Modeling

Ory-Hara is the Dark Angels Grand Master Ezekiel model.  I added a Xavier backpack, and filed the winged sword off his book and sculpted a flame and a new strap.  Ory-Hara is named after the codename your character in Escape Velocity: Nova earns in the Vell-Os or Polaris story lines after developing psychic powers.

Background

During his life, Atrus, former Chapter Master, Chief Librarian, and spiritual mentor of the Azure Flames trusted one person with the secrets of his prophecies.  That person was Ory-Hara.  The warp is a horrible place, full of things that can drive men mad at a glance.  Space Marine Librarians are trained to look into that darkness without flinching.  But it takes a prodigy to look through the nightmare of the warp and actually divine the future.  Atrus was such a man.  There were things that Atrus learned that he shared with the chapter.  There were things he shared only with the command staff.

And then there were the things he told to Ory-Hara.

Ory-Hara joined the Azure Flames (then the Sons of the Salamander) just after Atrus earned his Black Carapace and joined the Librarium of the Sons of the Salamander.   The chapter liberated Ory-Hara’s world, Palshife, from the forces of Chaos.  Ory-Hara felt gratitude toward his liberators, but suffered from the stress of toiling under the whip of the blasphemous regime of Chaos.  Atrus noticed the boy’s latent psychic abilities immediately.  Despite being the newest Lexicanum, Atrus asked to mentor the young psyker.  Atrus slowly won the trust of Ory-Hara, and helped him to unlock and face the memories he had hidden in the darkest places of his mind.  Free from his trauma, Ory-Hara’s psychic talents exploded with creativity.

When the Battle Barge His Hammer was destroyed, and Atrus received his vision, Ory-Hara was the first person Atrus told.  Ory-Hara was initially reluctant to believe Atrus, but then he discovered something.  By touching Atrus’ forehead, he found a way to copy the memory of the vision from Atrus, as if he had experienced it himself.  Amazed at this new ability, he was able to immediately show Atrus how to share the vision psychically.  Had Ory-Hara not done this, the Azure Flames would have never been born from the remnants of the Sons of the Salamander.

Ory-Hara examined this memory copying ability.  His first trick was to copy the memories of a willing battle brother.  He was able to expand this ability to find memories without the subject even being aware.  Working together with Atrus, he found the ultimate expression of this power: to copy the memories of someone who had recently died.  While this talent had limited use, it provided insight into their deaths.  Ory-Hara copied the memories of several battle brothers that died.

This led to the current Azure Flames rite to promote a Scout to a full Battle Brother: by sharing the memory of those that died for him.  For non-psykers this can be a harrowing and physically dangerous experience, but the fatality rate is only 17%.  Before this, Sons of the Salamander Scouts had to travel to Nocturne, home of the Salamanders, and face one of the legendary beasts in the yearly Salamander hunt.  This rite had a fatality rate of 32%.

Ory-Hara served in the Librarium of the Azure Flames with distinction, leading up to the conflict for the Chasma Spica.  On Iperin, Atrus sent Ory-Hara against the horrific Daemons of Chaos to the south of the main city, Daskros.  This was the one time Atrus had kept something back from his most trusted confidant.  Had Ory-Hara known of Atrus’ plan to sacrifice himself, he would have demanded to die by Atrus’ side.  Being denied the chance to save his only friend, Ory-Hara took a vow of silence.

He has not spoken since.  Nor has he written a word outside of his official log, carried on his person at all times.

Lack of communication is a problem in a commander.  Ory-Hara explains his wishes through psychic transmissions of images, or emotional impressions.  With his extensive library of memories collected from Battle Brothers, he can communicate any thought, tactical or mundane.  Ory-Hara has not revealed the contents of his log to any person, save Atrus and Perseus, and then only after Perseus had become Chapter Master.

Ory-Hara leads the Librarium shrouded in secrets.  When he passes, his log will be inherited by whichever Librarian takes his place.  Then the truth about Antonius, gene-son of Atrus, and his role in the fate of the Chapter will be revealed as Atrus intended.