Makhai

Amorial of the Makhai (all members use the same icon)

Makhai Battle-Brother of the 8th Company, 6th Fire Support Squad.

## Renegade Chapter

### **Allegiance**

Imperium of Man (The Unwavering), Fabius Bile (Algea), Urien Rakarth (Amphillogiai)

### **Chaos God**

Khorne (Hysminai), Tzeentch (Androktasiai)

### **Leader**

Various (Alke Keres being the most well-known)

### **Specialty**

Sector-wide Annihilation, Shock Assault, Planet-Kill & Extermination Operations (Scorched Earth), Close-Quarters Actions (Line-Breaker Attacks, 'Forlorn Hope' Objective Assaults, Berserk Charges)

### **Battle Cry**

No real battle-cry beyond insane calls for death.

One of the most nightmarish examples of the 21st 'Cursed' Founding's failure, the **Makhai** are bellowing horde of maniacs, barely united in purpose and irrevocably twisted in both body and mind. Though blessed with healing, abilities beyond those of normal Astartes, the Makhai's, which enter the realm of full regeneration and indeed spontaneous generation, bring with them horrific mental and physical abilities. After their aberrance was exposed and their Chapter scattered to the winds, the Makhai still plagued the galaxy in roving warbands, each of which could barely be considered sentience given their rampant insanity. There are five main gatherings; each with differing loyalties; the Unwavering, ruled by Alke Keres the Fury still serves as an unwelcome ally to the forces of the God-Emperor, the Algea eventually fell into the employ of Fabius Bile, the Amphillogiai were enslaved by Urien Rakarth and the Hysminai and Androktasiai devoted themselves to Khorne and Tzeentch respectively.

## History

The history of the Makhai before their shattering was short and brutal. Like countless other marines created during the 21st Founding, the Warriors of Eris were quickly slated for extermination due to rampant insanity and mutations. Much like their fellows in the Flame Falcons, the failures of Inculaba made themselves evident very quickly in the Makhai.

Against an unknown enemy (referred to in apocryphal terms as 'malicious serpents') the Makhai performed admirably, their healing abilities appeared to functioning as expected, wounds healing at an astounding rate. In battle, it was as if they were unkillable, such was their endurance. As the battle wore on however, the Inquisitor in-charge of the operation; Lady Calthi, began to notice the toll. Each limb lost, near fatal wound regenerated seemed to unravel the Astartes' minds more and more until, the instability made itself known. Chapter Master Akle Keres (known as 'the Fury') had his spine torn from his back. None expected him to live. Yet, as his mutilated form twitched in agony, he screamed in indescribable pain, a spinal column, as well as a malicious, vicious-looking second torso, pair of taloned arms and a fanged head tore its way out.

Such a nightmarish and horrific mutation, followed as it was, by limbs forcefully spawning more and more amongst the Chapter, the result was clear. Inquisitor Calthi declared the Makhai cursed, monstrous failures and degenerate abominations, with such a verdict in mind, as the Makhai returned to their hellish homeworld, she summoned the entirety of the Nemean Brotherhood, led by High Slayer Orthus. Appraised of the situation, the Slayers of Typhon Secundus descended on the world, scattering the Makhai to the wind and obliterating Eris.

