Wayward Sons of Asromiamun

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

= PERSONAL LOG: FABRICATOR-GENERAL ZEPHANIAH ADRIYEN, FORGE WORLD RAGNARUS =

= ON THE SUBJECT OF RENEGADE SORCERER ASROMIAMUN =

= BEGIN LOG =

 

Heresy is not always a damning thing. Redemption is possible, as former Thousand Son Asromiamun has proven.

 

After slaying Princeps Altair Astor III of House Astor and unwittingly creating the creature that is Lord Leviathan, Sorcerer Asromiamun, Master of Shadows, realized his folly. He had been fighting alongside his brethren at the Burning of Prospero, and fell with his brothers during the Horus Heresy. He realized that he had been fighting on the wrong side for ten thousand years. Asromiamun then stripped his armor of its blue coloring, restoring his original red livery in honor of the Emperor.

 

Coincidentally, pre-Heresy Thousand Sons coloring resembles that of our own Crimson Knights, and in the heat of battle, all our Knights see is a strangely ornamented battle-brother fighting alongside them.

 

Asromiamun now fights for the Emperor, interfering with Chaos warbands in the area, taking special pleasure in striking down the Traitors of Leviathan and the Fallen Sixth, as if in repentance for his misdeeds against the forces of Ragnarus. Asromiamun can occasionally be seen striking at the heart of Chaotic warriors, alongside the Crimson Knights, my own Skitarii or House Astor, and he fights particularly fiercely in striking down Word Bearers and Thousand Sons armies who attack us.

 

Notably, Asromiamun has never been sighted fighting against an Alpha Legion warband. The reason for this has never been uncovered.

 

=ADDENDUM=

 

Concerns have been raised by Chapter Master Sangarinus of the Crimson Knights, Captain Pugius of the Seventh Company of the same, Princeps Astor of House Astor and several of my own magi that I did not discuss Asromiamun's retinue in the initial log as written, so I shall describe them now.

 

Asromiamun has four Sorcerers under his command; each one commands a small honor guard, and specializes in their own form of sorcery. Asromiamun himself possesses no honor guard, and specializes in the banishment of daemons and direct manipulation of the Warp. In order to make themselves less noticeable by Imperial forces, none of them bring their honor guard when fighting alongside the Imperium.

 

Sorcerer Kazem is Asromiamun's interrogator and deliverer of pain. He is sent by Asromiamun to relatively clandestine locations to bring the Emperor's Light to them. Sorcerer Kazem has an honor guard consisting of nine Rubricae, and Kazem wears a set of relatively standard Mk IV "Maximus" armor. Kazem specializes in torture and mind-reading.

 

Sorcerer Azghar is Asromiamun's foremost lieutenant, and his advisor. Azghar personally specializes in the manipulation of time, as well as the nullification of the effects of the Warp. Sorcerer Azghar wears a set of Tartaros-pattern Terminator armor, and has four Scarab Occult Terminators - Thousand Sons Tartaros-pattern-wearing Rubricae - as his retinue.

 

Sorcerer Ezmael is the youngest Sorcerer in Asromiamun's retinue, as he was a mere battle-brother when the Rubric of Ahriman was deployed; all four of the others were Sergeants at minimum. Ezmael is hot-blooded, and channels this into his sorcery, causing his targets to exsanguinate rather painfully. His retinue consists of his former squadmates, and he wears modified Achean-pattern armor.

 

Sorcerer Farzin, formerly known as the Lightning King, is responsible for overseeing the upkeep of every Rubric Marine in the warband. Farzin is unique in that he has reverse-engineered the sorcery of the Vlka Fenryka, and utilizes their powers as if they were his own. He carries great respect, and fear, for the Rout. He wears Tartaros-pattern Terminator armor, the very same as Azghar, and has a similar honor guard.

 

= END LOG =

[Brother Lunkhead]

Nice work I like the idea of a heretic redeemed, but I don't think the Imperium or the Mechanicus share this view. It's redemption by fire for them. Your Fabricator-General better keep this under wraps or he's certain to get a surprise visit from the Ordo Hereticus (backed up by a sizable Imperial Navy Fleet) and a Martian Battle Fleet too

 

This was an interesting comment:

 

Notably, Asromiamun has never been sighted fighting against an Alpha Legion warband. The reason for this has never been uncovered.

