Editing The Four (section)

==The Four==

These four legendary knights are said to be the first heretics among the Knight Houses, supposedly turning from the Imperium before even Hektor. Why these knights turned from the Imperium, no one knows, though some scholars have speculated a connection between their betrayal and the sudden disappearance of their teacher, the famed Freeblade Knight Zael. Speculation is largely pointless now, as elements within the traitor ''and'' loyalist factions have gone out of their way to erase records of their pre-heresy service and action. During the Heresy the Four were seen fighting on thousands of worlds, alone or as a group, occasionally fighting battles in different Segmentums on the same day. The last time the Four took to the field together was at the Siege of Terra, where all four of them were confirmed to have been destroyed multiple times. The true terror of the Four is not their mighty weapons, or the insane furor they inspire in the followers of the dark gods. No, the true terror is that no matter how mighty the hand that smites them, no matter how many times they are struck down, the Four always rise again. Not always that day, not always on that battlefield or even that world, but they always rise again. 

Long ago The Four were mortals, but in the modern millennia they are The Watcher, The Reaper, The Champion, and The Exemplar, their original names lost to legend and hearsay. Loyalists to the Emperor will tell of four heretical monstrosities, any one of whose arrival heralds the inevitable death of a world. The faithful of the dark gods speak of noble champions, exemplars of their god's ideals, Knights whose conduct often seems strange to them, but whose favor in the eyes of their god is never in question. Their nature is much debated: unlike the other knights who fell to chaos, they didn't seem go mad from being fused with their machines or become possessed by daemons. On the contrary, they all seem quite sane, if appropriately zealous and driven. Yet, how could mortals live eternally as the Four do? What mortal could survive the dozens of deaths the Four have suffered? Some speculate that the souls of the Four possessed their armor after their first deaths on Terra. Others say they are daemon princes whose form mimics the armor they once fielded. Still others say that the original owners died long ago, and the Command Thrones of their armor continue to fight on, overruling the daemons that would normally possess such a machine. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. To see one of the Four is to see death. 

===Vizier Selim Cihangir===
Eternal Vizier Selim Cihangir ibn Ahmed is something of an oddity among The Four in that he takes an active roll in The Long War. Where his siblings appear seemingly randomly, or lead their own warbands, Selim is a mastermind and a wanderer. He moves from warzone to warzone, often appearing in a blaze of subtle flame to take command of the faithful when their defeat seems inevitable, to stand as a pillar of hope when all seems lost. He also often moves from army to army, helping to communicate with and coordinate the many fractured warbands of chaos's faithful, orchestrating rebellions to ease their invasions, and supporting their eventual assaults with his considerable psychic powers. Also uniquely among the Four, he's quite willing to speak of his origins, though considering [[Tzeench|his patron]], the truth of his words is highly suspect. 

Born a slave on some long dead Knight World, Selim won his way to the position of Grand Vizier, the first adviser to the King, through intellect, cunning, and carefully tempered ambition. It also didn't hurt that Selim was a psyker, with modest ability but great discipline, allowing him to look into the future or the minds of his rivals. Though he wasn't a noble and thusly could never rule or pilot a Knight, Selim used his position of Vizier to improve the lives of all people in his country, increasing access to education for the lower classes and shifting the slave economy of his nation to a system of serfdom, and pushing for increasingly pluralist policies as time went on, though he always made sure to keep power firmly in the hands of the king, and thus his own hands. Through clever deals, bribes, threats, and careful manipulation, Selim managed to keep the uppity nobles who opposed his changes from ever rebelling, and perhaps most significantly, managed to keep himself out of their sights entirely. Throughout the years few had ever recognized that their king's policies and laws were not his own, but rather those of his adviser. Though as was always the case in those days, the world changed when the sky split apart and great craft of steel and stone fell from the heavens. The 93rd expeditionary fleet had come, and with it the legendary Freeblade Knight, Zael. 

That's where Selim's telling of the story always ends. Further questioning is ignored. He won't speak of his service to the Imperium, or his master, or why he and his siblings fell from the Emperor's grace. Outside of the four, there are only three who know. One is dead, one has been dying for millennia, and the last certainly won't be telling. 

===Knight Tancerod le Galavo===
Ever the mystery, even The Reaper's name is unknown to most; the fearful masses of the Imperium and the faithful hosts of chaos know him as The Reaper. Unlike most of [[Nurgle|his patron's]] followers, Tancerod isn't the talkative type. He does not laugh, he does not count the diseases that bless his god's faithful, or join their joyful hymns praising His glory. He does not even speak, he just appears on the battlefield in a cloud of black mist. With silent implacability The Reaper creeps forward with the cold inevitability of death itself. If he reaches you, that is the end. The touch of his scythe spells the End for man, alien, and machine alike, even beings so mighty as titans or greater daemons. Most famously, he slew the Imperator class titan ''Faith's Reward'' at the Battle of Terra, breaking the morale of those few defenders still upon the walls in the final days of the siege. Tancerod embodies an aspect of his Lord rarely seen among the followers of his god: inevitable death. To face him is to face the emptiness that waits at the end of every universe, when entropy and light and life have raged away their billions of years, and the dark returns. To stand against him is to stand against innevitability; an innevitability that few men can bring themselves to face. 

===Lord Rikard Gerant===
The favored Knight of [[Khorne|his lord,]] Rikard Gerant embodies the ideal soldier: loyal, ferocious, yet disciplined. Unlike most champions of his god, Rikard has retained much of the wit and sanity he held before swearing himself to Khorne, tempering his bloodlust with tactics, occasionally even forming plans more complex than "Run at them and hit them with my axe till they die." ''Very'' occasionally. On the battlefield he acts as his lord's champion, seeking out the mightiest foes and fighting them in glorious melee, balancing his untamed ferocity with careful consideration of his defense. 

Uniquely among his siblings, Rikard has formed a warband of his own. Rather than appearing amongst the forces of his god or traveling from warband to warband, Rikard leads his Crimson Host in one bloody crusade after another. Many times they've been defeated, but each time Rikard reforms in the Eye of Terror alonside the souls of his greatest servants, who reincarnate in demonic form to fight eternally for conquest, destruction, and the glory of their god. At the beginning of every battle, Rikard rouses his followers with promises of eternal life in blood and glory, and his promises are kept. The slaughter of innocents means nothing; what is the skull of a child worth to Khorne? What glory does one earn striking down an unarmed man? What strength does it prove to slay a cripple? But to those who die without fear, having slain and been slain by the mighty, for those glorious few eternity awaits. Thus the Crimson Host grows, more brave souls joining its bloody crusade with every battle. 

===Lady Anna Morgana===
Appearing to the supplicants of [[Slaanesh|her prince]] in a glorious riot of song and light, the being once known as Lady Anna Morgana stands as the perfect warrior, a being whose perfection at arms is rivaled only by the greatest immortals. At first glance your average imperial citizen might think that the Exemplar Knight was still loyal to the Imperium: it shows none of the usual signs of chaotic warping, and its form, royal purple trimmed with silver and gold, seems pristine to a layman. The illusion is broken with motion. On the battlefield the Exemplar's jump jets give it mobility rivaled only by the lithe titans of the Eldar. With unparalleled speed The Exemplar dominates the battlefield, slaying the enemy with whip and lance, sliding effortlessly by in a cloud of song and light, punctuating every titan kill with an ecstatic shriek and a graceful pirouette.