Zahhak

Name: Zahak
Symbols: A three-pointed black and red crown, an overflowing chalice, two serpents wrapping around a human figure.
Domains: Self-professed Lord of Sin. In practice, the domain seems to be closer to a form of moral responsibility and free will.
Servants: The Blackened. A form of demon created from willing mortals. The transformation seems to come with less power and personality warping than is typical. Appearance varies widely but is uniformly covered in some sort of black substance, be it soot, dark mud, or twisting shadows. Aside from that they typically will appear as they did as mortals. It is believed there are fewer than a dozen in existence at any one time.
Type: Suspected ascended, possibly created.

An entity of possibly immense age, with potential sightings found in reports pulled from DaOT ruins, and a few credible sightings taking place during the Horus Heresy. However, aside from those few reports, there are no other reports of her in the archive until late M41. Zahak is an oddity among oddities, possessing no known cult and few servants she seems to be able to cross over into real space with disturbing ease. initial sightings report her as a mortal heretic running a neutral port station just inside the eye of terror called "damnation's respite." most of the rare mission into the eye used it as a jumping off point, as the neutrality was strongly enforced. To the point that there were reports of a small temple to the emperor present on the station. It is unclear if she was aware of her nature, or even truly ascended when initial contact was made though later events hint at a degree of awareness. in 010.M42 a radical inquisitor staged a successful assassination mission out damnation's respite, provoking abandon into ordering the destruction of the way station. Exactly what happened next is unclear, as the inquisitor seems to have been subverted by Zahak during the incident. What is known is that a small refugee fleet fled from the eye into realspace, pursued by a large Chaos fleet, before using inquisitorial authority to be allowed to flee as the pursuit fleet was engaged.

We are unsure how long it was until Zahak next resurfaced, but the earliest records we have indicate that her pattern was by that time well established. Typically she would personally manifest on a world in the shape of a young woman, a handful of years before a demonic incursion of some stripe or another. Once the incursion began Zahak would begin to prey upon the demons, displaying exponentially increasing power until the last demon was devoured. At that point, she would typically return to the warp. It should be noted that while feeding Zahak will typically display at least some concern for collateral damage, though how much seems to vary. While there have been a number of exceptions to this pattern, including a number of examples where she aided Xenos against an imperial assault, the core pattern of subtle insertion and rapidly increasing power once she begins feeding remains the same.

The leading theory is that she is manifesting small and efficient avatars through unknown means that contain no more power than a typical lesser demon, but that by attacking a demon in real space can quickly and efficiently devour them, enabling her to quickly stockpile power. Her feeding behavior seems to be based on recalling the avatar after it has gorged itself on demons, recouping the energy cost of sending it into realspace. However, the exact motives and mechanisms involved remain a mystery. Why she has chosen this particular prey is unknown, especially since it seems to come with considerable risk. The exact rate of failure of this strategy is unknown, but by extrapolating from known data we believe that somewhere between 20% to 40% of feeding attempts end in failure as the avatar is banished to soon. By all indications, there is a strong mutual hostility between Zahak and the five ruinous powers, whether this is the cause or the effect of her feeding habits is unknown. How well the energy she gathers through feeding can be stored is unknown, as this falls well outside the known methods for deities to sustain themselves.

In "person", Zahak seems to go through distinct phases in her appearance as she feeds. Initially appearing as a human woman with a few demonic features, then as a great three-headed dragon and then finally as an unstoppable tide of devouring shadows. Which if any of these is her "true" form is unknown. She has a tendency to take a human form when attempting to parley, though this may be an affection. There are a number of documented conversations where she has let slip some aspects of her philosophy, as well as giving intriguing hints that she is the result of someone else's failed attempt at ascension. If that is true she may be the first known instance of a created deity. Her professed morals appear to hold self-determination and freewill to be sacred, and seems to place a strong emphasis on accepting responsibility for one's own choices and failings.

While Zahak ability to manifest avatars with seeming ease is of great concern, it is believed that there are a number of drawbacks to her approach, though so far only two have been identified with any certainty. The more exploitable of the two is that until she has had a chance to feed the avatar is extremely vulnerable. In most cases where an inquisitor was able to force her into open battle before she had reached her third form they where able to banish her back to the warp, with even her draconic form being little more durable than a knight titan. Attempts to try and wear her down by forcing her into open battles with other demons have historically had mixed results, as her avatars seems heavily specialized against such foes.

The other far stranger drawback is that the avatares themselves seem to be created unaware of their nature. Relying on an unknown trigger to restore their memories, a trigger that seems tied to a location. In cases where the avatar leaves the planet of its creation, it seems to never receive it. There are several documented cases of an avatar unknowingly serving in the imperial guard for years undetected. hunting down and retrieving an amnesiac avatar seems to be a common task for the Blackened. it has been theorized that destruction of an avatar is such state would prevent the recovery of the invested power, as the Blackened will go to extreme lengths to preserve the avatar until it's memories can be restored. Strangely a similar level of care is also typically shown for any companions their wayward master has made. This can greatly complicate retrievals as the avatars are universally extremely personable, often befriending most of those who would be in the crossfire of a recover attempt. The existence of further weakness and limitations are suspected, but have been largely hidden by a focused disinformation campaign by Zahak and her servants. However, the amount of effort put into such an attempt hints that there most certainly something exploitable to be found.

As is expected of Zahak her servants are extremely atypical. The blackened are not so much corrupted as recruited. Zahak will seek out individuals of extreme skill, human or xeno and offer to Blacken them. There are records of a number of rejected offers she made to inquisitors, typically she will offer something in return but will always make sure that they understand what accepting would mean. This has given us a deep, if not fully reliable understanding of the mindset of the Blackened. With what we know of psychic frequencies it seems that the process involves changes their frequency to more closely match hers. The main mental effects of this seem to be a compulsion to take full responsibility for one's actions, and an inability to practice self-deceit, as well as a general shift in goals to be more compatible with Zahaks wishes. Intriguingly the process will also purge other foreign influence from those who accept, overriding the corruption and claims that any other warp entity may have on their soul.

Those converted seem to gain little increase in power compared to most forms of demonic ascension. Blackened universally exhibit at least minor psychic powers, and those that were psyker's before show an increased strength. But the main benefit seems to be the typical demonic immorality. When not attending to Zahak the blackened seem to pursue their own goals which can be as diverse as the blackened themselves, with the only commonality seemingly being that they will fight chaos wherever they come across it. However, unlike their master, they seem to have more trouble entering realspace, though still far less than creatures of their power should.

Given Zahak's strong animosity towards the ruinous powers, and a long history of being neutral to friendly to the old Imperium and humanity in general some have considered altering policy for dealing with warp spawn believed to associated with her. While no one has been so mad as to recommend attempting to seek her out, the idea of parlay should she cross paths with the trust inquisition is gaining ground. Despite Zahak's limited presence on the galactic stage, this may be more than idle speculation. Her feud with the ruinous powers may draw her attention to Avernus and the rest of the trust.