Luthor Huss
Luthor Huss known by some as the Prophet of Sigmar, is a Sigmarite warrior-priest renowned for his zealotry and willingness to stand up to corruption regardless of its source. He was introduced way back in the 6th edition of Fantasy which unfortunately meant he also appeared in that whole Storm of Chaos fiasco that Games Workshops pulled before they retconned it out of existence and replaced it with The End Times. Based on the fact he's willing to take a war hammer even to the heads of other priests who he feels are acting heretical and the fact he's popular among the common folks of the Empire it's more than probable that he was named after two separate real-life would-be reformers of the Catholic Church: Martin Luther and Jan Hus.
From Humble Beginnings
Despite his fame in the Warhammer world, Huss' origins are actually a bit murky...in fact, Luthor Huss wasn't even his birth name. All we know about his origins are that one day at a Sigmarite Temple Adso Theiss, the elderly Sigmarite Priest that maintained the Temple, found a random twelve-year-old boy standing outside the Temple doors in the cold and rain. Theiss tried asking the boy's name and when that failed he instead asked what he was doing at the temple, with the nameless boy simply replying that he wished to learn. What caught the Priest's attention as he heard this was the boys piercing brown eyes, which were filled with a grim determination quite unlike anything Theiss had seen from a child. Although reluctant Theiss allowed the boy to live at the temple and as luck would have it the boy soon proved his worth to the old priest. The boy worked from dawn to dusk, aiding Theiss in many errands and impressing the old Priest with his enthusiasm to learn the Sigmarite faith. After a month at the temple, he was reading primers designed for acolytes older than him. After two months he had progressed to the catechisms. After a year he had read the entirety of the "Life of Sigmar" and had begun to wrestle with Uwe Mordecai’s dense and difficult "Thoughts on the Nature of Faith". He surpassed his fellow acolytes in everything, and they hated him for it. Out of jealousy they thrashed and beat the boy, but the boy held his ground and didn't fight back. In time, Theiss decided that calling his student "boy" or "acolyte" was too annoying to do all the time and so the priest asked him to pick out a new name. In response the boy took a book containing the lives of all important saints and heroes of Sigmar's faith and started to rifle through it before he picked out two individuals; Aldrecht Luthor and Bohrs Huss. Thus based on this the priest finally gave the boy a proper name; Luthor Huss.
After nearly four years, Luthor Huss grew ever more powerful and strong, soon towering over every occupant within the very Temple itself. The young man spent every waking moment learning, training, and conditioning himself to become an exceptional priest of the church. Not wanting to raise a mindless zealot, the elderly Father soon began to tutor the young child about the true meaning of faith, and the uniqueness of the human spirit. Ever eager to learn more, Luthor was finally allowed to follow Father Thiess on his journey to bring comfort to the lands around his Temple. As they traveled, Father Theiss finally taught the young lad how to field his war hammer like a true Priest of Sigmar.
After four days, the two eventually reached the village of Hnel, where the old priest began the rites that would bless the inhabitants for some time. It was upon this backwater village that Luthor finally saw the wider world for what it truly was, and it was nothing like how it was described written within the holy tomes of the Temple. Poverty and squalor were everywhere, and the people he was meant to minister, lead, and protect only seemed to make him sick with their weakness. Yet the greatest revelation upon that day was that Luthor finally learned the true extent and limits of his own abilities.
A young yet beautiful girl no more than sixteen years of age was afflicted with Black Fever, and Luthor Huss, in his determination fought hard to bring the girl's soul back from the abyss of death. Through his soul, the young Warrior Priest tried to bring the girl back from the brink, but at the last moment, the soul faded away into darkness. To young Luthor, she was an angel, and his inability to save her stung deep. It was upon the sight of Huss kneeling down, his hands held to his face in grief, that Theiss came upon as he continued his rounds throughout the village. The old Priest tried to comfort Huss telling the young lad that he was no Priest of Morr, nor a healer. He was a Warrior Priest of Sigmar, and his duty is to the living, to give them hope, to remain strong, and to comfort them when no others will. The world Theiss said was full of daemons and angels, and perhaps if Luthor should live long enough, he would soon find another angel again. Taking the lesson to heart a sadder but wiser Huss then left the village with his mentor.
As Luthor grew stronger, his mentor Thiess grew weaker. In time, the old priest could no longer do the proper rites and made Luthor do such things in his stead. Needing a successor to the Temple, the old priest gave the young Warrior Priest one last test before placing the mantle of Priest upon his shoulders. Outfitted with armor and his mentor's war hammer, Luthor Huss traveled to the town of Wiesmund and confronted the foul Beastmen that had taken residence within the town's chapel. Though the Bray shaman who lead the horde was old and Luthor in the prime of youth, the creature was quick and still powerful. After much struggle, Luthor gathered what was left of his strength and strangled the creature until it lay limp. Yet the poison that it had infected Luthor with during the battle sapped him of his strength, making him fall unconscious. As he finally awoke, he struggled to make his way back to his home Temple, keen on keeping the promise to return for the old priest's last moments of life.
