#rogue trader quotes

[hamstergod]

Are we shipping marzipan and pasqal btw or

[arkygifs]

EWAN McGREGOR as NICHOLAS "NICK" LEESON in Rogue Trader (1999)

[rats-and-robots]

Marazhai: Be right back! RT: Will you? Marazhai: Who can know these things? RT: You! You can know these things!

[alistairs]

They say a little bit of humility never hurt anyone... I help others better themselves by wholeheartedly humiliating them at every step.

[redbatchedcumbermayned]

It all started under a duvet held up by an oar

Not so long ago I emailed Chris Tester, the voice of Heinrix van Calox in Owlcat’s recently released CRPG Rogue Trader, and asked if he would like to sit for an interview with me. Having some experience in interviewing people I like, most famously Oscar winner and all-around sweetheart Eddie Redmayne, this was not a completely nerve-wracking endeavour. And within a day of sending my email, Chris said yes. And what a pleasure it was interviewing him: Chris was so generous with his time, that the agreed upon 30 minutes turned into 50 minutes as we brushed upon many topics from his start as a theatre actor to his first voice-over role in a video game to his recently discovered hobby of playing D&D. Of course, we also spoke about all things Warhammer 40k, his new found fame brought on by voicing Heinrix and the insights he could share about the character.

I will publish this interview in three parts over the next week in text form and with the accompanying audio file (the audio quality is not spectacular but tumblr limits uploads to 10MB). If you quote or reshare, please quote me as the original source.

Part 2 of the interview

Part 3 of the interview

Fran: Thank you very much for taking your time.

Chris Tester: That's no problem. No problem at all.

F: So then let's start. You graduated in 2008.

CT: I did. Yes.

F: You started out as a stage actor. Did you always want to become a stage actor or an actor in general? Tell us a bit about your career.

CT: I always wanted to be a stage actor. Yes, as soon as I knew that I wanted to be an actor, which probably wasn't until I was a teenager. But yeah, my first passion was always the stage, and that was kind of borne out in my career. I would have been open to TV and film of course, if it had come along, I'm a huge fan of TV and film as well, but I never got an audition for any TV or film work.

I think I literally did about three short films in my 10, 12 years of actually professionally acting, and it is one of those industries where the more you do of one thing, the more you seem to find yourself doing the same thing to a degree. So yes, watching Shakespeare from an early age was one of my first passions.

And that was what first planted the seed of wanting to do it myself. The whole aspect of live performance is still something that I'm very passionate about. Up until 2020, when the world changed, I was trying to do two or three theatre shows a year, but since 2020, I haven't been near a stage and I doubt right now, especially with the way that the UK theatre scene is going, that I'm going to be back on stage anytime soon. I am resigned to that, but at some point in my career, I know I will be on stage again, because I can't live without it, but only for the right thing, both financially, but more importantly, creatively.

F: Your production company is currently on hiatus?

CT: I was the producer of a theatre company, which was run and was the baby of the director of the company, a guy called Ross Armstrong, who's one of the most talented writers and directors that I've ever worked with. I was helping out with a lot of the administration stuff so that he could still put me in plays. Instead of creating my own work because I'm not a very good writer or the best writer in the world, I support those people who will write me good parts. So yes, it is currently on hiatus, but never say never, we would always be looking to get back. It's difficult right now. It's difficult for all of us, because arts council subsidy, that way of being able to fund stuff, is drying up. We were doing a national tour of the UK when we were doing that [with the support of a subsidy]. There's even less money, there's even more people. I won't bore you with anything more than that, but it's kind of tough. We'd like to come back, but in the right way, and that's tricky to negotiate.

F: It's always hard as a stage actor to earn a living.

CT: Well, I've been spoiled by voice-over as well, and whereas when I was in my 20s and 30s then you're all about your art. And of course, I'm still all about my art, but I'm also about my wife and my cat and the mortgage and the bills and wanting to have nicer things to a degree as well. I've come to terms with that and voice-over does facilitate that as well as it opens you up to different roles and working with different people. So, I can't complain.

F: It's quite similar with making a living as a writer, because with a steady income you get used to a certain standard of living and once you have obligations and bills to pay, I think the stress on your mental health being creative and having all the stresses of regular life thrust upon you brings with it a challenge.

CT: It's a cliche we can very easily fall into: if I'm suffering, then it means I'm an artist. And that's not necessarily very true. It very often means that the art that we create only reflects one aspect of our lives, and it's usually a very tortured one. I am also about having wider experiences and broadening myself out. Whereas I think when I was in my twenties, I was thinking a bit more like: Oh, I'll experience the world and life through my art and just purely through my art. Whereas now necessarily I need to have a life outside of it as well, and then I can justify like I have the life so that I can feed my art or not, whatever. You know, I'll be a better artist by having a bit of a life outside of it. Maybe.