 

Is this a hint of possible intrigue? Should all make for some very interesting lore. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more.

[Brother Cambrius]

A heretic redeemed is certainly a rare and unique concept and one that is very tough to complete and have it fit within the universe well. But you've made a damned fine effort currently and I applaud and love the idea you have written out. The Alpha Legion addition's an interesting intrigue as well.

 

Only stumbling block I have is that since this involves a Thousand Son and the Warp, how have they not displayed signs of mutation or have they kept it well hidden, akin to how in many cases, Chaos Marines tend to bond with their armour and cannot take it off, thus the mutations are not visible?

 

Cambrius

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

They're all Rubricae and Sorcerers; the Rubricae can't take off their armor, and the Sorcerers simply refuse to. He runs his own small warband (it occurs to me that was unclear in the initial writing) and yeah, doesn't take off his armor. Each of his Sorcerers is individually mutated, and none of them usually remove their armor, for various reasons.

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

Had my in-character counterpart add an addendum, to clarify the existence of the warband.

 

By the way, why is the line about the Alpha Legion so interesting to everyone? It was a nod to the idea that the Alpha Legion aren't actually traitors.

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

= ENCRYPTED MESSAGE ALPHA PRIORIS: INQUISITOR FIGUEORA, ORDO HERETICUS -> FABRICATOR-GENERAL ZEPHANIAH ADRIYEN =

= ON THE PRESENCE OF ASROMIAMUN =

= BEGIN MESSAGE =

 

Fabricator-General, I have been informed of the presence of the heretics known as Asromiamun Vakili, Kazem Eftekhar, Esmael Thoraval, Farzin Shajarian and Azghar Forsman, known as the "Wayward Sons of Asromiamun", upon your Forge World. These five individuals and their retinue are guilty of the crimes of heresy, sorcery and association with the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion. I would hope that I will not have to deal with the situation myself, and that your Skitarii are as faithful in the Emperor as you claim them to be.

 

In the Emperor's name,

Inquisitor Figueora.

 

= END MESSAGE =

[Knight of the Raven]

Farzin reverse-engineered the Space Wolves' sorcery? I'm not looking forward to the incoming hailstorm over that, both in and out of universe. Still a delicious, ironic development from where I'm standing, though.

I love how utterly cavalier the fabricator-general is when he lists torture as one of Kazem's specialties. Now that's a disciple of the Machine God. I'm still a little thrown off by how much he knows about Asromiamun's warband, but the lore about his Wayward Sons has to be described in some way.

There's something beautiful about "a strangely ornamented battle-brother fighting alongside them" being all the Crimson Knights see when the cabal takes to the field, I find.

It's also fitting that these loyalists only amount to five individuals—the rubric marines don't have a choice in their loyalty, even if there might be a spark of sapience happy with what happened beneath all that dust. An entire warband seeing the light would probably too much to swallow considering the themes of the setting.

 

By the way, why is the line about the Alpha Legion so interesting to everyone? It was a nod to the idea that the Alpha Legion aren't actually traitors.

The thing about the Alpha Legion is that nothing is certain about them; that's their entire point. They're an open door for the fans to indulge in their wildest crack theory fantasies. They're the Pandora's Box of lies, secrets and 'what's really going on.'

As such, your Wayward Sons never fighting them can be understood as the Alpha Legion not being traitors, as you've intended (though who initiates the absence of fighting is unclear). But it can also be understood as the Alpha Legion having infiltrated the warband, using them as cat's paws, refusing to face them because they believe the Wayward Sons know enough about them to genuinely wipe out their cell, never displaying their real colors when they did fight them... or even something as simple as the Alpha Legion never setting foot anywhere near the Ragnarus system, thus making a fight between them and the Wayward Sons simply impossible.

The other thing about the Alpha Legion is that there isn't 'an' Alpha Legion. Like other Traitor Legions, they're in fact countless warbands who consider themselves Alpha Legion. Some of them may not even have a single DNA strand of Alpharius' geneseed in them.

'The Alpha Legion are actually loyalists' and 'the Alpha Legion are traitors through and through' are both false. 'Some Alpha Legion warbands are loyalists' and 'some Alpha Legion warbands are traitors' is closer to the truth. With Chaos in the cards and entropy of goals and values being the name of the game in Warhammer 40,000, 'these Alpha Legion warbands are convinced they're helping the Imperium when in fact they're nothing but puppets to the Chaos Gods' is also a very big contender.

