Gaspard Lumey

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the /tg/ Heresy Timeline and Galaxy pages for more information on the Alternate Universe.

Gaspard Lumey
Title/Honours	First Tribune of the Imperium, The Imperial Razor, The Incorruptible, Citizen of Ciban, Citizen of the Markian Pact
Discovered (world)	Ciban IV
Discovered (period)	c.850.M30
Legion	Fifth
Heraldry/Sigil
Distinguishing Traits	Objective, Rational
Flaws	Sceptical, Distrustful
Fate	Stasis sleep beneath the Collegium Majoris on Ciban IV

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

(Ancient Terran wisdom)

Gaspard Lumey was the Primarch of the Fifth Legion, famously known as the Void Angels. He led his Legion to many great victories during the Great Crusade and Great Scouring. Lumey played an important role in bringing about the reforms of the Institutorum Astartes.

History

While the lives of the Emperor's warlike sons are mostly lost in myth and legend, Lumey's lifelong habit of writing has preserved his thoughts for posterity. The great corpus of his works prohibits its mastery in a normal human lifespan, but the Tribunes of the Adeptus Astartes strive to read every word of their inspirational founder.

Youth

Unlike the other Primarchs, I would never come to see the Emperor as my father. His science had created me and I was a willing convert to his cause, but neither of us pretended to familial intimacy. Even had the Emperor sought such a thing, I would have had to refuse him, for I could have asked for no better parents than those I had on Ciban IV.

(Gaspard Lumey, journals)

Throughout the dark days of the Age of Strife, the Emperor of Mankind had been trapped on Terra by fierce Warp Storms. But in His great wisdom, He foresaw that the Immaterium would clear again and He would once more be able to influence the destiny of humanity. In order to complete His great plan, the Emperor used his advanced science to create twenty Primarchs, embryos that would grow into giants of outstanding military and political prowess. These godlike beings would be the weapons of a Great Crusade to reunite humanity and establish man's hegemony over the Galaxy. Yet the Chaos Gods were aware of this threat, and their agents intervened, stealing all but one of the Primarchs and hurling them into the Warp. Bouyed by the unfathomable currents of that mysterious ether, the incubation capsules of the lost Primarchs were scattered across time and space.

Ciban IV, often known as Ciban Felix or just Ciban, is a Civilised World in the Segmentum Pacificus. At the time that the infant Primarch Gaspard Lumey appeared on its surface, Ciban had attained a level of culture and technology approximating that of Second Millenium Earth. The planet was dominated by large, sophisticated states ruled by hereditary aristocrats. The Primarch of the Void Angels landed in Fennechia, a coastal region of Ciban IV's Jolof continent. At the time of the Primarch's arrival, Fennechia was a colony ruled by the empire of Gallia. His capsule crash-landed close to a farming community named Nouvelle-Havre and was taken in by the Lumeys, a childless middle-aged couple. It was quickly apparent to the close-knit villagers that the child Gaspard was something more than human, but the elders of Nouvelle-Havre counselled tolerance and encouraged the youth to see his strength as a gift to be shared with all.

As Gaspard Lumey absorbed the morals of his adoptive community, he learned the martial skills of a frontiersman. Hunting trips honed his natural talent for stealth, outdoor survival, and marksmanship. Gaspard also became deadly with an axe, whether thrown or in close quarters. Contented with this simple life in Nouvelle-Havre, the young Primarch never expected to be sent from the community as a teenager. Nevertheless, on the sixteenth anniversary of the Primarch's arrival in Nouvelle-Havre, Père Lumey informed Gaspard that the time had come to seek new challenges. The old man explained that it was not out of shame that he drove his adopted son into the world, but the reverse. Gaspard was a source of pride to the Lumeys, having shown that he had the potential to better the lives of a great multitude. However much the couple might love their son, they could not let him spurn his destiny.

