Iconoclast (Khorne Celestian)
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The following paragraphs contain spoilers for: | Heart & Soul (Short Story) |
The Iconoclast was a Khorne warlord who was once the Celestian Oleande of the Order of the Valorous Heart before she fell to Heresy.[1]
History
Before her betrayal, Oleande was known as a warrior of great repute, who carried with her a ruthless zeal. But she also had a tempestuous temperament, little humility and enjoyed killing heretics. It was while fighting in the Icarus Front, that Oleande's flaws and vices overwhelmed her. She found that fighting for the Emperor was not enough to sate her growing appetites and so embraced Khorne to fulfil her desire to spill blood. She then became the warlord known as the Iconoclast and began raising hordes of Heretics, called the Army of the Iconoclast, which she used against the Imperium. As she did so, a Daemon of Khorne became a part of her and filled the Iconoclast's body with lamprey mouthed tentacles. These tentacles rebuilt any damage she suffered and allowed the Iconoclast to survive a thousand deaths in battle. During her reign of terror, the Iconoclast used the Adepta Sororitas' tactics against them and worlds protected by the Order of the Valorous Heart and Order of Our Martyred Lady suffered greatly at the warlord's hands. Imperial forces were then sent to kill her, and tracked the warlord across an entire Segmentum, but her army was not easily destroyed. Each time her hordes fell, the Iconoclast would find another Imperial world to raise a new army, inevitably causing the world to fall to Heresy.
Several years later, however, while raising an army on Meseda Quintus, the Iconoclast was finally cornered by an Imperial task force. Led by the Eloheim Miriya and composed of the Order of Our Martyred Lady and the Adeptus Mechanicus's Array of the Sixth House, the Vestal Task Forces' War of Faith destroyed the Iconoclast's army a final time. The warlord and a few of her surviving followers, though, were trapped within a chapel, which the Mechanicus' forces, led by Questor Nohlan, covered in a force field barrier. The barrier, though, would allow anyone outside of the chapel to enter it. Now with no chance of the warlord escaping, Miriya was preparing her Sisters to attack the Chapel, when a mishap occurred. Without warning an Order of The Valorous Heart strike force arrived and its leader, also named Oleande, asked Miriya's task force to stand down. She claimed that due to the bloodshed that her Order had suffered at the Iconoclast's hands, it would be they who killed the warlord. Miriya refused, as it was her forces that had brought the Iconoclast to heel. Though both had warrants from their High Canonesses, ordering them to kill the Iconoclast neither Miriya nor Oleande would stand aside for the other. It was finally decided that with both side having warrants, the decision on who would kill the Iconoclast rested with the Abbess Sanctorum, as only she could hold sway over such an impasse between the Orders.[1]
After a message was sent to the Abbess, both sides decided to rest as they waited for an answer. During the night, however, Oleande and her Sisters attacked the Mechanicum forces watching over the force field barrier's controls, killing several of them, before entering the barrier. When Miriya learned of this, she led her personal squadron after the Valorous Heart's Sisters. The warlord lay in wait, though, and Oleande and her Celestians, were ambushed by the remaining Army of the Iconoclast. The Celestians were heavily outnumbered, but Oleande and two other Celestians pressed on after the Iconoclast, while her Sisters' fell keeping the Heretics back. They later found the traitor, but she was aided by more Heretics and Oleande's remaining Sisters were nearly overwhelmed. Luckily for her, Miriya's squadron raced to Oleande's aid before they fell to the Heretics. Just before they reached Oleande, though, an attack by the Iconoclast's Heretics separated Miriya from her Sisters. The last of Oleande's Celestians was killed soon afterwards, leaving just the two of them to face the warlord. The Iconoclast then attacked a taunting Oleande, while her surviving Heretics sought to stop Miriya from reaching the warlord.
Though Miriya was able to kill the Heretics, the Iconoclast had wounded Oleande and had her pinned down. Rather than kill Oleande, the armoured Iconoclast instead took off her helmet and a shocked Miriya realised that both Oleande and the Iconoclast had the same face. The warlord then explained that the Oleande pinned to the ground, was a Sister the Valorous Heart had ordered to take her face and identity. In doing so, the Order had hoped to hide the fact that the original Oleande had fallen to Heresy. Miriya did not believe this, as she had fought beside Oleande in the Icarus Front and knew the Valorous Heart Celestian would never embrace Khorne. It was true, though, and the false Oleande had been ordered to kill the warlord, in order to erase the heretical stain from the Order's record. Then sensing a kindred spirit that had the same desires that she did, the Iconoclast tried to convince Miriya to become a Heretic as well. This was quickly interrupted, when Sister Verity, one of Miriya's squadron, fired upon the Iconoclast, who in a rage then attempted to kill the helpless Oleande. Miriya protected her, however, and the two then began attacking the rageful Iconoclast. Now facing two skilled opponents, the warlord began to be taken apart, despite her healing abilities. Even as she neared death, however, the Iconoclast yelled that the Adepta Sororitas' faith was a lie and that the Sisters are so soaked in blood that they already belonged to Khorne. Shortly after saying this, both Miriya and Oleande struck as one and ended the Iconoclast's life. This time she was not reborn, as the Daemon inside of the warlord departed afterwards and as a result, the Iconoclast's body collapsed into itself.[1]
