Tollund Ötztal

Tollund Ötztal
Title/Honours	The Steel Mastodon, the Liberator, Chosen of the ṣālman, First Son of Tisenjoch
Discovered (world)	Tisenjoch
Discovered (period)	c.842.M30
Legion	Eighth
Heraldry/Sigil
Distinguishing Traits	Compassionate, Honest
Flaws	Naïve, Trusting

This article or section has been selected for Exterminatus by the Ordo Editant. The Emperor Corrects.

Tollund Ötztal was the Primarch of the Mastodontii, one of the Legiones Astartes of the Great Crusade. Open, compassionate and trusting, Ötztal was seen as the most human of the Primarchs, one who believed whole-heartedly in the Great Crusade and the cause of Humanity. But the harsh Galaxy and the methods required to tame it would eventually wear him down, until his faith in Humanity was shattered and he was claimed by the Dark Gods of Chaos.

Personality and Appearance

The greatest honour ever bestowed upon me was saying that I was a true son, a true brother, and a true man.

- Tollund Ötztal

Though a Primarch, Ötztal was an unassuming figure, as if he tried to mask his presence and deny the aura he was created with. He was smaller than most of his brothers, though stocky and broad. Upon each cheek was a tusk-brand from his time with the Mamutoi Peoples on Tisenjoch. His eyes were full of warmth, and his smile was said to light up a room.

His upbringing as a slave in the fiery heart of one of the sled-cities of Tisenjoch left him with an all-abiding hatred of slavery and oppression as well as a deep love of people and their many quirks and flaws. He willingly put his life on the line for his Marines as well as allied warriors, and he was always willing to lend his name or presence should any wish it. This made him immensely popular with allied Imperial Army Commanders, who appreciated his close ties and the support he gave them, above and beyond that provided by any other Primarch. However he was also open to manipulation, and sometimes blinded to the flaws in his allies.

Of the Primarchs he tried to get on with all of his Brothers and remain close to them. Most appreciated his warmth, honesty and that he legimtately seemed to care for them. Others however saw him as a naïve fool, someone who cared too much for the common people and too little for the course of the Great Crusade. The bad blood between him and Alexandri of Rosskar is well known, but the Voidwatcher is also known to have disliked him, and Gaspard Lumey considered his trusting nature a serious flaw.

Some say he cared too much and too deeply, and that he was all too easily wounded when his compassion was met with hostility, his good deeds with evil ones and his desires with the cold, harsh reality of the universe around him. His rage was rarely roused, he tried to supress it as much as possible, but when it was he became like a snowstorm, a cold raging torrent that destroyed all before him.

Youth

My first memory is of the sky, the great dome of blue that covered the world. Though I spent years in the night as a slave to the engines, I would always dream of the sky and the day when I would see it again.

- Tollund Ötztal

Tisenjoch is a world of great open steppes, and cold glaciers, locked in an eternal ice age. The people there were split into two types. There were those who clung to the lost technology that had allowed Tisenjoch to be colonised in the first place, who lived in great mobile towns adapted from mobile mining platforms. Those people were haughty, considering themselves superior and the true heirs of mankind. They battled with each other for food and resources, and took slaves to work the mighty engines of their mobile towns. Those clans were ruled by a caste of tech-priests who maintained their mobile homes, and some have speciulated this means that Tisenjoch was originally settled by an off-shoot of the Mechanbicum, though the truth of that matter has long been lost to time. Trade and Warfare between the great mobile towns was common, with battles between them akin to the naval battles of old Terra, with small high-speed ground-carts duelling in the shadow of the mobile towns as they pounded away at one another.

However there was another kind of people that lived on the Planet, in the manner of their most distant ancestors during a similar time in Terra’s forgotten history. Nomadic tribes that lived on the hard soil of Tisenjoch instead of in the great creaking sled-towns, in the manner of hunter-gatherers. They followed the great herds of mega-fauna such as the Mastodons that would one day give name to the eighth Legion. Hundreds of such tribes, with names like the Mamutoi, Zedonia, Talut and Crisavec lived from the shores of the Shivering Sea to the great Glaciers both North and South. They rarely fought with each other, but had to contend with the great Sled-Cities moving through their hunting grounds and raiding them for slaves.

