Date: D?. Y977. M31. MI60.
The warp is a dimension parallel to the martial, most commonly called the immaterial, the afterlife, the land of the dead, the sea of souls, the last one is the most correct as the warp is where the souls of every sentient being end up, eventually.
The differences between the two are like night and day, one is a universe of concrete facts, logic and rules, rules that keep everything and everyone down, limiting what can be accomplished and studied, and thus these limits foster weakness of the mind, soul and body.
The warp however, is an endless ocean of power, its tamest secrets would cause the average person to lose their minds due to the inherent weakness of the place they were born, the material, in the warp those who are strong can exert their will and shape its endless energies into something magnificent.
Those with a strong will and potential can infuse their weapons and symbols with power and their will but that required a special kind of potential, ones that limited you faith, worship and belief, that it is why a bow or a knife would do more damage to a Daemon than a gun or explosives, that is just one way the warp can be used.
As the warp offers limitless knowledge and opportunity to learn and gain power, for those who are born with potential that is, to be born a natural psyker, if you are not born with the potential to become strong you will always be weak, to be manipulated by the strong who dwell within the warp
However even for the strong the warp comes with risks, as it is overflowing with warp entities who want nothing more than to devour any foolish soul in its path in order to sate their hunger or to possess that person's body in order to fulfill other goals if the entity is intelligent.
These entities come in all forms, shapes and sizes, some can be the pinnacle of horror, others can simply look like animals that resemble the ocean based creatures of ancient Terra, but these entities, formed by the same soul energy the warp is made of, are not the only naturally occurring beings that stalk the warp.
There are gods, beings usually created by devout worship and practice of their religions, they claim vast swaths of territory and war with another in conflicts so vast it makes the galaxy look like a small puddle compared to the olympic swimming pools worth of blood that soak the warp.
The most powerful of these beings are what are simply known as the big five, first was the most powerful the Father, he was the god of christianity and had by far the largest amount of followers, and thus overshadowed nearly every other human god.
Next was the Desert Warrior, a being who has been the self proclaimed rival of the Father, ever since the rise of Islam and the caliphates they had been at each other's throats although it had calmed considerably ever since humanity's rise as an intergalactic power.
Third and fourthly were the twin gods of Buddhism and Hinduism, the gods of Karma and Cycle, they had been created by the same religion and had once been a single god however as it traveled across the himalayas slight but noticeable differences slowly split the religion into two, splitting the god into two as well.
Finally was the oldest god, the Shepherd, he was the oldest god by over a thousand years, although in the context of the millions of years the big five have been around this thousand years is inconsequential, the abilities of the Shepherd and his followers to withstand any threat is interesting.
But they were all small, weak compared to the might of chaos, they further exacerbate the restrictive nature of the material by having moral codes, traditions, and other pointless rituals, all that time and energy, what do the big five give their followers? nothing.
Chaos on other other hand gives freely to all of its devout followers, while Tzeentch may be (regrettably) weaker than the other two Chaos gods Nurgle and Khorne, Tzeentch had plans to become by far the most powerful and he would speer head that effort.
Korios smiled to himself although in his current form as a mass of black mist, it didn't show, as currently he was projecting his mind out into the warp using a relatively simple technique known as astral projection, in which you projected your conscience into the warp to see and perceive things at a great distance.
He had been ordered by his gene father, the Primarch and prince of Tzeentch Scarlus Terragor, to represent his legion, the Cosmic Scholars, while his gene father focused on 'alternate ventures' to secure his own power.
What these were could be anything really, his gene father had lived for millions more years than he had thus logic only dictated that his Primarch would have a much larger network of spies, informants and secret benefactors.
But the corrupt nature of the Federation made it comicaly easy to expand and grow one's influence with the only hurdles being the Ordos but while they could keep the corruption of the Federations politics from becoming too obvious, were far too few in number to actually make substantial change.
Whenever an Ordo or a inquisitorial agent of the Anti Ordo got in the way he would usually just kill them and go about his business, he could afford this because A due to Chaos influence in the senate the Inquisitorial Galaxis lacked the resources to do anything but maintain the status quo.
They endlessly sent inquisitorial agents and Galaxia Warriors into the meat grinder that was the galaxy, not to mention the millions of Federation soldiers that die every day defending pointless rocks that lack any strategic value.
Pair it with a horrendously underequipped, understaffed, outdated and corrupt Navy, Army and Airforce, it is no surprise many regions have begun to break away with varying levels of success.
A prime example being the Confederation of Delaros, being the largest and most successful rebellion in recent times, that was not even including the constant raiding of warp lanes by chaos raiders and the subordinates of Hourian.
Speaking of raiding the Federations warp lanes, currently he was overlooking a heavily used warp lane that was the main artery for the Federations 'war effort' in its war with the Confederation, sailing past him along this artery of war was a large Federation convoy carrying hundreds of thousands of troops as well as thousands of tons of supplies.
To Korios right and left stood hundreds of thousands of Daemons of Tzeentch that he had summoned and bound to his will, from the weak Horror, Screamer and Flamer Daemons to powerful Heralds of Tzeentch who were still weaker than Korios himself but were equipped with Burning Chariots of Tzeentch and transport Disc's of Tzeentch to compensate.
