- "Chaos is the Absolute. All who deny that must be destroyed. Only when the Galaxy burns in Holy Fire can there be peace."
- —Azunar
Azunar (Original name Azun'Kar) the Daemon Prophet and Herald of Chaos, is the Chaos Lord of the Dreadhost Warband, and the larger Dark Priesthood organization. A fanatical devotee of the Dark Powers, Azunar has spent the last ten thousand years filled with an insatiable hatred for all things that do not benefit and serve the Forces of Chaos, and takes it upon himself to lead a Crusade across the cosmos to burn away all things 'sinful.'
Biography
Cursed Beginnings
Azunar was born upon Colchis to two minor clergy members of the Covenant. He was born with the name Azun'Kar, though the meaning of that name in the Colchisian language has been lost to time. Even in early life Azun'Kar was clearly in peril: He was a psyker, haunted by the creatures of the Warp, but never destroyed by them. Even worse, however, was the truth that he was objectively insane. From birth and through his entire life, Azun'Kar developed a fanatical and brutal view on whatever religion he would follow at any given time: that the majority of people, and the majority of existence itself, was sinful, and needed to be cleansed through acts of extreme abasement and fanatic worship.
The Godsworn
Azun'Kar's life of fanaticism and self-hatred would continue until the rise of Lorgar. The Primarch's creed of the One True God and the creation of the Godsworm faction drove Azun'Kar into a violent religious frenzy, swiftly joining the armies of the Old Faith in the War for Colchis.
For years he would slaughter the followers of the Primarch with extreme prejudice, showing no mercy to their cause. However, as time went by, Azun'Kar would see that the Godsworm were winning, and that their leader, Lorgar, stood at an unnatural stature, striding forth like a golden demigod. Eventually, Azun'Kar would use his cold, psychopathic reasoning to determine that Lorgar was indeed justified in his war, for how would the forces of true divinity lose to heathens? Azun'Kar turned his guns against his former allies, murdering his own parents in cold blood, before going on to earn many victories for the Godsworn. Azun'Kar would prove to have a natural skill in military tactics, and would come to lead forces to victory even when outnumbered. Through these deeds as a mortal youth, Azun'Kar was inducted into the Word Bearers Legion upon the Emperor's arrival.
Early Days
- "Forward! Crush them in the Emperor's Name! Burn their heathenish shrines and false idols!"
- —Azunar during the Purging of Arank
Azun'Kar and his fellow Godsworn would be inducted into a new Chapter composed entirely of Colchis-Born. They were called the Chapter of the Black Comet, named after an ancient Colchisian prophecy of a Comet of Darkness bringing annihilation to the enemies of the Faith. The Chapters link to a ancient, doom-laden prophecy was not random: They were recruited from the more fanatical and pious of the faith, and were more violent in their interpretations of the Emperor's divine will. They would rebuild worlds as their Brothers did, but they would take less time doing so, ever eager to continue the crusade.
Azun'Kar, at first a lowly Battle-Brother, would rise through the ranks exponentially. At the Purging of the Arank System in the Segmentum Obscurus, Azun'Kar took command when the sergeant commanding his Squad fell in battle, and lead the Word Bearers to victory through a series of well-timed ambush maneuvers against the Xenos. For his oratory skills and ability to sway hearts and minds, Azun'Kar was promoted to Chaplain, though he still served as the commander of a Word Bearer squad. Azun'Kar's sermons, weighing more on the impurities of mortal life and the need to abase oneself before the Emperor, began to become popular among the battle-brothers of the Chapter, driving them to further acts of faith. Azun'Kar at some point adopted the name Azunar, seemingly because his old name seemed over-complicated and difficult to pronounce. At the Salvation of Mhurdok, Azunar lead the main charge of Word Bearer forces, and was promoted to Captain for his bravery. All the while, however, Azunar was still haunted by his psychic mind, barely managing to hide his cursed abilities.
Following the death of the Captain of the 2nd Company at the hands of an Ork Warboss, Azunar claimed that tile for himself, becoming both a High Chaplain and Captain. In command of both the spiritual and military affairs of the Second Company, Azunar would continue his crusade unceasingly. That is until the burning of Monarchia.