## Notable Campaigns

* **Kuhnu V's Extermination (Unknown Date M.36)**
* **The Shattering of Eris (Unknown Date M.36)** - Not three decades since their creation, word began to trickle back to the Ordo Astartes and High Lords of Terra regarding the madness and rampant mutations of the Makhai. Eventually, after the slaughter of the pleasure Kuhnu V, action was taken. Led by High Slayer Orthrus, the Nemean Brotherhood Chapter are deployed to Eris. Like a great scythe, the Warriors of Typhon Secundus fell on the homeworld of the Makhai. Despite fighting from a position of strength, the Makhai's back was broken, the disaster-riddled world reduced to fragments under the guns of the Nemean Brotherhood’s fleet. The Slayer’s bombardment was such, that the already unstable world rather rapidly tore itself apart. Despite this vicious and devastating victory against them, fragmented members of the Makhai managed to escape, though effectively shattering them beyond repair as a Chapter, the Nemean Brotherhood’s actions gave rise the various marauding bands of the insane Marines. After a brief period of internecine warfare, several major factions emerged, with the Unwavering (Imperium loyalists) being the most numerous. During this time several interested parties swept in and captured or provided sanctuary for groups of Makhai including Fabius Bile and Urien Rakarth.
* **13th Black Crusade (999.M41)**
* **Kheradruakh's Hunt (999.M41)**

## Homeworld

Since the Makhai's exile from the Imperium of Man, all records of the planet Eris have been destroyed. Despite the Inquisition's thoroughness, there are several references to a fragmented world, a planet wracked by natural disasters and wildly fluctuating seasons, a world inhabited by a near feral people, who fearfully sacrificed their young sons to the 'Golden Father' who would bring order to their discord-wracked world. Many students of Imperial history believe this planet is Eris, Homeworld of the Makhai.

As a world, Eris was of very little value to the Imperium of Man. It had no natural resources to speak of and it’s instability meant there was no real ability to create any standing structures. Wracked by earthquakes, eruptions and countless natural disasters, the humans on the planet were a fearful, primitively mad people. After it’s destruction, Eris was quickly forgotten as a horrible backwater, gratefully consigned to the dust of history.

## Organisation

Given their rampant and mind-shattering insanity, the Makhai can barely be seen as sentient in many cases, let alone organised, so horrific a toll as been taken on their minds. The closest to an organisation that can be seen in the remnants of the Makhai is the hordes that have gathered around leaders of a sufficiently powerful personality and charisma. Even the Chapter’s armoury is little more than a cobbled together wreck of whatever the slaves of the warband can salvage.

Whilst at first they were the smallest faction, the Unwavering rapidly eclipsed their brethren in numbers, due to the majority of the Apothecarian siding with Alke. That being said, beyond those bound to the whims of Fabius Bile or Urien Rakarth, the numbers of individual groups tend to fluctuate wildly.

## Combat Doctrine

When the Makhai deploy, they do so simply as a howling, near wave-like mass of lunatics, charging through the heaviest fire to get to grips with their foes, and fate their bloodlust. Their horrific and unpredictable mutations have had a profound effect on their fighting, flailing around insanely, where a fresh, proto-plasm covered limb may violently erupt from their elbow, wounding their foes further. Given these hellish regenerative abilites, their horde-charges are incredibly difficult to resist, a Makhai may have near-on half of his body blasted away, only for it to rapidly and agonisingly grow anew. Given their madness, casualties to their erstwhile allies is often a simple fact, especially given the fact that none truly see them as allies, those they are aiding often fire upon the Makhai themselves.

## Beliefs

Beyond who they shed blood for, the Makhai have no true culture that survived the Nemean Brotherhood’s shattering of Eris. They are a demented, carnage-addicted horde irrespective of their loyalties. For the Unwavering, they believe, in a vein similar to the beastmen of the Imperium of Man, that though their forms are disgusting and twisted parodies of the human form, that the Emperor has blessed them with a chance to repent for their failings. To the Androktasiai, the Makhai servants of Tzeentch, their demented mutations are gloried in, despite their lunacy they serve Tzeentch as best they can, bloody-handed pawns in his eternal game.

## Gene-Seed

As expected for a Chapter spawned from the gene-labs of Inculaba, the Makhai's gene-seed is unstable and rife with flaws. Though there is no known Primarch those scant few fragments of records remaining list their gene-seed as Chimeric. Despite the genetic instability and indeed inevitable break-down, the Genetor's purpose in creating the Makhai was clear; The enhancement of the healing abilities of Space Marines, to degrees nearing the levels of the Primarchs. Beyond simple healing to full regeneration.

