Editing Setting:Cloudburst/People (section)

==High Keeper Vanados Elkop of the Novamarines==
{{Topquote|I stand watch over the darkest secrets of Cloudburst. I command our ships, and they fly. I cull those who not deserve the honor of His Majesty’s trust. You want to know what I value? Restraint. Our work would be a billion times smoother if every mortal with a sense of curiosity could keep it in check. The darkness is old and full of horrors, from which humans should keep well enough away.|Vanados Elkop}}

Historically, the Deathwatch was meant to be little more than a joint-service elite strike force, consisting of Space Marines from different Chapters with different tactics, to face the many alien enemies of Man with its full array of options. Over time, the Deathwatch absorbed other functions. The Inquisition now uses some Deathwatch Fortresses as caches for archaeotech or xenotech too dangerous to entrust to the Mechanicus (or Inquisition). Other Fortresses serve as de facto deconstitution points for Chapters that have been wiped out completely but can’t stomach the idea of survivors being absorbed into another normal Chapter, so the remainder can serve as Blackshields. To oversee the protocols and facilities of the Deathwatch in all their various forms and dangers, the Deathwatch has created the custom role of the Keepers.

Chief of the Keepers on Watch Fortress Dascomb is Vanados Elkop of the Novamarines, a former Sternguard Sergeant. His service with the Novamarines was lengthy but undistinguished, but he took the Vigil with gusto and deftness. Like the Techmarine and Chaplain roles in a conventional Chapter, the Keeper role is a volunteer one and admission is controlled by the incumbents. Watch Commanders can nominate individuals to serve as Keepers, but they only go through the tests and initiations at their own request, and there is no lasting stigma against failed candidates – not everybody can keep secrets as a Keeper must do.

Vanados volunteered for the role, and barely made it, but settled in well. Prior to becoming a member of senior officers of the Watch Fortress, he served for seventeen years as one of the seven Keepers stationed on Dascomb at all times, then as a Shipmaster for the Deathwatch Frigate Unseen Blade. After that, he rose to command Watch Station Bunker for four years, and then returned to Dascomb to guard its hidden inner vaults of lost xenotech and gene samples.

After that, he rose by default into the position of High Keeper by dint of seniority. He is a skilled and patient Keeper, but so far, has not proved himself exceptional in any particular way. Of course, by mere virtue of being a Veteran High Keeper of the Deathwatch, he is already far above most Marines in skill, but as is a natural consequence of being in the Deathwatch, what is extraordinary elsewhere is ordinary there.

Personally, Vanados is a quiet, focused, calm, and reliable Marine, who does not care for ostentation. He has entered the confidence of High Inquisitrix Lerica, and she has trusted him with the keeping of several xenotech relics recovered from alien habitation sites that were scoured of life during the Crusade or even earlier, in the hopes of studying them once she leaves her role as Lady Inquisitrix Cloudburst.

In battle, he uses an exquisitely artificed suit of Mark 8 armor with a Clavis, Power Glaive, and twin Bolt Pistols he custom-loads with special munitions, as well as an Iron Halo and expanded comm system.