K'awil Pakal

"*My brothers and their sons think they know fear. I will show them their error and bring them to heel.
And when the day comes that I stand on the ruins of everything they held dear, they will know that it was always me.
I am fear.*"
— K'awil Pakal, The Day of Revelation
**K'awil Pakal** was the Primarch of the XVth Legion - the Grave Stalkers. '***The Soulless***' he was named, and so he became. Hardened by a life of persecution, K'awil was already taciturn and insular when he was discovered. Meeting his brother Primarchs did little to improve his opinions on humanity, for they showed all of the myriad personalities of the people he had known on Kabyieb. It was only amongst his sons that K'awil found any respite, for they knew as he that humans would always commit the worst offence against their own.

Under his influence, the XVth Legion began to exhibit greater strength and numbers of Pariahs. Whilst this allowed the XVth to operate more independently, it also led to them becoming further separated from their brother Legions and from the goals of the Great Crusade. It has been theorised that the Pariah gene may have been the cause of the downfall of the XVth, which, given the times that followed, is perhaps one of the greatest of tragedies.

## History

### K'awil Pakal

While many of his brothers have entire epics written about the deeds they accomplished on their homeworlds, very little is known about the early years of K'awil, or even the world on which he was discovered. While it was supposedly located in the Segmentum Solar, all other information about the world has been lost or, more likely, destroyed at the behest of K'awil himself. Some believe that he even destroyed the world itself for some slight or other. However, much of what is said about K'awil's homeworld is speculation and rumour and is, therefore, not worthy of being recorded.

As one of the Primarchs, K'awil was scattered across the galaxy by the vagaries of the Warp. While it’s unknown what world the young K'awil landed upon, what is certain is that he was never adopted by a family as many of his brothers were, rather he was simply left to fend for himself the second he emerged from his pod. It's entirely possible that it’s for this reason K'awil obliterated all traces of his homeworld and possibly the world itself, as punishment on the inhabitants of that world or as an attempt to bury his years roaming the wilds as consequence of this abandonment. What is more certain is that it was this time on his own that led K'awil to become the reserved and shadowy figure he is today, used to keeping his own council and unused to the bonds of brotherhood he might otherwise share with the other primarchs. Yet when the Emperor came to K'awil's homeworld, the young primarch immediately saw that, with this man lay his destiny and so needed little persuading to abandon his lonely life on his homeworld and join the Emperor in the Great Crusade. So it was that K'awil was united with his sons of the XVth, the Wraiths, then numbering 3,000 Space Marines, and given their command.

### The Reaping

Amongst the closed ranks of the XVth, the time immediately following K'awil Pakal's discovery is known as the Reaping. The reason for this is the first decision taken by K'awil in his role as primarch of the Wraiths (who he re-named to be Grave Stalkers). Seeing the pitiful number of recruits who survived the implantation process that would turn them into Space Marines, K'awil judged that drastic measures were needed to save his sons from a slow and inevitable decline that could only end in the extinction of their blood line. Using his rapidly learnt knowledge of the complicated bio tech that had gone into the creation of the gene-seed of the Legiones Astartes, K'awil decided that his the instability of his legions gene-seed stemmed from the very thing that made them invaluable: the pariah gene. He thought that the pariah gene caused a gradual degradation of the Grave Stalkers’ gene-seed, a process that was caused by exposure to the climate outside of the body of a live Space Marine. So, in order to put the prevent such degradation from occurring, K'awil decreed that gene-seed of the dead was not to be harvested and, instead, the gene-seed was to be harvested from still living Grave Stalkers which, while condemning the individuals in question to a long, drawn out death, he believed would halt, or at least slow the degradation of the gene-seed. So it was that K'awil's command was that every Grave Stalker be forced to partake in a ballot, drawing stones from a jar. A white stone and the space marine would continue to serve the Emperor and the Imperium. A black stone and they would become one of the first to have his gene-seed removed. Of the 3000 Grave Stalkers, 1,300 drew black stones, almost half the legion. It was then, when K'awil condemned almost half of his own sons to death that the legion learnt that they were the sons of a truly merciless man.

However, instead of rebelling against this knowledge, the Grave Stalkers embraced it and made K’awil’s nature their own. Soon, the process by which a living Grave Stalker's gene-seed was removed from his body became a standard fact of life to the Space Marines of the XVth, who viewed it not as the brutal and callous act other legions saw it as but as a measure of their dedication to their Primarch and to the Imperium. Slowly, the Grave Stalkers numbers began to rise and they were able to campaign independently, although their tally of compliances would never match those legions whose numbers far exceeded those of the XVth. However, the compliances the Grave Stalkers did achieve were usually fairly bloodless because, as ever, the main weapon the Grave Stalkers excelled at using was not the bolter or the chain axe but fear which they used as a doctor might use a scalpel, with their Primarch appearing to have an innate knowledge of exactly where an when to use terror to break their enemies and when the foe would hold and would need to be finished with conventional weapons. Yet, while extremely effective, the Grave Stalkers use of fear and their pariah gene as their principal weapons lead to them becoming fiercely independent and highly suspicious of any stranger, meaning that, despite their Primarch’s discovery, co operation with other Imperial forces remained rare and their deeds remained unlauded and unrecognised.