Unfortunately, Huss' return was anything but pleasant as upon returning to the temple he discovered that Theiss fearful of his impending death and pissed at having lived a life of work and drudgery had drunk the Chaos Koolaid and had undergone a ritual to make himself young again. Worse yet Huss also realized that his mentor was not alone in this debauchery as EVERY SINGLE OTHER ACOLYTE had also gotten themselves wrapped up in this Chaotic nonsense. Needless to say, Huss was rightfully pissed at this mess and proceeded to put down both his teacher and any of the acolytes he could get his hands on with extreme prejudice with the temple burning down in the aftermath. In the wake of this Huss felt the gnawing of a terrible, all-consuming doubt for the first time in his life. He heard the boom and crash of a tower falling in on itself in the temple, and the noise of it struck at his heart. As the fires spread and the remaining inhabitants fled to the forest, Luthor Huss stood like a statue as the last word's of his former tutor ring again and again in his mind.
"You'll be alone, Luthor. You understand nothing of us. You know nothing of our temptations, for you are never tempted. A priest, oh yes. But a Man? A true Man? Never..."
From then on, Huss knew he could never understand the weakness of others, and so with that in mind, he decided that he would never allow anyone to be close to him so that they wouldn't suffer the folly of his own blindness. So after Luthor looked to the east for a bit he stood up and walked down the hill, knowing full well that now that he started walking, he would never stop. This would be his crusade, a perpetual fight against evil throughout the Empire, his penance for his blindness being to remain alone, insulating humanity from his dreadful myopia...or so he thought.
The Prophet of Sigmar
In the years following his departure from his former home Luthor Huss would seek out evil throughout the length and breadth of the Empire rooting it out with an unshakable will and almost emotionless expression. Wherever he went the grim and determined figure of zeal roused the faithful to seek the will of holy Sigmar and preached against corruption. Having consigned himself to a life of eternal battle, where he believed he could best pay tribute to his mighty war-god, Luthor had become a living nightmare of every corrupt priest, the scourge of the unfaithful and the bane of those who consorted with the Dark Powers. Many Priest suspected of corruption were found slain by Luthor's feet, and the tales of such grisly acts of righteous justice meted out by his hands drove more than one Arch Lector of the Church to demand his immediate excommunication. However, Grand Theogonist Volkmar refused to listen to such nonsense especially given Huss' undeniable effectiveness and so Volkmar would just greet his petitioners with an enigmatic smile that seemed to say the old man knew something important about Luthor's ultimate destiny...
An encounter with an angel
What Volkmar knew none could say but one undeniable fact everyone knew was that no-one, not even Luthor Huss, could run away from their past forever. In Luthor's case, it finally caught up with him in the lands encompassing the Drakwald. During his time there, the lone warrior-priest followed a trail of destruction wrought by a horde of zombies that had recently arisen from the dead. In one such location, upon the ruins of a town called Helgag, the lone warrior-priest stumbled upon a lone survivor, a bruised yet beautiful girl known simply as Mila. When the hordes had dispersed, the lone warrior-priest pressed onward but was unexpectedly followed by the young girl. The girl reminded Luthor too much of the sick girl from his youth many years ago, and he could not bear to relive the experience again. And so Luthor tried to leave her behind, traveling several miles ahead of her before he stopped and realized that she was still continuing to follow him.
In a rare act of kindness, the Warrior Priest went back for her, comforted her, and brought her along on his journey towards the town of Eisenbach. From there, he rallied the townsfolk to the town's defense, rousing the downtrodden into religious fanatics capable of beating back the dark tide. When the Undead Hordes came, the Warrior Priest and his fanatics fought them down to the last. But despite the danger of the battle, the foolish Mila still followed him and Luthor fought all the harder to keep her safe. She soon became precious to him, as if her presence alone gave him hope and happiness that he never felt before. Fearful of the pain he would feel if she lost her life Luthor decided that the only way to keep her safe was to sneak off and so the following dawn after the battle Luthor did just that.
Traveling alone Luthor Huss dove deeper and deeper into the dark heart of the Drakwald forest, facing horrors beyond counting as he did so. Finally, the Priest came upon an abandoned stone temple, and there he fought a bitter last stand against a warband of Beastmen. But just as hope seemed lost out of the thickets, a small Imperial Army led by Witch Hunter Lukas Eichmann crested over a hilltop and fell upon the Beastmen hordes with a fury. Eichmann fought his way through the horde to the temple and found Luthor badly wounded, but alive. But even as the witch hunter dragged him outside, Huss...saw Mila. She rode amid a small group of cavalry, flanked by swordsmen, her blonde hair looking silver in the starlight. She was shouting something, waving her sword around in that clumsy way of hers, just as she had done that night in Helgag. He smiled at that, unconsciously, just as he’d always smiled when she came close to him. Amid all the filth and fear and violence, she was a rare jewel of purity. This time it was she that had come back for him.
