Aesmedon Rinallis

> "The happiness of ones life depends greatly upon the quality of ones thoughts: therefore, we must guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to a virtuous and reasonable nature."
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## Character

### Title(s)

Lord Heir of Kerivaltas, The Crowned General of House Rinallis, Lord of House Rinallis

### Aliases

The Taurean Lord, The Unifier, The Bull Prince, Panteleimons Heir, The Bane of the Koskides, The Forest Prince, The Bringer of The Flaming Sea,

### Language(s)

High Argothic, Multiple Low Argothic Languages, Multiple Xenos Languages

### Beliefs/Worships

The Stellaris Divinatum, The Creed of the Four Kings

## Physical Description

### Weight

1,110 (Unarmored)2,100 (Armored)

**Aesmodon Rinallis** (pronounced EES-muh-don Ren-A-lis), known as the **"*The Light in the Darkness*"**, ***"The Taurean Lord"***, and derisively titled ***“The Second Dawn”*** by his brethren Luminarchs - Is the Luminarch of the XVIIth Legion - The Bulls Palatine. And under his guidance, his Legion's former past of aggression would be quartered and put in check, as they changed their tactical doctrines towards combined arms warfare, and placing a priority of protecting Imperial citizens and other humans as well as even showing mercy to Xeno forces willing to ally themselves to the Imperium, rather than simply slaying the enemies of Mankind.

It would have been inaccurate to describe Aesmodon as an exceptional Luminarch, though this is only to be said in regards to comparison with his other siblings, for he was still an unrivalled being compared to the common man. Aesmodon was neither the strongest, nor the fastest of his siblings. His strategies, whilst undeniably effective, were blunt and straightforward. He was neither the most brutal, nor the most humanitarian. Where some of his brothers were brash, and bombastic, he was quiet, and reserved. However, that being said, for all the things Aesmodon may not have been, what he was allowed him to stand as a beacon of hope in a galaxy full of darkness, and despair.

Beloved by the common man and Demigod both, Aesmodon was held in high regard by both the common citizenry, and the military men of the Imperial Army due, in part, to his strongly held ideal that both he, and his legion, were created to serve mankind. Army officers were given an equal voice in his war room, and he strove constantly to better the lives of the citizens of the Stellar Imperium. Even The Jovian Mechanicum, and it's numerous Forgeworlds, considered him an ally. Primarily as a result of his willingness to consider them as equal members in the alliance between the Cradle of Humanity, and the Jovian Titan.

Strength and virtue went hand in hand with Aesmodon and his Legion, and with astonishing resilience they bore the Tri-Headed Imperial standard across the myriad of battlefields fought in the Great Crusade.

## History

### A Dreamer's Twilight Beginning

Kerivaltas was far from the artificially chilled barren home of Venus that the Third-Born Trichotomic XVIIth Legion originally had known. Fertile over much of its surface, it had retained an intact civilization at the feudal level, though its technology had regressed to steam power, steel and black powder. A slowly shifting patchwork of kingdoms ruled over the peasantry and city-dwelling menials, vying for power by diplomacy and force. Advised and abetted by a caste of sorcerers, they brooked no challenge to their rule.

It might be expected that Aesmedon; one of the most radiant of the Emperors Sons would come to be born to one of these high lords, but in truth the child that would come to be named Aesmedon came to be born in secret within a woodland thicket far from any major city, in the backwater surrounding provinces of Caloglou Civitas. Here in the surrounding oak and cypress forest of Larea, Aesmedon was born to Koralia Rinallis; a young noblewoman and daughter to the Baron freeholder; Panteleimon Rinallis.

Koralia, young and afraid as she was barely into her 20th year of life, had been both ashamed and fearful of the sudden onset of her pregnancy. As such she feared the ire of both the peacocking of Caloglien Nobles, and her own Father's wrath, she chose to hide within the Larean forest to the north of her father's province. But as had been the case with all the Luminarchal Mothers, the pregnancy was both sudden and swift and within several days she was heavy with child, and within even less the birth pangs of a Demi-God echoed through the Larean forest.

