The Voidwatcher

Unknown
Title/Honours	The Voidwatcher
Discovered (world)	Ostium
Discovered (period)	c.836.M30
Legion	Fourteenth
Heraldry/Sigil
Unique Weapon	The Folly of Man, an alien war-glaive
Distinguishing Traits	Extremely knowledgeable in matters of the arcane, a Gifted psyker, utterly unscrupulous and will do literally anything to achieve victory
Flaws	Almost inhumanely prideful, will sacrifice anything for his dream of godhood, a loose cannon of sorts
Fate	Officially disappeared. Pushed into a warp maelstrom by the Bloodseer.

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the /tg/ Heresy Timeline and Galaxy pages for more information on the Alternate Universe.

What good can be said of The Voidwatcher? The hive moon of Ostium robbed him of every noble quality that could be found in a man. His tale is not even as much as a tragedy. The Voidwatcher was just a waste.

(Gaspard Lumey, private correspondence.)

Appearance

Tall, taller than most of his brothers but lither and more graceful then them as well. His skin is deathly pallid and criss-crossed with dark veins and arcane tattoos/brands. His face was gaunt with an aquiline nose and deep set eyes. A wry mocking smile could often be seen upon his thin pale lips. Apart from his tattoos and veins his skin was flawless and not beset by any lines or scars. His most distinguishing feature however are his eyes, blank and staring off into the distance, as if he cannot focus on anything, constantly possessing a thousand yard stare.

In battle the Voidwatcher is truly a sight to behold. His armour, known simply as the Veil is incised with hundreds of glowing symbols and he carries innumerable texts and scrolls that often billow behind him. His armour lower half almost more of an armoured coat or robe, with long flowing faulds that extend down to touch the ground. His armour was lighter than most of his brothers, instead relying on his enchantments and psychic wards to protect him. His armour did not possess a full helmet, instead having a hood. These facts combined with his extremely fluid motion and the fact he had incense burning on him at all times rendered him almost ethereal. A figure gliding across the battlefield, wreathed in smoke and Warp energies, cutting down all in his path.

Outside of combat the Voidwatcher would usually wear a full black robe.

Youth

Ostium
Segmentum	Obscurus
Sector	Formerly Chydaia, Currently in the Eye of Terror
System	Formerly Lathon
Population	9 Billion at Peak, currently barren
Gravity	0.7
Temperature	Climate Controlled or Vacuum

The young Primarch that would later be known simply as The Voidwatcher crash landed on the hive moon of Ostium. The boys pod crashed into one of the highest towers of the land, crushing a woman and her newborn in their birthing bed. The father of the aforementioned crushed newborn was an incredibly high ranking member of the controlling organisation on the planet, known as the Vates. The Vates were deeply superstitious and had their rituals anchored in sorcery so the man took it as a sign that he must adopt the star child. The child grew quickly and learned even faster. It rapidly drew the attention of the other Vates who were disturbed by the child's superhuman size and growth but intrigued by it's grasp of their culture and politics. He quickly rose through the ranks, a young darkly ambitious man who was the envy of his peers and feared of his teachers. He even showed arcane abilities that eclipsed all of the Vates masters, something that deeply unsettled them. After just over 6 years on the world the boy was a full grown man, he had exhausted all his tutors knowledge and most of their libraries. His father and the Vates Council reluctantly allowed him to undertake the ceremony of Entrance to become a Vates.

The Primarch was led deep into the sanctum of the Vates. When he reached the initiation chamber he found all the Vates gathered around a glowing cauldron, ethereal flame licking from it's bubbling depths. As he was led towards the glow the Vates chanted in unison, a deep arcane verse that the Primarch had heard in the back of many of his teachers' minds during his training. Finally, at the edge of the churning cauldron a Vates broke from the ranks of his fellows to approach the titan. The Primarch stared expectantly down at the man while he filled a cup form the noxious liquid. At last, he gingerly offered the cup to the colossal man, who in turn eagerly grabbed it from his hand. He drank deep of the cup, downing all of the unspeakable liquid. He stood for a moment, empty cup in hand, waiting for something more. The ichor responded in time, a sharp pain wracked his mind for an instant, causing him to drop the cup into the pot, but after that, nothing. Before the Primarch could utter a word the Vates swarmed him. They gleefully greeted him as one of their new brothers, congratulating him for doing so admirably in his final trial. Many of them had doubled over in pain they claimed, but all that the Primarch felt was confusion. Was that really it? He stood dumbfounded at first, but as the night continued and the festivities started in his honour he felt yet more dissapointed in his "trial." He was dubbed "the Voidwatcher" for his vacant gaze and mastery of the forces of the ether.

The From there the Voidwatcher rose through their ranks incredibly quickly, becoming a member of the council in record time, an high council member in less, the head of the council in yet less, and finally rule of all of Ostium. He revolutionized and dominated the political games the Vates had played for millenia. His opponents were either bullied into submission with psychic visions of their doom, the physical intimidation of the Primarch, or outright killed with gouts of black energy from the Voidwatchers hands. One of those that found their end confronting Voidwatcher was his own father, who attempted to stop him annexing all the other Vates properties during his final coup. The Voidwatcher reigned supreme over his entire world, no one would dare question him and now the Vates squabbled to curry his favour above anyone else.

