Cathal Morganach

The 8th False Primarch

Cathal was one of the ill-fated Primarch Secundus Project, designed to be a new generation of primarchs designed by the Mad Magos Clerval. He was a wanderer, a traveler, a heavy drinker, a storyteller, and a good man but not a great leader. Unlike the other legends of the Imperium he was no hero. He was famously lucky, though this may have been the results of the psychic powers he possessed. His skill at brawling is legendary. He was a man of simple means, honest heart, and possessive of a warm smile. He was the most relatable and understandable of the false primarchs.

## Early Years

Cathal grew up rough, on a Feudal World known as “Xem” that was just reaching an early industrial status. He was believed to be an orphan who was put into a workhouse at an early age. Big for his age he was assigned to hard physical labor as a child. A bully who got in trouble, Cathal was a bit rough around the edges and he wasn’t beyond rolling people for money in his younger years. Despite this, war wasn’t in his blood and he didn’t have violence in his core. He was forced into the Xemian militia but deserted twice, once for a girl and once because he couldn’t stand taking orders. It’s said Cathal killed his commanding officer and ran the second time, but that is unconfirmed.

## The Bard of Xem

He lived out several years as a circus freak due to his immense stature and then as a vagabond for almost a century. He was a heavy drinker, once legendarily draining the entire stock of ale from an ale house he spent two weeks as a bartender at, and a pickpocket. Still, his antics were put up with by the locals because no one really wanted to mess with a giant adonis with a temper. He did have his charms though, he told the best stories and was an accomplished musicians. After several hundred years he became a folk hero; the giant gambler who sung for his supper. The “Bard of Xem” he was called and was celebrated as a sort of mythical trickster. As Xem was on the fringe of Imperial space stories about the 9 foot tall drunk were written off as rumor, local legends, tall tales, and exaggerated accounts of ogryn. Over the centuries his reputation soured and he became a local boogeyman. He removed himself from social life and became a hermit who lived atop a great mountain on Xem. Cathal became known as “Cathal the Ogre” and had to kill more than one young gun who came to challenge him and claim his head.

## Reunion With Clerval

Morganach has been living his quiet life of local celebrity when Clerval arrived. Cathal was one of the last of the Primarch Secundus to be recovered. When Cathal met Dominus Clerval and his gene-brothers he was awed and considered himself categorically unworth; not of being Clerval’s “son” but of leading a military force. He felt that he had no business doing that given his background. The people of his world still don’t believe him. Dominus Clerval convinced him to try and, for a time his legion was successful. Morganach was no god, or so he said, and perhaps his lack of believe in his own self-world was his greatest flaw.

He liked his brothers, particularly Pandu Hagar and Dracon Silver but he felt stifled by him and inferior to all his brothers. He connected with Bora, bonding over their dislike of stifling rules but they could never truly bond due to Cathal’s lack of enthusiasm for war and Bora's obsession with it.

## Role in Clerval’s Crusade

**Main Article:** Clerval's Crusade

Cathal Morganach was not a particularly skilled commander. He inherited none of the Emperor’s military insight and was widely regarded as inept. He placed his chapter master in charge during the few engagements he fought in. None of his men were from his homeworld due to his bad reputation and he only had Secundus Astartes loyal to Clerval to serve as his legion. Still, Cathal had a knack for showing up at the right time and luck always seemed to be on his side.

## Fate

Sometime prior to the Siege of Nar’Whin his own chapter rose against him eventually, but before they could dishonor themselves he confronted the Dominus Clerval, telling him he could not wage war. Cathal had a falling out with another false primarch, though it is not clear with whom. Eventually the Dominus Clerval learned of his force's disloyalty to their primarch and had had the Secundus Astartes under his command kill those under Clerval's, decimating the legion (which was already badly drained).

There are two accounts of his ultimate fate, though both are disputed. One says that one day he told his brothers it wasn’t for him and he simply left. Legendy says that he is still somewhere in the cosmos, probably drinking and mostly staying out of the limelight. It further states that someone in a position of power, honored his wish to be undisturbed, struck his name from the records to entirely so that he might never be bothered again. It may have been Bathory Sims, Clerval, Cawl, or even Guilliman.

The second also says that he asked to leave but his Clerval and his brothers saw this as cowardice but could not bring themselves to kill him. It is said that he was held captive until the end of the Siege of Nar’Whin and Roboute Guilliman decided his fate. He locked him away in the deepest parts of the palace. They say he wears an iron mask and his cell has no name. A small contingent of Adeptus Custodes guard him dutifully but know not why.

## Legendary Luck

Cathal had luck so extreme it stretched believability. It was always bad luck followed by good luck. All information about it has been redacted at the highest levels but declassified local lore from planet Xem ascribes the following sort of supernatural instances of luck:

* Cathal once bet his life in a card game when his money ran out. He lost, became a slave, and was taken to a nearby village. He was then subsequently freed three days later by an abolitionist group and given twice what he could have won as compensation from his master's coffers.
* The False Primarch once lost a duel with pistols due to a jam with his pistol. However, his opponent missed Cathal and a ricochet killed himself by accident.
* Cathal once got sick on bad oysters and nearly died. All his vomiting apparently rid him of poisons he'd ingested earlier that evening when an assassin tried to off him over a debt of honor he owed.