Editing Khaine (section)

===The Avatar of Khaine===
[[File:Avatar vs Lorgar.jpg|thumb|350px|right|The Avatar of Khaine in its natural state of existence: dying horribly to make whatever character or faction GW is currently trying to sell look awesome. (In this instance, [[Lorgar]] mercy killed it.)]]

The '''Avatar of Khaine''' is a unique Eldar [[daemon]] unit. The Avatar is basically a small fragment of Khaine's power given form through one of his fragments present in a Craftworld.

The Eldar will only summon the Avatar into battle under the most dire of circumstances when there is no other choice. This is because in order to summon the Avatar, the Eldar must sacrifice one of their [[Exarch]]s, known as the "Young King", in order to bring him into existence, and this only lasts for a limited amount of time. Like any daemon, after some time, the Avatar will eventually degenerate and disappear, taking the sacrificed Exarch with it back to the shrine from whence it came. For the Exarch in question this is the ultimate honour, as this and becoming a [[Phoenix Lord]] are the only ways an Exarch can find release in death.

There is an alternative method of awakening the Avatar, but it requires no less than six [[Phoenix Lord]]s to show up on a craftworld simultaneously and place their weapons at the Avatar's feet. The concentration of psychic energy is enough to not only awaken the Avatar without needing a sacrifice, but [[Apocalypse|supercharge him]].

He <s>used to be</s> '''IS''' really strong, but [[Games Workshop]]'s authors have taken a liking to murdering Avatars every chance they get depending on marketing needs. Because of this, the Avatar has been:

*Killed hilariously by [[Marneus Calgar]] in hand-to-hand combat in the 5th edition [[Space Marine]] codex. This can be chalked up to the ridiculous levels of [[Matt Ward|Wardian Wankery]] in the 5th Ed codex, and can be retconned/explained as an in-universe propaganda piece to reinforce the 'unstoppable angel of death' image of Astartes that the average Imperial will know about.
*Possessed by Heartslayer, a [[Keeper of Secrets]] (oh, the [[Irony|irony]]), during the invasion of the Eldar Craftworld Kher-Ys.
*Trampled to death by twelve stampeding [[Carnifex|Carnifexes]] during the battle between [[Craftworld Iyanden]] and the [[Hive Fleet Kraken]]. What happened was that the Avatar goaded the swarm's [[Hive Tyrant]] into a duel. What the Avatar failed to realize was that this wasn't tabletop and that the [[Tyranids]] are a pragmatic instead of an idealistic lot who have no concept of honourable or dirty fighting, so the Hive Tyrant just raised his brow at this and sent twelve Carnifexes to run the Avatar over. (Weirdly, [[Matt Ward]] gave him a more dignified death than this bullshit.)
*Strangled (WTF?)/neck crushed by [[Fulgrim]]. Let us remind you that Avatars are living metal statues, and they neither breathe nor have bones. Unless Fulgrim full-on [[Rip and Tear|crushed its neck until the head popped off]], which would've pretty thoroughly killed it.
*Killed by the [[Sanguinor]].
*"Put out of his misery" by [[Lorgar Aurelian|Lorgar]] (who was, at the time, considered to be the worst fighter out of all the [[Primarchs]]). Though the Avatar was heavily damaged even before the fight, unable to even stand and driven mad by centuries spent in the Warp, and this was just a few pages before Lorgar proved to be a top level badass as he battled and bested Anggrath, the uber-[[Bloodthirster]] of Khorne who can eat Avatars and [[Titans]] like cookies.
*Stabbed in the heart by [[Maugan Ra]] to temper his Maugetar. See? Even in its own faction, the thing gets killed anticlimactically.
*Abandoned on a [[Maiden World]], where its connection to the Eldar was severed, reducing it to a mindless state of rage. The now-unbound Avatar consequently called out to the [[Orks]] of the nearby Octarius system, which were [[Looted|happy to answer it]]. It's kind of sad that the only time the Avatar isn't being a jobber is when he's being used by someone else entirely.
*Killed by the [[Legion of the Damned]] when assisting the [[Invaders]] in their assault on Craftworld Idharae. When the Legion realized their flaming bolters did squat against the Avatar, they instead brought the roof down on it. This one's slightly less [[fail]]-worthy than the others, since destroying the dome literally blasted the Avatar out into the void of space. Plus, the Invaders were seriously mauled by doing this, which is a good deal more realistic than much of this list.
*Slain by a Battlewagon whilst leading Ulthwe's forces in a near suicidal attempt to defeat a powerful Ork Warboss.
*Somehow able to achieve a mutual kill against [[Skarbrand]], most likely the closest thing to a victory any Avatar has ever achieved; it should be noted that, as the Avatar of the Craftworld with the greatest devotion to Khaine, it may have been stronger than normal. Sadly, with the death of the Craftworld and Infinity Circuit, this Avatar is most likely no more.
*Somehow fused with a Genestealer Patriarch who took its body over on the Craftworld Zaisuthra. Once again, the Avatar is a living '''metal statue''', leaving the question of how the hell a biological creature fused with it unanswered.
*A purer shard of the Avatar of Khaine, called the Warshard, was killed rather quickly by the Yncarne possessing Yvraine which, considering the Yncarne itself was easily defeated by Ahriman, [[Fail|does not say good things about Khaine]].
*If you thought by 2021 GW might consider throwing the old loser a bone, you couldn't be more wrong. Khaine's latest sad end happened recently on [[Warhammer Plus|Warhammer+]], the episode '''In the Garden of Ghosts''' - which was meant to be a story about the Eldar - has the Avatar getting its ass crumped by a bunch of [[Intercessor]]s, a [[Redemptor Dreadnought]] and a [[Gladiator Lancer]]...[[What|yeah]]; it did manage to kill a handful of Marines and the Dreadnought before getting surrounded and killed by regular, bog-standard bolter fire, so that slightly better then usual (apparently it was already heavily damaged and almost dead at this point, after fighting nonstop for days- probably got held up by a marine scout for most of the battle). This also comes in the backdrop of an entire [[Craftworld]] getting invaded (again) and it's population slaughtered effortlessly by (you guessed it) Ultra Marines/ Smurfs... [[Fail|''somehow'']] (destroying Craftworlds isn't even a notable achievement anymore, everyone gets to do it; it's just such an easy and effortless thing to do) The entire episode is just a quick re-telling of Gav's Path series (although this one is actually much better); the three main characters are literally a scorpion, seer and outcast (the Scorpion is awesome by the way, proper deadly bastard).

