Post by Advix on Oct 20, 2013 23:45:44 GMT -5
So my friend Rob convinced me to start investing in and playing Warhammer 40,000. I decided to go with the Eldar (space elves) for their visually appealing vehicles and miniatures, and upon delving into the lore, i had the urge to try to re-imagine a previous character in the context of the eldar. For this creative exercise, I choose Akiyama Gurren aka Raiga no Kyuu. I spent more time on this than i had any right to, but that's what happens when one has too much fun. If after reading this anyone remotely gives a crap, i may make a similar, much shorter bio for A'mael, Gurren's apprentice.
Farseer Gurren the Blind_________________180pts
WS---BS---S---T---W---I---A---Ld---Sv---Unit Type
5____5____3___4___3___5__1___10___-___Infantry (Character)
Wargear:
-Rune Armor
-Singing Spear
-Ghosthelm
-Runes of warding
-Runes of witnessing
Special Rules:
-Ancient Doom
-Battle Focus
-Fearless
-Fleet
-Independent Character
-Preferred Enemy (Tyranids)
-Psyker (Mastery Level 3)
--Divination, Runes of Fate, Telepathy
Gift of Asuryan:
-Soulshrive
S3* AP2 Melee, Master-crafted, Spiritstealer
(+1S for every unsaved wound made by Soulshrive)
Warlord Trait:
-Fate’s Messenger
Warlord rerolls saving throws of result 1.
Gurren the Blind is an ancient eldar farseer of wild origins from before the Fall. Once a long standing farseer of Iyanden, its recent steep into necromancy has driven him away, and he now takes refuge in Ulthwe. Having lost his sight in a psychic trauma, he wears a white eyeless ghosthelm with golden details. Though he now wears robes of Ulthwe colors, he still wears the golden armor of Iyanden, and his white coat bears The Light in the Darkness, Iyanden’s crest. In his right hand he holds the ancient spear of his predecessor, and in his left he wields Soulshrive, a cursed power sword from Iyanden bearing the spiritstone of a malevolent soul. Tempered by the mystic training of his early years, he stands tall and firm, refusing to fall until his life has been spent. With the invasion of Hive Fleet Kraken still fresh in his mind, he displays a terrible wrath towards Tyranids matched only by his loathing for the Forces of Chaos. Accompanied by his apprentice, A’mael, he searches for a method to destroy Chaos God Slaanesh, even if it means doing so in person. In his activities as a farseer of Ulthwe, he has fought alongside the Tau on occasion, and seems to have developed a certain fondness for them, stating "They are not a bad lot, if a tad pretentious."
Farseer Gurren the Blind_________________180pts
WS---BS---S---T---W---I---A---Ld---Sv---Unit Type
5____5____3___4___3___5__1___10___-___Infantry (Character)
Wargear:
-Rune Armor
-Singing Spear
-Ghosthelm
-Runes of warding
-Runes of witnessing
Special Rules:
-Ancient Doom
-Battle Focus
-Fearless
-Fleet
-Independent Character
-Preferred Enemy (Tyranids)
-Psyker (Mastery Level 3)
--Divination, Runes of Fate, Telepathy
Gift of Asuryan:
-Soulshrive
S3* AP2 Melee, Master-crafted, Spiritstealer
(+1S for every unsaved wound made by Soulshrive)
Warlord Trait:
-Fate’s Messenger
Warlord rerolls saving throws of result 1.
Gurren the Blind is an ancient eldar farseer of wild origins from before the Fall. Once a long standing farseer of Iyanden, its recent steep into necromancy has driven him away, and he now takes refuge in Ulthwe. Having lost his sight in a psychic trauma, he wears a white eyeless ghosthelm with golden details. Though he now wears robes of Ulthwe colors, he still wears the golden armor of Iyanden, and his white coat bears The Light in the Darkness, Iyanden’s crest. In his right hand he holds the ancient spear of his predecessor, and in his left he wields Soulshrive, a cursed power sword from Iyanden bearing the spiritstone of a malevolent soul. Tempered by the mystic training of his early years, he stands tall and firm, refusing to fall until his life has been spent. With the invasion of Hive Fleet Kraken still fresh in his mind, he displays a terrible wrath towards Tyranids matched only by his loathing for the Forces of Chaos. Accompanied by his apprentice, A’mael, he searches for a method to destroy Chaos God Slaanesh, even if it means doing so in person. In his activities as a farseer of Ulthwe, he has fought alongside the Tau on occasion, and seems to have developed a certain fondness for them, stating "They are not a bad lot, if a tad pretentious."
