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Agripinaa - Agripinaa Iconography: The iconography of Agripinaa shows the sacred Cog Mechanicum bracketing a hermetic symbol, which some Tech-Priests believed to be a representation of the Cadian Gate in supremacy over the Eye of Terror being trammelled by Order itself. Since the fall of Cadia, however, doubt has been cast on this interpretation. |
Agripinaa - Agripinaa Forge World Colours: Like other Forge Worlds, Agripinaa maintains its own Skitarii forces to protect its interests, annihilate the enemies of the Tech-priests, and fight at the vanguard of the Quest for Knowledge. Within the ranks of Agripinaa's soldiery, the sacred red and black heraldry of Mars is reversed, although some of the crimson of the Cult Mechanicus is always in evidence. The white toothed iconography which rings the hoods, sleeves and hems of their robes is reminiscent of the teeth of a cog, a symbol of sacred significance to the Tech-priests of the Cult Mechanicus.Agripinaa's Sicarian Ruststalker Princeps, Sicarian Princeps and Skitarii Alpha alike wear battle robes in the sombre black of their Forge World. Their artefacts, wargear and armour is inlaid with ancient and precious metals, each metal distilled from those strata of Agripinaa's surface unscarred by war that have never felt the unclean light of the Eye of Terror. Agripinaa's cohorts often fight across the war-blackened hellscapes of the lightless worlds of the Eye of Terror, where their dark colouration can be the difference between life and death. |
Agripinaa - Manufactoria Capabilities: Agripinaa is know for producing its own pattern of Autogun. The Leman Russ Eradicators manufactured on Agripinaa are particularly prized for the accuracy and reliability of their Nova Cannons. |
Agripinaa - Sources: Cadia Stands (Novel) by Justin D. Hill, Part 4, Chs. 1-8Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus (8th Edition), pp. 12, 17, 35, 95, 98-99, 101Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus - Cult Mechanicus (7th Edition), pp. 25, 75-78, 80, 82Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus - Skitarii (7th Edition), pp. 30, 72-77Codex: Eye of Terror (3rd Edition), pg. 25Codex Heretic Astartes - Chaos Space Marines (8th Edition), "Pinnacles and Nadirs - Flesh Meets Steel," pg. 48Imperial Armour Volume One - Imperial Navy and Imperial Army, pg. 8Imperial Armour Volume One: Second Edition - Imperial Guard, pg. 18Imperial Armour Volume Five - The Siege of Vraks, Part One, pp. 42-43Imperial Armour Volume Six - The Siege of Vraks, Part Two, pg. 148Loyal to the End (Short Story) by Thomas ParrottServants of the Machine-God (Anthology), "Hunting Ground" by Ian St. MartinThe Lords of Silence (Novel) by Chris Wraight, Chs. 13-14The Thirteenth Black Crusade (Background Book) by Andy HoareWarhammer 40,000: Rulebook (8th Edition), pg. 50White Dwarf 286 (UK), "Index Astartes: The Eye of the Storm - Space Marine Chapters fighting in the Eye of Terror," by Andy Hoare, pp. 64-66, 68-6913th Black Crusade Worldwide Campaign - Eye of Terror Newsletter, "Death By a Thousand Cuts" |
Agripinaa Sector - Agripinaa Sector: The Agripinaa Sector of the Milky Way Galaxy is a sector of the Imperium of Man in the Segmentum Obscurus to the galactic north of Terra that is located near to the fallen Fortress World of Cadia.The Agripinaa Sector lies adjacent to the great Warp rift known as the Eye of Terror and was one of the locations where Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade was fought in 999.M41.Though the forces of Chaos were defeated by the Imperium during that conflict, it was a pyrrhic victory at best, as the world of Agripinaa did not weather the Chaos attacks well and much of its industrial infrastructure was laid ruin.Battlefleet Agripinaa fared no better, sustaining heavy losses during the brutal conflict. Typhus of the Death Guard Traitor Legion, the so-called "Herald of Nurgle," consolidated his grip upon the Ulthor System, claiming it as the capital of a nascent, plague-ridden empire of his own. It is apparent that the taint of Chaos is now well and truly upon the Agripinaa Sector. |
Agripinaa Sector - History: The Agripinaa Sector is one of the closest Imperial sectors to the former Fortress World of Cadia and the still-contested Cadian Gate, the only predictably stable Warp route that led out of the Eye of Terror and into Imperial space.The Imperial Navy orbital shipyards for the sector are located on the Forge World of Agripinaa. This world provided materials for the Cadian front, and its industrial heartland was solely engaged in the production of ammunition. As such, it was considered a valuable lynchpin in the defence of the Cadian Gate.In 999.M41, war came without warning to the Agripinaa Sector, and the opening moves by the forces of Chaos saw large numbers of plague-ridden space hulks entering Imperial space. Though many were intercepted by the Space Marines and destroyed, some managed to escape the Astartes' attention. Some of these foul vessels of contagion found their way into the Agripinaa Sector, spreading their disease and pestilence amongst the masses throughout the sector.Along with the adjacent Belis Corona Sector, the worlds of the Agripinaa Sector were some of the first to bear witness to the rise of hordes of infectious, undead zombies and Poxwalkers that threatened billions of people on many of the Imperial worlds within the sector. This plague was later named the "Plague of Unbelief" due to the mistaken population notion that it only afflicted those who lacked sufficient faith in the God-Emperor.While the defence of the Cadian Gate from the forces of Chaos continued to go badly upon the surface of many worlds in the Cadian System, in particular Saint Josmane's Hope and Solar Mariatus, the war in space was fought more on the Imperium's terms. The Cadian System had been the focus of Abaddon's primary fleet actions, and the Imperium's fortunes there changed from day to day. The situation was highly fluid and the Chaos naval forces found themselves stretched to exploit the victories they had won.An Imperial fleet the size of which has not been seen since the end of the Gothic War eight standard centuries earlier had been dispatched from Cypra Mundi, and arrived at Belis Corona in preparation for a massive Imperial counter-offensive into the Cadian Gate. The arrival of this vast armada allowed those Imperial vessels that had been fighting continuously since the beginning of the invasion a brief respite. Severely depleted ship's companies were bolstered through indiscriminate press-ganging, and hasty repairs and refits were undertaken on those vessels most in need of them.The Imperial reinforcements were split into battle groups, each tasked with bolstering the defences in a specific sector of the Segmentum Obscurus. The regions around the Eye of Terror encompass many millions of cubic light years, and only by the concentrated application of resources in those areas in most desperate need could the Imperial Navy hope to make inroads and slow, stall, and eventually repel the Chaos warfleets plaguing the region.A small number of Imperial Navy ships won a decisive victory when they managed to hold back a larger Chaos Fleet at the Ilthirium Belt, buying time for Battlefleet Agripinaa to arrive and allow the remaining warships to retreat. This course of action however, left the Agripinaa Sector open to invasion and soon the worlds of this sector and the Belis Corona Sub-sector of the Belis Corona Sector were transformed into nightmarish realms of plague and pestilence.As the full force of Abaddon's invasion hit the sector, one man, Regu Hane, was hailed as a saviour -- he led a bold counter-attack that succeeded in banishing a horde of Khornate Daemons, and would later be raised to the status of Imperial sainthood. Later the mysterious Aeldari Harlequins intervened in the fighting, but the defenders were stymied when the notorious Dark Apostle of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion, Erebus, caused the raging tempest of Warp Storm Baphomael to surge forth and engulf the outlying star systems of the sector.It was only in the closing stages of the conflict that the Imperium was able to mount an effective defence against the raging hordes of the Ruinous Powers, when the combined forces of a number of Space Marine Chapters broke through the storms and fell upon the invaders with a righteous hatred born of 10,000 standard years of conflict.By the end of the war, the planets Albitern, Amistel, Lelithar, Malm's Reach, Ulthor and Yavor lay in ruins, and a number of other key systems of the Agripinaa Sector hung in the balance. Though Agripinaa itself still stands, without the Agri-worlds of Yayor, Ulthor and Dentor its populace may yet starve to death, and without the vital materials provided by the Hive Worlds of Albitern, Amistel and Tabor, its mighty forges may yet fall silent.The so-called "Herald of Nurgle," Typhus of the Death Guard Legion, has claimed the now blasted world of Ulthor as his own realm, a stronghold beyond the Cadian Gate from which he can bring terror to the other worlds of the Imperium at his leisure. Nightmare visions of a thousand astropaths tell of the birth of a new Daemon World within the domains of Humanity. |
Agripinaa Sector - Agripinaa System: Imperial Control Rate: 82.7%, State: Faithful.Yaymar - Plasma vapour world, Designation: GG.6.58.001, Orbital Distance: 0.37AU, 0.16G, Temperature: 204C, Tithe Grade: Adeptus Non, Aestimare: VP679.Barant - Declining orbit, Designation H.389.1.1.1, Orbital Distance: 0.89AU, 3.8G, Temperature: 180C, Tithe Grade: Adeptus Non, Aestimare: OD196.Orax - Many raw iron deposits, Designation H.26.587.01, Orbital Distance: 1.23AU, 1.74G, Temperature: 28C, Tithe Grade: Exactis Particular, Aestimare: A350.Morten's Quay - Naval reserve depot, Designation R.2.58.01, Orbital Distance: 1.99AU, 1.45G, Temperature: 10C, Tithe Grade: Adeptus Non, Aestimare: MR758, Imperial Control Rate: 95.6, State: Faithful, Resistance: High, Conflict: High.Faith's Anchorage - An ice moon of Morten's Quay, which possesses a few Promethium mining facilities.Agripinaa - Civilised World. Almost the entire surface of this Forge World is covered in mines, factories, refineries and other industrial infrastructure. Agripinaa produces resources primarily for the defence of the Cadian Gate, like other star systems in the sector. Rumours of Harlequin activity. Four companies of the Blood Angels Space Marines assaulted the world of Agripinaa during the 13th Black Crusade, and they sought out the leader of the attacking forces, the notorious Chaos Champion of Khorne Kossolax the Foresworn and his World Eaters warband, the Foresworn. Much of Agripinaa's industrial infrastructure now lies in ruins as a result of this conflict. Designation AM23.5, Orbital Distance: 2.4AU, 0.7G, Temperature: 4C, Tithe Grade: Exactis Tertius, Aestimare: B30, Population: 80,000,000, Imperial Control Rate: 80%, State: Faithful, Resistance: Extreme, Conflict: High.Aurent - Naval waystation. A small group of Imperial warships retreated here after an attack on the Chaos warship Darkblood. 2 Designation S.2.12.0, Orbital Distance: 3.14AU, 2.46G, Temperature: 2C, Tithe Grade: Adeptus Non, Aestimare: MS54, Imperial Control Rate: 97.2%, State: Faithful, Resistance: High, Conflict: High.Chaeros - Designation E.00.25, Orbital Distance: 3.97AU, 8.17G, Temperature: 0C, Tithe Grade: Adeptus Non, Aestimare: D29.1. Chaeros was renamed New Cadia following the destruction of the Fortress World of Cadia by Abaddon the Despoiler during the 13th Black Crusade when many of the survivors of that lost world came to settle in the nearby Agripinaa System and chose frigid Chaeros as their new home.Urath - Death World. Waste planet with elliptical orbit, Designation W1.0.11, Orbital Distance: 9.45-10.23AU, 1.62G, Temperature: -7C, Tithe Grade: Adeptus Non, Aestimare: GP764.Narsine - Hive World. Source of Agrapinaa labour, Designation H.25.87.0, Orbital Distance: 11.76AU, 1.43G, Temperature: -100C, Tithe Grade: Adeptus Non, Aestimare: A36, Imperial Control Rate: 68.9%, State: Dependable, Resistance: Extreme, Conflict: High. |
Agripinaa Sector - Albitern System: Imperial Control Rate: 14%, State: Anarchy, Resistance: Moderate, Conflict: High. |
Agripinaa Sector - Amistel System: Attacked by an unknown raiding force and population discovered butchered like livestock similar to what happened at Dentor (see below).Amistel Majoris - Plague Marines of the Death Guard Traitor Legion landed and decimated the Imperial defence forces until the Imperial Guard troops of the Drookian Fenguard arrived to bolster the beleaguered defences. The planet was reduced to a pestilent necropolis of decaying corpses. However, the Imperial defence proved masterful, allowing Imperial forces to survive until the arrival of the Howling Griffons and the 1st Company of the Iron Knights Space Marine Chapters and Titans from the Legio Astorum. The conflict then devolved into protracted, brutal trench warfare. Imperial Control Rate: 14%, State: Anarchy, Resistance: Moderate, Conflict: High. |
Agripinaa Sector - Bar-el System: Provides the Bar-el Penal Legions for the Imperial Guard. Imperial Control Rate: 39.9%, State: Unreliable, Resistance: High, Conflict: High.Dentor - Attacked by an unknown raiding force and population discovered butchered like livestock. Imperial Control Rate: 20.3%, State: Unreliable, Resistance: Low, Conflict: High.Finreht - Provides the Finreht Highlanders regiments for the Imperial Guard. Imperial Control Rate: 33.3%, State: Unreliable, Resistance: Moderate, Conflict: High.Lelithar - Imperial control broke down and mob rule was instated when hit by Curse of Unbelief. Jouran Dragoons and Legio Ignatum landed here to retake the planet. Supported by Death Spectres Space Marines. Imperial Control Rate: 0.4%, State: Anarchy, Resistance: Moderate, Conflict: High.Malin's Reach - Imperial control broke down as mob rule was instituted when plagued by the Curse of Unbelief. Attacked by a large Word Bearers Traitor Legion waband led by the Dark Apostle Erebus. Population discovered butchered like livestock after discovery of similar event on Sarlax. Though a great many of the Imperium's forces present on the world were lost, along with the greater part of the capital city, it was considered a merciful end for them. 31st Destroyer Squadron operating out of Demios Binary destroyed by unknown ambushers, probably Chaos Space Marines, blue and gold armour reported. Imperial Control Rate: 0%, State: Anarchy, Resistance: N/A, Conflict: High.Sarlax - Attacked by an unknown raiding force and population discovered butchered like livestock after the discovery of similar event on Dentor.Tabor - Hive World. Imperial Control Rate: 26.9%, State: Unreliable, Resistance: Moderate, Conflict: High.Ulthor - Imperial Control Rate: 0.4%, State: Anarchy, Resistance: Low, Conflict: High.Yayor - Imperial Control Rate: 12.4%, State: Anarchy, Resistance: Moderate, Conflict: High. |
Agripinaa System - Agripinaa System: The Agripinaa System is an Imperial star system and the home solar system of the crucial Forge World of Agripinaa, located in the Agripinaa Sector of the Segmentum Obscurus, close to the Eye of Terror. It is a neighbour of the Belis Corona and Cadian Systems.As home to a strategically vital Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus that long supplied much of the materiel required by the Imperial defenders of the Cadian Gate, the system was repeatedly assaulted by the forces of Chaos. After the Fall of Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade, the Agripinna System came under assault by multiple Chaos Space Marine fleets and warbands, including that of the Nurglite Chaos Lord Typhus of the Death Guard and a Sons of Malice fleet commanded by Agitor Kanath. The system was eventually cleared of all the Chaos invaders, with the final campaign beginning with the Battle of Faith's Anchorage soon after the end of the 13th Black Crusade.At present, the Agripinaa System is a vital redoubt of the Imperial defenders and Cadian survivors who are still maintaining the Emperor's tenuous grip on the region of space surrounding the remains of Cadia in the Era Indomitus. |
Agripinaa System - Notable Worlds: The following worlds are listed in order of their orbital distance from the Agripinaa System's primary, from closest to farthest.Yaymar - A molten world whose volatile surface is shrouded by vast arcs of plasma vapour due to its proximity to the system's sun.Barant - The world of Barant's orbit is slowly declining with every revolution around the system's star.Orax (Mining World) - Orax possesses many large iron deposits.Morten's Quay - Morten's Quay is a reserve depot for the Imperial Navy.Faith's Anchorage (Ice World/Mining World) - Faith's Anchorage is a frozen moon of Morten's Quay. It maintains a number of Imperial mining facilities that are intended for the recovery of water ice and promethium. During the Battle of Faith's Anchorage one of these facilities served as a bastion for the Cadian Shock Troops who put up a valiant but unsuccessful last stand against an assault by the Sons of Malice Heretic Astartes and their allied Chaos Cultist and cybernetic troops.Agripinaa (Forge World) - Agripinaa is a strategically important Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus that supplied the Imperial defenders of the Cadian Gate with much of their materiel for millennia before the Fall of Cadia. Known as the "Orb of a Million Scars," virtually the entire surface of this world is covered with industrialised infrastructure, pipelines, factories, mines, refineries, processing plants, and manufactorum cathedrals. Like most other planets in the Agripinaa Sector, this world primarily provides materials for the Cadian front and its industrial heartland is solely engaged in the production of ammunition. Its hive cities are sealed due to the world's highly toxic atmosphere, a result of the extreme industrial pollution. Located near the Eye of Terror and assaulted by the Chaos forces of Abaddon the Despoiler during the 13th Black Crusade, Agripinaa did not weather the attacks of the forces of Chaos well and much of its industrial heartland was laid to waste. It was long protected by the Fortress World of Cadia and its bastion system of well-garrisoned planets. With the Fall of Cadia, however, those days are gone. Since Chaos forces stormed into the sector following the opening of the Great Rift in the Era Indomitus, Agripinaa has been besieged dozens of times. The Forge World and its technological marvels have long been coveted by Warpsmiths of the Traitor Legions, and its surface bears the wounds of untold clashes with Obliterator Cults, Daemon Engines, even the grotesque Chaos Titans. Although the entropic forces of Chaos have always been the enemy of the Imperium, the defenders of Agripinaa reserve a special hatred for the twisted minions of the Dark Gods. Despite having become experts in defensive warfare, the Forge World has only managed to fend off the relentless invasions thanks to a massive expansion in its ranks of Skitarii and Battle Servitors and the heroic aid of its native Titan Legion, the Legio Praesidium Vortex. Most of these reinforcements are recruited from those fleeing the destruction of the Chaos attacks. Cut off by rampant Warp Storms, entire fleets of escape craft often arrive in Agripinaa's orbit. Of course, many choose starvation over the cruel machine fusions of the Cult Mechanicus, but still millions of new troops are being recruited -- fresh legions to stave off the assaults and to join the battles that continue to rage throughout the system.Aurent - Aurent was a naval way station.Chaeros (New Cadia) (Industrial World) - Chaeros, unofficially called "New Cadia," was an Industrial World that was the seventh planet of the Agripinaa System in the Agripinaa Sector of the Segmentum Obscurus. it provided auxiliary industrial production for the Forge World of Agripinaa that was also located in the system. Chaeros was invaded by Abaddon the Despoiler's forces during the 13th Black Crusade. The remnants of the Imperial Navy's Battlefleet Cadia and the Cadian Shock Troops regiments of the Astra Militarum that escaped the Fall of Cadia under the command of Admiral d'Armitage and General Maximus Octavian Grüber III, respectively, would later arrive in the Agripinaa System and clear it of the Chaos fleets and planetary assault forces following the Battle of Faith's Anchorage. Among them was General Isaia Bendikt of the Astra Militarum. Once the system was cleansed of the presence of the servants of the Ruinous Powers, he declared Chaeros was to be renamed "New Cadia" and serve as a new homeworld for all Cadian survivors. However, it is not known if the Imperium officially accepted his renaming of the world.Urath (Death World) - Urath possesses a highly elliptical orbit and serves as a waste planet for all of the industrial waste produced by the manufactoria of Agripinaa.Narsine (Hive World) - Narsine's vast population serves as the source of Agripinaa's menial work force. |
Ahazra Redth - Ahazra Redth: Ahazra Redth, the "Dust Prophet," was the Chief Librarian of the Mantis Warriors Space Marine Chapter and one of the greatest Librarians in the Chapter's history. He became the de facto Chapter Master of the Mantis Warriors during the final days of the Badab War. He is believed to have been killed during the Chapter's defence of Tranquility II from the final Loyalist assault, though his body was never found. |
Ahazra Redth - History: Ahazra Redth was born into the deep desert tribes of Tranquility III, also known as Bittergyre to its indigenous people and his psyker gifts surfaced early. When he was still a child his family undertook the dangerous pilgrimage across the erg sands to the Valley of the Nine Winds in order to present him to the Mantis Warriors for judgement. Although too young to begin the transformation into an Astartes warrior, nevertheless the Chapter's Librarians sensed a great future for the boy, and began to school him in the control of the mystic arts. From the day he had been brought forth, he showed a potential seen perhaps once in a hundred generations. As time progressed, Redth grew into a skilled Neophyte who fought as a Space Marine Scout in a score of campaigns, where his burgeoning gifts of prognostication allowed him to advise and improve upon the plans of Veteran Space Marines five times his age. His powers grew exponentially after joining the Mantis Warriors Librarium and learning the deeper mysteries of the Chapter. He quickly gained a reputation not only as a master of ambush and an expert field tactician, but also as a master of prophecy and divination whose word was trusted by all that heard it. Ahazra Redth would go on to become Chief Librarian of the Mantis Warriors and serve as both a powerful battle-psyker and a wise strategist. He would become one of the greatest Chapter Librarians in the Mantis Warriors' history. Known to both the Mantis Warriors and the people of the Endymion Cluster as the "Dust Prophet" for his abilities and writings, when the Badab War went against his Chapter, it was his leadership that managed to outwit the Loyalist commanders for so long and preserve his brethren in the face of the storm. |
Ahazra Redth - The Badab War: At the outset of the Badab War when the Mantis Warriors first joined the Secessionists in 903.M41, the Chapter was somewhat below full strength, having recently conducted several heavy raids into the fringes of the Maelstrom, and had suffered significant losses to their 4th Company purging a Genestealers infestation on Verkruz. The reason for the Mantis Warrior's involvement in Lufgt Huron's rebellion against the Imperium was simple -- they were fiercely territorial and loyal to their allies, and considered the oaths of brotherhood taken when the Maelstrom Warders alliance had been formed as utterly inviolable. The Mantis Warriors saw an attack on one of the Chapters comprising the Warders, even by the Imperium itself, as an attack on all. But by 908.M41, the Chapter was starting to have grave misgivings both over the course the Secession was taking and the true nature and goals of the Astral Claws and their leader Lugft Huron -- particularly after the death of the Mantis Warrior's Chapter Master Yarvan Sartaq in the Tyrant's company during the attack on the disastrous parlay at Grief. But by this point the die had been cast, and too much blood had been spilled on both sides for anything but a violent resolution to be reached as to the Mantis Warriors' fate.Chief Librarian Ahazra Redth stepped forward, taking the reigns of leadership and effectively becoming Master of the Mantis Warriors until the end of the war. Ahazra Redth further distanced his Chapter from the machinations of the Tyrant of Badab, but true to their word, both he and the Mantis Warriors remained a fighting part of the Secessionist cause until the bitter end. It is a testament both to Ahazra Redth's skill as a commander and the strength of his divinatory powers, that even isolated, vastly outnumbered and facing the murderous onslaught of the Carcharodons Chapter towards the war's end, he and his dwindling forces managed to avoid extermination, let alone inflict losses on their foes in defence of their domains. Ahazra Redth's fate remains unknown, and although he is said by some to have perished in the last day of fighting on Tranquility II, his body was never found. |
Ahazra Redth - Wargear: Power ArmourForce SwordTalisman of Sundered Souls- A relic of the Chapter, this gorget is studded with shards of Eldar Wraithbone taken in battle from the dead. It is a powerful artefact capable of negating the perils of a Warp attack by other psykers.Bolt PistolPsychic HoodFrag GrenadesKrak Grenades |
Ahhotekh - Ahhotekh: Ahhotekh is a Necron Overlord and the presiding regent of the Necron Suhbekhar Dynasty that is located in the Jericho Reach. During the 41st Millennium, he called the Hollow Sun, the dynasty's unique crownworld, home. |