Nowhere was this perceived independence from the Imperium epitomized like the XVth legion’s seizure of the world of Lasaris Prime. A large forge world that was brought into compliance by the Grave Stalkers immediately after their Primarch's discovery, the Grave Stalkers claimed Lasaris for themselves, forbidding any member of the Adeptus Mechanicus from setting foot on the world. While Lasaris provided the Grave Stalkers with enough armour and ammunition to equip their entire legion, the damage done to the XVth’s relations with the Mechanicum was irreparable and the Grave Stalkers were forced to depend solely upon Lasaris for their equipment, leading to them lacking many vehicles in the way of heavy armour or large void faring vessels.

As the Great Crusade progressed and the Grave Stalkers continued to carve their own path across the galaxy, they became ever more detached from the Imperium at large and ever more reserved, beginning to believe themselves isolated and without allies (and in this they were not far wrong, for they were not highly regarded amongst their brother legions either), leading to them being suspicious to the point of hostility to any outsiders, further exacerbating their isolation. However, then, shortly after the Qarith triumph, they were approached by Icarion the Stormborn. While at the time it seemed inconsequential, this visit would be a turning point in the history of the XVth.

### Corruption

When the Stormborn came to the Grave Stalkers seeking to recruit them to his rebellious cause, he found the task to be more difficult than he had expected. The reason for this was the immense hostility of K'awil and his sons to any from outside of their own number and the mental wall they had built between themselves and outsiders. However, Icarion persevered and even fought alongside the Grave Stalkers for several years, gradually earning their trust, until he finally put to them his proposal to join him. This was a proposal the Grave Stalkers quickly accepted, for they had long gone unrecognised by the people they bled for and held nothing but contempt for the civilians who had taken over the governance of the Imperium, for the XVth believed them to be untrustworthy in the extreme. When compared to Icarion, who had fought alongside them, bled alongside them and lauded their deeds, praising the bloodless manor in which they brought worlds into compliance, the choice was simple. They pledged themselves, now 10,000 strong, to the Stormborn's cause.

In the following decades, the Grave Stalkers began to slow down their conquest of worlds and build their numbers, creating hundreds of reapers, held in stasis for the inevitable day when the Stormborn declared his rebellion against Terra and the XVth was obliged to rise with him. However, their alliance with the Stormborn brought unlooked for benefits, such as the healing of the rift, or at least part of it, between the Grave Stalkers and the Mechanicus, who now began to supply the Grave Stalkers with equipment the Grave Stalkers had had to do without for decades, such as new suits of armour, mainly Mk. IV, and new patterns of ammunition. On each of these suits, the helm was crafted into a masterfully made skull, a nod to the legion’s name. Yet these specialised helms also served another purpose other than terror and to honour the XVth. Each of them had been created at the behest of the Stormborn and they dampened the XVth’s pariah powers, allowing them to serve in conjunction with other forces for limited amounts of time (although this was still rare due to the Grave Stalkers being unaccustomed to serving in any company save their own).

So it was that when the order came from the Stormborn, the Grave Stalkers readied their chainblades and loaded their bolters without hesitation and prepared to do battle with their fellow legions, for the Stormborn had offered them what the Emperor never had. Recognition, of their deeds and of how they had aided the other legions and their contribution to the Great Crusade, so long overlooked by scriveners and Remembrancers. However, the Stormborn also offered a reprieve from the instability that plagued their gene-seed, help in finding the root of this instability and eradicating it whilst maintaining the pariah gene. Thus, when the Stormborn called, the Grave Stalkers readied their weaponry and prepared to cast off their ties of loyalty to the Imperium. It was a decision that would change them forever.

## Powers & Abilities

### Soulless

K'awil Pakal's nature is even more pronounced even than that of his most blessed sons. Simply being near to him confuses and disheartens. Unfortunately, this is not an ability over which he has conscious control, so it affects allies and enemies alike.

### Uk'kik Pixan

K'awil Pakal's mere presence is sufficient to draw the life force out of even the hardiest foes. Those attuned to such things can see the spirits being ripped from their bodies when K'awil strikes. He can literally cause death with but a touch.

### Laid Low

In the aftermath of the Death of the Bear, K'awil was wounded nigh unto death. Ever after, he was physically but a shadow of his former glory, however his will remained unchanged.

## Wargear

* ***The Kinsik Blades*** - A pair of blades gifted to K'awil upon his ascension to leader of the Grave Stalkers from a vault deep within Terra itself. Their origin is unknown, though they are truly ancient, they remain extremely potent weapon.
* ***Tun Winik*** - *Tun Winik* is the master-crafted, artificer-wrought battle-plate worn by K'awil in battle.
* ***Sotz'hun*** - This headgear of unknown, potentially xenos origin, is able to amplify K'awil's voice into a dangerous sonic weapon. The frequencies at which the weapon operates interact directly with a target's nervous system causing enemies to simply drop dead as their brains fail to process the intense input of information. Certain Mechanicum adepts have noted the similarity between this relic and the Neural Shredders carried by Callidus Assassins.
* ***The Kimi Etinab*** - The only weapon to make it out of the conflict which crippled K'awil. It was re-forged in a Warp-fuelled forge, a Greater Daemon unwillingly bound into its core and then quenched in the still living flesh of an Iron Bear captive. It now exists only partially in this reality allowing it to pierce the most potent of defences.
* **Frag Grenades**
* **Shroud Bombs**