Gurren Yavie’Orod
Roya-Osinta Orodor/Gurren the Blind
Expelled Farseer of Iyanden
A native of Arach-Syn born in the late 28th Millennium, Gurren was the son of two pleasure cultists whose reckless indulgence into the obscene left their child neglected. He was rescued by a woman who called herself Reya-Osinta Orodor, “She Who Answers Mountains”. An accomplished farseer, Reya (as she would have him call her) had a foresight that was as much rooted in the earth she stood and the air she breathed as it was in the stars and runes, and having sensed some quality in the boy, took it upon herself to raise him as a son and an apprentice. With the rise in decadence of the eldar cities, Reya spirited the boy she named Gurren away with her into the wilderness, far away from society. It was there that she nurtured him, teaching him not only how to live in the wild, but how to attune himself with nature and grasp the grand insight of the world on which he lived. She taught him how to forage, and from how to forage, how to hunt. Through hunting, he gained empathy for living things, and through meditation, how to communicate. His mentor taught him how to stand and breathe with such discipline that it was an art of its own, and through this, his body learned balance. He learned to read the winds, the tides, and the stones, his senses spreading out and beyond his body. For centuries he lived like this with his mentor, communing with flora and fauna alike, and venturing into society only at Reya’s side. To extend his training, they sailed across space to visit Exodite worlds, delving into the richness (and dangers) of life each one had to offer.
Of course, as Gurren’s abilities developed and matured, he could begin to sense what his master had foreseen centuries prior. After addressing the encroaching doom he sensed to her, Reya informed him of her decision to board the Craftworld Iyanden, telling Gurren that in due time a terrible catastrophe would befall the galaxy, the likes of which she was unsure if the eldar race as a whole could ever recover from. He was reluctant, the thought of abandoning the earth he loved painful, and frightening, but he knew in his heart of hearts that the notion could only be that much more so for his beloved mentor. Determined to aid the fleeing eldar, Reya and her apprentice boarded Iyanden, joining the Seer Council to play her part in guiding her brethren from the coming calamity. Unsettled and nervous, Gurren found it difficult to adapt to the massive craftworld, overwhelmed by its grandeur. Never had he been forced to live in such a cacophony of technological prowess, but this was to be his home for a very long time. This was his world now; he would learn how to thrive here just as he had in any other jungle.
So came the Fall. Thrown into the subsequent chaos caused by the apocalyptic awakening of the Chaos God Slaanesh, Reya oversaw numerous operations to retrieve waystones from the crone worlds, and while she was disheartened at first, she permitted Gurren to join the Howling Banshees, of all Aspects. While some found it odd at first, there was no denying that his life in the wild had tempered his body to suit the training he sought. He made many a friend during his time training in the shrine and accompanying his mentor on her dealings with surviving Exodite worlds. It was during Iyanden’s early struggles that Gurren at last became a warlock, joining the Seer Council alongside Reya as her personal guard to aid her in her campaigns, both in politics and in warfare. She had often urged him to live his own life, but Gurren would not be swayed. His very being was forever indebted to the woman who saved him. In Gurren’s eyes, no single act of his could ever compensate for the life she had given him, and so he devoted himself to his mother. However, as time marched on, Reya’s time in meditation grew longer and longer, and as Gurren sought to aid his mentor further, he too became a farseer.
As the centuries passed, as friends were made and lost, alliances forged and broken, Reya’s life was slowly coming to an end. Gurren watched as the once nimble form of his master slowed as her bones turned to crystal. She continued to serve the craftworld in her advanced age, until even she, who had made the mere act of standing a science and art, limped and hobbled about with the support of her spear. Gurren bore painful witness to her final days, until she at last requested to be brought to the Dome of Crystal Seers, a request that Gurren had long dreaded. Knowing the pain of the man she had raised as her son, she used the last of her mortal energy to console and sooth Gurren. Having eased his sorrow, she left him with her singing spear, her deepest pride and gratitude, and her birth name, which Gurren swore he would take to the grave. After bidding her dearest disciple farewell, she stepped into the Dome of Crystal Seers and sat among what few had come before her, slipping into her final meditation as her body became a crystal statue. It was at this time that Gurren vowed to continue her legacy and assumed the title of his predecessor, calling himself “Roya-Osinta Orodor”.
Roya-Osinta maintained his position within the Seer Council for millennia, maintaining his connections with various Exodite worlds, as well as his friendships with the Howling Banshees and their Exarchs, though as centuries passed, many of the women with whom he fought and trained perished. Though war, politics, and age would take their toll on his disposition, he remained ever helpful to any who would seek his advice or guidance, and intervened in the lives of eldar when he deemed it necessary. His strict and coarse demeanor never fully eclipsed his magnanimousness. He was, however, displeased with a new deviation within the Path of the Seer. It had come to his attention that there were those who were communing with the dead in the Infinity Circuit in increasingly profane ways. Though the wisdom of the dead was indeed a valuable asset, there were those seers who would disturb their slumber in attempts to bridge the gap between the living and the dead, an increasing trend towards necromancy. In Roya-Osinta’s eyes, the dead were to remain undisturbed in compensation for their sacrifices in life; to call upon them with flippancy was both disrespectful and cruel. Nevertheless, it was during the War with Zhemon that the Seer Council called upon the Spiritseers to deploy the first Wraith-constructs. It was also during this terrible war that Roya-Osinta first laid his hands upon the Soulshrive, a power sword of unholy power and dubious origins. With this weapon he battled against the Fallen Angels Chapter alongside Wraithguards, some of which housed souls that Roya-Osinta once knew. After Iyanden accepted the aid of the Dark Angels in combating their chaotic brethren, Roya-Osinta was briefly absent from the Seer Council, having underestimated the malevolent nature of Soulshrive and the violent urges it provoked. It would be many centuries before he would bear the sword again.
