Rahman Keita'mansa

Rahman Keita'mansa
Title/Honours	the Bold One, the Privateer, Lord of a Thousand Warrants, Master of the Mines of Ghara, Patron-Illustrious of Stygies VIII
Discovered (world)	Manden
Legion	Corsairs Gallant
Great Crusade Command	Primarch, 36th Expeditionary fleet
Heraldry/Sigil
Unique Weapon	The Night Sabre, a blade of xenos origin, and a brace of rare and powerful pistols
Distinguishing Traits	Clever, curious, economical, swashbuckling prowess
Flaws	Nihilism, duplicity, greed
Brotherwar role	Separatist
Fate	Disappears circa M33, leaving behind a trail of clues that seem to lead into the Halo Stars

This page is part of the Warmasters Triumvirate, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the Warmasters Triumvirate page for more information on the Alternate Universe.

Rahman Keita'mansa is the primarch of the XXI^st, Legiones Astartes; the Corsairs Gallant. Known for his keen mind and sharp wit, Rahman was a seen even by his close associates as a roguish and dangerous character, whose talents for rapid actions, bringing about compliant worlds, and supporting his fellows was offset by a habit for duplicity and covert action, often seemingly without purpose and even at the detriment to his erstwhile allies. Though he maintained relatively good terms with many of his brothers, relations were often strained by his actions, and his close friendship with many of the more controversial members of the brotherhood. In truth, much of his bravura and swagger was a cover for a deep nihilism that ate at him, driving him to attempt to fill a void in his soul. Following the Brotherwar he would be further shaken, slowly retreating into isolation until he finally disappeared entirely, leaving behind a trail that would become known as the Halo Map, seen by his sons as a mission set by their father to find him, and by many others as a map to some strange and arcane treasure.

History

Primarch Origin

The world of Manden was a water world dotted by relatively small but densely rivered continents, its climate a mix of deserts and tropic to subtropical in most places.

Personality and Appearance

Appearance

Dark in complexion, far more than those of his brothers, Rahman nevertheless greatly resembles many of them, and their father most of all. With a strong jaw and a set of piercing silver eyes, he stands out among his brothers, even if neither his height nor his build seem to. He is decidedly middling in both factors, neither the tallest nor the shortest of the primarchs, nor the most solidly built or the most slim, though he still towers above the average mortal and even his Astartes sons. Yet there is an air about him, a bearing that makes him noticeable, a natural and easy charisma.

He keeps his facial hair well kept in a flamboyant style, very much based on the roguish charm of the Rogue Trader mythos. His hair, jet black, is kept in finely kept dreadlocks, woven in with charms and skulls of silver and gold, and rumors of digital weapons in those too. He generally wears a large hat, a tricorn of black leather with silver filigree.

Neither the fastest nor the strongest of his brothers, he nevertheless was a consummate duelist, capable of matching to a man most through a combination of brutal cunning and a willingness to use tricks both technological and otherwise in order to win. He took to heart the words of his adopted father: the fair fight was the one you did not prepare right for.

Personality

Of the temperaments, Rahman was firmly seen as sanguine. A bold and boisterous man, he had charisma to spare, seeming to charm by his very presence. A consummate showman, his every move was often a calculated act, designed to further his image. Cultivated through youth, this mindset was hammered as essential for a captain and commander, to create an image and mystique that would lead men to follow, to volunteer for things that they did not know they were being led into, and to face death with a smile. It was not to say that Rahman is fake, far from it, but simply that he had embraced the image, and has, as a result, become that image even as he acts it.

Rahman cared for his sons, and he truly saw his legion as such, and to a lesser extent humanity as a whole. Hammered into him from youth as well was this supreme loyalty to family, yet it was one that was also tempered by the necessity for caution, as this loyalty was often tested by less scrupulous members. Thus, a sense of duplicitousness was also ingrained into him, furthered by the necessities of a trader’s way. Plans and schemes, a mind for tactics that was flexible, adaptable, and ruthless when necessary, yet sparing both for the prospect of future business and to preserve the spoils gained in victory.

Curious to a fault, Rahman never shied away from the strange, even the alien. He took in many peculiarities, both animate and otherwise. A menagerie of alien beasts was kept aboard his flagship, the Crystal Skull, while he took on retainers from abhuman breeds, utilizing their uniqueness to his advantage. However, he often courted disaster in pursuit of the strange technological artifacts of the galaxy, caring not if they were old human or xenos in origin. The armory of the Mansa of the Keita Dynasty was full of strange artifacts and items, and he did not shy from using them, earning the ire of many and nearly censorship on several occasions as a result.

As time progressed, he found himself increasingly disillusioned with the destruction of the Great Crusade, his distrust for his ‘father’ sprouting from seeds the Emperor had planted after Rahman had been found and watched his adopted father, the man who had raised and taught him, censored and exiled. His desires for material wealth, in pursuit of some esoteric goal, led him down a rebellious path, though he rebuffed the courtship of Chaos; many mistook him for a being of excess for its own sake, yet there was more to Rahman than that. In truth, Rahman desired a purpose… as time went on, he came to believe that there was no real purpose in the crusade.

To some, this might have been the way for the Great Destroyer to get hooks in, yet Rahman found this even worse; the warp was not even less than the material, the beings there were loathsome reflections of the mortal races, not worthy of anything. There was no discovery, no true curiosity in the warp, merely facsimiles aping true discovery. Excess for the sake of excess was nothing, and while all things decayed there was nothing to be taken from there… and Rahman did not fear it, so much as just… endure it. Neither the Dark Prince nor the Grandfather thus found purchase, and the others had even less a chance of gaining his service.

Like his brothers, Rahman was naturally psychic. However, his talents as a psyker were limited almost exclusively to the art of divination, and he never trained this sense as much as many of his fellows. It also instilled in him a sort of paranoia that drove him to attempt to have a handle on things, to know everything he could and also to trust those outside of his family very rarely. This included his 'brothers,' sparing a select few, and the Brotherwar seemed to validate this mindset in many ways. The fall of Mot Hadad most of all struck him; the abrasive Primarch of the Forge Lords was a friend, and indeed he was almost the only friend Mot had. Despite his abilities he was seemingly blind to his brother's path to damnation.

Torn by paranoia and curiosity, a desire for good and a fear of nihilism, Rahman was often torn in two directions. This desire for knowledge and meaning is part of what led to his eventual 'fall' into corruption of another sort.

Rules