F: But that's what your twenties are for.

CT: Yeah, indeed.

F: Doing the crazy stuff, doing the band stuff 

CT: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, there was certainly an aspect of that in my twenties.

F: So, what brought you to voice acting or voice-over work initially?

CT: Money. Video game stuff is kind of sexy and cool, and I'm a gamer, so that's important. Before I was a video gamer, I was a board gamer and off the back of that, I was a voracious video gamer, partly because I wasn't very good at team sports at school. I was always the person who was picked last in the football team. So that becomes part of your identity for better or worse. But video games, I was pretty good at, not amazing, but I was pretty good at, and I enjoyed it. And it gave me a different form of escapism as well, and off the back of that I always had an interest in them. 

So, the very first voiceover job was a video game: Dark Souls, which is quite a big franchise. At that time, I was your very typically jobbing actor. My acting agent came in and said: I got something for you. And so, I went in with that. But it was only in 2016, 2017 that I realised it was something that you could actually do yourself. People had recording studios at home and they were contacting people directly, not just going through agents. Because I'd basically written to the same 20 voice agents in the UK, mainly in London for like eight years in a row and not received anything. So, you keep knocking on those doors hoping. 

Before I'd even graduated from drama school, I'd burnt a CD and made these cases with my headshot on it and sent them all off at what at the time felt like great personal expense and didn't get anything for eight years in a row.  So, I was a bit like, I'm obviously doing something wrong, but I don't really know what, because I'm doing these workshops and getting good feedback. Then I found out through a couple of online courses, that there were ways and means of doing it myself, and that was a bit of a game changer for me, and within six months of having started, I was earning more through voice work than the bar job and the box office job that I was doing combined. Within six months, I was kind of like: “I gotta quit because I'm actually holding myself back from things.” So that was quite a big shift.

F: Somewhere you said, you started out under a duvet and with an oar.

CT: Yeah. On my website, I do have an image of it. [Dear reader, I could not locate this elusive photo] I literally had to take the duvet off my bed and put it into the living room, which was the quietest space in my then shared flat. I also had to wait until after one flat mate had watched TV and another one had used the table that had their washing on it. One of my flat mates had stolen an oar from some night out and that was perfect in order to be able to erect it over my head and the duvet as a frame. 

I did probably the first four or five months of voice recording like that. Probably about 10, 15 voiceover jobs that I actually got paid for, I was using that because it worked well enough. Since then, I've gone through various different iterations of a setup in the bedroom, to a setup in the hallway, to my current setup. In 2020 we moved to our first house, and this is the spare bedroom which I've had converted into a studio, which means my cat can be here asleep on me or near me getting fur everywhere, but it's fine. I can thrash around and I've got natural light to work in at the same time, which I find quite important. [Pictured below Chris' current setup.]

F: Very pretty. That's good. Guide us through a typical day of yours, if you like.

CT: Oh, sure. I mean, there is no typical day. And yet, and yet, and yet. A typical day for me is, because I am spending the vast majority of the day sitting in this room or somewhere close to this room, because I may need to record at short notice, because the vast majority of jobs are quite short notice. My priority is exercise for mental health more than anything. I've got some weights at the bottom of the garden, and I will get up first thing, and I will go there and I will do that after breakfast. And that's my minimal routine of physical activity done. 

And then I'll come back, and this is so rock and roll. Now what I do is, I spend like an hour on LinkedIn. And that's what you dreamed of as a creative person. Isn't it as an actor? I spend time on LinkedIn regularly every day, because it's a really good networking place for a lot of my types of work, and first thing in the morning, I'm a bit mentally sharper. So that's when I come up with a quick post that may be inspired by a bit of content that I've made elsewhere. That probably takes about 20 minutes and then I spend another 45 minutes to an hour engaging with people and saying hi and introducing myself and asking questions, whether that's with video producers or game developers or documentary makers or pretty much anything and everything. There are a lot of people who are active at that time. And so I do it.

And then after that, if I already have some recording lined up, then I'll prioritise mid-morning, because I've warmed up physically a bit more then, and I'm focused. So, you're going through the scripts, annotating the scripts, recording the scripts, editing the scripts. But then there could be live sessions at any time within that as well. I try to keep hours from nine till six. But occasionally, like with Rogue Trader, that was recorded at various different times of the day because we had people in New York, we had people in mainland Europe, and we had people in the UK. So all different time zones, so that can happen at any time. 

