Koschei Kharkovic

**Koschei Kharkovic**, known as the "***The Light in the Darkness***", is the Primarch of the VIIIth Legion - the Godslayers Legion. Strength and virtue went hand in hand with Koschei and his Legion, and with astonishing resilience they bore the Imperial standard across the battlefields of the Great Crusade.

It was not to last. Icarion exploited the Godslayers' nobility to shackle them to his uprising. The 'Light in the Darkness' became the first kinslayer among the Primarchs, and the consequences of such a crime are inescapable. Though he fought to maintain his honour, Koschei would find no respite from his guilt, and the taint of his deed was impossible to scour away. Eventually, he found himself with nowhere left to run, and became the plaything of primordial powers of limitless malice. They would make him the same kind of monster he had stood against all his life, a mockery of all that had been good in him.

## History

### A Dreamer's Beginning

Zbruch was far from the cold, barren home that the original VIIIth had known. Fertile over much of its surface, it had retained an intact civilisation 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 Koschei would have come straight to one of these lords, but in truth his incubation pod came to rest in a woodland far from any city, in the backwater province of Kolanska. Here Koschei was adopted by a freeholder, and for two years turned his strength and intellect to agriculture, forestry and the needs of his village, rather than the trade which the Emperor intended for his sons. What might have become of the Master of Mankind finding Koschei accustomed to this life however, we shall never know. For a Primarch was all but impossible to keep secret, and another ruler saw the potential in the young Primarch.

Iosif Kharjalov, styling himself the Archduke of Sibronsk, was one of the most powerful lords on Zbruch, and among the most brutal. The agents he had placed in Kolanska - not truly his domain, but sitting just beyond his borders - carefully collected information on this child who could pass for an adolescent at two years old, his prodigious strength and intelligence, and determined that this was a worthy prize for their master. Kharjalov devised a scheme to acquire the young Primarch, and sent two forces to Kolanska. One of these was a rabble of mercenaries, dressed in the livery of a rival lord, and knew nothing of the Archduke’s own men-at-arms who followed.

Koschei’s home town was ravaged, his family slain and the young Primarch wounded unto collapse before the second of Kharjalov's forces arrived to "save" the handful of survivors, under the pretence that these were his people. It is no surprise that none survived their wounds. A number of his sorcerers were also present, and worked spells of illusion on the journey back to obscure their route from the wounded Koschei. Thus was Koschei 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. The town where he had been raised was obliterated from the maps, the better to maintain the deception.

With his new general, Kharjalov swiftly conquered the neighbouring states, though the rate of expansion caused hardship to his people and the subjects he conquered. Samofrikiya, made scapegoats for the destruction of Koschei's home, was the first to fall, and with the utmost care Koschei 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 Kharjalov might turn his monstrous lieutenant on them. Yet as years became decades and Kharjalov's rapacity went undiminished, dispossessed nobles began to offer themselves as figureheads, and an uprising broke out, centred in part on Kolanska.

Kharjalov might reasonably have assumed that there was no real risk in sending Koschei to his old home. Decades had passed, 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 reckoned without the truly eidetic memory of a Primarch. Even after all this time, Koschei remembered the landscape he had called home. He knew when the province had been conquered, and with dreadful clarity the pieces aligned. Kharjalov's soldiers had not been answering an attack on his own territory, but attacking Koschei’s people.

In an instant Koschei realised the truth of his “rescue”, his adoptive father revealed as the murderer of those who had first taken him in. A mind like Koschei’s could easily extrapolate from this and guess at the truth behind accounts of bitter enemies torching their villages to deny Kharjalov's armies. There was no worth in the conquests he had bent his strength and wits to.

Simmering with anger and self-disgust, Koschei took counsel with his most trusted followers, ones who shared something of his virtues. With their support he took the field only to loudly 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 Zbruch.

Perhaps most surprisingly, Koschei's closest friend in this fight was his foster brother Alexander. The revelation of Kharjalov’s deeds was as terrible for Alexander as it was for Koschei, 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 Koschei.

Kharjalov sent the mightiest of his available armies against Koschei, but his conquests had spread them thinly close to his seat of power. His sorcerers were unleashed with all their terrible power, but at this time the same gift Koschei's sons possessed was unlocked in him. The mages found their attempts to read his mind failing, their black fire guttering in his presence. Within a year Koschei had taken Sibronsk entirely, slaying his abductor in the process. Now he cast aside the name of Kharjalov, and adopted that given to him by his followers - Kharkovic, "liberator". Those virtuous Kharjalovs who had renounced their privileges for the greater good were likewise rewarded.

