Kapeth-Shem

There are Radical Inquisitors amongst the servants of the
Ordo Malleus who believe they have the right and the
responsibility to use every weapon at their disposal to fight
the daemonic, even weapons and methods that might earn
them the disdain or hatred of their peers. One such method,
postulated in many tomes of forbidden knowledge, is the
notion that an individual can be made immune to daemonic
possession by deliberately inviting a daemon in and then
exorcising it. This process, its proponents claim, renders the
subject’s soul an impenetrable fortress that no daemon could
ever breach again. In truth, such doctrines have never been
proven effective, and countless innocent (and not so innocent)
souls have been cast into damnation as a result.
The daemonhost known as Kapeth-Shem is an example
of the process, and a dire warning against following such
obviously radical doctrines.
Kapeth was once a proud Imperial Guardsman who served
his master, Inquisitor Selech of the Ordo Malleus, for many
years and with great distinction. While Inquisitor Selech started
his career as an adherent of the Amalathian philosophy, the dire
events he witnessed over the course of his duties set him on a
very different path, one that led ultimately to him discarding
his old philosophy and turning to the Xanthites. Selech came
into the possession of various ancient texts describing in detail
the process by which a virtuous servant might be possessed and
then purged in order to create an elite cadre of holy warriors.
The texts even claimed that such a cadre existed already,
operating beyond the rules of the Inquisition in the direct
service of the Emperor himself. Inquisitor Selech was all but
blinded by this new vision of the Imperium, and he devoted
the next decade of his life to studying the process by which he
and his followers might join the ranks of this elite.
Having absorbed every scrap of knowledge that he could
find, Inquisitor Selech determined that his most loyal servant,
Imperial Guardsman Kapeth, would be the first to receive the
honor of “illumination”. Some say that Selech feared the process
would fail and therefore selected one of his servants to undergo
it first, but Selech himself wrote just prior to undertaking the
rite that Kapeth was his most valued of followers, and the most
deserving of the honor. Unfortunately, the rite failed horribly.
In a blasphemous ritual, Selech called upon the Ruinous
Powers to enter the body of his servant, and an entity that
called itself “Shem” responded. Bound by holy wards,
Kapeth-Shem raged and sought to escape, but could not cross
the intricate holy glyphs etched across the floor. Then Selech
proceeded to the culmination of the ritual, commanding
Shem to leave Kapeth’s body and return to the Warp that had
spawned it. This Shem did, or so Inquisitor Selech believed.
Despite every one of the Inquisitor’s precautions, the
daemon had tricked him. It was not cast out, but lurked within
the very deepest recesses of Kapeth’s soul. When Inquisitor
Selech announced the process complete and his servant
cleansed, Shem regained control of the vessel, transforming
it into a hideous parody of a man, and struck his summoner
down.
The thing that became known as Kapeth-Shem slaughtered
Inquisitor Selech as well as his Banishers, and broke free of
its bonds. Three dozen servants of the Ordo Malleus died
before the daemonhost was finally cornered and bound, deep
within the Inquisitor’s fastness in the wastes of Scintilla.
Selech’s retinue determined after much debate that the
daemonhost was too powerful to destroy outright, and they
could not transport it one of the Pandaemonia without great
risk. However, after some experimentation they found that it
could be controlled for short periods of time and compelled
to serve them. The soul of Kapeth still remained, subsumed
beneath the will of the raging daemon, and could be called
forth to assert control over his body. In time, other Inquisitors
allied to the slain Selech came, and assumed ownership of
his former holdings. To this day, these individuals maintain
Kapeth-Shem’s imprisonment, bringing the daemonhost
forth to undertake their bidding when an enemy must be
confronted or forbidden knowledge sought.