And then I try to do other kinds of bits and pieces of marketing whenever I've got free time to. I do use really exciting productivity hacks, like time blocking. Again, not something that as a creative individual, I was like: Oh God, this gets me so excited, because it doesn't, but it works. It's finding a system that works for you, but still has a certain kind of flexibility and fluidity. I'm trying to make sure that I get outside of the house, and that kind of stuff. 

Recently, over the last year, I’ve started doing audiobooks as well. That long form type of thing is quite nice to be able to dip into because sometimes you don't record for two, three days. You don't get the work. Nothing’s coming in. So, you’re marketing, but it kind of connects you back to the performance side of things to go: I can do a few chapters and you know, that kind of thing. So that's probably it. I try to formalise it, but you know, every voice actor’s day is radically different. There are people, some of the biggest names, going into different studios every week or every day. I very rarely, despite being based in London, I very rarely go into external studios. Like I would say 99 percent of the work I just do from home.

F: So how do you find the right voice for the specific type of voiceover work you do, maybe start with how did you find Heinrix's voice?

CT: Thankfully, Owlcat sent through quite a detailed casting breakdown. So, you get a picture, and that's pretty crucial, as well as a short bio, in terms of the background of the character, but not too much, because you have to sign an NDA, a non-disclosure agreement. But even if you do sign an NDA, I think developers are always slightly hesitant of giving you too much info about the game because things could still be changed. But I think I did get a picture of Heinrix, if not in the first audition, then certainly on the second one. From that you immediately think about the physicality and what might affect the voice, and there was also some direction in terms of what they were looking for. Anybody who has heard the character and me, they do not sound radically dissimilar. There's not a transformative process that I needed to go through, other than his sense of authority and the space that he takes up and the sureness that he has in that he has a kind of divine right from the emperor, so that level of confidence being brought through.

The other part of the audition was about the void ship [the Black Ship] that he'd been raised in and the horrors that he'd seen. And you as the actor have to do the detective work to go like this is showing another side, the more vulnerable side, the side that underpins all of his life choices up to this point. It's essentially playing the opposite to a degree. So it was kind of knowing when to let those elements bleed through a little bit. I think I had probably about a page worth of scripts, quite a lot of script actually to audition with. 

But I don't like to listen back to it a lot, because I think you get into your head. My biggest thing is stage work where it's ephemeral. You say it once and it could be different the next night. The whole point is that there's no one definitive way of doing things. Not quite the same with voice acting, where it's being recorded and you've got to get used to hearing it back. But I try not to overthink it. Just like record it two or three times with different impulses and then review and go like, those two seem pretty contrasting. I'll send those along and hope and then never hear anything back unless I do.

[tagedeszorns]

(Violetbirdie here) I think it's complicated due to a variety of issues. 40k as a franchise is huge, but it isn't the sort of thing that tends to have overlap with tumblr type fanspaces. It also doesn't help that 40k is a fractured fandom featuring tons of different factions, so it's not like a standard fandom where there are main characters and a main story that people will always flock to. The primarchs are the closest thing we have to that, which is why there is naturally more content for them. In addition, fandom itself is in a bit of a flux state and has been ever since the 2018 nsfw ban which caused a lot of people to leave for twitter, which is now undergoing its own huge changes right now (and I just hate twitter on principle).

I suppose the one thing I think would help, would be somehow getting the 40k tumblresque fandom space more consolidated as a whole. Like, somehow have a blog that is popular for all factions that posts headcanons about everything, thus getting people interested in parts they don't normally think about. Because 40k is a huge time investment to learn about. I've been listening to audiobooks for what feels like nonstop for over a month, and even then I could only ever feel confident telling people about Emperor's Children. So it naturally is harder for new people to get into the fandom and focus on some of the smaller things because there is just so much. It's almost how I view your blog. I check it daily for fun art/headcanons/just general character stuff, and you made me more interested in some of the captains and such. But even then, you have your focuses. So a space even more general where someone would reblog art from everything 40k would likely be nice? Maybe I just miss the livejournal days of fandom. As far as more engagement, I think having silly things like character weeks which encourages people to draw or write or talk about specific aspects is a huge benefit. It sets a schedule and makes people feel like they are shouting less into the void.

