Uriel Ventris

Captain Ventris

Uriel Ventris is the Brother-Captain of the Ultramarines Fourth Company (the Defenders of Ultramar), a descendant of Veteran-Sergeant Lucian Ventris of the First Company, and one of the only Smurfs not depicted as a full-blown Mary Sue other than Captain Motherfucking Titus. He is the main character in Graham McNeill's Ultramarine novel series. He is essentially the Fourth Company version of Captain Titus. He's pretty cool for that.

He wears a suit of Artificer Armor, wields Idaeus' power sword and a Boltgun. When he made the transition to Primaris, remained seemingly unchanged with the exception of actually getting a model this time.

History of Captain Ventris

• Early Life - Born on Calth on the year of 876.M41 to a family of underground farmers. He is recruited into the Ultramarines for training and vows to be the greatest warrior Macragge has ever seen.

• Training - After being accepted as an Aspirant, Uriel is taken to the Aegisleus Barracks on Macragge. He trains with fellow Calth native Pasanius Lysane and Macragge native Learchus Abantes. The three are eventually accepted as both Scouts and full battle-brothers of the 4th Company under Captain Idaeus.

• Deathwatch Secondment - At some point Uriel serves a Vigil with the Deathwatch, the Chamber Militant of the Ordo Xenos. One of his missions is to hunt down Moriana, the damned seer of Failbaddon the Armless, but the planet's harsh conditions prove too much for even a Space Marine, forcing Ventris and his Kill-Team to abort the mission. Ventris eventually returns to the Ultramarines and becomes Sergeant of a Tactical Squad under Idaeus.

• Black Bone Road - The Fourth Company is tasked by an Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor to investigate the turmoil and sudden rebellion of the world known as Epsilon Regalis. Ventris and Captain Idaeus ask Inquisitior Markhov about the enemy they are facing, but being a regular Inquisition-fuckwit, he tells them jack shit. The Fourth Company is able to capture the psyker responsible for the world's rebellion (how one psyker mind-controlled a whole world into rebellion is a whole 'nother can of worms) only after having their anuses wrecked brutally by the psyker's might. But Inquisitor Markhov puts a holy collar on him (a collar with spikes in it that should have pierced his jugular and killed him) and they ship him away on a Rhino. However, the psyker still has some power left to make one of the Ultramarines manning the lascannon of a predator shoot at the Rhino carrying him (Brother Smurf, you team-killing fucktard!), killing Markhov as well. The psyker basically wrecks more of the Ultramarines shit, until Captain Idaeus finally pulls off the kid gloves and calls down an airstrike on their position. Ventris whines about it not being a Codex maneuver, but Idaeus ignores him and does it anyway. The psyker's influence finally fades on the populace, and the Ultramrines leave Epsilon Regalis victorious. This event was key in Ventris's life, as it showed him that a Marine did not have to think within the confines of the Codex Astartes to win a battle.

• The Thracia Campaign - The Fourth Company, under command of Captain Idaeus, are tasked with destroying a bridge. Captain Idaeus sacrifices himself to complete the mission and Ventris is placed in command in his stead.

• The First Battle for Pavonis - Captain Ventris and the Fourth Company are tasked with quelling a local rebellion on the mining world of Pavonis. The depths of the rebellion are realized when it turns out their leader has Dark Eldar allies (allies in the very temporary sense, they are Dark Eldar). Things go from bad to worse when it is realized that Pavonis is a Necron Tomb World. Objecting to the Inquisitions desire to subject Pavonis to Exterminatus, Captain Ventris confronts the Necrons and barely escapes with his life, Lysanne's prosthetic is melded with Necron living metal, but the fight results in the release of a shard of the Nightbringer upon the galaxy.

• The Battle of Tarsis Ultra - The Fourth Company, along with Imperial Guard forces, elements of the Mortifactors Chapter, Inquisitor Kryptman, and a Deathwatch Kill-Team, defend the world of Tarsis Ultra against a tendril of Hive Fleet Kraken. Captain Ventris and the Kill-Team capture a lictor for the inquisitor to experiment on and he is able to devise a toxin to use against the Norn-Queen. The leader of the Kill-Team, Captain Bannon of the Imperial Fists, was killed in action and Captain Ventris brings it upon himself to lead the Kill-Team. This decision is met by discontent from Uriel's battle-brothers, but he leads the Kill-Team anyway. The assault is successful, but Captain Ventris nearly loses his life but for emergency surgery. Victory is barely attained by Imperial forces and the death toll is heavy for everyone. When Captain Ventris returns to Macragge, he is immediately accused of heresy for breaking from the Codex Astartes (specifically, by abandoning his Battle-Brothers to join the Kill-Team).

