Swooping over the blood soaked plains of the daemon world answering the summons, Marduk’s thoughts drifted over the circumstances of his ascendancy. From the first whispered tales of Khorne before the grand revolution throwing down the false emperor, through the endless journeys through the warp, leading his warband in one battle after another for the glory of Khorne…..
…Many were the battles of my Marauders carving out swathes of destruction and carnage through the galaxy. In their wake only the charred ruins of systems, onward to the new sector and fresh offerings of skulls and spilling of blood for the Dark Powers. Until the day the Imperial Battle Fleet came and our only solace of escape lay within the warp. Chaos heeded our call. A titanic warp storm, its power was more than anything seen in this sector, the sheer ferocity of the warp overwhelming our astronavigator, losing us in the labyrinthine corridors between the worlds.
Within the malicious currents of the storm, we boarded them. One by one, my fleet grew. The hunter was now the prey. Those who would not surrender to the Dark Powers were sacrificed. Of those who surrendered, the sweetest taste were those of the Delphian Guard who succumbed, seeing the false light of their corpse empire for lies; joining eagerly in the sacrifice of their former Battle Brothers. Many were the skulls piled in cairns as offerings to the Dark powers.
The sights, the madness, the glorious Muse which bore me euphoria from its womb; whose pained head I first took Vision of those instincts which have to do with all corruption. Rage, only rage began to exist, the purer the rage the more in control I felt. The stranger god was his own, MARDUK. Yes, it was he who tasted life then, the seed of the earliest dreams sprouting, taking root in the hoary remnants of my soul.
Marduk smiled at memories of the whispers once reaching his ears. For as time passed within the timelessness of the warp Ideas there were those sought to sow sedition speaking against him. Whispers of getting ideas above my station and despite our victories, we were cast into the Warp Storm as punishment and to teach me my place; Marduk’s mirthless laughter rang off the canyon walls at the memory. So easy to handle, those who complained – adding their skulls to the growing cairns in dedication to Khorne, drinking the blood of the slain from their skulls as their brethren watched, searing into them the discipline and obedience he required as they each sipped in turn..
Each death more savage, each more bestial, yes, it was he who flung himself upon the mon-kee, who bit , tore and swallowed the smoking gobbets of flesh- while on the trampled decks began the rites in honour of their god, blood smoked as incense and shared draught, while the cairns of skulls grew-and In his very core, felt the bestial elevation to his ascendancy.
After one such orgy of blood, it happened. The sighting of an Imperial battle cruiser and as the storm waned; we attacked out of the storm. Their cruiser’s astronavigator was caught by surprise, the warp disruptions still blinding them and they crashed to the planet below.
The hated enemy, a host of Dark Angels, spilled from the wreckage like maggots deserting carrion. Our warband descended upon them as the wrathful vengeance we represented. In a battle bloody and fierce, even for followers of the corpse empire, more of the warp filled me. Till within my armor, the very form of one of the Dark Powers began to take shape. Among the spoils, a pair of scroll cases the contents citing a mysterious void, the Astronomicon, said to contain a source of great power.
Thank you for reading,
Ernest
When My Worlds Collide 