Mikael Abris

Mikael Abris during his time in The Foretoken

Mikael Abris was abducted from his homeworld of Treab's World by the Traitor legions to serve in the Gerasene Host. He was turned into a living weapon and forced to fight for Horus, making a name for himself within the Gerasene Host as a skilled Apothecary and incredibly brutal warrior. After being deployed back to his homeworld to defeat a large part of the Salamanders Legion, he accidentally killed his family. His sorrow broke through his conditioning, and he fled, swearing never to serve the Dark Gods directly. After fighting as both a Blackshield, and as part of the Siege of Terra, he was forced to plunder loyalist gene-stocks to replace his own degrading gene-seed. He fled once more, using his sus-an membrane to enter stasis, waking up two millennia later in M33, where he reluctantly joined forces with the Foretoken out of necessity.

## History

### Youth

Mikael Abris grew up in the northern deserts of Treab's World. Due to the death of both his parents when he was young, he had to be responsible for his younger siblings for most of his life. He became incredibly protective of them, on one occasion brutally beating up someone who bullied them. Despite this, he was kind and welcoming to his friends and family, and many willingly offered him food or help looking after his siblings.

Mikael was 14 when the Horus Heresy broke out, and when he was 15 traitor operatives kidnapped him and many others as recruits for the Geresene Host.

### Gerasene Host

The Geresene Host was a traitor initiative that attempted to merge the gene-seed of multiple Primarchs and create an army of living weapons. Mikael was kidnapped and forced to become an Astartes, a test subject in this initiative.

The transformation process was immensely painful for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, Mikael's age. He was nearing the upper limit of what many considered possible to become an Astartes. This meant his transformation was much more difficult, and his heart stopped countless times during the procedure, only to be restarted so the torment could continue.

Secondly, the gene-seed used. Due to the nature of the chimaeric gene-seed implanted in Mikael, his body very almost rejected it. The genetic code of three main Primarchs was used for Mikael's gene-seed: Konrad Curze, Mortarion, and Angron. This unique mixture caused him to undergo intense physical changes alongside the ones normally associated with becoming an Astartes.

Finally, throughout the entire process Mikael was subjected to intense hypnopaedia. Aware of how little time they would have before it became necessary to deploy the Geresene Host, those in charge of the project were forced to use recordings and simulations to simultaneously indoctrinate and train them. Not only was Mikael's body under intense stress, but also his mind.

When Mikael emerged from the process, he was changed. Ruled by a sadistic bloodlust, he was an almost completely different person from the one he had been on Treab's World. The only trait that remained was the familial desire to protect his siblings. For this, he was made an Apothecary, and underwent incredibly intensive training to prepare him for this role.

### Treab's World

In the middle years of the Horus Heresy, the Geresene Host was deployed to its most infamous battle; the world of Treab's World, upon which the Emperor's Children and Death Guard had managed to draw in a large portion of the Salamanders legion. To Mikael Abris, this was simply another planet. His memories had been ruined and torn to shreds during his transition to an Astartes.

The Geresene Host led a shock attack from tunnels bored in the northern deserts. The exact details of the attack are lost to history, but for Mikael the most significant part of it took place in a small town where survivors of the Salamanders were taking shelter. The Geresene Host attacked in the dead of night, with three main forces surrounding the Salamanders. The ambush didn't go as planned, however, and one of these forces was spotted and eliminated early into the fighting.

Their plan in disarray, and fighting a much tougher enemy than they had expected, the Geresene Host captain ordered Mikael and a small group of others to start killing civilians, knowing the Salamander's unusual care for them would force the Astartes to respond. In the midst of his blood-rage, Mikael didn't remember killing the first civilians, but after the Salamanders started to respond, he came to, and found himself looking at the corpses of his siblings, brutally massacred by his own chain-sword, their blood still cooling. His horror at what he had done broke through his conditioning, and he sank to his knees in disbelief. When his brothers checked on him, he turned on them, slaying two before fleeing into the night.

### Blackshield

Mikael Abris's flight from Treab's World was marred by grief and conflict. After he fled his hometown he scratched the symbols marking him as hailing from the Geresene Host from his armour, denouncing all allegiance to them. Despite his growing self-hatred and anger, a part of him still wanted to return to the Host, to return to those who had called him brother. But he suppressed these thoughts, pushing on through the desert.

After many nights he reached an encampment of fleeing Salamanders. Noticing the presence of several Blackshields already in the group, he announced his presence, laying down his weapons. If he was to be slain, so be it. There was a brief interrogation, in which Mikael refused to speak about his origins and insisted he would hunt down traitors. The group seemed to be on the brink of killing him, but one, a Techmarine called V'ris Takell, spoke up for him, saying that he would be an invaluable addition as an Apothecary. Mikael was accepted reluctantly.

