Let me introduce you Ambrose; you can call him Colonel Karter though!

[SotonShades]

For a campaign weekend I have coming up, we have a character development system in place. However, to utilise that, you must write a decent bit of background for your character (to prove you aren't just trying to increase their potential over improving the narrative of the campaign). Here's mine, please let me know what you think of him and the writing.


Colonel Ambrose Karter

A fallen knight whose demise grew from avarice and ambition

Born to a worker family of Muirana, young Ambrose grew up in awe of Legio Ignis Diruo. As for many small boys, he became obsessed with collecting images and models of the God-machines, playing games between the hab-blocks with other children, pretending to be a Reaver or Warlord and crushing insects and vermin that infested all the towns of the desert world. As he grew to his teenage years, he made many attempts to join the Cult Mechanicus that one day he would command a Titan of his own to smite the enemies of the Emperor. Despite his determination, he was classified as unsuitable by the Adepts of the Omnissiah. Ever the faithful servant, he instead focussed his energies on joining the Planetary Defence Force. Showing at least some aptitude for driving fighting vehicles, he was eventually transferred to the Imperial Guard and stationed on Auctoria Major for further training.

Despite rising steadily through the ranks, Karter never stood out from his peers as a particularly courageous Guardsmen or innovative commander. Upon receiving command of his first battletank, he resented that his 'command' meant he still had to follow orders from his Squadron leader. When he took control of a squadron following heavy losses in his first real combat, he resented that he was still at the beck and call of the Company's commander. Even in to his later career, as the Colonel of an entire Armoured Battlegroup, he felt slighted that Infantry Commanders outranked him despite a reasonably impressive kill record.

This all came to a head at the Battle for Corview Ridge, an armoured engagement of significant scale at the very fringes of the Auctor Sector. Fighting alongside two of the Titans from Ignis Diruo, his company engaged a Chaos host poised for an assault in to the very core of the sector, possibly even targeting Auctoria Major herself. Over the course of three days, and despite losing two crew members in a blast that nearly crippled his Leman Russ Vanquisher, the Duchess, Karter personally accrued a kill count in excess of 20 enemy fighting vehicles, as well as incapacitating a traitor Baneblade and downing three Chaos Warhound Titans. Returning to Auctoria Major, Legio Ignis Diruo was credited with a massive victory, despite losing a Warhound of their own; Karter and his regiment were left in the shadows. Snubbed by those he had once idolised, something in his mind snapped. Looking at the broken, dejected faces of the officers under his command, he made a plan. After repairs and rearming on Muirana, Ambrose Karter led his company out into the desert under the pretence of a training exercise.

In reality he was meeting up with a Warband of Chaos Space Marines wearing the colours of loyalists. Loading the vehicles on to an orbit capable drop ship, the Colonel prepared a recorded message to be voxed from a drone in the desert long after they had left the world behind;

"I am Colonel Ambrose Karter. I have nothing left to give the False Emperor and now my company stands apart from the Imperium. Auctor shall pay for what they have done to me and Ignis Diruo shall burn by my hand. This is my oath and I swear it on the Dark Octed."

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

Just a critique but i would probably lower the number of engine kills as well as the bane blade and 20 enemy vehicles. I don't think even Prask's fluff was written to that level. It just comes off as your tank commander as being some super silent tanker Ace.

And for the CSM um how would he get in contact with them? and an orbital lander? the world is imperial held. so its doubtful that they would be able to land or even take off with out being harassed by imperial forces. Something more sinister would have to happen or perhaps have them being recruited by an alpha legion spy or something along those lines. just a bit of an overreatch is all.

[SotonShades]

That's covered by the background fluff for the campaign beyond what I have written. Muirana is described as being a busy forge world, with shuttles and landers coming and going constantly. The CSM reference comes from one of my co-conspirators, whose Chaos warlord is a fallen Crimson Fist who has kept his original armour in immaculate condition as a way of sneaking in and out of Imperial space unopposed; the theory being that your average Imperial citizen wouldn't know the names of SM captains anyway, so they'd have no idea he had defected. I think that covers your 'something more sinister' as well

I wanted the reasons for Karter's betrayal to be subtle infered, rather than stated out right. He was jealous of the apparent freedom the forces of Chaos had in his final battles against them. I also wanted his kill count to be comparable to what you would expect of smaller pattern titans, to help emphasize his annoyance at being overshadowed (literally and figuratively) by the very effigies he once worshipped, in a way. I do take your point that it is on the high side though, even for a tank hunting tank like the vanquisher. As commander of a whole battlegroup though, he would definitely be an ace.

[Night System]

To be honest, yeah the kill count is a little high. That said, as with all 40k fluff, a bit of hyperbole from the author always makes subtle changes to stories. If you ask his sucking up lieutenant, he killed a million tanks. Ask his enemies and he maybe killed 4? It is more of the feeling of jealously that is important, not the specific numbers.