Khnum-Anhuret

> "*When surrounded by darkness, it is human nature to look for the light. Many others might say they are fools for clutching to those last remaining streaks of light. I would say back to them that they are the fool. It is not weakness to stick to the light in times where it is seemingly nowhere to be found. I would say that it is instead named strength. The hope and thought it takes to nurture a small ember into a roaring flame is greater than a desire to skulk around in the darkness. This is why our battle cry prods us to charge towards the dawn. We charge towards the light, and therefore we charge towards hope and the strength that lies within.*"
> ― Khnum on the Watcher's battlecry
>
>

## Khnum-Anhuret

Khnum-Anhuret, also known as the Sunstone King, the Breaker of the Thal'kr, and many other was the Primarch of the First Legion, the Watchers of Akhet. A master tactician who would go on to pen the *Codex Astartes* during the Frontier Wars as a way to help the Loyalist weather the storms the Traitor Legions had brought forth.

Despite his analytical mind, Khnum was a being that radiated compassion, optimism, with wisdom that made him a beacon of hope during the darkest days of humanity. In the same breath, he could be called optimistic and foolish. There were a number recorded moments where the Primarch's emotions overruled his sense of reason and brought punishment upon him and his sons.

Khnum was a bit of an oddity, despite being found fifteenth he was the youngest of all of his brothers. Having only been fourteen when the Emperor found him on Nephtis II.

## History

### Youth

At the dawn of the Imperium of Man, before the Great Crusade had begun, the twenty gene-children of the Emperor of Mankind, the Primarchs, were scattered across the known galaxy through the Warp in a mysterious accident due to the intervention of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. The gestation capsules of all twenty Primarchs were stolen from the Emperor's secret gene-laboratory deep beneath the Himalayan Mountains on Terra and were flung across thousands of light years, all eventually coming to rest on backwater human colony planets.

It was this first touch of Chaos before the Primarchs had even been born that may have corrupted so many of them and laid the foundation for the agonising tragedy of the Antarus Apostasy that was to come. Khnum's gestation capsule would run into difficulties unlike the rest of his brothers. His was lost in the Warp and did not emerge until much later than the rest of his kin on his homeplanet.

Khnum crashed upon a backwater planet named Nephtis that had regressed technologically to something resembling a bronze age. He was found in a crater filling with water from an underground reservoir by a kindly old couple named Ani and Kiya. It was to their surprise that the child radiated an almost divine presence and seemed to morph to adapt to their world. Knowing the child was a gift from the heavens they named him Khnum-Anhuret and brought him home.

Ani and Kiya were both surprised to see within a year the child grow to the size of a ten-year-old, and within the second year he was a full grown man, and by his third year, he was a titan amongst men reaching fourteen feet in height. As he grew, Khnum devoured every scrap of knowledge placed in front of him, from Ani’s daily teachings to anyone who would teach him anything so that he might learn more. They referred to Khnum as their grandson, and he fondly referred to them as his grandparents. As he grew he began to question why there were great wars being fought over the pursuit of water and went to fix this ongoing problem.

Khnum started to think up different ways for his people to access the water that had been long denied to them for
so long. He built water catchers for when it rained and figured out a way to access the aquifers and reservoirs of water that laid just beneath the surface. With all of these new sources of water, his city was able to flourish and eventually began to grow without fear of a drought wiping out the excess population.

With their water crisis, fixed Heket began to grow into a rich artistic city. The people could craft without having to worry about wasting their resources on pursuits that were once considered trivial. The city became the center for all artistic advancement for the world of Nephtis II because of Khnum’s advancements.

However, others learned of his ways of getting water from sources other than the rivers. Many came from all over to learn from him and he
gladly taught them. The Phaerum of Nephtis II heard of this and demanded that
Khnum hand over the schematics and machines to these for him to solely control. Khnum told him, no, and if he wanted the technology he could come and learn from him like everyone else.

The Phaerum took insult at this answer and sent his armies
to forcibly take the machines away from Khnum. Khnum learned of this and set
about training and preparing his city for war. Using a series of continuously
adapting tactics he managed to defeat the Phaerum’s armies. Eventually, the
Phaerum surrendered and withdrew his forces. Khnum sent the Phaerum a letter
stating he would not attack him further if he left his city and the neighboring
villages in peace.