Plain Truth

The principal lesson that Ciban IV taught me was my relative unimportance. My arrival on this humble world had coincided with the awakening of its inhabitants to the great task of their self-emancipation. Although I was welcome to join in that struggle and enjoy the new age opened up, the Cibanese never considered me their saviour, or even their greatest hero. If any future historian should consider writing that it was my hand that saved the Imperium from collapse, let them mark my words and the billions of hands behind my own.

(Gaspard Lumey, Reflections)

Dutiful to parental advice, Gaspard Lumey travelled to the townships and cities of the colonies. If his first jobs are lost to history, his first and defining career was as a journalist in the dissenting press of the day. He issued a steady stream of broadsides and pamphlets condemning first the excesses of the colonial government, then the degeneracy of the aristocracy. The effectiveness of Lumey's works is still evident in the full title of his most popular pamphlet, Plain Truth: An Honest and therefore Illegal account of Fennechia's Misgovernance.

Growing unrest resulted in the formation of quasi-legal Committees of the Common Good, a kind of shadow government that gained the trust of the public as colonial governors became increasingly unpopular. Lumey, as a wanted man, did not participate in the Committees at first. However, his pamphlets were often read aloud in Committee hearings. Surviving minutes attribute Lumey's remarks to "the Voice of the People". As the situation moved from unrest to open war, Lumey became increasingly close to the Committees and his writing gave direction to the colonial struggle. Few were surprised when Lumey volunteered his services to the rebel army.

Fennechian patriots initially suffered severe defeats at the hands of their oppressors. Gaspard Lumey achieved some renown as a guerilla leader, but he quickly realised that the colonists lacked the strength to triumph in a purely national struggle. Undeterred, Lumey smuggled himself into Gallia and circulated pamphlets denouncing not just the oppression of Fennechia but the whole regime of privilege. His message struck a chord. Even before Lumey arrived, Gallians were reading copies of Plain Truth and similar pamphlets written by figures such as Margarette Poisarden and Didier Bonchance. Political criminals, including Bonchance, flooded the Donjon, the great prison at Gallia's capital of Saint Vercy, but a jail cannot hold a whole people. When the imperial government attempted to raise a new tax for the war effort, ordinary Gallians began to revolt in their homeland, declaring that they were just as oppressed as the Fennechians.

Events in Saint Vercy developed at lightning pace. The Donjon was stormed by dockworkers and its inhabitants liberated. Regiments deployed to stifled the revolt arrested their officers and joined the rebels. Gallia's monarchy and national government fled the capital. The Committee of the Common Good, headed by Poisarden became the de facto government. A tremendous debate broke out in the Committee. Bonchance advocated a policy of temperance and forgiveness towards the old regime. Initially, his fraction held the majority, until Gaspard Lumey entered the hall. His prestige as a fighter in the colonies and rebel journalist won him the right to speak, but the Primarch's towering stature and personal charisma commanded the Committee's attention. Lumey hammered away at his rivals in the debate, explaining in sharp terms what the consequences of their mercy would be - a bloodbath organised by the aristocracy. In order to head off disaster, Lumey proposed a policy of "Righteous Terror", beginning with the imprisonment of supporters of the old regime and going so far as summary execution of aristocrats. While Lumey carried the majority, the fierce debate provoked splits. Didier Bonchance and his closest followers stormed out. These dissidents would escape Saint Vercy to sign on with the Royalist faction of a brewing civil war.

Mixed news from the rest of Gallia flowed into the capital. Committees were leading uprisings in the other big cities, but there was also news of armies being raised in the provinces - and worse, armies of intervention being prepared by Gallia's rivals. The Saint Vercy Committee of the Common Good acted decisively. The Republic of Ciban was declared and the other Committees across Gallia, Fennechia, and, rather optimistically, the whole of the planet were invited to freely join as equal participants. Margrette Poisarden was elected Speaker of the Republic's Assembly, at the head of the Governmental Committee. Gaspard Lumey was initially elected to the head of the Subcommittee for Foreign Affairs and served with distinction. His diplomacy, sharp and forthright, centred more on exposing the perfidy of the Republic's enemies than making accords, but in this regard he did much to destabilise the reactionary coalitions. Ultimately, however, the conflict between the new order and the old could not be settled with the pen. As the borders of old Gallia succumbed to invading armies, the Republic turned to Gaspard Lumey to organise its defence.