• Trial of Uriel Ventris and Pasanius Lysanne: Upon returning to Ultramar, Uriel and Brother-Sergeant Pasanius Lysanne (his closest friend from their training) are charged with heresy for violating the Codex Astartes during his Captaincy. Cato Sicarius leads the prosecution, citing violations of Thunderhawk vehicle safety, unorthodox tactics, and abandoning his men on the eve of battle. First Captain Severus Agemman visits Uriel in his cell and talks with him, saying that the Codex Astartes' ultimate purpose is not to make the ultimate Space Marine, but a loyal Space Marine, and that without having it to account for their actions, the Ultramarines would be no different than the Black Legion. Recognizing the seriousness of what he's placed the Chapter in, Ventris and Lysanne agree to forgo their right to defend their actions. Chapter Master Marneus Calgar orders them on a Death Oath to destroy the Daemonculaba, located in the Eye of Terror.

• Death Oath on Medrengard: Exiled, Ventris and Lysanne join a Macragge regiment heading for the Cadian Gate, but as the ship enters the Warp, its Gellar Field fails, allowing daemons to enter the ship. The Omphalous Daemonium, a Daemon Prince of Khorne, charges the exiled Astartes with bringing him the Heart of Blood from Medrengard. Ventris lies to the daemon, accepting and seeing it as a means to get to Medrengard. The former Ultramarines discover a group of renegade Astartes lead by Ardaric Vaanes of the Raven Guard, where they learn that the Heart of Blood is a Bloodthirster and rival of the Omphalous Daemonium, and bound to the fortress of a Warsmith of the Iron Warriors. Uriel convinces the renegades to join him and Lysanne. Their entry into the fortress is discovered, and Uriel Ventris meets Honsou, who is to become his archenemy. Placed within the Daemonculaba, Ventris defies expectations and breaks out with Lysanne, Vaanes, two Renegade Astartes, and two Imperial Guard slaves. They meet the Unfleshed, the failures of the Daemonculaba, who still love the God-Emperor of Mankind so much they built a shrine to God before the gates of Hell. Vaanes leaves Ventris and his allies, blaming them for the deaths of his men. Despite this setback, the group breaks back into the fortress and destroys the wards holding the Heart of Blood- which the Omphalous Daemonium had anticipated, just as planned. The two Daemons fight while Leonid stays behind to buy them time, as Ventris and Lysanne encounter Honsou and his lieutenants Cadaras Grendel and Onyx. The Heart of Blood is victorious, allowing Ventris, Lysanne, and the surviving Unfleshed to escape in the Omphalous Daemonium's train of the damned. Unknown to Ventris, Honsou survives, with a genetic clone of Ventris known as the Newborn, and recruits Vaanes to train the new Iron Warrior.

• Stay on Salinas: Being deposited on the Imperial world of Salinas by the Omphalos Daemonium's death train, Ventris, Lysanne, and the Unfleshed find themselves in an abandoned city which was clearly the site of a massacre. Their presence does not go unnoticed by the Imperial authorities, and they are taken to the capital of Barbadus to meet Governor Leto Barbaden. The governor agrees to let Ventris work with their Astropaths to send a message to Macragge, and then go to the Barbadus Gallery of Antiquities and find some Beakie armour Ventris gives some much needed attention to. While tending to the armour, the curator tells Ventris of how the Achaman Falcatas, an Imperial Guard regiment given the right of settlement for their service, "conquered" Salinas even though its populace hadn't actually broken away from the Imperium, which led to the rise of an insurgent group known as the Sons of Salinas. The ensuing war ended when Barbaden, who was the regiment's Colonel at the time and later the planetary governor, utterly wiped out the city of Khartuian under the false pretenses that it was sheltering the rebels. This provoked the Sons leader, Sylvanus Thayer, into a homicidal rage that allowed him to be easily led into a trap. However, Ventris and Lysanne's arrival weakened the barrier between the Materium and the Immaterium (which was already thinned after a daemonic incursion millennia earlier). This in turn allowed the vengeful ghosts of the innocents slain by the Falcatas to take control of the Unfleshed, who subsequently slaughtered the Screaming Eagles company responsible for the massacre. Ventris and Lysanne try to stop them, but are in turn captured by the Grey Knights stationed on the planet. Brother-Captain Leodegarius tests Ventris's purity, mildly raping his mind and having him grab a holy dagger from a pot of boiling holy oils to test his loyalty and flesh. Satisfied that both are pure, Ventris and Lysanne are commanded to fight Leodegarius one on one to see if they can beat him, as only servants of Chaos can kill a Grey Knight. After making both Ultramarines his bitches, Leodegarius declares Ventris and Lysanne so pure of taint that the Grey Knights personally oversee them reclad in power armour. Removing Barbaden from power, Ventris and Lysanne join the Grey Knights in trying to stop the Warp rift threatening to open due to the concentrated anguish of the ghost's. After seeing images of the Killing Grounds massacre, Ventris convinces Leodegarius to lower the aegis shield preventing Thayer from attacking Barbaden, allowing the dead to kill the Governor, while Ventris gives the Lord of the Unfleshed (who had been possessed by Thayer's ghost) the Emperor's Peace. Daron Nisato, the former regimental Commissar and current Chief of Police, is appointed the new Governor and issues an amnesty to the remaining Sons of Salinas, while Ventris and Lysanne are returned to Macragge by the Grey Knights.

