Vargard Obyron

Vargard Obyron is the shadow at Nemesor Zahndrekh's shoulder, a mighty warrior of the Sautekh Dynasty sworn to guard the person of his lord through every campaign. Unlike the deluded nemesor he serves, Obyron is entirely lucid. He is grimly, painfully aware of what he and his master have become, understanding all too well that they are undying machines of necrodermis rather than the living necrontyr Zahndrekh believes them still to be.

Long ages ago, Obyron abandoned his efforts to rouse Zahndrekh from delusion. He came to accept that the nemesor's madness is a wound that will not heal, and that his own duty is not to cure it but to endure it. So he plays his part in the great charade, tolerating his master's eccentric courtesies and quietly correcting the chaos they cause, bound to Zahndrekh by a loyalty so old and so deep that it has outlasted the very sanity of the one he protects.

Much of Obyron's grim labour is done out of his master's sight. When Zahndrekh graciously pardons a captured foe or overlooks a threat that his delusion prevents him from recognising, it often falls to the vargard to see the necessary killing quietly done, sparing his lord the truths he could not bear. He carries out these duties without complaint, a dour and sardonic executioner cleaning up after a general who fights a war that ended millions of years ago.

In battle Obyron is a peerless guardian, wielding a great warscythe with lethal skill. By the power of an ancient device, he can fold space and step instantly across the battlefield to appear wherever his master stands in peril, materialising without warning to strike down any who threaten the nemesor. Where Zahndrekh is the mind, Obyron is the blade, and together the mad genius and his lucid protector have won the Sautekh more victories than either could ever have claimed alone.