Magnus “Nightwalker”

Being the first son of a travelling Middenland merchant, Magnus was born in a small military settlement by the hands of a Priest of Sigmar who was trying to expand the influence of his God in this Ulric country. The Priest was not having any success, but somehow the hard labor-helping work softened the hearts of soldiers about him. They wouldn't ever bow so deeply to Sigmar as they did to Ulric, but as the Priest had to battle so much caring for the lady and child, he won the soldiers' respect. So, when Magnus' father asked which name should he give the child, one drunk soldier suggested that the second most famous Emperor's name, the one who followed Sigmar but had the bless of Ulric, should fit perfectly.

And so young Magnus lived all of his childhood going from small settlement to town to village with his father and mother. It wasn't until his second younger sister did born that his family decided to settle in a town and start selling goods in a more geographically and socially fixed way.

But Magnus grew hearing about the soldiers' camp in which he was born. He also saw lots and lots of these camps as he travelled with his family, and sometimes they would also pass moving regiments, groups of watchmen guarding some city limits, or even some knight or another. And he was fascinated with it all. So even if part of him was happy when they stopped travelling so much and settle, for then he would finally be able to make lasting friends, he was also very sad he would not have the chance of seeing getting to know such wonderful and adventurous people.

So he grew imagining himself becoming a soldier, a hero that would eventually save the Emperor's life and become his protector knight. As he beared the name of such a wonderful Emperor, it made sense that he would protect another.

Of course things couldn't be so easy. Primarily, there was no regiment allocated in his town, and Magnus did not see himself becoming a small city watch or guard. No, he wanted to go further, to be a national hero. Perhaps it was his days of travelling, when so young and so influenced by what can be described as a magical way of viewing the world. He had seen much land to let his dreams be trapped in just a small part of it, anyway. But his father, a peaceful man, and one that had seen much more than Magnus, and then had different eyes on the world, was against his son's dreams.

When he became of age, Magnus started to travel to the near cities to sell and buy goods for his father. This was a way to let his dreams grow and still be in peace with his old man. More than that, he enjoyed travelling a lot.

But to travel in such a dangerous land as Middenland was far from a safe task. As his mother and father worried, Magnus used to arrange his travels in the company of moving soldiers, other merchants and sometimes roadwardens. That too was a good strategy to at the same time appease his father's worries and walk further in his dream's path. It was in that time that he gained his nickname, “Nightwalker”. Some say it was because Magnus always wanted to keep walking, or riding, even if it was dark. Others said it was because he dreamed so vividly he used to walk in his dreams. But there's a different tale, known only by his closest friends, to whom he supposedly told it.

In this tale, the person that gave Magnus the nickname was an old man, a veteran of the roads. He was more than a traveller, though. He was a man surrounded by mistery, but with a deep understanding of the motivations of those arround him. And, hearing about Magnus' dreams, he named him “Nightwalker”, because only a man that walked at night would be so uncomprehensible of the path that lied ahead but the nearest things his light could iluminate. And then the only hope he could have of not falling to some obstacle was that his light was strong enough.

Even if this tale is true, it did not kept Magnus from pursuing his own path. But the moment for him to make a turn in his life did not come lightly. Because, even if immersed in his dreams, Magnus could still see the presence of Chaos' minions growing in the days right before the Storm of Chaos. His travels were getting more and more dangerous, attacks of beastmen and mutants ever more frequent. No one seemed to agree with him, depicting it all as the foolishness of some boy who used to get into fantasy too easily. Their eyes were closed because the truth was too dire, but it angered Magnus anyway. And when he and some fellows were attacked in the road by some vicious beastmen, having to flee for their lives while some of them could not make it… That was the last drop for Magnus.