It was into this world that Ötztal was hurled. His pod was discovered by a foraging party from the mobile town of Umbaraka, where as a captive he was sent into the great machine pits beneath the rolling city as another slave to work them.

Ötztal grew to maturity as a slave, his face burned by the heat of the great forges, his skin sometimes kissed by the whips the overseers used to keep their charges in line. However the young Primarch was an optimistic soul, who saw that there was always a solution, a way out. Even in slavery he refused to ever give up. He befriended his fellow slaves, often did extra work to help them, tried to keep their spirits up. He grew to love humans with all their flaws and frailties. Even the Enforcers he pitied more than he hated.

After several years of toil, he decided that they had to escape, though the only place they could go was onto the open steppes, where the rumours said cannibalistic tribes lived, that ate raw meat and wore human skins to keep out the cold. Five times he tried to help his fellow slaves flee captivity, but every time he was recaptured, as he stayed until the last to help his fellows, putting them before himself. The angry city-dwellers had him cuffed, collared, and hung great weights from his limbs, all in an effort to prevent him from ever fleeing. For by now not only was he the most valued slave, but he also had learned about machine maintenance from observing the Tech-Priests and had taken to maintaining the engines himself, and when he saw to them, they worked better and more efficiently than they ever had before.

But he would never give up on his dream of seeing the Sky once again. And finally on his sixth try he escaped, and fled from the rolling city into the steppes.

For several days he trekked the vast open plains, but it was winter and there was no sign of life beneath the blanket of snow. Eventually he fell, fully expecting death to claim him. But he woke up a few days later in a felt tent, and found that he had been saved when a splinter-group of Mamutoi, led by the visions of their Ice-Shaman, had come across his body. Tollund befriended the Shaman’s son, a young Ice-Shaman in training named Issitoq, and through him became accepted by the Tribe. He soon became one of them, learning to hunt and ride, read the winds and the span of the future as writ in the ice. He learned how to survive and thrive on the steppes, and also learned the impact the great sled-cities had on the hunting grounds, how they scattered the great herds of megafauna and decimated them for food.

As if reacting to the influence of being freed from the confines of the Sled-City, he began to grow and mature, soon becoming as a giant to his fellows. On his twenty-first, he had the tusk-marks etched upon his cheeks, becoming one with the tribe who were his family.

As the tribe followed a herd of Mastodons, one of the Sled-Cities appeared and sent a raiding party to capture slaves. Though the tribesmen wanted to flee, Ötztal was filled with wrath that the Slavers were once again coming for those he cared most about. Taking up his spear, he swore that not one of them would be taken while he still drew breath. Many of the other tribesmen including young Issitoq, at the time only ten years old also took up their spears and stood with him. Together they overcame the raiding party and sent them fleeing.

Ötztal now knew what he needed to do. He would storm the cities, free the slaves and end the blight of slavery. He left the tribe, accompanied only by Issitoq, who swore an oath never to leave his side. For a year he travelled between the various tribes, speaking about the great cities and how they preyed on Mastodon and tribesman alike. He tried to break the superstitious fear of those cities held by many tribes, to prove to them they could stand up to them and win. He slowly assembled a great coalition, and promised that he would free the slaves and prevent such sins from ever happening again.

The tribal confederation force first attacked the mobile-city of Cyrgyt. Making an improvised explosive device, Ötztal immobilised the city as it trundled across the steppes, and then led the Tribesmen as they stormed the city and broke into the engine-block, freeing the slaves. However he did not leave the city-dwellers to die, instead he taught them how to maintain their own engines, and volunteers so all would take turns at fuelling the engines and thus remove the need for slaves. Also he told them about the impact they had on the hunting grounds, and showed areas where they could go without interfering with the nomadic tribes. Thus he won, without causing further misery to the peoples of the cities, who were as blameless as the steppe-tribesmen. For as Ötztal said ‘No sin is justified by another sin.’ This first success would be repeated a dozen times as city after city fell to Ötztal. If the cities had united, they could have easily destroyed Ötztal’s army, but a combination of the old inter-city rivalries and the fact that no city was ever destroyed by his forces meant that he was largely ignored, and alone they stood and alone they fell.