Koschei's campaigns to spread his newfound ideology were initially slower than the conquests he had fought for Kharjalov, as governance now dominated his studies, and he refused to wage war at the expense of the civilians he protected. Sibronsk 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 Kharkovic, and the most fanatical elites could not match the warriors trained by Koschei's own hand. After a period of tumult, Zbruch entered a golden age.

Alas, Koschei's laudable principles would bring the reunion with his father to near disaster. Koschei regarded this golden king with deep distrust, despite the kinship he felt with both him and Daer'dd, who had accompanied the Emperor. When they drew close, the sheer magnitude of the Emperor's psychic presence overwhelmed Koschei, and he leapt to attack what he saw as a tyrant. Mercifully, Daer'dd succeeded in restraining Koschei, and the Emperor managed to placate his son. Over the following weeks, he explained to Koschei the true scale of his intended destiny, and arranged for the now willing Primarch to assume control of his Legion.

### Master of the VIIIth

Here, Koschei would first assert himself. Having read his Legion’s histories, he was appalled at the reputation they had garnered, and the baleful influence of Prometear Thyris. So as the first generation of the new VIIIth, both of Terra and Zbruch, began their Ascension, Koschei summoned the Godslayers 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. Thyris 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 Astartes and their gene-sire, Koschei was willing to make this calculated gamble, and it proved a remarkable success.

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

Whatever the truth of Thyris' end, it ushered out the last remnants of the old VIIIth and completed the Godslayers' new lease of life. Along with a newfound feeling of purpose, they found acclaim from their cousins and the Imperium at large. Koschei made them liberators, and thus they were loved. Companies were placed within brotherhoods, and in these Terrans mingled with Zbruchans as they did in the flourishing warrior lodges.

Koschei spent his formative campaigns at Daer'dd's side, and the influence showed in the Godslayers' 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 Legion Astartes, they often skewed towards close-combat. Perhaps it was by Daer'dd's example or a continuation of Koschei's own policies, but in council all senior officers were given an equal voice in principle, be they of the Legion, Army or a Titan maniple.

Soon, the Godslayers were known for their determination to negotiate with any human culture they found, to an extent only seen among the Halcyon Wardens before. In Alexandros, Koschei 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, the Godslayers rigidly upheld the Emperor’s line on xenos and mutants, and the VIIIth had ample battle honours to go with its diplomatic triumphs.

Under Koschei their reputation in combat was for steadfast endurance and willing sacrifice, offering their lives to break sieges rather than starve the defenders. To some of Koschei's brothers 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 VIIIth's growth but nothing more. Besides, the Godslayers' high regard for the 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 Koschei 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 Imperium and the way that rulers 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.

It is therefore unsurprising that Koschei reacted with dismay to the Emperor’s withdrawal to Terra. Observers remarked that after the announcement, the pomp of the Qarith Triumph seemed as nothing to the Primarch. He was troubled when the Emperor failed to emerge from his seclusion and give a reason for his actions, and appalled by the speed with which a new tier settled into place at the top of the Imperial hierarchy, one that had not bled for its rise as his sons and soldiers had. Almost imperceptibly, the Godslayers' morale was eroded and the pace of their conquests slowed.

While he may have been close to the new Warmaster, Koschei seems to have been troubled by how Alexandros conducted himself in his new office. Their friendship had been strained before over the Halcyon Wardens’ readiness to use subterfuge and manipulate their enemies through psychic arts. Alexandros' own writings indicate a fear that Koschei remained unable to reconcile himself to these methods, and the realpolitik that came with the leadership of the Crusade. A joint campaign against the Maelynos Empire only served to highlight this, and the problem was worsened by the Vizenko prosecution and the Chaplain Edict.

With time, it may have been possible to heal the rift, but forces were working to deepen it almost as soon as Koschei took his leave of the conquered empire. When Icarion began to scheme against the Emperor, he knew just how to exploit Koschei's naivete, and turn him from a stalwart defender of the Imperium into a tool for regicide. He played deftly on Koschei’s fears, emphasising that he would work to enlighten Alexandros and that the Warmaster too would surely see the truth as well. The warrior lodges grew more secretive, and their members fulminated against the imposition of the Chaplain order when the Godslayers had only ever been loyal to the Imperium and its ideals.

Koschei needed no reminding of the last master to keep secrets from him, and sadly he and his sons were all too willing to heed Icarion's words. If the Emperor had betrayed the ideals for which they fought, they concluded, the Godslayers' loyalty must be to those ideals and not the one who held the throne. Thus from the noblest intentions, rot began to spread.