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

Farzin reverse-engineered the Space Wolves' sorcery? I'm not looking forward to the incoming hailstorm over that, both in and out of universe. Still a delicious, ironic development from where I'm standing, though.

 

Just a fun, fluffy idea I had to explain why I'm running these guys as Loyalist Librarians from different chapters.

 

I love how utterly cavalier the fabricator-general is when he lists torture as one of Kazem's specialties. Now that's a disciple of the Machine God. I'm still a little thrown off by how much he knows about Asromiamun's warband, but the lore about his Wayward Sons has to be described in some way.

 

Who says he hasn't been in contact with them? Inquisitor Figueora did mention that the Wayward Sons were reportedly on Ragnarus Prime...

 

There's something beautiful about "a strangely ornamented battle-brother fighting alongside them" being all the Crimson Knights see when the cabal takes to the field, I find.

 

Oh, some of them might pick up on the fact that these guys with the stripes on their helmets and the shinier armor aren't actually members of the Crimson Knights, buuuut it's more fun to have them show up and be relatively unnoticed.

 

It's also fitting that these loyalists only amount to five individuals—the rubric marines don't have a choice in their loyalty, even if there might be a spark of sapience happy with what happened beneath all that dust. An entire warband seeing the light would probably too much to swallow considering the themes of the setting.

 

Funny thing is, they're still an even thousand points on the tabletop once I've actually purchased them, meaning I can run a pure "THOUSAND SONS" army for them; there's just only Sorcerers and Rubricae (of the Tartaros- and Achean-pattern varieties).

[Knight of the Raven]

Just a fun, fluffy idea I had to explain why I'm running these guys as Loyalist Librarians from different chapters.

It's a cool idea indeed. Going from rules to lore, though, I'm not sure it's necessary to reverse-engineer anything when it comes to psychic powers. From my understanding, they are thoughts made manifest; and being such, are influenced by culture. There is no such thing as 'Nocturne sorcery*' as far as I know, for example, and Salamanders librarians could still summon a roiling mass of flames shaped like a draconic head and unleash it on their foes in 3rd Edition. I'm not sure Farzin would need anything more than 'become one with the blizzard' or some such to use whichever powers the Space Wolves have right now.

 

Still a cool idea, as I said. And it was nice to have him respect the sons of Russ when it could have been so easy to thumb his/your nose at them instead.

 

Who says he hasn't been in contact with them? Inquisitor Figueora did mention that the Wayward Sons were reportedly on Ragnarus Prime...

I realized that later. I was thrown off because it read more like he had learned all of that from a Codex in our world rather than by investigating or talking with them.

 

My second realization was that it all read like a codex entry because it was his personal log, in which he laid out his findings about the Wayward Sons of Asromiamun. Of course it's going to sound like an excerpt from a lorebook.

 

Oh, some of them might pick up on the fact that these guys with the stripes on their helmets and the shinier armor aren't actually members of the Crimson Knights, buuuut it's more fun to have them show up and be relatively unnoticed.

My point was more that these five sorcerers simply went where they were needed, helped turn the tide (or prevent a retreat from turning into a bloody rout), then left without asking or waiting for thanks or rewards. There's something noble in that.

 

Granted, I'm extrapolating a whole lot from a single sentence that didn't mention any of what I pictured in my mind when I read it.

 

 

* there is such a thing as 'Nocturne necromancy and/or fleshcrafting,' if I remember the Tome of Fire trilogy correctly.

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

= SECURITY CLEARANCE ALPHA PRIORIS REQUIRED TO ACCESS ENCRYPTED FILE =

.

.

.

= ACCESS GRANTED =

.

.

.

= DISPLAYING DOCUMENT =

= INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT: SORCERER KAZEM EFTEKHAR, WAYWARD SONS =

= RECORDED ON <REDACTED> =

= BEGIN LOG =

(Interviewer was Archmagos <REDACTED>, interviewee was Kazem Eftekhar, of the Wayward Sons.)

A: Describe your reasoning for rejoining the Imperium, from your perspective, not from Asromiamun's own.