All of this to do the dirty work that Hourian had heaped onto him in an attempt to keep him busy, that would prove to be a mistake if Korios had anything to say about it, with the time feeling right he held up his staff of change the 'Silent Sicarius' as a signal to the Daemons under his command to attack.
In an instant the Daemons rush forward, screeching and howling with madness as they throw themselves against the gellar fields of the Federation escorts, the Daemons would attempt to damage the engines in order to cripple the escorts and leave the transport's all alone and intact.
But it quickly proved too difficult for his Daemons to break through the gellar fields as they were specifically designed to keep out the warp and its energies in which it was extremely effective, he had expected the sheer number of Daemons to overwhelm the fields in order to get a lucky break though but it was not to be, however he had a solution to that.
Quickly ceasing his use of astral projection Korios would return to his body which was sitting in a cross legged position, taking the first book of Scarlus in one hand and his staff in his other hand he would begin to utter an ancient passage from said book.
The first book of Scarlus contained ancient lore of a long extinct alien species that had figured out how to disable the gellar field of any Federation ship, although this species was now extinct, destroyed under the weight of endless young corpses, their knowledge would prove most useful.
The beaks of his multiple mouths would open and begin to let out sounds that could only be properly perceived by those with potential, to anyone else they could only be heard as an endless high pitched screech that would immediately drive them mad.
But to him it sounded like a chorus of independent but intertwined music, this quickly prepped the spell, his staff glowing a neon cyan with the curved Daemon infused blade screaming in agony, the spell only needed a little bit more energy from himself to go off.
With this spell finished he once again cast his astral projection, traveling tens of thousands of light years in the span of a few seconds to arrive at the raid Korios quickly surveyed the scene.
Currently, the gellar fields, reinforced by runes of the Shepherd, had done an excellent job at keeping his Daemons out, already thousands of Daemons had been destroyed and torn apart by either the gellar fields, the runes of the Shepherd or by friendly fire.
However the mortal crew of the Federation ships didn't know that and were attempting to exit the warp, sparks of light and arc's of lightning coming off of the heads of the Federations ships
'That all would end now' Korios thought as he channeled the last bit of energy needed for the spell the neon cyan quickly turned into a dark blue, almost a black, as a bubble formed around the curved blade of his staff, this bubble quickly burst sending multiple pulses of black colored energy in to the Federation ships.
The black pulses quickly overpowered the runes, they glowed brightly before quickly fizzling out 'as expected' Korios thought, he had assessed the quality of the runes and they were abysmal.
The Federation ships were usually required to have runes from at least one of the big five, they were placed there by the faithful of the United Religious Papacy as per regulations however that takes some time and it was obvious these runes were forged for the sake of a quick deployment.
With the runes out of the way the gellar fields fell soon afterwards and his Daemons would swarm the escorts quickly overwhelming whatever resistance they faced quickly revealing that much of the crew and soldiers about to be sent into a warzone were under trained conscripts 'wasteful pure wasteful' Korios thought.
Looking over the entire fleet Korios would be pleased, the bridge of every escort and convoy had been seized with only the capital ship still resisting, most likely due to one specific mortal and his entourage, no matter they could be easily dealt with.
As he approached the capital ship whose name he didn't care to learn he faced next to no resistance, only the embers of what was once the forged runes coating this ship put up any kind of push back, but he swatted that aside without even thinking about it.
'Such a trivial assignment for someone of my talent, this assignment mocks me' Korios seethed, there were reasons for Hourian to be concerned, but it frustrated Korios to no end that he was being mocked and underestimated, he was a lord of change and it was time to put a little plan of his into action.
Entering the bridge of the capital ship Korios would observe an irate inquisitor holding a mole rate pistol to the cheek of a richly dressed admiral, seriously the admiral was wearing purple of all colors, although the inquisitor was also dressed in a regal manner.
"IN CONCLUSION YOU HAVE DOOMED US ALL WITH YOUR IMPATIENCE! I WILL HAVE YOU COURT MARTIALED BY END OF THIS WEEK!" the inquisitor yelled, finishing a sentence as his finger put some pressure on the trigger of his pistol while grabbing the admiral by the collar.
The inquisitor would go to continue but it was then Korios got tired of waiting "am I interrupting something?" he asked, immediately everyone turned to face him, all of their faces going pale as they observed a seemingly sentient black mist with blood red eyes.
"Daemon" the inquisitor sneered dropping the admiral who scurried away into a corner the entire crew glaring at him the entire time "you are trespassing upon Federation property leave or be ex-exorcized" the inquisitor threatened.
However all could see the man's fear and that fear practically doubled as Korios laughed "you mock me for I am no mere Daemon, I am a lord of change Korios Fateweaver" he said as he pointed the curved blade of his staff at the inquisitor.
The two stared each other down with Korios just wearing a mocking smile and the inquisitor with his black coat that accentuated his rosette a blocky I with s cross in the center, this would continue until the inquisitor pressed a button on his vox, a little red light beeping on and off it was obviously a signal.
Korios was proven correct in the assessment as the door to the hallway behind him opened revealing three other mortals, swords in hand they rushed him, 'acolytes' Korios thought he had sensed them before this but given their small warp signature he had dismissed them as mere soldiers.