In the coming centuries, Roya-Osinta strived to strengthen ties with the craftworlds Malan’tai and Idharae in preparation for future conflicts. Such a fleet of craftworlds was uncommon indeed, and a force well worth preserving. Their combined might proved to be overwhelmingly effective against the forces of chaos on the East Fringe. However, these skirmishes were not of the strife that he and others had predicted. A new threat reared its head, in the form of a fleet of insectosaur monstrosities, later known as the Hive Fleet Naga of the Tyranids. To their horror, the Exodite World of Halathel was lost to the Tyranids, and while Prince Yriel defeated the fleet, Malan’Tai fell to a rogue zoanthrope. In spite of this, Iyanden remained relatively unscathed, and due to this, many other seers ignored the warning of High Farseer Taolis of Idharae. Another, far larger fleet was bound for Iyanden, but in the Seer Council’s hubris, the warning was ignored, to Roya-Osinta’s bewilderment. Idharae then broke its alliance with Iyanden, a terrible blow to Iyanden’s cause.
Though he kept quiet in the face of the Council, Roya-Osinta spoke to High Farseer Kelmon, whom was also concerned with Taolis's words. Though Iyanden had managed well, both Malan’Tai and Halathel were lost, and Idharae had left them. The two farseers knew better than to dismiss another Hive Fleet in the wake of such a loss in military power. However, Kelmon assured Roya-Osinta of his visions, convinced that Prince Yriel would play a pivotal role in the survival of their craftworld. Though he was not fully convinced of the prince’s character, he nonetheless offered his support along with Kelmon’s in Yriel’s campaign against Chaos Lord Argan Kallorax. However, at the climax of the Battle of the Burning Moon, Prince Yriel made a fatal gambit, and deployed nearly all of Iyanden’s forces on an assault against Argan’s flagship, Riot Hunger. Argan was slain, but not before the last of his fleet fired 36 Cyclonic Torpedoes at a naked Iyanden. 35 were intercepted, but one slipped through their defenses, and impacted on Iyanden. Tens of thousands of eldar were slain and lost to the Warp in the resulting explosion. It was a miracle that the entire craftworld wasn’t lost.
Roya-Osinta was among the many who were outraged with Yriel’s reckless gambit. The vote of the Council was to strip him of his position as admiral, and he left Iyanden with only a host of his most loyal corsairs. In his wake, however, came the rise of a new figure; Spiritseer Iyanna Arienal, sole survivor of her house. Driven by grief from the loss of her family, she went on to become the most capable and outspoken spiritseer of Iyanden, a prospect which worried Roya-Osinta greatly. Not long after this, however, Eldrad Ulthran, High Farseer of Ulthwe, and Kysaduras the Anchorite addressed the Councils of the craftworlds, telling a foreboding prophecy in which the deaths of all the craftworld eldar would awaken the God of the Dead, Ynnead, to slay the Slaanesh once and for all. Once more the greater portion of the Council of Iyanden dismissed it as lunacy, save for Iyanna, who embraced it as her mission to ensure the eldars’ rebirth after Slaanesh’s defeat. Roya-Osinta was once again beside himself. For him, to dismiss Eldrad’s words, whose wisdom and strength of foresight was equaled by no other eldar, was simply folly. To embrace the prophecy and strive for the deaths of the craftworlds was absolutely madness. Unfortunately, Roya-Osinta had little time to dwell on it. Within a year, Iyanden rangers reported sightings of a Hive Fleet of massive size and unprecedented speed, the likes of which they could not outrun. Recognizing the magnitude of the situation, High Farseer Kelmon mobilized the entirety of the craftworld for war. The citizens that Roya-Osinta vowed to serve and guide were now outfitted for war. Iyanna and her fellow spiritseers mobilized Iyanden’s wraith-constructs, from Guards, to Lords, to Knights. An Exarch was chosen to fulfill the sacrificial ritual to awaken the Avatar of Khaine. Every facet of the craftworld was prepared for the coming invasion. And once again, Roya-Osinta found himself taking Soulshrive in his hand.
