Asmodeus

**First Praetor Gobalt Asmodeus**, often simply known as **First Praetor Asmodeus**, and later as **Warmaster Asmodeus**, is the legion master of the XVIth Legion, commanding the vaunted First Chapter during the Great Crusade for longer than any of the Primarchs, save Almire, have led their legion, gaining himself a fearsome reputation that few others could ever hope to match by dint of time alone, let alone counting themselves against his skill.

A Scion of a Noble house of Hasninë, Asmodeus willingly sided with Almire during the Primarch’s swift conquest of the world, casting off his old family to join the House of Almire, welcomed by the Primarch as any other would have been. Through grit and determination, Asmodeus was raised to the XVIth alongside his lord, soon distinguishing himself both in training and in battle to be named as the First Praetor, lord of the Imperial Justicars under Almire himself.

In battle, Asmodeus does not fight as his lord does, nor even as the Executioners he leads into battle, no shield held before him. Instead, Asmodeus fights with two weapons, one a mighty executioners greatsword, designed for use in both hands, even by an Astartes speaking to the testament of his strength, further augmented by additional servo-motors built into the First Praetor’s armour, while a powerful flail spins in his other, striking down any who cross the First Praetors path. When Almire fell to Chaos, Asmodeus walked in lockstep beside him, ever more loyal to his Primarch than he was to his Emperor.

## History

### Early Life

In the days before his ascension to the XVIth Legion under his beloved lord, Gobalt was the scion of the Noble house of Asmodeus upon Hasninë, preparing to undertake the Ritual of Becoming to forever be bonded with one of the mighty Knight Suits of his house. Whether fortunately or unfortunately for the young scion, word reached the House of the destruction of House Delphaan at the hands of Almire, House Asmodeus preparing to march in force to strike down this interloper.

Even Gobalt cannot say why he chose to side with the Primarch even then, having never met the Primarch and having no gene-bond to him yet, but side with him he did, challenging the Seneschal of House Asmodeus for the right of rulership as was his right, the Seneschal, Gobalt’s father, honorbound to accept.

Though he was but a boy, Gobalt was like a being possessed, tearing through his father in a matter of seconds, leaving him as a rapidly cooling corpse as he looked to his new Knight House. He was their leader now, but he did not have their respect, he knew that, still having not undertaken the Ritual to become a true member of the house. Respect was not needed however, merely stalling, and by the time the first voice rose to challenge the new Seneschal of House Asmodeus, Almire Leoric had arrived, Gobalt throwing wide the gates to House Asmodeus and allowing the Primarch within.

None of the nobles of House Asmodeus survived what was to come, accepting no quarter despite being offered the chance of honourable surrender. The purge of the Knight House would become one of the costliest victories for Almire in those days, but when all was quiet, House Asmodeus was no more, Gobalt Asmodeus standing as the last of his kind, the child taken under Almire’s wing as his personal ward, part of the new House Leoric, cementing the bond that would one day shake the very foundations of the Imperium of Mankind.

### Great Crusade

Asmodeus would travel with Almire when the Emperor arrived at Hasninë, travelling to ancient Terra to undergo the trials of the Astartes, his genetic makeup a match for that of Almire himself, even as his training proved that he was second to none at that time, passing the trials at the top of any pile he set his gaze upon. Soon, he was an aspirant no longer, Almire's geneseed implanted within his flesh and power armour upon his back, yet Asmodeus would not sit idly and fritter away this gift. The fire that had brought him this far still burned brightly within him, and within the span of a few years, he had not only proven himself a capable leader, he had supplanted those who came before him, replacing Dorsenne Soult as the First Praetor of the legion, starting a rivalry that would last across the Great Crusade, ending only in the death of one party.

Now recognised as the greatest warrior of the XVIth Legion, Asmodeus served as the right hand of Almire himself, and in time, mere reverence became almost worshipful, Asmodeus regarding Almire as infallible, a true god in the ancient sense of the world, not a divine being, but a superhuman with the power to shape reality itself, and who shaped the reality of the Imperium more than Almire, save the Emperor himself?

