Victor Saltzpyre

"From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step."

– Denis Diderot

"BY THE HAMMER AND THE EMPIRE, I ABJURE THEE!"

– Victor himself

The face of Vermintide himself. The Witch Hunter. Victor Saltzpyre is a member of the Ubersreik Five, being one of the sole survivor of the massacre that happened there on that faithful day. Fanatic, crazy, devoted to his duty, draconian and obsessed, Victor makes the Inquisition look rather tame in comparision. However, even as a deranged servitor of Sigmar, he remains a great comrade to those who surround him. That is, if they can grow on him. Saltzpyre has proven to be a good companion. He's nowhere near as patient as Bardin, Markus or Sienna, but he is as rigtheous as a Witch Hunter gets, and his friendship is a treasure to be cherished.

And he's a motherfucking badass.

Sigmar never had a preacher more useful and devoted than Saltzpyre. Making even Emperor Karl Franz absolutely shudder when Victor's name is uttered. It is unknown if he survived the End Times and moved to the new world to become a Sigmarine, but one thing's for sure, any god wished they had a devotee as cool as him.

The Man, the Myth, The Legend

History

Victor was the son of blacksmith who served the Order of the Silver hammer. And from a very young age, he already nothing but aspiration to become a worthy servant of Sigmar (or so he claims). One day, a Witch Hunter Captain noticed him training and thought he had a lot of potential. The captain was proven right when Victor succesfully passed the gruesome, inhumane training rituals of the Witch Hunters with great success, and he went on to have a long career as a servitor of Sigmar.

Twenty years later though, Victor was pursuing a vampire's thrall. That thrall happened to be the daughter of a burgomeister who had a lot of influence in the Empire. As Saltzpyre pursued her in her dad's mines, he found her near a strange pile of green stones. It was warpstone. It didn't take long for the Skavens to show up, a threat Saltzpyre had never seen before, and of which the Empire "supposedly" never heard of. He came back victorious from it, although without losing his eyes and being terribly bruised. It turned out that the burgomeister had trade deals with the Skavens who supplied him with slaves and the vampire that made his daughter a thrall. The situation gets shaky and we don't know exactly what entailed after that, since Victor has some very troubled memories of this incident, but we do know that the noble was properly hanged after Victor denounced him. The fate of the girl seems to be what Victor tries to remove from his memories though...

Nonetheless, he emerged a different man. He only had one thing in mind; killing rats of unusual size. He searched for information on them, tried to look for their dreaded cities and camps, and hunted them down one by one. Skaven after Skaven, litter after litter.

In the events of the first game, Victor was escorting Sienna Fuegonasus through Ubersreik so that she could be properly judged and (probably) executed for having been accused of murdering the son of the burgomeister of the city. But then wouldn't you have it, the Skavens decided to strike the city, and the two found themselves in a dire situation, forced to team up along with Markus Kruber, Bardin Goreksson and Kerillian to make it out of Ubersreik alive. As well as saving the locals. At least, what's left of them.

Personality and Relationships

Saltzpyre is an extremely pious person. His faith in Sigmar is so intense that even perhaps a priest wouldn't be so obsessed with him. All of his career choices in Vermintide 2 indicate that despite the odds stacking against him and the Empire disapproving his decisions or acts, Victor remains a devotee to his god. Perhaps as a way to shelter his insecurities and personal troubles with his mysterious past. He has been proven to be very emotional under the effects of alcohol, but his drunken rants proved that he never really wanted to be a Witch Hunter, or that he was that much of devotee to begin with. However, his respect for Sigmar remains strong, as he genuinely believes that his faith in him shelters him from all harm. And especially the influence of Chaos.

Saltzpyre stated that he initially wished to be a Steam Tank driver. Indicating that he never wanted to be a Witch Hunter in the first place, he would have nonetheless wanted to join the guard like Kruber did. Outside of his unbending faith in Sigmar, Saltzpyre most importantly admires the men of the Empire. Not Bretonnians, but people from his land most importantly. He does not seem to mind the other human gods, given that he merely snarks about other gods like Taal or Myrmidia. He is, however, less open regarding the gods of other races, or even other races period. During the first game, he keeps referring to Bardin as "Master Dwarf" or simply "Dwarf", and calls Kerillian "the elf". This attitude persist in Vermintide 2, but to a much lesser extent. He also vehemently hates magic. Oh, he hates it so much. Whether it is remarking that it makes Sienna, aka "That wicked witch", the most unstable member of the team, or complaining about Oleysa's demands to do something about his magical ventures. Needless to say, he does not necessarily approve of the College of Magic.

Saltzpyre's greatest friend is Kruber. He rarely refers to him by his actual name, as he deeply respects him, even remarking that with men like him "the Empire shall never fall". Markus seems him as a good friend, but clearly someone who is above him due to his status as a witch hunter. That is until he becomes a Knight of the Lady.

Saltzpyre and Bardin's relationship is... Cordial. Bardin wants to be friends with everyone, but Victor is having none of that. Often remarking that the jolly nature of the dwarf often clashes with this situation they find themselves in, and that having fun on the job is not something he is personally too fond of. Nonetheless, Bardin supports him, since he seems to be aware of the shit Victor went through to be where he is now. He even made a letter to clear Saltzpyre's name out of any suspicion from the Order. Signed in Markus' name. It worked.

