The Birth of Xenobane
During the events of Psychic Awakening there was a bit of amusement on /tg/ that Tau came into conflict with a Genestealer Cult with occasional fanart being drawn since stories between xenos that don't involve Eldar are rare as fuck. It was eventually pointed out that between Tau converting humans to their side and Genestealers doing their thing that the forces of Chaos would be less than pleased that potential followers were steered away from them. A new character's genesis was constructed and it would be a Soul Grinder of all things (possibly to make up for a lack of them in the Fate of Konor campaign). One /m/ anon decided to put a trip on, make Demonbane references, and make something happen. A sequel was written up shortly after and is included on this page.
The Birth of Xenobane
The Birth of Xenobane
The Immaterium is no stranger to the grim darkness of the forty-first millennium. However, in the twilight century the might of the xenos races have proven to be a formidable obstacle for the dark gods as their worshipers had diminished significantly. The Eldar ever so eluding their extinction, the Orks continuing to expand their territory, the Necrons reviving from their eons of inactivity, the Tyranids invading from all corners of the Milky Way, and the exceptionally technological power house the Tau have all prevented assimilation of planets into the Warp with new daemon worlds. The Forge of Souls especially has suffered from this since Ork and Tau souls are nowhere near as good a human souls, Slaanesh takes all Eldar souls, and Necrons and Tyranids have no souls to harvest. New daemons of the Chaos Gods are joining the Forge to prepare for Abaddon's thirteenth Black Crusade which will be said to tear the galaxy in half. The Forge collectively needed something to fight the xenos infestation.
In a strange unholy union the ancient daemon prince Be'lakor and the legendary Word Bearer Zardu Layak presented offerings to the Forge of Souls The Iron Warriors had successfully a thousand furies that would be ideal in fighting their blight on behalf of the Crimson Apostle's request. These furies possessed the necessary hatred needed: The Imperium's hatred for cults, the Imperium's hatred for xenos, the Slaanesh worshipers' hatred for Eldar alluding their master, the worshipers of Nurgle, Khorne, and Tzeentch's hatred for Slaanesh having all dead Eldar souls, the genestealer hybrids' hatred and betrayal upon being devoured by their false gods, and the collective hatred around the galaxy of how Greenskins are difficult to permanently extinguish.
Warp Lightning howled throughout the Forge, the Dark Mechanicus sealed and fused the monstrosities into the machination, their hatred melded into one another, the assimilated gestalt born from raw emotions formed a new intelligence. This new Soul Grinder, motivated only to slay all xenos life that did not worship Chaos, was given form by the traitorous exiles. The six-legged abomination was let loose upon the unsuspecting mountainous world of With. This world was under control by a Genestealer Cult trying to lure Hive Fleet Kraken onto the surface, but was interrupted by a Tau task force that wants With for its rare minerals.
The xenos clashed with one another, the Genestealers claiming the land and caves for themselves while the Tau had air superiority in their hand. The Shadow in the Warp could be felt, but there was enough instability in the fabric of reality to let the beast be unleashed on both masses. The lone Soul Grinder surprised the cult from the rear, using its mighty left arm claw to crush and bash all vehicles that were hopelessly used against it. Its warp sword, which it dubbed the Shining Impact, blasted the filth with an electrical current from its home dimension that tore their mental constitution and bodies asunder. Within hours even their mighty patriarch fell in hand to hand combat as the daemon unleashed its diabolical hellfire straight from the maw.
Once the Genestealers were purged, the Tau took it upon themselves to send a strike force to root out any survivors. The Soul Grinder emitted unholy smoke from the smoke stacks on its back and its rear, covering the area in a nearly unbreathable cloud. Their radars and scanners could not penetrate the thick immaterial and rust-like cloud. The grinder charged into their battlesuits, all in rapid succession. The Tau tried to react, but the beast's weapons proved too strong and it gained the upper hand in melee. The support vehicles were next, destroyed by warpfire assaults.
Without their battlesuits or support vehicles the Fire Warriors were the final enemies left on the foggy battlefield. Terror slowly crept into their veins, the air choked them with unearthly dread. Shots fired throughout the chaotic hellscape. The grinder quickly cut them down one by one, charging while using the smoke and the rocky terrain for cover. The finale fire warrior was brought down via claw bash. In orbit the Tau leaders had to set their sights on the incoming splinter hive fleet that was called upon by the cult. The battleships engaged in orbit as the furious Soul Grinder proclaimed his accursed victory over Planet With. Through daemonic rituals more soul grinders were summoned to take over the planet's inhabitants, harvesting and collecting their unwilling souls for the mighty Forge. Within mere hours the celestial body, under its purple supersized star, was successfully transformed into an island of the Warp in realspace. The surrounding warpstorm finished off the dueling fleets in planetary orbit, ending the hated xenos infestation.