Finally Ötztal began to seek out his ultimate prise: Umbaraka, where he had been a slave most of his life. The City knew he was coming for it, and had remade itself into a rolling fortress, studded with gun-turrets and fortifications. Using technology looted from the other mobile Cities Ötztal was able to blow a hole in the underside of the City, and thus bypass the defences. After a short but vicious fight, the city fell to him. Surprisingly Ötztal spared all who were taken captive, even the enforcers and the City Leaders. None of those who had been Slaves when he had been there were still alive, but Ötztal did not try to seek revenge for their deaths. With the fall of Umbarka, the other cities freed their slaves rather than risk Ötztal’s wrath. Ötztal judged his oath complete, let his army go back to their homes and returned to the Mamutoi. He refused all honours, refused to become the headman or anyone in the inner circle, content with merely being one of the tribe.

The Coming of The Emperor

Not even two years later, a strange figure clad in furs came before the summer meeting of the Mamutoi, asking to speak with the great man who had freed the slaves. The meeting was cool at first, and Ötztal instinctively distrusted this outsider when he spoke about how in some circumstances slavery was a necessary evil and that sparing your foes would often lead to even more conflict and it was better to kill them and make an example of them. Ötztal believed the man was deliberately trying to get a reaction out of him and kept his cool, asking how the stranger would have done it were he in Ötztal’s place. Through words, the two refought the entire of Ötztal’s campaign. Ötztal was forced to defend his every decision, his every action was torn apart by the stranger who told him what he could have done, and in some cases what he should have done. But in the face of all this Ötztal was firm. He’d made Tisenjoch a batter place for everyone, tribesman and city-dweller alike. He would never sacrifice one group of people for the sake of the other. All had the right to live as they could. With quiet dignity he told the stranger that he’d done what he felt was right. The stranger could think differently, but it was up to each individual to decide their own destiny. He thanked the stranger for giving him food for thought and bade him farewell. It was now that the stranger shed his garb and revealed himself as the Emperor of Mankind. Even Ötztal was awed by the figure before him, though he resisted the urge to kneel. The Emperor spoke to Ötztal about who he truly was, a warlord of the Emperor’s Crusade, a crusade to liberate humanity from the xenos and monsters of the void. Tollund was taken in by this, a chance to liberate all of Humanity and he was an instant and wholehearted convert. He left Tisenjoch with the Emperor, and would not be back for five years. When he returned, it would be with a Legion at his side.

The Great Crusade

Tollund Ötztal spent five years alongside the Emperor, learning from Him about the ways of the Imperium. Ötztal proved to be highly gifted, learning about the ways of war, history, science and especially engineering. His native wisdom and compassion were only enhanced by all this, as he embraced the many strands of humanity and the cradle-world that had birthed them, and the quest to unite them all as one. During this time he met many of his Brothers, most of which he felt an immediate connection with. When he met Hektor, the First Primarch immediately thanked him for the service of the Steel Wing’s Fourth Chapter, which had served alongside the Warriors of Dawn for most of the Great Crusade. Thus grew a close friendship which would later help draw Ötztal into damnation.

While this was going on the 8t Legion, the Steel Wing was slowly being drawn together for the first time since it had left the Sol System. The scattered elements all converged on Tisenjoch, where on the great plains 100,000 Astartes assembled to meet their gene-father.

A Legion stood united as their gene-father came before him. The Legion knelt immediately, but Ötztal shook his head and asked them to rise, for he was no tyrant, they were his sons and they would not bow to him. Instead, it was he who bowed before them, before personally thanking the last members of the Sacred Band still left for their service and promising that the Legion would fight for mankind, for the bright future that the Emperor promised them. No sacrifice would be too small, no battle too minor in the pursuit of this.

Ötztal did not wish to re-name the Legion at first, for he wished his sons to maintain continuity with their past. But eventually Hektor convinced him that he had to show that it was now his Legion and that he was its master. So he named them aster the great Mastodons of Tisenjoch, mighty beasts that protected their young and sick from the predations of wild beasts. Thus the Steel Wing became the Mastodontii. The first intake of recruits from both the mobile cities and the tribes of Tisenjoch entered the Legion, including the Primarch’s old friend Issitoq. Construction of a Fortress-Monastery began on one of the large islands in the Shivering Sea, so as to keep the plains free for the tribes and cities.