Ahhotekh - History: Ahhotekh was raised as a senior member of his Necrontyr dynasty, serving in the royal court of the dynasty's ruling Phaeron Ahmontekh, the Crimson Scythe, but he never anticipated attaining high office.So total and uncompromising was his phaeron's rule that none of Ahmontekh's underlings seriously contemplated any sort of disloyalty towards him, for all knew the fate that would befall them should they do so. After bio-transference into their necrodermis bodies, all treachery was rendered impossible due to the command protocols imprinted in the mind of every Necron.Instead of plotting against his lord, Ahhotekh therefore spent much of his time before the Great Sleep plotting against his peers. Throughout the War in Heaven, Ahhotekh manoeuvred those forces he was entrusted with leading in such a way as to advance his own position over his rivals, and always to the detriment of others.No matter how the dynasty's phaeron conducted his wars, it always seemed that Ahhotekh's legions suffered fewer losses than those of any other overlord. On numerous occasions, Ahhotekh's rivals for the phaeron's favour sought to confront him, but somehow Ahhotekh always frustrated their efforts to call him to account.By the end of the War in Heaven, Ahhotekh had ascended to a position of great influence, although many of his peers were unaware of its true extent, for his hand was ever hidden.Somehow, it appears that throughout that last, epic confrontation within the depths of the Webway, Ahhotekh's rivals suffered numerous set backs and disproportionate losses, which, it transpires, the phaeron was somehow convinced were the fault of the Charnovokh Dynasty.Whether it was a deliberate ploy on Ahhotekh's part or a case of him taking advantage of a rapidly unfolding situation can only be known by the overlord-regent himself, and he is unlikely to share the truth.In character, the Regent Ahhotekh is a consummate schemer and a master of intrigue. He is utterly brutal in the persecution of his enemies, whether political rivals within his own dynasty, members of other Necron dynasties, or the "lesser beings" of the galaxy's numerous intelligent mortal species.He has never turned his hand against his own phaeron, however, for the command protocols burned into his thought engrams during bio-transference remain in place and will as long as Ahmontekh lives. Like his fellow members of the phaeron's royal court, Ahhotekh is utterly incapable of acting against his lord, despite the murderous carnage he has inflicted upon his peers.Despite the regent's expertise as a master manipulator, there is one thing he is not, and that is a being overly keen to get blood on his own hands.It is not that Ahhotekh is incapable in battle, for as a senior courtier at the time of bio-transference he was gifted with a body as strong and tough as any opponent he might ever meet upon any field of battle.Rather, Ahhotekh has ever regarded physical combat as a crude affair practised by those of his servants incapable of much else. In practise, this means that when Ahhotekh does dirty his hands with bloodshed, he does so in what he regards as a highly refined manner according to the ancient martial codes of the Necrontyr.He has, in his time, fought against numerous enemy champions, and prevailed against them all, yet he only indulges in the slaughter of lesser creatures when there is little other option.When possible, Ahhotekh uses the most expeditious method possible of disposing of lesser enemies, utilising arcane weapons of terrible mass devastation to rid himself of such foes. When faced with a creature worthy of battle, however, he revels in demonstrating the abilities of his C'tan-wrought mind and body.Since his awakening and his unexpected ascension to the position of overlord-regent of the Suhbekhar Dynasty, Ahhotekh has worked tirelessly towards the full reawakening of the Hollow Sun crownworld.The fact that the Phaeron Ahmontekh lives still, albeit in a limbo between life and undeath, has placed limits upon the regent's abilities to fulfill his unanticipated destiny and, thus, much of his energies are turned towards breaking this deadlock.The regent's most pressing concern is to somehow extract the command protocols from the slumbering phaeron's mind without unintentionally slaying him (which would result in the permanent loss of the protocols) or causing him harm (which Ahhotekh cannot do, due to his own conditioning).The search for a means of doing so has taken the overlord-regent and the senior Crypteks of his court to numerous dread places within the Jericho Reach.In so doing, Ahhotekh has uncovered Tomb Worlds and other Necron holdings formerly known only to the slumbering phaeron, and whether he knows it or not, his actions have contributed to the advancement of certain passages long foretold by the contents of the Derleth Lexicon and to the phenomenon called the "Dark Pattern" by the Inquisition. |
Ahmontekh - Ahmontekh: Ahmontekh, called in ages past the "Crimson Scythe" for the blood in which he drenched the Jericho Reach that was his home, is a Necron Overlord and the once and future phaeron of the Necron Suhbekhar Dynasty.Ahmontekh may represent the key to the terrifying celestial phenomenon being investigated by the Inquisition of the Jericho Reach known as "the Dark Pattern." |
Ahmontekh - History: The Phaeron Ahmontekh was at one time counted amongst the most puissant of warriors and his name was feared across countless thousands of worlds. He fought at the side of the C'tan themselves, and is said to have once struck a blow that slew a god.He bore a warscythe of such potency that it is said to have shattered the planet Maldek into a billion chunks of rock in a single blow, an event which several of the Aeldari mystic cycle-singers make reference to many aeons later.Were it not for the all consuming hatred in which the phaeron holds the rival dynasty of the Charnovokhs, Ahmontekh would in all likelihood be leading the reawakening of the Suhbekhar Necrons as they rise across the Jericho Reach.But it was not to be, for that sliver of intense hate that the phaeron bore inside his consciousness as he lay down in his stasis casket refused to slumber with him.Distilled for sixty million solar years, that iota of resentment grew to consume the sleeping phaeron's entire consciousness so that, when the Hollow Sun Tomb World's control program attempted to awaken him in response to the transmission from the Charnovokhs, it burst forth like a tsunami breaking through a fatally breached dam.All that Ahmontekh had once been was gone, consumed over the aeons by his own hatred even as the last residue of himself looked on helplessly. Perhaps had the Necrons not sold their souls to the C'tan, something of him might have survived to fight back against the raging bitterness within, but it was not to be.Now, the Crimson Scythe of old is no more, and that distilled essence of his resentment of his own cousin dynasty is all that remains of his consciousness.To the detriment of the Necrons of the Suhbekhar Dynasty, however, there is far more locked up inside the living metal cranium of the slumbering phaeron than the Overlord-Regent Ahhotekh or most of his Crypteks are aware.The overlord-regent has guessed something of it, yet even he is not party to anything like the whole truth. The awful secrets lurking in the ruined consciousness of the phaeron of the Suhbekhar Dynasty are hinted at in numerous disjointed sources, yet no one observer can see their entirety.The regent knows that the phaeron bears the dynasty's command protocols, and is coming to see that Ahmontekh was the architect of far more than the miracle of the Hollow Sun, his legacy cast across the countless systems of the Jericho Reach and beyond.Others still have glimpsed something more of the truth, including the aeons-dead compiler of the Derleth Lexicon as well as a number of the Crypteks Overlord-Regent Ahhotekh has tasked with attending to the blasted phaeron.Unbeknownst to the regent, his most trusted counsellor, Ozkan the Codifier, has caught a glimpse of something an order of magnitude greater even than the miracle of stellar engineering that is the Suhbekhar Dynasty's magnificent crownworld.Exactly what the Cryptek has glimpsed may or may not be the truth, for the phaeron's consciousness may only be examined one blasted iota at a time. Initially, the venerable Cryptek feared that the phaeron had fallen pray to the dreaded Flayer Virus, and in truth this fate remains a possibility.The dark visions that have thus far been rendered up hint that the Crimson Scythe was blessed with terrible knowledge of the future. He saw that, because he had slain one of their gods and laid waste to vast tracts of the Webway, the Aeldari would never rest until he was hunted down.The Star-Slayer knew that the Aeldari, or their heirs, would stand eternal vigil over any region they believed might harbour his secret resting place. So he set in motion certain contingencies to ensure that, when he awoke, the Aeldari would be overwhelmed and the attentions of any other watchers drawn away from the Hollow Sun long enough for all of its serried legions to fully awaken.To date, none can tell if these visions of dark splendour represent the truth or some scrap of intent drifting upon the ocean of raging bitterness that is the phaeron's slumbering consciousness. Ozkan has thus far kept what he has seen to himself, as have those other Crypteks attending to their lost phaeron.There is another facet of the phaeron's nature that the vast majority of his subjects are entirely unaware of. This is that fact that in addition to being a great warrior-king, Ahmontekh shared the grief that Szarekh, the Silent King, master of all the Necrons, felt at the terrible price paid in return for their immortality.While he may, if the dark wisdom suggested by the disparate sources is correct, have set in motion a plan to devastate the enemies of his people, he also had some manner of plan to ensure that the Necrons would inherit all that they had lost.This indeed was the last promise of the Silent King before he took his leave of the known galaxy sixty million Terran years ago, and it may well be that the Crimson Scythe, the Star-Slayer of the Suhbekhar Dynasty, shared that vision.If so, what dark fate might yet await the Jericho Reach in the aftermath of the revelation of the Dark Pattern? Having scoured the stars themselves of his waiting foes, what darkly glorious future did Ahmontekh hold in store for his dynasty?Some amongst the Inquisition's Dead Cabal have voiced the opinion that the Necrons themselves might represent but a part of a still larger doom yet to be revealed.Of course, it is entirely possible that this vision of dark slaughter is nothing more than the fevered construct of a mind that has fallen prey to the blight of the destroyed C'tan known as the Flayer, whose final curse upon the Necrons was a slow-burning and lingering insanity that would only become manifest in aeons to come.The Crypteks cannot entirely discount the possibility that their phaeron has fallen prey to this terrible malady, though if this is so it must surely be the first case of one so highly placed being afflicted by the insanity. If it is the case, what vile evils might be enacted upon the galaxy should the Necrons determine to disinter their accursed flayer king? |
Ahmontekh - Deathwatch Intelligence: The Ordo Xenos is largely aware of the existence of the class of Necron monarchs known as "phaerons," and so accept that such a powerful individual must surely lie slumbering in some unknown stasis crypt somewhere in the depths of the Jericho Reach.Neither the servants of the Holy Ordos nor the Battle-Brothers of the Deathwatch have thus far encountered such an individual in the Jericho Reach, though neither has any notion of the fate of the phaeron of the Suhbekhar Dynasty.Unbeknownst to the masters of Watch Fortress Erioch, however, the Deathwatch have in fact fought a battle against a being that the lone survivor of that bitter confrontation has identified as a Necron of the rank of phaeron.Roughly within the last years of the 41st Millennium, the Radical Inquisitor Thaddeus Hakk led a four-strong Deathwatch Kill-team into the spinward marches of the Slinnar Drift.The outcast alien-hunter intended to follow up on a passage of dark wisdom he had apparently unearthed in some dead world bordering the Hecaton Rifts in the distant Koronus Expanse, though the nature of this lore was never revealed.By all accounts, this small force intruded in places long forbidden to mortals and in so doing called down the wrath of a being of impossible power. All that is known of the incident is a psychic warning bellowed into space by the team's leader, an Epistolary of the Red Hunters Chapter.The warning was later received by a fellow Librarian, who was wracked by visions of a being of living metal clad in blood-stained rags like those of a long interred corpse and wielding a scythe that splattered long arcs of bloody residue wherever it passed.Most of the few granted access to reports of this incident concluded that the Kill-team was lost to some manner of daemonic incursion, though the Inquisitor has not been tracked down to confirm or deny this.Those of the Dead Cabal that have read the pages of the Derleth Lexicon suspect otherwise and keep their own, silent counsel on the matter. |
Ahmontekh - The Crippled King and the Derleth Lexicon: There is a particular chapter in the forbidden tome that is the Derleth Lexicon that some amongst the Dead Cabal have related to the as yet unidentified slumbering phaeron of the Suhbekhar Dynasty.This passage claims that the being that Derleth called "the crippled king" has arisen on several occasions throughout the ages, released by the hand of some unknown secret ally within his household.Indeed, there are numerous tales across the Jericho Reach of different godlike beings bearing blood red scythes falling upon those worlds cut off from the Emperor's light during the Age of Shadow.What most take to be accounts of visitations by daemon princes of Chaos might in fact represent instances when the Crimson Scythe has arisen from his tomb, or been released from it, and set loose upon the worlds of the outer Jericho Reach.In each instance, such utter slaughter has been unleashed that scant few witnesses have survived to record the awful truth of what transpired and, even if they had, most of these worlds were cut off from the Imperium or even in the grip of the Ruinous Powers.And yet, there remain certain passages within the Derleth Lexicon that hint at the dire possibility that the crippled king has risen to reap his bloody harvest across the Jericho Reach, and shall do so again.Can it be mere coincidence that many of the worlds this mysterious figure has scoured have been close to, or even part of, those of the aptly named Dark Pattern? |
Ahriman - Ahriman: Ahriman, whose full name is Ahzek Ahriman, is a Chaos Space Marine and the most powerful Chaos Sorcerer of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion after their Daemon Primarch Magnus the Red himself. Ahzek Ahriman was once the Chief Librarian and first captain of the ancient Thousand Sons Legion.Ahriman has always sought to better comprehend the nature of his patron Chaos God Tzeentch and of the force of Chaos itself and gain the unrivalled power such knowledge will bring.His action in crafting the Rubric of Ahriman, perhaps one of the greatest works of sorcery in history, would ultimately result in his banishment from the Legion he had hoped to safeguard. It is his intense need to find a way to undo the effects of the Rubric upon his beloved Thousand Sons that first drove Ahriman on his quest to seek out the deepest knowledge of Chaos. He remains a wanderer across the galaxy, forever searching for any knowledge that will allow him to finally grasp the greatest of all enigmas in the universe -- the true nature of Tzeentch himself.Across a thousand worlds, Ahriman has sought the keys to save what he has already destroyed through his own hubris among the Thousand Sons. The scars of this obsession found across the galaxy have made his name a curse in the mouths of Humans and aliens alike. Scraps of arcane lore, artefacts both obscure and profane, and rare but psychically powerful souls draw him like a raven to a corpse.To the Craftworld Aeldari, Ahriman is the carrion scribe who eats the souls of their dying race for secrets; to the Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus he is the lightning rod which brings a storm of Daemons; amongst the servants of Chaos he is a flame of power and trickery as likely to burn those drawn to his light as to illuminate them.A master of subtle manipulation, Ahriman has seeded Chaos Cults on a hundred worlds, and bent the desires of the powerful to achieve his ends. With conspiracies and plots spread across the galaxy, he coils between them, a puppet master pulling invisible strings. When such subtle means are impossible he wages a sorcerer's war, forcing armies to kneel with visions of terror, shattering war machines with invisible forces, and ripping the souls from mighty heroes.Ahriman knows the True Names of Daemons, and possesses pacts which can bring daemonic armies flocking to his call. Worlds have burned at his command, billions have fallen to the hunger of the Warp, and reality has bled at the fury of his power.Ahriman refuses to acknowledge either Tzeentch or Chaos itself as his master. Across the ensuing millennia he has become a scourge of the Imperium, raiding ancient museums, librariums, scholaria and reclusia, places of learning, religion and contemplative thought. He seeks to acquire artefacts, data, or even persons he believes can lead him to fully master the way of the sorcerer.He fosters Chaos Cults on dozens of worlds at a time, providing the cults' chosen magi with sorcerous power until such time as they have acquired some antiquarian trinket or satisfied another of Ahriman's demands before turning the wrath of his Thousand Sons' warband of Chaos Space Marines, the Prodigal Sons, upon them and seizing all they have for himself. |
Ahriman - Origins: Ahzek Ahriman was born on Terra in the 30th Millennium among the wealthy techno-barbarian tribes of the Achaemenid Empire whose kings had allied with the Emperor of Mankind during the Unification Wars that reunited Old Earth under the new government of the Imperium of Man. Because of this early political alliance, Ahriman's tribes were largely spared the horrors of the atomic wars and proto-Astartes invasions of the Unification Wars period.Following the Emperor's victory and Terra's alliance with the ancient Mechanicum of Mars to forge the newborn Imperium, Ahriman and his twin brother Ohrmuzd were selected to be inducted into the ranks of the Space Marine Legions. Ahriman fought alongside the Emperor and the other Space Marine Legions at the start of the Great Crusade, but five standard years into the expedition the Astartes of the Thousand Sons Legion began manifesting psychic abilities, and with these manifestations began the dreaded "flesh-change."Terrible mutations gripped the entire Legion, as countless warriors succumbed and fell to the metamorphoses, many becoming hideous and savage mutants who had to be euthanised by their fellows. Over time, the mutational problem within the XVth Legion grew so severe that many voices throughout the Imperium began suggesting that the Thousand Sons be disbanded as they had become hopelessly genetically tainted.Ahriman even lost his own twin brother Ohrmuzd to the effects of the mutations, which instilled within the young Astartes a terrible fear of mutation and a willingness to do anything to stop it from afflicting his remaining battle-brothers. In tribute to his own beloved sibling, Ahriman had Ohrmuzd's prized pendant, a keepsake from their mother just like the one Ahriman wore, worked into the shoulder-guard of his power armour. |
Ahriman - Great Crusade: Eventually the fleets of the Great Crusade reached the world of Prospero, and the rediscovery of the Primarch Magnus the Red, the Thousand Sons' genetic progenitor, could not have come soon enough. The discovery of their genetic sire marked a turning point in the fortunes of the Thousand Sons Legion, for Magnus possessed a means to seemingly cure the extreme mutational effects of his genetic material in his gene-sons and the devastation they had wrought upon his Legion.However, Magnus had sacrificed much in order to attain this victory, including the loss of his eye in the effort, which involved secret bargains with the Ruinous Powers of the Warp to gain the knowledge required to halt the mutations.Little is known about Ahriman's exploits during the Great Crusade. Additionally, Ahriman was seconded by the Thousand Sons for 5 Terran years to the Word Bearers Legion, which he found to be an uncomfortable experience because of the Word Bearers' insistence on worshipping the Emperor of Mankind as a divine being in violation of the tenets of the Imperial Truth.Despite this, Ahriman still managed to strike up a friendship with the Word Bearers' Chaplain Erebus. Ahriman is also one of the few Astartes from this period who was publicly supportive of the Emperor's initiative to require civilian Remembrancers to record the exploits of the Legiones Astartes and the other Imperial military forces during the Great Crusade, as he hoped that an accurate record of the Thousand Sons' exploits would teach the wider Imperium to no longer be afraid of or prejudiced against psykers or the use of psychic powers.The earliest surviving mention of an Ahzek Ahriman in Imperial records occurred during the Aghrou Campaign in the final years of the Great Crusade's second century, a standard action of that time in which a pre-industrial Human world was brought into Imperial Compliance by the 28th Expeditionary Fleet, with aid from a contingent of the Space Wolves Legion.Ahriman risked his Primarch Magnus the Red's wrath when he led a search team in pursuit of the primarch after Magnus had made himself absent from his Legion, despite Magnus' prior insistence that he was not to be disturbed under any circumstances. This incident represented the first time that Ahriman was known to have mistrusted the judgement of his primarch and then acted contrary to his expressed desires. It would not be the last.Towards the end of the Aghrou Campaign, when a contingent of Space Wolves Astartes arrived to convey a message to Magnus from their own Primarch Leman Russ, Ahriman found fellowship with the Space Wolf Rune Priest Othere Wyrdmake, during which he shared information on the Thousand Sons' psychic disciplines in what he thought was a meeting of convivial brother Astartes, but which later proved treacherous when the Space Wolves used this conversation against the Thousand Sons' position in favour of supporting continued use of the psychic arts at the Council of Nikaea.Ahriman's relationship with the Rune Priest proved useful when both the Space Wolves and the Thousand Sons were forced to engage in combat with alien "weaponforms" similar to Imperial Titans and the Daemons of the Warp before leaving Aghoru. This represented the first time that both Legions had come into contact with the realities of Chaos.It was also at this time that Ahriman was charged by his primarch with inducting the Remembrancer Lemuel Gaumon into the ways of the Thousand Sons. This was intended to develop Gaumon's own psychic abilities and thus through him spread Magnus' pro-psyker beliefs throughout the Imperium. Ahriman took Gaumon on as his Probationer, and spent a significant amount of time training the Remembrancer and teaching him the sorcerous knowledge of the Thousand Sons during the time leading up to the Fall of Prospero.This training included allowing Gaumon to accompany the Thousand Sons on combat missions during the pacification of the world of Heliosa, where Ahriman was present for the sudden resurgence of the mutational flesh-change within the Legion and the granting of the Emperor's peace to the afflicted mutant Thousand Sons Astartes by the Space Wolves' primarch, Leman Russ. The return of rampant mutation to the Thousand Sons after Magnus had previously promised that he had banished its danger forever deeply hurt Ahriman, to the point that his feelings of betrayal were detectable even to a mortal like Gaumon.Ahzek Ahriman was present at the great review of the Imperial military on the world of Ullanor at the conclusion of the Ullanor Crusade when the Emperor named Horus as the Warmaster of the Great Crusade. More importantly, Ahriman attended the great Imperial conclave known as the Council of Nikaea when the Emperor outlawed the use of psychic abilities within the Space Marine Legions and sorcery across the Imperium.To Ahriman the Council of Nikaea felt instead more like a trial of the Thousand Sons. He felt betrayed once more by the Emperor's decision. Far worse was the fact that the first person to step forth and accuse the Thousand Sons of engaging in the malignant and dangerous practice of sorcery was the fellow Astartes he had believed to be his friend within the Space Wolves Legion, the Rune Priest Othere Wyrdmake.Betrayal seemed to hammer Ahriman from every side as it was also at this time that he first learned that Magnus had not only been aware of the Ruinous Powers' existence within the Immaterium, but that he had likely struck some form of malign bargain with them which had resulted in the end of the rampant mutations within the Thousand Sons Legion.Aghast at a revelation which gave some truth to the charges of heresy by the the Space Wolves and the Emperor's fears of allowing the practice of sorcery, Ahriman found his trust in his primarch further eroded, though Magnus ultimately used his own potent psychic abilities to remove the details of the deal he had struck with the Dark Gods from his Chief Librarian's mind before Ahriman could understand its full import. |