K: Well, it's quite simple. As eternal as Chaos is, I and the others have seen the other side. We know our enemy in a way the Inquisition cannot fathom, and we choose to side with the Emperor. As decrepit as the current Imperium is, I see it as the lesser of two evils. I'm sure most of the others have similar reasoning.

 

A: Interesting. What is your opinion on the current-day members of your original Legion?

K: They are misguided. They follow our Primarch, who is just as misguided. Magnus was - and still is - a wise man. However, Magnus' transcendence to the status of Daemon Prince, and his subsequent subservience to the Chaos God Tzeentch, makes him weak. He bows before a warp creature, and thusly is not worth my time to follow. If he would ever redeem himself and fight back against the Chaos Gods, I would return to his service.

 

A: And your opinion toward the Crimson Knights?

K: I always had great respect for the Blood Angels. The sons of Sanguinius always had a soft spot in my blackened, mutated hearts. After all, the second Legion down from the Thousand Sons in psychic potential was always the Blood Angels. The Crimson Knights, however... they carry dual gene-seed. I can sense it. The Iron Hands always seemed... rash, and cold, to me. I know not what to think of the Crimson Knights; perhaps exposure will allow me to know and perhaps trust them.

 

A: Quite interesting. Why have you specialized in torture and interrogation sorcery?

K: It's quite simple, really. We had need of an interrogator, and I rose to the challenge. I deliver pain only as Asromiamun directs, or in response to violence toward me.

 

A: Explain how you and your thralls' weaponry still functions without the blessing of Tzeentch.

K: They carried daemonic spirits against their will anyway. A change in allegiance did not change that. Promethium tanks are still filled with daemonic energies, and bolt rounds are still charged with the power of Chaos, even against Chaos.

 

A: And your sorcery?

K: Sorcery is learned, it is not tied to the Chaos Gods - with the exception of the natural head-explosions customary to Khornate psykers.

 

A: Thank you, Kazem. It's interesting to get a view into the operations and mind of a redeemed heretic.

K: It was my pleasure, Archmagos.

= END LOG =

[Brother Lunkhead]

Very very nice work Zeph The interrogation transcript is very revealing. 

 

 

A: And your sorcery?

K: Sorcery is learned, it is not tied to the Chaos Gods - with the exception of the natural head-explosions customary to Khornate psykers.

 

Now that's very interesting...… sounds along the lines of Magnus' original philosophy and understanding of "warp magic". But, that's what got him into so much trouble in the first place. Sorcery IS tied to the warp and therefore to the  gods of the warp. Very interesting

 

KotR hits the nail right on the head about the Alpha Legion..... that's why we turn our heads when there's even a mention of the AL Some are loyal, others are traitors, some think they're loyal, but are actually traitors, others think they're traitors, but are unknowingly working towards loyalist ends..... all makes my head want to explode like a Khornate psyker. That's why I just shoot these guys on sight  It's just simpler that way

 

Excellent stuff..... just makes me want to read more.

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

= PERSONAL LOG: SORCERER KAZEM EFTEKHAR =

= NECRONTYR AND DEFEAT =

= BEGIN LOG =

My hatred for the xenos threat knows no bounds. I discovered the Rotting Hand - a local Death Guard warband - allying with that Khornate warband, the Bloodied Sons, or whatever they're calling themselves. They had uncovered a Necron tomb on a world very near to the Ragnarus system. I and my retinue stepped in to assist; in the end, Chaos is preferable to xenos rule, certainly; at least we're still human. The unified Chaos front accepted my assistance, and we made haste to destroy the ancient warriors.

 

Alas, we were defeated. One of my own Rubricae was the first to fall; I teleported him back to our starship for repairs. The enemy almost seemed to recognize that my presence was one of the most dangerous. In the moment I would have fallen, I teleported myself and my remaining Rubricae away. However, I continued to observe the fight.

 

The enemy had, of all things, two Monoliths. At least one Cryptek was present as well, leading two squads of Warriors and a squad of Immortals. A single Overlord and his C'tan pet also harassed us; I would assume he was the leader. Daemon Prince Traditorio dueled the C'tan directly and won, with heavy cost; he himself was banished in the resulting tear in the fabric of reality brought on by the destruction of the Shard. Even Rotting Hand Terminator support wasn't enough to defeat the scions of the ancient Necrontyr race.

= END LOG =