The group fled Treab's World, rapidly leaving the system aboard a Strike Cruiser called the *Forge of Nocturne*. Mikael does not remember how long they trawled the galaxy, but it must have been several years. They moved closer and closer to the Segmentum Solar and Terra, following the back ends of the traitor fleet, never being a force large enough to warrant major intervention, but just annoying enough to cause disruption. During this time, Mikael and the Salamander V'ris became close friends.

The most notable battle during Mikael's time as a Blackshield was around an asteroid simply known as Dot-Tag-Seven. An as-of-yet unlooted supply depot, Dot-Tag-Seven would a vital store of ammunition and supplies for the Blackshields, but they were ambushed by forces of the Sons of Horus when they made landfall. A brutal firefight followed. Over half the Blackshields were slain before they broke out of the encirclement, and Mikael took a bolter round to the thigh. Mikael wanted to retreat, preserve their forces, and protect his brothers, but their captain believed they could win the fight, with a rallying speech that brought many of the survivors to his side. They pushed onwards, the ragtag band charging the traitors in a desperate attempt to eliminate their leadership.

The charge failed. The better equipped and better organised Sons of Horus cut down many of the Blackshields in seconds. V'ris was among them. Despite his best efforts, Mikael was unable to save his closest friend. With his dying breath, V'ris gave Mikael his bolter and dragonskin shawl, which Mikael uses to this day. Mikael was one of the only Blackshields to escape the ambush, and from then on the *Forge of Nocturne* was manned by a skeleton crew.

### Siege of Terra

Mikael took command of the *Forge of Nocturne*. From scattered missives picked up by their Astropath, he knew the Heresy was coming to an end, and made a beeline for Terra. Out of necessity - due to a lack of time and manpower - he was forced to avoid enemy forces as much as possible, only taking fights he was sure he would win.

When the *Forge* reached the Sol system, they surrendered to the loyalist forces there, though it hurt the pride of some of Mikael's fellow Blackshields. They were deemed suitably loyal, and took part in Terra's defence.

The Siege saw hundreds of battles that would have been considered miraculous or admirable during any other time go completely unrecorded and forgotten. For Mikael, this trend remained. He fought on many fronts, putting his skills as an apothecary to good use and doing his best to suppress his bloodthirsty and sadistic urges.

As the Siege neared its breaking point, Mikael was selected for a mission of utmost secrecy; the defence of Saturnine. The Primarch Dorn believed that the traitors would lead an assault on this relatively insignificant part of the wall, an assault potentially containing a Primarch, possibly Lupercal himself. To blunt this attack, it was necessary to ambush it as it emerged. To do so, Dorn created seven kill teams, each led by exemplary individuals and consisting of 100 Astartes. Mikael was selected to join Kill Team *Seventh*, led by the nigh-legendary Endryd Haar.

The ambush went off nearly flawlessly. The first wave of Sons of Horus were ambushed and eliminated almost without losses. It was only the late arrival of the elite Catulan Reavers and Justaerin caused chaos. Abaddon himself slew Endryd Haar and several others, cutting Mikael's arm off before the 1st Captain could teleport out.

Mikael stabilised himself, then spent hours helping the survivors recover to fighting strength. For the rest of the Siege, Mikael fought where he was ordered, always pushing his skills as an apothecary to their limits for those he considered brothers. He was able to survive the Siege, but by then his gene-seed was starting to degrade. The circumstances surrounding its creation meant that it could not survive forever, and as it began to degrade, so did Mikael.

### Flight

In the chaos that followed the Siege's conclusion, Mikael was able to find the corpse of a fallen White Scar, extract its gene-seed, and attempt to implant it into himself. Though the process was not perfect, it did its job. However, he wasn't as covert as he would have hoped. His desecration of the body of one of their brothers angered the White Scars, and Mikael was forced to flee Terra. He found an abandoned part of space, hid, and activated his sus-an membrane.

### The Foretoken

Two millennia after he entered stasis, Mikael awoke. He came to in the midst of a battle. On one side, there was fifteen Astartes clad in a myriad of colours, but all bearing the same, bizarre symbol, and fighting as one singular force. On the other, strange, unfamiliar and mutated Astartes clad in black, but bearing the Eye of Horus stood in defiance. Thrown into this chaos, Mikael's hypnopaedic training took over. He retreated inside of himself, letting a brutal and warlike personality take over, and helped the strange Astartes defeat the Sons of Horus.

When the battle was over, he learnt that the fifteen were founding an organisation known as the Foretoken. Had Mikael been fully conscious, he might have left at that moment, but some deep part of him wanted another brotherhood, a group of Astartes he could call a family, so he volunteered to join.