The bond between Almire and Asmodeus would only grow as the Great Crusade wore on, Asmodeus counselling his Primarch, while Almire tutored his first son, watching with undisguised pride as he grew into a weapon of righteousness, soon coming to be named not only as the First Praetor, but also the Lord Executioner, the Executioner Order founded in his likeness shortly after this honour was bestowed upon him. as his victories grew and grew, Almire began to place more trust in Asmodeus, elevating him to act in the Primarch's name even when standing alone, empowered with the voice of the First Found Primarch and entrusted with commanding vast portions of the XVIth when Almire himself was not able to lead the legion.

Such was the case in M30.955, shortly after the final Primarch, Artellion Emerabron, had been found. Upon the world of Bion, the twin Primarchs of the Brothers Encarmine threw a great feast, *the* Great Feast, its like never hosted before and, ultimately, never to be repeated again. Dignitaries from across the Imperium were invited to the world, even as hundreds of smaller celebrations were held across the breadth of the Imperium's domain, and of course, for such an event, all Primarch's would be present, Almire no exception. The Imperial Justicars were not simply able to abandon their campaigns however, the legion embroiled in a grueling campaign against the xenoforms of the Rekara Cluster, almost their entire fighting strength deployed to shatter the aliens and cast them to the wind. As Almire made plans to leave, he trusted only one to command in his stead, Asmodeus left behind to win in his father's name.

Win he did, the Rekara Cluster cleansed before Almire's return, but even with such a great victory belonging to him and him alone, Asmodeus felt cheated. The Lords of Bion were famed gladiators, rumoured gladiatorial games to be held on the world, and yet it would not be Asmodeus who represented the legion in such an event, but rather Praetor Jean Davoust of the 6th Chapter. Jean was a competent warrior, and yet when word reached the Imperial Justicars of the outcome of the games, it was not the XVIth who stood as the champions, Jean falling against Imothes of the Watchers of Akhet. Though Almire praised his son, and outwardly Asmodeus congratulated his brother, disgust began to fester in his deepest thoughts, absolute surety that he was the greater warrior of the pair, and had he stood upon the sands of Bion, the names Imothes and Tursari would nothing more for bywords with second place.

As the Great Crusade conquered its way across the stars, it reunited many of the scattered domains of Mankind that had been abandoned and isolated by the chaotic tides of the Warp. Always at the fore was Almire Leoric, with Asmodeus at his side. They were the first into battle, the first to exhort their brother Legions to acts of greatness, and the first to encounter the strange new threats that had grown in the dark corners of the galaxy.

One of these threats was a danger so insidious that it slowly corrupted many of the Legiones Astartes, Almire using this to speed his own plans towards casting down the now hated Emperor. As always, Asmodeus willingly followed his father, spurring his Primarch on towards the belief of his own right as Emperor in a galaxy united under his just rule. This was not wholly selfless however, Asmodeus having his own angle which Almire instantly saw. If Almire was to become Emperor, the rank of Warmaster would lie open once more, and while Almire's brothers still walked the galaxy, many of them had already fallen prey to the formless horror of chaos, or else were unsuited to lead. If Almire was to be Emperor, then Asmodeus would be Warmaster, the First Praetor setting his sights upon the title and vowing that none would stand between him and his new destiny.

### The Rise of the Warmaster

As the loyalist fleet struck out from the Imperium Secundus, heading towards Terra led by the new flagship of the Imperial Navy, the *Triumph*, the world of Hasninë, homeworld of the Warmaster, prepared to fight against what could only be their doom. Barricades were erected across the planet as slaves were sacrificed by the millions to weaken the fabric of reality, daemons of all colours and creeds dancing through the streets, even as great soul-forges poured their power into anti-orbital guns, ensuring that a ground assault would come, exterminatus impossible with the weapons in play.