After hours of intense labor the young woman wished to merely leave upon the birth of the child. Leave him in either the care of the nearby peasantry, or to be taken by the elements. But upon looking at the young newborn she held in the darkness of the thicket, as perfect as any, possibly even more so. A shallow wellspring of gestalt power wreathed in her arms in the light of her worlds moon. Something grew in her that second, was it an instinctual maternal sense or the young Luminarchs own void borne essence manipulating his mother, or something of a mix? Either way Koralia chose against the abandonment of the child, but as she sat there shaking in an apprehensive feeling of unknowing, the strain of the intense labor finally over took her, and in the Larean Forest as she held her newborn the two slept.

When the morning sun finally pierced through the forest canopy, Koralia jolted awake with her newborn nowhere to be seen. She searched for the young boy as fear began to spread through her. But she still hadn't fully healed from the night before, and as such she was forced into a snails pace as she searched for her son. For hours the weakened woman searched through the brambles of the forest, her vision hazy through frigid tears, and pace slowed by a rapidly decreasing strength.

But before hope had been lost she heard saving echoes of laughter, limping to the source as she parted away branches and boughs. Her heart almost crashed into her stomach as she reached the clearing, for she had finally found her son who had been in the company of a Caloglien Cattle Herd as their young played. A breed of heavy set tetrabrachian animals, thrice as strong and hearty as the Bulls of Old Terra, and like their ancient ancestors were excellent for field work with their dual sets of fore limbs making quick work with their plows. And the cows like their ancestors, were renowned for their meat and dairy. But as useful as they were, their fiery temperaments especially in the presence of their calves, had been the reason the breed hadn't spread further than Caloglou and its neighboring citystates and provinces.

But here, in a clearing within the forest of his birth, the child, a mere day old had been in the midst of a full Caloglien Cattle herd as he giggled as the young calves butted heads, their budding horns only beginning to show true growth. Koralia saw the boy, only a day old and already walking even if he wobbled upon his legs, and awe struck Koralia limped towards him. And in her arms she named him after her peoples Patron of protection whos symbol had been that of the Caloglien Bull, Aesmodon Caloglun, an ancient King who rode upon the back of a titanic Bull wreathed in a crown of otherworldly horns as he guided his people to what would become the Civitas proper.

#### The Bull Lords Youth

For four Kerivaltan months after his delivery, the young Luminarch aged within the forest of his birth at an astonishing pace as his mother, in an attempt to create a veil of normalcy to the menials and nobility of Caloglou, alternated from the wild territories of Larea to the walls of the Civitas. When she would return to her son, she would bring food, books, and ancient data-tombs for him to learn from, and clothing for his ever-growing body, though they'd need to stitch sets of cloth into adequate garb during his later years of growth. But she was only able to be with him 4 days out of ten. And during these periods of isolation, Aesmedon as expected of a young Luminarch, was truly a mental sponge.

Aesmedon as a wandering boy, explored through the forest of Larea, often using the empty pages and graphite sticks gifted to him by his mother to recreate the images he saw within the forests onto the pages, studying structures and form. His artistic endeavors didn't simply stop at the page though, as he uncovered more about his surroundings, he discovered the clay found in the banks of the rivers that flowed from Larea Outer to Caloglou. And using this same clay he began to model the faces of those few people other than his mother he saw in the forests, from hunters to wayward farm children.

But in the days when his mother returned, his thoughts were razor lined onto her. As he wanted to learn more and more of the people that lived within the Civitas whose far flung fires he had seen since the days of his youth. And, though Koralia would forgo to tell Aesmedon of the nobility of Colaglou, she did tell him of the Farming people he had spent so long gazing towards in the dark of night. Because, as the 8th child of Panteleimon and dead last in the running of Heir, Koralia had all the time in the world to learn of the people who lived in and around Calaglou. And as she recognized many faces within the menagerie of sculpts and portraits, she told many stories of the men and women she saw, their families, and their struggles.

And because of this, a twin sided rolling avalanche began in the gene-forged hearts of the young man, for he both wanted to learn more and more of the Cologlien menials, to simply speak to those he had been forbidden to even let know of his existence. That, and he wished to simply aid them in their struggles, for to be told of the ailing crops grown by the Farmers, the encroaching wild beasts of the south, and the ocean fairing raiders of the eastern bays, something within Aesmedons very genetic makeup had been activated.