As the Hive Fleet Kraken overtook Iyanden, it sank its grip into the hull of the craftworld, and deployed its swarm unto the populace. Every living and unliving eldar aboard Iyanden fought against the invading Tyranids, and Roya-Osinta Orodor lead his host with the wisdom and foresight one can only attain after ten-thousand years, and he fought alongside them with as much ferocity as the Avatar himself, with blade and spear in hand. However, even the impressive might of whole craftworld was little match for the relentless, unending swarms. One by one the eldar fell as the Hive Tyrant rampaged across Iyanden, summoning a party carnifexes to slay even the Avatar of Khaine. While many had lost hope with the fall of the Avatar, Roya-Osinta refused to give quarter, his terrible wrath further bolstered by the malevolence of Soulshrive, but he too could not overcome the party of hulking carnifexes.
Iyanden’s fate seemed all but set, until after sensing his home’s peril, Prince Yriel returned with his corsair fleet to fight off the bioships plaguing the craftworld. Upon landing on Iyanden, Yriel and his loyal host fought together with the people of his home world, tearing in to the ranks of Tyranids. Yriel recognized that the Hive Tyrant could not be slain with normal weapons, and with the Avatar slain and the bearer of Soulshrive on the verge of being overrun, Yriel entered the Shrine of Ulthanash and took the cursed Spear of Twilight. With the Spear in hand, he carved his way to meet the Hive Tyrant in single combat and slew it in a single blow with the terrible weapon. With the psychic backlash from the loss of the Hive Tyrant, the Tyranid swarm was in disarray, and the hosts of Roya-Osinta and Prince Yriel eradicated the weakened Tyranids as the corsairs fought off the bioships into a Warpstorm. Though the Hive Fleet Kraken had been defeated, and Prince Yriel once again a hero, the damage was already done. Eighty-percent of Iyanden’s population was lost, and so too were many a spiritstone and the souls inside them. Even High Farseer Kelmon was among the fallen, and with his death Roya-Osinta lost the only member of the Council he could confide in.
In the coming years, from the Battle of Duriel and the sacrifice of Farseer Taelic, to the Ork invasion of Waaagh! Rekkfist, Iyanden was relying more and more on wraith-constructs, to the point where entire fallen houses were repopulated by wraithguards and wraithlords housing the souls of the fallen members. Such trends and the rise in Iyanna Arienal’s influence had since given rise to Iyanden’s moniker as “The Ghost Warriors”, a fact that disgusted Roya-Osinta. More and more the craftworld that he held so dear to him, the people he had lived along side and guided since the Fall ten-thousand years ago, his world, was falling further and further into necromancy. One day, the Seer Council proposed the creation of a Wraithseer, a wraithlord housing the spiritstone of a farseer. To call upon the soul of a departed farseer to take to arms again after death was an act of infidelity in Roya-Osinta’s eyes, but his protest was ignored. The Council went forward and commissioned its construction from a Bonesinger. It was decided that the wisdom of a Crystal Seer was necessary, and to Roya-Osinta’s outrage, they had chosen the spirit of his predecessor, Reya-Osinta Orodor. Roya-Osinta was absent for the Wraithseer’s animation, his heart breaking with anger and sorrow. Though he knew that his former-mentor would be willing to rise again and aid her craftworld, in his heart of hearts he could not bear the insult of waking her after she had served Iyanden to the last of her mortal strength. She should not have to face the burden of war again. She deserved to keep her peace.
Fueled by his anguish, Roya-Osinta took Soulshrive in hand, and visited his risen mother. He could not help but experience a sense of awe as he gazed upon the form of the Wraithseer. As a vessel, it was crafted with the elegance and splendor that was only befitting of a hallowed farseer. It took little time for the eyeless construct to recognize the old man that her pupil had become, and spoke to him telepathically. Though she was honored that she had been recognized and chosen to lead the remnants of her people, it was not without a sense of pain, having been separated from the Infinity Circuit, the heart of the craftworld. She found her new wraithbone body to be awkward, and cold; unnatural. To walk again in such a manner felt, for lack of a better word, “wrong”. She recognized that her disciple wished to release her back into the Infinity Circuit, to destroy her new body, and they both knew the consequences should he follow through. However, she could not bring herself to raise a hand against her pupil, and submitted her fate to him. Driven by his love for his mother and with a pain and wrath unlike any he had ever felt in his long, long life, he flew into a frenzy and destroyed the Wraithseer, until he was literally blinded by his rage. The light robbed from his eyes, he felt with the senses he had honed since his childhood, and released his mentor back into the heart of the Infinity Circuit.
