Leader of the [[Ultramarines 216th Company]] **Appearance**: Average height for a legionnaire; ~7' 5". Complexion: Nucerian by birth, Hadrian's skin is darker than most of his gene-brothers. Guilliman's geneseed seemed to have less affect on the appearance of descendants of that particular line. Hair: white; premature greying was another common occurrence in legionnaires of the Nucerian bloodline. As an officer, Hadrian kept his hair cropped short. Biography: Early Life and Induction - Born the son of Desh’ean nobles, Augustine Hadrian became fascinated at a remarkably young age of 4 by the gladiatorial battles held on almost every corner of his homeworld. His parent’s loathing of the "blood sports" only increased his appetite for the  savagery. As a member of the ruling class of Ultramar, young Hadrian was smothered by the weight of expectation. Attending lessons from dawn to dusk  on topics ranging from history, philosophy, astrology, arithmetic, and etiquette, Hadrian was raised as the future of the Ultima Segmentum.  For his part, Hadrian only thirsted for combat and to prove himself worthy of the Imperial Army, the proud and noble High Praxican Guard. Hadrian saw his way into a life of glory and service not through politics and book-learning but through martial prowess. Beyond that, he viewed the arena as the pinnacle of masculine honor and brotherly bonds. He observed combatants often taking wounds for one another or banding together to defeat greater foes. "Surely," he would muse, "nothing epitomizes the goals of the Empire more!"  Hadrian, always a restless soul, began sneaking to the arena to watch the pit fights. As a young lord, none questioned his right to attend, much less his truancy. So it came to be that Hadrian saw the Red Angel fight for the first time. He young boy was struck dumb by the sheer violence on display by the Red Angel and the seeming inevitability in his fights. Be it beasts, mechanical constructs, or other fighters, the Red Angel won again and again, his red chain becoming longer and longer; no black twists marred his tanned hide.  And then, the slaves revolted. Angron Thal'kyr, the Red Angel, whom Hadrian admired so much, became the spearhead of a peasant and slave uprising in Desh’ea, one that soon consumed the entire world of Nuceria. Those were dark and tumultuous days for Hadrian, shepherded from place to place, always one step ahead of the rebellion and always one step from death's door.  And then the Emperor came.  By smiting down the Red Angel and chaining him into service, the Master of Mankind saved Nuceria and brought it into the welcoming embrace of the Imperium of Man and the realm of Ultramar. But not all was light and salvation. Roboute Guilliman, Praetorian of all of Ultramar, was incensed by the activities on Nuceria, or at least he pretended to be. Someone as well-informed and omniscient as the Primarch could never have been unaware of what was going on. In order to broker peace with the new Imperium and to ease remaining tensions, Guilliman sought to censure and punish the noble houses who, in his view, had condoned such barbarity in the first place. From each, he took the first born sons for induction into his new army, the Legiones Astartes, the XIIIth, the Ultramarines. “You shall serve, one way or another.”  Hadrian was to be condemned to a life of servitude and shame for the sins of his parents and their parents and their parents before them; he was to live out his days as Fettered, the censured and dishonored of the Ultramarines. Surviving the implantation process and the transformative surgeries to become an Astartes, Hadrian could not wait to start. This was all he ever dreamed of from his first time watching in the Pits. Now he could prove himself not only to his family, his Empire, his Imperium, but to his gene-father and grandfather, the true Masters of Mankind. The Great Crusade, Hadrian's Rise Through the Ranks - **Personality**: Competent and capable, but becoming more and more disillusioned with his legion and his Primarch. Hadrian is a warrior first, politician second, and he is frustrated and shamed by his lack of patience for governance and politics. He feels that as a warrior, the ends justify the means and in applying the right tool for the job. He is a disciple of all aspects of war and has read as many different viewpoints on it as he can (including Thiels treatise on Astartes combat and Malcharion of the 8th's 'Tenebrous Path'). **Relationship with Army**: Respected and admired, he is a warrior king through and through, though he feels the crown sits ill on his brow. ![[Jake Session 1 - 3.jpg]] #coreplayer #ultramarines #traitor