Ka'Bandha
 Ka'Bandha | |
|---|---|
| Title(s) | Angel's Bane[10] Bane of the Ninth Bloodline[10] |
| Species | Daemon |
| Type | Exalted Bloodthirster |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation(s) | Champion of Khorne |
| Affiliation(s) | |
Ka'Bandha is an Exalted Bloodthirster and one of the mightiest of Khorne's servants.[8]
Contents
History
Heresy-era
Battle of Signus Prime
Ka'Bandha first appeared leading Daemonic forces against the Blood Angels at the Battle of Signus Prime alongside the Keeper of Secrets Kyriss the Perverse, being summoned to the Materium by sacrificing the Word Bearer Astropath Corocoro Sahzë. During the battle Ka'Bandha engaged in an airborne battle with Sanguinius and broke the Primarch's legs before unleashing the Ragefire upon the Legion and activating the dormant Red Thirst within the Legion. After Sanguinius was recovered thanks to the efforts of his Blood Angels, he engaged in a second round of fighting with Ka'Bandha and banished him back to the Warp.[1a]
The brutal violence of Ka’bandha had unleashed a thirst for blood within the psyche of the Blood Angels, that would not rest until every taint of Chaos had been erased from the planet,[1b] and which would later be known as the Red Thirst.
The Challenge of Khorne
Upon his return to the Warp, the broken Ka'Bandha crawled before Khorne, met only with disgust and mockery. For his failure he was banished from Khorne's court, doomed to scavenge on weak souls to survive in the Formless Wastes. Other Bloodthirsters led hunting parties to seek his skull, and in time the desperate Ka'Bandha learned to be cunning. The hunters became the hunted, and Ka'Bandha took their armour and weapons for his own. Ka'Bandha eventually returned to the Fortress of Khorne with the skulls of these defeated foes, demanding a second chance from the Blood God. Khorne agreed, ordering Ka'Bandha to harvest 500 Blood Angels souls in the presence of Sanguinius.[10]
He was later among the Greater Daemons summoned into Realspace by the Thousand Sons during the Battle for Terra.[9a] After the Lion's Gate Spaceport fell to the Traitors, the Daemons were unleashed to destroy the Imperial Palace's Colossi Gate.[9b] While they succeeded in tearing down the Gate's outer defences, the Daemons were destroyed by the White Scars' Stormseers and the Adeptus Custodes, before they could complete their task.[9c]
Siege of Terra
Ka'Bandha would return once more to plague the Blood Angels during the last phase of the Siege of Terra. He was the first Greater Daemon who managed to pass the Emperor's weakened psychic shield around the Sanctum Imperialis, and attacked the Eternity Gate. There, he attempted to complete the mission Khorne had given him: Kill 500 Blood Angels in a set time in presence of Sanguinius. After breaking through the last Imperial defences in front of the Eternity Gate, thus paving the way for the last grand Traitor assault (though he did not care for their success or failure), the Greater Daemon sought out Blood Angels among the defenders and butchered them. Sanguinius intervened, and the two duelled, though Ka'Bandha constantly attempted to break away to keep killing regular Blood Angels. Eventually, however, the Primarch managed to enrage him so much that he focused on their duel.[10] At one point, the Daemon cast Sanguinius to the ground. But, unlike Signus Prime, this time Sanguinius rose to his feet once again, and calling upon the last of his strength, hefted the Daemon by the neck. The Primarch was eventually able to break the Bloodthirster's back with the hilt of his sword. Afterwards the Primarch hurled the Greater Daemon back into the Heretic army and finally retreated back to the safety beyond the walls of the Eternity Gate.[1d][10] Ka'Bandha's broken body was then consumed by weaker Khornate Daemons; later, Ka'bandha furiously realized that he had failed the test set by Khorne.[10]
Post-Heresy
The first Grey Knight to defeat Ka'Bandha was Brother-Captain Solor. To this day, Solor's bones have great sway over the Daemon. With the use of a sharpened femur the Grey Knights and Blood Angels were able to defeat Ka'Bandha in 944.M41.[3]
In 823.M41, Ka'Bandha slew Captain Abel Zorael in the Battle of Khartas. The Sanguinor intervened to banish the Daemon, but only after 80% of the Blood Angels had perished.[2a][2c]
In 944.M41 the Grey Knight's prognosticars predicted that Ka’Bandha would shortly return to the mortal world. Knowing Ka'Bandha to be a dangerous foe, and moreover one who had earned the bitter enmity of the Blood Angels, the Grey Knights brought this news to the attention of Commander Dante and proposed a joint strike. A combined strike force of Blood Angels and Grey Knights assailed Ka'Bandha's fortress on the Daemon world of Kalagazaar. Ka'Bandha was banished, the Daemon armies were destroyed and Kalagazaar itself subjected to Exterminatus. At the campaign's end, the surviving Blood Angels had their memories wiped - a price Dante agreed with the Grey Knights at the mission's start.[3]
In 999.M41, as the Blood Angels prepared for the main tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan to assault the Baal System, Mephiston received portents that Ka'Bandha was preparing to assault the Chapter's home world where all the Chapters of the Blood had gathered.[11a] The presence of the Angel's Bane would throw the defence into chaos, and so Mephiston led a collection of Librarians from various Chapters to thwart the Daemon's arrival. Though they managed to wound Ka'Bandha, they could not prevent his entry into the material realm.[11b] As the Great Rift tore through the Galaxy, he emerged above Baal Primus, just short of his goal of Baal. Landing on the moon, he and his Daemons slaughtered Tyranids and Space Marines alike in a frenzied three-way slaughter.[11c] On Baal, as the Blood Angels finally defeated the last of the Tyranids, they could see Ka'Bandha's rune stretched across Baal Primus' southern hemisphere, written with the skulls of millions of Tyranid beasts. The monument was demolished from orbit by the fleets of the Blood Angel Chapters.[11d]
Ka'Bandha next appeared during Khorne's Blood Crusade, leading its second wave.[6] He was later banished back to the Warp by Mortarion during the War in the Rift.[7]
Images
Ka'Bandha[1c]
Ka'Bandha resin miniature (2022)
Trivia
 |
- Ka'Bandha is likely named after Khabanda, a demon from Hindu mythology.
Conflicting sources
- In the 5th edition Codex: Blood Angels, Ka'Bandha is described as striking Ammonai, the outermost planet of the Baal System, as Hive Fleet Leviathan descends on the system.[2b] However in The Devastation of Baal, Ka'Bandha arrives above Baal Primus in the midst of the battle.[11c]
Related videos
See also
Sources
- 1: Horus Heresy: Collected Visions:
- 2: Codex: Blood Angels (5th Edition):
- 3: Warhammer 40,000 7th Edition Rulebook (E-Book) — Time of Ending
- 4: The Horus Heresy Book Eight - Malevolence, pg. 1
- 5: Fear to Tread (Novel), Cover
- 6: Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition Rulebook, pg. 167
- 7: Codex: Death Guard (8th Edition), pg. 22
- 8: Codex: Chaos Daemons (9th Edition), pg. 62
- 9: Saturnine (Novel):
- 10: Echoes of Eternity (Novel), Chapter 33
- 11: The Devastation of Baal (Novel):