But as someone new here, maybe its my weird perspective, but I don't feel like things are getting less popular. If anything, from just checking AO3, it seems like things are only getting more popular for less of the reddit type and more for the Tumblr wanting to see hot dudes and their complicated feelings type. Also more people are getting into 40k in this side of the space through rogue trader. Like people I never talked to about 40k are starting to look into the series because they played Baldurs Gate 3, and needed a new RPG to play, and conveniently Rogue Trader is filling that for them. So, I'm optimistic if anything. Sorry about the long ramble! Just kinda dumping my thoughts out.

I love Tumblr because, unlike Twitter or Bluesky, it allows for way longer, way more elaborately structured posts. I love it when artists don't just slap their pics into a post and be done with it, but instead add stuff like maybe "I read this book, here's a quote, and it gave me this mighty need to draw this". Or "please listen to this music here while looking at my pic! It goes perfectly with it!". Or just a multi-paragraph-essay (preferably very unhinged) about the character in the upper left corner.

This in advance, so you can see I'm totally with you on the "miss Lifejournal"-thing, because blogs are so much better than just 500 characters, four pics and nothing else. And why I think Tumblr is a very good replacement for Lifejournal.

The multitude of Tumblr-blogs with their many different angles are such a treat and provide such a rich ecosystem! I follow artists posting exclusively admech-stuff, others solely Drukhari, some writers focussing on just one Astartes Legion ... it's phantastic and the depth of their niche-knowledge is mindblowing.

I agree with you that this will be overwhelming for new fans coming from rather monolithic stuff like Rogue Trader. And the key to keeping those new people involved and making them feel welcome is showing them all this variety without scaring them away.

Maybe this new feature Tumblr is working on, can be helpful here. I haven't read much about it yet, but it seems the "Community"-feature has the potential to bundle stuff in a way that's more approachable for new and old fans alike. Maybe there's room for your idea of having "character weeks" (I like that! Sounds very MacDonald's. I'll have Fabius with extra pickles, please! 😁).

I'm sharing your optimism that both the new games and maybe the new series/movies will bring a lot of new fans over and some of them may even stick around. I am a bit wary that there's the possibility of a MCU-situation starting to build up, but since Warhammer-lore is in a constant state of flux anyways this might just add some spice to the mix.

So, yeah, hope for the darkest of futures!

[aylinvail]

what hyperspecific things do you think your rogue trader would do if they lived on Earth in the year of our Lord 2024?

you ever just go about your day normally and then a thought gets blasted into your brain about your rogue trader like I'm sure this is the face of a girl who has a cottagecore + literature quotes Tumblr blog. She has "🌸 Capricorn Sun, Taurus Moon, Cancer Rising | ISTJ (Si-Te) | 5w4 | 528 | Hufflepuff 🌸" under her pfp. She owns a rose quartz pi xiu bracelet. Her favorite artist is AURORA. She's handing out flyers for a very niche, animal-related cause on campus where she's getting a *checks notes* bachelors in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Talks to strangers in public parks.

maybe this can be a tag game. what hyperspecific things do you think your rogue trader would do if they were here with us at this point in space and time? idk, i want to be nosy at risk of embarrassing myself. anyway @captastra @bnbc @mayoonrices (because im not normal about frida) @archtech-fox @antelopunny @vitanithepure @jaal-ama-daravv ugh can I just @Heinclub in one go

[oldschoolfrp]

Many of the best Space Marine recruits are drawn from low-tech deathworld planets or captured from the gangs of psychotic killer scum roaming the underhives of world-cities. Their barely-controlled violent instincts require the oversight of the Space Marine Field Police. (Text from Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader, 1987, quoted below:)

The Legiones Astartes is the official title of the warrior organisation more commonly known as the Space Marines. It is the most powerful and most feared fighting arm in the Imperium. Most of its troopers are recruited from the feral planets, where traditional warrior castes compete for the honour of becoming a 'warrior of the gods'. Because the feral planets are rough, primitive and untamed, their inhabitants make excellent fighting material. For true aggression and psychotic killer instinct, however, few recruits can best the murderous followers of the city-scum that roam the darkest pits of the hive-worlds. Driven to extremes of insanity by the colossal pressures of hive-world living, these merciless killers are usually ignored by the authorities (indeed their warrens are so vast it would be impractical to eradicate them completely). They make ideal Space Marines, and whole gangs of city-scum are sometimes hunted and captured for this purpose. Some recruits come from the civilised areas of the Imperium - but not very many. Young recruits are subjected to many hours of intensive training and indoctrination, leading to physical and mental changes. Their bodies are toughened by bio-chem, and their resolve is hardened by psycho-surgery. A special black plastic carapace is merged with their natural flesh, forming a sort of identity tag as well as permanent protection. All this preparation is intended to turn the prospective Marine into a disciplined killer, or at least a controllable one.

