Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

==  Typhon and the Barbarus Revolts ==

Like many planets during the Old Night, Barbarus was ruled by psykers, but in this case psykers who blurred the lines between daemon and mortal, swooping from peak to peak remaining safe in the fog that no mortal could survive. Beings kind of like the Witch-King of Angmar, human psykers that through their power and devotion to the Chaos Gods had become something else, not a Daemon Prince in any sense but at the same time clearly not mortal. Something kind of like a Fury but with a little more power and self-determination (that being dependent, however, on the fact that they were still partly mortal). Typhon was the village’s champion, a mere boy barely of age. He had no father, who had died years before in an attack by the planet’s half-mortal overlords. Such was the way of life on Barbarus. Eventually, however, you can only push people so far before they begin to push back. Villages on Barbarus began to receive shipments of strange weaponry from stranger sources, which they were told had the power to end the witch-king’s reign forever. The village smiths labored for a year and a day, making plate armor that was the best protection anyone on Barbarus knew how to make. The village bedecked him with warpaint and mystic charms, which were meant to give him good luck on his quest. The witch-kings paid little attention to this change in behavior, caring little about what the mundane humans did as long as the witch-kings could continue to raid.

The Imperium’s idea had been to arm the oppressed villagers with weapons and have them fight alongside the 14th legion to retake their homeworld. The populace and would feel like they had contributed to the retaking of their world rather than some alien power swooping in and doing so and would be more receptive to Imperial rule rather than seeing themselves trade one tyrant for another. Unfortunately someone missed the memo and started distributing the weapons beforehand. Barbarus had no space flight technology, so the Imperium could have sat in orbit around the planet all day without repercussion, but Mortarion was late and someone went ahead of schedule anyway.

Mortarion’s ships arrive in the Barbarus system a week late, having been delayed by a battle in another system and the vagaries of Warp travel. When he finds out what happened he is furious, he didn’t care much about civilian casualties but the people of Barbarus are not capable of fighting the witch-kings on their own. With just the weapons the Imperium gave them they are going to be walking into a slaughter with the whole populace dying, and after screaming out everyone involved (whether they deserved it or not) takes his Death Guard and descends to the planet in drop pods.

Meanwhile Typhon and his warriors are marching up the slopes of the great mountains. They had managed to kill two of the witch-kings thus far, but already their advance had begun to slow. The witch-kings had united en masse against their assault, and his warriors were already beginning to succumb to the toxic fog as their rebreathers began to give out. It was a horrible melee, with the tide beginning to turn in favor of the witch-kings as warriors drop their blows or from noxious fumes. Even Typhon was beginning to falter. He can feel his limbs slow and his vision begin to blur. A witch-king stands over him, ready to deliver the finishing blow.

Much as lasguns and flak armor are supposed to be as good as modern military gear (if lighter and cheaper) to show the scale of things in 40k, this shows the scale of what Chaos is capable of. These are furies. They are supposed to be at the bottom of the Chaotic food chain. And yet here they are winning against people with plate armor and close to modern weapons.

And then a drop pod crashes through the ceiling, crushing two of the witch-kings, and the door is kicked open. Everyone, witch-king and primitive warrior alike, are floored by the sight. Out strides the biggest human Typhon has ever seen, clad in a suit of power armor with red optics, a two handed sickle in his hands. The giant swings his scythe to drive back the abomination, and then and gives the harshest and most brusque pep talk possible.

''“Get up boy. Do you really want to die here?”''

Typhon struggles to his feet as more drop pods fall and more giants stream out, the members of the first giant’s “Death Guard”. He feels sick to his stomach but he stays by the giant’s side, determined to see things through. As he fights alongside the giant, Typhon observes Mortarion’s fighting, forces to learn or else be left behind. No surrender. No retreat. No backward step. Mortarion leaves with arcs of his scythe, leaving Typhon to deliver the killing blow with his more straightforward weapons. Eventually, all that is left is the Overlord of Barbarus, who retreated to the highest crag of the planet just out of reach. Typhon falls behind, his tortured body having finally reached his limits, but he stays conscious just long enough to watch Mortarion raise his scythe and take the head of the Overlord of Barbarus, the creature who had brought his people so much sorrow.

And that’s when Typhon knew he wanted to fight and die for Mortarion.

As has been mentioned before, Typhon was a latent psyker. Indeed, that was the only reason Typhon even survived the events of Barbarus, he believed all the charms and totems of protection his people gave him really worked, which caused his powers to subconsciously ward him from the worst of the the toxic smog. He found out at some point in the Great Crusade, but never told Mortarion, for Mortarion hated all things psychic and would have considered it a betrayal of the highest magnitude. This, as we’ve mentioned, is at the core of the Templars’ hypocrisy towards psykers (though the Templars claim he doesn’t count and Typhon’s opinion was more “don’t use psychic powers on the battlefield and roll for Perils of the Warp in front of your battle brothers”). As we’ve said, the Templars are still massively bigoted against psykers. Not to “purge the unclean” levels and rejecting Navigators and Astropaths, but still massively bigoted (often in a “stay in the kitchen” kind of way).

Compared to Mortarion Typhon was a little bit more charismatic. Mortarion, as we’ve said, rubbed everyone the wrong way and though he cared for his men he rarely showed in it any conventional way. He was also a doer, not a thinker. Typhon, on the other hand, had a little bit more charisma (like in canon), which was why Typhon was the one to write “Crusading, The Templar Way” instead of Mortarion, and got other groups to follow the Templar movement (they would have to be other groups because the Templar flaunt the suggestions of the codex).