That proved incorrect as the inquisitor unsheeted a plasma sword and along with his three acolytes rushed Korios, however the same small warp signatures that had allowed them to fool him also meant that they were weak.
As the four closed in that was proved correct as tendrils of black mist shot out and grabbed the necks of the three acolytes and started to slowly choke them out while the inquisitor, undeterred by his students capture, channeled his psychic might into his sword intent on banishing Korios.
However as the inquisitor attempted a swing to the right, all Korios had to do was bring his staff around and perform an upward slash cutting the inquisitor's arm off at the elbow, as the inquisitor fell to his knees he attempted to stifle a scream but failed as he yelped like a dog.
"It's a shame" Korios said "you had a good plan" Korios then twirled his staff like a propellor slashing the inquisitor down the middle the corpses two halfs falling to ground, now with the inquisitor dealt with his misty form turned to the acolytes, his grip on their windpipes increasing,
That was when he also spotted the admiral in the corner attempting to hide behind one of the crew like a coward, extending a tendrail Korios quickly brought the cowardice admiral to him "unhand me you monster!" the admiral said "I am the son of the lord of Grozmir and you will-".
The admiral never got a chance to finish as Korios performed another spell, a personal creation of his that was inspired by the Eldar practice of farseeing, however instead of looking into the future surrounding one's future, this spell gave him the power to look into one's past.
He did this in order to see into the admirals past and use said past to manipulate him, quickly images of decadence and cowardice filled his vision, it turned out this 'admiral' was just the third son of some lord who had cheated his way through military school and had payed off some powerful people to gain control of this fleet and the troops that were going to fight the Confederation.
However the admiral had used his fathers money to do this and as a result the father cut him off, so when the Administratius caught him he was forced to flee taking the fleet with him but he idiotically didnt get rid of the inquisitor who didn't know of the admirals treachery.
Stopping the spell Korios looked down at the admiral, who was a shriveled corpse "whoops" Korios said, unlike Eldar farseeing his spell came at a much large cost that usually had to be paid by the one he was using it on and the admiral certainly had no potential as a psyker, although he had expected the man to survive, all in all a small oversight.
Turning back to the acolytes Korios would perform the same spell that he used on the the admiral on the three of them, images of the underhives of Terra would fill his vision, the criminal activities and crimes of the three as they struggled to survive the disease and crime infested underhive, the entire time utilizing their potential and gifts to best the competition.
The day they were discovered and apprehended by authorities was prominent in their minds, it showed a alcohol addicted inquisitor taking them as acolytes in order to get his superiors off his back.
Although they didn't buy into the extreme rhetoric of the Inquisitorial Galaxis, the training they received was not much but still taught them a lot and gave them hope for a better future.
Hope, it was a word that seemed to be tossed around by the optimistic groups who just didn't understand the cruel nature of the galaxy, but it was a central aspect of what made up Tzeentch as hope went hand in hand with ambition, in conclusion if they had hope for a better tomorrow they most likely had large ambitions.
Dismissing the spell Korios considered what to do he needed someone with authority to control the fleet and considering he had unintentionally killed the admiral and had killed the inquisitor that only left the acolytes as possible puppets 'it seems a little manipulation is in order' he concluded.
At this point the three of them had stopped struggling, but most importantly they were still alive, loosening his hold on their windpipes he dropped the three of them to the ground "what are your names?" Korios asked, he gave them time to respond as they were still gasping for air.
When they caught their breath they didn't answer him 'rude' he thought if they wouldn't play ball he would begin without them "do you all think you could honestly best me?" he questioned in response they just glared at his mist form.
"I guess that's a no" he said "I would guess that you had no idea what you were getting into, do you?" he asked them, they didn't talk but the looks in their eyes told him enough "well let me show you, the truth of the galaxy" he said as he forced his psychic powers onto them, influencing their minds to see what he wanted them to see.
He would show them the Federations horrifying defeat at Medusa, force them to feel what those soldiers had felt when they were told they were trapped and that their 'leaders' had abandoned them to die as a forgotten statistic.
Not only that but he would show them what their true purposes would be in the galaxy, to be expendable cannon fodder unless they joined him as he gave them visions, tastes of the power and what they could achieve if they accepted his god's gifts, how they could break their chains from their masters in the inquisition and help bring true freedom.
Second to last he showed the Federations disgusting moral and administrative corruption, how a small few oppressed billions one tens of thousands of planets, how billions cried out for change and how the ignorant senators and politicians prevented the perpetual council from creating actual change, of course leaving out chaos involvement.
Finally he showed them what would happen if they refused lightning flew from his fingertips, the pain of being ripped apart by thousands of starving Daemons flowed through the three acolytes, they writhed and screamed on the ground clearly in terrible pain "go on tell me you want this to end" he mocked.
Resisting the urge to yell 'INFINITE POWER' he would continue his torture of the three acolytes he would just wait for them to crack, "MERCY" the women screamed tears streaming from her eyes as she was dropped to the ground her skin covered in deep burns.
"Just, stop" one of the men pleaded, his teeth grinding together in frustration as he fell to the ground once again, his eyes showing a cold rage kept behind a dam of promised revenge 'so far it's perfect' Korios thought.