Ahriman - Horus Heresy: Before the Horus Heresy began, Ahriman had risen to the powerful position of Chief Librarian of the Thousand Sons Legion, the captain of its 1st Fellowship and the leader of the Sekhmet or Scarab Occult who served as the elite Veterans of the Legion and deployed in Terminator Armour.Ahriman was also one of the leaders of the Thousand Sons' most powerful sorcerous cult, the Corvidae, who were skilled in the psychic discipline of precognition, which was the ability to determine the likely probabilities of future events. They served as the Legion's seers, warning their battle-brothers of dangers before they materialised. The Corvidae Cult also helped guide the Thousand Sons Legion along the lines of Fate during times of conflict and in pursuit of their overall psychic and material growth as a Legion, as well as serving as the Legion's primary strategic planners. Ahriman had come to share his primarch's obsession with the pursuit and preservation of arcane knowledge and the unraveling of the mysteries of the Warp.Though the Thousand Sons had been ordered by the Emperor to cease and desist all psychic activities and dabbling in the occult, Amon, the captain of the 9th Fellowship and Magnus' father figure and former mentor, willingly went along with his primarch's decision to continue with their studies of the Warp. Magnus was keeping a monstrous secret from his captains while he worked feverishly and alone in his private library and the vaults beneath Prospero's capital city of Tizca. Amon and Ankhu Anen, Guardian of the Great Library of Prospero and member of the Corvidae Cult, shared Ahriman's knowledge that something was very wrong, but even their combined power was unable to pierce the veils of the future to see what so concerned their primarch.In truth, Magnus had foreseen a terrifying vision of the Warmaster Horus falling from grace and dragging the burgeoning Imperium of Man into a war more terrible than any of them could imagine -- an Age of Darkness that had been prophesied tens of thousands of standard years before by the ancient Aegyptos of Old Earth. Though Magnus did not exactly know the means by which Horus would fall, all he could perceive from his vision is that something primordial and corrupt would take root in his soul.Magnus had foreseen that the Luna Wolves Legion would soon be making war on a moon of the Feral World of Davin, and the fates were conspiring to fell Horus with a weapon of dreadful sentience. In his weakened and blinded state, the enemies of all life would make their move to ensnare his warrior heart. Without the intervention of the Thousand Sons, they would succeed and split the Human-ruled galaxy asunder. The works that Magnus had Amon researching since the end of the Council of Nikaea held the key to Horus Lupercal's salvation. With the help of his fellowship captains, Magnus intended to telepathically project himself into the Immaterium and attempt to shield his brother from his enemies.When Horus fell, mortally wounded by the poisoned xenos blade known as the Kinebrach Anathame on the moon of Davin, First Chaplain Erebus of the Word Bearers Legion, who had been seconded to the Luna Wolves Legion as an advisor, saw his chance to further his own designs for the Chaos Gods. He persuaded the Luna Wolves' Warrior Lodge to allow a group of Abhuman Davinite shamans -- Chaos Cultists all -- located on the surface of Davin at the Temple of the Serpent Lodge to heal him. The Luna Wolves, besides themselves with grief and the fear that their beloved primarch would die, agreed to the suggestion, despite its direct violation of the creeds of the Imperial Truth.During the dark rituals that followed within the Chaos temple, Horus' soul was transferred from his body into the Immaterium. There, he bore witness to a nightmare vision of the future. He saw the Imperium of Man as a repressive, violent theocracy, where the Emperor and several of his primarchs (but not Horus) were worshipped as a god and his angels by the masses of Humanity. While this vision of the Imperial future granted by the Chaos Gods was a true one, it was ironically an outcome largely created by the Warmaster's own future actions.Magnus had also travelled into the Warp via the use of ritualistic sorcery to try and stop Horus from turning to Chaos. Magnus explained that the Warmaster's vision was only one of many possible futures, but one that Horus alone could prevent. Horus, already jealous toward any perceived threat to his own greatness and resentful of what he perceived as his abandonment by his father the Emperor, proved all too receptive to the Ruinous Powers' false vision.During his sojourn in the Warp, Magnus realised the treachery ran deeper than he had first thought. It seemed the powers that sought to ensnare Horus had already claimed others who were in thrall to Chaos -- Lorgar and his Word Bearers.Now that events had been set in motion, Magnus ordered Amon, Ahriman and the rest of the Corvidae Cult to unravel the strands of the future. The Thousand Sons needed to know more of what was to come. He ordered them to do whatever it took to achieve this knowledge -- whatever the cost might be. |
Ahriman - Fall of Prospero: Magnus next attempted to forewarn the Emperor of the impending betrayal of His favourite son. However, knowing that he would have to find a means of quickly warning the Emperor, Magnus used sorcery to telepathically send his message to the Emperor. The message penetrated the potent psychic defences of the Imperial Palace on Terra, shattering all the psychic wards the Emperor had placed on the palace -- including those within His secret project in the Imperial Palace's dungeon, where He was proceeding with the creation of a Human extension into the Webway.Refusing to believe that Horus, His most beloved and trusted son, would actually betray Him, the Emperor instead mistakenly perceived the traitor to the Imperium to be Magnus and his Thousand Sons, who had long suffered from a near-debilitating run of mutations because of the instability of Magnus' own genome as well as being practicioners of sorcery that brought them into constant contact with the dangerous entities of the Empyrean.The Emperor ordered the Primarch Leman Russ, Magnus' greatest rival, to mobilise his Space Wolves Legion and the witchhunters known as the Sisters of Silence, alongside a contingent of the Emperor's own Legio Custodes, and take Magnus into custody to be returned to Terra to stand trial for violating the Council of Nikaea's prohibitions against the use of sorcery within the Imperium.While en route to the Thousand Sons Legion's homeworld of Prospero, Horus convinced Russ, who had always been repelled by Magnus' reliance on psychic powers, to launch a full assault on Prospero instead even though Magnus had been entirely willing to face the Emperor's judgment once he realised he was being manipulated by the entities that called the Immaterium home.Amon's loyalty and confidence in Magnus was severely shaken when he discovered that his primarch had murdered Baleq Uthizzar, the captain of the 5th Fellowship and leader or "magister templi" of the Athanean Cult, for knowing too much about the impending assault by the encroaching Space Wolves Legion. Taking Amon into his confidence, the primarch and his former tutor travelled the Aether together in their astral forms. Magnus showed Amon the approaching fleet of the VIth Legion.He admitted to his former tutor that he had been wrong about everything. All the things that Amon had taught the adolescent primarch had been arrogantly dismissed out of hand, for Magnus presumed he already knew. He had been warned by Amon about the gods of the Warp, which the primarch had rejected, calling his tutor a superstitious old fool.The primarch confessed that he had done terrible things, but he tried to convince Amon that he had done them for the right reasons. Magnus had drawn a psychic veil around Prospero. None could see out as their punishment drew closer, not even the sorcerers of the Corvidae Cult. Magnus accepted his punishment for his hubris, and would sit by and do nothing as his Legion was wiped out for their violation of the Emperor's Decree Absolute at Nikaea.Amon could not abide his primarch's decision, whether it was the right thing to do or not. He could not sit idly by and accept the inevitability of the Thousand Sons' pre-ordained destiny. Magnus explained to his oldest friend the reason that he had not struck at the Space Wolves was because it was what the Ruinous Powers had wanted him to do since he had first come to Prospero by their design. The Chaos Gods wanted Magnus to take arms against the Thousand Sons' doom, knowing that if he did, it would only confirm everything those who hated and feared the Thousand Sons had always believed.In that moment of his primarch's dire revelation, Amon confessed to his gene-sire that before Magnus had come to Prospero he had suffered a recurring nightmare. Amon had dreamt that everything he held dear was swept away and destroyed. It plagued him for years, but on the day the infant primarch had arrived from the heavens like a comet, the dream stopped. He never had it again. Amon convinced himself that it was nothing more than an ancestral memory of Old Night, but it was not. He knew that now, for he had foreseen this moment in time. The destruction of everything he held dear was coming to pass.Despite everything Magnus had done, the primarch still believed that his fate was his own. He was a loyal son of the Emperor, and he would never betray Him, for the primarch had already broken His father's heart and His greatest creation, the Terran Webway extension. Magnus intended to accept his fate and though history might judge the Thousand Sons as Traitors, at least Magnus and his sons would know the truth. They would know that they were loyal unto the end because they accepted their fate. Magnus now urged Amon to do the same. But Amon refused to acquiesce to his gene-sire's wishes. He would not sit passively by, waiting to die like some infirm, decrepit animal. Amon intended to fight for his people and his home.After the Space Wolves' Retribution Fleet translated in-system, they proceeded to destroy Prospero's orbital defences. They then commenced a tremendous orbital bombardment that reduced Prospero to cinders, except its capital, Tizca, a beautiful city and the seat of Magnus and the XVth Legion, that was at all times protected by a powerful psychic kine-shield. This shield was maintained by one of the Thousand Sons' sorcerous cults, and Magnus did not disable it, knowing that such action would alert his Legion.Because of the telekinetic shield, an Imperial ground invasion of Tizca had to take place. A huge force of landing vehicles and support craft descended on the city, whose defences had been left mostly unmanned. Establishing a beachhead in the city's spaceport, the Space Wolves began slaughtering thousands of Prosperines and burning everything in sight. Yet the Thousand Sons' rank-and-file did not share Magnus' acceptance of defeat and punishment, so they took up arms against the Imperial invaders. The Thousand Sons managed to hold Tizca (the only surviving city on the planet) for a period of time before they were eventually pushed back.Before Magnus reluctantly faced the wrath of his brother, Leman Russ, he entrusted Amon with a precious gift, his most prized possession, the Book of Magnus. This massive tome contained the collected Human knowledge of sorcery as dictated by Magnus. It was said that this work was one of the most complete treatises on psykers, witchcraft and sorcery in the galaxy, a compilation of all the knowledge and experiments gathered by Magnus during the conquests the Thousand Sons made for the Imperium during the Great Crusade.Amon was charged with its safekeeping and to ensure that it was passed on to Chief Librarian Ahriman. Magnus eventually, reluctantly, took to the battle against the Imperial forces when Leman Russ and his Wulfen were unleashed on the last glass-and-steel pyramid of Tizca still standing.At the height of the battle, Magnus and Leman Russ took part in a devastating duel in which Russ was ultimately victorious. Mortally wounded, with his back broken, Magnus invoked ancient sorceries in order to escape Prospero by opening a gateway through the Warp into the Eye of Terror where a Daemon World (Sortiarius, the Planet of the Sorcerers) had been prepared for Magnus and the remnants of his Space Marine Legion by their new patron god, Tzeentch. Magnus was subsequently "rewarded" by Tzeentch by being transformed into a Daemon Prince. |
Ahriman - Rubric of Ahriman: Following their exile into the Eye of Terror, Ahriman's love and admiration for his gene-sire had turned to hatred and contempt. When the "flesh-change" once again ran rampant amongst the survivors of the Thousand Sons as a result of direct contact with the Warp energies of the Eye of Terror and Magnus seemed this time to simply accept it, Ahriman set out to find a cure for the flesh-change himself.In his own hatred and hubris and utterly unaware of the ludicrousness of attempting to use the very energy of change to stop change, Ahriman delved into the sorcerous knowledge held in the Book of Magnus. Distilling the colossal collections of formulae, incantations and rites, and infusing the results with his own hatred of Magnus and angst at the fate of his Legion, Ahriman devised the canvas of a mighty arcane spell that would ultimately undo all the woe that had befallen his battle-brothers and thus protect them from the flesh-change for all eternity.Preliminary testing of the spell he called the Rubric generated great promise, but Ahriman quickly discovered that he lacked the raw power required to achieve permanent results. He then set to work gathering those amongst the remaining officers of the Thousand Sons who, like him, were disgusted by what had befallen their Legion and their primarch. Gathering in a fell circle around Ahriman, this cabal of sorcerers lent their power to Ahriman, who then unleashed the full power of his desperate spell.Amon was amongst those who had joined Ahriman's breakaway cabal, those who had always been the most headstrong and those with the most psychic power in the XVth Legion. Those that had remained faithful to the primarch were the second-rate, the ones who had not dared to join the casting of the Rubric.The Rubric worked, but like all the double-edged gifts of Chaos, it did not unfold as its casters expected. The spell affected every member of the Thousand Sons, preserving less than a hundred of the Legion's sorcerers and condemning the rest who lacked psychic abilities, the Rubricae, to dust.The majority of battle-brothers of the Legion who lacked the psychic gift could not deal with the cataclysmic amounts of sorcerous energy which poured into them. Their flesh burned on the spot, their bodies reduced to ash inside their power armour. And yet, the energies released sealed all the joints of their armour as it burned their bodies. When their souls attempted to depart their ruined bodies, they found themselves trapped inside their armour; dead, yet still alive, without a body but unchanging for all eternity.In the aftermath of this cataclysm, it became clear that the Rubric had either succeeded beyond all possible expectations or failed abominably, depending on how one looked at it. Ahriman himself, along with most of his cabal, were horrified by the result. Their brethren were now as they had intended, protected from the "flesh-change" for all time, though they paid for this protection with the destruction of their physical bodies.It was only later that Ahriman saw the awful truth of what he had wrought. Instead of purging the flesh of his brothers of ravening mutations, each of the Thousand Sons had been transformed into unliving automata.Magnus, angered beyond reason by what his Chief Librarian had done to his gene-sons, assaulted the tower where Ahriman had gathered his coven. The other Chaos Sorcerers immediately knelt and abased themselves before Magnus' fury, but Ahriman remained standing, vindicated in his beliefs and utterly unrepentant.Before the Daemon Primarch could strike down his former Chief Librarian, the Architect of Fate, Tzeentch himself, intervened, staying Magnus' hand to save a warrior who would yet prove to be one of the greatest champions of the Changer of Ways. Instead, Ahriman and the rest of his cabal were banished from the Planet of the Sorcerers. |
Ahriman - Exile: Ahriman had been exiled from Sortiarius, but so too was his cabal of sorcerers. Yet in their absence, it was Amon who became determined to find all the secrets of the Rubric and perhaps restore some of his mindless, undead brothers back to life. Over the next one thousand standard years as he continued to amass more power, Amon founded his own powerful warband of Heretic Astartes known as the Brotherhood of Dust which consisted of many exiled Thousand Sons.It was Amon who also gathered voidships, other Chaos Space Marines, hundreds of Rubricae and a number of apprentices, who themselves soon became formidable Chaos Sorcerers in their own right. It was Amon's intent to see the suffering of his Legion ended, for he would undo the fell magic of the Rubric that had doomed his former battle-brothers to their unlife, so that he could release their tortured souls. Yet, despite all his grand schemes and designs, he still needed to find the wayward Ahriman, for only he possessed the necessary knowledge of the Rubric to see what he had done reversed.Amon sent out emissaries all over the galaxy chasing rumours, no matter how minor, of the possible whereabouts of the former Thousand Sons Chief Librarian. During his quest, Amon came across other former members of the Thousand Sons. He sent his emissaries to his former brothers in the hopes of enticing them to join his warband. If they accepted, they would become a part of the Brotherhood of Dust; however, those that refused faced the prospect of annihilation -- both themselves and those that followed them.In the meantime, Ahriman had been hiding amongst a Renegade warband of Chaos Space Marines dedicated to Khorne, known as The Harrowing. Somehow the Brotherhood of Dust managed to track the psychic spoor of Ahriman to the warband. Amon sent an emissary named Tolbek, a former Thousand Sons Legionary and member of Ahriman's cabal of sorcerers. An adept of the Pyrae Cult in the long-broken traditions of Prospero, Tolbek had been one of the first to join Ahriman's cabal. Tolbek had played his own part in the casting of the Rubric that destroyed their Legion and had shared in the casters' banishment.Tolbek, escorted by a pair of Rubric Marines, went over to The Harrowing warband's vessel, the Blood Crescent, to entreat with the warband's leader Gzrel. During the subsequent audience aboard The Harrowing's flagship, Tolbek devised the true identity of Ahriman, who had been masquerading as a lowly sorcerous initiate named Horkos -- a Heretic Astartes who was looked upon with contempt by his fellow Renegades as the lowest of the low and an oath-breaker.Recognising Tolbek, and realising his identity had been compromised, Ahriman unleashed his suppressed sorcerous abilities against both his allies and the Thousand Sons sorcerer. After killing the majority of The Harrowing's leaders, Ahriman was confronted by Tolbek. Ahriman telepathically invaded Tolbek's mind, attempting to determine why he had been sought out. But the cunning sorcerer immolated his own mind, attempting to pull Ahriman's psychically-linked mind into oblivion with him. Ahriman just barely managed to escape Tolbek's insidious trap and the other sorcerer died as his body erupted into flames, immolating itself into a pile of ash.Before the Chaos Space Marines aboard the warship Tolbek had arrived on realised that their master was now dead, Ahriman took command of the vessel for himself and fled into the Warp. During Ahriman's quest to determine who had sought him out, Amon sent numerous minions to do his bidding, including Warp creatures and a half-Daemon Prince, all of which failed to kill the potent exiled sorcerer. Despite Amon's best efforts, Ahriman managed to discover his former brother's location and infiltrate his fleet.Unfortunately, before Ahriman could launch a surprise assault upon Amon, he was betrayed by the mistress of the ship he had stolen, his location compromised. Ahriman managed to emerge victorious after battling against three of Amon's Chaos Sorcerers, but was badly wounded during the fighting. Amon eventually appeared in person and subdued the wounded Ahriman with powerful wards of binding and hexes, and brought him aboard his flagship, the Sycorax. While imprisoned, Amon convinced Ahriman to give him the invaluable information he desired so that he could undo the Rubric, and Ahriman finally agreed.Ahriman's allies came to rescue him and they managed to effect his escape, but the former Chief Librarian was soon confronted by the angry Amon, who unleashed a powerful psychic attack. During the ensuing duel, Ahriman revealed the final secret of the Rubric to his former brother -- it was a part of all Thousand Sons, bound into their very beings -- the Rubric ran through them all, linking them, sustaining them. And the deadly power to manipulate it remained in Ahriman's hands.Unable to pull his mind away from Ahriman, the Chaos Sorcerer caused Amon to spontaneously combust from within, unleashing the powerful psychic energy of the Rubric that had been bound into his own flesh with the casting of the arcane spell. Amon's armour came apart, each component pulling away from the other, spilling grey dust into the twisting wind.The vortex of power he had unleashed to kill his brother enveloped Ahriman and lifted him into the air, the separate pieces of Amon's armour aligning themselves over his unarmoured, splayed body. Then, one plate at a time, they slid into place over Ahriman's flesh. Finally Amon's horned helm slipped over Ahriman's skull. The minds of the still-living sorcerers of the Brotherhood of Dust teetered on the edge of indecision. The undead Rubricae simply waited.Raising his hands, Ahriman summoned magical flames from the floor which engulfed the red lacquer of the armour of every Rubricae and sorcerer of Amon's Brotherhood of Dust. Then the flames suddenly flickered blue, and the red-and-silver armour became instead a sheen of polished sapphire.Ahriman then looked across the ranks of newly transmuted blue power armour. Slowly, he knelt and bowed his head in recognition of his own sins against the Thousand Sons. He then assumed the mantle of leadership of the Brotherhood of Dust, including its massive fleet and army of followers, mortal and Heretic Astartes alike.It is not known if the former Brotherhood of Dust is the same warband, now known as the "Prodigal Sons," that Ahriman currently leads in the 41st Millennium. |
Ahriman - Harvest of Calliope: Amongst Ahriman's countless atrocities, there are those that stand as true testaments to his subtlety, power, and ruthlessness. One such incident is known as the Harvest of Calliope. Calliope was a world of lost knowledge; an entire planet given over to the archiving of records from the earliest days of the Imperium all the way to its uncertain present.Stacks of rotting parchment filled caverns extending far beneath its crust, dataspool void stations ringed its orbits from pole to pole, and its cities sprawled around the Index Vaults. Every soul on Calliope existed to service the archive, from the hunters who stalked vermin in the deep parchment stacks, to the scribes who fought for control of the hundreds of contradictory indexes; all were bound to the ecology of the archive. So it had been for a time since before any could remember, and so it seemed things would continue. Until something changed.A new faction arose unexpectedly within the caste of indexers. This faction called for the unification of all the indexes into an endlessly extending formula. They called themselves the "Summation." Where the idea had first come from none were certain, but once it took hold it bloomed like a flower in sunlight.The Summation's power grew generation by generation until its rule of Calliope was uncontested. Centuries passed and billions laboured to further the Summation's goal. At last, they succeeded. On the day of the Emperor's Ascension, in the High Hall of Indexes, a scribe wrote the final line of symbols to complete the formula, and in that instant Calliope fell silent.When an Imperial voidship arrived at Calliope a solar decade later, it found a few starved people living amongst the dry corpses of the dead. None of the survivors could remember anything for more than a few seconds. Stranger still, the great archives were blank, every datastore empty, and every page of parchment bare. The only mark remaining to tell of the algorithmic seed Ahriman had planted to create the Summation, and then harvested millennia later, was a single image, hovering in the lost memories of the survivors' blasted minds: the image of a figure in a horned helm wreathed in flame stepping from a wound in the air to take from Calliope the fruits of their labour. |
Ahriman - Death of Dianixis: Ahriman had long sought the skull of Lepidus, a dead hero of the 2nd Black Crusade, for reasons that remain his own. The skull, dipped in silver and engraved with ten thousand words of detestation, lay in the polar shrine city on the world of Dianaxis. A conspiracy to obtain the skull by guile had already failed, so Ahriman turned to more direct means.Since the end of the Scouring, countless billions have fought and died in the shadow of the Eye of Terror. For almost eight Terran millennia the remains of many of these honoured dead lay on Dianaxis. Heaps of charred bones, the serene bodies of Imperial martyrs, and the polished skulls of Space Marines all came to the mausoleum world.On the surface of Dianaxis, the plains of bones extended from shrine city to shrine city, and grew ever deeper with each passing standard year. The cities themselves were built from the skulls and bones of the most heroic dead. So sacred and revered was Dianaxis that a dozen Space Marine Chapters maintained honour guards and bastions on its surface. Star fortresses ringed its approaches, and millions of troops stood sentinel over the skulls of those who had died to hold the darkness in abeyance.Across the reaches of space, Ahriman burned worlds and sent souls shrieking into the Warp. As the murdered worlds spun into alignment with each other they created an arcane pattern in the stars with Dianaxis at its heart. As the great design locked into place, Dianaxis' sun was pulled from reality, leaving a howling wound in the sky of the mausoleum world.Blood and fire spread across the heavens. The bones of the dead howled the last thoughts of their lives, and rainbow-colored fire crawled across the ossuary towers. Daemons poured through the hole that had been the sun, tumbling onto the mausoleum world like falling stars. The Imperial defenders screamed as the children of Chaos ate their souls.Amidst the slaughter, Ahriman appeared outlined in lightning, ringed by sorcerers and Rubricae. Power rolled from the circle of sorcerers and they strode through the battle, killing the defenders and dissolving Daemons with arcane fire. Space Marine Chapter honour guards came against him, but were reduced to ashes and silent screams with a gesture.Fire Bane, the last Warlord-class Titan of the Legio Officium, strode to war from its shrine. The cry of its warhorns echoed across the damned world, and its weapons burnt a path towards Ahriman's circle. Drawing together the power of his fellow sorcerers, Ahriman forced the war machine to its knees, before pulling the core of its plasma reactor through its carapace.At last, Ahriman held the skull of Lepidus in his hand, as the battle between mortals and Daemons raged around him. Raising the skull to his eyes he found the one word he sought etched on the skull's surface. Letting the skull fall from his hand, he and his forces vanished, leaving the world of bones to the howls of Daemons and the cries of the dying. |