And yet despite all this, the Voidwatcher still felt this victory was hollow. He longed for something more, these gains over normal men were petty victories. They befitted children or squabbling beggars, not him. He sat on his ornate throne pondering this seemingly surmountable puzzle in his mind. What more was there? Finally he decided that he would have to venture elsewhere to find his true purpose. He gathered the Vates together to inform them of this conclusion, he would venture to the planet Ostium orbited, a violent and deadly place where no person had ever returned from. They were stunned, they did not attempt to reason with him, even as he boarded his shuttle to venture to the planets surface.

Once there the Voidwatcher simply wandered and meditated. He took in the monstrous scenery and defended himself when necessary. He saw the great beasts battling among the erupting peaks, he watched as the great storms wracked the surface and blue sulpherous rivers of flame boiled like great snakes. He spent days in this hellscape, taking in everything and thinking on it all. After almost a month he discovered his purpose. After hours of meditation he returned to his now rather badly beaten shuttle and flew to Ostium. There he made a declaration that would define him for all the rest of his life. "My people! I have seen my future, and you all will help me achieve it. I saw what the natural world can wreak upon itself. All the great power it has! The power of the universe has presented itself to me! There is only one future, only one goal I must accomplish. I will be the one above all! I will be a god!" He began preperations to convert the world into a great laboratory, turning his citizens into his assistants and guinea pigs. For many months his palace was the site of horrific and reality warping experiments. Soon there was so much energy being thrown into the arcane experiments that the already overburdened planetoid began to fall apart. Warp energy began to flow out of the palace onto it's surface, destabilizing the fractured crust. Soon the entire world began to collapse into itself.

The Coming of The Emperor

The Voidwatcher sent a plea for aid into the warp, hoping that whatever responded would either aid him or have a ship to commandeer. The former manifested, in the form of God Emperor of Mankind. He gladly helped his son off his crumbling world and the Voidwatcher eagerly accepted his position as Primarch of the XIVth legion. Though his father questioned into the reason for the destruction of Ostium the Voidwatcher was able to blame it on the Vates and their rampant use of dark magycks. This, and the following purge, satisfied the Emperor for the time.

Post-Heresy

After the Heresy was completed the Voidwatcher retired to his flagship and took to the stars with his legion in search of more arcane secrets to discover and use. After a few centuries of this wandering alone on the edges of civilized space or the Eye of Terror the Voidwatcher decided it was time for him to venture into the uncharted void of space in search of arcane lore. He left behind his Vates to create their own covens among the stars and compete and quarrel amongst themselves as their namesake had once done on Ostium. He did this in order to ensure constant progression and improvement amongst the remains of his legion. With this final decree he boarded the smallest combat worthy vessel he possessed and took it and it's crew into the void beyond the galactic rim. He has not been seen or heard of since.

Or, at least, that's what the Augurs believe.

In reality the Voidwatcher's ultimate plan came to a head in a dual with the Bloodseer, captain of the Haruspex and the original commander of the Black Augurs before the discovery of the Primarch. Bloodseer had long silently held the Voidwatcher in contempt for what he had done to the Legion. The brutalizing of the Bloodseer's men during the Decimation had just been the beginning, the Voidwatcher's teachings had rendered the legion a squabbling band of sorcerers and wizards. No longer were they the united fighting force Bloodseer had led at the outset of the Crusade. He had always been suspicious of the Voidwatcher, after the Heresy this suspicion only increased as the Voidwatcher began to become even more distant from his sons. The Primarch had taken to locking himself away in the deepest recesses of his libraries and laboratories, endlessly toiling on some hidden project.

The Bloodseer endeavoured, finally, to find out what his gene-sire was planning. In the end, after enormous difficulty and a number of rather unlikely alliances he was able to piece together what was being planned. The Voidwatcher was cultivating his legion, twisting them with the intention of a great reaping, a harvest of souls that would completely eradicate the Black Augurs. Everything he had done was a lead up to this. The Decimation was never just to make them more potent psykers, it was to make their souls richer in the energies the Voidwatcher sought, he had incited his legion to fight amongst themselves to weed out the week. Everything the All-father had done under the pre-tense of "enlightening" his sons was a ruse, he had been fattening them and preparing them like lambs to the slaughter. The High Vate's study had led him to believe that this sorcerous holocaust would result in his ascension to godhood, and while the evidence seemed to add up to the Bloodseer he could not allow his Legion to be destroyed.

Bloodseer confronted the All-Father on board a small starship he had been using as a mobile and private laboratory. Their massive duel left all of the Bloodseer's allies dead, the grand ritual incomplete, and the Voidwatcher cast into the Warp maelstrom he had conjured to draw essence from. The Master of the Haruspex returned to his legion with the story that the Voidwatcher had simply ventured off into the dark corners of the galaxy. He could not have them believe their All-Father would betray them, it would result in civil war and the end of the legion despite his efforts. So he held the secret of what truly happened that day from his legion.