Lumey's hunting hounds

Sketch of a citizen-soldier fighting for the Republic of Ciban, unknown year.

For years I believed that Jean-Davide was the most extraordinary person I would ever meet. If I was an outsider to Ciban IV's struggle for liberty, I had at least been raised by these people, loved by them, and joined the fight as an adopted son. D'Orléans made himself a renegade twice over by joining us and never flinched at the hardships of his decision.

(Gaspard Lumey, journals)

For Lumey, the line between foreign war and civil war was little more than terminology. The Primarch understood that the aristocratic states mobilising against the infant Republic were just as unpopular at home as the Gallian monarchy had been. Therefore, his strategy was decided by a political question: how to break the ordinary people from their leaders? Lumey's approach was two-fold. Firstly, he offered an open hand to conscripts in enemy armies, declaring that the Republic bore them no ill-will for their misfortune and pledging assistance to those who deserted. Secondly, Lumey promised the guillotine to officers of aristocratic heritage, outlining that they were guilty of a crime against two nations for leading armies against the Republic.

Gaspard Lumey threw himself into the organisation of a new army of the Republic. If officers were in short supply, volunteers for the new army were not. Lumey's main struggle was in convincing militias from different regions of Gallia to support one another and welding these disparate parts into a unified whole. One of his most important aides was the remarkable Jean-Davide d'Orléans, a former Marquis and officer in the Royal Army of Gallia who had resigned his commission and surrendered himself to the Republic, pledging that the skills he had acquired for the defence of the nation rightfully belonged to the nation's people. D'Orléans and the handful of other officers who abandoned the monarchy endured considerable suspicion and harsh measures. On Lumey's orders, their families were held hostage. Some protested and refused to serve under such conditions, but d'Orléans persevered, famously remarking, "did not the old order hold the families of peasant conscripts hostage for the sake of its wars of ambition? Surely this new order, which is fighting daily to emancipate the common man, has the right to put a leash on its hunting hounds."

Although Ciban's revolutionary wars were bloody and long, the Republic's constant and sincere appeals to the ordinary people eroded the foundations of the armies arrayed against them. Where Republican armies advanced, they found new supporters, willing to give them supplies, intelligence, and sometimes fresh volunteers for their armies. Where the forces of reaction pushed back, they encountered a surly populace, resentful at their presence and sometimes taking up arms as partisans. In the professional army, Lumey and d'Orléans were joined by a new generation of military commanders who had risen up through the ranks. Particularly notable were Bulus Tawfeek, the handsome Fennec cavalryman, and Rani Stolarz, a young woman whose mousey, studious appearance concealed cool courage and military genius. Tawfeek's lightning tactics were highly successful in liberating the colonial areas of Jolof. Stolarz is remembered even thousands of years later for her heroic defence of Surville, a turning point in the war against the Kingdom of Occitar.

The completion of the wars saw the Republic stand alone on Ciban IV as a popular world government. Unity paved the way to rapid development. New factories, printing presses, schools, hospitals, aqueducts, roads, and other infrastructure were planned and built for the common good. Gaspard Lumey laid down his arms gladly. He returned to his calling as a journalist, documenting his homeworld's new age of prosperity.

On Virtue

Shortly after the Revolutionary Wars, I became disquieted. Perhaps I sensed something wrong before, but a real turning point was the receipt of a short note from Margrette on the content of my recent speech. She wrote, "You have become v. predictable and somewhat boring. Each speech the same. Struggle for x, lines of march, weigh y as decisive point, any shirking of duty leaves us vulnerable. This after 5 years' peace!" Even more disturbing to me was that I immediately wrote in the margin, almost without thinking, "I am a spear in a struggle waged by cannon."