It was a full minute before the final man looked at him with open rage as he spoke, "PUT ME DOWN YOU MONSTER!" he screamed, pain lacing his tone as Korios ceased his lightning spell and let him slump to the ground, Korios would then slowly approach the three of them.
"I'm sure you know why I am not killing you now, the last thing we need to do is cement our partnership" Korios said "all you need to do is shake my hand" three human arms would appear out of the black mist of his form each looking normal with a normal hand and five fingers.
The woman looked at him, from that look she shared with the other two it was clear she didn't trust him "what would this cost us? Our freedom? Sure, what's our free will compared to power?" she asked sarcastically.
The man with the cold glare then spoke, "you may have a point that we are pawns in the inquisition but who's to say we won't just trade one master for another?" He questioned, his doubt was obvious as well.
Finally the man who openly displayed the most anger spoke, "you must think were fucking idiots to become your puppets, your fancy language and powers only ever spit lies" the man spat in anger.
Korios merely laughed at them "you are all rather bold to stand against someone who holds your lives by a thread, but how about this" Korios said, the space around them suddenly shifted the crew members who had been subdued by the Daemons and the Daemons themselves suddenly stopped moving altogether, breathing, twitching, blinking all movement stopped.
"There some privacy" Korios said the three acolytes looked around in confusion as Korios then explained what was going on "we are in a pocket dimension of my own creation" he said "I am going to offer you a revised deal" he told them "a deal with no strings attached, a deal that will grant you the power to achieve your own goals, of course if you work with me".
A contract then appeared out of thin air in the form of a scroll, it had four spaces at the bottom, Korios signature was already there so the three acolytes read the contract, in short it gave three points to summarize the deal.
One, you will become followers of Tzeentch and be granted the power equivalent to a lower level Lord of Change, you will also be spared from 'most' of the physical changes that come from worship of Tzeentch.
Two, you will not be 'directly' influenced by one Korios Fateweaver, you will work with him for two years but following the end of these two years you will be given total freedom from any influence of Korios.
Three, you will retain command of this fleet and hold large influence over any mortal being on this fleet at the time of the contract being signed, however once the aforementioned two years expires you will lose authority over this fleet.
They all seemed to think about it all the while glaring at him, they all looked hesitant but the fear was still there and the new memories of what awaited them if they refused flashed through their minds, was it worth it to stand by an organization that would throw them away without a second thought?.
Korios could read their thoughts as they reached out and took the deal, first they produced a pen each from a pocket or a poach and signed the paper, said paper then having two more copies so that they each received one copy of the contract.
With the contract signed the three hands still hung in the air, but they all soon turned to each other and nodded, taking a hand each, the blue fire quickly spreading from their hands to their entire bodies but it did no damage or harm instead they were thrown back into the wall as the power of chaos flowed through them.
Soon they began convulsing foam coming from their mouths as they all grew a few mutations, they would have looked unrecognizable if the contract had not specified 'most' of the psychical changes so that was a plus for them.
Standing there for a good few minutes the mutations finally died down stopping their growth, Korios would soon cease his astral projection with the first part of his plan complete but he needed to give some last parting thoughts "Alright, you are all still alive, that's good, now you're all going to have to exit the warp for repairs but other than that-" Korios suddenly stopped mid sentence.
"That FUCKING IDIOT!" Korios screeched, quickly, he exited the capital ship back into the warp he flew high above the Federation's (his) Fleet and shifted his gaze over to where the presence was, the one being that he despised the most "Changeling" Korios growled "KOrIoS FatEwEAveR" the Daemon laughed.
The Changeling was a greater Daemon of Tzeentch its origin was something that he had never truly grasped with only rumors still floating throughout the deeper levels of the warp, only a few beings had that power to erase something totally from the warp and it seemed that Tzeentch had seen to it personally.
However these rumors still told an interesting story, supposedly the Changeling was once a portion of Tzeentch's very being that represented Tzeentch's trickster and ever shifting form, in fact whenever the Changeling shifted from all written and pictures describing its from changed to fit the description of the from that the Changeling took.
But that was it in the millions of years Korios had lived that's all he had found, but that was not the issue it was the very presence of the Changeling that endangered Korios plans "what do you want Changeling" he demanded.
"YoU'Re aWFulLy rUDe TOdAy" the Changeling began a mocking smile crossing the Changelings face, "your mere presence endangers both of us, the slaves of the big five are closing in as we speak!" Korios said he kept his voice under control but underneath he was furious that the Changeling would threaten his presence.
"HahAhAHaHahA" the Changeling laughed even for Korios the sound was disgusting "you are so impatient" the Changeling said, Korios flared his psychic powers and prepared to send the Changeling back to the deeper levels of the warp however before he could the Changeling got to the point "I hAVe iMpORTaNt tHiNGs tO tElL FrOM YoUr oWn gOD" the Changeling said.
This caught Korios off guard and once again increased his frustration, he had only recently in the last few centuries begun to rebuild his influence in the material and now the god of change wanted to interfere? Pointing his staff at the Changeling he then spoke "I demand you to tell me what it is and begone" Korios demanded.
The Changeling merely giggled as it spoke "there is no need to demand anything *******" The Changeling said, Korios immediately stopped in his tracks looking around with panic to see if anyone had heard what the Changeling had said if they had heard his true name.
