Dramatis Personae: High Lord Josef Strakh, Grand Provost Marshal
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'Detail is irrelevant. Justice is subordinate to retribution.'
[//Lord Speaker Drachmar, Remarks of Strakh+]
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The office of Grand Provost Marshal commanded a permanent seat on the Senatorum Imperialis, and as the source of legal authority, was owed supremacy by all forces of the Imperium, even the other High Lords – nominally at least.
Far from a supervisory role, Strakh appears to have been an engaged and dynamic individual, who believed that his authority derived directly from the God-Emperor, and was thus immutable and impossible to countermand.
It is thus notable that he allied himself with the most zealously anti-Primarch bloc in the Senatorum, led by Ecclesiarch Benedin II and supported by both the Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica and Master of the Segmentum Solar. Strakh brought metaphorical muscle to the group, for he had spent decades ruthlessly gathering and centralising power.
He was not universally admired.
In his own words, Strakh has purged 'unnecessary bureaucracy and complication' from his sphere of influence, and thus claims to have honed the fearsome Judges of the Adeptus Arbites into '[its] least corrupt form since their inception.'
It is my opinion – mine alone, of course – that he has done nothing of the sort. Rather, he has simply become chief gangmaster of the largest Cartel know to humanity.
It is fortunate that his zeal is matched entirely by his orthodoxy and myopia – if he could see beyond the imagined threats before his eyes, he might prove a genuine problem to the Imperium.
[//Suzerain Belligerent Oston Ereward, private communications [REDACTED]+]
Advocating the straightforward deployment of increasingly large military forces until the rebels were defeated, Strakh became something of a direct conduit to Master Enoch, stoically defending his oft-precarious position against the other members of Orthodox Imperial high command, and shielding him from the political demands of the position.
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[//Volo Noscere+]
Arbitrator Supreme
Chief amongst the Grand Provost Marshal's duties is to act as the leader of the Adeptus Arbites, the dread Judges of the Imperium. No mere figurehead, Strakh had inherited the role from the famed Hershei-Goldmann, but came to eclipse his predecessor in all ways.
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[//Arbitration. The relic-helm Iustus Immutabilis, borne by this Honour Guard, accompanied the Provost-Marshal on his official duties. It formed the pattern after which the helm of every Arbitrator of rank would wear – the none-too-subtle implication that Imperial Law was galaxy-wide, anonymous and inevitable.+]
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Highly active and surprisingly open to reform, the period following the War of the False Primarch was marked by a feverish attendance to Order in all forms, and saw a sweeping increase in the active role of the Arbitrators. The centuries following the War would become increasingly strained and dark for the worlds of the Imperium as the Senatorum's collective obsession with covering up the False Primarch's actions placed untold strain on planetary defences.
With more than a fifth of all the Imperium's Space Marines engaged – partially or totally – in the Segmentum Pacificus, worlds were forced to look to their own devices for protection. Resurgent xenos, and heretic cults old and new took advantage of [//liber-screed interrupt+]
[//slip-cut{SCRAPSHUNT}SPOOLING+][//teehee teehee+]
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Mastermind of the Annulus Umbra
Strakh was one of three High Lords to travel to the region and was said to have met directly with the Shade Lord of the Carcharodons,
Puru Mango – though to what purpose is unknown. The matter seems not to have been one of censure, for Strakh had made himself prominent in the drafting of the Annulus Vow undertaken during the
Diet of Fools.
A tantalising reference to the meeting is supposedly retained by the Carcharodons in their Librarium, though all attempts to retrieve it have been ignored, rebuffed or – in the case of Inquisitor-Ordinary Ghes de Lor in M39 – fatally repelled.
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[//Strakh in what appears to be a typical staged political portrait – but which is believed to have been taken while the High Lord Grand Provost Marshal was in action on Myrea Prime.+]
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Memoriam
A difficult man – as noted above – Josef Strakh was chiefly remembered as a strategist and coordinator. Even his detractors would admit that he knew the Law so perfectly that his mind put to shame the best savants. His autohagiography – Life: Strakhenfels – is little-remembered in the contemporary Imperium, but can be regarded as an important secondary source relating to the War of the False Primarch.
In writing the Life, his undoubtedly brilliant mind and seemingly eidetic memory was coupled with a thoroughness and clear-sightedness perhaps deliberately hidden from his political enemies, which makes his writing surprisingly engaging – particularly when one considers the minutiae into which he delves over the multiple volumes. Any sample drawn from the Life will go into tiny detail on everything from the Grand Provost Marshal's days in office, giving equal weight to the details of a particularly complex legal precedent as seemingly irrelevant theories on the ideal personal hygiene regimen to be followed by various ranks of Arbites.
Strakh appeared to compulsively record and reason through everything, however minor, and thus the huge and unexplained gaps surrounding the period stand out like a sore thumb. Given Strakh was to survive the War, and be involved in the complex decision-making following the Edict of Obliteration, his insistence that his personal recollections were kept 'pure' – that is, with no comforting falsehoods used to cover the Senatorum Imperialis' tracks or salve their collective consciences – are notabl[...]
[//[...]can... can you h-hear me? Please!+]
[...]ere the other High Lords were apparently content, even eager, to gloss over the redacted affair – or, as has been suggested, produce an entirely parallel history from whole cloth to cover up the War, it appears Strakh's scrupulous and inflexible sense of duty and moral rights warred with this highly political intrigue-management. Given that the censorship of the other High Lords' personal memoirs were overseen personally by Strakh, it is difficult to explain why the Life was released with such a notable gap.
It is as though Josef Strakh, Grand Provost Marshal of the Imperium and High Lord of Terra, wanted those who would follow him to read between the lines[//retrieval-spool vanquished{absentque}+]
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+ The sacred tome of the Lex Imperialis carried by a servitor-delegatus, is a three-centuries old book from the Archivarium Palatian. Its frailty made impossible to be read without severe measures. +
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[...]Noddy, John, [//expurgated/non-present Val=?+] [XX][...]
[...]tion, none of you were expecting that. And while I don't pretend to know any of you enough to judge your theatrical abilities, my judgement tells me none of you are acting. Which raises the question...'
Greenwood finishes her thought.
'Who placed the servitor?'
The doors open. Three giants start to enter, stooping slightly, despite the height of the portal. The Silver Stars have their strangebows raised. Morosto of the Golden Hand dives to one side, carrying Greenwo[...]
[//malfeasant{log} – Kōkua iā-ia+]
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[//The High Lord intones sententiam fatalis on the Abomination, at the feet of the Iustificus Arus, one of the thousand squares that can be foubd in the Law Fields of Holy Terra.+]
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[//teehee teehee+]
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Kōkua iā-ia
