How do you give an assassin a personality?

Specifically 40k one's as I'm struggling to make them coherent with story I'm very slowly writing!

Pic somewhat related.

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=4Ed8vNcMif0
youtu.be/vjUqUVrXclE
youtube.com/watch?v=jS6kAKj8R9o
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

Brain problems are pretty good

>"I swallowed a bug"

That just describes me and my writing at the moment.

youtube.com/watch?v=4Ed8vNcMif0

Give them a gimmick.

Ironically deadpool

youtu.be/vjUqUVrXclE

I like that.

Make him a disaffected young man who has been brainwashed into committing an assassination. Fanatical, but completely inconsequential and expendable.

What kind of assassin? Death cult, freelancer, batshit insane...
I've done an assassin in 40K and I've decided that the best I could do was stray away from the silent killer image. Went wild, drug addicted, manic, fast talking fast slashing killing machine and had her develop slowly some sort of coscience and sense of responsibility. I think the most important part is that killing is what your character does best, but not what he IS. He might like to kill, he might do it for money only, he might just consider life especially cheap, he might be proud or hate it but at the core he knows he is talented for it and that is just how the universe goes.

That seems too easy for 40k, at least to me. I'll try and figure something, maybe make him a patriot, I just don't know...

You don't. They're living weapons, perhaps even more so than a Space Marine.

If that sounds boring, that's because it is.

It would be pretty in line with some sorts of conditionings that exist into 40K. People with an assassin switch built in through mind conditioning might hide anywhere.

That's only Temple Assassins. And even then, that's mostly the craziest kinds. Some Vindicare even have a sense of humor! Bleak, that is, but still.

>That's only Temple Assassins
Sure but does anyone who doesn't operate on this level even deserve to be called an assassin? A hitman, maybe.

>I could do was stray away from the silent killer image. Went wild, drug addicted, manic, fast talking fast slashing killing machine and had her develop slowly some sort of coscience and sense of responsibility. I think the most important part is that killing is what your character does best, but not what he IS. He might like to kill, he might do it for money only, he might just consider life especially cheap, he might be proud or hate it but at the core he knows he is talented for it and that is just how the universe goes.

I did think of him going through an redemption arc, but I don't think he feels his killing is anything other than necessary. Hence the OP image (despite Alejandro ultimately being on roaring rampage of revenge.).

Try reading the original James Bond novels. Very different from le sexy action man he became in the movies (Daniel Craig is actually the closest the films have come to book Bond, far more than Connery was). He's kind of a miserable person. He's an epicurean not to show how cultured he is, but because his chances of living to retirement are slim at best and he knows he has to make the most of life while he still can. His womanizing isn't part of some male wish-fulfillment fantasy. He sleeps around because he can't form lasting relationships, because again he's a dead man walking (also probably trauma over what happened with Vesper Lind). He's utterly loyal to the British government, but there's no romanticism to it, no patriotism in the conventional sense. He's a professional liar and killer and he has no illusions about it.

Death Cult assassins are found into the retinues of inquisitors or the employ of Rogue Traders alongside other... peculiar individuals. The Mechanicus has its own sect of assassins as well, the Acuitor. Even freelance hive assassins might get tangled into an inquisitor's path and given a job offer for life. Sure if you are only concerned about the gods among men that are space marine and everyone from that tier up, only Temple Assassins cut it (eh), but that also makes for about the most boring half of 40K.

>people who only make instant ramen also deserve to be called chefs

>willingly missing the point so hard
Some death cults are surprisingly competent. They might be not true chefs, but they probably can make all kinds of ramen you can think of and more.

your job isn't your personality
unless assassin in 40k is Assassin which means it has to act in a very specific way

How indeed?

I have that exact same pair of pants!

Every week they get a new hobby so that they can blend into any class of society effortlessly

Thanks for this, I think a Bond book around here somewhere.

youtube.com/watch?v=jS6kAKj8R9o

Watch Leon

"Pedo" is not a personality, user

Check out the audiobook prequel to Execution Hour. The Callidus and Evasor in that both have some degree of personality.

"Oh boy! Here I go killing again!"