If someone knew his true name they would have uncontested power over him "rELaX Korios tHEre iS No OnE HeRE, YEt" the Changeling said empathizing the name that he was currently using 'a threat' he concluded the Changeling could tell anyone his name and ruin his plans for good, no do overs, no rebuilding his influence.
Calming the swirling mass of energy that was his power Korios also set his staff to the side letting it go for it to float right next to him, within reach but he was still without his primary weapon "good boy, now for the main event" the changeling said.
The Changeling would then put his palm out towards Korios and his current form, from the hand a beam of light would shot out and come into contact with his misty form, pain and electricity would shot throughout his form although the pain was lessened because of his astral projection it still hurt quite a bit.
Memories and visions of events future and past flowed throughout his very being, showing an Eldar Fleet leaving the safety of their Sanctuary with two other Fleets joining them on whatever mission they had received but going separate directions.
Three Eldar appeared before his vision, one female Eldar stood prominent, who held amazing power and authority, someone who could unite the entire Temple behind her and bring change that would put his efforts to shame, and soon a symbol filled his vision, the symbol of Ynnead, the sign of the Phoenix.
'So they are going to interfere in my future? Hah let them try' Korios thought, but then one last image filled his vision, one that changed… well not everything but still had heavy implications.
Within his vision Korios saw a planet that he himself had plans for said planet but they were for the far future and he didn't want to concern himself with it now, but if they were going to possibly get in his way then he would have to go out of his way to destroy them.
But would it be wise to warn Hourain about this? If he did warn him then Hourian would move to secure it early and possibly deny him access to its important facilities, looking back at the Changeling Korios also quickly realized that his choice may be pointless if the Changeling told Hourian.
"So this is your game Changeling?" Korios said "you should be careful of who you mess with, I am a player in the great game!" Korios exclaimed, the Changeling laughed so hard that it affected the surrounding warp causing many of Korios Daemons to be destroyed.
"IF tHAt'S WhAT yOU tRUlY BeLIevE thEN I oVEResTImaTEd yOur InTElLECt *******" the changeling said, at this point both of them stared each other down as the Fleet below them started to leave the warp ripping open large portals that connected the material and the immaterial.
However it was then that a gold light appeared behind them burning both of their forms as thousands of Horror and Screamer Daemons screeched as they were destroyed, torn apart by the aura of the incoming servants of the Big Five.
While his Harrelds survived the initial onslaught they were quickly cut down by the combined force of the angels of the Father and the champions or malaikah of the Desert Warrior who worked seamlessly together in order to eradicate his Daemons.
Although this was annoying Korios had achieved his objectives and now had no reason to stay "KORIOS" the leader of the malaikah, Jibril the deliverance of the prophet for he brought prophesy to many mortals of ancient Terra.
Turning to face the Changeling, Korios saw that the being had already fled to the deeper levels of the warp where the angels and malaikah could not detect or reach it, Korios would quickly do the same, ceasing his astral projection and immediately returning to his body.
Opening his eyes Korios would see that he was right where he had been before his little side quest, the first book of Scarlus still in his armored hand with some of the pages ripped as he had been unconsciously clenching his fist due to anger and frustration, no more as he used his abilities to repair the book instantly.
Placing the book back in his pocket dimension along with his still surviving relics and artifacts, which given his numerous defeats over millions of years was not many.
Looking out the large window within his office he looked out into the relative calm that was the material, currently the majority of Hourian's Fleet was stationed around Vraks and from his sources Hourian was still planet side personally working on turning Vraks into his base of operations.
Should he tell Hourian about the Eldar and their movements? No he would not but other sources might tell Hourian anyway, but as Hourians spymaster and as the last Lord of Change in the Cosmic Scholars he could probably prevent the information from reaching his ears.
But that would require Korios to stay close to Hourian and prevent him from personally seeing to his plans "dammit" Korios growled, punching the wall, destroying said wall and killing over a dozen servants and workers who happened to be in the way.
'So you want to play a game Changeling? Very well, I have bested much stronger opponents before so you will fall as easily as an ant' Korios silently declared he would take control of Molech before anyone else, that was a certainty.
—-
Date: D?. Y977. M31. MI60.
So far the progress upon Vraks was going very well, since his conquest of said planet on the christmas day of Y976 he had been focused with setting up a base of operations, manufacturing and eventually political unity as he had already captured a few hundred planets, this was until he could take back Terra from the false gods that had led Humanity astray.
Currently he was rebuilding Vraks while he negotiated with the Kabals, well negotiate was the wrong word it was more like he would use threats and extreme acts of force to show that he was to be taken seriously and not to be ignored or for them to manipulate in their own petty squabbles and games.
This was due to their large superiority complexes and general feeling of being better than humanity, these things were based in a general racist and xenophobic mentality that prevailed not just in the Eldar by in the galaxy, however while this was just one of the many thing that stood in the way of true galaxy wide unification, but for now that was also something he could think about after he was the leader of Humanity.
Because he didn't just plan to conquer the Federation, he planned to rule Humanity, to create a truly incorruptible foundation through the installment of the Galaxia Warriors in positions of power, because power did not come from the people it came from the strong and it fell on the strong to protect the weak.
