Sevatar

The Prince of Crows, looking like he just came out of Fist of the North Star.

"Death to the False Emperor!"

– Jago Sevatarion - He said that first.

"Your way is the Eight Legion way now, but it has never been the only way. Just the easiest way."

– Jago Sevatarion, confronting Konrad Curze with the reality of his methods.

"If I gave you that assurance, you would actually believe me wouldn't you? Nobody as naive as you has any right to be patronizing, Ahzek. "

– Sevatar, mocking fellow First Captain Ahzek Ahriman.

Jago Sevatarion also known as Sevatar, the Prince of Crows and Master of the Atramentar, was (or MAYBE still is) the First Captain of the Night Lords Space Marine Legion, and along with Sigismund, Lucius, Abaddon, Kharn & Corswain was believed to be one of the greatest duelists of his age. Though that was probably due to his penchant for cheating fighting like a Night Lord, using all his resources to win a fight, and by simply being faster and better than most people. The only time he cheated so overtly was after many hours of duelling Sigismund to a standstill, whereupon he got bored and headbutted Sigismund, knocking him down in a completely unexpected move. Kharn would later attempt to do the same thing, whereupon Sigismund would slam Kharn's face into the ground. Though he technically cheated to win, he was still the only person to ever last anywhere near that long fighting Sigismund, who was almost certainly the greatest Astartes duelist of his time and probably the greatest who has ever lived. Additionally, saying he cheated because he was getting bored is not hyperbolic. He actually did just want the duel to end out of boredom, but he wasn't willing to simply throw in the towel. He also owed one to Sigismund, as the Imperial Fist captain had actually instigated the whole incident by surprise-attacking Sevatar.

He was also an impressively capable leader, by the fact that he managed to keep control over the Night Lords legion after Curze was badly injured by Lion El'Jonson, have people obey his orders to sacrifice themselves for others (not an easy thing when the people are Night Lords), adapt, and genuinely keep shit going pretty well... at least until Konrad Curze decided to wake up and waste it all in spite.

He was also a repressed psyker whose powers were slowly killing him.

Biography

Pre-heresy

As a child, he began displaying psychic powers and could hear the voices of the dead, alongside the thoughts of men or animals, which caused him pain. He was eventually taken into the Night Lords Legion, whereupon he began having terrible visions of the future. Konrad Curze and his advisors immediately learned of Sevatar's psychic issues, as Curze was specifically on the lookout for such occurrences. This was because he had learned over the years that if psykers in his legion started having visions similar to the way he did, it meant that the Night Lords gene-seed was in some way incompatible with its host. Once someone had become a legionnaire however, there was obviously nothing to be done about it; it isn't as though the Astartes modifications could be reversed. As such, Curze and other psychically attuned members of the legion attempted to suppress Sevatar's powers in the hope that they would simply atrophy with time. He also proved an extremely gifted and extremely ruthless combatant. Like most Night Lords, he had bone-white skin and jet-black eyes, and also had a Dracula-esque widow's peak. As pictured above, he also had a set of scars on his face that made it look like he was half sneering at all times.

Sevatar would eventually rise to the rank of First Captain, making him second in command of his Legion and equerry to his Primarch. This was by dint of simply being right almost all the time, which made him a very capable tactician and strategist, although it left him with an air of arrogance. He tended to dismiss the concerns of the legion's Terran-born Astartes, and had difficulty interacting both with them and with the regular humans in the Expeditionary Fleet. He seemingly cared little about these issues, but would admit that he felt envy at those who could so effortlessly joke and bond with others.

He was apparently quite famous amongst the various branches of the Imperial military, as he'd been featured in "countless inspirational Imperial holos" relaying the deeds of the Astartes greatest heroes. He was also described as sounding like an "avalanche somehow given the power to sneer." He is also well known both in and out-of-universe as being one of the single most snarky motherfuckers in the entire galaxy, and exceedingly blunt with other ranking officers and even Primarchs. He was such an annoying dick that he actually managed to irritate Magnus of all people back during the Heresy, and even sardonically called him Uncle at one point. After which both Magnus and Curze himself told Sevatar to shut up. He also found other people's opinions to be generally tiresome, typically because those people were genuinely not as intelligent or insightful as he was. He was also said to be so generally emotionless that he was thought to fake most of his reactions. Sevatar himself acknowledged this tendency in his private thoughts, and noted that he tended to respond in whatever manner he either thought was expected or appropriate to others. In truth, he had virtually no intrinsic emotional reactions to almost anything. For example, in one particular instance of Sevatar speaking with a Night Lords officer called Sheng, the latter commented that he found a bit of scenery to be beautiful. Sevatar agreed, but in his private thoughts, noted that he had no idea how to judge whether or not something was beautiful, and simply agreed because he assumed he was supposed to. He also based a significant amount of his interpersonal reactions on what he'd seen other people doing in similar situations. He would, for instance, often smile in greeting because that seemed to be what other people typically did. The most outstanding bit of personality that he seemed to possess was his sardonic wit, as he did seem to find at least mild amusement in mocking those he found to be exasperating.