Ahriman - Quest for the Black Library: For many centuries, Ahriman sought the ultimate prize in his search for knowledge about Chaos -- the Aeldari's Black Library, a secret craftworld hidden within the Webway that served as a well-guarded repository of all of the ancient Aeldari Empire's compiled knowledge of Chaos and sorcery.After years of gruesome crusades within the Webway searching for the location of the hidden craftworld, Ahriman approached the location of the Black Library one more time. But on this attempt, the Arch-sorcerer bypassed the hidden sanctum's fierce Harlequin defenders and spectral guardians by telepathically projecting himself inside the Black Library's halls, allowing his physical body to transcribe onto hermetic parchment what his astral self saw.In doing so, he was able to create a copy of the fabled Tome Labyrinthus, the Harlequins' own map to the hidden passages of the Webway. |
Ahriman - Siege of the Fenris System: Sometime before the start of the 13th Black Crusade in 998.M41, Ahriman was summoned back to the Planet of the Sorcerers by Magnus the Red himself for the first time since the casting of the Rubric of Ahriman. Magnus agreed to once again work with Ahriman towards a common goal. During the subsequent Siege of the Fenris System, the two fought together in mutual vengeance against the hated Space Wolves.Shortly after reuniting with their long-lost Wulfen brethren, the Space Wolves found their home system engulfed by raging Warp Storms and a massive daemonic invasion. The Grey Knights and Dark Angels arrived to aid the Sons of Russ in expelling the threat, but the Imperial forces were coerced into a state of infighting by one of Tzeentch's most devious Daemon servants -- the Changeling. It was the Grey Knights who first noticed the Warp Storms forming a pattern, one recorded in their oldest tomes of lore and not seen in the galaxy for ten thousand standard years. It was a symbol of vengeance last used on Prospero by the Thousand Sons.As the home system of the Space Wolves was overrun by Daemons, nine Silver Towers appeared in the skies above Fenris. From their warped halls poured ranks of Thousand Sons, ready to wreak vengeance on the Chapter that destroyed their homeworld. Swarms of braying Tzaangors and mutated Chaos Cultists charged across the frozen plains, with Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators marching close behind.From hidden portals more Thousand Sons emerged onto the Fenrisian steeps, exiles brought back into the fold by Ahriman. By following the Arch-sorcerer through the Webway they were able to take the Space Wolves and their allies by surprise, incinerating the Adeptus Astartes with crackling psychic energy as they burst from the Labyrinth Dimension, guided by the knowledge of that realm that Ahriman had stolen from the Black Library.As the Imperial lines held out against the onslaught, the Silver Towers aligned with sites of geomantic power and began siphoning the internal energy of Fenris, and on the third solar day of the invasion the air was riven with fire. Sorcerers around the planet poured their psychic energy into this sky-fire, and within each of the Silver Towers a captive Space Wolf was boiled alive in a cauldron of gore.This conflux of dark magics created a weak point in reality -- a doorway through which strode the Daemon Primarch Magnus himself. The Crimson King joined with Ahriman and his other most powerful acolytes, and together they began their rituals in the hearts of the Silver Towers. The resultant flow of mutagenic energy ravaged the surface of Fenris, causing the molten magma powering the Space Wolves' fortress-monastery, The Fang, to fill with Daemons and bubble up to the surface.It was only when the neighbouring planet of Midgardia was destroyed that the Silver Towers disappeared from the Fenris System, but any Imperial celebration was premature -- unbeknownst to the Space Wolves, the psychic harvest reaped by the towers from Midgardia's demise had given Magnus the power he needed to enact a plan of unimaginable scope -- the return of the Planet of the Sorcerers to realspace, where it now sits in orbit above the husk of lost Prospero. |
Ahriman - 13th Black Crusade: In his quest for the forbidden knowledge of the Aeldari's Black Library, Ahriman is known to have breached the Webway twice, both times during the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41. In the first instance, Ahriman was able to gain access to the Webway using knowledge extracted from the captured Inquisitor Bronislaw Czevak. Czevak had been the only Human ever invited by the Asuryani to be a "guest" of the hidden craftworld that is the Black Library -- in reality he had been used by the Aeldari as bait and a foil for Ahriman.Ahriman subsequently entered the Webway through a long-forgotten portal that was discovered by his minions on the world of Etiamnum III, a planet bequeathed to the care of the Imperium by the Asuryani of Craftworld Altansar before that craftworld had been lost in the Eye of Terror millennia before. This intrusion was considered a major setback by the Asuryani Farseers who had failed to foresee it, and none other than Eldrad Ulthran himself, the greatest of the Farseers, had to be summoned from Ulthwé to lead the Asuryani defence against the breach.Ahriman was eventually repulsed, and the Webway gate he had used to gain entry was sealed, never to be opened again. The secretive Order Psykana, which consists exclusively of Blood Ravens Librarians, was also called to help defeat the Traitors but arrived too late, and they subsequently took over the protection of the Imperial reclusium that housed the Webway portal.A short time later, Ahriman's prodigious psychic and occult powers allowed him to foresee a rip into the Webway inadvertently caused by the Blood Ravens Librarian Rhamah near the planet Lorn V during the Chapter's operations on that Ice World. Accompanied by his warband of Thousand Sons sorcerers he called the Prodigal Sons, Ahriman approached the planet under stealth, and used his sorcery, the aid of Daemons, and the transdimensional rip caused by Rhamah to find a Webway portal to Arcadia, the Aeldari Planet of Law.The world was the exclusive domain of Harlequins, and contained a masterfully concealed Aeldari settlement including an extensive Librarium, a repository of Aeldari history and technology. Ahriman utilised a book that was considered a myth, The Tome of Karebennian, which he had taken from the Harlequin Solitaire of the same name, to attempt to find one of the Arcadian Webway portals leading to the Black Library. He additionally sought to steal an artefact known as the Sword of Lanthrilaq, a potent weapon used by the Aeldari aeons ago against the C'tan, during the War in Heaven, which was held by Arcadia's Great Harlequin.Ahriman and the Prodigal Sons had also captured the Daemonifuge and former Sister of Battle Ephrael Stern, who he intended to use against his rivals following his conquest of the Black Library. Despite summoning a Leviathan, a giant flying Warp beast similar in size and shape to a manta ray, and inflicting horrendous casualties on both sides of the conflict, Ahriman was ejected from the Webway with his goal unattained.Following the end of the 13th Black Crusade, Ahriman's star is once again on the rise with the Thousand Sons' Daemon Primarch Magnus the Red, mostly due to the great chaos caused by his battles against the Aeldari within the Webway, the prowess he displayed in capturing Inquisitor Czevak, and the extraordinary knowledge and ability required to even come close to entering the fabled Black Library.It is rumoured that if Ahriman ever gained full entry into the Black Library, he could use the sum total of the information contained within it to become a new and powerful Chaos God within the Warp. |
Ahriman - Second War Within the Webway: Hidden daemonic spies seeded throughout the Webway draw Ahriman's eye to the Reborn of the Ynnari, for in their resurrection he saw hope for his own fallen brethren among the Thousand Sons Legion. In the wake of Cadia's fall to Abaddon the Despoiler during the 13th Black Crusade, the Arch-sorcerer led a contingent of Thousand Sons into the Webway, there to lay an ambush for the unsuspecting Aeldari forces that were rushing towards Klaisus, the ice moon and last world of the Cadian System where they sought to form an alliance with the Imperial survivors of the destruction of Cadia.Just as the Ynnari were entering the Psychedelta, Ahriman sacrificed nine hundred and ninety-nine captives to Tzeentch to complete his ritual of translocation, shifting him, his warriors and his Daemon thralls to the Ynnari's location.Warpfire, ensorcelled bolts and the flicker of monomolecular blades filled the fractal tunnels as the armies clashed. In the midst of the carnage, Ahriman created a void-like pocket reality outside the walls of the Webway, and into this emptiness he transported the champions of the enemy, the Triumvirate of Ynnead.As Ahriman prepared to wrench the knowledge he sought from his dying captives, Yvraine -- the Ynnari priestess and champion of the partially awakened Aeldari god of the dead Ynnead -- demonstrated the power she could offer by restoring to life a dozen Rubric Marines. The resurrected Thousand Sons were staggered by their sudden awakening, knowing not where they were or who they were fighting, yet they recognised their battle-brother Ahzek Ahriman whom they had not beheld with living eyes for ten millennia.Filled with a mixture of elation and grief at seeing his warriors restored, Ahriman yanked Ynnead's luminaries back inside the Webway before they perished. No sooner than the Triumvirate of Ynnead --Yvraine, the Visarch and the Avatar of Ynnead, the Yncarne -- were safe, than a Wraithknight sliced through the arcane superstructure of the Webway tunnel, creating a yawning chasm between the Aeldari and the Thousand Sons.The Yncarne inhaled mightily as the Aeldari forces withdrew, pulling the reanimated Thousand Sons over the precipice into the void. Ahriman screamed in horror as these flesh and blood warriors tumbled away. They were lost to him once more, but he now finally knew that the reversal of his Rubric was possible, and he knew who had the power to do it. |
Ahriman - Road to Resurrection: Having witnessed the ability of Yvraine to restore the Thousand Sons afflicted by the Rubric, Ahriman began gathering his forces after the formation of the Great Rift.After ten thousand standard years he finally knew where to find the knowledge he had been seeking, and so he next trained his prescient vision on the Drukhari city of Commorragh. |
Ahriman - Personality: Across a thousand worlds, Ahriman has sought the keys to save what he has already destroyed by his own hubris -- the Thousand Sons Legion. The methods by which he seeks to service his obsession to make right what he did to his battle-brothers have made his name a curse in the mouths of countless Humans and aliens alike. Scraps of sorcerous lore, relics both sanctified and profane, and rare souls of great psychic or mystical power draw his interest like a raven to a corpse.A master of subtle manipulation like the Chaos God whose interests he often unwillingly serves, Ahriman has seeded Chaos Cults on a hundred worlds, and bent the desires of the powerful to achieve his ends. With conspiracies and plots spread across the galaxy, he coils between them, a puppet master pulling invisible strings. When such subtle means are impossible he wages a sorcerer’s war, forcing armies to kneel with visions of terror, shattering war machines with invisible forces, and ripping the souls from mighty heroes.He knows the True Names of 9x9x9 Daemons, and possesses pacts which can bring daemonic legions flocking to his summons. Worlds have burned at his command, billions have fallen to the hunger of the Warp, and reality has bled at the fury of his power.Ten Terran millennia have passed in the realms beyond the Eye of Terror, and still Ahriman walks his path of exile towards the promise of a distant salvation. Ahriman has already tried to undo the damage of the past and failed, but, as the light of the Imperium gutters, his steps take him ever closer to the answers he has sought for so long.The shadow of secrets, lost since before Humans ever stared up at the stars, lingers on the horizon in the elusive Black Library, calling Ahriman ever on, down the road into the future.Flames light that road, and the bones of the dead and the ashes of murdered worlds pave its course. None, except perhaps Tzeentch, who watches all and laughs the song of fate, know what awaits Ahriman at the end of that road, but if he should reach its end, the universe will tremble. |
Ahriman - Wargear and Abilities: Ahriman is a true master of sorcery and one of the most powerful psykers in the galaxy. His knowledge of the dark arts is rivaled only by the Greater Daemons of his patron Chaos God, the terrible Lords of Change.In addition to the multitude of Chaos-powered psychic powers he can call upon, Ahriman is armed with the Black Staff of Ahriman; an ornate Force Weapon which provides a potent focus for his psychic energy.He also carries an enchanted Inferno Bolt Pistol that fires powerful Inferno Rounds similar to the weapons used by the Chaos Space Marines of his Thousand Sons warband, the Prodigal Sons.Artificer ArmourBlack Staff of Ahriman - The Black Staff of Ahriman is a weapon capable of sundering reality. Created by the Arch-sorcerer himself, each separate component is a relic of immense power acquired through horrific wars and quests of despoilment. Its bladed tip is a remnant of the desecrated Spear of Shadows, taken from the dying hands of the Asuryani Farseer Kalrimon. Its haft is made from the charred fragments of Ahriman's own hequa staff that burned on Prospero during the Space Wolves' invasion. These and other relics were bound together in a profane ritual that brought the Black Staff into being, sending pained screams echoing through the Immaterium. Though imperceptible to mortal eyes, the staff appears to those with witch-sight as a blazing scar of darkness in the Warp, a black absence towards which psychic energy is inextricably drawn before being blasted out by Ahriman's destructive will.Inferno Bolt PistolFrag GrenadesKrak Grenades |
Ahriman - Trivia: Ahriman, known also as Angra Mainyu and Aŋra Mainiiu, is the name of the "destructive spirit" or Satan-like figure of the dualistic Zoroastrian faith of ancient Persia. Within the even more ancient proto-Indo-Iranian religion known as Mazdeism, Ahriman is often referred to as the chief of all demons and embodies evil in this Manichean concept of the world.His opponent -- and according to several sources also his brother -- is Ahura Mazda, also known under the names of Ormuzdh, Ohrmazd, Ahuramazda, Hourmazd, Hormazd, and Hurmuz. Ormuzdh is the Avestan name for the highest divinity of the Old Iranian religion who was proclaimed as the uncreated God by Zoroaster, the prophet and founder of the ancient dualistic faith of Zoroastrianism.Zoroastrianism was the primary religion of the Persian Empire until the Islamic conquest of the 7th century A.D. Ahura Mazda is described as the highest deity of worship in Zoroastrianism, along with being the first and most frequently invoked deity, while Ahriman would be his equal and opposite.Many scholars believe that the Judeo-Christian concept of Satan or the Devil traces back to the Zoroastrian Ahriman, an influence that impacted the Jews during their exile in Babylon as part of the Persian Empire after the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II in 587 B.C.In the novel A Thousand Sons by Graham McNeill, there are many references to ancient historical Terran texts or curios related to the occult within Ahriman's private sanctum, including:Visconti-Sforza Tarot Deck - This is a 15th century A.D. Tarot deck and one of the oldest known to exist. It had a significant impact on the visual composition, card numbering and interpretation of modern decks. The surviving cards are of particular historical interest because of the beauty and detail of the design, which was often executed in precious materials and reproduce members of the Renaissance Italian Sforza and Visconti families in period garments and settings. Consequently, the cards also offer a glimpse of noble life in Milan which the two families called home since the 13th century A.D.Voynich Manuscript - This is an illustrated codex hand-written in an unknown writing system. The book has been carbon-dated to the early 15th century AD (1404–1438), and may have been composed in Northern Italy during the Italian Renaissance. The manuscript is named after Wilfrid Voynich, a book dealer who purchased it in 1912. Ahriman was said to possess a translated copy of this ancient text amongst his collection. |
Ahriman - Sources: Codex: Chaos Space Marines (3rd Edition, 1st Codex), pg. 26Codex: Chaos Space Marines (3rd Edition, 2nd Codex), pg. 62Codex: Chaos Space Marines (4th Edition) pp. 50-51Codex: Chaos Space Marines (6th Edition), pg. 60Codex Heretic Astartes - Thousand Sons (8th Edition), pp. 29-31, 37, 67Codex: Chaos (2nd Edition), pp. 106-108Daemonifuge (Graphic Novel Series) by Kev Walker and Jim CampbellIndex Astartes I, "Psykana Librarius: Space Marine Librarians"Index Astartes III, "Masters of Forbidden Knowledge - The Thousand Sons Space Marine Legion", pp. 62-69Warhammer 40,000: Warlords of the Dark Millennium - Ahriman, pp. 3-4, 6-12, 25-29White Dwarf 202 (US), "The Sorcerer: Tzeentch, Ahriman", pp. 9-14White Dwarf 227 (US), "Chapter Approved - Ahriman: Chaos Sorcerer, pp. 73-80White Dwarf 230 (US), "Bitter and Twisted: Ahriman"White Dwarf 258 (UK), "Psykana Librarius: Space Marine Librarians"White Dwarf 267 (US), "Index Astartes First Founding: Masters of Forbidden Knowledge, The Thousand Sons Space Marine Legion"A Thousand Sons (Novel) by Graham McNeillBlood Ravens: Dawn of War Omnibus (Novel compilation) by C.S. GotoAtlas Infernal (Novel) by Rob SandersAhriman: Exile (Novel) by John French |
Ailill Nuada - Ailill Nuada: Ailill Nuada is an Aeldari Harlequin Shadowseer. During the final years of the 41st Millennium, she represented the Harlequins in the Conclave of Tears, while also acting as the Conclave's figurehead. |
Ailill Nuada - History: As a member of the enigmatic Aeldari caste known as the Harlequins, Ailill Nuada is a riddle even to her fellow members of the Conclave of Tears. The Harlequins are uniquely placed within Aeldari society, for they rise above any stresses that might exist between the different factions.Where the Asuryani of the craftworlds might be loath to seek the aid of the Drukhari in Commorragh, for example, the Harlequins treat both exactly the same.Outsiders often make the mistake of assuming this is a matter of good and evil, with the people of the craftworlds somehow representing a morally pure side of the Aeldari psyche, and the Aeldari of the Dark City representing the polar opposite.This typically Human point of view might amuse the Aeldari were they to spare a thought for its existence, though it does contain a grain of relevance. Whatever the peculiar realities of each faction, whether they exist in a craftworld, Commorragh, or indeed on an Exodite world, the Harlequins are far above any internecine struggle.The Harlequins travel from one place to the next, performing highly formalised and ritualistic dances so as to remind the Aeldari of the events of the Fall. As a species, the Aeldari experience reality on a level no other mortal can imagine, and so these performances are far more then entertainment.They ritually bind together the entire species, and some say they provide a means of staving off the complete collapse of the remaining Aeldari people.All Shadowseers are masters of the psychic arts. During their performances they play the role of the storyteller and the wizard, using their powers, as well as an array of psykactive hallucinogens, to deepen the audiences' experience to an unprecedented, utterly immersive degree.On the field of battle, they use both abilities to sow terror and discord amongst the enemy, leaping from one confrontation to the next as a scintillating blur of cascading light.Ailill Nuada is such a performer and a warrior, and she has travelled with the Harlequins for countless centuries and visited every last remnant of the once mighty empire of the fallen Aeldari.She has performed for Eldrad Ulthran under the pulsating violet luminescence of the Eye of Terror in the Dome of Lamentations on Craftworld Ulthwe, and gone before the court of Asdrubael Vect in his throne room at the heart of Commorragh.Yet, Nuada appears to have taken leave of her role in order to focus upon the mission of the Conclave of Tears in the Jericho Reach. It is rare for her to know the company of fellow Harlequins, though on occasion they have answered her silent call to oppose the foes of the Aeldari in the region's Outer Reach.The Shadowseer is an utter mystery to the masters of the Inquisition's Dead Cabal, for none have laid eyes upon her and survived to tell the tale. She is known to them only by certain portentous readings of the Emperor's Tarot, and by rumours torn from the minds of recalcitrant outcasts and reavers dragged from their lairs in the Outer Reach.All the Dead Cabal can ascertain of this mysterious individual is that she is, somehow, the binding force that keeps the Conclave of Tears united in its dread mission, whatever that may be.Though no one member of the Conclave can be said to be its leader in any accepted sense, Nuada is nonetheless its figurehead, or the fulcrum upon which the entire mission balances.Needless to say, the masters of the Dead Cabal have long considered what might happen were the Shadowseer to be removed and that balance upset, though in many ways they fear to attempt such a drastic course of action.As with all Shadowseers, Ailill Nuada wears a featureless mask finished to a silvered, mirror sheen. Nuada has never removed this mask, and so none, even amongst her peers in the Conclave of Tears, are known to have looked upon her true face. Instead, when each looks upon that mirrored mask, that individual see something different.Some see what the wearer wants them to see, others what they themselves want to see. During a performance, this mask takes on a myriad of identities, as is appropriate to Nuada's role as the personification of fate.During battle, when Nuada is performing the so-called "Dance of Death," the mask reflects back upon those unfortunates that see it a terrifying range of faces.It is said that many see their own deathmask in that reflection, though, if this is true, none have ever confirmed it, for all who gaze upon it die within moments.Though none know it, Ailill Nuada is in fact the most active of all of the members of the Conclave of Tears. She travels extensively through the dead systems of the Outer Reach, seeking to piece together the separate elements of what she knows to be a dark fate slowly creeping across the region.Alone of all her peers, Nuada recalls the face of that which slumbers beneath the surface of the Dead Worlds of the region, for she looked upon it when last it stirred.She knows what is soon to awaken, and she knows the steps that have been taken to ensure the powers that hold sway in the galaxy remain in balance, though each will suffer undreamed of destruction in the process.If the lesser races are to exterminate one another in their petty wars and conquests, so be it. |
Aiolos Missile Launcher - Aiolos Missile Launcher: The Aiolos Missile Launcher was a large, carapace-mounted Missile Launcher system that was used by the ancient Deredeo Pattern Dreadnoughts of the Legiones Astartes during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy era.The Aiolos Missile Launcher featured a highly sophisticated targeting system that was capable of tracking enemy targets independently of the Dreadnought's primary weapons system and regardless of intervening terrain.The Aiolos is still found in use by the various Space Marine Chapters and possibly the Traitor Legions that still maintain functioning Deredoe Dreadnoughts in the late 41st Millennium. |
Air Caste - Air Caste: The Air Caste of the T'au Empire traditionally functioned as messengers, but now fill the ranks of the T'au Protection Fleet (the Kor'vattra) and the T'au Merchant Fleet, working as military and civilian pilots and voidship crews.The T'au use the titular prefix of kor to designate someone of the Air Caste.The Air Caste lives almost entirely off-world, and due to their constant exposure to zero and low-gravity environments, they have developed long, slender limbs and hollow bones. This results in their possessing a skeletal and muscular structure of reduced strength compared to the T'au genetic baseline.Prior to the unification of the T'au castes, during the time of the Mont'au, the Air Caste were said to possess membranous wings, allowing them to glide on warm air currents. They still possess vestigial remains of these membranes.They are amongst the least encountered of the T'au castes by outsiders, presumably because of their reduced muscle mass which makes life in a gravity well difficult and their duties within the merchant and military fleets of the T'au Empire. This is unlike the Water and Fire Castes' members who more often operate outside of the borders of the empire. As a result, the Air Caste is sometimes called the "invisible caste" among the T'au.T'au pilots tend to be superior in facing the rigours of air-to-air combat compared to their Human counterparts because they have better depth perception and higher acceleration-tolerance, but lack real combat experience compared to the best Imperial fighter-pilots of the Aeronautica Imperialis. |