The Seer Council was outraged by Roya-Osinta’s actions. Though he had served his craftworld long and well, his actions were deemed inexcusable as the loss of such a precious construct was a blow to Iyanden’s already weakened state. He was expelled from the Council and sentenced to exile, many calling him “Gurren the Blind” in disdain. With what little time he was given, he took his last chance to visit the Shrine of the Howling Banshees, and bade farewell to the Exarchs. A young Warlock named A’mael volunteered to escort the blinded farseer on his exile out of sympathy. When asked why, she claimed that she felt a certain resonance between them, and that their circumstances weren’t so different. And so Gurren the Blind left Iyanden, though not without taking Soulshrive. He held no remorse in doing so. It was only after the construction of the Wraithseer that he had finally realized that Iyanden was no longer a place his heart could call home.
As they sailed across the stars, Gurren’s mind once again returned to Kysanduras’s prophecy of Ynnead, and Iyanna’s followers acting upon it. He still could not believe in the madness of sacrificing the craftworlds. To sacrifice so many lives to empower the God of the Dead was against his notion of balance. Surely it was only one of several possible futures. There had to be another way to destroy Slaanesh once and for all. As he pondered, deep in his thoughts, he began to laugh, a display so eerily rare A’mael forced herself to inquire him. It had long been known that Slaanesh could steal the soul of any mortal being who simply gazed upon him, for such was the divine form and power of She Who Thirsts. And yet here Gurren sat, old, wise, strong, and blind. The loss of his sight and the strength of his senses could allow a mortal like him to stand before the Great Enemy of the Eldar. Though he knew he could not hope to match Slaanesh in a contest of strength, Gurren now had a means of standing in Slaanesh’s very presence, a claim few mortals could make with honesty. Gurren then commanded A’mael to set course for the Craftworld Ulthwe, which maintained watch over the Eye of Terror, the Warp Rift caused by the birth of Slaanesh. If Gurren wanted to combat the forces of the Dark Prince directly, he would need to do so from Ulthwe. Though word of Gurren’s emotional actions had preceded him, there were some who appreciated the coming of a foreign farseer as old as Eldrad.
Gurren found that he preferred the Seer Council of Ulthwe over that of Iyanden. Ulthwe was renowned for the foresight of its Council, at the head of which was Eldrad Ulthran, who had led Ulthwe since the Fall. There was a much stronger emphasis on preserving the eldar race as a whole, a policy much closer to his principles than merely battling the forces of Chaos. To this end, Gurren’s connections and knowledge of various Exodite worlds was indeed invaluable. As Ulthwe is willing to work alongside or against anyone if it will preserve an eldar life, the Seer Council was without rest, overtly and covertly influencing the other races. Such activity kept his old bones in motion, and his tutelage under his predecessor had indeed made him tireless. As he educated A’mael in the doctrines of his predecessor, he extended his hand to steer those that he could, all the while searching for methods to slay Slaanesh, and stomping out the Tyranids where it was possible. With A’mael by his side, Gurren the Blind soon claimed his place in Ulthwe, and while there were many who still only saw him as a bitter old man possessed by a violent sword, there were others who could recognize his true character. And there were others still among the wild worlds who knew him as their friend and ally, and still referred to him by his title of honor;
He Who Answers Mountains.
Of course, as Gurren’s abilities developed and matured, he could begin to sense what his master had foreseen centuries prior. After addressing the encroaching doom he sensed to her, Reya informed him of her decision to board the Craftworld Iyanden, telling Gurren that in due time a terrible catastrophe would befall the galaxy, the likes of which she was unsure if the eldar race as a whole could ever recover from. He was reluctant, the thought of abandoning the earth he loved painful, and frightening, but he knew in his heart of hearts that the notion could only be that much more so for his beloved mentor. Determined to aid the fleeing eldar, Reya and her apprentice boarded Iyanden, joining the Seer Council to play her part in guiding her brethren from the coming calamity. Unsettled and nervous, Gurren found it difficult to adapt to the massive craftworld, overwhelmed by its grandeur. Never had he been forced to live in such a cacophony of technological prowess, but this was to be his home for a very long time. This was his world now; he would learn how to thrive here just as he had in any other jungle.
So came the Fall. Thrown into the subsequent chaos caused by the apocalyptic awakening of the Chaos God Slaanesh, Reya oversaw numerous operations to retrieve waystones from the crone worlds, and while she was disheartened at first, she permitted Gurren to join the Howling Banshees, of all Aspects. While some found it odd at first, there was no denying that his life in the wild had tempered his body to suit the training he sought. He made many a friend during his time training in the shrine and accompanying his mentor on her dealings with surviving Exodite worlds. It was during Iyanden’s early struggles that Gurren at last became a warlock, joining the Seer Council alongside Reya as her personal guard to aid her in her campaigns, both in politics and in warfare. She had often urged him to live his own life, but Gurren would not be swayed. His very being was forever indebted to the woman who saved him. In Gurren’s eyes, no single act of his could ever compensate for the life she had given him, and so he devoted himself to his mother. However, as time marched on, Reya’s time in meditation grew longer and longer, and as Gurren sought to aid his mentor further, he too became a farseer.
