Being a thread on Julius Kaesoron

[LSM]

This is prompted by a post in the Horus Hearsay thread. There, a frater threw out the idea of a Julius Kaesoron model (for 30k), and suggested a dual pack in both TDA and MkIV PA... which set the wheels spinning in my head, as my mental image of him (primarily from the books) was only in Cataphractii plate. This resulted in me going back over the character, and I figure it might be neat to have a thread about where he's been, and what we might see of him in future - a dark horse alternative to Eidolon or Doomrider as far as further Emperor's Children personalities in the 41st Millennium. 

 

//

 

Going over his appearances, I believe the origin of the character can likely be traced to the Horus Heresy CCG, which included the below art:

 

From there, he appeared in Fulgrim (2007):

• Introduced in white robes (and long blonde hair); no mention of armour. He's the Captain of the First Company (a high rank, though less so than in other Legions due to the additional presence of Lord Commanders). Presented as someone notable for taking particular interest in the arts outside of war, and being their generous patron.
• A scene wearing purple toga, red cloak, and gold (sculpted) breastplate. He is possibly in power armour, as there aren't any of the mentions of the weight or ponderance one would assume from TDA. (Though there aren't in later scenes either - characters often act as if they're not dressed as walking tanks.)
• At the Temple of the Laer, Kaesoron is noted to be leading the First Company, and the text immediately brings up their Terminator armour. Kaesoron is called "the Terminator captain", and he guns down some flying Laer with bolter fire and smashes a wall with his Power Fist. He gets corrupted by the Temple (an addition to the broader EC lore that, in general, I greatly dislike).
• Post-Temple, Kaesoron begins spiralling into darkly-hedonistic philosophy. There's a scene mentioning his sitting (while armoured) on a steel stool (!). It... seems impossible for power armour, but I really can't imagine a Terminator sitting on a stool.
• At Fulgrim's attempt to sway Ferrus, Kaesoron is "resplendent in his Terminator armour", and wields (retractable) Lightning Claws (*snikt*) in a not-very-30k style.
• At Isstvan V, Kaesoron is wielding a glaive and fights as a wild, whirling, lunatic. (Which seems incongruous with TDA.) His face gets severely burned, causing him to scream "in orgasmic pleasure". He then taps out of the fighting, to defile bodies and add trophies of flesh to his armour.

In The Relfection Crack'd (2012):

• A scene with his eyes described as milky orbs set in a blessedly beautiful face of of disgusting burn tissue. (It's noted that he ineffectively petitioned for the Legion to change its name from Emperor's Children, and for Fulgrim to change the name of their flagship from Pride of the Emperor.) His armour is described as embellished with spikes strewn with leathered hides.
• At the slaughter of Prismatica V, Kaesoron is mentioned once more in the same breath as the Terminators fighting at Fulgrim's side. ("Bludgeoning" a path through the enemy, with "brute force" and notes on Terminator Armour making a warrior "nigh invincible".)
• Kaesoron talks about others being foolishly focussed on what the EC were instead of what they are, with a focus on the glories of pain and suffering. He's also flighty and uncaring of anything but what's next.
• He's finally overtly referred to as being "encased in his spiked and flesh-wrapped Terminator armour".

In Angel Exterminatus (2012)

• Described as wearing Cataphractii armour, covered in spikes and flesh. (But still purple and gold underneath.) He has had horns implanted on his head, and his "milky" eyes replaced with ocular components that give him the look of "too-wide orbs of utter blackness".
• He is left to guard a strategic point as Fulgrim's apotheosis goes on. Vibing, Kaesoron hysterically starts cutting himself, before his forces fall amongst each other (he's the last one standing). It is mentioned that he seems to be moving "too fast" for someone wearing Cataphractii plate.

In Primacy (2023)

• His armour is described as being coloured with "madly lacquered surfaces" and "tarnished gold"; as well his teeth (previously describe as rotting) have been replaced by pearl, platinum, bone, and diamond. He is noted to twitch and drool in his mania, his horns described glistening wetly and his eyes "too-black".
• The story presents Kaesoron, Lord Commander Cyrius, and Lord Commander Eidolon as being representative of the three ways that the Emperor's Children can go. Kaesoron advocates for attempting to seek out Fulgrim, and joining with his hedonistic aloofness. (Cyrius is for keeping their focus on Terra, and presents a "saner" pre-Heresy-esque boring track. Eidolon argues that "slavish devotion" to Fulgrim and becoming Horus' "whipped curs" are both uncalled for, and the best path forward is to carve their own pleasures upon the galaxy).

Wrath of Iron (2012)

• I have not read this (despite how much I want to; Iron Hands + Slaanesh + Chris Wraight = sounds great), and would greatly appreciate if anyone could cast some more light on it.
• From what I can gather, the book is about the Iron Hands purging a system in the 41st Millennium that had fallen to Slaanesh. It's eventually revealed that the orchestrator of the corruption is Julius Kaesoron, now a Daemon Prince. An excerpt I've come across describes him as pure daemon, but with "metal talons" which break off of the gauntlets of his "ancient armour", so I think his form is still relatively "Space Marine-ish".