These "Foretoken" tasked him with slaying one of the beast's local megafauna, known as a Chimera, and then they would accept him. Mikael took a month to do so. When he returned, he handed one of the Foretoken's forgemasters his Chain-Sword, and a string of Chimera teeth. The forgemaster replaced the Chainsword's teeth with those of the Chimera, and Mikael was accepted as a Butcher of the Foretoken.

Throughout his time in the Foretoken, Mikael Abris has resisted the temptations of Chaos, rejecting their gifts and fighting for himself. The brotherhood that he so desperately wants to find is scarce in the Crimson Heart, but it still remains, and Mikael protects his new brothers with his life.

## Personality

Mikael is constantly torn between his conditioning at the hands of the traitor legions and role as a living weapon, and his desire to protect his family. Although his family is now dead by his own hand, he still does his best to protect those he is with. This has led to massive internal conflicts, and at times he seems to have several different personalities.

Mikael hates both the Imperium and Dark Gods and has turned down chaos "gifts" on several occasions. Despite this, he still fights with the Foretoken, as he sees this as his only purpose. Waking up from his stasis, his more violent personality took over, and he joined the Foretoken. He remains there reluctantly, as he wants to see if it is possible to create a sense of brotherhood within followers of Chaos.

His mixed genetic lineages have also had a massive impact on his personality. Like those of the Night Lords he can show psychopathic and sadistic tendencies, though he does his best to repress these. From the Death Guard he inherited a stoicism and unrelenting nature, and the gene-seed of the World Eaters granted him a close sense of brotherhood as well as an underlying blood lust that Abris can't deny. His attempts to restore his gene-seed by implanting himself with White Scars gene-stock has made him brutal and savage.

## Appearance

Courtesy of the unique mix of gene-seed in his body, Mikael is unusually tall and muscular, even for an Astartes. His skin is incredibly pale and his eyes a pitch black, seeming to suggest lineage from the Night Lords traitor legion. Mikael's eyes are deep-set and shadowed like many of the Death Guard. His face and entire body are scarred from years of non-stop combat.

## Abilities and Traits

Mikael is a skilled fighter and apothecary. Intensive hypnopaedia during his transformation into an Astartes gave him underlying skills and indoctrinated him to the traitor cause. His skills are mostly found in more generic weaponry, like chain swords and bolters, as these were the easiest to find and maintain during his time as a Blackshield.

Mikael is incredibly resourceful, able to operate with limited resources to the utmost effectiveness. In battle he doesn't care for technique or routine, resorting to unconventional and dishonourable strategies to win by any means necessary.

## Equipment

### Armour

* **Mk V Power Armour** - Mikael's armour has long since lost all resemblance to its former self. It is unlikely that even a single part of remains the same as when he first donned it.

### Weapons

* **Narthecium** - One of the few relics that Mikael has kept since his time in the Geresene Host, he is superstitious to a fault about it, cleaning it religiously.
* **Chain-sword** - Mikael didn't bother naming his Chain-Sword, but it has stayed with him since he started fighting. Almost constantly bloody and scratched, it is a miracle it still functions. Since joining the Foretoken, he replaced its teeth with those of the Chimera he slew, making the weapon ever-more dangerous.
* **Fire of War** - A master-crafted Bolter formerly belonging to Techmarine V'ris Takell, who was a close friend to Mikael during his time as a Blackshield. When the former Salamander was slain during a Sons of Horus ambush, Mikael took his Bolter and shawl and wears them to this day.

### Chimera Trophy

Mikael's trophy of choice from the Chimera he slew was a full belt of teeth, which he later put into his Chain-Sword to improve its effectiveness dramatically.

## Relations

### Enemies

* Death Guard
* Emperor's Children
* Sons of Horus
* White Scars

## Notable Quotes

### By Mikael Abris

"*I respect you, Aradas. You have not succumbed to the mutations of chaos, and have survived this long in this galaxy. I believe one day I could even call you my brother.*"
—Mikael Abris, to Unseen Captain Kazarin Aradas
"*Ramses is a vile creature. Mutated, selfish. If there is one thing keeping me from the Vigil above all else, it is that thing. I wish to never lay eyes upon it again.*"
—Mikael Abris, about Seth-Het Ramses
"*Thaddeus holds no respect for his brothers. Or if he does I can see no evidence of that. His experiments are, frankly, horrific. He abuses the term apothecary, even by this places warped standards.*"
—Mikael Abris, about Thaddeus Flesh-Smith
### About Mikael Abris

"*I pity you cousin, but at least you got the chance to fight. Most didn't.*"
—Unseen Captain Kazarin Aradas
"*Well, he doesn’t often show in my Vigil, so he is a good man. He’s also quite large and quite odd looking….. how interesting.*"
—Seth-Het Ramses
"*I have no idea what they were thinking when they decided to give him the gene seed of two of the most unstable primarchs. Even I wouldn't want to do that... yes I have a line that can't be crossed!*"
—Thaddeus Flesh-Smith