40K Lore: The Weapons of Abaddon The Despoiler
Abaddon has two of the most in-cannon icon weapons of 40k. Loremasters, today we learn about The Talon of Horus and the Daemon Sword Drach’nyen!
The Warmaster of Chaos since the Heresy, Abaddon has wielded two of the most potent Chaos weapons in the galaxy: the Talon of Horus, a combined storm bolter and Lightning Claw, formerly possessed by Horus himself, and the daemon sword Drach’nyen. Today we learn of the weapons that have slain a Primarch and taken countless souls…
Drach’nyen
Drach’nyen, the End of Empires and the Echo of the First Murder, is an ancient daemon of pure, unadulterated malice currently bound in the daemon sword of the same name wielded by Abaddon the Despoiler.
Drach’nyen can take many forms, and it only appears as a great blade in the hands of Abaddon because that is how the Warmaster chooses it to be. In truth, the sword has no real shape or size, at least nothing that could be understood by the mind of man.
The weapon normally appears to be something akin to a two-handed sword, except that Abaddon wields the weapon with a single hand in conjunction with the Talon of Horus. The guard of the weapon tends to be golden in colour, with a leering face of a demon just above the handle. The ricasso of the weapon has spikes protruding from the sides as well as outward from the blade, and the blade itself is blue with red, tormented faces (the faces of souls it has devoured since being claimed by Abaddon) writhing across its surface.
The origins of Drach’nyen are a mystery to most, unknown perhaps even to Abaddon himself. Daemons speak of the blade in fear, calling it the Thorn in Reality or the Shard of Madness. It is, however, known to be a weapon that has existed long before the rise of Mankind.
At some point, Drach’nyen was bound in the labyrinth beneath the Tower of Silence on Uralan, where the Chaos Gods themselves lock away their secrets. Abaddon was led to the Tower of Silence during his 1st Black Crusade in 781.M31 and, after fighting off constructs of dark energy that served as the tower’s guardians, entered the mirrored heart of Uralan beneath the crypts. Wandering a haunted labyrinth of impossible angles that was continuously made and unmade as he walked, Abaddon encountered a towering figure wreathed in golden light. The golden figure led him to the centre of the labyrinth, where a shard of shifting darkness hung. When Abaddon grasped it, Drach’nyen took on the form of a fearsome blade.
After that, Drach’nyen served Abaddon well. With it Abaddon hewed open the gates of the Kromarch‘s citadel, disrupting the nullification fields with which they were reinforcing the fabric of realspace. Another famous story tells about the impaling of the Great Technomandrite of Danth, thus sealing the fate of the anti-empyric Lemuel Cluster.
The Talon of Horus
The Talon of Horus is a large Lightning Claw, fitted with an early custom-built Storm Bolter that is wielded by Abaddon the Despoiler.
The Talon of Horus was originally built by the Dark Mechanicum for Warmaster Horus shortly before the start of the Horus Heresy, but was taken up by Abaddon after his master’s death and the reclamation of Horus’ body from the hands of the Emperor’s Children following the Battle of Harmony.
The weapon takes the form of a large silver lighting claw with thumb blade and integral storm bolter that runs from the wrist to knuckles of the gauntlet. The ancient bolter fires to the same effect as a modern storm bolter. Two belts of ammunition are fed into the weapon from the right side and howling faces of daemons cover the casing ejectors.
Learn More About Abaddon And His Weapons At The Lexicanum