He was still smiling when one of the beastmen shot out from the shadows, hidden by the curving line of boulders near the water’s edge. Mila saw it coming, but the creature was far too strong and far too quick. She managed to get her sword up to block the first of the axes, but the second buried itself deep in her chest. Huss started forward at the sight, shaking the hands of the witch hunter from his arms, suddenly choked with horror. Luthor roared Mila's name, and as he tried to run down the hill, his legs failed him and he crashed himself upon the dirt. As tears ran unchecked down the priest's cheeks, Mila gave one last glance and an outstretched hand towards Luthor before her soul left this world. Huss tried to crawl towards her but fell on his face. He dragged himself a yard or two further before he felt hands gripping his armor, hauling him up again. Huss looked up one last time, catching a glimpse of the bloodied tangle of blonde hair in the distance, discarded amid the gore and mud. Then darkness took him.
When he woke up once more, he wasn't the same. He barely spoke, even when the Witch Hunter interrogated him. He never looked up as he walked alongside the army even as they made their wear to the very heart of this dark wilderness; the Gallowsberg...wherein lay a huge horde of Beastmen itching for a fight. The Imperials prepared to clash with the Beastmen but Huss meanwhile was distracted for despite the impending danger he felt something...familiar in this place. Even as the sounds of battle and bloodshed began to echo all around him, Luthor Huss found himself grimly marching towards what he knew what was both the source of this horde...and one of his oldest nightmares. A Bray-Shaman awaited him, but it was no random Beastmen, but rather the same acolyte Luthor hated most of all in his childhood, acolyte Hirsch, the one that lead the group that always beat Huss, hated him, and who had once tried to kill him. And here he was now a Bray-Shaman leading the beastman horde...which is actually really weird to read since humans turned Beastmen are normally considered the lowliest creatures in the Beastmen hierarchy...but then again maybe the whole Hirsch having magic angle got the other Beastmen to listen to him *shrugs*.
As Luthor Huss became ensnared into an unholy ritual circle, his body convulsing in pain, the creature that was once known as Acolyte Hirsch gave Luthor a choice. Join the darkness, abandon the weakness of Humanity and lead the strong against the Empire of Man or die. Even as pain of a seemingly inevitable death seared through his body, even as Luthor felt doubt like he never had before, through the pain and smoke the Priest uttered one reply; No.
Then everything stopped. Luthor was bathed in golden light and he could not see. An angelic voice spoke to him, telling him that he had chosen one of two destinies and that he has passed the test. Luthor said that even if he did he still felt doubt, but the angel reassured him that all men doubt and that he is only human. Then, upon the ground he found a sword lying before him, the one once wielded by the same girl that followed him for so long. The priest suspecting but not daring to believe asked who it was who spoke to him, and all the angelic voice replied was;
"Why did I come back for you, Luthor Huss? Because once, in another world, you came back for me".
In an instant, a flash of golden light burst forth and Luthor found himself once more in the forest. Now with eyes glowing with golden fire, Luthor attacked the Bray-Shaman. In one hand Luthor held Mila's time-worn sword while in the other hand he held his mighty war hammer, now shining with golden light. The shaman's staff burst, and the creature was demolished by waves of hammer blows. In that instant, against all hope, the horrors of the Forest were destroyed by Luthor's wrath and the Imperials were victorious. After leading the ravaged army out of the wilderness Huss went on his own way, his last words being to the Witch hunter (who was now thoroughly convinced of Huss' piety):
"He said that nothing had changed. He said that seeking witches was easy, but that seeking saints was hard, and that his task in that respect was not yet over. I knew then that he wouldn’t come back with us, and could sense his desire to return to the wilderness once his strength had returned. The last thing he said to me was that I should remember where the soul of holiness lay – not in the deeds of noble men spoiled by learning, but in the lives of the simple, the ones for whom the Lord Sigmar had cared when alive. If the Empire was destined for salvation, he told me, then it would come from them."
And with those last words said, Luthor would continue on his solo journey righting wrongs and smiting chaos wherever he went...
The End Times
...at least until The End Times where after helping to bring Valten to the attention of Emperor Franz, Huss ended up getting possessed by the amnesiac spirit of the Arch-Enchanter Drachenfels who was now fighting on the side of Chaos after losing patience with his former boss Nagash. Fortunately, this situation was not to last as Vlad von Carstein of all people rode in to save the day! Well actually he rode into town to try and stop Drachenfels invasion of Sylvania and get back his mind-controlled wife Isabella who happened to be fighting alongside Drachenfels...but semantics. The point is Vlad showed up and after fighting with a Drach-possessed-Luthor for a bit Vlad proceeded to throw a bunch of insults at Huss like saying that Huss is failing Sigmar and whatnot by getting possessed by a chaos follower...which was such an effective insult that it promptly woke the possessed priest's consciousness up and unleashed a firey burst of pure SIGMARITE faith which flash fried Drachenfels out of existence. Vlad and the now freed Huss then proceed to fight together for a bit against the chaos troops before the buddy cop moment is abruptly cut short when a chaos mind-controlled Isabella slits Huss’ throat. Sad...but hey at least he killed that 15,000-year-old bastard for good before he went! So yeah give him that at least!