Air Caste - Role: T'au battle plans are works of holistic genius, carefully orchestrated manoeuvres that encompass great swathes of any engagement area. Central to many of these strategies is the establishment of total air superiority. Achieving this goal falls to the brave and selfless pilots of the Air Caste.Teams of Air Caste combat craft sweep through the skies above almost every battlefield the Fire Caste fight upon. Fighter and bomber teams are fully integrated into the combat strategies of the T'au military, coordinated centrally by Coalition-level command elements and working in perfect concert with the ground forces of the Fire Caste. Their efforts ensure that ground-based cadres can manoeuvre freely, pursuing their own objectives without fear of attack from on high.Nearly all T'au campaigns begin with a massive Air Caste combat deployment. Each team of fighters or bombers is tasked with achieving specific objectives and provided with ample support to achieve their goals in optimal time. Teams of Razorshark strike fighters switch between high altitude dogfights and ground attack runs, fearlessly scouring the skies of monstrous beasts or obliterating the war engines of the enemy.While the Razorshark Teams eliminate priority threats, whole contingents of Sun Shark bombers plunge low to perform daring bombing runs against key enemy installations. Airfields, generators, flak batteries and command assets are pounded into submission by energised ordnance to pave the way for full-fledged ground assault by the Fire Caste.Air Caste pilots display incredible selflessness, braving unbelievable odds to destroy their targets. They will gladly scream between the questing, building-sized tendrils of a Tyranid Hive Ship or dare the drumming fire of Space Marine Hunter squadrons, stoically accepting their casualties as sacrifices to the Greater Good.Still, the T'au do not believe in senseless martyrdom; their air groups never commit without a coherent plan and clear target, and they quickly pull out if it becomes apparent that no amount of determination and technology is going to win the day.Such judgments are left up to the pilots themselves, T'au Commanders relying upon the experience and wisdom of their flight crews in the field. Such trust is well placed. The pilots of the Air Caste are born into their role, biologically adapted to flight thanks to their willowy frames and hollow bones.Coupled with bodies that can absorb tremendous g-forces is the Air Caste pilots' exceptional training. These skyborne warriors have learned to fly from their earliest days, their entire lives devoted to the absolute mastery of the pilot's art. Most T'au team leaders and fighter aces have more experience than a whole squadron of other species' pilots, all of which they turn to the pursuit of victory for the Tau'va. |
Air Caste - Notable Air Caste Members: Supreme Admiral Kor'O'Vanan - The Supreme Admiral Kor'O'Vanan commanded the T'au Navy fleet that confronted and defeated the Hive Fleet Gorgon at Kel'shan. He fought at Sha'draig, the first T'au colony world invaded by the Gorgon, and eventually deemed the situation irretrievable in 843.901.M41 and ordered a withdrawal. His fleet broke through the blockade and attempted to evacuate all the surviving ground forces, but Shas'el Vorcah remained behind and launched a series of suicide missions that eventually drove the Gorgon from Sha'draig, but not before it was almost completely consumed by Ripper swarms. Kor'O'Vanan engaged the Gorgon at the Battle of Sol'ai Rift as it left the Ka'mais System in 550.902.M41. At first the battle favoured the T'au, until a cluster of Ramsmiter and Razorfiend bio-ships appeared with near immunity to the T'au's Ion Weapons and the T'au fleet had to withdraw. The T'au managed to destroy many of the Gorgon's Narvhals, the bio-ships which the Tyranids used to travel faster than light, hoping to buy time for the Kel'shan Sept to further fortify against the imminent invasion of the Hive Fleet. Hive Fleet Gorgon was finally defeated at Kel'shan. However, three Hive Ships survived and fled towards the edge of the galaxy. Kor'O'Vanan ordered his fleet to pursue. He caught and engaged them at Delmarra, where he managed to destroy one, though the Custodian-class Battleship Firestar was lured into Delmarra's asteroid belt and irreparably damaged. The two remaining Hive Ships continued to flee and Kor'O'Vanan continued his pursuit, mistakenly believing that these surviving ships had to make physical contact with other Tyranids to transfer their knowledge of how best to combat the T'au with the Hive Mind. |
Air Caste - Sources: Codex: Tau Empire (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), "The Castes"Codex: Tau Empire (6th Edition), pp. 8-12Codex: Tau Empire (5th Edition)Codex: Tau Empire (4th Edition)Codex: Tau (3rd Edition), pg. 9Codex: Tyranids (5th Edition), pp. 18-21Death from the Skies (7th Edition), pp. 20-21Fire Warrior (Novel) by Simon Spurrier, pg. 120Warhammer 40,000: Conquest (Living Card Game) (Tau Courier picture)Warhammer Community - Take to the Skies with the T'au Air Caste |
Airbursting Fragmentation Projector - Airbursting Fragmentation Projector: An Airbursting Fragmentation Projector is an experimental weapon developed by the T'au Empire during the Third Sphere Expansion. The weapon operates by firing a proximity-fused explosive projectile on a trajectory computed by a simple on-board drone intelligence within the warhead itself.This AI full calculates the precise height and distance of each submunition it fires so as to provide optimum explosive damage across a wide area.The Airbursting Fragmentation Projector is currently still undergoing field tests and thus is considered a special-issue weapon to T'au forces due to its experimental nature.Its use is only entrusted to a number of senior Fire Caste T'au Commanders. |
Airbursting Fragmentation Projector - Operation: The Airbursting Fragmentation Projector has undergone numerous improvements throughout its development period, but all versions are the same in that they fire scatterings of fragmentation bomblets over a wide area.These bomblets are fired at a height calculated by a simple drone-based Artificial Intelligence within each bomblet to cause optimum damage, and have a proximity fuse that is intended to detonate the explosive projectiles at the right moment.The weapon functions in a similar way to traditional artillery in that the munitions are fired at a high angle and explode directly above the target. Line-of-sight to the target is not needed due to the indirect fire trajectory of the munitions.This also means that the munitions will bypass and negate the effects of any cover the foe might be using. Airbursting Fragmentation Projectors are most effective when there is at least five metres of clear space above the enemy.Despite the Airbursting Fragmentation Projector having a far shorter range than conventional artillery, it is able to be used on the move far more effectively. An Airbursting Fragmentation Projector has a significant area of effect that is on a par with the far larger weapons used by many other intelligent races, which furthers its usefulness as a battlesuit-mounted weapon.This weapon is especially effective against hordes of lightly armoured troops such as Tyranid Gaunts, Ork Boyz and Imperial Guardsmen, as proven during the operations of Commander Flamewing who operated in the Zurcon System of the Jericho Reach during the Achilus Crusade.In Flamewing's hands, the weapon proved extremely effective against Tyranid swarms when the munitions were programmed to detonate over the centre of hordes where the enemies were most densely packed, causing maximum damage to a large number of foes.The Airbursting Fragmentation Projector has also proven useful against stealthy foes which make intelligent use of cover, and those gifted with chameleonic abilities; whether this is gained through the use of equipment such as Camo-Cloaks or an innate biological ability like that possessed by Tyranid Lictors.In these cases, an Airbursting Fragmentation Projector will bypass any cover used and also saturate the area with bomblets, meaning that a hit is almost guaranteed against the enemy even if they cannot be clearly seen. |
Airbursting Fragmentation Projector - Known Variants: Microburst Fragmentation Launcher – A Microburst Fragmentation Launcher is a very rare and experimental variant of an Airbursting Fragmentation Projector, and has thus far been only entrusted and issued to T'au Commanders piloting XV46 Vanguard Commander Variant Void Battlesuits. A Microburst Fragmentation Projector features a similar range to a standard Airbursting Fragmentation Projector, but fires projectiles that detonate with more focused, concussive, explosive force, sacrificing a large blast for more power per shot. It also has a far faster rate of fire, and is smaller and more portable; allowing the XV46 to use it more effectively in the close confined environments it is designed to operate in. |
Akrep Xie - Akrep Xie: Akrep Xie is a Deathwatch Chapter watch master who is the current watch commander of the Eye of Octos watch fortress in the Octarius Sector of the Segmentum Ultima. Prior to being seconded to the Deathwatch, Akrep Xie was a Veteran of the Jade Scorpions Chapter.In the Era Indomitus Xie led the Eye of Octos' Deathwatch kill-teams to aid the Pankallis Sub-sector, after it was invaded by the forces of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan. Xie is currently fighting to cleanse the xenos from the planet called Death of Bianzeer, in the Bianzeer's Hollow System. |
Akrep Xie - Trivia: "Akrep" means "scorpion" in the related Semitic languages of Arabic, Hebrew and Akkadian. |
Aktôl Vatyk - Aktôl Vatyk: Aktôl Vatyk was a blind Brôkhyr of the Leagues of Votann, who created the relic called Aktôl's Fortress. It was painstakingly wrought by Vatyk and is considered to be the Brôkhyr's life's work.Crafted using conflicting harmonic abrasion fields rather than hammer blows, and shot through with a core of hyperdense stelanictite, this Armour Crest crest projects a complex gravitic repulsion field that can be directed by the bearer against their foes. Bludgeoned and restrained by the clashing grav-waves, the enemy is held at bay long enough for the crest's bearer and their comrades to press forward and lay them low. |
Al'rahem - Al'rahem: Captain Al'rahem of Tallarn is a company commander of the 3rd Tallarn Regiment, the "Desert Tigers." This esteemed regiment has a long and honoured history amongst the annals of the Tallarn Desert Raiders regiments of the Astra Militarum. |
Al'rahem - History: Al'rahem is an able commanding officer of the 3rd Tallarn Regiment, but entrusts the more mundane duties of company command to his subordinates as he likes to lead from the front, charging into the fray with the most daring and vital elements at his disposal. Captain Al'rahem has a natural affinity for tactical command, never faltering in the heat of combat. His calm demeanor and use of initiative is the envy of many an aspiring general. Stalking his prey from afar before awaiting the most opportune moment to strike, Al'rahem leads his warriors in well-planned attacks.This Tallarn Desert Raiders commander doesn't employ the standard tactics of charging the enemy head-on employed by his contemporaries, and instead Al'rahem employs cunning and patience. In the grandest traditions of guerrilla warfare, the Desert Tigers prefer hit-and-run tactics -- testing and probing their enemies' defences before committing themselves to the fight. When the Desert Tigers strike, they do so suddenly, then melt away once more before their foes can retaliate. They then wait for the next opportunity to strike. Al'rahem's forces have vanquished many a foe that were many times their number in this way.Captain Al'rahem employed these tried and true methods against the elusive Aeldari during the Battle for the Ruins of Esko's Moon, fighting a protracted guerrilla war that utilised this hit-and-run style of warfare. The Tallarn commander and a hand-picked platoon of his Desert Tigers trekked half-way across the moon's equatorial continent to strike at the ruin's lightly defended and supposedly unapproachable southern pass. Carefully constructing a crossfire for their erstwhile and elusive foes, Al'rahem himself claimed the head of the Autarch Kaliell after springing his deadly trap. |
Al'rahem - Tallarn Desert Tigers: The Tallarn Desert Tigers fought alongside the 4th and 5th Tallarn Desert Raiders Regiments in the Macharian Crusade from 392-399.M41. This famed seven-year-long Crusade was led by Lord Commander Solar Macharius. The Desert Tigers regiment was subsequently devastated fighting for the Warmaster Solon during the Macharian Heresy in the early-400's.M41, in the midst of the civil war for control of the territory that Macharius had conquered during his Crusade which erupted between the 7 Imperial Guard army group generals after the death of Lord Commander Macharius. The Tallarn Desert Tigers earned their nickname on the planet Kallastin where the regiment fought a hard and successful war against human mutant rebels, receiving a commendation from the Inquisition for its part in the conflict.During the Macharian Crusade, an officer named Al'rahem led a company of Desert Tigers to the newly discovered Desert World of Thoth. This world was not unlike the desert planet of Tallarn, and so it was only natural for the Desert Tigers to be chosen from amongst the regiments in the Macharian Crusade to take part in the invasion. If the legends are to be believed, this commander purged the daemon-infested world with but a single company of Tallarn Desert Raiders, supported by the native tribesmen who united under Al'rahem's leadership. Some believe that the current Captain Al'rahem was named after this man, whilst others argue that he is only the descendant of this Imperial Guard hero. There are even those who insist that Al'rahem and the legendary Tallarn commander are one and the same man. This is a possibility, as Warp Storms and dimensional cascades have been known to distort and twist the passage of time, but no one knows for sure, and Al'rahem answers all inquiries on the subject with only an enigmatic smile. |
Al'rahem - Personality: Captain Al'rahem is a natural leader and gifted linguist. He possesses the innate ability to instill respect and confidence using his charismatic charm and quick intellect. He has even been able to do this when fighting alongside other Imperial Guard regiments allied with the Desert Tigers. Even those as fastidious as the Catachan Jungle Fighters, who are known for their distrust and scorn for all off-worlders, have a high regard for Captain Al'rahem. |
Al'rahem - Wargear: Al'rahem is known to carry a magnificent Power Sword known as the Claw of the Desert Tiger, whose curved blade was crafted into the shape of a scimitar. It was forged by master artisans and encrusted with the emblems of the desert. Its appearance has raised this weapon to legendary status, so that in the hands of Al'rahem it is regarded with awe by his friends, and with fear by his foes. He also carries a master-crafted Plasma Pistol which is equipped with an infrared targeter. |
Al'rahem - Trivia: "Al'rahem" (رحيم) means "the merciful" in Arabic, short for "Abd ul-Rahim" ("Servant of [God] the Merciful"). |
Alaitoc - Alaitoc: Alaitoc is a major Asuryani craftworld known for having spread its influence further afield than other craftworlds, sending agents across the galaxy to act as its eyes and ears.On the battlefield its forces favour stealth and misdirection over brute force, killing silently and with guile wherever they can.The world-rune of Alaitoc depicts the sword of Khaine bisecting the Red Moon; the sign of the House of Eldanesh, borne in grim memory of the act that brought about the War in Heaven in Aeldari Mythology. The Red Moon is an ill omen for the Aeldari even now, used as a reminder of the fate of mortals who offend the gods.Alaitoc and its forces are associated with the colours blue and yellow. The craftworld is known to be currently located in the Ultima Segmentum that was once the heart of the ancient Aeldari Empire. |
Alaitoc - History: Far out on the frontiers of the galaxy, on the edge of explored space in the Ultima Segmentum, lies the Alaitoc Craftworld. Having lost so many of their brethren to the terrible events of the Fall, the Alaitoc Aeldari are zealous in their guard against the touch of Slaanesh, even more so than is common amongst the other Asuryani.As such, Alaitoc is strictly governed to prevent any emergence of the sadistic obsessions that the Aeldari are prone to as a species. The Aeldari of Alaitoc are puritanical adherents to the Path of the Eldar, and they shun contact with others of their kind lest their influence drags them down to the same depths of depravity the Aeldari Empire fell to, devoting themselves instead to a life of harsh discipline.This does not sit well with all and there are some, particularly amongst the younger generations, who cannot embrace what this entails, even though it may mean they are banished from their home and kin.Their focus is legendary; an Aeldari from Alaitoc will become the epitome of his chosen Path for a time, often risking losing himself in the process. Because of this, Alaitoc has a great many Exarchs in its number, for the call of war in their people is always strong. A side effect of this zealous and restrictive attitude has led to many of Alaitoc's Aeldari sating their repressed desires by becoming Outcasts -- either banished to the stars for some slight misdeed, or tiring of the harsh discipline of their craftworld and leaving voluntarily.These nomadic individuals are still emotionally linked to their kin, however, and often undertake dangerous quests on behalf of Alaitoc. Some become spacefaring Corsairs, bolstering Alaitoc's navy in times of war. Others choose the way of the Ranger, acting as the craftworld's eyes and ears in the galaxy.Some Rangers ultimately become Pathfinders, losing themselves to their lifestyle in the same way an Exarch loses himself to the Path of the Warrior. Supernaturally adept at concealment, Pathfinders make for near-invisible assassins on the field of war. It is through the Rangers and Pathfinders of Alaitoc, or "Starstriders" as they prefer to call themselves, that the Imperium of Man has gleaned much of its knowledge of the Aeldari.This is not a gift Alaitoc has willingly given, but a product of excruciation at the hands of the Imperial Inquisition. These acts have led to the current state of war that exists between the Imperium and Alaitoc -- a war that Imperial commanders have compared to hunting ghosts. Others remain true to their people, and patrol the Aeldari Webway to ensure Alaitoc's continued survival, seeking out new threats to the craftworld, but now free to explore the worlds beyond it.While all craftworlds make use of the Rangers, who are the most highly accurate snipers amongst the Aeldari, none field or produce more than Alaitoc. Though Alaitoc Rangers do not reside upon the craftworld and prefer to travel the galaxy, these Rangers retain their loyalty to Alaitoc and will return to their craftworld on occasion to visit family and friends.The highly skilled Pathfinders are snipers without compare and can cause havoc amongst even the most powerful and numerous of enemy forces. In times of extreme need, such as during the Imperium's recent invasion of Alaitoc, the craftworld sometimes recalls its Rangers to contribute to Alaitoc's defence forces.The craftworld is described as a continent-sized, flat disk (although there are hundreds of levels) whose surfaces contain numerous domes, each with its own environment and climatic theme. There are miles-high protrusions on its surface, serving as landing docks, weapons platforms, observation towers, habitats, and other functions. It is a vast, heavily-shielded spacecraft that trails its own Webway portal. Gigantic solar sails provide the needed energy for the artificial world to function.Alaitoc was recently assaulted by a huge Imperial force after an attack by Aeldari pirates on an Imperial shipping convoy was traced back to the Outcasts' home craftworld, which happened to be Alaitoc. Tired of the constant raids of the Aeldari pirates, the Imperium determined to make an example of the craftworld which allowed its citizens to attack Imperial shipping and take human lives.The surprise assault upon Alaitoc utilised a large Imperial Navy fleet, numerous Astra Militarum regiments, and the Sons of Orar Space Marines Chapter. At the time, the craftworld was in fixed orbit around a dying star, using the tremendous energy of the star's dying throes to recharge its solar sails. There was no time to get away before the invading human force was upon it.Therefore the craftworld's Autarch and Farseer Council mobilised all of its Aspect Shrines, as well as the regular Aeldari army -- comprised of Alaitoc's Guardians, civilian citizen-soldiers who had been trained in weapons and/or had previously walked the Path of the Warrior. Also awoken was the craftworld's Avatar of Kaela Mensha Khaine and several powerful Aeldari Phantom Titans to help in the defence of the great vessel. Additionally, the Phoenix Lords Baharroth, Maugan Ra and Karandras all offered their aid.The Aeldari's advanced laser technology proved effective against the Imperial Navy fleet, and the Alaitoc Bonesingers outsmarted the invading Imperial infantry by trapping them within the craftworld's wraithbone structure. Despite these maneuvers, the Imperial forces held on to their initial beachhead, helped by a vicious Drop Pod torpedo attack led by the Space Marines.The Imperial forces successfully penetrated deep into the craftworld but met increasing resistance from Alaitoc's Aspect Warriors, who were backed by the extraordinary combat abilities of the three Phoenix Lords. Yet the Aeldari were forced to retreat from the Imperial forces' onslaught in order to better defend the craftworld's Infinity Circuit and its core cities.This bitter retreat let the regiments of the Astra Militarum and the Space Marines overrun the settlements of Exodites that existed at the craftworld's periphery.Despite the Imperial might arrayed against the craftworld and the territory the Emperor's forces had already seized, the Farseers of Alaitoc correctly foresaw the ultimate defeat of the Imperial offensive and the expulsion of the Mon-Keigh from the sacred confines of their home. |
Alaitoc - The Behemoth Comes: Alaitoc's native homeworlds were located on the frontier of its species' ancient empire, and like the wiser Aeldari upon Mymeara, some of its people had also realised the depths their kin would soon fall to. Casting out into the stars almost too late, they barely survived the atrocity, and since then Alaitoc had also had to fight to survive.Amongst these dark days was an encounter with a splinter force of bio-ships from Hive Fleet Behemoth, the Tyranid Hive Fleet which would later go on to devastate the Ultramarines Chapter homeworld of Macragge in 745.M41. The swarm of Tyranid bio-ships had been discovered lying in the path of the Alaitoc craftworld by the fleet of Cruisers and Escort ships that scouted ahead of it. The spread of Tyranid ships was vast as it closed upon the forward Aeldari armada, but it had not counted upon the skills of its opponents.Perhaps never having encountered such a race as the Aeldari in its own galaxy, the Tyranid fleet was unprepared for the swiftness of the Aeldari vessels and the accuracy of their laser batteries and torpedoes. As the bio-ships vomited forth their lethal payloads of drones, squadrons of Alaitoc's Hellebores and Nightshades swept in to destroy them. In return their pilots found their vessels attacked by huge feeder tendrils which punched through their hulls, unleashing Tyranid Warriors into their midst.The furious battle raged on the ships and amongst the stars for many solar days, each moment seeing the Alaitoc craftworld move ever closer to being inside the range of the bio-weapons of the largest Tyranid ships. Knowing that an invasion of their craftworld would likely spell the end of their people, the Alaitoc fleet set itself to destroy as many of the largest Tyranid vessels as they could.With the massive form of the craftworld literally only solar hours away on their long-range screens, the Aeldari fleet succeeded by attacking the largest bio-ships, killing or seriously injuring largest of the Tyranid creatures within, including many synapse-creatures. With its command structure failing, the Tyranid attack on the Eldar craftworld lost its coherence, providing easier targets for Alaitoc's fleet to destroy.Yet the path before the craftworld had become saturated with the remnants of the Tyranid bio-swarm. Although most of its creatures had expired, there was still the very real risk that some might still be capable of drifting the short distance across space to infest the craftworld as it passed through the infested space.To prevent this, the Aeldari armada launched thousands of torpedoes into the area where the Tyranid bio-ships now drifted. These succeeded in destroying or blasting away any remaining Tyranid Mycetic Spores and bioforms. These efforts were so effective that the region is still marked upon Imperial Navy maps as a dead zone many Terran centuries after the Aeldari armament was unleashed. |