With that thought Hourian Phodas looked across the humorous reports and requests from his admirals, fleet masters, generals and bureaucrats, he had already a pointed chiefs of staff and ministers for these particular issues, however many of his most trusted and competent associates had been killed in the last few Daemonic Crusades so they had a few new faces around.
There were far too many to go through by name so it would just be a waste of time, so Hourian listed off the many departments in his head, they were the Departments of Interior Defense, Expedition, Agriculture, Trade, Education, Health, Industrial and Planetary Development, Transportation, Treasury, Exterior and Internal Affairs.
All of these Departments were lead by a Galaxia Warrior of his own choosing, as all of them needed the right balance of strength, smarts and worship Chaos undivided as he did, as even though they would be bound to his will they would still have to be competent at their jobs and to enforce his will upon the lowly mortals who did most of the menial work.
Those were domestic affairs in terms of military Affairs he was still the leader of the entire military, however in order to achieve his current military objectives he had taken a portion of his fleet and had recognized them into Expeditionary Fleets and delegated those fleets to Fleet Masters.
Due to him losing much of his forces in the 12th Daemonic Crusade he had to again recruit fresh faces who may not be the most loyal, so to make sure these Fleet Masters didn't just run off to become raiders he had again bound these Fleet Masters to his will.
All of these souls being bound to his will would not have been possible without the help of his brother, the Primarch of the Cosmic Scholars, Scarlus Terragor and his Legion of highly gifted psykers, who were currently in the Domain directly negotiating with the Lord of Pleasure, more commonly known as the High Priest of Slaanesh, Derdove Null.
Said priest was the only thing in the Domain that could be considered a central authority figure in the chaotic, everchanging and often traitorous nature of the infighting Kabals, however the leaders of the Kabals known as an Archon rarely ever listened to the High Priest.
As such his brother had to play the Kabals off each other in order to build up a block of supporters, or more accurately a block of 'mutual beneficiaries' who were going to stab him in the back the moment it was beneficial to them and go right back to killing each other.
Meanwhile he kept a little over a third of Sarlus Legion here led by the last Lord of Change in the Cosmic Scholars, Korios Fateweaver, the Enraged Sorcerer, the Galaxia Warrior was one of the most ambitious beings that Hourian had encountered in his almost forty million year long life, he was (debatably) only outshined himself in terms of ambition.
Hourian also did not trust the Warrior with the life of a mere servant, much less his own life as such he had sent the Galaxia Warrior on a side mission, to raid the Federations supply lines to sabotage their war effort and cause more out cry in the Federation.
This was partly because Hourian had figured out that the Federation was greatly unpopular and the massive war with the Confederation was only exacerbating said unpopularity, it was also because this 'great honor' would keep him away from his Legion the Warriors of Hourian.
Sighing Hourian would stand up taking a short break from his ever changing thoughts, standing at his full height of 13.5 feet and wearing a slim combat suit instead of his bulky power armor, looking out over the city of the Cracked Spiral as the locals and his soldiers had taken to calling his large base of operations.
This base of operations had all or was going to have all of what was needed to wage a war and to maintain a fleet, from the smallest forges to the huge factories that towered over the horizon and the new shipyard's that were slowly taking shape in orbit of the planet.
Currently his office was in the largest spiral of the holy citadel of Father on Vraks which had large cracks in it and from this office he directed the rebuilding of his naval and army assets, because whether he liked to admit it or not he was in no shape to wage war with even the corrupt, paralyzed and leaderless Federation,
This was because after his last defeat over a million years ago at the battle of Terra his forces had been shattered, forced to retreat, himself left in a coma with his second in command, taking charge to lead the remnants of his forces that survived the battle, which made up the large majority of his current forces.
It was during his retreat that many battles were fought with the progress and the order he had placed over the many territories he had conquered being undone and by the time he had reawoken the last of his forces were cornered and he was forced to retreat very, very deep into the warp.
So deep that they had been lost down there for a total of a million years just like the other times he had been beaten which always felt like a few decades due to how time would constantly fluctuate and change unlike the material realm.
As a result his forces were still as shattered and diminished as over a million years ago and he was in the process of rebuilding those forces, currently he had thousands of Destroyers, Cruisers both light and heavy, Capitals and Carriers both regular and superheavy class, this was not even including the tens of thousands of transports and smaller craft such as starships.
Meanwhile he had approximately 150 million mortal humans, 100,000 Galaxia Warriors most being a part of individual raider groups and chaos cults that they had picked up recently, around 50% were apart of these groups and the rest were in his Legion, then he had approximately a few million vesicles with a relatively equal ratio of tanks, trucks, mechanized vesicles in his ground forces.
Don't even get him started on his air power, to put it into perspective he had tasked his Ministers with figuring out how many planes they still had left and to project the strength of their airforce, the response he had gotten was "Sir? We weren't even aware we had an air force" 'fucking idiots' he thought as the memory resurfaced.
This was all he had to hold the few hundred planets he had conquered within the Scarus Sector, so far he had succeeded in fending off any Ordo or Federation attacks but if he wanted to be fully secure he would have to ramp up his rebuilding of his forces most prominently his naval and Warrior assets.