The Legion that now re-joined the Great Crusade, leavened with the Blood of Tisenjoch and the cultural norms of the planet swiftly gained a dual reputation as both mystic savages, and saviours of humanity. Their archaic customs, their introversion and exceptionalism drew notice. They still willingly deployed their forces to support others all across the Crusade, but now they were a closed book, immersed in their own superstitions, prone to lapsing into inscrutability. They were said to talk to their armoured steeds, to their guns, even to the very armour they wore, carving runes of warding and witnessing upon them and decorate them with totems and fetishes. They treated their wargear as more than just tools, as if they had souls of their own, something which brought them into conflict with some sects of the Mechanicum while earning them the loyalty of others.

The Tisenjochans who soon began to make up a disproportionate number of the Legion became known for treating battle as an art form, for taking great joy in the tasks they had to do, though they never lost a clear-headed concern for practicalities. They were observed to wear their genhancement lightly. A certain kind of self-effacing courtesy seemed to come naturally to them, which made them among the easiest Legions to work with for the Imperial Army, though unlike their previous form as the Steel Wing they remained elusive, closed to outsiders and loath to take orders they saw as foolhardy.

The deeply held superstations of Tisenjoch soon began to dominate among the Legion as well. The belief in fate, the pattern of time, the will of heaven and the spirits of the ice. The Ice-Shamen of Tisenjoch became a powerful force within the Legion, though decried as primitive by the Librarians of other Legions for their refusal to dig too deeply into the Warp.

The Lenard Deeps

“My erstwhile Brother has brought nothing to the course of the Great Crusade that is doing any good. He does not have Hektor’s tact, Aubrey’s zeal, Uriel’s charm or even the burning passion of Inferox. His soul is like the winter pole, cold, dead and without any pity or mercy. If he is allowed to continue like this then much will be destroyed that cannot easily be rebuilt and the Imperium will suffer as a result. We are not fighting the Great Crusade so Tyrants like Alexandri can prosper. We are fighting it so his kind can be consigned to the graveyard of History.”

From the censure request of Tollund Otztal, concerning Alexandri of Rosskar and the burning of Rosean.

The Campaign of Astral Woe was one of the first events that began the slow decline of the Mastodontii Legion into darkness. What was supposed to be a chance for two Legions to serve alongside each other in collaborative effort, and thus bond and strengthen each other, nearly led to bloodshed and disaster, and set doubts into the Legion’s mind as to the righteousness of their cause.

Origins: The Souls of the Ice Worlds

Seeing the need to nurture the Silver Cataphracts Legion as its Primarch integrated Himself into the Imperium and became part of the Crusade, the Emperor asked Tollund Ötztal to mentor Alexandri and his Legion, a chance for the Cataphracts to borrow a little gloss from Ötztal’s glory by association and example by serving alongside them in the pacification of the Lenard Deeps. Though Ötztal’s Legion was scattered across the stars and barely a third was with his Fifty-First Expeditionary Fleet, Ötztal willingly agreed to his Father’s request. He had met and got along well with many of his Brothers, and believed likewise with another son of an ice world. He believed that similarity would encourage understanding, but in his case this sentiment would shatter under the weight of reality. For rarely would there be two beings who on the surface so closely resembled each other, and yet were separated by a greater chasm.

Ötztal and Alexandri of Rosskar met several times to plan out the compliance campaign, and it is believed that it was during this time that the first cracks opened. Alexandri’s ruthlessness in his battle plans was at odds with the leniency Ötztal was prepared to show in order to convince human foes to side with them, believing that a true show of strength was in not simply destroying all before them, and in enlisting human allies to aid them in the struggle. Though these concerns were swept aside, they merely started the slippery slope towards disaster.

Discord and Defiance

The initial push was highly successful, in large part due to the support of the Sons of Fire, though Ötztal was privately dismayed at the ruthlessness of the Sons of Fire and the pyres they made of the words they assaulted, as well as the pyromania many in that Legion exhibited. However the initial assault drove two of the larger empires in the Deeps, the Technocracy of Rosean and Grand Principality of Devkar to unite against the Imperial forces. However Ötztal meet with and secured the alliance with a human Confederacy, which he cited as a great triumph, bringing a slew of human worlds into the Imperial Fold.

Rosean was the next target, but it would prove to be a difficult nut to crack. Ötztal however had spoken to Rosean captives taken in the void battles, and believed that a peaceful solution was possible. On his own initiative, he opened a dialogue with the lords of Rosean, and ordered the fleet to refrain from offensive action. However Alexandri ignored this edict and by throwing a moon into the mainly aquatic homeworld of Rosen, destroyed the mighty civilization in an instant. It is known that Ötztal sent an urgent communique to Hektor complaining about Alexandri’s actions and requesting Hektor to speak with the new Primarch, and that Alexandri was furious when he found out, believing that Ötztal was turning the First Primarch against him.

After this event, the Imperial Forces moved on to the territory of the Gaggosh, though relations between the two legions were now strained. With this event the Confederacy immediately switched sides, firing upon the Imperial Fleet with their own ships before withdrawing, leaving the Imperial Forces to fight great bloody clashes to take place on the surface of the Gaggoshi worlds.

As It turned out the Confederacy were long standing allies of the Gaggosh, who they saw as kindred by this point. In yet another move above the chain of command Alexandri had ships of his own legion level the undefended Confederacy planets, destroying a number of habitable worlds in what Ötztal would later term ‘the greatest waste in the history of the Crusade. Though this event ended the war with the Gaggosh, it only deepened tensions on the Imperial Side, and clashes between Imperial Army forces on both sides, most notably between the Rosskan Strelky and Tisenjoch Jäakäri, became more and more frequent.

Legions at their throats

Heaping misfortune upon discord, the Principality turned on the Imperial forces, and even recently compliant worlds including the Rosean sub-states began to bubble with rebellion. With the campaign now stalled with a desperate need for reinforcements that weren’t available, this led to the Primarch of the Silver Cataphracts to declare that the sector was beyond redemption. Every last world would be crushed, repopulated, and all the history of these places was to be buried and gone. Ötztal, horrified, declared that as commander of the campaign he would condone no such action. Words became arguments, which became actions as the two clashed, with Ötztal breaking Alexandri’s jaw and ordering him ejected from the Campaign, his Legion to leave the Lenard Deeps immediately.

Alexandri complied but as his Legion left it fell upon the compliant worlds one by one only to butcher the populace no matter how much they cried for mercy and cleanse them as he had intended. The Mastodontii finally herded the Cataphracts off and the two fleets met over the dead wreckage of Rosean itself, where the two legions would have come to blows were not for the combined delegation of Great-Marshal Alexey, Grand Officer of the Legion Sergei, Spearhead Centurion Nymylan, First Master Kutkh, Overseer of Operations Byk, Captain Nomenir, and Coven Master Galash of the Witchborn. These individuals were able to stay the hand of the Primarchs and prevent their fleets from firing on one another. Kutkh and Nymylan came as they were the closest and most active representatives to the Cataphracts from their Legion, by they did not expect the open and violent threats made by Alexandri's officers, with the exception of Alexey who stayed starkly silent.

Blood and Misunderstanding

Legion rivalries were common, but very rarely did they come close to such bloodshed and horror as in the Campaign of Astral Woe. What came worst for Ötztal was that the Emperor refused to censure or even discipline Alexandri for his actions. Though Hektor was sympathetic, he could do little (For though first among Primarchs, his power then was little compared to his ascension as Warmaster) and Alexandri escaped punishment. Ötztal never forgot the campaign, having one of his Battle Barges named the ‘Rosean’ (Later to be the lead Legion ship of the Rosskan Invasion Force, serving there until the end of the campaign when it was destroyed by Alexandri’s Flagship and lost with all hands) and recruiting Marines from those worlds his forces had spared. It is now believed that the mental and emotional wounds from that campaign let Chaos seep into Ötztal’s soul, and began his path to damnation.

