Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

===The Sacrifice of Argel Tal===

In canon, what happens to Argel Tal? He transforms into a giant daemonically possessed monster that towers over primarchs and in some prophecies gets put down at the Battle of Terra (doesn’t happen, but still). So what happens in this timeline?

He transforms into a giant daemonically possessed monster, but one of a distinctly different flavor.

In canon, Argel Tal is from Colchis, that planet which is now a weird, religion human-eldar hybrid society in this timeline. Given the religious nature of Colchis, Tal joins the Space Marines and is enthusiastic about the possibility of joining the Word Bearers. Imagine his surprise when he ended up getting put in the War Hounds instead. He repeatedly tried to get transferred, but was talked out of it every time by Kharn and on occasion by Angron in his more lucid moments. Although they prided themselves on their martial prowess, the War Hounds were not the most peaceable legion, and Kharn and Angron liked how the calm, thoughtful Tal was able to play peacemaker between some of the more hotheaded elements of the legion.

During the War of the Beast, Kharn, Tal, and a group of War Hounds were on a mission to deliver some eldar artifacts to the Craftworld of Biel-Tan. Depending on the timescale of the war, it either was something they were assigned to do so before the war broke out or they were far enough away that the Imperium had resources that it could assign elsewhere. The Imperium had discovered what they believed to be an abandoned Craftworld, and were returning the artifacts to Biel-Tan as an effort of diplomatic good will. Kharn’s mind wasn’t really on the mission. Angron’s condition had flared up again and he had to return to Old Earth for medical treatment. The plan was to ditch the artifact at Biel-Tan and make all speed to Old Earth, especially as it was becoming increasingly clear as the war was going to be made or broken at the Sol system and the area surrounding it.

Then the ship carrying the eldar artifacts was attacked by the Fallen, led by Erebus. The Fallen managed to wrest control of the bridge and much of the ship, but the War Hounds had managed to get the drop on Erebus and take him prisoner. When they figured out that this was the little shit who had, among other things, convinced Luther to go traitor and was responsible for the whole problem with the Fallen in the first place, they realized this was big. They had to get Erebus off the ship and back to Old Earth, if for no other reason than to remove Erebus as a piece on the board. They didn’t have enough manpower to retake the ship, but they did have the ship’s Navigator and enough people to crew a small ship and there were a few small Warp-capable Cruisers docked at the aft of the ship (which they grimly noted with their losses would just about fit everyone left).

Problem is, the Fallen controlled most of the upper part of the ship, and so in order to get to the escape craft they would have to bypass most of the upper decks by travelling through the cargo hold. Which would have worked if they could have snuck by unnoticed, but the Fallen figured out their plan and came down on them from both sides. At about this point the contents of the ship’s cargo hold were revealed and Tal realized why the Fallen wanted this ship so badly.

Tal was from Colchis. He knew what a shard of Khaine was.

With the Fallen coming in from all sides and nothing else to lose, Tal called out to the statue, beseeching Khaine to hear his plea. No one knows why the Avatar responded to his call. Perhaps it was because Argel Tal was from Colchis, and thus knew all the old rites to supplicate Khaine. Perhaps it was because there were no children of Isha present, and as a Colchian Tal was the closest thing to an Eldar there. Perhaps the God of Murder just really wanted to murder somebody that day.

The Bloody-Handed one was eager to do battle with the servants of the Great Enemy once more. As there were no children of Kurnous and Isha around to serve as a suitable vessel for his glory, a child of Old Earth would have to do.

Argel Tal's avatar was less like a being of power and more like a volcanic eruption. Tal was a psyker, but he was a human psyker. If he had been an eldar psyker, with stronger, more stable psychic powers and a species connection to the Avatar of Khaine, he would have produced a normal avatar. Instead, Tal’s Avatar was a fucking mess. It couldn’t manifest the Wailing Doom, instead lashing out with molten, metal-dripping claws, and its body parts had the tendency to keep sloughing off. If a normal Avatar of Khaine looks like it’s made of magma, Tal’s looks like an ongoing nuclear meltdown.

Nevertheless, even this was not enough. The malformed Avatar of Khaine may have slain dozens of Fallen, but hundreds were close behind them. All Argel Tal could hope to do is to buy enough time for the remnants of the War Hounds and the ship’s crew to make it so safety before finally boiling down into a slag-ridden mess from a hail of bolter fire. If Tal had been an Eldar, the essence of Khaine would have returned to the Craftworld’s Infinity Circuity, to be safely reused for future generations. As it were, having bonded with a human the shard was disrupted and dissipated, burning up along with Argel Tal. It was Argel Tal and Khaine's bittersweet victory, spitting defiance in the face of the Dark Gods. The Fallen would be denied their shard of the Bloody Handed one.

Having escaped from the fray and made it to the safety of the hangar with the escape craft, Kharn grabbed Erebus by the scruff of his power armor and demanded to know what the point of all this was. Erebus says there was a prophecy that said if Argel Tal was killed it would push Kharn over the edge and into the service of the Blood God. Kharn dragged him closer so the two are staring each other eye to eye and Erebus realized he’s made a terrible mistake. He realizes the way the event the prophecy meant would push Kharn over the edge would be BY KILLING EREBUS. He can see the gears turning in Kharn’s head, fantasizing about the best way to kill him.

But Kharn swore an oath to never again take a life in the throes of passion, and if he did it would make everything Argel Tal died for meaningless. The spark of madness dies down in Kharn’s eyes. Erebus thinks he’s dodged a bullet.

Then Kharn breaks Erebus’ back over his knee, paralyzing both his legs, leaving him sputtering around on the ground but very deliberately not killing him and leaving him within easy reach of the Fallen who could bring him to medical attention to heal his broken back. Kharn turns his back on the foundering Erebus and shuts the door of the escape craft behind him. The last thing Erebus hears before the doors shut is:

“Tell your Blood God if he wants it so badly he can go get his own blood.”

None of the survivors ever spoke of what happened to Argel Tal beyond “he died holding the line”, for fear that it would leave unscrupulous sorts to try to replicate it.