Alaitoc - Defence of Betalis III: In 894.M41, a Ranger squad from Craftworld Alaitoc located the lost Mymearan craftworld. Finding an entrance to a portal in the Webway inscribed with symbols none of the Aeldari Rangers recognised, they sent one of their number to seek advice from Alaitoc's Council of Seers. The response came in the form of Alaitoc's greatest Farseer at that time. Realising that the Rangers had found a portal to one of the lost craftworlds, the Farseer called upon ancient knowledge he had learned many centuries before when he had first taken the Path of the Seer to break the seal which protected the portal.Just beyond it stood the Farseer of Craftworld Mymeara and his bodyguard of Shadow Spectres Aspect Warriors. At first the Mymeara Farseer wanted his people to have no dealings with Alaitoc for fear they were no different from those that they had fled from, and it seemed as if once more there would be a battle between Aeldari kin. However, Alaitoc was in many respects culturally similar to Mymeara and its Farseer was able to persuade his refound kin that this could be the basis on which they could strike up an alliance to each craftworld's benefit.Recently, whilst searching for resources to rip from the ancient Mymearan world of Betalis III, human colonists broke through into a massive cave system, the site, thousands of Terran years before, of the final battle against those destined to destroy the Mymearan craftworld. During the conflict Mymeara's enemies had been defeated but as the Phoenix Lord Irillyth saw in an earlier vision, it was at the cost of his and his war host's lives.When the colonists broke into the cave they triggered an ancient defence system within the Phoenix Lord's armour intended to protect it whilst its spirit was in a dormant state. This caused a cave-in which killed all the miners and also alerted those who still tended the Phoenix Lord's shrine on the Mymearan craftworld to his location.Without Alaitoc's aid, and that of its Corsair allies, the resurrection of Mymeara's Phoenix Lord would not have been possible. Not only did the craftworld bring the full force of its squadrons of Grav-tanks, Vypers, Nightwings and other vessels to bear against the Leman Russ tanks and Chimera of Company Vengeance, but its Pathfinders and Aspect Warriors also stalked the icy depths of the Tormus Delta against Company Retribution.Alaitoc's efforts kept the Imperium's forces away from the ultimate objective of the Mymearan Farseer, the retrieval of his craftworld's Phoenix Lord from the cave system below the Aresta IV mining complex. That he succeeded is in no small part due to the valour of Craftworld Alaitoc. |
Alaitoc - Era Indomitus: Even after the void was stained with the crimson lifeblood of the cosmos with the opening of the Dathedian or the Great Rift as it was known to Humanity, the puritan Asuryani leaders of the Alaitoc world-ship espoused their long-held belief that it was still the Necrontyr who posed the greatest threat to the galaxy at large.They had scried the unravelling threads of the future in their own way, and found a geometric void that threatened to swallow all. Alaitoc's foremost visionary, Ylocu Shaie, had written the Prophecy of Risen Doom whilst half-conscious in afever dream, the intensity of the vision all but crippling her. Though it had taken her a lifetime to isolate the strand of potentiality that led to her worst nightmare, she had found it just the same, and it was of shocking potency.Shaie had brought her latest findings to the Seer Council of Alaitoc, singing of the Sea of Dead Stars at the climax of the hearing. Sobered by the vista of galactic destruction she painted, they accelerated their plans to allay the threat of the Necrons before their ancient enemies fully awoke from their Great Sleep -- even though they drastically weakened their craftworld's defences as a result.In doing so they destroyed the Hyrekh Dynasty on the very day of its awakening, killing the Necrons with systematic, overlapping strikes whilst they still clawed their way from the slumber of stasis. With the Pathfinder Illic Nightspear as their ambassador, they dealt extensively with the Harlequins of the Masque of the Frozen Stars, whose agenda aligned with their own. In doing so, they found they had but scratched the surface of a far larger threat.Even as they fought the Necrontyr on a dozen new fronts, the strike forces of Alaitoc were ambushed by the terror legions of the Slaaneshi Greater Daemon Sli'tha. The daemon monarch intended to strike at Alaitoc whilst it was vulnerable, yet found that the information network provided by the craftworld's Ranger cliques made it all but impossible to execute.Every time Sli'tha sent steed-riding Daemonettes on a mission of reconnaissance, they were picked off by pinpoint sniper fire that banished them back to the Empyrean before they could report back to their masters.With the Pathfinders of Alaitoc leading their Rangers in dozens of wars across the Imperium Sanctus -- that region of the Imperium that remained upon the Terran side of the Great Rift and was still illuminated by the light of the Astronomican -- the main body of Craftworld Alaitoc was left free to take the fight to the Necrons of the Eastern Fringe. |
Alaitoc - Notable Events: The Voyage Begins (ca. M30) - Located on the frontier of its race's empire, some of Alaitoc's people realised the depths of their kin would soon fall to. Casting out into the stars almost too late, they would barely survive the atrocity of the Fall of the failing and corrupt Aeldari Empire.The Fall of the Eldar (ca. M30) - The Aeldari Empire is torn asunder as Slaanesh is born from their depravities.The Ghostly Harvest (334.M36) - The Twelve Outcasts of Alaitoc, six living and six dead, raid the ancient ruins of the crone world Belial IV. Installed in towering Wraithknights, they plunder the tumbledown cities of the once-glorious world, gathering empty spirit stones from those locations where reality and the Warp bled into one another. The cavorting Daemons of the Crone World appear in force and bring the Twelve Outcasts to battle, but by fighting almost back to back, the Aeldari are able to forge a path back to their Webway portal and disappear from the nightmare planet with seconds to spare.Defence against the Behemoth (700s.M41) - Alaitoc encounters a splinter fleet of Hive Fleet Behemoth. The craftworld's armada of cruisers, escort ships and Corsair allies launched a preemptive assault on the Tyranid fleet, which was unprepared for the swiftness and accuracy of the Aeldari vessels. The furious battle raged for many days, until finally, the Alaitoc fleet set itself to destroy as many of the largest Tyranid bio-shops as they could. With their craftworld rapidly approaching, the Alaitoc armada destroyed or seriously injured the largest of the Tyranid vessels, effectively destroying the Hive Mind's command structure, and causing the Tyranid assault to lose coherency. To ensure that the remnants of the Tyranid bio-swarm didn't drift towards Alaitoc as it would make its way through the ravaged sector, the Aeldari armada launched thousands of torpedoes. These succeeded in destroying or blasting away any remaining Tyranid spores and creatures. Centuries later, Imperial Navy maps still mark this area as a dead zone.The Siege of Alaitoc (Unknown Date.M41) - Enraged after a series of raids against Imperial shipping by Drukhari raiders near Craftworld Alaitoc, the Imperium blames the Asuryani instead of their dark kin, after having tracked the raiding parties back to Alaitoc. Deciding to make an example out of the craftworld, the Imperium decides to invade and annihilate the Aeldari. Led by a large Imperial Navy fleet, the attack is spearheaded by the Sons of Orar Space Marine Chapter and a large contingent of Imperial Guard forces. Forewarned of the attack by their Farseers, Alaitoc manages to prepare for the oncoming assault and are further aided by the Phoenix Lords Baharroth, Maugan Ra and Karandras. The war quickly devolves into a bloody war of attrition, one in which the Imperium is slowly prevailing, as the Imperial forces use their numerically superior forces in their favour against the sparsely deployed Aspect Warriors. Ultimate disaster is only averted with the timely arrival of the Ranger Aradryan, who had discovered the true culprits behind the attacks on the Imperial shipping lanes. Arriving upon Alaitoc, Aradryan is able to convince the Sons of Orar Chapter Master that the raids against the Imperial ships were nothing more than a ruse by the Drukhari to pull both sides into a pointless war of attrition. Seeing the wisdom of the Aeldari Ranger, the Chapter Master sought to stave any more losses for his Chapter, and decides to withdraw his forces from the invasion. With their Space Marine spearhead withdrawn, the rest of the Imperial forces quickly follow suit. Though Alaitoc survives the invasion, its people have taken heavy losses and sustained heavy damage to much of the craftworld.An Anticipated Atrocity (631.M41) - The Farseers of Alaitoc foresee a vicious assault from an Ork WAAAGH! on the Maiden World of Alayran. With many of their Rangers too far from the craftworld to be recalled in time, the Farseers reluctantly call upon their Spiritseers to activate a force of ghost warriors. The wraith-constructs are duly brought to war and hurried into concealed positions across the planet. When the attack arrives, the spirit warriors of Alaitoc make pinpoint attacks on the Greenskin leaders, quickly tearing the heart from the WAAAGH! and driving the Orks from the maiden world.Defence of Betalis III (894.M41) - The frigid Ice World of Betalis III was the site of the Betalis III Campaign fought in 894.M41 between the forces of the Imperium defending the system and the Aeldari who sought to recover the armour of the ancient Phoenix Lord Irillyth, the founder of the Shadow Spectres Aspect Warriors, whose vessel had crash-landed on the world millennia before. An alliance of Aeldari forces from the craftworlds of Mymeara and Alaitoc, as well as Aeldari Corsairs from the Void Dragons, Sky Raiders, and Sunblitz Brotherhood, descended on the frigid world to recover their beloved Phoenix Lord's armour before it was discovered and defiled by the human miners present on Betalis III. In this way, the Mymearans hoped that Irillyth might be restored to fight once more for his people, since his spirit would have remained intact within his armour's Spirit Stone. Betalis III was reinforced by Imperial Guard regiments drawn from the Cadian Shock Troops and the Elysian Drop Troops as well as Titans from the Legio Gryphonicus and the Space Wolves Astartes of Wolf Lord Bran Redmaw's Great Company. After the Aeldari forces fought the Imperium's forces to a bloody standstill, they vanished as quickly as they had arrived, presumably after they had recovered Irillyth.Battle for Traitor's Gorge (991.M41) - Alaitoc Farseer Eldorath Starbane leads a small group of Rangers to aid the beleaguered Crimson Fists Chapter Master Pedro Kantor and his small force of warriors against the remnants of WAAAGH! Snagrod at the Battle for Traitor's Gorge on Rynn's World. Auspicious fate had dictated that Alaitoc should fight side-by-side that day, but next time they met, it would be Starbane's gauntlets that would be stained with the blood of the Chapter Master.The Carnac Campaign (999.M41) - The Necron Anrakyr the Traveller arrives on a planet he supposes to be the Tomb World of Carnac, only to find it infested with Aeldari Exodites. Realising he won't be able to awaken the tomb before the Exodites can summon aid, Anrakyr entreats the Lords and Overlords of other Tomb Worlds for aid. Reinforcements swiftly arrive from Mandraggora, Gidrim and Trakonn, though the most unexpected of all is a contingent from Solemnace, led by Trazyn the Infinite himself. By the time the Night Scythe fleet deploy the invading forces, the armies of Craftworld Alaitoc stand side by side with the Exodites. Guided by prophecies of Farseer Eldorath Starbane and the strategies of Illic Nightspear, the Aeldari attempt to stall the Necron invasion with hit-and-run tactics. But the prophecies of the Farseer are subverted through the astromantic analyses of Orikan the Diviner. Though the Orikan's divinations are not as focussed as the Farseer, they are sufficient to tangle the skeins of fate and leave many details beyond the Farseer's reach. So it is that when Pathfinders arrive to ambush Anrakyr, they find him long gone, and encounter squads of Deathmarks waiting in ambush. After several inconclusive battles on Carnac's verdant plains, Anrakyr forces the Aeldari in a head-to-head confrontation by marching on the World Spirit shrine. Victory finally falls to the Necrons when Carnac's tomb unexpectedly begins to awaken, giving the Aeldari little choice but to abandon Carnac and its World Spirit to their foes. |
Alaitoc - Notable Alaitoc Aeldari: Alladrios Kulcassian - A Farseer of Alaitoc, Alladrios had great fear and hatred for the Officio Assassinorum's Culexus Temple. He coordinated a centuries-long effort to locate and destroy this temple. Through unknown means, he discovered the location of this elusive temple and despatched the Legacy of Eldanesh, a Shadow-class Cruiser. However, using his precognitive powers to see the skeins of the future, he discovered to his utter amazement that the temple's destruction would lead to the annihilation of Alaitoc. Choosing the lesser of two evils, he called off the attack and recalled the cruiser to return home.Arhathain - A notable Autarch of Alaitoc, he formerly studied in the Dark Reapers, Dire Avengers and Howling Banshees Aspect Warriors shrines. As an Autarch, he would go on to command Aeldari strike forces against the Orks on the Exodite world of Eileniliesh and in the eradication of humans from an unnamed world which the craftworld's Farseers predicted would one day bring the threat of Chaos to Alaitoc. Arhathain would later lead the forces of Alaitoc in the defence of their craftworld when it was invaded by the military forces of the Imperium.Eldorath Starbane - A notable Farseer of Alaitoc who led a small group of Rangers to aid the beleaguered Chapter Master Pedro Kantor of the Crimson Fists Chapter against a large force of Orks -- remnants of WAAAGH! Snagrod -- at the Battle of Traitor's Gorge on Rynn's World. He would later lead the valiant defence of Carnac from a large force of Necrons, led by Trazyn the Infinite, though in the end the slumbering tomb complex beneath Carnac awoke, forcing the Aeldari forces to withdraw from the planet.Illic Nightspear - Illic Nightspear is an Aeldari Ranger of Craftworld Alaitoc, and has wandered the Path of the Outcast for thousands of years, striding the skeins of fate and seeking out the unknown paths that span the galaxy. He is known to different Ranger bands by many different titles; the Sentinel of the Stars, the Wayforger, and the Shield of Alaitoc. To Illic, one name is as good as another. Such is Nightspear's knowledge of the Webway that it is said by the Aeldari that he can arrive unheralded upon any planet, stepping through its portals and out across the galaxy with the ease of a man drawing breath. Whilst this is undoubtedly an exaggeration, Illic clearly knows more of the hidden paths than any other living being save the Harlequins themselves. Indeed, some say that he knows too much.Kayleth - Kayleth is an Aeldari Autarch of Craftworld Alaitoc. A superb, yet pragmatic warrior, Kayleth is a master tactician, having spent many centuries mastering all aspects of warfare. Her main focus in battle is on victory and how best to achieve it for her people. She led a strike force of Aeldari to Typhon Primaris in order to prevent the realisation of an ancient prophecy which implied the imminent destruction of this world.Fialla-Thandiriel - Fialla-Thandiriel is an ancient but potent Wraithseer -- a Warlock in life -- whose mortal spirit now resides within the Wraithbone matrix of a Wraithlord. Rare and precious beyond compare, the Wraithseers are to the Aeldari's spirit host what a Warlock is to its Aspect Warriors and Guardians -- a war-leader. As such they are precious indeed, and each loss is keenly felt and rarely can they be risked upon the battlefield. It was while searching the Webway, and the worlds that lie beyond it, for the missing Wraithseer Fialla-Thandiriel that Alaitoc's Rangers discovered the portal that led them to the lost craftworld of Mymeara. |
Alaitoc - Sources: Codex: Eldar (6th Edition), pp. 16, 21, 42, 48, 52, 55Codex: Eldar (4th Edition), pp. 19, 38Codex: Eldar (3rd Edition), pg. 27Codex: Eldar (2nd Edition), pg. 34Codex: Necrons (5th Edition), pp. 22-23, 27Codex: Necrons (3rd Edition), pg. 8Dataslate - Eldar Ghost Warriors (Digital Edition), pg. 12Imperial Armour Volume Eleven - The Doom of Mymeara, pp. 134-137Psychic Awakening - Phoenix Rising (8th Edition), pg. 12White Dwarf 138 (US), "Painting the Alaitoc Craftworld Army," by Mike McVey, pp. 22-29Path of the Warrior (Novel) by Gav ThorpePath of the Seer (Novel) by Gav ThorpeTraitor's Gorge (Novella) by Mike Lee |
Alaric Prime - Alaric Prime: Alaric PrimeKnight WorldNoblesSanctus ReachSegmentum ObscurusIt is covered mostly in sulphurous seas, viscous chemical tides and currents devoid of all but the hardiest of lifeforms. Dotted across the burning acidic oceans, the planet is made up of islands strung together in hemisphere-spanning chains or standing alone thousands of Terran miles from the nearest foreign shore.Unlike many Knight Worlds, Alaric Prime boasts numerous Knightly Houses, each masters of a different region of the planet. Technology is limited on Alaric Prime as the result of ancient law, and most souls live simple lives of hard labour, scratching at the ground with tools of wood and iron.No law upon Alaric Prime has ever been repealed. It is illegal to yawn during daylight hours, illegal to talk when a Noble is speaking in earshot, even illegal to point at the stars in the night sky.So numerous and restrictive are the archaic laws of Alaric Prime that a full two-thirds of the planet's populace has been incarcerated or exiled by the over-zealous justicars attached to each Knightly house.At the centre of the biggest land mass is Sacred Mountain, a blessed peak that rises from the heart of Alaric Prime's largest island. Beneath the mountain there is rumoured to be a vault of archeotech and other lost lore, over which the notable Freeblade known as Gerantius the Forgotten Knight stands guard.Ancient and mysterious, Gerantius has defended the vault, and the world of Alaric Prime, since time immemorial. Whenever the planet is threatened the Forgotten Knight will rise from his tomb, and march upon the enemies of Alaric. |
Alastor Rushal - Alastor Rushal: Alastor Rushal, called "The Raven," by his brethren, was a Space Marine of the Raven Guard Legion during the time of the Horus Heresy who later turned Traitor and joined the Night Lords Traitor Legion following the events of the Warmaster Horus' betrayal of the Emperor and the subsequent Drop Site Massacre of Isstvan V.At some point following the near-destruction of his Legion at Isstvan V, Alastor was either captured or willingly joined the Night Lords. Brutally tortured at the hands of the sadistic First Captain Jago Sevatarion, Rushal would later earn his place amongst this Legion of killers and murderers, rising through the ranks until he became a member of the Kyroptera, the VIIIth Legion's ruling body of senior officers. |
Alastor Rushal - History: Once having joined the Night Lords in the wake of the Drop Site Massacre, Rushal was a captain without a company to command and a member of the Traitor Legion's elite Kyroptera. Terran-born, but not raised from the VIIIth Legion's gene-stock, Rushal still wore the Mark III Iron Power Armour of the XIXth Legion, cast in cold black, edged in dented white trim. The noble emblem of his former Legion, the Raven Guard, had been ritually broken by blows from a hammer, wielded by his own hand.A former captain of the Raven Guard's 89th Company, he was known by the Night Lords as "The Raven." It is not clear whether Rushal joined the Night Lords of his own volition or was captured. But what is abundantly clear is that he became a part of the VIIIth Legion following the Drop Site Massacre of Isstvan V.Apparently, he also suffered torture at the hands of the Night Lords' First Captain Jago Sevatarion, who brutally marked the warrior with vicious scars across most of his body as well as removing his tongue. All trappings of rank were gone from his ebon-coloured armour, scratched away during the massacre unleashed on Isstvan V's Urgall Depression. Like the Night Lords, his face was pale and his eyes were dark. Unlike the warriors he chose to stand amongst, his helm lacked the bat-winged crest sported by the VIIIth Legion's inner circle of captains.During the Thramas Crusade Rushal became a close ally of Sevatarion in the power struggle that erupted within the Night Lords following the crippling of Primarch Konrad Curze. |
Alathresis - Alathresis: Alathresis is a watch master of the Deathwatch Chapter seconded from the Novamarines who serves as the current watch commander of the Balefortress watch fortress. The Balefortress is perhaps the last Imperial bulwark left that can stop the Ork WAAAGH! Nakkaslash from capsizing the sector. |
Alaxis McKale - Alaxis McKale: Lieutenant Commander Alaxis McKale is an officer of the Imperial Navy who is stationed on the Fortress World of Pyrathas and acts as the de facto commander of the Imperial fleet stationed there. |
Alaxis McKale - History: McKale is in command of the warships permanently stationed in the Jericho Reach's Pyrathas System, and she reports to Captain Sylas Skor.In practice, this fleet consists of the Misadventure -- an Endeavour-class Light Cruiser -- plus a picket force of half a dozen Cobra-class Destroyers retrofitted with long range augur arrays, and a dozen inter-system defence monitors.Although technically these forces fall under the command of Captain Skor, his constant preoccupation with the on-planet base means that more and more of the responsibility for commanding the flotilla has fallen on McKale.Thus far McKale has borne the responsibility well, although she is still unsure of herself when it comes to what is effectively a squadron command. For that reason, she almost always defers to Skor when the senior officer makes his opinions known. |
Alaxxes Nebula - Alaxxes Nebula: The Alaxxes Nebula, known also as the "Blood-Well" and the "Eye of Acid", is a region of space located in the Segmentum Solar. This stellar phenomenon is regarded as an impassable shipping hazard. The Alaxxes Nebula was basically a vast gas cloud, a skein of rust-red on the face of the void, falling into deeper and more intensive virulence the further one went in. Sensors were blinded, engine systems crippled and ship's Geller Fields fizzed like magnesium on water. No sane Navigator would have taken a ship into these depths, save but for the certain promise of annihilation on the outside. There were tunnels within, mere pockets of clear space between the great blooms of corrosive matter. The ships of a fleet could slip down them, guarded and menaced by the lethal shoals on every flank, hidden from enemy scan-sweeps and torpedo-rakes but open to devastating flares that punched through armour-plate and overloaded void shields.This region of space became the sight of the Battle of the Alaxxes Nebula, an engagement that took place between the bulk of the Space Wolves fleet and the bulk of the Traitor Alpha Legion fleet in 007.M31, during the early years of the Horus Heresy. |
Alaxxes Nebula - History: First entered onto Carta Imperialis charts by the 6th Imperial Expeditionary Fleet in 817.M30, the Alaxxes Nebula was initially regarded as nothing more than an impassable shipping hazard. The danger it presents lies in its unique chemical composition -- highly corrosive ammoniac compounds combined with vast clouds of dust and hydrogen ice move in an ever-shifting labyrinth, shot through with passages many hundreds of kilometres wide. These clouds can overload the void shields of even the largest Imperial warships, leaving their adamantium hides exposed to rapid environmental degradation. Vessels straying into the outer edges of the nebula will suffer catastrophic hull breaches in under an hour, while ships tumbling out of control in the deep core can be lost within minutes. In addition to these physical dangers, the nebula is known to baffle sensors and limit vox communication. Ghost returns and false readings make mapping the interior difficult by any means other than physically traversing the clear passages, and such data is often outdated within a few years due to the natural shifting movement of the clouds. |
Alber vander Trake - Alber vander Trake: Vice Admiral Alber vander Trake was one of the senior Imperial Navy commanders who served under both Warmasters Slaydo and Macaroth during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. Trake died at the Battle of Addolorata in 773.M41 after a tragic incident of mistaken identity lead to the loss of his entire flotilla of starships, including the irreplaceable dreadnought Intangible, Trake's flagship. |
Alber vander Trake - History: Vice Admiral Alber vander Trake was an experienced and proven fleet officer who had scored several successes during the post-Balhaut scouring of the Sabbat Worlds in 765.M41. There were many who believed Trake would eventually rise to the esteemed rank of Grand Admiral of the Segmentum Pacificus' entire Battlefleet in due time. Trake commanded the Intangible, one of the most magnificent and heavily armed Battleships within all the rimward fleets of the Crusade.At the close of 773.M41, Imperial intelligence placed a Chaotic formation less than two weeks away from the world of Addolorata. Lord Militant Delayni ordered the fast attack flotilla, under the command of Vice Admiral Trake, to alter course from Lotun and translate to Addolorata to take up a defensive station there. This Imperial flotilla was comprised of three heavy cruisers, two Brandish-class super heavy destroyers, five Sabre-class light destroyers and the dreadnought Intangible commanded by Trake himself. In a brilliant executed inner run towards Addolorata, Trake managed to arrive before the Forces of Chaos. Unfortunately for the Imperial flotilla, the system's defence grid was braced to expect enemy intrusion, attacking Trake's forces upon arrival. The Vice Admiral ordered his flotilla to return fire.Trake soon realized he had made a gross miscalculation, as one of the 3 Star Forts defending Addolorata fired a punishing salvo upon his ships. By this time, one of the heavy cruisers was lost and the Intangible was on fire and listing badly. The Vice Admiral's ship continued to take heavy fire as Trake tried to explain the situation to Addolorata's command-and-control. This took nearly three hours, and in the confusion one of the super heavy destroyers was vaporised with the loss of all hands. Trake finally managed to persuade the Addolorata system defence to cease fire, and tried to marshal his flotilla into a planet-guard formation. But by this time, the Intangible was foundering and close to death. To make matters worse, Warp-echo traces suggested the Chaotic fleet was not far behind them.Trake quit the dreadnought and took command of the super-heavy destroyer No Quarter. Unfortunately, matters took a turn for the worse, as Trake's second-in-command, Commodore Willer Waldesh, had been left in command of the stricken Intangible, to oversee the evacuation and abandonment of the massive vessel. Gravely hurt in the opening phase of this unfortunate incident, for unknown reasons Waldesh ordered his gunners to obtain target solutions, and ignited his ship's main engines, intent on attacking one of the remaining Star Forts. Though his actions were questionable, Imperial scholars conjecture that Waldesh was either bewildered by the action or unhinged by the pain of his wounds. Waldesh's First Officer, Bernod Falkor, quickly realized the mistake and attempted to wrest command from his deranged commander. The Commodore proceeded to shoot Falkor eight times "for mutiny," but Falkor managed to survive long enough to kill his erstwhile commander with a Bolt Pistol. On course with the Star Fort, Falkor triggered auto-destruct, destroying the mighty vessel with all remaining hands.Vice Admiral Trake was horrified by this tragic turns of events, and apparently lost his grip on command. The Imperial flotilla was woefully under-extended as 30 Chaotic ships translated in-system. The ensuing battle lasted eight hours, with the No Quarter being lost within the first forty-five minutes of the engagement. Trake did not live long enough to see the calamity that would befall the doomed world of Addolorata. By the next morning, Addolorata was lost to the tender mercies of Chaos and the orbiting Star Forts were reduced to smouldering, drifting hulks. |
