Israfil

Born in the Underhives of Scintilla, the Capital of the Claxis Sector in the Segmentum Obscurus in 861.M41. Israfil had to learn early that only the clever and strong survive.

From a very young age Israfil could feel danger approaching and had a curious talent for finding the best hiding places amongst the packed, choking urban environment, dodging many a fight this way. But Israfil was no coward and could handle himself in a fight well, if just thinking his way out of trouble was not possible.

On one of these occasions, Israfil faced down four members of an opposing gang, only armed with a little knife and came out victorious. This fight had been watched by Brother Bethor from the Dark Angels who were on a recruiting mission on Scintilla at that moment and he was well impressed by Israfil’s character and determination. He took Israfil to the Rock, where he not only passed all trials successfully, but it was also discovered that some of his extraordinary talents came from his psychic talents. Israfil proved to be worthy of Bethor’s trust by also passing all additional tests to become a battle Psyker and finishing his training and studies as one of the best neophytes ever to do so.

Israfil embraced the Dark Angels doctrines as his own and was ever curious and eager to gain more knowledge or to train himself to be the best Space Marine in service of the Emperor he could be.

On his very first mission as a full-fledged Battle-Brother Israfil managed to kill a Chaos Space Marine Psyker who had led his Squad into a trap. He lost his left arm in the fight, but due to his exceptional psychic talents emerged victorious. Today the only reminder to the outside of this fight is Israfil's cybernetic replacement. It certainly can’t be felt in battle, for his fighting arm is still strong and his mind burning even brighter than before. Maybe it is for the greatness his mentors see in him, that he has been chosen for a term in the Deathwatch.

When the day came that Israfil was sent to join the Deathwatch in the Jericho Reach, he was joined by Brother Tobit, who had served in the Ravenwing so far. Both Brothers knew each other by name, but nothing more apart from that as their interests and dedications were so vastly different within the chapter.

Although Israfil does not believe in the Omnissiah, he came to respect Tobit throughout their joined training on Watch Fortress Erioch, as Tobit is totally dedicated to his field and hungers for every bit of information in his field that he can find, a mindset Israfil can absolutely relate to.

Israfil also developed a brotherly rivalry with Brother Eric from the Space Wolves who has been assigned to his Kill-Team too. Outdoing him it is one of the rare moments that Israfil can be caught smiling. Although there are enough moments when Eric has the lead on him, as they seem to be quiet evenly matched. So they carry on in the spirit of their Primarchs, with the same regard for one another as these two brothers had ten millennia ago.

Israfil, Tobit, Eric and two other brothers – Invictus from the Ultramarines and Jock from the Storm Wardens – have been assigned to Kill-Team Stag under the command of Watch Captain Heinrich. As Heinrich minimizes his conversation and contact with Israfil to a bare minimum and Israfil himself not being interested in general chatter, they get on quite well, all things considered.

Their first missions set them up agains the Tyranids. First to recover data from the invaded moon of Tantalus in the hope of finding a weakness in this dreaded foe and following up to recover a genestealer sample from Avalos to verify the found data. In both missions the Kill-Team came to rely on Israfils skill and reliable manner. He is also known to keep a cool head, even if mission parameter change suddenly and desperate measures like boarding a Hive Ship, have to be applied.

On his next mission to Vanity Israfil fought the forces of Chaos alongside Eric and two other Librarians. But deeper implications that concern the future of his Chapter unfolded on the surface of the dusty, barren planet that overshadowed all accomplishments and lead to him talking his brothers into a further mission on Vanity.