As the centuries passed, as friends were made and lost, alliances forged and broken, Reya’s life was slowly coming to an end. Gurren watched as the once nimble form of his master slowed as her bones turned to crystal. She continued to serve the craftworld in her advanced age, until even she, who had made the mere act of standing a science and art, limped and hobbled about with the support of her spear. Gurren bore painful witness to her final days, until she at last requested to be brought to the Dome of Crystal Seers, a request that Gurren had long dreaded. Knowing the pain of the man she had raised as her son, she used the last of her mortal energy to console and sooth Gurren. Having eased his sorrow, she left him with her singing spear, her deepest pride and gratitude, and her birth name, which Gurren swore he would take to the grave. After bidding her dearest disciple farewell, she stepped into the Dome of Crystal Seers and sat among what few had come before her, slipping into her final meditation as her body became a crystal statue. It was at this time that Gurren vowed to continue her legacy and assumed the title of his predecessor, calling himself “Roya-Osinta Orodor”.
Roya-Osinta maintained his position within the Seer Council for millennia, maintaining his connections with various Exodite worlds, as well as his friendships with the Howling Banshees and their Exarchs, though as centuries passed, many of the women with whom he fought and trained perished. Though war, politics, and age would take their toll on his disposition, he remained ever helpful to any who would seek his advice or guidance, and intervened in the lives of eldar when he deemed it necessary. His strict and coarse demeanor never fully eclipsed his magnanimousness. He was, however, displeased with a new deviation within the Path of the Seer. It had come to his attention that there were those who were communing with the dead in the Infinity Circuit in increasingly profane ways. Though the wisdom of the dead was indeed a valuable asset, there were those seers who would disturb their slumber in attempts to bridge the gap between the living and the dead, an increasing trend towards necromancy. In Roya-Osinta’s eyes, the dead were to remain undisturbed in compensation for their sacrifices in life; to call upon them with flippancy was both disrespectful and cruel. Nevertheless, it was during the War with Zhemon that the Seer Council called upon the Spiritseers to deploy the first Wraith-constructs. It was also during this terrible war that Roya-Osinta first laid his hands upon the Soulshrive, a power sword of unholy power and dubious origins. With this weapon he battled against the Fallen Angels Chapter alongside Wraithguards, some of which housed souls that Roya-Osinta once knew. After Iyanden accepted the aid of the Dark Angels in combating their chaotic brethren, Roya-Osinta was briefly absent from the Seer Council, having underestimated the malevolent nature of Soulshrive and the violent urges it provoked. It would be many centuries before he would bear the sword again.
In the coming centuries, Roya-Osinta strived to strengthen ties with the craftworlds Malan’tai and Idharae in preparation for future conflicts. Such a fleet of craftworlds was uncommon indeed, and a force well worth preserving. Their combined might proved to be overwhelmingly effective against the forces of chaos on the East Fringe. However, these skirmishes were not of the strife that he and others had predicted. A new threat reared its head, in the form of a fleet of insectosaur monstrosities, later known as the Hive Fleet Naga of the Tyranids. To their horror, the Exodite World of Halathel was lost to the Tyranids, and while Prince Yriel defeated the fleet, Malan’Tai fell to a rogue zoanthrope. In spite of this, Iyanden remained relatively unscathed, and due to this, many other seers ignored the warning of High Farseer Taolis of Idharae. Another, far larger fleet was bound for Iyanden, but in the Seer Council’s hubris, the warning was ignored, to Roya-Osinta’s bewilderment. Idharae then broke its alliance with Iyanden, a terrible blow to Iyanden’s cause.
Though he kept quiet in the face of the Council, Roya-Osinta spoke to High Farseer Kelmon, whom was also concerned with Taolis's words. Though Iyanden had managed well, both Malan’Tai and Halathel were lost, and Idharae had left them. The two farseers knew better than to dismiss another Hive Fleet in the wake of such a loss in military power. However, Kelmon assured Roya-Osinta of his visions, convinced that Prince Yriel would play a pivotal role in the survival of their craftworld. Though he was not fully convinced of the prince’s character, he nonetheless offered his support along with Kelmon’s in Yriel’s campaign against Chaos Lord Argan Kallorax. However, at the climax of the Battle of the Burning Moon, Prince Yriel made a fatal gambit, and deployed nearly all of Iyanden’s forces on an assault against Argan’s flagship, Riot Hunger. Argan was slain, but not before the last of his fleet fired 36 Cyclonic Torpedoes at a naked Iyanden. 35 were intercepted, but one slipped through their defenses, and impacted on Iyanden. Tens of thousands of eldar were slain and lost to the Warp in the resulting explosion. It was a miracle that the entire craftworld wasn’t lost.