(Gaspard Lumey, Journals)

Rogue Traders probing ahead of the Great Crusade first came to Ciban IV in 848.M30. The world's sophisticated culture and unitary government was something of a surprise, and tales of Gaspard Lumey immediately caught the ear of the canny merchants. News travelled swiftly back to Terra, and the Emperor determined to investigate, strongly suspecting that the great revolutionary hero and representative in the Cibanese Assembly was one of his missing sons. After landing on Ciban IV, the Emperor approached Lumey openly, explaining their relationship by way of introduction. This did not convince the Primarch, who began to question his creator on his views of morality, testing the answers against what he had come to believe on Ciban. Their debate, which lasted three days, was collected in a series of texts entitled On Virtue.

During the debate, Lumey initially took the role of protagonist, outlining the moral sensibilities that he developed on Ciban. The Primarch particularly stressed the rule of law and the importance of government serving the needs of the people, and explained himself by examples from his homeworld's history. In reply, the Emperor began with an assertion of the destiny of mankind to rule the galaxy, then sought to prove how the Imperial Truth and its doctrines of atheism, reason, and science would serve that end. While On Virtue is a particularly fine explanation of these points, its centre is Lumey's attack on the Emperor's position. The Primarch particularly questioned how an autocracy forged through conquest could be the embodiment of a rational culture. In answer, the Emperor artfully drew from Ciban's recent history, noting that the means used by the rebellion and those used by the old order had differed but little. What set the two apart was that one pointed towards the future, the other to the past. Past this pivot in the argument, Lumey and the Emperor spend a great deal of time further clarifying points of ethics and civics, but the Primarch's questions are clearly those of a student, not a rival.

At the end of the debate on virtue, the Emperor of Mankind offered Gaspard Lumey command of a Legion of Space Marines to carry forward a vision of human unity and rationality. The Primarch's response was modest. While accepting the wisdom and judgement of the Emperor, Lumey expressed his doubts that his life on Ciban IV had adequately prepared him for a task of such awesome proportions. He further avowed that, while he would exert all of his powers and will upon the task, it was not a post he had sought out.

The Great Crusade

Johannes Vrach, Gaspard Lumey's brother and friend

The voyage back to Holy Terra was not direct. The Emperor had also heard word of another of his warrior sons on the planet Rai, and plotted a circuitous route to investigate. To have found Gaspard Lumey was wondrous, and adding Johannes Vrach to the ranks of the crusading Primarchs at the same time appeared to be a miracle. Thus the year 850.M30 was for decades referred to as "the year of fortune".

Vrach and Lumey spent a great deal of time in one another's company. The two were grappling with the implications of the Imperium's technology at the same time and had notes to compare. Moreover, the two had similar outlooks on the world, seeing science and reason as liberating forces in humanity's difficult history. If their characters were different, they were not so gravely at odds to prevent a friendship striking up, and the Emperor's whole Crusade Fleet was infected by the Primarchs' spirit of optimism.

Although comforted by Johannes' friendship, Lumey found humanity's cradle a difficult place. The world was full of the relics of its ancient culture but housed a population still numbed by millennia of war. Worse, the welcoming atmosphere of the Crusade Fleet was replaced with the polite disdain of the Sacred Band, who viewed Lumey's legion as a failure and his genetics as suspect. And there was some truth to the charge, as the Fifth Legion numbered only a few hundred warriors with no great victories to their name. Far from the hopes of immediately launching new campaigns of liberation alongside his new-found brother, Lumey would have to set about forging his Legion before taking it into battle.

After the initial visit, the Primarch made a point of avoiding his birth world, hardly ever visiting the Solar System unless it was strictly necessary. However, he would remain close to Johannes for decades, exchanging letters during the years they spent apart and always eager to speak to his brother when their paths crossed.

