[quote][b]Jace "Echo" Siegmund, Navigator[/b]

Jace "Echo" Siegmund is a scion of the nomadic Navigator House Siegmund, the
seventeenth son to its Novator. As such he was deemed mostly superfluous by his
family. Assured that Jace's elder siblings would provide the House with sufficient
wealth, prestige and political leverage, the latest child of House Siegmund was
intended mostly as an afterthought, an experiment with minimal investment and low
expectations.

While visiting a Forge world, House Siegmund's Novator announced that Jace would
remain behind, in the custody of the Fabricator-Locum. He wished to see what effect
an early introduction to the secrets of technology and fabrication would have on a
Navigator's later effectiveness aboard a starship. Ignoring the boy's protests, the
Novator directed his fleet away from the planet, leaving Jace in the cold and
uncaring hands of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Jace hardened in the care of the tech priests. His contempt for his captors
strengthened his will, his resentment towards the Omnissiah fed his love for the
God-Emperor. While his daily interactions with technology gave him an insight into
their function, Jace refused to learn the true secrets of technology. Instead, he
focused on his innate abilities. For his third eye could see plainly the
Astronomican, and its light comforted the young Navigator during his darkest hours.

His time watching the God-Emperor's beacon led to a fascination with far-away
places, and a burning desire to submit others to the light which had been his
crutch for years. His family's scorn only made Jace resolve to rise above their
expectations, to see his star rise above his siblings' and, eventually, to supplant
his father as Novator of the Hhouse.

Those ambitions would prove difficult to realize, however. After several years on
the forge world, Jace was finally allowed to leave and ply his trade among the
stars, far removed from both the tech-priests he resented and the family who
scorned him. Yet he soon found that he lacked the required social skills to make
his way in the galaxy; as part of a nomadic House, he had known only his family and
its servants aboard the Siegmund fleet. Jace had never learned how to speak with
outsiders, and his time among the tech priests had done nothing to improve his
already lacking social acumen.

Even worse, members of the Ecclesiarchy were quick do dismiss Jace as soon as they
learned of his reputation. While Jace's faith was strong, his knowledge of proper
Imperial rites and prayers was lacking. His time among the Omnissiah's disciples
had left something of a stigmata which caused the Ecclesiarchy's priests to view
Jace with disdain. And because of this disdain, many upstanding citizens of the
Imperium refused to deal with Jace, as they were unwilling to risk earning the
Ecclesiarchy's ire.

Jace eventually decided to sign up for service aboard a Rogue Trader's vessel,
hoping its captain's reputation would eventually wash away the stains his own past
had left. As a Navigator, he was welcomed with open arms by many crews.
Unfortunately, none of them could satisfy Jace's ambitions. There were only a
handful of ships he stayed with longer than a year- some captains risked too little
and subsequentially garnered too little glory, others risked too much and lost
their careers, their ships, or even their lives to rivals and various xenos.

One particular case of a cold trade gone sour led to the Eldar wiping out the
entire crew save Jace, hunting him through the forests for three days, and finally
leaving him to die in the planet's jungles. When a band of smugglers finally found
the Navigator four years later, he was half mad, and to this day he experiences
vivid nightmares of his time in the untamed wilds. Ever since, Jace has come to
appreciate life aboard thick-hulled spaceships, feeling somewhat uncomfortable
under an open sky.

Despite his resentment for his time among the tech priests, Jace has become more
like his cold, uncaring caretakers than he cares to admit. He too thinks in terms
of logic, with a singleminded focus on fulfilling his ambitions in as efficient a
way as possible. To him, emotional decisions are made by lesser men. Those with any
design on power should stick to reason and logic, rather than allow themselves to
be distracted by wants and desires. Protected by the Warrant of Trade he has no
qualms about dealing with Xenos, although he still feels ill at ease in the
presence of the Eldar.

Recently Jace has signed up with the crew of captain Hasarrian, hoping that this
time he will be able to further his ambitions among the stars.[/quote]