Roya-Osinta was among the many who were outraged with Yriel’s reckless gambit. The vote of the Council was to strip him of his position as admiral, and he left Iyanden with only a host of his most loyal corsairs. In his wake, however, came the rise of a new figure; Spiritseer Iyanna Arienal, sole survivor of her house. Driven by grief from the loss of her family, she went on to become the most capable and outspoken spiritseer of Iyanden, a prospect which worried Roya-Osinta greatly. Not long after this, however, Eldrad Ulthran, High Farseer of Ulthwe, and Kysaduras the Anchorite addressed the Councils of the craftworlds, telling a foreboding prophecy in which the deaths of all the craftworld eldar would awaken the God of the Dead, Ynnead, to slay the Slaanesh once and for all. Once more the greater portion of the Council of Iyanden dismissed it as lunacy, save for Iyanna, who embraced it as her mission to ensure the eldars’ rebirth after Slaanesh’s defeat. Roya-Osinta was once again beside himself. For him, to dismiss Eldrad’s words, whose wisdom and strength of foresight was equaled by no other eldar, was simply folly. To embrace the prophecy and strive for the deaths of the craftworlds was absolutely madness. Unfortunately, Roya-Osinta had little time to dwell on it. Within a year, Iyanden rangers reported sightings of a Hive Fleet of massive size and unprecedented speed, the likes of which they could not outrun. Recognizing the magnitude of the situation, High Farseer Kelmon mobilized the entirety of the craftworld for war. The citizens that Roya-Osinta vowed to serve and guide were now outfitted for war. Iyanna and her fellow spiritseers mobilized Iyanden’s wraith-constructs, from Guards, to Lords, to Knights. An Exarch was chosen to fulfill the sacrificial ritual to awaken the Avatar of Khaine. Every facet of the craftworld was prepared for the coming invasion. And once again, Roya-Osinta found himself taking Soulshrive in his hand.
As the Hive Fleet Kraken overtook Iyanden, it sank its grip into the hull of the craftworld, and deployed its swarm unto the populace. Every living and unliving eldar aboard Iyanden fought against the invading Tyranids, and Roya-Osinta Orodor lead his host with the wisdom and foresight one can only attain after ten-thousand years, and he fought alongside them with as much ferocity as the Avatar himself, with blade and spear in hand. However, even the impressive might of whole craftworld was little match for the relentless, unending swarms. One by one the eldar fell as the Hive Tyrant rampaged across Iyanden, summoning a party carnifexes to slay even the Avatar of Khaine. While many had lost hope with the fall of the Avatar, Roya-Osinta refused to give quarter, his terrible wrath further bolstered by the malevolence of Soulshrive, but he too could not overcome the party of hulking carnifexes.
Iyanden’s fate seemed all but set, until after sensing his home’s peril, Prince Yriel returned with his corsair fleet to fight off the bioships plaguing the craftworld. Upon landing on Iyanden, Yriel and his loyal host fought together with the people of his home world, tearing in to the ranks of Tyranids. Yriel recognized that the Hive Tyrant could not be slain with normal weapons, and with the Avatar slain and the bearer of Soulshrive on the verge of being overrun, Yriel entered the Shrine of Ulthanash and took the cursed Spear of Twilight. With the Spear in hand, he carved his way to meet the Hive Tyrant in single combat and slew it in a single blow with the terrible weapon. With the psychic backlash from the loss of the Hive Tyrant, the Tyranid swarm was in disarray, and the hosts of Roya-Osinta and Prince Yriel eradicated the weakened Tyranids as the corsairs fought off the bioships into a Warpstorm. Though the Hive Fleet Kraken had been defeated, and Prince Yriel once again a hero, the damage was already done. Eighty-percent of Iyanden’s population was lost, and so too were many a spiritstone and the souls inside them. Even High Farseer Kelmon was among the fallen, and with his death Roya-Osinta lost the only member of the Council he could confide in.
In the coming years, from the Battle of Duriel and the sacrifice of Farseer Taelic, to the Ork invasion of Waaagh! Rekkfist, Iyanden was relying more and more on wraith-constructs, to the point where entire fallen houses were repopulated by wraithguards and wraithlords housing the souls of the fallen members. Such trends and the rise in Iyanna Arienal’s influence had since given rise to Iyanden’s moniker as “The Ghost Warriors”, a fact that disgusted Roya-Osinta. More and more the craftworld that he held so dear to him, the people he had lived along side and guided since the Fall ten-thousand years ago, his world, was falling further and further into necromancy. One day, the Seer Council proposed the creation of a Wraithseer, a wraithlord housing the spiritstone of a farseer. To call upon the soul of a departed farseer to take to arms again after death was an act of infidelity in Roya-Osinta’s eyes, but his protest was ignored. The Council went forward and commissioned its construction from a Bonesinger. It was decided that the wisdom of a Crystal Seer was necessary, and to Roya-Osinta’s outrage, they had chosen the spirit of his predecessor, Reya-Osinta Orodor. Roya-Osinta was absent for the Wraithseer’s animation, his heart breaking with anger and sorrow. Though he knew that his former-mentor would be willing to rise again and aid her craftworld, in his heart of hearts he could not bear the insult of waking her after she had served Iyanden to the last of her mortal strength. She should not have to face the burden of war again. She deserved to keep her peace.