At some point after the Council of Nikaea, it fell to Sevatar to make the decision about what to do with the Night Lords Librarius, as Curze apparently couldn't be bothered to do so. Sevatar also seemed not to care about what happened to them, and left their fates up to individual company commanders. He did banish their Chief Librarian Fel Zharost back to Terra.

Heresy

At the outset of the Horus Heresy, he was the first person to utter the phrase: "Death to the False Emperor!" during one of Horus' briefings for the Isstvan trap, making him one of the most significant characters of the entire setting.

Sevatar also wore red gauntlets, a sign that he was condemned to be killed by the hands of his Primarch at a moment of his choosing. This was a sentence usually reserved for "Traitors and Fools" though it seems that Sevatar considered himself to be both. What he did to be condemned this way is unknown, but Curze never seemed to have any actual interest in having him executed.

During the Thramas Crusade, when Curze was injured and left comatose after being ambushed by Lion El'Jonson at Sheol, Sevatar was left as acting commander (mostly by killing several other contenders). He then declared that they had done all that Horus had demanded of them and that they should from then on do whatever they wanted to do. So he broke the Legion into six great companies that would operate independently and be under no singular commander where they could rape and pillage to their hearts content, becoming true renegades.

Sevatar then tried using his psychic powers to commune with his Primarch and awaken Curze from his coma, but the Primarch wasn't that interested and knocked him the fuck out. While Sevatar was asleep, the Dark Angels had discovered the Night Lords and outmaneuvered them by using a sentient warp engine that the Lion had discovered earlier in the crusade. After he awoke, Sevatar attempted to retreat out through the Dark Angels' battle lines, until Curze awoke of his own accord and declared that he wanted to board the Dark Angel's flagship instead; which Sevatar proceeded to do by hitching a ride on top of a space fighter. Unfortunately he was overwhelmed and captured.

While a captive of the First Legion, he was contacted by one of their Astropaths on board the Invincible Reason. He initially mistook her for one of the voices of the dead that he was used to hearing, and while in solitary confinement he confessed his sins and failings to her, saying that he saw himself as an agent of justice rather than a soldier or cruel killer. After realising who she was, he eventually came to an understanding with her, reading her mind in turn, discovering that she had been badly beaten and left crippled by her Legion overseer for speaking to him. She helped him escape by freezing his guards and allowing him to escape, but Sevatar chose not to flee. Instead, he made his way to her chambers and strangled the overseer to death, something he saw as his "duty" to perform considering the treatment suffered by the young astropath. After that, he went back to his cell and surrendered again to the Dark Angels.

Rather interestingly, his internal monologuing, his conversation with the Astropath, and a trip inside of Curze's mindscape may have actually succeeded in turning Sevatar into what Curze had always hoped his Legion would become. It seemed to dawn on him during this introspection that there was very little genuine justice in what the Night Lords did, merely order. The incident was noted to have given him a sort of cold focus that had long eluded him, and his psychic powers also appeared to no longer be killing him. Where this will go, if anywhere, has yet to be seen.

Now with voice acting!

Death(?)

It was said that Sevatar was eventually killed during the Horus Heresy at some point before the Siege of Terra. It's not quite figured out where or by who yet. And considering the character of his Primarch and Legion as well as the nature of his condemnation, it might not be that glorious a death either... though there are rumors that he may still be alive somewhere. It is highly unlikely however, that Curze would have been the one to have killed him. Curze's movements after the Thramas Crusade are fairly well documented, and at no point was he recorded to have encountered Sevatar after the Crusade's end. He himself seemed surprised after the Heresy to learn that Sevatar was "dead". It should be noted that Curze learning of Sevatar's death was presented as a Night Lords legionnaire reminding his completely insane Primarch of something he should already have known, or had been told previously. The only chance Curze would have even had to kill Sevatar would have been during their stay aboard the Invincible Reason, where Sevatar had been imprisoned and Curze had been hunting Dark Angels. It also would have had to have happened offscreen, and Curze would have then needed to tell others, forget that it had happened, and be reminded, for the above exchange to have occured.

