Deshain Kane

Deshain Kane
Title/Honours	The Unbowed, The Wanderer, High Marshal of the Yuma
Discovered (world)	Yuma
Legion	Gunslingers
Unique Weapon	Mercy and Redemption pistols
Role	Traitor (Khorne)

This page is part of the Warmasters Triumvirate, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the Warmasters Triumvirate page for more information on the Alternate Universe.

Deshain Kane is the Primarch of the Gunslingers Space Marine Legion.

Primarch Origin

The planet Iuma: The planet on which the young primarch arrived was a barren wasteland roamed by bandit hordes. Once an agriworld, the planet provided the surrounding systems with food, but when the colonies of mankind got lost in the age of strife, Iuma lost contact to it’s partners. At first, everything was fine, but with the technological resources growing short, the mass production of food collapsed. The planets surface was reduced to a red desert sprinkled with remnants of better days. Some farms remained, accessing the water sources kilometers deep below the surface. However they were barely able to feed the population and water became the most sought resource on Iuma. To prevent raiders from attacking the farms, an order of rightful knights was created. Armed with the weapons of that time, they wandered the land and brought law and justice to the planet of Iuma. They called themselves Gunslingers. But time would not show mercy on them and with every generation, the number of Gunslingers dwindled and hordes of criminal Raiders threatened the farms and with it the very life on Iuma. They would attack with vehicles so primitive that they still use the black blood of the earth, oil, in order to function and with rapid assaults they left only scorched earth. Life on Iuma centered around the farms, there was no Capital or big city. The place with the biggest population was the Ark, a place with hundreds of Farms, surrounded by a big wall to defend itself from the outriders. However, when the number of the Gunslingers dwindled, the wall was manned by unexperienced civilians, and thus were easy prey for the predators of the outback. When the primarch known as Deshain Kane arrived on Iuma, there were only a handful of Gunslingers left.

Order of the Gunslingers: The Gunslingers track themselves back to the noble houses of old terra. When the arks were manned, many knight descendants accompanied the quest to the stars. And so, the first lawmen arrived on Iuma together with the first men. Initially, they were wardens to oversee the production of food on Iuma, but they quickly remembered there history and they brought law and justice to the planet. The farms would give them free lodging and food and the Gunslingers were highly praised. But with the degradation of Iumas technology, the Gunslingers became rare. Alone or with just a handful they marched through the red waste and were judge and executioner in one person. Times were rough and so the Gunslingers had to adapt. While their nobility lay dormant, they had to make hard decisions in order to stay just. As the numbers of the Bandits rose, the number of Gunslingers declined and the few were barely able to defend anybody. And often the Justice they brought was not the justice a rich farmer would have seen and so the Gunslingers were more and more seen as outcasts. Armed beggars with no real purpose.

Arrival of the Primarch: When the gestation pod of the Primarch of the 3rd legion landed on Iuma, nobody noticed the imminent arrival of the son of the emperor. The pod crashed in into the dry lands of the outback weeks away from any human settlement and the young primarch emerged from the burning remains of his vessel. For weeks he wandered alone until he finally reached his limits. Without water and food to still the urges of every living man, the weakened child collapsed in the solitude of the desert, ready to become a bleached skull in the sands of time. It was then, that fate decided to give the young primarch a chance and a lone rider on a motorized bike approached the lad. The Gunslinger Edmund Kane was on a mission to map out the approaching desertification of the barren lands and nearly missed the collapsed child. But even as his training was long in the past, he retained his sharp senses through his middle years and heard the faint breathing of the child, when he stopped to decide which way he would take next. He followed the sound and he found a sun burnt body, belonging to not more than a 4 year old boy from his experience. He saved the boy, tended to his wounds and gave him water and food. The Gunslinger realized that the boy was special, as the next settlement was days away and on his way out found no traces of other people travelling the wastelands. He decided to take the child in and raise him as his own, for he had no sons himself and his family name would have died with him. Edmund Kane named the boy Deshain, after the hero of one of the oldest gunslinger tales and trained him in the way of the order. The boy was shown the way of the gun, the battle with knifes and unarmed combat as well as handling the motorbike and track his foes down. The boy grew fast and excelled in every way possible. He learned to bring justice to Iuma, learned the texts of law, but also learned that justice is not only the written word alone, but that the whole people have to benefit from justice and that you have sometimes reinterpret the written word. And so when the primarch became an adult he became a man of justice who inspired the people he met. Like many generations of gunslingers before him, the young primarch wandered the land and brought peace and justice where he went. He saw the needs of the people and often decided according to their needs how he would interpret the law. His person was soon the subject of tales. The reborn hero of old, who has returned to bring the law back to Iuma.