#### The Dreamers Silent War

Koralia could never know just how her stories would affect her son, just how much her words would shape the course of his future. As during the days when Koralia would return back to the civitas, in his isolation he would turn his growing strength and intellect to secretly aid nearby agricultural settlements. From the glades of the forest he would emerge wreathed in ghillie styled robes in the dead of night in an attempt to tend to the needs of the menials of the Caloglou Civitas. And as he tended to the ailing structures of the farmers, he tilled their dying farmlands, rebuilt and strengthened their fences and gates entirely in single nights.

Other nights he would single handedly redirect river flows to better supplement the people and their lands, and others more he would either hunt down or evict bothersome beasts. Such as when he wrestled and beat down a brother pair of hyper aggressive Caloglien Bulls. These very same males, after being tamed by Aesmedon, would become the forefathers of the fire-breathing Khalkotauroi war mounts of the XVIIth Legions Elite of the Flame-Rider Battalions.

But a terrible war had begun to brew in rise to meet Aesmodons actions, for as the northern farmland had begun to prosper, and the southern landscape had been emptied of the worse of Kerivaltan beasts. The land had been open to incursions from the East as raiders pillaged the north and set up strongholds in the south, in response to this Aesmodon reacted swiftly and violently. It was difficult at first as the young Luminarch had never killed a human before, but their actions justified his own.

He tore through raiding parties, his strength and speed in combat baffling even himself. He learned much about himself in these weeks of toil, from the speed and strength of his strikes to the durability of his body against attack. He learned even more about the people he fought for and fought against, from the look of men and women who fought with everything to the look of curs who had no pride to even hurt for.

This silent war of his would come to a fiery crescendo in the scouring of Vasofa Harbor Proper, wherein Aesmedon in a complete twilight that mirrored that of his very birth would set the sky aflame. Armed with a great bow crafted for one with his capability, he wrapped his heavy arrows with simple linen and soaked them in oils. And with these he pierced through scarlet sails, and shattered the ship hulls of the raider armada that had dogged his people and cut off their supply lines.

In the flames of retribution he stood upon the center of Vasofa Harbor - his arrows spent and his bow splintered under the sheer immensity of his own power. Men, Women and Child flocked to meet the titan arrayed in a crowned wreath of otherworldly power - his silver eye’s glistening in the warm light that burned hotly over the bay. The Freeholder Panteleimon in his nightly robes was at the head of the procession, the stupor of sleep still heavy across his brow - his noble children behind him, some half armed in noble armament as they feared for the worse.

Yet Koralia, seeing her son felt a pride unlike any other as she stepped forward - her voice trembling as she looked upon the Demigod, a warm smile on her face as she cradled the almost oversized hand of her son in her comparatively diminutive ones. Her eyes wet as she looked upon the scars and abrasions he had gained during his campaign, the hands of an artist turned to those of weapons.

> ”So much pain incurred… and for *what*? Please, tell me why and for who’s sake have you permitted such perfection as yourself to be marred, tell me my Son…”
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Panteleimon was incredulous as he looked at the sight, even more so as hearing that this young man was somehow the child of his youngest child. Yet he’d have been remised if he denied the obviousness of relation, as the Demigods features echoed those of his own sons who themselves looked upon a man who so closely resembled their own father in his youth.
But most surprising yet was how Aesmedon smiled as he kneeled low to his mother. His brow touching upon the dirt and the tresses of his dark brown curls swayed against the dirt of the harbor. The woman nearly fainted as she bade him to stand and to answer her previous inquiries. Yet when he rose he smiled as he gestured to the collective crowd, an aura of warmth filled his being as he spoke.

> “For *them*, Mother, I did it for *them*. For duty to ones people is its own reward, no matter the hardship is it not?”
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From there Aesmedon would freely let the people of Caloglou Civitas know of his existence, though only sparsely and when needed. Aesmedon would double his reconstruction efforts, and due to him having gained the favor of many who his actions benefited many followed in his footsteps. And from there he would rebuild entire homes and under the allowance of his Grandfather he rebuilt the infrastructure of the civitas from the ground level. But it was not to last, as what might have become of Aesmedon, had the Master of Mankind found Aesmedon fully accustomed to this life of simple reconstruction and nobility we shall never know. For the existence of a Luminarch, especially one so proactive in the uplifting of his people as Aesmedon was all but impossible to keep secret, and another ruler saw the potential in the young Lord.