Anyway in order to mask his weakness he had eventually sent out numerous expeditionary fleets to raid and destroy any Ordo or Federation Forces that they came across, these forces were not meant to permanently conquer and hold any territory, just to weaken the Ordo's as much as possible.
The Fleet Masters if these expeditionary fleets were of course bound to his will but due to a major flaw in the spell that bound one's will to another , that flaw being that the farther away the subject was the more freedom they had in their actions and their will to defy the caster.
However these issues could be overlooked as long as these Fleet Masters didnt get over ambitious and get their fleets destroyed then everything should be fine, for now at least.
But there were many other things that needed to go right for this to succeed, he needs to rebuild his forces and bulk up his numbers, he needs to bring more Chaos related forces to his banner and keep the Federation paralyzed with corruption and indecision, all this while keeping the Big Five and the Old Gods of the Eldar and the Sanctuary as far away as possible.
A few ideas had already come to his mind such as his only other remaining brothers, first the Primarch of the Legion the Toxic Guard and prince of Nurgle, Elkain Claw, last Hourian had heard of him after the battle of Terra was that Elkain roamed the eastern fringe with his much diminished legion, spreading disease and decay to everything they touched and had been since the 12th Daemonic Crusade.
Next was the Primarch of the Legion the Crimson Order, and prince of Khorne, Charus Thrall, unlike Elkain he knew where Charus was he was currently in Segmentum Solar fighting a war of endless slaughter against the forces of the Big Five with his legion fighting alongside him in an endless rage, this had been the case ever since the 4th Daemonic Crusade.
They seemed promising but who knows how much they changed over the millions years, adding it to his small list of allies and his much diminished forces and there was much doubt in his mind on whether or not he could win.
Looking up from his thoughts Hourian would then exit his office and walk to the elevator across the hallway, the many corpses of the United Religious Papacy would line the walls with gruesome injuries from a simple cut throat to a few bodies having been mangled so badly that they were unrecognizable.
Paying no mind to the wall of corpses, Hourian arrived at the elevator and would enter it before selecting the bottom floor, he had more business to attend to, such as integrating more planets into his efforts to restore his forces, 'business that was much more important than a few dead bodies' he thought before diving deeper into said thoughts.
Currently he was still fighting the Sector Council of Scarus within the Scarus sector and although he had won several major victories they still remained diminished and weakened but led by the Ordo Grandmaster Drako Evictas they still possessed a great deal of power and influence, using said power to hold him off until potential reinforcements could arrive.
Although he had some advantages, with his rival Roboute Guilliman dead at his own hands during the 12th Daemonic Crusade and the exploitable state of the Federation as well as the only recently established and relatively small Sanctuary still not being much of a threat, with only four of the eight Temples having their gods active in any capacity.
In conclusion he had a chance but with his forces being the smallest they have ever been and having almost no allies, this may be the last time he ever set out to dominate Humanity and place the Galaxia Warriors as the ruling class over the weak and self destructive mortals.
He would not let this one chance, his last chance to slip out of his fingers, every time he lost it came down to a crucial mistake, being to slow, being to quick, underestimating his rival, or being overly cautious, all mistakes that led to his numerous defeats, but no more, no more mistakes.
—-
Date: D046. Y977. M31. MI60
Outside of the Scarus Sector and within the much larger Segmentum Obscurus one of the many expeditionary fleets that had been sent forth by Hourian was currently in the midst of a massive warp storm.
Said warp storm was an EFW5, these were one of the most destructive things in the entire galaxy due to the fact that they had a small chance of breaching into real space and dragging planets into the warp, completely destroying them in the process.
These massive chunks of planetary crust and molten rock would then fly around at speeds that would normally disintegrate them, smashing into any unlucky vessels and adding the wrecked corpse to the maelstrom of debris, these storms, known as Pompeiian Warp Storms or simply a PWS, could last for decades if not centuries.
However these storms were exceptionally rare and took many tens of thousands of years to form, so Ghosk was a little confused when they had been sailing normally until a MASSIVE FUCKING WARP STORM came out of nowhere, in fact it was to sudden the choir almost hadn't realized what was coming at them in time.
'Lazy idiots' Ghosk seethed, as the Fleet Master of the 7th Expeditionary Fleet and the Capital ship 'Khorne's skull bringer' he had expected top tier quality in his crew and in the choir but instead he had gotten some lazy idiots who didn't want to do their jobs.
Although they had not caught the worst of the storm they had suffered damage to their warp drives meaning they would soon have to exit the warp, but to exit into empty space was suicide as such after had killed most of the choir and replaced them he had them look for suitable targets to attack.
"M-m-y l-lord?" one of the servants asked, attempting to get his attention, turning his head away from his stewing thoughts he saw a data pad in her hand, she was intending to give him the data pad and run away like a coward, he could tell by the fearful look in her eye.
'Coward' he thought spitefully as he reached out with his armored hand grabbing both the data pad and her wrist, her eyes went wide as he yanked the data pad back towards himself the woman screamed out in pain from her arm being ripped out of his socket, the flesh and mussels ripping and tearing.
Looking at the data pad and ignoring the woman's whimpering as she was carried off by two other servants, Ghosk would see that they had finally found a suitable target, something that would bring him true glory and honor in the sight of his god Khorne.