Fueled by his anguish, Roya-Osinta took Soulshrive in hand, and visited his risen mother. He could not help but experience a sense of awe as he gazed upon the form of the Wraithseer. As a vessel, it was crafted with the elegance and splendor that was only befitting of a hallowed farseer. It took little time for the eyeless construct to recognize the old man that her pupil had become, and spoke to him telepathically. Though she was honored that she had been recognized and chosen to lead the remnants of her people, it was not without a sense of pain, having been separated from the Infinity Circuit, the heart of the craftworld. She found her new wraithbone body to be awkward, and cold; unnatural. To walk again in such a manner felt, for lack of a better word, “wrong”. She recognized that her disciple wished to release her back into the Infinity Circuit, to destroy her new body, and they both knew the consequences should he follow through. However, she could not bring herself to raise a hand against her pupil, and submitted her fate to him. Driven by his love for his mother and with a pain and wrath unlike any he had ever felt in his long, long life, he flew into a frenzy and destroyed the Wraithseer, until he was literally blinded by his rage. The light robbed from his eyes, he felt with the senses he had honed since his childhood, and released his mentor back into the heart of the Infinity Circuit.
The Seer Council was outraged by Roya-Osinta’s actions. Though he had served his craftworld long and well, his actions were deemed inexcusable as the loss of such a precious construct was a blow to Iyanden’s already weakened state. He was expelled from the Council and sentenced to exile, many calling him “Gurren the Blind” in disdain. With what little time he was given, he took his last chance to visit the Shrine of the Howling Banshees, and bade farewell to the Exarchs. A young Warlock named A’mael volunteered to escort the blinded farseer on his exile out of sympathy. When asked why, she claimed that she felt a certain resonance between them, and that their circumstances weren’t so different. And so Gurren the Blind left Iyanden, though not without taking Soulshrive. He held no remorse in doing so. It was only after the construction of the Wraithseer that he had finally realized that Iyanden was no longer a place his heart could call home.
As they sailed across the stars, Gurren’s mind once again returned to Kysanduras’s prophecy of Ynnead, and Iyanna’s followers acting upon it. He still could not believe in the madness of sacrificing the craftworlds. To sacrifice so many lives to empower the God of the Dead was against his notion of balance. Surely it was only one of several possible futures. There had to be another way to destroy Slaanesh once and for all. As he pondered, deep in his thoughts, he began to laugh, a display so eerily rare A’mael forced herself to inquire him. It had long been known that Slaanesh could steal the soul of any mortal being who simply gazed upon him, for such was the divine form and power of She Who Thirsts. And yet here Gurren sat, old, wise, strong, and blind. The loss of his sight and the strength of his senses could allow a mortal like him to stand before the Great Enemy of the Eldar. Though he knew he could not hope to match Slaanesh in a contest of strength, Gurren now had a means of standing in Slaanesh’s very presence, a claim few mortals could make with honesty. Gurren then commanded A’mael to set course for the Craftworld Ulthwe, which maintained watch over the Eye of Terror, the Warp Rift caused by the birth of Slaanesh. If Gurren wanted to combat the forces of the Dark Prince directly, he would need to do so from Ulthwe. Though word of Gurren’s emotional actions had preceded him, there were some who appreciated the coming of a foreign farseer as old as Eldrad.
Gurren found that he preferred the Seer Council of Ulthwe over that of Iyanden. Ulthwe was renowned for the foresight of its Council, at the head of which was Eldrad Ulthran, who had led Ulthwe since the Fall. There was a much stronger emphasis on preserving the eldar race as a whole, a policy much closer to his principles than merely battling the forces of Chaos. To this end, Gurren’s connections and knowledge of various Exodite worlds was indeed invaluable. As Ulthwe is willing to work alongside or against anyone if it will preserve an eldar life, the Seer Council was without rest, overtly and covertly influencing the other races. Such activity kept his old bones in motion, and his tutelage under his predecessor had indeed made him tireless. As he educated A’mael in the doctrines of his predecessor, he extended his hand to steer those that he could, all the while searching for methods to slay Slaanesh, and stomping out the Tyranids where it was possible. With A’mael by his side, Gurren the Blind soon claimed his place in Ulthwe, and while there were many who still only saw him as a bitter old man possessed by a violent sword, there were others who could recognize his true character. And there were others still among the wild worlds who knew him as their friend and ally, and still referred to him by his title of honor;
He Who Answers Mountains.