#### The Koskide Conflicts

Vassilis Koskides, styling himself as the Archduke of Vlasis, was one of the most powerful lords upon Kerivaltas, and among the most brutal with Legions of warriors and weapons both hidden and apparent. The agents he had placed in the Civitas of Caloglou - not truly his domain, but sitting just beyond his borders - carefully collected information on the young man who could single handedly shatter the hull of a war ship with the single bound of a piercing arrow, with his prodigious strength and intelligence, and determined that he was a worthy prize for their master. Vassilis devised a scheme to acquire the young Luminarch, and sent two forces to Caloglou. One of which was a rabble of mercenaries, dressed in the livery of a rival lord, and sent to scour the port settlement - yet knowing nothing of the Archduke’s own men-at-arms who followed in secret.

The mercenaries struck in the blaze of dusk, setting farmland alight and slaughtering cattle. The army was first met by the Great-Arrows of Aesmedon - more rail spikes than true arrows, their size and bulk meant that once unleashed armor was shattered and bone and flesh turned into nothing more than mist.

Yet even with their fellows turned to naught but gore, the mercenaries continued their onslaught - their perseverance would be paid kindly once Aesmedon took to the field sprinting in his panoply and followed close by Calvary riders. He crashed upon his foes, and with fist and blade he crushed into the enemy lines long before the first riders even made it to the tumult.

And for hours he fought, yet the warriors wielded weapons of slung fire - something he and his forces hadn’t quite seen before. He was pushed back, and the Caloglou populace were forced to flee the civitas. And soon the Civitas would be left ravaged as the warriors made it deeper into the city. Flames rose over the city, and upon the steps of the Civitas Center the warriors of the clashed - and for his actions at the head of his forces, Baron Panteleimon was left slain by the hand of the mercenary captain, his armament shattered upon the steps.

Even as the fires raged about him the young Luminarch he continued to fight within the center, yet with the wounds incurred from the foreign weaponry mounting he slowed considerably. And only after evacuating hundreds of Caloglien men and women onto ships in an effort to save as many as he could, would he collapse upon Vasofa Harbor left wounded unto collapse as he fought wave upon wave of mercenary warriors before the second of Koskides's forces arrived to *"save"* the handful of straggling warriors and survivors forced to remain as the ships escaped the harbor, under the pretense that these were his people. It is no surprise that none survived their wounds.

A number of Koskide aligned sorcerers were also present, and worked spells of illusion on the journey back to obscure their route from the wounded Aesmedon. Thus was Aesmedon deceived into the Archduke’s service with the promise of vengeance. A hunger awoke in him, and he devoured lore of all kinds, though overwhelmingly this was limited to military matters. Caloglou Civitas, the home where he had been raised was obliterated from the maps, the better to maintain the deception.

With his new general, Koskides swiftly conquered the neighboring states, though the rate of expansion caused hardship to his people and the subjects he conquered. Rhoskouli Civitas, who would be made scapegoats for the destruction of Aesmedon's home, was the first to fall, and with the utmost care Aesmedon was kept unaware of the true extent to which the common people suffered. Unrest among the peasants was kept to a minimum by the fear that Koskides might turn his monstrous lieutenant on them. Yet as years became decades and Koskides's rapacity went undiminished, dispossessed nobles began to offer themselves as figureheads, and an uprising broke out, centered in part in the ashes of Caloglou.

Koskides might reasonably have assumed that there was no real risk in sending Aesmedon to his old home. Decades had passed since then, and while his general clearly possessed an astonishing memory, trauma was known to interfere with such things. Besides, his mages had been diligent in their deception.

But the Archduke could never calculate the truly eidetic memory of one such as a Luminarch. Even after all this time, Aesmedon in tears looked upon the rebel leaders as he remembered the landscape he had once called home. The noble commanders hair, though highlighted with streaks of white and grey, the features though dogged by age and marred by scars, and the pose now honed with the certainty of wisdom was purely that of the first woman he had ever known. He knew when the civitas had been attacked, he knew she had been alive and with dreadful clarity the pieces aligned. Koskides's soldiers had not been answering an attack on his own territory, but attacking Aesmedon’s people, the people now led by his very own mother.

In an instant Aesmedon realized the truth of his *“rescue”*, this adoptive father figure revealed to have been the murderer of those who he had first protected and bled for. A mind like Aesmedon’s could easily extrapolate from this and guess at the truth behind accounts of bitter enemies torching their villages to deny Koskides's armies. There was no worth in the conquests he had bent his strength and wits to.

