I play Fyodor Grigorovich, former master-at-arms and now majordomo for Inquisitor Ezekiel Chaxius, in our weekly Dark Heresy role-playing game. Fyodor began as the grimdark equivalent of Ted Lasso. Still, since being corrupted by being in the presence of the Liber Malleus and handling the Laer blade, Fyodor‘s character arc has become much more interesting. Now that Fyodor sees the corruption in himself, he sees the rot in the Imperium.

“How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.”

— Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams