Pollux
Pollux the Flayer was a Word Bearers Khorne Berserker and Champion, who served in the Host of the Dark Apostle Oriax.[1a]
History
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The following paragraphs contain spoilers for: | Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf |
He took part in Oriax's invasion of Kanak and aided the Host as it sought to subdue the world by capturing several key installations.[1a] One such target was a base for the world's Kanak Skull Takers Astra Militarum Regiments, which the Dark Apostle tasked Pollux with attacking. Oriax told him to make an offering of the Guardsmen's lives to Khorne, which Pollux agreed to as long as the Sorcerer Zymeltros Frell, whom he despised, did not interfere. Frell would do so anyway and aided Pollux, though the Champion was mainly responsible for the deaths of the Guardsmen. When a hundred Kanak Skull Takers had been slain by them, however, Frell began to leave as more Guardsman advanced upon Pollux. Frell told the Champion that he was no longer needed and that the souls they had claimed were not for Khorne. Instead they would be used to please the Blood God's hated rival Slaanesh, whose aid the Sorcerer would need for a ritual he was to conduct. An enraged Pollux could only vow revenge against the departing Sorcerer, as he was attacked by a large number of the Skull Takers.[1b] The Berserker would survive this betrayal, but Pollux still continued to fight beside Oriax and the Word Bearers.[1f]
Soon, Kanak fell to the Word Bearers[1a] and Oriax was then free to act upon the real reason he had invaded the world. Unbeknownst to the Imperium, Kanak was a slumbering Necron Tomb World, and the Dark Apostle sought an entrance to the Xenos' underground domain. Once he found it, Oriax would use the Necrons' power sources to free[1c] the Keeper of Secrets Zarakynel[1d], who was imprisoned within a Tesseract Labyrinth the Dark Apostle had obtained. This was thwarted by the arrival of the Space Wolves[1c] Great Company of Ragnar Blackmane[1e], whose forces were led by Valgard Twice-Slain, when they stopped Oriax. However the Dark Apostle's actions had caused the Necrons to awaken[1c] and later led to the Space Wolves defeating their Lord. With the Xenos threat now defeated[1e], the Word Bearers attempted to destroy the Space Wolves and they stormed the Great Company's hidden base. Pollux was among the Traitors who attacked the base, which began to be abandoned by the Space Wolves. However the section of the base's wall that Pollux attacked was defended by the Rune Priest Egil Stormcaller and the Iron Priest Corus Redsmith. Such was the size of the Word Bearers' forces, however, that the Priests' wall would have been easily breached, had the Legion of the Damned not intervened. Named Regulus Tenax, Ferox and Tacitus, these three spectral figures aided the Space Wolves and began slaughtering the Word Bearers. Not even Pollux's might was enough to defeat them and the Berserker was killed while fighting the Legion and the Space Wolves.[1f]