[lordcaptains]

fifteen twelve quotes

share fifteen (or fewer) lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC

"Oh, I still fear the Inquisition, as all good subjects of the Imperium should." Her mouth twisted wryly before softening into a smile. "But no. I suppose I'm not afraid of you anymore."

"I had to prove to myself that I could. That I hadn't been broken by what I went through. Not completely."

"Last chance to clear out before something goes wrong."

"Does something about my person interest you, Interrogator?" Bitterness seeped into her voice. "I assure you I have no secrets from the Inquisition."

"Pasqal, you showed me your sacred stigmata days after we first met. I just had to watch you tear a piece of xenotech out of your open chest. What catechism, what liturgy could possibly be prohibiting me from helping you now?"

"I knew he had you, and I couldn't - I couldn't make him let you go."

"I just found you. I'm not going to lose you again."

"Did you learn that from the Inquisition, too?"

"Void take you, Calligos! Don't you dare make me kill you! Don't you dare leave me in this forsaken sector alone!"

"If you even think of suggesting that we wait until I am fully recovered, I will - I will - "

"Ah," she said, in the tone of someone who knows they really ought to understand what's just been said to them.

"I'm just saying, I understand why there's such a huge bath in the Lord Captain's quarters now. Sometimes the Rogue Trader has to wade through a literal river of sh - "

[hamstergod]

Rejoice

[antelopunny]

T…THANKS ???

more thoughts under the cut (cw: uncensored homophobic slurs)

OK SO MY FIRST REACTION WAS alright this commentor’s probably fresh to fandom / autistic (as an autistic person myself, who has said foot-in-mouth shit like this before and still do ALL THE TIME) so I was like alright… they might just need someone to explain why it’s pretty fucking rude to insinuate that their wlw fic is inferior in any way to a het one, even if you’re praising their writing

BUT

I also know that my fic has been discussed on the 4chan Rogue Trader threads on /v/ and they all take the same stance that my writing quality is really good, but they really wish it (quote) “wasn’t dyke shit” (and then had an argument about how disliking yuri was actually a sign you’re gay)

SO LIKE…

[rats-and-robots]

Instead of spamming the tag with a shitton of incorrect quotes I'm just gonna make one big post.

(submissive Marazhai romance)

---

Marazhai: You’d be stupid to lay a hand on me.

Von Valancius: Oh, you’d be surprised how much stupid shit I do.

---

Von Valancius: You know, there’s only one person who can tell you what you are.

Marazhai: Me.

Von Valancius: No.

Von Valancius: Me.

---

Von Valancius: What’s your body count?

Marazhai: Do you mean sex or murder?

---

Von Valancius: Stay foxy.

Marazhai: Die lonely.

---

Von Valancius: That’s a crazy idea. Insane. It doesn’t make sense.

Marazhai: You’ll do it?

Von Valancius: Of course.

---

Von Valancius: I think I'm falling for you.

Marazhai: Then get up.

---

Von Valancius: You know, when I first met you I thought you were a real bitch.

Marazhai: What changed your mind?

Von Valancius: Oh, now I know that you’re a fake bitch. Why do you ask?

---

Von Valancius: I love you.

Marazhai, not paying attention: What was that?

Von Valancius: I said I’m selling you to the zoo-

---

Marazhai: We wouldn’t last two minutes without the Rogue Trader.

Marazhai:

Marazhai: Don’t tell them I said that.

---

Von Valancius: I am in charge of this disaster!

Marazhai: I have a name, you know.

---

Von Valancius: That was so hot, Marazhai.

Marazhai: I literally called the person who just flirted with you a degenterate dog and told them I hope they get dragged through the streets.

Von Valancius: I know.

---

Von Valancius: Marazhai and I are no longer dating.

Marazhai: Rogue Trader, that’s a horrible way of telling people you branded me.

---

Marazhai: I have feelings for you.

Von Valancius: Why? What's wrong with you? Are you sure you're okay?

