Editing Setting:Cloudburst/People (section)

==Lord Marshal Persinius Oolan==
{{Topquote|In theory, Law serves Justice, and the Arbites serve both. In practice, this Sector is full of hopeful idiots, each of whom think they know the law better than me. I don’t mind. It keeps the mind sharp, and the truncheon swinging.|Persinius Oolan}}

The Adeptus Arbites usually recruit the very best of the very best from Schola Progenum across the galaxy, and from local Enforcer departments in a pinch. Persinius Oolan hails from the former, and had been slated to serve the Arbites since the age of nine. He was born to two Imperial Navy officers on leave on the planet Cassie’s World, and returned to the ship with them after their leave ended. The first seven years of his life, he grew up with the other children in the bowels of the frigate Hallowed Ether, but after that ship was captured by a gang of Orks, his parents shoved him into a savior pod to be rescued by a passing freighter.

Young Persinius was taken to Septiim Secundus, and eventually entered the Schola there. He quickly excelled in academic fields, even as a young child, with his stellar memory and comprehension skills beyond his years. By the time he graduated at eighteen, he was already a Junior Arbitrator in honored standing, and led his graduating class in truncheon scores.

He settled in on Septiim Primus and joined a Precinct there as a Street Patrol Trooper. Given the size of the cities on Septiim Primus, and the need for the delicate maintenance of the vast forests there, Arbites play a secondary role after the planetary Civil Police. Thus, it was and remains seen as a safe early posting for Arbitrators. After only a few years as a Trooper, Oolan was promoted to Arbitrator, and eventually transferred to the system capital. Oolan had a knack for the historical interpretations of the Lex Imperialis, and he applied it judiciously. He was often able to cite precedents that his counterparts forgot. It was obvious that his eventual career path would take him to the bench of Magistrates, and by the time he was forty, he was already the highest-ranked Judge Marshal in the Septiim system.

Oolan’s career took a sharp right turn at that point. He benefitted from a variety of genetic alterations to extend his life and increase his health as it was, and as soon as he became the Judge Marshal of Septiim, he attracted the eye of Lord Inquisitor Palmer, one of the two most experienced Lords Inquisitor in the Sector. Palmer was a member of the Ordo Hereticus and had been since the day he received his Rosette. His investigations took him deep into the hearts of heretic cults that worshipped dead gods of humanity’s primordial past, about a third of which turned out to be the Powers of Ruin in one of their ancient disguises. Oolan occasionally joined Palmer’s retinue as a font of knowledge about Imperial law that eclipsed even Palmer’s.

Here, Oolan had the pleasure of working with the crack team of Battle Sisters and Mutant-Hunter Ecclesiarchal clergy Palmer had assembled. Like most Arbites, Oolan had started his career resenting how much the Ecclesiarchy interfered with the purely procedural application of law in the Imperium, but as he worked for Palmer, his view shifted. He came to witness the sheer power of oratory in the sermons of vicious hate the Sisters and Priests espoused. He watched with jaw agape as the speaking skills of the Inquisitor and his collection of preachers turned hostile crowds into adoring, eager militia.

Oolan realized that there was a function for the faith in law after all. After Palmer was killed in action and his retinue dispersed, Oolan returned to Septiim a changed man. He became a Judge Chaplain, to date the only Judge Marshal to become a Judge Chaplain in the history of the Sector and one of fewer than four dozen in Ultima history. Oolan served in the Chaplaincy for nine years of non-stop work, maintaining the faith and morale of the Arbites of Septiim. Eventually, Lord Blanchard Quintus, the current Lord Sector’s father, recognized Oolan’s unique combination of experience, knowledge, and faith. He put Oolan’s name forward to succeed Lord Marshal Sarah Creill after her retirement, and Oolan was eventually offered the job by the Senate of the High Lords.

Oolan has never forgotten his religious turn, but it no longer dominates every aspect of his position. On the contrary, ever since moving to Cloudburst and setting up in the warren of tunnels down the street from Lord Quintus’s mansion, he has had barely a moment to rest. He has taken as many of the extraneous tasks of the Arbites senior leadership on himself as possible, intending to free up as much time for his subordinates to prosecute the lawbreakers of the moon as he can. In this, he has inarguably succeeded. The Cloudburst moon’s crime rate has slowly dropped away to almost nothing after his seventy-three years of work. He still attends services in the same black robes as he has the whole time, and still sits in silent judgment of the Sector Council, in the chair under the dimmest bulb. He still attends monthly dinners with Lord Remortho Quintus to discuss work, and even struck up an odd friendship with his colleague.

However, although he projects an air of being the ineffable, wise old lawman, Oolan has had some uncomfortable misses in his career. He is no closer to solving the Hapster problem than any of his predecessors. He is totally unaware of both ABX202020 and Merrick Unarvu’s evil plots. He is so distracted by Cardinal Lamarr’s potentially illegal military buildup that he has no inkling of the danger posed by the Genestealer infestation of the wreck of the Predator, nor has he nor have his men noticed the size of the Circle of Whispers, nor their true ambitions. Oolan is also helpless to do anything more than he has about the Free Corsair Coalition, no matter how much he wants to see Admiral Reith hang.

If Oolan were to learn of ABX202020 and House Matraxia, he would no doubt be astonished and disgusted, but would leave the matter to the Inquisition and Mechanicus to resolve, rather than try to involve himself in the internal affairs of another Adeptus. However, if he learned of the scale and horrible threat of The Unbound Good lead by Unarvu, he would not wait for permission from the Astra Militarum to rally every Arbites in the Subsector and crash down on Unarvu’s head like a lightning bolt.

Oolan is on good working terms with most of the senior Adepts of the Sector, save the Synod Cloudburst. Drake dislikes Oolan, thinking him pretentious with his religious background. Oolan was only a Chaplain late in his career, whereas Drake has served for three hundred years. For his part, Oolan can’t wait for Drake to die. Cardinal Lamarr is so openly flouting the intent of the Decree Passive that Oolan is rapidly losing his patience. All of Lamarr’s talk of Eldar has come to nothing, and the rest of the Sector needs mercenaries, too.

The Lady High Inquisitrix Cloudburst, Lerica, regards Oolan as a distant ally in the struggle against those who would undo the Imperium, and has often called upon him to aid her subordinates in their own investigations. Of course, very few Inquisitors actually work directly for another, even for an Inquisitor of her august rank; most work on their own and only come to the Conclave to seek out new talent or leads. Many of them have brought Arbites into their employ, temporarily or permanently, just as Palmer did to Oolan, so long ago.

To avoid any temptation to abuse his position, Oolan does not carry any non-standard equipment. His only weapons are his standard multi-ammo pistol and a Shock Maul, as well as a fine suit of carapace armor. He wears black priestly robes over them, adorned only with a white velvet rosette from his time in the Inquisition.