As of the start of the Siege of Terra books, the last time he was seen was as a prisoner on the Invincible Reason by Gendor Skraivok via the powers of the Pharos. Konrad Curze apparently hadn't seen him since the end of the Thramas Crusade and neither had the majority of the legion, casting doubt on whether he was actually on Terra during the Siege or not. Seeing as the Lion was busy burning traitor worlds during the Siege, it remains to be seen if he managed to escape.

Some on /tg/ believe he might have ended up as a Knight-Errant (which is unlikely, given that most of them are now gone to Titan) or perhaps one of/the first of the Carcharodons.

Tabletop

Sevatar

	Pts	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
Sevatar	175	7	5	4	4	3	6	4	9	3+

Horus Heresy 1.0

As mentioned, Sevatar was considered one of the deadliest warriors of his age and his rules do not disappoint, though he does not compare to Sigismund in terms of who would win in a straight up "fair" fight (though he was said to have beaten Sigismund in a duel by cheating) (Actually he headbutts Sigismund so the duel gets suspended. Not really much like cheating, more like going for a tactical victory) nor does he match up to Kharn in terms of overall killiness.

Instead, Sevatar has some nasty tricks up his sleeves. He inflicts Instant Death while in a challenge and has four WS7 I6 S5 AP3 Rending, Master-Crafted attacks. While this might not necessarily seem scary to a character with Artificer/Terminator armour, just remember that they only need to fail one save against him unless they are Eternal Warriors. However, as of book 9 Sev is finally ready to take his place as a supreme badass character killer. For 35 points (worth it...) you can equip him with Artificer Armour and a shiny new chainglaive with a silly name and Duelists Edge and AP2 (and yes, it is still Master Crafted). So, if you can get everything right, you'll end up I7 in a challenge (I8 if in Terror Assault), with 4 base attacks, likely hitting and wounding on a 2+ (if you outnumber), rerolling to hit / wound and his 2+/4++ saves. This makes him absolutely evil and he will hack through most characters, but like his fluff, he has avoided becoming tabletop mary sue like Sigismund.

He also is a repressed psyker, which in rules terms means he can only harness two warp charges in a turn, but since he has only one power that's not such a terrible condition. That power is "Precognition" which further turns him into a monster character since he can re-roll pretty much anything. Which means he can really push for those rending AP2 melee attacks if he really needs to hurt something.

Finally, he prevents scatter for deep-striking Terminators if they're deployed within 6" of him, and if he's the warlord Atramentar Terminators become troops and he has Master of Ambush as his warlord trait, meaning you can pull sneaky infiltration shenanigans while also dropping a giant murderball of Terminators exactly where you want them to go.

Also remember he is a Night Lord, meaning that if his unit outnumbers the enemy at any initiative step, he gains a +1 on to hit and to wound rolls, which when coupled with Master Crafted and his Precognition means he will likely be hitting and wounding on rerollable 2+.

Horus Heresy 2.0

The badass motherfucker of the VIII Legion is back with some rule changes for 2.0. Gone is his Master of Ambush trait from before. Now his warlord trait gives Deep Strike to Legion Terminators in Cataphractii or Tartaros armour, as well as giving Preferred Enemy (Everything) to Contekar and Legion Terminators on the turn in which they arrive from Deep Strike. He also gives an additional reaction in the movement phase. He has the standard 2+/4++ you would expect, along with Bloody Murder, Fear (2), and Precision Strikes (4+), and a standard bolt pistol.

But how does he measure up in combat? He comes with a Master-crafted Two-handed S+2 AP2 Chainglaive with Murderous Strike (6+) and Duellist's Edge (1), which for some reason doesn't have Shred despite it being a chain weapon. That's all well and good, but we're not done yet. Sevatar is a dirty fighter, which means he gains Instant Death on all his attacks while in a Challenge, and since he's I6 (I7 with the Duellist's Edge bonus) and has four attacks at WS7 (or WS8, but we'll get to that) he's sure to blend pretty much anyone short of Sigismund or a Primarch.

The last thing he brings is a psychic power meant to replace the absolute cheese that was Precognition in 1.0. His Dark Dreams require him to take a Psychic test against Ld7 and if he passes he gets WS+1 (making him WS8) and +1 attack. It's cool, but not really worth rolling for unless he's up against someone of equivalent or greater WS since it has a 43% chance of failing and causing Perils and he's already good enough against most opponents. Just remember to watch out for Instant Death or Sisters of Silence, as they'll royally fuck him up. Moreover, you'll get messed up by anyone who gets bonuses against Psykers even if you don't use your power, so look out for those. All that being said however, Sevatar is still essentially tied with Corswain as the second best duelist character in all the Legions (with Sigismund of course being first).