Alber vander Trake - Trivia: Trake's photograph above is an altered version of a portrait of General George Meade, the commander of the Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War and commander of the Union forces at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. |
Alchemical Weapons - Alchemical Weapons: Alchemical Weapons, also called Chem-weapons and Chem-munitions, is the name given by the Imperium to chemical weapons of mass destruction. The term was most commonly used during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy to refer to the chemical toxins released in gas or liquid form used on the battlefield, often by Legion Destroyer Squads and Grave Warden Terminator Squads.After the Heresy, Alchemical Weapons have been rarely used by the Imperium, but are still favoured by the forces of the Death Guard Traitor Legion largely due to their Nurgle-derived immunity to such compounds. |
Alchemical Weapons - Notable Alchemical Weapons: PhosphexCullgene GasVasgotox |
Aldrik Voldus - Aldrik Voldus: Aldrik Voldus is the Grand Master of the Grey Knights Chapter of Space Marines' 3rd Brotherhood and also serves as the Chapter's Warden of the Librarius, essentially its Chief Librarian.Voldus was appointed to the position by Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights Kaldor Draigo himself and is the most powerful psyker the Grey Knights have known in many standard centuries. He played a role in the events of the recent Siege of the Fenris System by the Forces of Chaos and came to the aid of the Ultramarines during the Ultramar Campaign of the 13th Black Crusade that followed later in 999.M41.Already on the Ultramarines' homeworld of Macragge when the members of the Celestinian Crusade arrived through the Webway gate from the ice moon of Klaisus with the Aeldari Ynnari after the fall of Cadia, Voldus assisted the newcomers in resurrecting Primarch Roboute Guilliman. Voldus and his Grey Knights then joined Guilliman in his reconquest of the Realm of Ultramar and on the Terran Crusade from Macragge to Terra so that Guilliman could meet with his father the Emperor and reestablish himself as the Lord Commander of the Imperium. |
Aldrik Voldus - History: Aldrik Voldus has only recently been promoted to leadership of the Grey Knights 3rd Brotherhood, a position that was rapidly becoming renowned as a dangerous -- perhaps even cursed -- appointment, as Voldus became the third Grand Master of the 3rd Brotherhood in a single standard year.First, Valdar Aurikon fell when he and the 3rd Brotherhood came to the aid of the Space Wolves after the Daemon Primarch Magnus the Red led an invasion of their homeworld of Fenris during the Siege of the Fenris System. Aurikon was killed by Magnus, after the Daemon Primarch caught the Grand Master's psychic lightning and hurled it back at him.This caused Aurikon's body to turn into nuggets of fool's gold. When the next Grand Master of the 3rd Brotherhood, Doriam Narathem, was slain by the vile Greater Daemon known as M'Kachen during an assault on the Fortress World of Longhallow, Brother Voldus unleashed a titanic psychic attack on the cackling Daemon.So pure and powerful was Narathem's sacrifice and the psychic light of Voldus' mind in that moment that it guided the Grey Knights' Supreme Grand Master Kaldor Draigo from the Realm of Chaos where he was trapped by a daemonic curse. Surging into battle, the legendary warrior fought alongside Brother Voldus to drive M'Kachen back into the Warp, the two forging their powers into a banishment of unstoppable force. In the wake of the battle, Draigo himself appointed the humble Voldus to the rank of Grand Master, lauding his exceptional heroism and phenomenal psychic prowess.Even as Draigo faded back into the Warp once more, Voldus swore an oath to live up to this great honour -- one which the self-deprecating hero did not truly believe himself worthy. He strives towards this goal in every battle he fights, offering prayers to the Emperor of Mankind for strength and guidance. |
Aldrik Voldus - Ultramar Campaign: Soon after the Ultramarines defeated the invasion of Ultramar by the Daemon Prince M'Kar and his allies among the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion, the Grey Knights Prognosticars saw a frightening vision of a darkness drawing nigh to the light of Ultramar, and a black blade, inscribed with the infernal star of the Chaos Gods, thrust at a heart enthroned. Even as one cavernous maw yawned wide, another set of jaws closed upon Macraggeand its sister worlds, ending the Prognosticars' visions in a sea of blood.Fearing that Ultramar, a vital bulwark amidst the greater ramparts of the Imperium itself was in danger of falling, and thus threatening the rest of the Imperium, Voldus ordered the entire 3rd Brotherhood to make its way to Ultramar and aid the Ultramarines in its defence. He sent word of the Grey Knights' coming to Ultramarines Chapter Master Marneus Calgar, who graciously accepted the aid of the potent Astartes psykers.After the arrival of the survivors of the fall of Cadia who called themselves the Celestinian Crusade alongside their xenos Ynnari allies, Voldus shared the Ultramarines officers' suspicion of the newcomers' plan to revive the Primarch Rouboute Guilliman, long in stasis in Macragge's Temple of Correction.When the forces of Chaos launched a massive assault on the temple to prevent Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl and Yvraine, the Ynnari priestess of Ynnead, the Aeldari God of the Dead, from combining technology and divine power to heal Guilliman's mortal wound, Voldus fought hard to buy them more time.After Guilliman's successful resurrection following the battle in the temple, Voldus and his Grey Knights became a key component of the resurrected primarch's strategy to retake Macragge and all of Ultramar from the Archenemy. After a campaign of seven solar months, much of Ultramar had been retaken, but the Chaos Gods proved more than willing to prevent the primarch from using his abilities to aid the wider Imperium's defence from their growing power.Nurgle, the Plague Lord, unleashed a sorcerous disease upon the mortal soldiers of Ultramar. Called "the Sorrow," the disease possessed unnatural symptoms. In the midst of battle, warriors were blinded by endless streams of viscous, stinking tears that gummed their eyes open and soon turned them red raw. Overcome by sorrow, sufferers wailed and wept for solar days on end.In the worst cases, the so-called "Weepers" were permanently blinded as their infected eyeballs festered and rotted from their skulls. But Guilliman discovered that wherever he made his presence known, those afflicted with the illness were miraculously cured.So began long solar weeks of relentless pilgrimage for Guilliman, as he rushed from one site of sickness to another across the Ultramar region. The primarch knew that while he was engaged in healing his followers, his attentions were drawn away from the wider war. Yet of all the Emperor's sons, Guilliman was perhaps the most human, and his compassion would not allow him to ignore his followers' plight if he could heal them.Solar days became weeks, during which the Weeping continued to spread and -- worse still -- recur at sites that the primarch had already cleared. Without Guilliman's peerless genius the reconquest of Ultramar began to suffer, the Chaos forces overturning Imperial victories in the Veridian and Tarvan Systems. All the while, the dreadful Warp Storms that had riven Ultramar and its surroundings worsened further. Soon, whispered the Navigators, the empire of the Ultramarines might be cut off from the wider galaxy altogether, just as it once had ten thousand Terran years before during the time of the Ruinstorm.It was Aldrik Voldus who finally confronted Guilliman. In a heated argument, during which the grand master dared the primarch's wrath, he forced Guilliman to acknowledge that which he already knew. Weeks of labour had been for nought. Guilliman was not healing his subjects, for such was not his gift.In the Weeping Plague, Voldus recognised all the hallmarks of Nurgle. Most likely, the Plague God was simply withdrawing his dubious blessings from his victims upon Guilliman's arrival, then gleefully restoring them once the primarch had moved on. The Lord of Ultramar was playing into the Plague God's hands, his desire to save his people perverted into a never-ending trap of entropy and despair.Though furious, Guilliman accepted Voldus' wisdom. Further, he saw that Nurgle's desire had been to trap him within his own realm, and to keep him from the wider galactic stage. The primarch realised then that his desire for completeness, for a neat solution and an unsullied Ultramar was, in itself, an echo of mistakes he had made long ago.Nurgle did not wish Guilliman to leave Ultramar because there, the primarch could be contained like a wasp in a bottle. But this war did not belong to Ultramar alone -- it was a war for the entire Imperium. Guilliman saw that he could waste no more time focussing solely upon his own stellar empire. He must tend, instead, to his father's. |
Aldrik Voldus - Terran Crusade: After his confrontation with Grand Master Voldus, the primarch announced his intention to set out upon a great journey. Once before during the Horus Heresy, when the Dark Gods had threatened the Imperium of Mankind, the Primarch of the Ultramarines had reached Terra too late to do his duty. He would not make that mistake again. Guilliman intended to journey to Terra, to kneel at the foot of the Golden Throne and ask his father for guidance.Conscious of the worsening Warp Storms lashing the space lanes of Ultramar, Guilliman announced his intention to make for Terra as soon as a suitable force could be assembled. The primarch would not travel alone; the galaxy had become a dark and dangerous place, while the attempts by the Chaos Gods to tempt and trick him had shown Guilliman that his resurrection had drawn the eyes of the Ruinous Powers.The war across Ultramar was still ongoing, however, and with Guilliman leaving, it would require strategically gifted warriors to keep pushing the forces of Chaos back. As such, Guilliman gathered a select force of Battle-Brothers from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Companies of the Ultramarines to accompany him to Terra, and gave the honour of their command to Captain Cato Sicarius. He further requested that Grand Master Aldrik Voldus and the Grey Knights of the 3rd Brotherhood join this Terran Crusade.Others pledged their aid to the primarch's cause, including the assembled strength of the Ultramarines' Successor Primogenitor Chapters, and Emperor's Champion Marius Amalrich and his Black Templars brethren. The Living Saint Celestine, the Inquisitor Katarinya Greyfax and Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl accompanied the primarch also -- whatever aid they or the military forces under their command could provide the primarch would be gladly given. Guilliman gratefully accepted all offers of aid before commanding Marneus Calgar, Chief Librarian Tigurius and Captain Severus Agemman of the Ultramarines 1st Company to remain and lead the continued reconquest of Ultramar.Voldus and his brothers joined the primarch on this Terran Crusade, their combat prowess and unwavering faith aiding the Imperial forces of the Crusade in all their trials and tribulations in the Warp rift known as the Maelstrom after their fleet was cast into the rift by a sorcerous ritual cast by the Daemon Primarch Magnus the Red, who had been tracking his former brother's progress from Macragge.Trapped in the nightmare of the Maelstrom, amidst fluctuating time streams and reality-warping energy storms, the damaged starships of the Terran Crusade struggled on. Within the Maelstrom lurked countless foes, for this was a region that had long harboured the warring minions of Chaos.More than once when trapped in the Maelstrom, the Imperial ships were forced to fight off opportunist raids by sleek hunting packs of Traitor warships. Amidst a thousand-mile-wide cloud of corrosive spores, the Terran Crusade ships found themselves beset by swarms of vast plague flies as large as frigates. The monstrous insects took a savage toll upon the smaller ships of the Crusade, until Saint Celestine took to the Navigator's observation blister of the Ultramarines flagship Macragge's Honour. Unleashing her holy light in a blazing psychic shockwave, the Living Saint purged the hideous daemon beasts from the void.In another uncharted reach, the Terran Crusade craft found ghostly phantasms whirling around their hulls. Howling Warp ghosts screamed through the corridors of the Space Marine craft, swarming around the ancient relics and honoured banners of their Reclusiam shrines. The Adeptus Astartes realised, to their horror, that these aetheric leeches were draining the holy energies from their treasured relics, dragging faint, screaming ghosts from the enshrined helms, blades and scrolls. In this fight, the Grey Knights came to the fore, Aldrik Voldus swiftly splitting his brotherhood and deploying them by rapid teleport strike into his allies' shrines. Fighting alongside the outraged Chaplains who guarded the relics, the daemon-hunting warriors drove the Warp leeches back and banished them to the void.Eventually, the Crusade, with the aid of the Aeldari Farseer Eldrad Ulthran, discovered a way out of the Maelstrom, marked by a massive graveyard of starships. But before they could make their way out of the Warp rift, the fleet was attacked by the Red Corsairs, a piratical group of Renegade Space Marines under the control of the Greater Daemon of Tzeentch Kairos Fateweaver.The Imperials were forced to surrender once Fateweaver used his sorcery to literally entrap the primarch within psychic chains forged of his own guilt and frustration and threatened to slay him. Imprisoned in a Blackstone Fortress that Abaddon the Despoiler had given to the Red Corsairs, the Imperials were freed from what was intended to be permanent captivity by the machinations of the Fallen Angel Cypher and a troupe of Harlequins led by the Shadowseer Sylandri Veilwalker. After defeating the Bloodthirster Skarbrand the Exiled One at the cost of the life of Marius Amalrich, the Imperials successfully fled into the Webway through a massive gate located at the heart of the Blackstone Fortress.But once the Harlequins detected that the section of the Webway they had entered had been infiltrated by Magnus the Red and his Thousand Sons Traitor Legion, Guilliman sensed a trap closing about the remains of the Terran Crusade.Guilliman's mind raced, weaving fragments of fact and glimpses of information with his peerless strategist's intuition. It was Magnus, realised the primarch. His manipulative brother -- who must have somehow known precisely how matters would play out for Guilliman -- had sent his cursed sons to intercept the Imperials.Events began to fall into place in Guilliman's mind. Magnus had hurled Guilliman's Crusade into the Maelstrom not to destroy it, but to weaken it. He had propelled the Lord of Ultramar onto a particular path of fate that Magnus had either hoped or known would lead him to his capture, incarceration within that very specific gaol, and eventual escape into this section of the Webway. Guilliman could not know that the Crimson King had called upon his greatest champion, the Chaos Sorcerer Ahriman, to aid him with his stolen knowledge of the Webway's paths, but otherwise the primarch's conclusions were entirely correct.Swiftly and earnestly, Guilliman sought the counsel of his closest lieutenants. They had to determine what Magnus planned, and quickly, before they stepped straight into the Daemon Primarch's trap. It was Aldrik Voldus who -- drawing upon his knowledge of Titan's ancient libraries -- made the intuitive leap. There was a warded entrance to the Webway within the Imperial Palace. Voldus believed it to be heavily defended, bound shut with the most potent abjurations that the Imperium could muster, but still it existed. Perhaps Magnus knew of that gate, and sought to follow them to it?Guilliman's strategic brilliance leapt ahead again, tracing patterns within patterns and perceiving the truth. Magnus already knew where the gate lay, he realised. There had been whispers that the Crimson King had passed that way before just before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, and in so doing unleashed the catastrophe that fell upon him and his XV Legion during the Fall of Prospero.Magnus did not need them to lead him to the gate. He sought instead to follow them through it, clearly hoping that the gate's defences would be deactivated to allow for Guilliman's arrival. The Daemon Primarch wanted to strike at Terra, at the very Golden Throne of the Emperor of Mankind, and he hoped to launch his attack as the gate was thrown open to permit the Ultramarines primarch passage.The Terran Crusade, ironically, could not emerge at Terra, Guilliman realised with something like despair, not if it meant allowing Magnus to strike at the cradle of Humanity. Yet Sylandri Veilwalker had never intended for them to take that road. Instead, the Shadowseer revealed a secret that the Aeldari had long guarded.Lying dormant for millennia, hidden behind a veil of wards that even Humanity's greatest psykers could not pierce, a lonely spar of the Webway stretched out upon the border between realspace and the Warp to connect to Luna, Terra's only natural moon. It was through that illusion-veiled gate that the Terran Crusade emerged.But the Imperials were only partially successful. The Thousand Sons and their Daemon Primarch managed to follow them with a portion of their force through the Webway. During the vicious battle that ensued in the dusty void of Luna's surface, with Terra hanging high and bright over the combatants' heads, Aldrik Voldus and his Grey Knights fought valiantly, leading the charge at multiple times against the undying automatons of Thousand Sons Rubricae and uniting their psychic abilities with those of Inquisitor Greyfax to defeat the servants of the Lord of Change.The battle was won when Imperial reinforcements arrived to sweep the lunar surface clear of the Traitors and Guilliman succeeded in hurling Magnus back through the Webway gate while the Harlequins sealed it permanently.Voldus, his brothers and their allies were finally ferried to the Imperial Palace on Terra after the battle on Luna. There, before the Eternity Gate of the Inner Palace leading to the throne room of the Emperor where Guilliman would meet his father for the first time in ten standard millennia, many of the waiting crowd reached out with awe to offer their devotion and thanks to the Grey Knights Grand Master and his brethren.Guilliman emerged a solar day later from the Palace and was soon restored to his former position as Lord Commander of the Imperium. As Guilliman prepared to launch a massive counteroffensive against the gathering forces of the Ruinous Powers, there was no doubt that Aldrik Voldus and all the Grey Knights would stand at his side and face the enemies of the Emperor to their dying breath. |
Aldrik Voldus - Wargear: Aegis Terminator Armour - The Aegis Terminator Armour used by the Space Marines of the Grey Knights Chapter is similar to the standard Indomitus Pattern Terminator Armour, but is inscribed with a complex network of protective prayers, runes and other wards which are psychically charged to provide better protection for a Grey Knight Astartes from the sorcerous powers of daemons and other servants of Chaos. The only major difference between Aegis Terminator Armour and the standard Indomitus Pattern besides the extra layer of psychic protection is the suit's helmet, which has been constructed to be very similar to that used by the ancient Mark III Iron Pattern suit of Power Armour.Malleus Argyrum - Crafted over a standard century by the blind smith Hulliver, this beautifully weighted Force Hammer is a conduit for psychic energies. So empowered, it streaks through the air as though it weighed nothing at all, only to strike with the force of a caged thunderbolt.Storm Bolter - The Storm Bolter is a double-barrelled version of the standard Bolter. As it is heavier and causes more recoil than a normal Bolter, it is even more rarely used than the Bolter by the regiments of the Astra Militarum. Instead, Storm Bolters are the standard weapons employed by Space Marine Terminators or as a pintle-mounted weapon on an Imperial main battle tank. Storm Bolters are also used by the Astartes of the Grey Knights Chapter as a gauntlet-mounted weapon with its feed mounted on the rear of their armour.Iron Halo - An Iron Halo is a symbol of high office amongst the Grey Knights; it is not merely a token or treasure, but a powerful defence in its own right. Beneath the halo's shining metal lies a powerful energy field generator that can thwart even the most cataclysmic blow.Psyk-Out Grenade - A Psyk-Out Grenade is a very rare type of grenade used by Grey Knights Astartes, high-ranking Inquisitors and Assassins of the Culexus Temple as a potent anti-psyker weapon. Outwardly, a Psyk-Out Grenade looks much like one of the Frag Grenades in use by the many military forces of the Imperium. Its rarity and potency stems from the special additive that is laced within its explosive charge. The Adeptus Custodes reverently gather the dust that forms from the body of the Emperor of Man where He is entombed in the Golden Throne. This byproduct of the Golden Throne's arcane workings possesses a strong anti-psychic charge and can produce an effect in psykers and Warp entities similar to those produced by a psychic Blank, a being afflicted with the Pariah Gene. When a Psyk-Out grenade detonates, the sacred dust is spread over the whole of the blast radius. Any psyker caught within it will find his or her link to the Warp violently severed, and any psychic power active in the radius will be terminated due to its sudden loss of Warp power. This traumatic experience will prevent psykers from using any of their powers for a certain time, depending on the psyker's strength, and interrupt the action of any psychic power with potentially fatal consequences for the user. The severing of the connection to the Warp is also a potent tool to be used in the fight against daemons: Lesser Daemons will be banished from realspace outright, unable to maintain their physical form, and even mighty Greater Daemons will find themselves severely weakened and liable to easy banishment.Frag GrenadesKrak Grenades |
Alessio Cortez - Alessio Cortez: Alessio Cortez is the Master of the Charge and the Captain of the 4th Company of the Crimson Fists Space Marine Chapter. Captain Cortez was known for his pride, stubbornness and for being almost impossible to kill. It is said that only two bones in his entire body had not been broken one or more times.During the Battle of Rynn's World, he survived the disaster at the Crimson Fists' fortress-monastery Arx Tyrannus along with sixteen of his Battle-Brothers and his old friend and comrade, Chapter Master Pedro Kantor.Later, Cortez lost his right arm to the Ork Warboss Urzog Mag Kull; though he ignored the wound and slew the beast moments later by ramming a Krak Grenade down its throat as it howled in triumph.Impossibly resilient, Cortez afterwards still reported for duty despite missing his right arm, and had to be forcibly ordered to stand down and wait for an Apothecary by his friend Kantor.Captain Cortez was last seen in battle with Aeldari Corsairs amidst the stellar phenomenon known as the Wheel of Fire. Nothing is known of his whereabouts as of the final years of the 41st Millennium.But Pedro Kantor and the Chapter's Veteran brethren remain convinced that Cortez is still alive and will return to aid the Crimson Fists again in this darkest hour. |
Alessio Cortez - Notable Events: Battle of Steel Cross (853.M41) - During the decisive moments of the Battle of Steel Cross, Captain Cortez single-handedly slew the Ork Warlord and his entire bodyguard of Nobz. Cortez had managed to disarm the Ork leader with a twist of his torso after the Ork's sword had become embedded in Cortez's ribs.Battle of Shaebach (867.M41) - Captain Cortez broke through Aeldari lines on the world of Shaebach despite suffering 17 wounds, including being stabbed through one of his hearts and two heavy weapon hits.Defence of Maladon (892.M41) - Captain Cortez defends a breach in the defences of the Fortress Maladon for 21 solar hours of constant fighting.Kardian Campaign 903.M41 - Captain Cortez fights through the entire six solar week long Kardian campaign without supplies after they had been lost to enemy fire during deployment (breaking the old Crimson Fist endurance record for a Space Marine). |