Sketch of the primarch's equerry and friend, Antoine Antonelle

Perhaps surprisingly, Gaspard Lumey was pleased by the efforts of the Fifth's former commanding officer, Antoine Antonelle, and retained him as the Legion's second-in-command. Relocating the Fifth Legion to Ciban IV was a fairly trivial task, although the planet's limited infrastructure dictated that the Legion's fleet base itself at nearby Kerstes VI. Even as the squadrons of his Space Marines travelled to Ciban IV, Lumey set to work laying the framework for a massive intake of new aspirants, taking advantage of Ciban IV's large, healthy, well-educated population. Jean-Davide d'Orléans was tapped to establish the Ciban Chasseurs as the Fifth's powerful and loyal auxiliary force.

Though Gaspard Lumey would become infamous for scouring planets that spurned the Emperor's offer of universal human brotherhood, his first acquisition of new worlds for the Imperium was accomplished without a shot being fired. In the first months after he was rediscovered by the Emperor and granted a Legion, the Primarch had little in the way of military affairs to occupy his time. He had undertaken a study of the Imperial way of war and its weaponry, but such matters were not overly difficult and in any case required a certain amount of time to mull over before drawing firm conclusions. He had also met with his new "Equerry", Antoine Antonelle and judged him a competent man more than able to supervise the transfer of the Fifth's rather modest forces to Ciban IV and the establishment of recruiting centres there. Rather than simply find busywork or interfere with Antonelle's work, Lumey decided to personally investigate the reports of a small alliance of worlds to the Galactic South-East, supposedly similar in culture and ethics to his own homeworld.

When he arrived on the water world of Kouralia, Lumey made little secret of his origin or purpose for being there. But he did not immediately demand that the Markian Pact submit to the Imperium. Instead he requested permission to travel the worlds of the Pact and speak to ordinary people there, assessing their culture and making clear his own views of the Galaxy. The Primarch also pledged to avoid any military installations and refrain from espionage. After a short delay, he was granted travel papers.

The Markians were extremely courteous to Gaspard Lumey. He was not only given the right to travel. He was invited to cultural and scientific events, and given many opportunities to lecture both to elite and general audiences. As he journeyed around the worlds of the Pact, Lumey was greatly impressed by their sophistication and outlook. He wound up his tour by giving a speech to a joint session of the representatives of the Markian Pact.

The Primarch began with an apology, explaining that it was necessary to tell the representatives much that they already knew so that the basis on which he would make his proposal could be understood. He then spoke at considerable length on the achievements of the Pact, especially in uplifting the lot of the ordinary citizen. Lumey rounded out this section of his address by remarking that the kind of society that the Markians had established was what he understood as the goal of the Imperial Truth. He then made two extraordinary requests.

Firstly, Lumey asked to be granted citizenship of the Markian Pact on the basis that he cherished their liberties and culture and would unhesitatingly fight to protect them. Secondly, he proposed that the Pact accede to peaceful annexation by the Imperium, that it might best take part in the great task of uniting and uplifting the human race. The Assembly, greatly impressed by the Primarch, granted his first request unanimously and the second by a considerable majority, then gave three cheers for "Citizen Gaspard" and three more for the future of mankind.

Next, the Primarch set his sights on the worlds of the Al-Sherar sector. Lumey led the Fifth Legion's few Astartes alongside new Demi-Brigades of mortal soldiers raised from Ciban IV and the Markian Pact in the Pacification of the Chwiorydd Hardd, eliminating an outpost of Xenos slavers. This act would lead to a sector-wide war against the Amatteir species, beginning with the invasion of Lumey's homeworld. The Primarch led his young force of Space Marines in a three-month defensive campaign, but he attributed the Fifth Legion's victory at Ciban IV to the stubborn resistance of the native population. If this was humility, no amount of modesty could downplay Lumey's audacious counter-offensive and rapid destruction of the Amatteir Empire.