The legion of the Forge of Souls collected alligned daemons to celebrate this occasion. The musicians sounded their maddening horns, almost like glorious trumpets. The lone soul grinder had earned its ranking of fear and was granted a perfect false name by the Crimson Apostle through a poem:
- From hell-forged lightning and machinery
- With prejudice reigning the ire
- It draws the blade that smites infestation
- Cleaning the material filth
Xenobane
The Return of Xenobane
The Return of Xenobane
After the first conquest of the empyrean machination on the planet With, the terrifying abomination Xenobane was permitted to carry the defeated remains of his first six Genestealer victims. The Iron Warriors, the Chaos Space Marines that associated themselves with the Forge of Souls more than any other of the original traitor legions, sought use of this destructive behemoth. The Soul Grinder permitted the superhuman heretics to reinforce his frame with a fine unholy armor colored in their evil and ancient tenacity. The Warpsmiths succeeded in their unholy piece of art with a storm of warp lightning, binding and fusing the daemon into something more horrifying than the average Soul Grinder.
Upon this completion finally ending the Forge of Souls sought a new target, the planet dubbed by the Corpse Emperor's worshipers as Lain. This barren tundra world was home to an ongoing conflict between the Greenskins and the Necrons for nearly six centuries, neither side able to successfully destroy the other entirely. In recent months their peaks had been toppled, the WAAAGH! of walking green fungi and the prehistoric nihilists had destroyed the weapons and vehicles of one another in their totality. The schemers of the Immaterium wanted this planet as it lied near the center of the Milky Way and it being converted to a daemon world would aid the Black Legion in their upcoming Thirteenth Black Crusade. The Greenskins had toppled the final pylon preventing any reality-tearing entry onto Lain until that point. Xenobane was summoned into action as both armies prepared for their final confrontations.
With a hate-filled constitution the horrifically forged beast tore out of the Warp and onto an icy plateau, snow raged as below him he could see hundreds of Necrons battling against the green tide. Oddly the Greenskins were composed mostly of grots rather than orks by a seven to one ratio. As neither of these races were seen as favorable to Chaos, Xenobane howled into the constrictingly cold sky, alerting both sides to its arrival and their final doom. The Greenskins cared not and continued their rampage on their necrodermis-clan foes while half the Necron battalion aimed their long ranged gauss weaponry on the charging terror. Like lightning Xenobane scaled down the plateau, charging with intense prejudice at subsonic speeds. The Genestealer skulls mounted on his framed gave his foes the dreadful indication this Neverborn was not going to be an easy victory.
In mere seconds the mighty abomination charged into both armies sending dozens on both sides flying. His rear engine emitted a cloud of rust like before to aid him in evasion. One by one he unleashed his horrifying weapons while both sides began aimlessly firing into the hellish fog. "STRIKING IMPACT!" The warpsword crackled with light of fright, slicing through xenos on both sides. Necrodermis was destroyed beyond repair and spores died from the unreal heat emitted. "GOLIATH BUSTER!' Its iron claw launches from the left arm, flying around the battlefield and destroying what little heavy support both sides had. It was at this point both Necrons and Greenskins temporarily stopped firing on one another and aimed for their new challenger.
"STAR STRIKE!" Xenobane unleashed a psychic ray of tantalizingly horrific energy from his eyes, his own warp gaze that seared his enemies in droves. The Necrons were reduced to mere squads of warriors and a backup regiment of flayed ones while the Greenskins had no orks left and the remaining gretchin relied on the few squigs left in their arsenal. "DAMNED MAGMA!" The harvester cannons on the right wrist broke through the rust cloud that the icy wind was slowly dissipating, one by one exterminating the last of the Necrons until only the grots remained. "HOLOCAUST ERUPTION!" Finally the maw cannon, a level of daemonic and chaotic heat on par with that of a blue star. The remaining Greenskins stood no chance, not even their spores could hope survive the destructive embers built on the foundation of xeno prejudice that was amassed. The area, once surrounded by ice and snow before the Imperium had a syllable of recorded time, was now altered in ash, anguish, abominable abrasion, alien temperatures, and authentic evil. Xenobane howled at his successful termination as he became chanting to summon other neverborn brethren to Lain.
In mere days the planet was ravaged and pillaged by the empyrean denizens of the Warp. No opposition prevented the taint of Chaos from infesting the realspace until finally a new daemon world was successfully converted Xenobane returned to the Forge of Souls, waiting to exterminate more xenos and craving battle.