Alessio Cortez - Wargear: Alessio Cortez wears Artificer Armour and uses a very old master-crafted Powerfist and a master-crafted Bolt Pistol in combat. |
Alex Hammond - Alex Hammond: Alex Hammond is an author for Games Workshop's Black Library imprint. |
Alex Hammond - Necromunda: A World Above (Short Story) (2000, collected in Status: Deadzone (Anthology))The Daemon Bottle (Short Story) (2000, collected in Status: Deadzone (Anthology))Rat in the Walls (Short Story) (2000, collected in Status: Deadzone (Anthology)) |
Alex Hammond - Other: Emperor's Grace (Short Story) (1999, collected in Into the Maelstrom (Anthology) and Let the Galaxy Burn (Anthology))Ancient Lances (Short Story) (1999, collected in Into the Maelstrom (Anthology) and Let the Galaxy Burn (Anthology)) |
Alexis Polux - Alexis Polux: Alexis Polux was the first Chapter Master of the Crimson Fists Chapter of Space Marines and a hero of the Imperial Fists Legion before the Second Founding. Captain of the 405th Company of the Imperial Fists during the Great Crusade in the 30th and early 31st Millennia, Polux was a warrior of unique promise both elevated to greatness and condemned to bear great sorrow by the events of the Horus Heresy.A tactical genius with a talent for void warfare, he was the protégée of the VII Legion's greatest fleet masters, although before the dark betrayal of the Warmaster Horus, he was yet to reach his full potential. Inwit-born, he was a physical giant even among his brothers of the Legion, and of a character as if cast in stone, emotionless and unyielding, whose reputation before the Battle of Phall rested as much on his strength in the bloody melee of close quarters combat as in command.When Primarch Rogal Dorn sent his Retribution Fleet to aid the beleaguered Loyalists on Isstvan III, Polux would likely still have had many standard years of proving ahead of him before he attained high command in his Legion, but cruel chance and the death of his mentor saw such command thrust upon him, and with it the fate of much of his Legion lay in his hands.Polux went on to win Dorn's respect countless times during the dark days of the Great Betrayal. Following the events of the Heresy, the Space Marine Legions were broken down into smaller Chapters, and Polux was selected to serve as the first master of the newly formed Crimson Fists Chapter. He went on to lead the Crimson Fists for the first 800 standard years of their existence. During this time, he did much to shape their interpretation of the Codex Astartes and their combat doctrines.Alexis Polux was known for his massive physical size, as he stood taller than all his battle-brothers. Even without his power armour on, he still dwarfed most other Astartes warriors. Such was Polux's strength and focus of will, even for one of the Legiones Astartes, that he was able to deliver a single crushing blow with his Power Fist as easily as one of his brothers might have swung a sword.Besides his sheer physical prowess, Alexis Polux was a highly skilled commander and a formidable tactician, particularly in the fields of void-borne combat and Zone Mortalis operations. Polux's rise through the ranks of the Imperial Fists was meteoric, as his superlative combat skills and potent tactical skills saw him raised to command other Space Marine Veterans with far more practical experience. |
Alexis Polux - Trial of the Twins: Like his future primarch, Alexis Polux was raised on the frigid Ice World of Inwit in the Inwit Cluster by a tribal ice-caste native to the ice-hives of that world. Shortly after the rediscovery of Primarch Rogal Dorn by the Emperor of Mankind during the early years of the Great Crusade, Alexis and his twin brother Helias Polux underwent the rigorous Trials as aspirants to become Space Marines of the Imperial Fists Legion.As part of the Trials they had to cross the "Splintered Lands," the night-soaked side of Inwit which had never seen the sun. The Splintered Lands were a place where the cold is as constant as the night. The warriors of the ice caste normally only ventured there in metal-plated environmental suits, but those who wished to join the VII Legion had to cross that desolate place in rotting pelts and rags. It was a test, a journey through a midnight realm of agony, forcing the potential candidates to endure harsh weather, frostbite and the dangerous indigenous wildlife that stalked those frozen lands.During the Polux brothers' journey, Alexis was gravely wounded when one of his calves was punctured clean through by the razor sharp claws of an unidentified six-legged beast. Though he escaped the initial attack, he became separated from his twin. Alexis trailed red across the ice-dunes, trying to shut out the incessant pain, and trying to ignore the numbness so that he could keep moving. He felt that he would fail as the bone-numbing cold sapped his will to live, leaving the beast that continued to stalk him with what was left.Somehow, despite the deplorable weather conditions, Helias managed to locate his erstwhile brother and helped him to his feet. Helias offered Alexis words of encouragement, despite suffering from the severe frostbite on his own hands which left them swollen and black with frozen blood. Alexis felt that despite their close genetic bond, they were twins in all ways except one; Helias was stronger than him, both physically and mentally. Alexis felt he would not have made it even this far without his twin. But Helias refused to let his brother give up hope.Unfortunately fate intervened once again in a most unexpected fashion as the six-legged creature finally found its missing prey. The twins were effectively trapped, their backs towards a large crevasse and the creature in front of them. As the creature attempted to pounce on the wounded Alexis, he managed to dive to the side, but was too slow. The beast's jaws closed on his trailing left arm. It turned as it landed, dragging Alexis across the ice. Teeth tore through flesh, causing joints to pop and sending searing pain up Alexis' ravaged arm. The beast then slammed Alexis back to the ground, releasing his arm, and placed a clawed paw on his chest. Ribs cracked, and needle-sharp claws touched Alexis' skin.Helias yelled, distracting the creature, his back towards the crevasse, his body poised, his arms spread like a wrestler. The beast coiled on its six legs and pounced towards Helias, its jaws wide. Moving at the last instant, Helias pivoted as his arms came up and gripped the beast's neck. He then turned and the beast's momentum spun it through the air towards the waiting crevasse. The beast managed to gain purchase by fastening to Helias' leg with its long hooked claws as they both tumbled together into the crevasse.Despite his own agony, Alexis launched himself towards the crevasse and just barely reached his brother in time to grab him as he fell. The weight of him pulled Alexis off his feet. The beast's claws came free and it vanished into the crevasse. Hanging from his brother's hand, Alexis attempted to grip a ridge in the ice with his good arm as he held his brother in place with his other, badly mauled appendage. Alexis' arm was a lacerated ruin, the flesh punctured and chewed in the beast's jaws, and Helias' weight pulled the wounds open.Despite his grievous injuries Alexis attempted to pull his brother up from the threshold of the black abyss below, but he was unable to lift him. Locking eyes for an instant, understanding quickly dawned on Alexis; Helias knew that his twin's grip had already broken. It was his hand locked around Alexis' that was holding him from falling into the black void below. Looking into his eyes, Helias made the fateful decision for them both and opened his hand, falling to his death. This tragic event deeply affected Alexis Polux and would continue to plague him for the rest of his life. But Polux survived the Trials and was accepted into the ranks of the Imperial Fists. |
Alexis Polux - Betrayal: During the Great Crusade, Polux rose to the senior rank of captain, commanding the VII Legion's 405th Company, and became one of Rogal Dorn's most senior officers after he gained a position on the primarch's advisory council. When Dorn had seen evidence of his brother Horus' treachery in the Isstvan System, he had wanted to go and confront Horus himself, to hear the Arch-traitor's confession and bring retribution with his own hands. But duty had held him back: duty to the Emperor and the Imperium that Horus now sought to destroy as Dorn served as the Praetorian of Terra.Dorn and his First Captain Sigismund had returned to Terra, but Dorn had sent his gene-sons as emissaries of his anger. He had named their detachment a "Retribution Fleet." Thirty thousand Imperial Fists Legionaries comprised of three hundred companies and over five hundred warships had struck out towards Isstvan III, a third of the VII Legion, a force great enough to subdue a hundred worlds, bearing a brother's wrath. Captain Polux was attached to this force under the command of veteran Captain Yonnad, the Master of the Retribution Fleet.When the Imperial Fists fleet had translated back into reality on the edge of the Isstvan System, the power of the Warp storm now raging near the system as the result of the will of the Dark Gods caused Gellar Fields to fail as hulls sheared into fragments and burned in the fires of their own reactors. Some of the voidships had reached safety, but many died, their corpses spat out of the Warp to freeze in the void. Two hundred Imperial Fists warships were lost, their remains left spinning in the light of a forgotten star.They had found Captain Polux in the remains of one of those broken wrecks. He was one of the few survivors. Ten thousand Imperials Fists were gone, a staggering loss that was difficult to grasp. Now only three hundred and sixty-three warships remained -- a force that still represented a fifth of the VII Legion's full strength. Captain Yonnad had not survived, and since Polux had been designated as his successor, the right of command of the remaining Retribution Fleet fell to him.Though he was deeply honoured, Polux also felt completely alone. The truth was that he did not fear the responsibility of such a heavy burden, for Yonnad was the VII Legion's finest fleet master and Captain Polux his best pupil. But the new fleet master had doubts that he was the best choice, for there were other warriors that had survived the wreck of the fleet that were more worthy; commanders with more campaign experience, higher in the Legion's rolls of honour, and more skilled at arms. But the Imperial Fists followed form and order to the letter, something not so easily set aside. |
Alexis Polux - Battle of Phall: The Imperial Fists' warfleet established a base of operations in the Phall System. The two habitable planets of Phall were unremarkable agrarian worlds, lightly populated and of no great strategic importance. For reasons they could not ascertain, the Warp was calm in this region and the Imperial Fists found that they could navigate to and from the system with some surety. With their astropaths blind, the Legion's commanders grew increasingly frustrated as time wore on. Though a few amongst the senior captains and battlegroup commanders might chafe at Polux's orders, the majority of the fleet's commanders could not fault the young fleet master.The fleet was vulnerable, and an attack was likely. In such a position one needed to create a solid defence and conserve fighting strength. Polux's deployment addressed all of these needs with a direct elegance. The remains of the Retribution Fleet formed a sphere close to the Ocean World of Phall II. Each commander in the fleet led a battlegroup of smaller vessels. Every battlegroup moved on a precise looped course around the watery planet. Together the whole resembled a cage spun from the tails of comets.Captain Polux quickly established a routine. While regular scouting missions were launched into the Warp, the Legion's astropaths busied themselves with trying to break through the Warp storms and make contact with Terra, and in particular also with the Loyalists trapped on Isstvan III. The fleet was kept at full battle-stations and Polux relentlessly drilled his shield-equipped Breacher Squads, honing their skills at war like a blade edge made sharp only by harsh practice. They wanted to be prepared in case of any inevitable boarding actions. When an enemy came, the Imperial Fists needed to be ready. The opinions of others, whether they agreed with Polux or not, were of no consequence -- strength required obedience, not thought.When it inevitably came, the Traitors' attack, led by Perturabo and his Iron Warriors, was sudden and overwhelming. From his flagship the Gloriana-class Battleship Iron Blood, the Iron Warriors' primarch commanded the first one hundred voidships that burst into reality at the same moment. The Iron Warriors vessels brought their weapons to bear, firing as one upon the Imperial Fists vessel Hammer of Terra. The doomed warship exploded spectacularly as the enemy salvo set off a chain reaction in the ship's plasma engines. Within solar seconds of the death of the Hammer of Terra, twelve of its sisters followed, consumed by Nova Shell explosions and torpedo spreads.The Imperial Fists' grand cruiser Sulla fired a single salvo before enemy macrocannon fire stripped its shields and its hull became molten slag. The six destroyers clustered around it were destroyed in the explosion of the larger vessel's plasma reactor. The Crusader and Legate lasted scant solar seconds longer. They and their escorts were hit by a trio of Vortex Warheads and vanished into the hungering dark.Twenty-four grand cruisers and battle barges made up the tip of the Iron Warriors' fleet. In close formation around the capital ship Contrador they moved as one. They rammed through the debris of their kills, fire and molten metal smearing their prows. Around the Iron Blood hundreds of Traitor warships followed in close formation. Behind them, hundreds more emerged from the Warp to add to the Iron Warriors' fleet.Initially, the Imperial Fists' fleet fragmented under the attack. Flame-wreathed battle barges pulled back, trying to outpace the guns of the Iron Warriors. Heavy cruisers staggered their flight, first one taking fire, then the next, while faster strike cruisers tried to cover the heavier warships as they pulled away. As the golden Imperial Fists fleet broke into pieces, the Iron Warriors continued to press forwards. Smaller ships crippled targets, and then larger ships delivered the killing blows. It was methodical and merciless, like a siege drill eating through rock.Plunging his fleet into the midst of the Loyalist fleet, Pertuabo's strategy was to scatter the Imperial Fists' fleet formation and then to destroy it piecemeal. His plan was dependent upon the Loyalist warships not being able to fight back quickly enough to break the momentum of his thrust. However, Captain Polux and his fleet commanders quickly recovered from the shock and suddenness of Perturabo's attack and fought back. Despite their long sojourn at Phall, they had been kept in a state of constant battle-readiness. This policy paid off for the Imperial Fists as they began to concentrate their fire on the leading ships of Perturabo's fleet.This was what the long solar months of planning had been for, the hundreds of solar hours of training. The Retribution Fleet was ready to resist an attack, but they faced an enemy far greater than Polux had ever planned to face. The Iron Warriors had taken losses, but their strength remained. If the Imperial Fists had broken in the first moments of the battle, they would have died. If they had attempted to fight the Iron Warriors head on, they would have been slaughtered. The Iron Warriors knew their foes' weaknesses, the Imperial Fists theirs. The Iron Warriors had hoped to find the Loyalists unprepared, but they had not cracked after the first attack. The Imperial Fists' defence had snapped back into place like the cogs of a clockwork mechanism.The Loyalist fleet presented an unfixed fortress made of moving strike groups, fading resistance and punishing counter-attacks to their foes. Slower battleships drew fire, pulling Iron Warriors ships out of formation, while on the edge of the battle sphere fast strike groups looped around and through the margins of the Iron Warriors' fleet. They struck again and again, crippling, destroying, trimming warships from the edge of the enemy fleet like fat carved from meat. The Iron Warriors fleet was pulling itself apart as it tried to engage the Imperial Fists, and it bled at every turn. The Imperial Fists rallied and began inflicting significant casualties. The Iron Warriors still had greater numbers, but that margin quickly diminished.The Imperial Fists concentrated their fire at the leading ships of Perturabo's fleet. The impact of this was devastating to the Traitors as their lead ships were torn apart in the firestorm. As the lead ships were battered, the remainder of Perturabo's fleet broke off their attack to regroup. This gave the Loyalists the chance to go on the offensive, but before they did so, the Loyalist fleet's astropaths relayed a critical message to their commanders. The Imperial Fists' astropaths had succeeded in making contact with Terra and the VII Legion had urgent orders to return there, by the will of their primarch Rogal Dorn. These orders came with the highest priority. The Imperial Fists of the Retribution Fleet were not to let anything delay them.Coincidentally, a passage seemed to have somehow opened up in the Warp storms, though the Imperial Fists were not sure how long it would last. If they were to obey their primarch's orders, they had to withdraw from Phall while there was a chance of making it through the storms. Embattled against the Traitors of Perturabo and his Iron Warriors Legion, the Loyalists had an opportunity to force the issue and launch a counterattack against Perturabo's fleet, perhaps dealing a wound to the enemy so severe that the Iron Warriors might never recover. But they had their orders; it was the will of Rogal Dorn that they return to Terra post-haste. And so, sustaining horrific losses, Captain Polux ordered the Imperial Fists' Retribution Fleet to withdraw from the massive void conflict and made good their escape. |
Alexis Polux - Macragge: Polux would never reach Terra as his vessels were sucked into the Ruinstorm created by the sorcery of Kor Phaeron of the Word Bearers during the Battle of Calth, and were scattered around by that gargantuan Warp storm which proceeded to cut the galaxy in half. Eventually, Polux's Navigator discovered the beckoning light of the psychic beacon of Sotha, the xenos artefact called the Pharos, which Primarch Roboute Guilliman had ordered the Loyalist Iron Warriors Warsmith Barabas Dantioch to employ in creating a navigational reference point.Captain Polux arrived on the Ultramarines' capital world of Macragge. Once he was debriefed by Primarch Guilliman on current events, Polux employed his immense skill at defensive planning and void warfare in upgrading Ultramar's defence fleets and the surface augur webs of Magna Macragge Civitas, Macragge's capital city.Horribly injured in the Battle of Phall, Polux spent little time actually fighting, save for one terrible night. Night Lords Primarch Konrad Curze assaulted Macragge in secret after escaping from the justice of the Dark Angels aboard the I Legion's Gloriana-class flagship, the Invincible Reason. At the time, Polux was assisting Dantioch on far-off Sotha via the strange properties of Sotha's empathic field projector, when Curze assaulted him.Though Dantioch, immune to direct harm half a segmentum away, was able to assist Polux, Alexis simply couldn't kill Curze alone. Dantioch was able to save Polux by utilising the power of the strange xenos beacon of the Pharos, allowing Polux to stall Curze long enough for Guilliman and his brother Priamrch Lion El'Jonson to arrive and duel their evil brother.After Curze's failed attempt to kill his brothers, Polux stayed on Sotha for a time, assisting Dantioch, until the Ruinstorm abated when Horus was ready to initiate his final push on Terra. |
Alexis Polux - Second Founding: After the Horus Heresy played out to its inevitable tragic conclusion as the Siege of Terra, Roboute Guilliman, primarch of the Ultramarines Legion, penned the Codex Astartes. With its creation, the primarch demanded that his brothers accept his example by dividing their own Legions into 1,000-member Space Marine Chapters. Initially, Rogal Dorn opposed such a notion. He felt strongly that it was even more crucial for his Space Marines to remain consolidated so that they could continue to work closely together and protect the Imperium from the remnants of the Traitor Legions.The issue became an increasingly critical point of conflict between the two primarchs, as their arguments grew in intensity. Ultimately, Dorn decided that it was more important to concede to Guilliman's demands and divide his Legion than to run the risk of another Imperial civil war. After he accepted the decision, Dorn divided his Legion into multiple Successor Chapters.Two of the Chapters formed from the Imperial Fists Legion were the Black Templars and the Crimson Fists. The Crimson Fists Chapter's members were selected by Dorn from those Astartes who had been most recently initiated into the VII Legion, with the exception of its officers, who were all Veterans. While these battle-brothers were thoroughly trained and loyal warriors, they were among the VII Legion's most level-headed initiates. Because of this, the new Chapter Master would be able to more effectively implement the teachings and new traditions of the Codex Astartes.Alexis Polux was selected by Dorn to be the newly-founded Crimson Fists Chapter's first Chapter Master. Remembered as the "Great Father" by his brethren, Polux would go on to lead the Crimson Fists for the first 800 standard years of their existence. During this time, he did much to shape their interpretation of the Codex Astartes and their combat doctrines.Chapter Master Polux reorganised his battle-brothers in a format that followed closely with the structure prescribed by the Codex Astartes. However, he continued to follow many of the tactics and traditions that he had learned at the side of his primarch as a member of the Imperial Fists. For this reason, the Crimson Fists remained expert at defensive actions, just like their progenitors. The Chapter continued the tradition of permitting a single warrior to assume the heraldry and status of the Emperor's Champion prior to entering a major conflict, but this practice was only invoked upon rare occasions. Similarly, the Crimson Fists are one of the twelve Successor Chapters of the VII Legion that participate in the Feast of Blades, alongside the Imperial Fists.Through the centuries, as the Chapter continued to develop and build its own traditions, the Crimson Fists began to maintain a series of sacred solar days within each standard year. These were devoted to honouring and commemorating, but not worshiping, the Emperor, their primarch, and the Great Father Polux. The Chapter has come to embrace the Codex Astartes, including much of its core philosophy as regards preparation for battles. Their use of oral history as a reminder of their ancestors' actions, their ability to adapt to battle against hundreds of different species of xenos, and their aptitude for all phases of warfare all leave the Crimson Fists as a Chapter that is capable of defeating a broad range of opponents -- a lesson that they had to learn through the course of their extended crusades, many of them under the command of Alexis Polux. |
Alexis Polux - Death: Alexis Polux finally fell eight Terran centuries after the Founding of the Crimson Fists during the battle for an unnamed star system, codified as HR8518. The system was occupied by a previously unknown alien species, which came to be referred to as the Scythians. These deviant xenos warrior monks made battle using terrible venom-based weapons, and it was such a poisoned projectile that struck the Chapter Master in the temple and brought about his death.It is said he fought the deadly poison for many solar days before his transhuman physiology was finally overcome. After his death, his forces enacted his final plans, and the aliens were repulsed from the star system after a short but extremely bloody campaign of xenocide from which the Scythians learned the true power of the Imperium. These xenos have since rarely engaged Imperial forces in open battle, preferring instead to mount stealthy raids and assassinations where their deviant, underhanded and dishonourable ways can prevail. |
Alexis Polux - Wargear: Void-hardened Power ArmourFrag GrenadesKrak GrenadesIron HaloMaster-crafted Power FistVigil Pattern Storm ShieldCombi-melta |
Alicia Dominica - Alicia Dominica: Alicia Dominica, known as the "Patron Saint of the Sisterhood," "Bearer of the Grail of Ages," and "Founder of the Order of the Ebon Chalice," is revered throughout the Imperium of Man as both the founder and patron Imperial Saint of the Adepta Sororitas.She was canonised as a saint of the Imperial Cult. Alicia Dominica is renowned throughout the Imperium as the Sister who ended the Reign of Blood in the 36th Millennium when she beheaded the tyrannical High Lord Goge Vandire.In the aftermath of the galaxy-wide strife brought about by Vandire's tyranny, she formally founded the Sisterhood according to the instructions of Sebastian Thor, and established the Order of the Ebon Chalice as her own Order.Dominica led her Sisters on many crusades, and oversaw the early years of the Adepta Sororitas for several centuries before falling in battle at the Scourging of Frideswide's World.It is said that she survived literally hundreds of blows throughout the battle, but was finally laid low by a single lasgun blast that penetrated a weakened point in her armour and pierced her heart.The symbol of Dominica's Order is the skull-filled and flaming Ebon Chalice, a representation of the terrible knowledge imparted to Dominica when she was brought before the Golden Throne. Few are aware of the significance of this symbol in Sororitas art. |
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