Alexi Proudmoore

"Men who fear death are the worst kind of cowards, who in meeting such a peril fail to see how close they come to salvation."

Alexi Proudmoore (Born 2474 I.C Xander Marquardt) was a Witch Hunter within the ranks of the Templars of Sigmar. Though the details of his birth and youth were expunged from record, he was of noble blood and heir to an affluent Viscount within the province of Wissenland. Whilst still an infant, his parents were both killed during a civil revolt that saw much of the nobility of the county murdered. Fearing for the child, a cleric stole the boy away from his ancestral estate even as the peasantry burnt it down. Hoping to save the child from the attention of the townsfolk, and in an attempt to absolve him of the cruelty of his bloodline, he offered Alexi to a nearby chapterhouse to serve as penance for the sake of his parents.

Since that day, Alexi has served in many capacities for the Templars and the Empire they protect. With a prodigious intellect and imposing physique, he has been sent to investigate occurences that baffled other members of his order or otherwise daunted even their steeled nerves. He has traveled the length and breadth of the Empire in search of the monsters and madmen that plaque it, and gone even further a field in search of esoteric knowledge that he may one day use it against the vile creatures that he has sworn to defeat.

Appearance and Personality
By his coming of age Alexi had grown into a heavily imposing figure, a head taller than most men of the empire with a broad upper chest and heavily muscled arms. In his later years he maintained this domineering physique, always striking a rigid posture so that he might wield his size just as any other weapon in his arsenal. He always kept his hair well trimmed and only allowed himself to grow a beard if his identity needed to be concealed or he was far from civilisation. He sported many scars across his body, either as a result of his profession or from flagellation rites in a bid to maintain his purity, and developed a limp due to nerve damage in a particularly gruesome encounter. Ever since his induction as a Witch Hunter he has worn the same leather duster jacket and wide brim hat, as much a signifier of his position to the commonfolk as his silver chain would be to nobility. Beyond this he was heavily laden with the tools and weaponry that allowed him to pursue his many quarries, with bandoliers of sharpened stakes and holy water, holy scriptures, as well as academic paraphenalia for his private studies.

Alexi grew up learning of the horror and madness that others had sought to hide from their children, letting it shape him into a fiercely independent man who never knew trust or companionship. He was taught of the inherent folly of compassion, and the binding weakness of love, and so never sought them out. He grew outwardly cold, only employing emotion as a means for other ends, otherwise masking his feelings behind a facade of contemptuous disdain. Even amongst his peers he was known as a ruthless killer with little regard for the lives he claimed, and so it was that he was often sent to distant and remote locales to protect the Order from the accusations of a rightly fearful populace.

Though he was known for his skill at arms and ability to turn terror against those who would wield it, Alexi's greatest strength was always his intelligence. He cultivated an extensive knowledge of the world and the horrors it was capable of spawning, using this information to correctly identify his prey and eradicate them with righteous impunity. It allowed him to see through deceits, and guess at a villains ploy before they could enact it. Though he would never acknowledge it, one of Alexis greatest joys was to observe the bitter frustration of an enemy who realised too late that their schemes had been wrought to ruin.

Initiation
"Of obedience to the Lord Protector and renunciation of one's own will"

-1st Holy Principle of the Templars of Sigmar