Wracked with sorrow, Aesmedon ordered his forces to stand down and took counsel with his long lost mother, with the pretext of it being a tactical parlay with the rebel leadership. And finally broke down in a way that belied his titanic size. The man kneeled before his mother, his statuesque features having long since been honed by age and experience were now slick with sorrow. Koralia accepted her son, and even though her son now eclipsed her in size by a factor of at least 5 she tearfully embraced hI’m. And silently Aesmedon listened to his mothers tails of strife, as she relived the decades that had passed.

Simmering with anger and a growing self-hatred, Aesmedon took counsel with his most trusted followers, ones who in their hearts had mirrored something of his virtues. And with their support he retook the field only to loudly, and proudly renounce his allegiance to the Archduke. This done, he turned on his fellow commanders and fractured the army he was meant to lead. Then he pledged his service to the dumbfounded rebels, and the uprising took on a scale never before seen on Kerivaltas.

Perhaps most surprisingly, Aesmedon's closest friend in this fight was his foster brother Silas. The revelation of Koskides’s deeds was as terrible for Silas as it was for Aesmedon, and joined him in fighting to depose their *"father"*, even though this meant giving up the inheritance he was born to. Having been trained to rule as much as command, he turned his political skills toward winning allies for the fight and building a council of trustworthy men to serve Aesmedon.

The strongest of armies in Koskides disposal were deployed against Aesmedon, but his conquests had dispersed them from his base of control. The terrible power of Koskides sorcerers became unleashed, yet at the same time, the latent talent that Aesmedon's gene-sons would one-day possess was unlocked in him. His presence caused the wizards' attempts to read his thoughts to fail, and their black fire to gutter and react negatively back to themselves. Within a year, Aesmedon had completely overtaken Vlasis and executed the man who he formerly called father. And Silas would now abandon the name of Koskides and would take upon the name of Rinallis. Which would be formally given to him by Aesmedon. The virtuous Koskides who had given up their privileges for the sake of their people were similarly honored.

Aesmedon's campaigns to spread his newfound ideology were initially slower than the conquests he had fought for the Koskides, as political governance, and infrastructure reform now dominated his studies, and he refused to wage war at the expense of the civilians he protected. With this, Vlasis grew prosperous, and this itself fostered support for him in the lands he aspired to liberate. Conscript armies disintegrated as his enemies’ troops flocked to the banner of the House of Rinallis, and the most fanatical elites could not match the warriors trained by Aesmedon's own hand. After a short period of bloody tumult, Kerivaltas entered a golden age.

### Coming of the Imperium

Alas, Aesmedon's laudable principles would bring the reunion with his father to a near disaster. As within the Sanctum Principa - the Castle that the Archduke once called home, destroyed during the Rebellion and rebuilt greater as a symbol of Unity upon Kerivaltas - Aesmedon regarded this Golden Lord, lauded with his Eagles and Laurels, and seconded by his Silver Seraphim of otherworldly fire with a deep distrust. And despite the innate kinship he felt in both himself and the two demigods of Raphael O'Sullivan and Metatronous Godwin, who had accompanied the Emperor he still felt an instinctive unease.

When they drew close, the sheer magnitude of the Emperor's psychic presence overwhelmed Aesmedon, and in an instant he leapt to attack what he saw as a tyrant God wearing the skin of man.

He was met by the flaming spears of the Seraphim, and with contempt for such inhuman things as otherworldly as they - he flung them away, shattering their armament under his fists and shattering their spears with his blade.

And in a moment more he crossed blades with Metatronous, the greater strength of the Harbinger surprising him as they clashed. The Harbingers movements were akin to a raging storm - quick and filled with a fury that bellied his previously placid features. Aesmedon danced about his brother, charging and counter charging repeatedly against the obviously superior foe even whilst the Emperor and Raphael called for an end. And when the two clashed once more, surprise filled his features as His brothers Bale eyes erupted with crimson light as what could only be called living fire spewed forth - redirected once Raphael took the reigns of his brothers head, the beams of heat struck down many pillars within the throne room.

Mercifully, Raphael’s Gene-Sons with the aid of a still standing Seraphim succeeded in restraining Aesmedon whilst Raphael dealt with Metatronous. Looking upon him and waving the warriors away, the Emperor managed to placate his son. And though the Taurean still felt that unease at the back of his mind, he relented and was willing to concede.