[rosykims]

so i'm playing rogue trader and is it only me or does it seem like dragon age straight up lifted the veil and it's concept of demons from warhammer 40k's warp and it's daemons? david gaider you've got some explaining to do lol

TRUE AND REAL i thought the exact same thing as well ! im assuming its just a genuine coincidence + popular interpretation of the world-beyond-this-world concept, since the devs have listed things like lotr, asoiaf and btvs as inspiration sources in the past. so it'd be weird if they DIDNT list warhammer . am i making sense

but yeah. psykers being sooooo alike to dragon age mages as well rly struck me. who knows maybe it is a shameless rip off (pretty sure mark darrah DOES have a 40k collection but dont quote me) but hey they both go so hard conceptually i cant even be mad abt it lol

[fashionablyfyrdraaca]

2023: a summary

post your favorite and/or most popular creation from each month this year. (it’s okay to skip months!)

i was tagged by @vindicia thank you elise!! it's' been really fun running indiegamesource with you :D

tagging (feel free to ignore if you were tagged already or dont want to); @quickhacked @lxdymaria @anzellla @neloangelo @minaharkers @fatalwhims

January popular: Drakengard/Nier series favorite: Frostpunk quotes, generator graphic, and Anakin + Kanan comparison graphic

February popular: HK-47 wanting to Kill favorite: Sad Mission Vao

March popular: Link's Awakening favorite: An original character graphic

April popular: Dredge character art favorite: Fallen London + videogame cats

May popular: Dredge favorite: Kratos in God of War (2005)

June popular: Solar Ash favorite: Original character graphic and Frostpunk 2

July popular: Neva game trailer favorite: Wolfenstein

August popular: Sea of Stars trailer favorite: Tenar X Ged

September popular: The kittens from Stray favorite: Warhammer Fantasy

October popular: Einar in Palia trailer favorite: My LOTR Return to Moria dwarves

November popular: Daniella - Haunting Ground favorite: Old ass Berserk videogame

December popular: nintendog puppies favorite: my warhammer rogue trader oc intro graphic

happy new year!!!

[redbatchedcumbermayned]

"I didn’t even know that there was the possibility of a romance option when voicing Heinrix" - Interviewing Chris Tester part 2

We're continuing our interview with Chris Tester, the voice of Heinrix van Calox in Owlcat's CRPG Rogue Trader. In this part we speak about insights into Heinrix's character, how the process of recording voice lines for a video game works, if Chris would romance Heinrix in game, and interacting with his fans.

Part 1 of the interview

Part 3 of the interview

I will publish this interview in three parts over the next week in text form and with the accompanying audio file (the audio quality is not spectacular but tumblr limits uploads to 10MB). If you quote or reshare, please quote me as the original source.

F: So, you already talked a bit about Heinrix as a character. What drew you to the character or what hidden depth did you find in the character?

CT: Well, I hope I found some depth to the character. That contrast between principles or values that you seem to be holding onto and lots of unprocessed trauma going on underneath. Sure, that seems interesting, that seems like a really interesting thing to find. Because you can understand, therefore, the appeal of an ideology, which gives you the answers and it tells you what to do. Essentially, it gives you a role, authority, it gives you status, you completely understand the appeal of that. Just like I find voice-over incredibly appealing and exciting: it gives me structure and authority and the illusion that I know what I'm talking about and what I'm doing. 

And then there's the flip side: you could make him heretical in some way, shape or form. And you know, I love, obviously, the fact that he belongs to part of that world which I'm sort of familiar with. Where a lot of the more interesting characters are the ones that have disavowed this God Emperor kind of like status in one way or the other, they tend to have a little bit more going on. They're not two-dimensional villains, not all of them, not all of the time anyway. Whereas on the one hand he's not going full chaos, there was just an interesting tension there to explore. Also, it kind of reminded me a little bit of the Eisenhorn series, which again, it's an Inquisitor that through his pursuit of different things starts to question and use the powers of the warp for his own purposes. A very different character, but still, there are those parallels that I really liked, that fallibility, that vulnerability to a degree, but I wouldn't say too much because I didn't really know how vulnerable or how much of a journey he was going to have in the early stages. I didn't know that until we were recording, I'll be honest. 

And I didn’t even know that there was the possibility of a romance option, until we were like: Oh, these are romancing lines. And I was like, you what now? So, sorry, I appear to be saying some quite forward things, from his point of view anyway, that's slightly taken me aback. They were like: oh yeah, you're romanceable, you can have a romance. I was like, oh, okay, right. I'll just think back to the five hours or so of recording that we've done up to this point and pray that I've made the right choices. So that was a bit of a crazy ride, but thanks to Olga, the writer of my character, she gave really astute directions. She wasn't in all of the sessions, but the majority, especially when there were big plot beats to explain to me what the hell was going on, however, roughly. She was great. And also the technicians at 3B. I was working with a lot of different members of the group technicians slash directors as well. And they were great in terms of giving me not exactly the bare minimum details, but the bare minimum details that I needed in order to be able to make choices quickly, but strongly and relevant to the game. So yeah, it was quite a trip.