Sienna thinks Saltzpye is an old geezer who could be a nice bloke if he really putted in the effort. At first, Victor clearly was not fond of her. But as the years passed, he eventually accepted her as a team member. Sienna loves to taunt him over his insecurities or his devotion to Sigmar, and Victor himself does not hesitate to throw some flak back when Sigmar deems it necessary. That being said, Sienna finds herself often surprised by the hidden layers of Saltzpyre, when he allows her to see them.

When it comes to Kerillian Victor's second target after Sienna, the elf has been the subject of many of his suspicions. So much so that he keeps his sole eye opened at night, spying on her. Saltzpyre thinks he's onto something (and he's right). Kerillian likes to taunt him the most out of everyone else, and she gets most of the insults from him as well. They don't appreciate each other, given how one rejects the elven gods more than any other man alive, and how the other despises the short-sightedness and tomfoolery of humanity. Odd friendship or bitter rivals? We'll let you decide.

Saltzpyre in game

Vermintide I: In the first game, the heroes are all mechanically the same and differentiated by weapons. Saltzpyre prefers lighter arms that give him a high degree of mobility at the expense of his defences. His signature weapon is the rapier, a light thrusting sword ideal for scoring headshots; his alternative melee options include a slower but stronger hatchet that can cleave armoured ratmen, a mighty two-handed sword meant for chopping through the hordes, and a falchion which excels at rapid light attack headshots and charged attacks. Salty's signature ranged, the brace of pistols, can riddle ratmen with bullets firing in rapid succession and deal with targets at close to medium ranges; he can also take a crossbow for long-range sniping, the famed rapid-fire Nuln repeater pistol which can stop charging ratmen dead in their tracks despite the poor long-range accuracy, or a repeating volley crossbow which is more of a halfway-house.

Vermintide II: On top of having some new melee and ranged toys to play with (including a horde-clearing flail, a badass armour-defeating English bill hook that can stagger berserkers and armoured units out of their attacks, and a duckfoot pistol that shreds clustered light enemies like a shotgun), Saltzpyre along with the rest of the U5 has a choice of three careers with unique abilities, class features and potential loadout:

• Witch Hunter Captain: After finally receiving actual PROMOTIONS thanks to the other Witch Hunters dropping like flies as the war drags on, Saltzpyre gets a spiffing new hat and bunch of new features that let him bolster the offensive power of his allies. Enemies tagged by Victor take +20% extra damage, he can instantly slay any man-sized enemy (that is a non-boss enemy smaller than a Chaos Warrior) with a crit headshot, and he can block light attacks from the front at no stamina cost. On top of that his Animosity ultimate lets him shout out and knock all enemies back in a radius, and all nearby allies find their critical hit chance go up for 6 seconds. Witch Hunter Captain is an absolutely bonkers-strong hero who relies on good play on the fundamentals of the game and can deal with almost any situation if kitted out properly.
• Bounty Hunter: This career represents what would happen if Victor called out the Order of the Silver Hammer on their cover-up fuckery and cut ties with them to fund his own private war against the Skaven. Though technically still a Witch Hunter, Victor doesn't answer the phone to the others and has tempered his zeal, becoming more of a combat pragmatist as a result. This is a Saltzpyre who specializes in ranged combat and his ability toolkit fits that, including his ridiculously awesome Locked and Loaded ultimate where he pulls out a sawed-off and blasts everyone with a powerful shot that penetrates multiple targets in a line and devastates bosses' HP. The problem is friendly fire, this is one of the few things that can down a teammate in one shot. Non-Kerillian players didn't see the problem. Give him a brace of pistols or the volley crossbow and you're golden. Just be careful because these features come at the cost of his melee toolkit, he doesn't have the WHC's panic button and he is also quite a bit squishier. Probably his weakest class overall, but it'a a firm fan favourite.
• Zealot: Unfortunately, this career represents Saltzpyre being driven over the edge by what he saw at the Fall of Ubersreik and his growing frustrations at his colleague's refusal to see the Skaven as a threat. He has given up on earthly organizations and placed his faith in Sigmar alone, becoming a fanatic in the process. The polar opposite of the Bounty Hunter, the Zealot welcome vicious close combat and gains some seriously powerful buffs as he loses health - after all, the end times are nigh, why not shed a little blood before we go? He gets the Holy Fervour ultimate which dashes him forward and boosts his attack speed by +25%, uninterruptible heavy attacks (making him and the flail a match made in heaven) and the chance to shrug off death after taking lethal damage, letting him fight on just a bit longer (though he's not invincible - the next one will down him). Powerful, if a little counter-intuitive thanks to how Temporary HP and healing work in this game.
• Warrior Priest (DLC): After the Chaos Wastes expedition, Saltzpyre came back a changed man and found that, ironically enough for a man who has dedicated his life to hunting witches, that he is one of the few humans capable of channeling magic. Rededicating himself to the Order of the Silver Hammer as a Warrior Priest of Sigmar, he's simply stopped with the bureaucracy of the Order and taken a more... direct approach. While he loses access to his ranged weapons, Warrior Priest Salty is a powerhouse who gains unique melee weapons like the flail and shield, the skull-splitter and the Reckoner. He's tanky as shit, can smite enemies from time to time for massive damage, and his Shield of Faith ultimate generates a shield of invincibility for 5 seconds on himself and his allies, and the shield explodes outwards when it expires, damaging all enemies around. Gloriously strong career in attack and defence, just watch out as he can be easily overwhelmed.