Hive World Terra

Yevgeny Yefimovich

Warning: This definition may contain spoilers from any number of Games Workshop novels or source books.

Yevgeny Yefimovich: Here I am! Are you afraid of me, you lackeys and minions? I drink the blood of princes, break the backs of barons and crush the bones of counts! Yevgeny Yefimovich, Beasts in Velvet.

A Kislevite by birth, Yevgeny Yefimovich was brought into the Old World a normal human in 2262 and has lived into the present thanks to his worship of Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways. Little is known about his life before he became an altered and cultist of the Ruinous Powers, or indeed about how he became such a one. What is known is that Yefimovich occupies a position of great importance in the Cult of Tzeentch in the Warhammer World. He is frequently described as 'High Priest of Tzeentch' and seems to be the highest ranking member of this shadowy organisation. Certainly, his Cathayan ally Dien Ch'ing seems to answer to him. Yefimovich is undoubtedly a sorcerer of no mean powers, but has never been seen to demonstrate these visibly.

Yefimovich's mutations are many and dramatic. His bones are multiply jointed, allowing him to bend them in unnatural directions. His skin has become transparent as glass, showing fires burning within him. This fire also surrounds his face and hands, although it does not burn people and things that he touches: whether this is a purely cosmetic mutation or something Yefimovich controls is unclear. These mutations make it impossible for him to appear in public without shrouding robes. He found an ingenious way around this though, and his attendant and familiar Respighi kills unfortunates and skins them, allowing Yevgeny to wear their faces as masks.

In 2496 Yefimovich and Dien Ch'ing had infiltrated Claes Glinka's Moral Crusade. The Crusade's captives supply slaves for warpstone mines in the Dark Lands and for sale to the markets in Araby, while Yefimovich planned to have Glinka assassinated and replaced with the governor of Zhufbar, Wladislaw Blasko, who was also a member of the Proscribed Cults. The Crusade would then be used to purely serve the purposes of Chaos. This plot was uncovered by Genèvieve Dieudonné and the mercenary Vukotich. Together they put paid to Yefimovich and Ch'ingCh's plans, which earned both of them some disfavour with their dark God, and a punishment which was still fading in 2506, when Yefimovich and Ch'ing joined forces in Altdorf.

At this time, Yefimovich had infiltrated the Brustellite insurrectionists in Altdorf, and used his demagogic powers to incite a hatred of the Imperial upper classes in order to create turmoil in Altdorf. To further his cause, he wrote many pamphlets and tracts detailing the depravities of the nobility which included: Sons of the Soil, Arise!, Come the Revolution, Your and Your Betters, and Beasts in Green Velvet, which detailed the lineages of the Empire's noble families and the bloody history of the atrocities they and their ancestors had visited on their peasantry. Ironically enough, most of the stories related in this particular text were entirely accurate.The Beast murders provided him with a perfect catalyst to goad the mob with, his plan culminating in murdering the 'Angel of the Revolution', Ulrike Blumenschein, and blaming it on the Beast. He carried out this part of his plan during the Fog Riots. Yefimovich portrayed the Beast as one of the nobility, and cited the failure of the Watch to catch the murderer as proof that the Beast was a noble, being protected from on high by his fellows. Yefimovich used Ulrike's murder to incite a riot which saw the deaths of many, and led a mob to the Matthias II inn, where the Bretonnian Ambassador, Etienne Edouard Villechaize, was holding a party whose guests included Mikael Hasselstein, Crown Prince Luitpold and Countess Emmanuelle von Liebewitz. Knowing of the Ambassador's plans, Yevgeny planned for the mob to slaughter many of the Empire's highest ranking nobles. His plans were foiled by the presence of Johann von Mecklenberg and 'Filthy' Harald Kleindeinst. During the attack by the mob, Yefimovich came close to assassinating Countess Emmanuelle, but was thwarted by Mikael Hasselstein: doubly so, since Hasselstein's attack revealed his true features to the mob.

Early during this series of events, Yefimovich was humiliated at the gates of the Imperial Palace, by being showered with effluent from the palace drains, courtesy of Mikael Hasselstein, the Emperor's Confessor. Johann von Mecklenberg, who was a witness to this, considered that Yefimovich would have to be played by Detlef Sierck if a play was ever to be written about him.

In a final irony, Yefimovich was declared to be the Beast by the Imperial authorities, although he escaped from Altdorf before 'justice' could be served. What happened to him following his failure is unknown.

Source: Beasts in Velvet by Jack Yeovil, Silver Nails: Red Thirst by Jack Yeovil, White Dwarf: Issue 140 by various

Submitter: Simguinus