And over the following weeks, the Emperor explained to Aesmedon the true scale of his intended destiny, and arranged for the now willing Luminarch to assume control of his Legion.

### Father of the XVIIth

> "To stand steady, enjoying a moment of reprise is not selfish. A breath that takes us back to our center is essential. We must respect the anchor that holds our feet to the ground. When we do this, we wield a strength that can push back against the spin of the world. The Father is there. The embodiment of the focus and dedication we hold when we make a commitment. A moment of clarity, grasped in a closed fist."
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Aesmedon was truly anxious from the start to make a substantial contribution to the Great Crusade like all of his brethren Luminarchs, but the small size of his Legion meant that the XVIIth Legion were at first placed under the command of the Luminarch Metatronous and were assigned to fight alongside his Imperial Harbingers Legion. Belying their first introductions, Metatronous and Aesmedon soon grew personally close during their time together while their Legions participated in the conquest and pacification of the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy in the Proxima Orientus.

Here, Aesmedon would first assert himself. Having read his Legion’s histories, he was appalled at the reputation they had garnered, and the baleful influence of Kaeso Tadius. So as the first generation of the new XVIIth, both born of Venus and Kerivaltas, began their Ascension, Aesmedon summoned the Bulls Palatine to his world. In some ways he was generous, doing little to alter the Legion’s culture, but when it came to the echelons who ruled the Legion he was uncompromising. Kaeso and his most brutal lieutenants were cast back into the position of file officers, risking the anger of much of the Legion. Yet having seen the strength of bonds between Marines and their gene-sire, Aesmedon was willing to make this calculated gamble, and it proved a remarkable success.

From the onset, he took the brunt of whatever battle the Bulls Palatine fought, and this swiftly earned him the respect of the remaining holdouts. It may be deemed a happy accident that Kaeso fell in battle only a few years after the reunion; an honorable death, but one that reduced him to little more than a footnote in the Bulls Palatine's history. It is whispered in places that Silas, inducted into the Legion after the reunion, orchestrated the fall of the old Legion Master, seeing him as a lasting threat to Aesmedon’s authority.

Whatever the truth of Kaeso's end, it ushered out the last remnants of the old XVIIth and completed the Bulls Palatine's new lease of life. Along with a newfound feeling of purpose, they found acclaim from their cousins and the Imperium at large. Aesmedon made them liberators, artisans, and reconstructors as much as they had been warriors, and destroyers, and thus they were loved by the Imperium and feared by its enemies. Companies were placed within brotherhoods, and in these Venusians mingled with Kerivaltans as they were expected to create bonds of brotherhood by their Father.

Aesmedon spent his formative campaigns at the side of his brothers Metatronous and Mikha'el Theophylact , and the influence showed in the Bulls Palatine's use of their strength to shield their mortal allies. Indeed, they took it further, and while they used many of the units available to a Legiones Imperialis, they often skewed towards close range martial-combat. Perhaps it was by Metatronous' example or a continuation of Aesmedon's own policies, but in council all senior officers were given an equal voice in principle, be they of the Legion, Imperial Army or a Titan maniple.

Eventually, over the course of several Terran decades, the Bulls Palatine's ranks were swelled with new Angelus who had been recruited from both Terra and Aesmedon's homeworld of Kerivaltas, where the XVIIth Legion had established its fortress-monastery within the city of Vlasis. When the XVIIth were judged to have reached an appropriate size, Aesmedon was finally given command of the 28th Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade and set off on his own course of conquest, adding dozens of worlds to the rule of the Emperor.

Soon, the Bulls Palatine were known for their determination to negotiate with any human culture they found, to an extent only seen among the Dawnguard and Avenging Shields before. In Mikha'el Theophylact, Aesmedon found a kindred spirit who was quite willing to share his decades of experience, and dozens of worlds were brought into the Imperial fold by his rhetoric and that of his sons. Nonetheless, while the Bulls Palatine rigidly upheld the Emperor’s line on *violent* and *hostile* xenos forces and mutants too changed to be reasoned with, they would choose to field a merciful hand to those few either far to weak to create a real threat to the Imperiums domains, or willing to bend the knee and be ruled by the Imperium as vassal Empires. And the XVIIth, would gain ample battle honors to go with their many diplomatic triumphs.