The Conquest of Alba Maxima

After the disaster of the Lenard Deeps, the 51s Expeditionary Fleet was redeployed towards the northern reaches of Ultima, where a number of human empires and enclaves were resisting compliance. Alba Maxima was one of the largest, a collection of five planetary systems ruled by a united federation of technocrats. With a large industrial base and sizeable population, the region was deemed a vital target for compliance. The Legion, supported by several battlegroups of Solar Auxilia and other Imperial Army forces descended upon the outermost planet, Alba Proxima. The Legion landed, waited for the enemy armies to move forward to surround the landing zones, then moved forwards, engaged and destroyed the defending army in multiple large scale, set-piece battles with massed armour, artillery and air support operating in close proximity. The Legion slowly advanced across the planet, deliberately avoiding fighting in urban areas, surrounding them and forcing them to surrender for lack of supplies. Food was then distributed to those cities and the Legion made strenuous efforts to help the civilian population in every way possible, winning hearts and minds and trying to turn the people against the leaders who had brought them into battle. Eventually the armies were smashed so thoroughly they could no longer resist, and the planet capitulated, though a low level insurgency kept the Legion present for a further few months. This would be repeated across the other five planetary systems as the Legion slowly ground its way across Alba Maxima. The conquest had taken the Legion over three years, and the aftermath another two as the Legion rebuilt the planet in order to smooth the transition to Imperial Rule. This was a long period of time for any Legion to linger after a compliance, and though it ensured that Alba Maxima would become a prosperous and vital part of the growing Imperium, it did delay further compliance operations in the area by several years. This would set the trend for the Legion’s operations as an entity in its own right.

The Burning of Keralia XI

Keralia XI is a campaign under a cloud. It was an example of the difficulty the Mastodontii had in simultaneously enforcing compliance and ensuring that the civilian population was spared as much as possible from the effects of the fighting. Keralia XI was a human world that had fallen under the thrall of a psychic Xeno-Race, which mind-controlled the people there. That race created what to it was the ideal utopia, and the people were willing to die to defend it. The Legion was faced with incredible difficulties. Mind-Controlled Humans were often used as meat-shields for the Xeno forces, the Legion forced to suffer extra casualties to try and limit the damage caused to them. Also after the first few battles, the enemy armies avoided open battles, withdrawing into the cities to try and force the Legion into costly urban battles. The Legion tried to encircle several cities to starve the foe into open battle, but they refused. Tens of thousands of humans starved to death, but they did not move and the Legion was trapped in a waiting game. This caution was noted by a representative of the War Council of Terra, one of many itinerant observers who moved from warzone to warzone, observing, assessing, and reporting what they saw to their masters. The observer was named Alvaarex Maun, and he saw was a reluctance to engage against a foe that was entrenched and defiant, what looked like weakness. Maun’s findings made their way to the War Council, at the time busy with the Ullanor Campaign, and after a short review a pronouncement was sent to the 51st Fleet. The War Council decreed that Keralia was beyond salvage, and that the entire population would be destroyed, humans and Xenos. Ötztal railed against this decree and ordered his troops to ignore it, instead ordering his tanks into the cities to destroy the Xenos forces and free the civilians. The battle turned into a bloodbath. Tens of thousands of civilians died, along with equal numbers of enemy soldiers. The Legion slowly had to force its way through the tide of men, incurring heavy casualties along the way. Alvaarex Maun on his own authority ordered the fleet to bombard several of the cities and air support to launch level bombing attacks, causing severe damage but breaking the deadlock and allowing the Legion to progress. Though Ötztal was infuriated, he had no choice but to go along with this. One by one the Xenos were hunted down and killed and the people freed from their influence. Though the people were freed, the cities were in ruins and thousands would die from a lack of food, water and medical equipment. The Compliance had taken over two years, two years in which the Legion had gone nowhere and made little progress. In the aftermath Ötztal complained to the War Council about the waste of lives that had been incurred. Thousands of civilians had died needlessly, and much ill-will had been caused which would take a long time to pass. However Ötztal’s concerns were passed over, and indeed high ranking members of the War Council noted his relative lack of campaign honours, the record of the Primarch’s own 51st Expeditionary fleet compared to those where the Legion was deployed over other commanders.