With the Phaerum’s armies defeated he returned to Heket to
celebrate with his people and try to usher in a new era of peace. Despite his desire to end the conflict, the morning after a night of heavy celebration he awoke to the news that his irrigation system
had been destroyed, and the Phaerum had put two nearby villages that Khnum had
previously helped to the torch. With this Khnum declared war on the Phaerum and
started to train a proper army.

After a few months he was done training his army and began
his giant campaign. Khnum marched to every city under the Phaerum’s control and
took them one by one. As he continued to conquer the Phaerum’s cities he
started to run into a disturbing group. A coven of untrained or morally lacking
psykers that the Phaerum hired to keep order in his cities.

Even if Khnum was a Primarch, psykers were still a notable
threat during his campaign. The first time that he had been seriously hurt in
his life was against the first psyker he fought. While Khnum ended up killing
the psyker he still was very wary of them. From that point on he tried to sway
psykers to his side so he had a more reliable way of dealing with them, forging
his own coven to counteract the enemy coven.

Eventually, after five years of continual warfare his sieges
brought Khnum to the Phaerum’s capital city. Khnum offered the chance for the
Phaerum to surrender. The Phaerum declined Khnum’s offer and the siege began.
For two months Khnum besieged the city looking for a weakness to breach the
wall. Eventually, after those months of trying, Khnum let his coven enact a
ritual allowing them to teleport him inside the palace. Once inside he cut
through the Phaerum’s bodyguards until he eventually reached the chambers of
the Phaerum. Entering inside, Khnum finally came face to face with the man who
had caused him so much annoyance over the last half-decade. The Phaerum tried
to talk to Khnum, but Khnum was tired of the Phaerum’s annoying chatter. So,
Khnum walked up to the Phaerum and swatted him into the wall, ending his life
in one blow.

With the Phaerum dead Khnum was named the new Phaerum, and
proceeded to upgrade every city with the technology that he had invented.
Eventually, every city was able to start to invest and experiment in new styles
of culture and art forms as it became a resource and not solely a commodity.

#### A Brother's Arrival

A little over five years after Khnum’s siege had ended his world would be forever changed after the arrival of the Wight Lord upon the surface of Nephtis II. When Charon and his honor guard went to the planet on the Emperor's orders he found a people barely advancing beyond the renaissance age of technology and sciences. His presence caused fear from the locals and word reached Khnum's ears of a monster terrorizing his people. Gathering his army, he went to meet this new being in the field. Charon was surrounded by hundreds of men, but they of little concern

A ship soared down from the heavens and a great being in golden armor that dubbed
himself the Emperor emerged from within it. He told Khnum of his other
brothers, his destiny in the stars, and the Great Crusade. Khnum was ecstatic
to find out that there were others just like him and that he was going to be
able to explore the stars with other individuals who were just like him. Khnum told the Emperor that he would join the Crusade only if he would heal the damages done to Kiya, his adoptive grandmother, by one of the corrupt Phaerem's psykers. The Emperor gracefully accepted and tended to her ailments, where Khnum pledged his loyalty.

The journey finally over as Khnum was transported down to the Imperial Palace where he would begin his lessons in warfare, diplomacy, technology, and any other subject of study he could delve into. His lust for knowledge insatiable as new ideas and concepts flowed through him. He had many long talks with his father over philosophy, history, and culture as the Emperor showed him such things as the first clay plate ever used by humanity or ancient art painstakingly preserved by the Emperor himself.

Months after he arrived Khnum would meet his Legion for the first time, and his presence would cause his gene-sons to cry tears of joy. Few Legions took to their gene-father as quickly as the First took to Khnum, and they pledged their loyalty to him almost outright. Khnum told his newly acquired sons that he hoped he could honor them as much as they honored him.

After a time, the Emperor told Khnum he had to rejoin the crusade, but he was going to meet two of his brothers who were both coming to Terra. Feeling an excitement that was only surpassed by meeting his sons for the first time as he prepared to meet his kin for the first time.

## Personality

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