### Genetic Flaws

The Makhai were created to enhance the healing abilities of the Adeptus Astartes. Needless to say however, they failed to create any truly stable Astartes of that ilk. The gene-seed of the Makhai is beyond unstable, it is rife with mutation and idiosyncrasies. The greatest flaw is that, further than cellular regeneration, there is spontaneous cell generation, limbs and other body-parts spawn at random under stress, with the Marine feeling every moment of growing or regrowing the part in question. This agonising effect is devastating to the psyche of any Makhai, which their homeworld and indeed gene-seed has already frayed to the brink of insanity. The mutations they suffer are neither consistent or predictable, often forming monstrous simulations of their more humanoid anatomy.

## Notable Members

* **Alke Keres the Fury** - Lord of the Unwavering faction. Alke was the Chapter Master during the Nemean Brotherhood's sanctioned destruction of the Makhai. Though the rest of the Chapter splintered, Alke managed to marshal a few to himself, still remaining loyal to the Imperium, despite being cast out by it. The Fury's mutations are perhaps the most stark of the Makhai, having sprouted a second torso, pair of taloned arms and a fanged head. Many believe that, given Alke's age, the Unwavering lurk in the Warp Rift designated Strife's Scream, meaning his aging has been reduced. His continued loyalty to the Imperium has been put down both to his zealotry and the insanity brought on by his mutations leaving his almost too demented to fall to Chaos. During the Fall of Cadia, the onset of the 13th Black Crusade, Alke was sighted, little more than a whirlwind of blood, massacring his way through the traitor legions at the head of his nightmarish horde of barbaric Unwavering, his massive mutations having long rendered weapons superfluous to him.
* **Death's Devotee**- The leader of the Amphillogiai, the Marine dubbed Death's Devotee by his cackling master; the arch flesh-crafter Urien Rakarth is seen as a prized piece of art, adored by his master as a great insult to the genetors of the Imperium and a testament to their failure and their first true stumbling steps into the artistry so beloved by the Haemonculi of the Drukhari. Death's Devotee wears a cold, silver mask, believed to have been surgically 'married' to him, so that the Marine cannot remove it. As expected from a Makhai and one who has spent so much time enslaved by the mad artisan Rakarth, Death's Devotee shows a series of starling mutations and additions to his body; on his right arm, below the elbow, grow two extra arms, each modified by Urien to produce a vicious, pain-amplifying paralytic. Often, at the whim of his master, Death's Devotee and the rest of the Amphillogiai are sent out into the colosseums of Commoragh, the absolutely stunning displays of unintentional and spontaneous mutation shown as the mad Astartes fight the creatures of the arena to the death always draws a crowd for the awe-inspiring barbarity on show.

## Chapter Appearance

Given their mutation-riven bodies, warriors of the Makhai Chapter rarely have full suits of power armour, often being fragmented by spontaneous limb-growth and simple battle-damage. Depending on their warband's affiliation, there may be symbols designating their loyalties.

### Chapter Badge

The Chapter badge of the Makhai is an arm clutching a blade. Given their mania and bloodlust, every Makhai is regularly armed for close-combat.

## Relations

None truly call the Makhai allies. They are many things, slaves, a living example of art, a marvellous artefact of help unwanted, no one truly desires the Makhai's aid. To the Imperium, the Unwavering are helpful abominations; monsters to be destroyed once their shared enemy has been destroyed, a shield to soak up enemy fire and be destroyed alongside the rest of the Imperium's foes for their corruption of the holy human form.

## Notable Quotes

### About: Makhai

"*The flesh is weak, but my will is strong. You are riven by corruption. Your weakness shows abomination.*"
— High Slayer Orthrus during his duel against Alke the Fury, during the Breaking of Eris
"*Never send hubristic children to do the work of warriors. I would’ve done more than shatter that pathetic rock they lurked on.*"
— Asterion Moloc

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