The loyalist fleet would never arrive, or at least, it would not arrive while the world still lived. Instead, another fleet arrived, nowhere near as vast, but one carrying with it a potency of a different kind. Asmodeus, looked down upon his former homeworld with disgust, the planet a microcosm of the failures seen across the galaxy that his once loved father had allowed to come to pass. The force with Asmodeus, his Black Legion, had grown significantly over the past years, Astartes from all walks of life, from disgruntled elements of the Brothers Encarmine Widow companies to the Astral Ravagers, traitor elements of none other than the Star Guardians themselves.

Though not the ironclad force they would come to be, this collection of Astartes was one of the greatest powers in the known universe, forged to continue the war against the Imperium no matter the cost, and it was with this sense of rightiousness, Asmodeus gave his ultimatum; join or die. Millions did, defections both mortal and Astartes ripping the planets defences apart, streams of warriors flocking to Asmodeus’s side, but some still stood on the world's surface, their guns still turned upwards, seemingly daring this usurper to try his hand.

Asmodeus had no need to commit forces to such an assault, Hasninë already inviting in its doom. Daemons who served only their gods responded to their masters' whims, sensing the power of this new Warmaster and turning on the remaining defenders. Screams echoed through the warp from the dying world, the warp bending and buckling, before finally snapping, the Black Legion’s mighty fleet disappearing from the system, transported halfway across the galaxy into the Eye of Terror, preparing to turn the great Warp Storm into a bastion from which to strike at the hated Imperium forever more.

Terra would fall once more soon afterwards, the loyalists driving the traitors from the galaxy, many fleeing into smaller warp storms around the galaxy, but the vast majority fled into the Eye of Terror, just as Asmodeus had predicted they would. Here they found no sanctuary, the Black Legion waiting for their defeated kin, offering them an ultimatum, just as they had to Hasninë; join or die.

#### The Legion Wars

Trapped between the pursuing Imperial forces and the undaunted Black Legion, the choice was a simple one for many, and though fighting raged for an eternity and an instant in the time dilating space of the warp, a time that would become known as the Legion Wars when it finally came to an end, Asmodeus proved time and time again that he was unmatched, swollen by the powers of the Four Gods of Chaos, claiming the title of Warmaster fully, not through simple words, but by conquest, vowing that one day, the Imperium would fall before him, solidifying his position not as the pretender to the title, but as the one true Warmaster to eclipse all others.

## Wargear

### First Praetor

* **Duty** - This greatsword is the symbol of the Executioners order that Asmodeus commands, as tall as the warrior who wields it and wreathed in baleful energies. Unlike a regular sword however, *Duty* does not taper to a point, instead bearing a flat end, symbolic of the weapon's duty as a sword of execution, though it was more than deadly enough to see use upon the field of battle, severing heads from body with a single stroke. To most, *Duty* was akin to the Executoners axes that were wielded by the rest of the Executioner order, designed to be used either in two hands or in a single hand in conjunction with a shield. Such is Asmodeus's strength however, both innate and augmented by his redesigned armour, that he wields *Duty* in a single hand at all times, seeing no trade off in the power of his blows that felled the worst the galaxy had to offer.
* **Power Flail** - While *Duty* was a clear nod to his role as lord of the Executioners within the XVIth Legion, Asmodeus was often seen carrying a second weapon that left no doubt as to its design as an instrument of death, not justice, in the form of a crackling power flail. Held aloft, the weapon made a mockery of both armour, striking as it did with the thunderclap discharge of a thunder hammer, as well as even the staunchest of defenses, the chain holding the head of the weapon to the haft able to extend or retract slightly as it swung, catching opponents off guard as it wrapped around weapons and shields.
* **Combi-bolter**
* **Executioners Warplate** - Throughout the Great Crusade and the Almire Apostasy, Asmodeus went to war in modified artificer armour, similar to that worn by the Executioners themselves. However, this armour was constantly worked upon by some of the greatest minds of the era, often at the behest of Almire himself who wished to see his beloved son clad in nothing but the greatest example of Imperial technology. Adepts of the Mechanicum, the Primarch Shaaa Hydrades and eventually, warpsmiths of the Chaos Undivided, constantly updating the armour, bolstering the strength it provided to Asmodeus beyond measure, its thick armour or the inbuilt Iron Halo protecting him from harm, while allowing him freedom of movement even advanced Terminator armour could only dream of.

