40K Lore: Kairos Fateweaver
Loremasters – let’s take a look at the Oracle of Tzeentch: Kairos Fateweaver!
Fateweaver, the Oracle of Tzeentch originally known as Kairos, is the personal Vizir of Tzeentch – a Lord of Change capable of seeing things hidden even from the gaze of its master. It is numbered among the Conclave Diabolus, the hundred and one daemons the Grey Knights consider most dangerous.
History
Although Tzeentch could see all of the past and present, he was unable to grasp all of the uncountable threads of the future. The need to overcome this one weakness took Tzeentch to the mystic Well of Eternity at the very centre of reality, where space and time originate and end. However, even Tzeentch was afraid to enter the roiling currents of the well; so instead he sent his Lords of Change, but none of them ever returned. Finally, Tzeentch grabbed his vizir Kairos and cast him into the well. This time, Kairos survived, just. But when he resurfaced, Kairos was unnaturally aged, hunched and wizened. His mighty pinions were reduced to feeble vestigial remains, and he now had two heads.
Henceforth, Kairos held both the knowledge of the future and the resulting insanity, and sits at Tzeentch’s right side as his Oracle. He is constantly mumbling madly, and suddenly bursting into rambling tirades about events still to happen. Eighty-one Lords of Change are tasked with recording every word of the Oracle. A few mighty individuals, mortal and Daemon alike, are granted an audience with the Oracle for the completion of the most challenging of tasks for Tzeentch. The Oracle knows the answer to all questions; but only one head will always answer the truth, while the other simultaneously delivers a contradictory answer, which is false but equally believable. The resulting riddle invariably leaves the petitioner baffled.
On the rare occasion that Tzeentch sends Kairos to the mortal battlefield, he is known as Fateweaver. He and his daemonic bodyguards are truly unstoppable, for he is able to use his great magical power and incredible prescience to influence the course of the battle. However, if any unexpected harm comes to him, Kairos often retreats back to the Warp, afraid that his treacherous master might have intentionally hid that future from him.
Great Crusade and Horus Heresy
Decades before the Horus Heresy, Fateweaver appeared before Lorgar Aurelian during his pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror and gave him a choice that would change the fate of galactic history. Using his foresight of the future he stated that Lorgar could either seek revenge against Roboute Guilliman for his shame upon Khur, but doom Chaos in the coming war, or put aside personal satisfaction and work for the Gods of Chaos and perhaps ensure their victory over the galaxy. In this single, important instance both of Fateweaver’s heads spoke the same truth.
Later on during the actual Heresy Kairos fought Lion El’Jonson, but was impaled through the heart as the Primarch remarked that he wondered if Fateweaver saw that coming.
Learn more about The Lords of Change and the Fateweaver at the Lexicanum
You can also check out more about Fateweaver at the Black Library:
Fateweaver $7.99
THE STORY
The White Consuls Space Marine Chapter answers a distress call, only to discover that the source of the signal is far more terrifying than the message it relays. As a psychic backlash sweeps through their astropathic choir, the infamous Kairos Fateweaver, greater daemon of Tzeentch and master of manipulation, reveals his final hand in a game which has lasted since the beginning of time. Destiny awaits.This novella can also be found in Architect of Fate
John French also did an interview with the Warhammer Community Team about Kairos Fateweaver. You can read that HERE.
Knowing the future could drive anyone mad…Even a Chaos God.
