40K Lore: A Candlemass Tale
Come gather round, Loremasters. Let us tell a tale of Candlemass.
The servitors have roasted heretics on an open fire. And their heretical icons have been slagged down into an Imperial Log. The Departmento Munitorum’s holiday ration of flavored brown drink powder has been passed around, and heated to the maximum recommended warmth. As the ash from the burnt temples falls, let us remind ourselves of a night much like this–long ago, on one fateful Candlemass.
It was a Candlemass Eve, much liks this one–when a great and terrible lord of Chaos, Perclitor the Foresworn, received a great vision that drove him to conquer in the name of Chaos. In time he would ascend to Daemonhood, a reminder that Chaos is insidious and will stop at nothing to mock everything good and just about the Imperium. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. To know the dark ascension, we must first know the man.
Periclitor the Foresworn is a Daemon Prince of Chaos. In his days as a Chaos Lord of the Word Bearers Legion, he earned the eternal enmity of the Howling Griffons Chapter, when he ambushed them at Arios Point. The Chapter was preparing to celebrate the 5,000th anniversary of their founding in 220.M38. To mark this happy occasion, Periclitor intercepted the Battle Barge of Chapter Master Orlando Furioso as it traversed the Arios Beacon en route to Mancora. His elite crippled the ship in a boarding action, forcing the survivors to evacuate to the surface of Arios Quintus. There, the 8th Company as well as the sizeable force of 1st Company veterans that accompanied the Chapter Master were surrounded by Periclitor’s warband of Word Bearers, Night Lords, Chaos Cultists, and a host of summoned Daemons. Refusing to surrender, they killed hundreds, but were butchered to a man.
But Periclitor’s rise to daemonhood began with the Castile V massacre in 832.M33. There, he sealed a pact with the powers of the warp by sacrificing a thousand souls, among them missionaries of the Ecclesiarchy and members of the Adepta Sororitas.
After centuries more of dark work, including corrupting the Sanctity IX Pedagogue to the worship of Chaos in 237.M38, Periclitor was gifted with a great vision on Candlemass Eve 789.M38. Chaos spoke directly to him, promising him Daemonhood was close at hand. Periclitor immediately launched an assault on Bray, teleporting into the cathedral to murder the Cardinal as he delivered his Candlemass Day sermon. The demonstration of the planet’s weakness prompted its self-righteous leaders to build an extensive orbital defence, paid for by a new tax. Each time a new tithe was proposed and rejected by the government, Periclitor would strike again, forcing them to accept ever higher costs to protect against the attacks.
Periclitor was rewarded with ascension to a Daemon Prince over the ruins of the Cathedral of Bray, lifted to the sky in a nimbus of black light before emerging minutes later with arms the size of cannon barrels, a bestial face, and wings spanning five metres.
But despair not Loremasters. Though the dark ascension of Periclitor occurred on Candlemass, the Daemon was eventually slain. The Howling Griffons hounded him upon his return, hunting him across the Galaxy and then unto his Daemon World. Many of the Chapter fell to the Daemon Prince’s blade, including the Captain of the 4th Company, before Chief Librarian Mercaeno was able to kill him after battling for a night and a day atop the mountain peak. The Chapter does not suffer Periclitor’s name to be spoken in their presence by outsiders.
And there you have it, Loremasters. A Candlemass tale to remember. May the death of this Daemon Prince warm your hearts this Candlemass Eve. Now, go rest in your beds, while visions of the Emperor dance in your heads.
And they heard him exclaim, ‘ere he was slain outright–“I’m a Daemon Prince… nooooooooooo….” and thus slain, ’twas a good night.