Descent into Darkness
At the rebuking of the Emperor and the destruction of the Perfect City, the entire Word Bearers legion entered a state of melancholy and despair. However, while Azunar's brethren were moaning and despairing, Azunar was thinking. The Emperor's rebuke seemed to jar his mind, make him even more vulnerable to the psychic predators of the Warp. At this time his visions worsened, and voices spoke out to him, promising power, glory and eternal life in return for servitude. Azunar resisted these visions for a time, but eventually came to a realization when the Dark Gods reached out to him. The Old Gods of Colchis were real! They always had been! Azunar knew this, even when the Pilgrimage had only begun. Old thoughts and ideas returned, and he began to see sin and vileness in all his fellow Astartes. Thus, he prepared a great treason against his allies. Spreading the worship of the Dark Gods in secret among the mortal serfs and servants of the Chapter Fleet, Azunar set into motion his mad scheme when the Gellar Field Generators of each and every starship under his command was detonated, while the Fleet was still in Warp transit. Dark forces overtook the ship, and Azunar's laughter could be heard fused with the screams of his own brothers.
What occurred precisely cannot be known, and should not be known, for to know what horrors Azunar gleefully unleashed on his own brethren would be to invite the same insanity that gripped the Chaplain. The Black Comet would remain nonexistant, entirely subsumed by Warp Space, until the dawn of the Heresy.
Reemergence
The Horus Heresy had begun. The Word Bearers were preparing to lay siege to Ultramar. Before they could, they found unexpected reinforcements.
Bursting from the Warp came a fleet of Daemonships, half machine hull and half warp-infested flesh. The mortal servitors of the Black Comet had fused horrifically with the Ships themselves, and those that did not had either become food for Daemons or warped into teeming hordes of Chaos Spawn. The Black Comet Astartes were twisted by the Warp, many of them possessed by Daemons, and even those who were not were wracked by mutation, their armor covered in intricate, curved patterns that were other to this world, inherently wrong to reality.
Where once their were ten Companies, where once there was 1,000 Astartes, there were now only 450 Space Marines, and only Four companies. Attending Azunar were the four commanders of the Companies, their former identities completely lost to time: four Possessed Champions that went by the names Khaane, Tezen, Slanat, and Narag. Each company was 100 strong, with the remaining 50 Astartes being the most powerful and mutated. These would be the Elite of the Chapter. The Ruinous Circle they were called. Sorcerers, Champions and Madmen supreme, they were the lesser priests of his order. Together, the reborn Black Comet Chapter had renamed itself the Dreadhost, and all would burn before them, as the Gods will it.
The Horus Heresy
They fought in the Battle of Calth, reveling in insanity and brutality, and soon after escaped from the planet with Kor Phaeron. They would go on to plague the Galaxy throughout the entire Horus Heresy, enslaving entire populations and driving the mortals before them as meat-shields. They were entirely without mercy and compassion, and their legacy would always be fire, chains and madness.
Azunar's sermons now held a far more depraved and unhinged meaning: he preached that the Material Universe itself was inherently sinful, a lie, and that it was the will of the Gods to have every world, or at least every living world, in the Galaxy transformed into a Daemon World, that all beings may freely and equally bask in the glorious light of Chaos. It was this purpose that the Dreadhost dedicated itself to, and this purpose it would follow until the end of days.
Even after their defeat and fleeing to the Eye of Terror, the Dreadhost was triumphant. For in his time within the Warp, Azunar made a Pact with the Forge of Souls. Every drop of blood shed by his army, their enemies or their own, would be given to the Forge, and in return the Forge would give Azunar a weapon and fortress that could ply the stars and be the center of his Crusade. And so they gave him the massive, Warp-Forged fortress known as the Sanctified Desolation. This would be their Great Edifice, a monument of worship and adoration to the insanity of the Warp from which they could strike at the Imperium, and at all who would defend the ordered universe that must be cast aside.
At Present
The Dreadhost and their tyrant-priest leader have been a blight of madness and terror for the past ten thousand years, their crusade bringing ruin to millions of worlds and spreading the corruption of the Warp into Realspace like a reality-eating cancer. Theirs is not a war of ancient grudges, but of a depraved sense of divine duty. The Chaos Gods demand a Galaxy of unending madness and anarchy, and they will see it done.
(To be added later)
Appearence and Physiology
Azunar is always seen wearing tattered, black robes over a dark, long-dried blood red armor, the robes torn and tattered by the many spikes on the armor, less wearing the robes and more having them impaled along his back. His armor is covered in both Colchisian and Daemonic runes, and his helm eyes, rather than green, burn a bright, fiery orange/red.
His helmet is covered in the assorted decor of a Chosen Champion, with four esoteric, curving horns protruding from it's scalp. The Armor is structured to give off a vastly daemonic feel, to look as if the wearer is possessed by a daemon. The armor appears to have many bonelike ridges and spikes, as well as non euclidean designs in the armor's shape.
Azunar's soul is so utterly infused with the energies of the Warp that it radiates pure Chaos outward from itself, as if it were a shard of pure insanity rather than a human spirit. Liquid aetheria, the very stuff of insanity, leaks from his armor like water from a reservoir, infecting and corrupting everything around him.