//

 

The Horus Heresy Legions mobile CCG would go on to reuse the original 'Kaesoron' art for their 'Sardaeron Terminators', and then produce a new Julius Kaesoron in ~MkIV armour. (Which has his horns - how does he get that helmet on? - but none of the other described bits and bobs. No spikes or flesh, and the books definitively say that he's stopped wearing a helmet by the time of Isstvan V to better experience the battlefield.)

 

 

I'd also like to note a couple thing with his Lexicanum entry. It mentions "mechanical eyes", and while it's possible to read Angel Exterminatus that way I think it's arguable that the ocular components implanted could be biological. There are also two pictures of him in Power Armour, but the one sourced to Horus Heresy Legions also appears on page 108 of Collected Visions Vol I with the name "Kuller-Hal". The other image is sourced to Collected Visions pg 194, but the copy I have has Salamanders and Raven Guard on that page, and I can't find the image elsewhere in the book (though it's very possible that I missed it, or that it's just from a different edition, etc, I suppose).

 

//

 

Anyway, with Lucius and Eidolon being "mortal champions" and Fulgrim being a giant Primarch, there could be a niche for a 40k Kaesoron as a more mid-level Daemon Prince character.

 

Not realistic, though, I suppose. Eidolon has dibs on any future additional character (as both prominent in the lore, and filling a "named Lord Kakophonist" role). And then I imagine the nostalgia for Doomrider might fuel his chromium steed to zoom in ahead of Julius in the pecking order.

 

Edited June 5 by LSM

[apologist]

Great post, thanks @LSM – always love deep dives like this. I'm happy to say that Wrath of Iron does have quite a bit on Kaesoron – I've spoilered things below, as it contains the physical descriptions. Hope it's useful to you, and I'd thoroughly encourage you to pick up Wrath of Iron.

 

 

The monster lurched into battle, crushing the brittle landscape of ruin beneath its feet. It moved with none of the sinuous grace of the lesser daemons – it was a patchwork creature of scraps and ancient relics, locked together by sorcery and its own infernal will. As it moved, whips of purple light slapped and slipped around it, bouncing from the shards of old, clattering battle-plate.

 

It grinned as it advanced, and its sutured face stretched. Iron teeth, each of them filed to points and dripping with viscous saliva, flashed through the drifting smog. Its eyes stared ceaselessly, bleary with malice and madness. Its lightning claws snickered back and forth, grinding against one another as the horror flexed its tattered muscles.

 

Across its enormous torso hung the remnants of an old breastplate, burst open by the glossy flesh beneath. An Imperial aquila had once adorned it, picked out in gold, but was now almost entirely obscured by baroque adornments and freshly-lacquered panels. Some of its residual armour had been painted a vivid purple; other pieces glowed with lurid pastel shades.
[...]

The daemon rocked back on its cloven hooves, thrashing its arms through the deluge and hurling gouts of the silvery matter in all directions. [...]

It plunged towards Nedim, swinging its claws in slow, pendulous motions. As it lumbered into range, fragments of its haphazard body began to break away, flaking free like scales being dragged from the hide of some enormous saurian.

[…]

For all its shambolic appearance, the creature was the fastest enemy he had ever faced.

[...]The daemon’s face hung over him. Its skin was hanging from its bones, suspended by stray lines of surgical wire. Blood ran freely down across its hide, pooling and bubbling in the folds of flayed flesh and shattered armour pieces. Jewels clanged on their twisted chains, each of them lit from within by twisting flames. Some of them were round and smooth, with the sheen of xenos artifice on their surfaces.

The daemonic face swung lower, and fluid dripped from the exposed flesh onto Telach’s helm. Its breath stank of incense and musk.
[...]
The creature hung low over him. It had been wounded badly by the sudden withdrawal of its ethereal support. Its patchwork face ran with dark blood. Under the skin was a whirl of latticed light, throbbing and pulsing like electrical currents in a cogitator

[...]

The daemon’s face was shrinking away, dissolving like flesh in acid. The sutures came loose, freeing up flaps of skin and exposing firmer, older flesh beneath. For a moment, before the last of the gaudy, rouged-streaked embellishments fluttered away, something like elegance was revealed – a taut, aristocratic visage, cruel and intelligent.

 

There were some in the Imperium who might have recognised that face. Some lords of the Ordo Malleus might have identified the features of one who had been First Captain of the III Legion, who had fought alongside gods in the age of wonder when the Imperium was forged, who had strode across the bloodied plains of Laeran, of Isstvan, of Terra, and who, after the ruin of a traitor’s hopes, had been slowly changed by the wearing horror of the Eye. They might have known what hopes had once been placed in him, how admired and feared he had been, and just how far into madness he had fallen at the end.

Edited June 5 by apologist