### Warmaster

* **Duty** - Slicked in the blood of countless worlds and containing the imprisoned and tortured essence of Dorsenne Soult, a daemon prince formerly of the XVIth Legion, *Duty* is the self same weapon that the Warmaster wielded during the Great Crusade as the First Praetor, grown ever more powerful with the assistance of Chaos. Few can stand to look upon it, its blade utterly unchanging, a fixed point in space and time unfettered by entropy, making it all the more unnerving as other daemon weapons twist and writhe in form. *Duty* is ever an executioners blade, and any who defy the will of the new Warmaster of Chaos soon come to know its kiss, every stroke a perfect decapitating strike, guided by the hand of the gods themselves to turn their champion into an executoner without equal.
* **Drach'nyen** - In his left hand, Asmodeus bares the bladed Daemon Flail, Drach'nyen. The origins of this fell weapon are a mystery. Daemons speak of the flail in fear, calling it the "Thorn in Reality" or the "Shard of Madness." Alive with dark intelligence, Drach'nyen has the power to sunder the material universe with its edge, cutting through matter as a mundane blade moves through smoke. In battle, Drach'nyen has been witnessed to destroy a Space Marine Land Raider and flay the souls from those it struck with a single touch. Even the hardened skin of daemons or armour sealed with the power of the Warp is little proof against its assault, as it drinks in the energy of the Immaterium like water, consuming all in its path utterly. The dark spirit that inhabits this fell weapon can alter the blade's appearance, revealing the skulls and faces of the souls it has devoured. This is because Drach'nyen is actually an ancient daemonic entity of infinite malice -- the cryptical seers of the Eye of Terror maintain that the creature inhabiting the weapon was born from the first act of murder ever committed. The truth is lost in the mists of the Imperium's prehistory, but the daemon itself is still very much at large. The arcane weapon borne by Asmodeus contains the bound essence of the daemon Drach'nyen -- indeed, some say that the flail is composed of nothing else, that it is a writhing Warp entity in a different physical form. Whatever the truth, the blade flail can rend reality apart wherever it strikes; Drach'nyen rips through steel, flesh and bone like a hungry ghost, making a mockery of physical armour. It was with Drach'nyen which Asmodeus used to hew open the gates of the Kromarch's citadel, in doing so disrupting the nullification fields with which they were reinforcing the fabric of realspace. It was this same bladed head that Asmodeus used to destroy the Great Technomandrite of Danth, thereby sealing the fate of the anti-empyric Lemuel Cluster. Legend has it that those it slays have their souls consumed by the magic of the flail -- the screaming faces of a thousand victims can still be seen twisting and churning within the head even as it crushes its next victims.
* **The Gaze of Damnation** - When Asmodeus claimed the rank and rights of Warmaster, having vanquished any who stood against him, he did so over the recovered corpse of Almire, his once beloved Primarch and now a symbol of everything Asmodeus despised; failure. Raising *Duty* high, Asmodeus proclaimed his new position, before tearing the bionic eye of his Primarch free, the potent weapon now his to command. Bionic in hand, Asmodeus vowed that where once it brought justice to those it looked upon, now it would see the galaxy burn beneath his gaze, the bionic soon implanted within the new Warmaster, every bit as potent as it was in the time of the Great Crusade as the weapon of a Primarch.
* **Executions Warplate** - The same armour as he wore during the Great Crusade, the Executioners Warplate has swollen with the power of chaos as Asmodeus himself has. Now blessed with the combined mark of the four gods of Chaos, Asmoedus is an unstoppable force on the battlefield, none able to stand against him in his mission to humiliate and tear down the hated Imperium of Man.