It was then the admiral of the Expeditionary Fleet approached him a Galaxia Warrior, who for the life of him he could not remember the Warriors name "my lord" the admiral said as he kneeled in front of Ghosk "admiral rise, what's the issue now?" Ghosk asked, irritated.
The admiral would look over at a console where a servant could be seen downloading information onto a data pad, unplugging the data pad the servant would hand the data pad over to the admiral who would pass it off to Ghosk before he then spoke.
The data pad showed the casualties caused by the PWS, they had lost 14 Destroyers and 2 Cruisers, which even he would admit was lucky, this meant they had 46 Destroyers. 22 Cruisers and 12 Capital ships left, he had worked with less before and he would make it work.
"My lord, as you can see we have incurred losses from the PWS and it seems that the warp drive and many other critical functions of the 'Khorne's Skull Bringer' has been damaged I recommend we abandon the ship in order to-" the admiral never got finish his sentence as Ghosk took his two plasma axes and cut the head of the admiral off.
Ghosk had been apart of the Khorne worshiping raider group known as 'The Bleeding Champions' and when they had fallen on hard times under Ghosk's leadership they had made a deal with Hourian to fold their raider group into his forces, this ship had been apart of their fleet for millions of years.
As such he would not tolerate any foreign Warrior attempting to tell him what to do or question his orders, he had already ordered that they exit the warp as soon as possible and that they would repair his precious ship "my lord?" one of the other Galaxia Warriors beckoned for his attention, one from Hourians Legion.
"You better have something good to say" Ghosk said, already irritated from the others questioning his orders, "we are soon exiting the warp, also the brother you just killed was one of Hourians, are you sure if that was wise?" the Warrior questioned, the plasma on his axes glowed as if to reflect Ghosk anger, but he did not kill him.
Ghosk had also noticed the emphasis on the word 'brother', a sense of brotherhood was quite common across all the individual Chaos legions, all that were left anyways, and the Galaxia Warriors as far as he knew, he also knew that he could not just leave and disobey Hourians orders, for what reason? He could not place, as such when Ghosk inevitably returned to the Scarus sector Hourian would not be pleased.
As such he merely glared at the Warrior, who's black and gold colored power armor had many Chaos influenced runes and symbols inscribed upon it, the most prominent was the rune of Hourian, an eye with an arrow going through it upwards, said eye was glowing blood red.
This stare down continued for about a minute before a flurry of activity roused them from their intense stare down, glancing over to the followers of the Omnissiah who were currently looking very disorganized and disgusting with their almost total replacement of their bodies with mechanicals machinery.
"You live, for now" Ghosk growled and he turned and barked orders to the mess that was the crew and the many servants/slaves to get them in order, soon dozens of small portals would appear to the left and the right of the 'Khorne's Skull Bringer' each in front of a vessel, the portals leading to the material realm.
Then a portal appeared in front of the capital ship the clam, black void being a complete contrast to the Chaotic, multicolored, Daemonic dominated warp with a black ring surrounding the portal, the ship would groan and shake as it was obvious that the warp drive was seriously damaged.
As they exited the warp and escaped the PWS a planet came into view, the planet was about 90% similar to ancient Terra by scans and estimates of the followers of the Omnissiah, with a climate that was slightly warmer than the average sat by Terra.
But that was not what drew their attention, within the proximity of the planet were two smaller fleets, based upon the designs of the two fleets' ships it was obvious that it was the damned Eldar of the Sanctuary.
They were beings who claimed they were so great, that they were the peak of civilization and who looked down upon Humanity in an audacious display of arrogance, if they were so great then why did they resort to the same dishonorable tricks and tactics that their cousins did in the Domain, the answer? A huge amount of unawareness and hypocrisy if you asked Ghosk.
Then there was an Ordo Fleet larger than the Eldar Fleet but still smaller than his own 'perfect' Ghosk thought as images of the immense glory and amount of skulls he would earn for his god Khorne, but it was then something else caught his attention.
"You zoom in on that symbol" he demanded to one of the followers of the Omnisaha, they merely glared at him those unnatural mechanical eyes displaying no emotion or hint of their thoughts, 'the only thing natural is blood and skulls' Ghosk thought as the follower brought the screen to Ghosk.
As Ghosk sat back down in his command throne he looked at the data pad before him, and began to laugh and laugh "HAHAHAHA Khorne has blessed us today PEASANTS!" Ghosk exclaimed, why was he so happy you ask?.
Well it was simple the symbol on the Eldar ships was the symbol for the Temple of Khaine, Khaine was the eternal enemy of Khorne, that fraud of a god claimed to be the god of war, murder and honor, HAH what a joke it was Khorne who truly embodied those aspects not some forgotten, second rate warrior god who has not been active since before the Great War with the Eldar.
However it was still a great honor and a glorious thing to destroy any followers of Khaine, if not to bring the extinction and destruction of Khaine's followers and the god himself then it would be to prove yourself worthy of becoming a Bloodthrister of Khorne and to prove your devout loyalty to all the ideals that Khorne stands for.
But first he would have to create a plan to destroy them, like it or not the two usual enemies would almost certainly combine their forces once they realized he was in the system, as such he would split them up and destroy them one by one to truly savor every drop of blood and every skull claimed for Khornes skull throne.
It would be a glorious thing indeed.