The Heresy

"Only saints and criminals have the stomach for what must be done. Without you, we will just be a gang of rogues."

- Hektor, speaking to Tollund, 003.M31

After the Ullanor Campaign, questions began to be aired about the reliability of Primarch Ötztal and his men in the wake of Keralia XI. Their battle-roll of honours for the Primarch’s own force was notably short. Even Primarch Golgothos and his 666th Expeditionary Fleet had achieved more successful compliance campaigns then the 51st. The prevailing attitude within the ranks of the War Council was that the Legion was more suited as a support element then a force in its own right, and the Primarch was not reliable enough to prosecute campaigns successfully. Worse came when rumours began to circulate that the Legion was slack in enforcing the Imperial Truth on newly compliant populations. Whispers of this reached the Primarch’s ears, which caused him no small amount of grief. Before the Emperor left for Terra, he met with many of his sons on Ullanor at the great Triumph there. Ötztal was one of them, and the Emperor met with him personally about his lack of progress. He personally reproached his Primarch, informing Ötztal that wasting precious time and resources saving people was not the cause of the Crusade. Some people could not be saved, and saving those who were too weak to save themselves would not help humanity in any way. The Emperor warned Ötztal that he had to make up for his failings, or else he would be removed from command of his Legion. Ötztal was shocked. He had told the Emperor what he was fighting for when they had first met, and now he was being reprimanded for it? Worse was to come when he heard of the Core Worlds Campaign. Hundreds of thousands killed in what seemed like punitive measures, a brutal example of everything Ötztal had sworn to fight against. The Primarch went into seclusion, refusing to speak to any of his lieutenants aside from Issitoq, High Shaman of the Legion. He emerged when a further piece of news came to light. Alexandri had been made the Emperor’s Praetorian and requested to return to Terra to garrison it for an undisclosed period of time. This was a mixed blessing. For one, the Primarch would not be loose in the void, where his brutality had lain a bloody trail across the stars. However with him on Terra, at the heart of events Ötztal feared that Alexandri would use his influence against him, for the bad blood caused by the Lenard Deeps had only grown stronger as Ötztal tried again and again to have Alexandri censured for his actions in various compliance actions. The 51st fought several short and brutal wars on Sunkin, Misiano and Cahn, but Ötztal‘s heart was not into it. He deplored the casualty lists and the destruction caused, which he had to leave behind for others to repair. Worse came when the pronouncement of Nikaea came forth. Ötztal had sent Issitoq to be the voice of the Legion, but that had failed to sway the Emperor. Ötztal felt more and more disconnected from the cause he had once believed in. It was after the victory on Cahn when Warmaster Hektor came to speak with Ötztal privately. There Hektor told him that his sources on Terra had found out that Alexandri had requested a motion of censure be put forward, condemning Ötztal for his lack of zeal in pursuing the Great Crusade and officially requesting that he be removed from command of his Legion, for not living up to the potential the Emperor had for him. Ötztal responded with doubt, but as Hektor revealed more and more of what he had, Ötztal knew it was true. To his accusation that the Emperor would never allow it, Hektor pointed to Nikaea, which had shackled the Ice-Shamen of the Legion and to Aubrey’s own censure which Ötztal had spoken against. Would Ötztal allow Tisenjoch to be treated the same as Lazarus? It was into this that Hektor spoke of the disbanding of the War Council, of the crippling taxes being levied by the new Council of Terra that would cause great hardship across newly complaint systems, and the Emperor abandoning his sons and the Great Crusade to work in his dungeons on Terra. Ötztal could not help but agree that these meant bad things for the Legions, and that something had to be done. Though horrified when Hektor suggested removing the Council of Terra by force, Hektor won him over. He said that for Hektor’s plan to work, he needed a human face, one who would look out for the common people and keep them in mind in all things. With this, Ötztal’s choice was made, and he would stand with Hektor when he moved against Terra.

