Crassus Hayden

> "*I’ve read as much as any of my brothers, I’ve looked into ancient pasts and shared philosophies on futures that have yet to come. All of that seems so insignificant and pathetic now. The only thing from all I’ve learned that matters now is a single word. I’ve walked into the warp and I’ve fought it’s horrors while holding my own entrails inside myself. There is only one word to describe what I’ve seen and I do not care what the Primarch would think of it. Hell; my brothers. It’s an archaic and brutal word, it describes all that humanity feared through the Old Night, and all that those who have yet to see our Primarch’s burning star in the darkness fear. The word is ancient and older than the Imperium itself, it rails against all we’ve been taught as Astartes and subjects of the Imperium. I tell you now, we are entering Hell.*"
> ― Crassus Hayden to the newest batch of recruits for the Void Revenants
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Crassus Hayden is the only survivor of the first successful warp expedition conducted by the Consuls Exemplar and the United Achaean Cults deep beneath the surface of Cthonia. Many dozens of expeditions had been conducted beforehand and all resulted in failure, either with the teams returning empty handed, or their loss entirely. After finding the artifact that would come to be known as the Wellspring, Crassus was given a position as expedition leader and after coming back after several more successful excursions into the warp Crassus was given the right to start a Decurio of his own dedicated to future Warp Expeditions. Crassus would name his Decurio Void Revenants, as a signal to all that joined they were considered dead men walking. The trials of the Crusade and it’s wars were nothing compared to horrors the warp would hold in store for them. Unlike most other Decurio the Revenants would not go on to join other Decurio, once an astartes joined the Void Revenants they were there till death.

The day Crassus had returned with the Wellspring, he did so bloodied and broken, his immediate response to safety being to collapse on the floor, huddled and cowering. Gaius for the first time saw one of his sons know fear, and it only drove the primarch onward. Giaus needed to uncover what would cause an astartes to collapse in fear and regret, and he needed Crassus to spearhead the assault in the mysteries of the warp as the only one to truly see them and return. Crassus reluctantly and with much trepidation agreed to lead his brothers to the very gates of Death's home. Crassus would solemnly and near silently lead countless astartes to their demise all to realize his Primarch's ambitions. The Void Revenants would be given bright after bright recruit, each eager for the next stage in their training, each one slowly broken down and made to realize the true horrors they faced. Each Revenant was shattered and rebuilt in the crucible of the Warp. While those in the legion that knew of their existence would see them as heroes and the best of the Consuls even compared to the Augustii, the truth behind Crassus and his Revenants was that each one was merely a shell of what they used to be, hollow and empty. The Obzhet followed their primarch and his ideals for the good of humanity, they walked the soil of oblivion so that the Consuls Exemplar could advance and progress at a pace other legions couldn’t understand. The Revenants were dead from the beginning and each one was numb and dead to the loss of their brothers. They were tools, Crassus was the only one among them that had importance and even he was a shell of an astartes in the cold light of material reality.

Crassus' body was broken when he returned to the facilities beneath Cthonia and Gaius insisted he be rebuilt, though Crassus would have chosen death had he been asked. Crassus was “Upgraded” by his legion, remaining limbs removed,additional ports and technology embedded into his flesh, and his armor replaced with his new tomb, the Obzhet Venatus Harness. Long, excruciating and permanent, when the procedure was finally done Crassus had become more than he was before, breakthroughs developed by analysing the Wellspring were applied to his armor and Crassus was reborn as the first of the true Obzhet Venatus. As time wore on Crassus would become used to his new body and he would go on to accomplish feats that no other members of the legion save the Thousand Armed Centurion himself could have even dreamed. Crassus was truly a shining example of martial and tactical skill after his enhancements, and no one would ever recognise what he had done or the mastery of his accomplishments. Every action and task completed by the Void Revenants was covered up and sealed, deep beneath the bedrock of Prospero.

Despite the trauma Crassus suffers constantly as the Centurae Prime of the Void Revenants he has never faltered in his duty to the Consuls, Gaius,  and Humanity. Crassus holds his position with grim determination and dedication, Crassus knows that if he were to fail there would merely be another in his place, and who could know how many astartes would die under the command of someone who had seen and experienced less than him? Crassus and the Revenants would continue expeditions with only two goals in mind: the recovery of anything that would please their primogenitor, and returning with as many lives intact as possible. The latter of which is nearly always a failure for many of those that venture into the Warp alongside Crassus Hayden, the Centurae Prime of the Void Revenants, Firstborn, Obzhet Dar't Veneticus and as hollow as any astartes has ever been. Crassus has known fear, and those that follow him will learn to know it just as well.