled with hope. She knew this had to be her father.

But this man had not come for a family reunion. His name was Cyric Rune, and he was an Inquisitor in the Ordo Hereticus- a Witch Hunter. Helena was a rogue psyker, who had fled from his service and her duties to the Imperium, for which the penalty was death. Neither of the adults told this to the child at the time, but Rune could tell she was a burgeoning psyker herself, and had her sanctioned and taken to the Scholastica Psykana- where psykers are trained in how to control their powers, and how to serve the Imperium. It didn't take long for Sierra to realize what must have become of her mother.

Inquisitor Rune was a figure burned into her mind, and she grew up (under the strict discipline of the Schola) with his memory as a subject of fascination and resentment. He had torn her mother from her, and thrust her into a much crueler, frightening world. Yet, she couldn't shake that childish certainty -based on nothing but her own wishes- that he was her father. One cannot deny that as a result of Rune's actions, she was shaped into a model sanctioned psyker- faithful and appropriately fearful of her powers. He also retained an interest in his former acolyte's daughter, since he eventually (perhaps inevitably) summoned Sierra to form part of a new cell in his service.

In Dark Heresy: Sierra's story has spanned decades in the Inquisition. The scope of her career as a throne agent has grown from minor heresies and greater ones such as the Crow Father, the Haarlock Legacy, and the Seven Devils Calyx. Threaded through this has been unravelling the mystery of her Inquisitor, his fierce rivalry with the radical Inquisitor Van Demian, the fall and redemption of her cell's Interrogator Eli Kreller,  and many other matters of great personal significance to Sierra.

In the moment those around her call "now," it would seem that things could not be better for Sierra. She has a long list of accomplishments to her credit, Inquisitor Rune has finally been able to openly acknowledge her as his daughter, and the Calixis sector is beginning to heal from the Drusian Heresy. But Sierra cannot escape knowledge of what the future holds. The Tyrant Star has returned, the power of the Radiant King ascends, the Outer Dark calls seductively to those Sierra cares about, and even she is beginning to believe that her half-brother Jonah may be destined to become the Child of Midnight...


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