These early victories set the stage for the Fifth Legion to explode into the Great Crusade. Their new recruits were determined to make up for lost time and arms from the Forge World Al-Sherar made good the Legion's years of deprivation. In the second decade of Gaspard Lumey's leadership, the Fifth would conquer more worlds than any Legion save the Warriors of Dawn. Roman Albrecht, Primarch of the Steel Marshals, captured the moment with his tribute to "Gaspard Lumey's men, moving like winged victory through the stars." The name would stick to them until the end of the Great Crusade - but others did not receive Fifth Legion's victories in such good humour.

Although the Fifth would continue to accumulate great victories throughout the last decades of the Great Crusade, they rarely received praise. Hektor Cincinnatus and his praetorians from the Sacred Band took a dim view of the upstart Legion and did their best to keep Lumey from receiving new resources from the wealthy Segmentum Solar. To some extent, shortages were made good due to the generosity of Roman Albrecht and the liberated worlds of the Al-Sherar Sector, but the Fifth were usually the last Legion to receive advanced new equipment. Gaspard Lumey's relationships with most of the Primarchs became increasingly terse - and actively hostile when it came to the Voidwatcher.

While absent from the struggle with the Orks of Ullanor and the Triumph at their capital world, Lumey won the Imperium an immense prize. The Core Worlds Confederation had long been the "second state" of humanity in the Galaxy, spanning many rich systems and formidably armed. Their rulers had not bowed to threats of force or supplications of reason and remained independent for decades. But with the assistance of Shakya Vardhana and his Eyes of the Emperor, the Fifth Legion raced through the Core Worlds Campaign, winning a tremendous bounty of men and industry to the Great Crusade. To Hektor, still selling the lives of his battle brothers, the news came as a smack in the face.

Still flush with the prestige of the Core Worlds Campaign, Gaspard Lumey travelled to the Council of Nikaea. Initially intending to support Shakya Vardhana's policy of moderation, Lumey was provoked by the Voidwatcher and swung sharply to an anti-psyker position in order to humble his rival. The only long-term success of this policy was the warmth with which Arelex Orannis received Lumey's turn of position. While the Black Augurs were disgraced at Nikaea, their master would avenge himself the next year by calling for an investigation of the Core Worlds Campaign. While no wrong-doing was discovered, Hektor Cincinnatus deemed the destruction of the campaign was "regrettable" and dispatched the Fifth Legion to the thinly-populated fringe of the Galaxy.

The Hektor Heresy

My Dear Brother,

Thank you for the gift. It has been a source of considerable joy to the Legion, both as a reading and in performances organized by our Tribunes. Naturally, I have no disagreement regarding the work's significance and shared your sense of loss on learning that there are thirty works of this remarkable Terran still unknown to us. However, I believe your analysis of the work is quite wrong. The most important theme is not Brutus' internal conflict between honour and personal loyalty, but the decline of Roman culture. Shakespeare indicates that Brutus represented the ideals of the Republic in its heroic period. Yet by the time of the play, we see this virtuous figure isolated and not enjoying the confidence of the people. That is the essence of the work's historical tragedy.

(Except from the "Julius Caesar letter", as collected in Gaspard Lumey's Dispatches)

During the Fifth Legion's long exile in the Galactic Fringe, Gaspard Lumey wrote a series of letters to his old friend and fellow Primarch, Johannes Vrach. Their correspondence was far-reaching, though only Lumey's letters, known as "The Dispatches" are preserved. The best-known Dispatch, the so-called "Julius Caesar letter", begins with Lumey expressing his gratitude for a copy of Shakespeare's drama. The Primarch then gave his own thoughts on what constitutes the central part of the work, recounts campaign details including tactical experiments against the Orks and passes on a summary of ethnographical and archaeological findings with particular reference to architecture on newly-conquered Dellator. Lumey passed from his reflections with a self-deprecating joke about a senior officer's newborn child "escaping my name by being born female", then sought to make apology for ending his exile without orders, due to the breakdown in Imperial communication. The letter is dated three years after the infamous Drop Site Massacre.