Personality and Traits
Azunar is a Crusader at heart, leading his armies from the front and setting worlds ablaze. He is absolutely convinced that the Material Universe is a sinful lie, and illusion, and must be cast aside in favor of the Realm of Chaos. To achieve this end, he launches twisted holy wars to convert Mankind to the worship of Chaos and to undermine reality and actuality themselves.
Azunar is famous for being extremely ruthless on the battlefield. Clad in daemonic armor and wielding his Dark Crozius, Azunar is capable of reaping great and terrible destruction in a brief amount of time. Wielding dark and esoteric powers drawn from the Warp, Azunar is an avatar of destruction.
Powers and Abilities
- Font of Chaos: Azunar himself is a locus of Warp power, the energies of Chaos wafting off of him as if his own body were a Warp rift. This aura of corruption and daemonic power thins the veil wherever he may tread
- Centre of Zeal: Azunar's presence on the battlefield invigorates his allies and servants, driving them to ever more debased and vile acts.
- Chaos Abyss: Azunar can open rifts to the Warp with ease, easily summoning Daemonic cohorts to his side.
Wargear
- Armor of Darkest Faith: Forged in the Forge of Souls for this Apostle, it's metal cooled with the blood of a hundred sacrifices, the armor is heavily corrupted by the powers of the Warp. Covered in daemonic runes and symbols that glow with malignant power, it is more like the armor of a Daemon than an Astartes.
- Judgement: The name given to his Dark Crozius, Judgement is an ancient weapon of great power. The one who wields it has his words suffused in the power of the Immaterium, making his rhetoric ever more convincing. In the hands of a skilled orator such as Azunar, this power is used to great potential, entire worlds swayed to his creed. It has an alternate form as a Hellblade, crackling with the powers of the Warp.
Relations
Allies
(Feel free to add your own)
Valkyura Warpschild:
The Chaos Sorceress and Possessed Champion of Chaos, Valkyura Warpschild, made good her alliance with Azunar late in the 41st Millenium, the pair coming together over mutual devotion to the will of Chaos. While Azunar initially demanded Valkyuras fealty, and supplication, he was denied by her strong conviction and faith in the dark gods, whom she swore were the only beings she would ever bow to and prostrate herself before. She however, recognised the shared goal between them, the galaxy-spanning worship of the ruinous powers, and so has committed herself and her forces to aiding Azunar, when and if he requires them, her only desire to see the culmination of a galaxy ruled the Dark Gods.
Enemies
(Feel free to add your own)
Quotes
By
- " All that Lorgar has taught us is true. All that I speak is truth. I am the Word of Lorgar given flesh to inhabit, air to breath and blood to flow through it's veins. We all are."
- —Azunar
- " My Brothers, we all should know by now that the greater Legion has, sadly, lost it's way. The Word is meant to uplift humanity, not bind it in chains. If our Crusade is to succeed, we must educate those we conquer in the Word. Thus, we shall lead a alliance of Astartes AND Mortals, working side by side in the name of the Gods. Anyone have a grievance with my decision, you may consult my Crozius."
- —-Azunar, upon declaring the foundation of The Dark Priesthood
- " I've waited 10,000 years for victory, and I can wait a thousand times more."
- —-Azunar regarding the stubbornness of the Imperium
About
(Feel free to add your own)
- "Come my Brother! Let us bring ruin to the lackeys of the Corpse-Emperor! And illuminate the galaxy to the Primordial Truth of the Dark Gods! Men, Xenos and even the stars themselves will supplicate to the will of Chaos!"
- —Valkyura Warpschild
- "I must say the man is a bit of a joykill. Here I am talking about having a good time robbing some farmers or capturing a whole town's population for use as slaves and he starts chastising me about not being a worthy enough follower of the dark gods. He even assigned me tomes to read!"
- —Dolfdir of the Crusaders Once Crossed
- "This Azunar's got almost as many titles as I do."
- —St. Athaliah the Flame The Emperor's Bride, Our Lady of Necromunda, Mother of the Faithful, Our Lady of the Flame, Mystical Rose, etc. etc.
- "Anybody ever tell you, you rave just like a Redemptionist Preacher?"
- "Kneel? I will never bow to any but the Gods themselves, Brother. For only they, in all their majesty, deserve my devotion, however, your own forces greatly dwarf my own. As such, you could easily force me to serve, but I do not believe you will. After all, we worship Chaos Undivided, and divided, we shall never achieve victory. You have my support, brother, but you will never have my servitude."
- —Valkyura Warpschild, responding to demands of fealty.