However, the bandit attacks remained and although he tried his best to drive them back into the desert, it was a task nobody could achieve alone. And so he summoned all remaining Gunslingers, but only a handful heeded his call. The few known to him came or were death. So Deshain decided to reform the Order, form it anew. Through the lands he called for men to follow him, rebuilt the Order and his charisma drew many to his cause. Togheter with his father and the remaining Gunslingers he trained the men in the ways of the Gunslingers. The same regiment he went through, only condensed and fitting to their actual needs. In the end the bandits were eradicated and the new order of the Gunslingers established. Under the guidance of the Gunslingers, old knowledge was excavated and the desertification was driven back by the resurfacing of old knowledge. The planet Iuma seemed to mirror its most prosperous time. The people of Iuma rejoiced that they have found favor with the Gunslingers and life was good. But soon the people of Iuma should learn, that wealth would attract other predators that would render the bandit attack harmless. After decades of peace Eldar corsairs under the leadership of Yvraine, the Daughter of Shades arrived at Iuma and attacked the settlements without mercy. The long years of peace made the Gunslingers too soft and soon most of the order was destroyed. However it was once again Deshain who managed to rally the defenders under his banners and his army of Gunslingers and civilians, although inferior to the eldar warmachine, struck heavy blows into the enemies forces. As a reaction the Eldar command ordered to scorch the lands and dry the water reserve of the population. The population suffered heavily and in a desperate move Deshain Kane decided to attack the enemies command at Jericho Hill to stop the suffering. Yvraine foresaw his move and lured Deshains forces into a trap. She split her forces and attacked the Gunslingers from various sides. The sheer number of Eldar was too much for the Gunslingers to handle and Deshain Kane saw most of his comrades die that day. He himself was shot from his steed and captured togheter with his foster father. The surviving Gunslingers and those who fought at their side were captured and cruxified. The cruxified men would form the symbol of defeat in the elder language. Deshain however would suffer a different fate. The corsairs decided to honor Deshain’s resistance in the cruellest way possible: He was nailed to a tree in the middle of his men and had to witness how the Eldar burned the world, enslaved its population and wait until every member of his “army” died. Finally, after days of hearing the torment of his comrades, after witnessing the ever growing silence, his foster father was brought before him. The Eldar tied his fathers limbs to their jetbikes. Deshain was broken and he begged them to spare his father but Yvraine was excited by Deshain’s agony and gave the order to execute his father. Deshain would always remember the face of his father, his grey eyes filling with blood as his limbs were torn from him and the moment he started to shriek in pain was burned into Deshain’s memory. And with this burning memory a deep hatred for xenos lives was engraved deep into Deshain’s persona. After the execution the daughter of shades showed Deshain the weapon of his father. To her it was a primitive weapon, not more than a stone some barbaric tribes used to hunt their prey, to Deshain it was a sacred leftover of his father. Yvraine pointed the gun at Kane’s forehead and Kane yelled at her, then she pulled the trigger and shot Deshain in the head. At first, a stinging pain and then an all consuming nothingness engulfed Deshain. Yvraine threw the gun onto the blood-soaked ground, turned to her ship and left Kane for dead. Her loot should bring her a fortune on the intergalactic slave markets.

The Enforcer Pain, a stinging pain in his head called him back. When Deshain Kane regained his consciousness, he was not on Iuma anymore. Lying in a bed he opened his eyes. At first he was confused, the walls above him were out of steel, and he saw cables all around him. Then his memories returned and he sat himself up, searching for his wound. But his head was bandaged and in front of him sat a man in golden robes. The man was a giant and introduced himself as the emperor, his father. The Emperor explained Deshain Kane the situation. He was the emperor of mankind and on his way tu reunite the humans in the galactic under his banner. He explained to Deshain that he was his creation, a primarch, created as the pinnacle of human knowledge and a weapon to drive the enemies of mankind out of the galaxy. The emperors fleet arrived shortly after the elder left the place and when they made planetfall they only found an empty slaughterhouse. All except for Deshain were dead or enslaved. The Emperor suddenly recognized the Giant nailed to the Tree as one of his sons and with all of his power he rescued his life. Although the primarchs have superhuman healing abilities, the emperor feared, that his son was not surviving the ordeal, but Deshain fought to survive and after a coma of several weeks he finally awakend. The emperor did not move from his side, and what strength he could lend to his son, he willingly gave it.

During his healing process the Emperor explained to Deshain his role, that he is the Primarch of the 3rd Legion and that they will obey his wishes. After returning to terra and witnessing the grandeur of the imperium, the Gunslinger studied imperial knowledge and prepared himself to take over the mantle of commander of the 3rd legion. He combined his newfound Lex of imperial warfare with the knowledge he gained as a Gunslinger. The armies warfare was reformed from the standard imperial doctrine to a more flexible, fast paced warfare, concentrating on pistols and bikes. To honor his past and the death of his people, Deshain Kane renamed his Legion to “Gunslingers”, so that they will honor those who came before them and died a heroic death on Iuma. The Emperor recognized the brilliance of Deshains mind and asked him to reform the imperial law and become his enforcer. Deshain accepted and would condense all his knowledge into the Lex Imperialis, the foundation for the imperial law, which even after 10000 years draws it’s inspiration from the works of Deshain Kane. To force the Lex Imperialis to the imperial worlds, Kane suggested to his father to establish a force, created of normal imperial civilians, known today as Adeptus Arbites.

After this work was done, he took over his legion, and set to the stars. When Kane left Terra, the emperor presented him 2 pistols. One recreated and improved from the remnants of his foster fathers weapon and the second one created by the emperors own design. “Mercy” and “Redemption”.

The Gunslingers, although the 3rd Legion, was soon known to bring the imperial law to the most worlds in the galaxy, freeing colony after colony. Creating a friendly rivalry between the Silver Blades and them. And Deshain Kane was their primarch.