• Second Battle for Pavonis: After being declared free of taint by the Apothecarion, Chaplaincy, and Librarius, Ventris is restored as Captain of the Fourth Company. Lysane, however, is reduced in rank for lying about his Necron tainted augmetic arm and placed in solitary confinement for 100 days. Ventris and the Fourth are redeployed to Pavonis, only to learn that Mykola Shonai, the former Governor who Uriel had ensured served out her term, invited the Tau to Pavonis in an attempt to revive its flagging fortunes. Ventris leads the Imperial defense, eventually confronting the Ethereal leading the invasion and forcing a Tau withdrawal under threat of Exterminatus, with Ventris realizing that he actually would use the measure to deny the Tau Pavonis. The campaign succeeds and all doubt about Ventris's loyalty is dispelled, but upon returning to the Fourth's Strike Cruiser Vae Victus, Ventris is informed that Tarsis Ultra has been destroyed.

• Invasion of Ultramar: Suffering strange dreams of a life at the Schola Progenium, Ventris is called to a meeting of the Ultramarines Chapter Council to learn that Honsou has taken the star-fort Indomitable, freed the previously believed destroyed Daemon Prince M'kar, and launched a Black Crusade against Ultramar. Working with Captain Aethon Shaan of the Raven Guard Fourth Company, who is after Vaanes for previous crimes and for siding with Honsou, and Inquisitor Namira Suzaku of the Ordo Malleus, Ventris leads the defence of Calth against the Bloodborn forces arrayed against it with his new Command Squad, the Swords of Calth. Learning of the Newborn, Ventris agrees to undergo a mechanical operation to learn more about it, learning his name was Sammuquan. Capturing Vaanes, the Swords of Calth, Squad Lysane, and Shaan's Command Squad journey to the tomb of Ventanus, where Honsou has been dispatched to destroy the tomb and, more specifically, the athame dagger that Ventanus used against M'kar ten thousand years ago. Managing to free the Newborn from Honsou's control before killing him, Ventris and his brothers fought the Iron Warriors, with Vaanes redeeming himself before being killed by Honsou. The Ultramarines and the Raven Guard were nearly killed themselves when all of a sudden the ghost of Remus Ventanus and the Legion of the Damned showed up and took out most of the Iron Warriors, where Ventris revealed the true name of M'kar: Maloq Kartho. Honsou managed to escape by detonating the tomb, but Ventris and the Imperials survived to lead the routing of the leaderless Bloodborn. Quickly making speed to Talassar to relieve Marneus Calgar and the First Company, Ventris speaks M'kar's mortal name aloud and throws the athame to Calgar, who uses it to cause a true death, utterly obliterating M'kar's soul. While victorious, M'kar and Honsou's rampage wiped out the populations of two worlds of Ultramar and killed 347 Ultramarines (over a third of the Chapter), leaving the Ultramarines unable to participate in the Imperial counter offensive against Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade.
  • This however does not stop Calgar and Sicarius to lead the Ultramarines to reclaim Damnos (which is now a Major Tomb world) right after this, before you ask, Phil Kelly wrote this.

• Plague Wars: Uriel did not participate in the Indomitus Crusade led by Guiliman, he and his company were left behind to defend Ultramar under the command of Calgar. He was sent to deliver a message to Roboute Guilliman informing him of Mortarion's presence in Ultramar and the need of the Primarch to return. Is currently fighting in the Plague Wars against the Death Guard and Nurgle's demonic legions.

• Vigilus Defiant: Since the 4th company is on Vigilus it's likely Uriel is too.

• Age of the Dark Imperium: At some (currently) unknown point in the 42nd Millenium he crossed the Rubicon Primaris.

Suddenly Tabletop

A shame he became Primaris; but at least he's finally usable... and surprisingly good on the battlefield too.

Uriel Ventris's rules have been revealed; and players of the Fourth Company will likely rejoice!

	Pts	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	A	Ld	Sv	Special
Uriel Ventris	110	6	2+	2+	4	4	6	5	9	3+/4++

Uriel is surprisingly powerful; his initial stats put him on the same level as a standard Primaris Captain with Invictus, nasty Rapid Fire 1 S4 AP-2 D2 bolter with 30" of range allowing him to easily back up Intercessors and the Sword of Idaeus:, a S+1, AP-3 Damage 3 sword. His warlord trait, Paragon of War, kind of sucks, but his special rules are the main star of the show. On top of keeping the usual Rites of Battle for the hit reroll aura, his Unorthodox Strategist rule discounts the Adaptive Strategy stratagem, making a unit benefit from all three doctrines at once for only one CP! Additionally, if you're playing in a Crusade campaign, he gets Master of the Fleet to grant an additional Orbital Bombardment and make them cheaper.

Compared to the supportive and physical powerhouses that are Guilliman and Calgar, Ventris isn't the strongest character, but his Unorthodox Strategist rule is extremely powerful; especially if combined with the aforementioned characters. Calgar in particular allows Ventris to further discount Adaptive Strategy if Papa Smurf's the warlord; on account of Adept of the Codex potentially refunding the cost. 110 points is an actual steal, considering that's only five points more than the standard captain with power sword.

Trivia

The last name Ventris means "guts".