Kogan

Kogan is a former mercenary and current myrmidon at the Borosevo Colosso on Emesh. He served seventeen years of active service with the Whitehorse Company under Sir Alexei Karelin — nearly one hundred twenty years standard when counting time in and out of cryonic fugue — across no fewer than five Legion contracts and seven major engagements. He recently discharged from the Legion carrier Obdurate and ended up in the coliseum pits. He fought at the Battle of Wodan forty years prior, then left his contract with the Legions.

Physically, Kogan is paler than the Emeshi, with a thick neck covered in tattoos concealed by dense body hair nearly as thick as his beard. A plasma burn high on one cheek has turned the plane of his face into a sheet of bubbled scar tissue. He speaks with a thick accent from some hinterlands minority and his manner is erratic and belligerent. He tells Hadrian and Switch that at Wodan, First Strategos Duke Hauptmann led the sortie that captured several hundred Cielcin, most of whom went to the Legion Intelligence Office, but that his former commander Karelin secretly retained a pair of the prisoners. He also claims that palatines have been trading Cielcin since the war began. His account plants the idea in Hadrian's mind that a Cielcin may be held in the Colosso's prison block.