F: Thank you. Since you have been trained as a stage actor do you bring a certain physicality to voice acting? If you embody Heinrix, do you puff your chest? Are you rigid?

CT: Definitely. I think there's the reason why rather than having a small booth, I record in a room is, that I can explore those dynamics as much as possible. And the fact that I was able to record standing and very upright and taking that space was vitally important. Obviously, there's the action stuff that really helps when you're actually making fighting noises. That's one thing. But I think in terms of real subtle differences to be able to, as well as mic proximity when he's speaking under his breath and that kind of thing, that's obviously incredibly vital, but even the subtle things of being able to have that big open physicality because he is so often so imperious because he thinks he's absolutely right. That was a vital aspect to explore and just being able to be upright and expressive in that made such a huge difference. 

And also when, without wanting to give too much away, he's in more constricted circumstances, shall we say, trying to do that just purely through the voice means that it all becomes about the sound that you're making as opposed to the truth of the character's journey without wanting to be, again, too much of a cliche, but focusing on that rather than am I making the right gurgling noise?

F: Were you offered any other character to audition for Owlcat? Or if you could, which other character would you like to voice?

CT: I couldn't say any of the other characters. I do play a couple of NPCs randomly. I think before even I had Heinrix. There's some cockney London geezer in there that is immediately disposable. That was me. That was my kind of guaranteed role. I was like, great, fantastic, because I did the audition for Heinrix and then there was quite a few months before it was actually kind of confirmed. I thought the role had gone to somebody else. As with many of these things, you just don't hear back. If you don't hear back, you just assume it's dead and then suddenly it'll come back up or it won't or you'll see another voice actor posting on Instagram going “amazing session” and you slightly die inside and then you move on. 

But in terms of the other characters, I mean, I've met, at least digitally online, the vast majority of the principal companion cast and they're all lovely and amazing and I associate them with their performances. For better or worse, Heinrix is very much my kind of casting and I loved it. Not because he's pretty in a particularly posh kind of way, but that helps. Sure, I'll go with that kind of slightly emotionally constipated. I'm very well cast, very well done, but I think so is everybody else. Throughout the entire game, it's a bit of a who's who, they might not be all household names, but in terms of for myself, the actors that I know in some big parts and some really small parts, the actors that I know in the UK and in the U.S. voice-over scene, so much talent, so that it was just an honour to be included in that really.

F: So now I have to ask you a question from our discord server. Would you romance Heinrix if you were playing a female Rogue Trader? 

CT: I think that would be a bit weird. No, I'll just watch videos of other people romancing him slash me. Is that more or less weird? I mean, I'm 42 years old. I've spent far too much time playing with myself already. So, let's just draw a line under that, but other people are welcome to. That's absolutely fine. My only thing, without wanting to overstate it too much, is that I was very surprised that there was anything around any character that I've been related to but as with so many of the other companions as well, that's a testament to the writing. Credit to the whole Owlcat team in that respect.

F: Would you like to continue working with Owlcat in the future in another capacity?

CT: Oh, God. Yeah. They've not made me sign an NDA, so I can say, not name a thing, but there's DLC for one of their other titles, which I'm going to be in, and that's in a completely different world. There's that thing of once you've had one really positive experience with the developer and the type of games that they create. The ones that are very story focused, that's the type of games that I'm passionate about. I was brought up on these things like the Mass Effect Trilogy. You know, that absolutely iconic kind of stuff, and so to be a part of someone else's experience to facilitate that kind of longer storytelling stuff is exactly what I would be after. They've got a great process, amazing writers and I also think that the games themselves look fantastic. So yeah, I'm a fan of that.

F: So your fan base has certainly expanded since the release of the game. Do you mind having a female fan base now? Have you noticed that there is a bit of a shift because Warhammer 40k for the totally uninitiated looks like a male hobby and unfortunately some part of the male fans are very aggressive against female fans.

CT: Are absolutely ridiculous. Idiots, essentially. Because my relationship to the whole Warhammer 40k thing is like, I played it when I was really young, and then you put away your childish things. I'm saying that in inverted commas, that's kind of ironic or whatever, and then didn't really get back into it until someone gave me a book and I realised that the lore was actually quite good, quite interesting, and then actually really good and really interesting, and I therefore have done some novels for them and a couple of video games as well. 

But to your question, do I mind? No, of course I don't mind. I'm very happily married and well adjusted, so I definitely don't mind as long as it's all respectful, if that makes sense. Surprise, surprise, female fans seem to conduct themselves with that level of respect or if there is a server which is going into crazy, crazy character scenarios and that kind of stuff, no one's sending me a link to that. And even if it is, it's the character, it's not me, and so that's all quite healthy and good. And I think I'm definitely not in a position where I should be censoring any of that kind of thing at all. I think it's all positive and very, very healthy and everybody that I've interacted with has been incredibly respectful. So, I think that's great. 