The Rubicon

"Gaspard Lumey never told me why he decided to believe Thomas Gaudin and the other Primarchs. There's a popular story that he heard the psychic voice of his father, but it never stacked up for me. After all, the story of Hektor's death suggests that the Emperor was exhausted by their duel. If I had to guess, I'd say that the Vardhana had a hand in it. Gaspard always said that the Nineteenth's Primarch was the only one he trusted."

(Excerpt from A Marshal in the Great Crusade, the memoirs of Jeanne d'Orléans.)

Forget the myths. I was there. This is why Gaspard Lumey chose to cast in with the Loyalists.

My Lord Alexandri of Rosskar went to speak with Lumey on the Void Angels' flagship. The two Primarchs had never liked each other. They argued at some length. In the end, Alexandri declared that he was with the Loyalists and would never have rebelled just to serve another man. That is how the fate of two Primarchs was decided.

(Excerpt from The Confessions, apocryphal.)

Post-Heresy

The era of good feelings after the victory of the Great Scourging was buoyed on by Gaspard Lumey's work in his new role as the First Tribune of the Imperium. He wrote biographies of his loyalist brothers known as the Lives of the Primarchs. Arelex Orannis, whose Legion Lumey had once dismissed as "the scribes of war" assisted as editor of this series, up until his own untimely death. The Lives all followed a basic formula. While honest enough in his account, Lumey showed the Primarchs as fundamentally human and shaped by their environment. By doing so, Lumey hoped to make the trauma of the Heresy a comprehensible event and prevent the collapse of the Imperial Truth. However, in the anarchic conditions of the new Imperium, there were few worlds that received Lumey's message. Fewer still accepted it.

During the time in which he fought to defend the Imperium and its culture, the most important of Lumey's friendships was with Brennus, Primarch of the Thunder Kings. The two would exchange many letters in these decades, and as their siblings died or vanished, the two Primarchs grew to cherish one another's company. After Brennus disappeared during the First Black Crusade, Lumey went into seclusion. His last public act was writing a biography of the fallen Thunder King.

Appearance

Like all the Primarchs, Gaspard Lumey had the stature of a giant, with broad shoulders and dark skin. He had bushy eyebrows, a prominent nose, and expressive, thoughtful eyes. Lumey usually wore his curly black hair long, loosely tied back from his face. Never given to showy attire, his choice of clothing was either a demure dress uniform or civilian clothes when away from the front.

Personality

He was a difficult man, but one with a great presence. Some other Primarchs far exceeded Lumey's ability to inspire trust, loyalty and respect, but he was the master of sowing suspicion and discontent. When speaking he often emphasised his points by gesture. He rolled his eyes and sneered so often that these expressions were almost habit. He generally saw the ideas of others as inferior to his own, and treated few as his intellectual equal. Nevertheless, few of the Emperor's sons were so beloved of the ordinary people who met him. Almost alone among the Primarchs, Lumey consistently saw himself as just one more member of the great human race. Though he recognised his talents and prowess, the Primarch came to see his abilities as the rightful property of humanity at large, and consistently monitored his own behaviour lest he begin to take privileges rather than responsibilities.

Gaspard was suspicious of most of his brothers. He grew to trust Shakya Vardhana and Roman Albrecht. For a time he was close to Johannes Vrach, and he would eventually become a firm ally of Arelex Orannis.

Wargear

In the field, Gaspard donned Protecteur, the artificer armour forged by the tech-priests of Ghalhal. This miraculous suit held within it a functional teleporter, which the Primarch used to great effect in void and land combats. By preference, Gaspard wielded an axe and slug-thrower, as he had during Ciban's Revolutionary Wars.