He's also used by a boss fight whenever Eldar show up in [[Dawn of War]]. These are among his more dignified deaths because he's actually got the high-level stats he ''should'' have, on par with greater daemons, yet encountered much earlier:
*Killed by [[Gabriel Angelos]]' 3rd company without the aid of anything heavier than a [[Dreadnought]] during the [[Dawn of War|Tartarus Campaign]]. The presence of [[Isador Akios]], though he was already descending towards [[heresy]], probably helped too.
*Killed in a break-dancing competition by a Khornate [[Bloodthirster]] during the Eldar's incursion on Lorn V (this one's non-canon).
*In Dark Crusade, destroying the Eldar Stronghold during the Kronus Campaign shows you a loving rendition of the Avatar getting punk'd in ''single combat'' by the tallest unit your army has to offer. This includes:
**A Chaos Bloodthirster.
**A Squiggoth.
**A Necron [[C'tan|Nightbringer shard]].
**A Tau [[Great Knarloc]].
**If the [[Imperial Guard]] under [[Governor-Militant Lukas Alexander|Lukas Alexander]] defeat the eldar on Kronus, then the avatar gets killed by a MOTHER FUCKING [[sentinel|SENTINEL]].
**And last but not least, the tallest unit [[Blood Ravens|the canonical winners]] have to kill the Avatar is Epistolary Anteas. Yep, Papa Smurf himself just got outdone by a [[Librarian]]. In the after-action report Anteas is credited with stealing the pieces of the Avatar's armor, showing early-onset signs of the Blood Ravens' kleptomania.
*Possibly defended [[Caerys|Farseer Caerys']] last base on Kaurava III only to be blown away by <strike>[[Vance Stubbs|VANCE MOTHERFUCKING STUBBS]] and his 100 [[Baneblade|Baneblades]] after they refused to fuck off.</strike> <span style='color:green;font-size:115%'> KRUMPED BY GORGUTZ! QWIT WHININ' DIS IZ KANNON YA 'UMIE GROT!</span>
*Killed ''twice'' by [[Blood Ravens Force Commander|Force Commander Hair Gel's]] squad during the fighting to pacify the Eldar in subsector Aurelia. Though to be honest, both of these battles are really fucking hard if you don't have a well-managed squad, and nothing short of [[Ulkair|greater daemons]] is more than a speedbump for [[Tarkus]] or [[Cyrus]].

One rare example of an Avatar of Khaine not being used as a punching bag is in the Fracture of Biel Tan, where one ties with an injured Skarbrand. It has gotten to the point that the question isn't who could beat an Avatar, but who ''hasn't'' beaten an Avatar.

Another good showing for the Avatar of Khaine is at the climax of the Ciaphas Cain book Choose Your Enemies where one gets airdropped onto a Slaaneshi daemon twice its size and proceeds beat the shit out of it. Up until the avatar appeared, the daemon prince had shrugged of melta and lasgun fire like it was nothing. Based on how the end of the fight is written in the book, it might've perma-killed it too.

Eventually, even GW realized just how much the Avatar's reputation had been shredded, and when it got a new model for 9th edition, they [https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/02/23/dreadnought-chaos-warband-and-a-primarch-is-there-anything-the-avatar-of-khaine-cant-beat/ did a round of playtesting to try and build up its street cred]. Time will tell if they succeeded.