Daggan Zaidu
Daggan Zaidu, the 'Sin Slayer, is a Reiver Lieutenant in the Exorcists Chapter, who commands a Vanguard force of Hexbreakers.[1a]
History
Daggan Zaidu is a descendent of an Imperial Fist Captain known as Demetrius who lived 4,000 years prior. In the past, Demetrius defeated and captured the Daemon known as Caedus, and his ancestors have gone on to serve in the Chapter for millennia as Caedus' host. Zaidu as an Initiate was able to survive being possessed and exorcised of Caedus.[1l]
Centuries later sometime after the formation of the Great Rift, Zaidu was assigned by Librarian Torrin Vey to hunt down and defeat the Daemon dubbed Caedus, who was believed to have escaped from Ordo Malleus custody during a botched ritual that saw it possess a Broken One. This was the same Daemon that had possessed Zaidu during his own initiation ritual into the Chapter, and the Lieutenant still bore a strong grudge against it. Upon traveling to Fidem IV in hunt of the Daemon, the Hexbreakers discover a Word Bearers presence on the world.[1a]
Zaidu and his squad now had to deal with both a Word Bearers incursion under the Dark Apostle Mordun as well as the hunt for Caedus, which is now driving much of the Imperial Guard garrison on Fidem IV mad.[1b] Zaidu and the rest of his squad eventually decide to launch an assault on Fort Deliverance, believing the Word Bearers to have taken the Broken One there. However Zaidu instead leaves his brothers to conduct their own daemonic suppression rites while he travels alone beneath the valley to hunt for Caedus, though he is unwittingly followed by Brother Nabua. A cave-in traps the two underground and Zaidu instructs the rest of the Hexbreakers to continue the assault above ground.[1c]
As the Hexbreakers launch their assault on Fort Deliverance, Zaidu and Nabua navigate the tunnels by feeling Caedus' presence. They emerge to find that Mordun has bound Caedus into his own Daemonic Axe and is now ferociously strong. Nabua is killed and Zaidu is forced to withdraw ftera reinforcements under Vey and Sergeant Belloch Almoner Azzael arrive.[1d] Regrouping in the tunnels, Zaidu is driven by his visions of defeat Caedus and orders an immediately assault, though Vey reveals these are simply the memories of his ancestor nearly 4 millennia prior and not a prophecy of the future.[1e]
Taking a more cautious approach at Vey's advice, Zaidu and the Hexbreakers instead infiltrate Fort Deliverance via Overlord Gunship insertion and digging underneath an armoury vault. Engaging waves of Chaos Space Marines, Daemon Engines, and Cultists as Mordun and his lieutenant Artax prepare a ritual involving Caedus that would see the Dark Apostle crowned with Daemonhood, the Exorcists are able to blow the main gate in a shock assault.[1f] Zaidu confronts Mordun just as he begins his ritual and the bulk of the Exorcists are busy with a Heldrake. The Hexbreakers instead find that Caedus has escaped its bonds and slaughtered the majority of the Word Bearers including Mordun asd Zaidu and Vey prepare a new plan to re-bind the Daemon.[1g]
Meanwhile, Caedus has now driven the remaining Imperial Guard on Fidem IV to madness and opened up a Warp Portal at the Tower of the Praetorian to allow for Daemonic hordes to spill through. In the final battle with Caedus and its Daemons, Sergeant Eitan sacrifices himself to clear a path for Vey and Zaidu to engage Caedus directly.[1h] The Daemon initially proves too much for the duo to overcome, but Vey is able to forcibly push Caedus inside his own body and becomes possessed. As per the plan, Zaidu is then able to bind the Daemonically controlled Vey with a restraining collar as the rest of the Hexbreakers close the Warp Portal with Melta Bombs.[1i] In the aftermath of the battle, Vey is now waging an eternal battle for his own soul against Caedus and is sent to the Purgatomb.[1j]
