TEXT: Sabellus the Forsaken
  By Darius Hinks
  W
  hen the death of
  Xuthius Semiramis
  was first announced the most
  common response was ‘How
  can they tell?’. 
  The aged governor of Sacer
  Mons had never been the most
  animated of men, and in his
  later years he had begun to
  take on the appearance of a
  badly stuffed corpse. In fact,
  there seemed to be close
  parallels between the planet’s
  descent into anarchy, and the
  governor’s descent into
  imbecility. As his ministerial
  buildings were being burnt to
  the ground by insurrectionists
  and thieves, the governor’s
  only visible response was to
  raise an eyebrow. As a plague
  of mutations and deformities
  spread over his planet, Xuthius
  did nothing more than sigh
  disapprovingly. And as the
  Imperial Creed was trampled
  underfoot by a thousand
  heretical cults, the governor
  retired to his chambers with
  several large bottles of Priscian
  brandy to
  ‘pray’. 
  In truth, most of the citizens of
  Sacer Mons had forgotten they
  had a governor, or for that
  matter an Emperor; but
  Xuthius’s death was
  nevertheless significant. With
  his departure the last
  constraints of Imperial control
  were finally removed.  The
  planet’s government was
  replaced by a morass of feudal
  states and petty despots, each
  vying for control of its rich
  mineral resources, and within
  weeks the capital state of
  Sardanapalus had become
  nothing more than a
  smouldering ruin, with
  running battles erupting from
  its once beautiful gardens and
  boulevards. 
  Just as the planet’s future
  seemed without hope, an
  unlikely saviour appeared in
  the form of one of its most
  infamous crime-lords: Sabellus
  the Forsaken. Sabellus was a
  name that most of the planet’s
  citizens were acquainted with,
  in fact they knew him by many
  names, none of which were
  particularly endearing:
  Sabellus the Beast;
  Sabellus the
  Pitiless; the Ogre
  of Tarlati and the
  Cannibal of
  Valbona to name
  but a few. 
  For many years
  Sabellus had
  seemed more
  legend than fact.
  The details of his
  gruesome deeds
  were told as fire-side
  stories to scare
  young children,
  but many
  doubted his
  actual
  existence. In
  the legends it was
  said that the crime-
  lord was one of a pair of
  orphaned children – found
  somewhere near the Cadian
  Gate, and that his brother had
  climbed to a position of great
  seniority somewhere within the
  Imperium. But few adults had
  time for such fanciful
  nonsense. After the death of
  Governor Xuthius however,
  none could doubt the horrible
  reality of the man. One-by-one
  each of his rival crime-lords
  began to perish in the most
  horrifying ways, and at the
  scene of each murder, a
  gruesome signature was always
  left scrawled in the victim’s
  blood: the sigil of Sabellus.
  First came the death of Pholus
  Blake – or the Ripper of
  Sapphira as he was more
  affectionately known. With
  control of Sardanapalus’s
  spaceports, Blake had been
  injecting a steady supply of
  narcotics into the planet’s
  blood-stream for several
  decades, and he was one of the
  most feared criminals on Sacer
  Mons. However, Blake’s brutal
  reputation did nothing to deter
  Sabellus, and the drug-dealer’s
  henchmen found him one
  morning drowned in the
  blood-filled bladder of a
  dromeddon.
  Then there was Oderigi the
  Dour – the gun-runner –
  whose head was found floating
  in the River Abel with a jester’s
  hat sewn into his scalp. And
  then Brabant the Faithless, who
  was found nailed to a statue of
  the Emperor. And so it
  continued, until every criminal
  on the planet not in the pay of
  Sabellus was too terrified to
  come out of hiding, and, for
  the first time in many years, a
  kind of peace returned to the
  streets of the capital.
  The planet was now, to all
  intents and purposes, his, but
  10
  
  11
  Sabellus had his sights set on a
  more lasting form of authority.
  In a display of shocking
  arrogance, he hosted a
  ceremony in the city’s central
  plaza. And in front of what
  remained of the Imperial
  palace, and several thousand
  amazed onlookers, he
  announced that Beatrice
  Semiramis was her father’s
  rightful successor, and named
  her governor of Sacer Mons. 
  As Beatrice mournfully donned
  the robes of office, the people
  of Sardanapalus saw just how
  far the crime-lord’s nerve had
  taken him. The governor’s
  daughter had a long and
  shameful history with Sabellus,
  and with her as his puppet, he
  now had complete control of
  the entire planet. He installed
  his right hand man – the
  dreaded Xanthos of Ra’siel – as
  Beatrice’s ‘advisor’, and settled
  back to watch the money flood
  in. It seemed there could now
  be no stopping him.
  Finally however, Sabellus’ run
  of luck deserted him. 
  After only two months as
  Governor, Beatrice could take
  no more. The shear depravity
  of Sabellus’ rule appaled her.
  He embraced every heretical
  creed with joyous abandon,
  and under his guidance, the
  people of Sacer Mons were
  soon devoting themselves to a
  lifestyle of debauchery. 
  Beatrice’s fear for the eternal
  souls of her people overcame
  her fear for her own life, and
  she decided she had to act. 
  Many centuries earlier, the
  remote binary star system of
  Rimini al-Sadat – which is
  home to Sacer Mons – had
  been part of a busy trade route
  between Nisus IV and Buoso
  del Geri. In those days the
  planet had been a bustling,
  wealthy and loyal outpost of
  the Imperium, and in the
  bowels of the ruined Imperial
  palace some relics of those
  halcyon days still remained.
  Searching through these
  artifacts, Beatrice’s allies had
  discovered the remains of a
  signalling device. Beatrice saw
  a thin sliver of hope, and
  ordered her men to send out a
  distress signal.
  To her great luck, an
  Explorator fleet was already
  on-route to the nearby Nisus IV,
  and hearing the plea for help
  dispatched a huge heavily
  armed force to reclaim the
  planet.
  The fighting was fierce, bloody
  and brief. Sabellus’ gangsters
  were no match for the Imperial
  forces, and a strict martial law
  was soon in place. The people
  of Sacer Mons found
  themselves once more in the
  benevolent, if slightly brutal,
  care of the Emperor.
  As for Sabellus, his name faded
  once more into myth and
  legend. After the fierce battle
  for the palace, the crime-lord
  was pronounced dead by
  Imperial edict, but his remains
  were never found. To this day,
  his name is whispered in the
  darkest seediest corners of
  Sardanapalus, and rumours
  abound of his whereabouts. It
  seems unlikely that his hunger
  for power will have abated, and
  as the Imperial choke
  continues to tighten around
  their throats, many of Sacer
  Mons’ citizens await with relish
  the return of Sabellus the
  Forsaken.
  Sabellus the Forsaken
  Sabellus is right-handed.
  Equipment: Autopistol; 2 digital weapons (one ring on each finger) inferno pistol and hand flamer;
  conversion field; advanced bionic eye
  Special Abilities: Leader; Nerves of Steel
  WS
  BS
  S
  T
  I
  Wp
  Sg
  Nv
  Ld
  Sabellus
  59
  47
  66
  74
  47
  72
  84
  52
  68
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Warhammer/40k/Inquisitor Skirmish/SG_site_files/Sabellus.pdf