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Rodrigo Ximines was born on the forge world Estebann VII. During his youth he showed a natural aptitude for electronics, engineering and micro-circuitry, and after finishing his time as an initiate he was inducted into the priesthood of Mars directly as an engineer. After merely eight years, he had proved himself skilled enough for advancement and was made an Artisan, one of those Tech-Priests whose duty is to design and innovate.

Ximines was responsible for a number of practical and beneficial upgrades to existing Imperial techologies; the 'overload' variant of the Imperial Guard hellgun, the Estebann-pattern air recyling box, and the micro-gravity crane were all his designs. Eventually he began work on a weapon of his own devising, designed to sling metal projectiles by gravitic accelaration.

Ximines' prototype was almost identical in operation, if not appearance, to the Eldar shuriken weapons, which were completely unknown to him at the time. Upon presenting his work to his supervising Magos, Ximines was shown one of the xenos weapons; it shattered his faith in the Cult Mechanicus. Here was a technology designed by aliens, and therefore blasphemous, that was near-identical to one designed by man. How then, he reasoned, could all man-made technology be divine and all alien technology blasphemous? He made up his mind to leave Estebann and travel on a galactic pilgrimage, collecting and studying all forms of technology until the real meaning of the Machine God was revealed to him.

Taking only a small collection of multi-purpose equipment - a chain axe for cutting bulkheads, a laspistol for defence, anti-plant grenades and a launcher for clearing greenery from abandoned technological sites - he stole a small cutter from a visiting trader and fled Estebann. The optic sensors and bionics he used for his everyday work proved just as as useful to the techno-archaeology he now found himself undertaking, and as his mission brought him into contact with more and more cultures and technologies, he found his mind broadening.

All he came to see and experience in his decades of travel and research - Necrontyr phase distorters, Xenarch capacitors, the organo-bionics of Phalanx Tertius - caused him to begin to believe that all machinery was divine, whether human or alien, mechanic or organic. The only blasphemy is failing to honour the Machine God and praise him for his gifts. As a result he has an unusually 'human' outlook and personality for a Tech-Priest, and were it not for his heavily bionic physique and still proudly-worn robes, it would be hard to identify him as such.

After travelling for nearly five decades he arrived on the newly-rediscovered planet Hekate that, it was rumoured, might harbour STC databanks. Although he found nothing he was approached by Inquisitor Toshiro, on the world investigating the Planetary Governor's liasons with Eldar, with an offer of employment - Ximines would provide his accumulated expertise on alien technology, in return for a greater chance of coming into contact with it. Since then Ximines has relished his role in the Ordo Xenos for the chance it gives him to study all kinds of technology, and his skill and knowledge has proved invaluable to Inquisitor Toshiro many times.

Notes

IX: I decided I wanted to make a Tech-Priest model as soon as I saw the Gruss figure, and came up with Ximines' character long before I actually got hold of the miniature (Tech-Priest Barracus was my first attempt at modelling Ximines).

The renegade aspect of Ximines was put in to justify why he'd be hanging around with an Inquisitor - he had to be interested in alien technology. I think the whole 'accidentally invents a shuriken catapult' things works OK, and means that he's actually a very different character to most Tech-Priests; his experiences since leaving Estebann VII have made him more pragmatic and open-minded than a typical Tech-Adept, and as a result he seems far more 'human' - I like to see him as a sort of mentor figure for the rest of the band, a calming influence.

I just gave him stuff I thought he'd have taken with him, and bionics that he would have needed for his work as an artisan - a lens for measuring distance and magnifying things, optic sensors for pinpoint accuracy, mechadendrites on the end of his arm in true 'Helping Hand' fashion, and so on.