Under Aesmedon their reputation in combat was for steadfast endurance and willing sacrifice, the Legions very own marines offering their lives to break sieges rather than cost the lives of mortal soldiery to starve the defenders. To some of Aesmedon's brethren this was cause for concern or scorn; an unwillingness to face the hard facts of galactic conquest. But in the grand scheme of the Great Crusade - as multifaceted a scheme as Mankind has ever known - these were but minor worries, apt to delay the XVIIth's growth but nothing more. Besides, the Bulls Palatine's high regard for the Imperial Army ensured that they did not want for mortal support in their campaigns.

Yet beneath the surface, there was strain. The rate of attrition wore on Aesmedon as he watched his sons sacrifice themselves for the Emperor’s dream. At the same time, he was frustrated by the stratified society of the Stellar Imperium and the way that ruling tyrants were so often imposed on a conquered populace. Of course, he was often obliged to do exactly this to ensure a full compliance, and the charge of hypocrisy stung even if none spoke it.

## Personalty

Aesmedon is unusual among his fellow Luminarchs because he believes that the skilled conduct of war couldn't be enough; humanity was truly fighting during the Great Crusade to create a new interstellar civilization that would pursue the finer things in life and take delight in the finer arts and gifts of high civilization and the cultures of the Imperiums people. Aesmedon grew to consider himself an artist as much as a protector of humanity, and would become a masterful sculptor who had created statues of his Legion's First Captains. But even then, Aesmedon felt his work was never quite perfect enough to be truly great art for all his technical mastery.

Aesmedon would be noted for his search for perfection in all aspects of life, a trait that the Marines of his Legion also came to emulate. He believed that humanity represented the potential of the utmost perfection of sentient life and that the Emperor was the most perfect human ever born, to be revered and used as an example for all others to aspire to. Aesmedon in an attempt to emulate his Father would become a warrior and commander

He believes that there is little point in conquering the galaxy if they did not indulge in these civilized traits as it's what keeps one human. He is also motivated by the idea that every human can do better, every man, and woman can improve upon themselves. As was once a simple farm hand, who brought himself up to rule his birthworld, and now is designated to help his father's conquest of the galaxy.

Aesmedon's closest relationships would be with his brothers Metatronous Godwin, and Mikha'el Theophylact, aswell as the Frostwind Hounds Luminarch Moka'luk Tikaani. He would also become close to Gabriel Ricard, having fought beside the XVIth Legion during its early years of independence when the Legion was caught in a standstill as they fought the Fel Orrukai of the Phertebous Sector.

## Wargear

* **The Taurean Panoplia:** Aesmedon carried a number of personal weapons of formidable power, which had made him into a frighteningly deadly opponent in personal combat. These included a number of artificer-crafted Power Swords he carried almost constantly, capable of shredding the heaviest armor with ease.

* **The Bulls-Charge Array:** Aesmedon, despite his unwavering honor and profound respect for his enemies, showcased a pragmatic facet when the imperative of victory overshadowed all. It is within this context that the enigmatic Bulls-Charge Array was designed—a sophisticated marvel of Archeotechnica. This network array consists of an intricate web of micro-teleportation units that, at Aesmedon's calculated discretion, would propel forth from the recesses of his armor's rear pack. Once deployed, these nodes would seamlessly harmonize with the Luminarch's already supernatural mastery of the blade, precipitating a fusion of skill and technology that proved the undoing of countless enemy commanders and hapless adversary strongholds alike.

* **Bulls Horn:** One of a number of arms Aesmedon often carried as the mood took him was The ‘Bulls Horn’, a master-crafted Volketic Charge twin barreled Pistol. The barrels are augmented and engraved with stylized bull horns, giving them a distinctive and aggressive appearance. The Bulls Horn is capable of firing high-velocity Volketic pulses, delivering a powerful and obliterating shot to its target.

* **Panteleimons’ Honor:** Aesmedon wears a suit of beautifully master-crafted Artificer Armor, wrapped in ivory and golden ornamentation. Once a gift from his maternal grandfather, meant for him upon his successful destruction of Raider ships after the scouring of Vasofa Harbor. It would be destroyed during the attack on Caloglou by Koskides first forces, but it has now been thrice rebuilt and further overhauled with Imperial Power Armor technologies, making it an indomitable Aegis of the Luminarch.