So he announced to his family he was going to Middenheim to become a soldier. He boldly told his father that, even if he never became the hero he dreamed about, he could still make more for all of them this way than walking the same path of the old man and eventually being murdered as some of his friends did. His father disagreed. He said that was another way, and he could settle down as he did, staying with his family and living his life safely. But Magnus feeled that would not be safely anywhere anymore. Even if he couldn't imagine how right he was, he was not exactly foreseeing the next Chaos Incursion. He was only reacting to the feeling of lost that came when his views of a magical world collapsed in that escape. When people he cared about actually died. And he would not sit and wait for it to pass.

His family grieved as he went away. He felt for them, but could not turn away from his dream anymore. And his dream had changed, hammered by the cold steel of reality. That day he vowed he would not come back to his family until he had made something useful of his dream.

When he finally got to Middenheim, he went straight to the military settlements to apply. It was already apparent to the forces in control of the city that Chaos was rising, even if they saw only the beastmen threat at the time, as Khazrak One-Eye, the Beastman Lord, coordinated bolder and bolder attacks throughout Middenland. Upon hearing about Magnus past and experience, the Sargeant with whom he was talking saw not a soldier, but an opportunity to increase the military mobility. So he sent Magnus to register as a Roadwarden.

Even if it was not exactly what he wanted, Magnus was glad about his position. He saw it as a way he could really help, and thus maybe a faster way of getting known and rising further, thus helping further too. Anyway, he still liked to travel a lot, and was not exactly sure about his qualities as an order taker, such as a soldier needed to be.

His first assignment, then, was to escort a regiment of soldiers from the capital to a small town named Untergard to the south. It was a strategy position, since the town holded a bridge which was a safe passing route through River Taub. He was there to see the town be attacked over and over by a ever larger contingency of bestmen, as it got more and more soldiers from the rest of the Empire, until the enemy had flanked every route there and the siege was formed. There he fought alongside the Verena Initiate Chades and the young Hunter Thorne, as well as many soldiers from all over the north regions and some brave locals. The town held until the beastmen gave up, going north to fight in Middenheim Siege when the Storm of Chaos was already upon the capital.

Magnus joined his two foreign fellow-in-arms helping Untergard people flee the city when, a month after the beastmen had left, a great warherd was seen getting there, maybe to another attack. After getting to Middenheim, he was assigned to help Initiate Chades in a mission in a small village three days to the west of the capital.

It was there that Magnus got to the wrong side of a very short tempered, not to say utterly mad, Witch Hunter. He almost died in a public torture to remove the devilness out of him. After he and his comrades helped the villagers saving their Chaos afflicted children by stopping a ritual being made by a Beastman Shaman, and thus driving the Witch Hunters out of there, Magnus was in need of some time out. He had seen more horrible things in these past few months than in all of his previous life. And then he had met the daughter of the village only innkeeper, which seemed to him a very beautiful young woman.

He went back to Middenheim with his friends once more, but it took him just a few days to make up his mind. Apparently giving up on his dream of becoming a hero – at least for the rest of the world –, Magnus decided to ask for his retirement as a Roadwarden as soon as he had gotten Crowns enough. Then he would go to the village, where he was a hero already, to marry the girl and to live a quieter life, as his father once prayed he did. And it is probably there that he can be found now, if some of his comrades-in-arms ever decide to look for him…

(Magnus was played by Andre, who is famous for making his characters say “How dare you [something]!” to characters not so safely confronted, such as Witch Hunters. He left us for Japan, damn him, and we constantly celebrate for him, even if we miss the bastard so much.)


Magnus' Stats (when the group last saw him):

Human Roadwarden
Male, 1,78m, 70kg, Light Brown Eyes, Black Hair, 20 years old. Has a scar on his left cheek. Star Sign: Dragomas the Drake.

WS45% BS44% S33% T31% Ag37% Int38% WP33% Fel31%
Att 1 W 11 IP 1 FP 2

Skills: Animal Care, Drive, Gossip, Outdoor Survival, Perception, Ride, Search, C. Know (Empire), Follow Trail and Navigation.

Talents: Coolheaded, Luck, Quickdraw and Sp. Weap. Group (Gunpowder).

Experience Gained: 580.