Alaema
Alaema was a Dark Apostle who was among a small group of Word Bearers that secretly infiltrated the Imperium world of Sahch-V to begin a rebellion. From within a hidden base, Alaema and the Word Bearers (among them the Dark Apostle De Haan, who he served as a mentor to) created a Chaos Cult from Sahch-V's population, which began sending agents to various cities to covertly preach the word of Chaos. Once enough of the population had been converted, Alaema and the Word Bearers would use the Cult to overthrow the Imperium's rule on Sahch-V and claim the world as their own. For nearly two years, the Word Bearers helped the Cult grow until it reached a massive size, with an ever-spreading web of traitors and catspaws working to advance the Word Bearers goal, when disaster struck.[1]
Unknown to the Word Bearers, their plans had drawn the attention of Eldar from the Craftworld Varantha, who launched a sudden attack on Sahch-V. The first Alaema learned of the attack was when a cultist entered their hidden base screaming that the Cult's agents and holdings were being destroyed. Just then, the cultist was cut down by Shuriken fire, as a large group of Warp Spiders entered the base. The Eldar of Varantha are known for their hatred of the Chaos Gods and their servants, so they attacked relentlessly, leaving the outnumbered Word Bearers no choice but to retreat further into their base. Unfortunately, they retreated right into a chamber where an ambush was launched by a waiting group of Eldar, and in the slaughter that followed, Alaema was cut down by a Witchblade. The Eldar's fierce attack targeted the Cult and Word Bearers exclusively, and when it was done, both groups were destroyed, with only De Haan and the Word Bearer Meer surviving the attack by reaching the safety of a teleport pad within the Word Bearers base. The death of Alaema and their failure on Sahch-V took a heavy toll on De Haan, and he soon began an obsessive hunt to track down the location of Varantha so he could claim his revenge.[1]
Sources
- 1: Snares & Delusions (Short Story) — There Is Only War (Anthology), pgs. 773–775