Rise of the Mantikhor

After the battle of Cahn, the 51st was ordered to support the Eternal Zealots of the 71st Expeditionary Fleet in the subjugation of an Empire of abominable intelligences left over from Old Night. This was a relief for Ötztal, for he and and Aubrey had always gotten along well, and Ötztal had tried to reach out to Aubrey after the destruction of Lazarus. He could temporarily forget the storm that was about to come, and bond with one of his future comrades-in-arms. The Two Primarchs set to work with gusto, as Zealot infantry assaults supported by Mastodontii armour broke the back of the Machine Empire in less than three weeks. In the aftermath the two Primarchs met to toast the victory and secretly discuss their plans for when Hektor made his move. Aubrey however was distracted, and Ötztal asked him why. Aubrey then spoke of a revelation, of a new way of learning taught to him. Ötztal, intrigued, inquired about them and convinced Aubrey to tell him of his new teachings. He listened to Aubrey’s teachings and was enthralled. On Tisenjoch they had always spoken of spirits, and to have Aubrey confirm their existence despite all the Emperor’s pronouncements. Aubrey gave Ötztal a book of the teachings of the Cyfecti, so he could learn this new way for himself. Over the next few weeks Ötztal drank in all this new knowledge and began to practise it for himself, as well as sharing it with those closest to him within the Legion. From them it began to spread downwards, though in secret. So this new way, known within the Legion as the Mantikhor Cult after a myth spoken of in the book began to set in to the Legion, though none within the Legion knew what it truly was and what it truly meant. Thus the Mastodontii became the second Legion to tread the path of Chaos, and when the rebellion broke out the Mantikhor Cult became official and began to spread throughout the Legion.

Tollund Ötztal, the Steel Mastodon, Chosen of the ṣālman, First Son of Tisenjoch, Primarch of the Mastodonti

WS7 BS5 S6 T6 W6 I6 A3 LD10 SV3+/3++

Unit Composition •1 (Unique)

Unit Type •Infantry (Character)

Wargear •The Mammoth’s Hide •Tizheruk •Glaciarax

Special Rules •Primarch •Speaker of the Machine •Sire of the Mastadontii •Very Bulky •Vidutana

Options •May replace Tizheruk with Icebreaker for +25pts

Sire of the Mastadontii

Ötztal is revered by his sons as the warm heart of a Legion born of ice, who spurs his sons on to victory at every turn.

Speaker of the Machine

Ötztal has an affinity for the Machine Spirits of his Legion, and can communicate with them. All models with Power of the Machine Spirit gain IWND, and in addition models with the Battlesmith rule may re-roll when repairing vehicles in a force containing Ötztal.

The Mammoth’s Hide

Adorned with totems of warding and relics of the great hunts he has done, the Mammoth’s Hide is a mighty warsuit fit for the Lord of the Mastadontii. The Mammoth’s Hide confers a 3+/3++ save, and in addition he may re-roll his Deny the Witch Rolls and has the Monster-Hunter special Rule.

Tizheruk

This Ancient Spear, remade from Ötztal’s broken original by the Emperor is a deadly weapon, fast and brutal and perfect for killing great beasts.

Tizheruk (Combat) Range: Melee Strength: 9 Ap: 2 Type: Melee, Two Handed, First Strike, Heartrend Heartrend: Every unsaved would caused by Tizheruk in a challenge or against a Monstrous Creature is multiplied into D3 wounds.

Icebreaker

This Dark Maul, forged with the powers of the Warp Unchained, was given to Tollund by the Primarch Aubrey as mark of brotherly fidelity.

Icebreaker Range: Melee Strength: 10 Ap: 1 Type: Melee, Two Handed, Unwieldy, Armourbane, Sunder

Glaciarax An ancient weapon that projects a stream of liquid nitrogen to freeze solid any foe.

Glaciarax Range: Template Strength: 6 Ap: 3 Type: Assault 1, Sheer Cold

Sheer Cold: for each unsaved wound taken from Glaciarax, the target has to pass a Strength test or be removed from play.

Vidutana: In 3000+ point games, Ötztal can take this special transport for 500 points. Vidutana is a Legion Stormblade with a void shield, a transport capacity of 15, the Command Tank upgrade, and a rear access point. In addition it doesn't take up a Lord of War slot.