And I think being able to portray these characters that offer that level of connection is great. We're in a post Baldur's Gate world, I suppose. Not that there weren't other games that did this, but on that scale and everything. I think the value that the games can offer in that. Rogue Trader is hugely valuable and I definitely wouldn't want to censure any of that at all.

F: Yeah, it was nice. I reconnected a lot with people who have this fandom experience again that I had in the Eddie Redmayne fandom more than 10 years ago when it was small, when you have a rather small group of fans and then a very nice person that you're a fan of, and you can interact with.

CT: So people have contacted me via Cameo, for example. And, you know, they've had a certain particular playthrough and then they say, well, I would like you to voice this letter from Heinrix or whatever.

F: That was me.

CT: There have been more than just you is what I'm saying, but sorry, not to say that I'm a whore and I'll just do anything, but you're not the only person who has come to me with that kind of thing. And that's great. That's a pleasure, because it's continuing to tell the story on a wider scale. But also the fact that you can personalise and make it your own. And that's the brilliant thing. 

That's part of the whole appeal of a video game, as opposed to it being a theatre piece or a film or something else is that it was very much your experience, your playthrough. You can have multiple versions of the thing that you kind of like one but you can really structure your own narrative. And that's a fascinating thing. You get to iterate on it yourself. You know, if one stage of that is also being able to call upon the voice actor to facilitate that, I think that's a cool thing, you know, as long as it doesn't get too weird or too whatever, but you know, whatever two consenting adults want to exchange money for or time, great, fine. I think that's less weird than getting an AI to do it personally. I think that level of storytelling is a great thing.

[iamaweretoad]

The l-word! We talked about this a bit, but I feel it needs a more in-depth analisys. I believe you said Mago is a demi-aro (I didn't dream this one up, did I? Sorry if I did! :D) when is the time he would feel comfortable hearing this from Heinrix? And when would he himself be sure enough to admit to having deeper feelings? Both to himself and Heinrix? ^^

Also, do you think that, after the game is over, there comes a time when Mago's criminal background comes back to haunt him in any way? Or is it a done deal, nobody would ever dare to come after him now that he holds the title of Rogue Trader?

Thank you! 😄💜 Took me a little while to untangle my thoughts on this, so apologies for taking so long!

I think, in some ways, it really helped that they were both so thoroughly convinced that neither of them had a future. So there was never any point or pressure to define what was going on between them. It gives them the space to figure things out at their own pace.

I think for Mago (he is demi-aro, you did not dream that up :D), the line between platonic and romantic love is blurred and there is a fair bit of overlap at the edges. I think by the time he found Heinrix in Commorragh, he understood that he loved him, but felt no need to like, demarcate the boundaries of that feeling. It was more of a: 'I think I love this person and I'll figure out what that means as I go'.

When it comes to them admitting it to each other... The thing is, from Mago's perspective, they had been doing that for weeks/months. All those little moments of kindness/affection/vulnerability/etc. I don't think it ever occurred to him that an explicit verbal declaration was like, a Thing? I think during the ice scene he understands, in the moment, that saying it out loud with words is a significant thing for Heinrix, but it isn't telling him anything he didn't already know. Which is why i love the mildly exasperated "i love you too now let me call the healers" dialogue option XD.

The confession that Heinrix is leaving the Inquisition, that he's *staying*, though... THAT hits Mago like a ton of bricks. Something about knowing they have no future, but wanting to hold onto it anyway, even if it hurts..... Anyways, I'm gonna stop before i start quoting Night In The Woods, but you get the idea XD.

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And his criminal background! He wasn't really a big enough player to have enemies powerful enough to make trouble for him as a Rogue Trader. And he didn't cause enough damage to Imperial interests that it would really be worth it for the authorities to dredge that up either, as long as he sticks to the Expanse.

But his criminal and common background does still come back to haunt him in that the nobility in the Expanse never accept him. These are people who live for several hundred years, have their own private intelligence networks, and nothing to do but dig up dirt on each other, so by the time of the magnae accessio, they all know that he's a former criminal and a commoner and they don't let him forget it.

And I don't think the rumors Kunrad started every really die. Every so often the whispers start circulating again, that he's not really a Von Valancius, that he murdered Theodora and took the warrant by force, etc. Often it's just dangerous gossip, but occasionally it escalates to active sabotage or assassination attempts.