Argel Tal
"I don’t enjoy war, yet I fight. I don’t relish torture, yet I inflict it. I don’t revere the gods, yet I serve their holy purpose. Humanity’s weakest souls will always cling to the words “I was just following orders”. They cower behind those words, making a virtue of their own weakness, lionising brutality over nobility. I know that when I die, I’ll have lived my whole life shrouded by that same excuse."[3a]
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| Title(s) | Crimson Lord of the Gal Vorbak Favoured of Lorgar The Last Angel |
| Homeworld | Colchis |
| Born | c. Late M30 |
| Active Period | M30 - 008.M31 |
| Death | 008.M31, Shadow Crusade |
| Cause of Death | Killed by Erebus |
| Species | Human |
| Type | Possessed Chaos Space Marine |
| Gender | Male |
| Relatives | |
| Occupation(s) |
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| Affiliation(s) | |
Argel Tal was the Captain of the 7th Assault Company of the Serrated Sun Chapter of the Word Bearers Space Marine Legion during at least the latter half of the Great Crusade.[1a] Later, he would be referred to as the Crimson Lord of the Gal Vorbak, captain of the Word Bearers' first daemon-possessed Space Marines.[1o]
Biography
Early History
Tal was a native of Colchis, born in the village of Singh-Rukh to a carpenter and a seamstress.[1k] He had four older sisters and was named 'the Last Angel' by his mother who bore no more children.[1u] As a child, he was inducted into the Word Bearers Space Marine Legion by First Chaplain Erebus[1b], and his implantations and initial training was overseen by the Apothecary Turyon.[1c] Erebus had at first chosen Tal to become one of the Legion's Chaplains, but the pupil chose to pursue his training among the fighting elements of his brothers[1f] — which led to the two Astartes coming to blows.[1w]
Eventually Argel Tal took up the role of Captain of the 7th Assault Company in the Serrated Sun Chapter, becoming at the time the youngest warrior to reach such a rank in the legion.[1k] At the chastisement of the Legion among the ruins of Monarchia in 962.M30, he and Xaphen were the ones to draw Lorgar Aurelian out of his grief-induced stupor, and he took it upon himself to take in Cyrene Valantion, one of the few citizens who had remained in the vicinity.[1d] During the compliance of 47-16, he fought alongside the Custodes assigned to keep watch on the XVII, and started a friendship based on mutual respect with their leader Aquillon.[1e]
The Serrated Sun subsequently rejoined the 1,301st Expedition Fleet, accompanied by their Primarch, Lorgar Aurelian, who had ordained the Legion would undertake The Pilgrimage of Colchisian myth.[1f] Around 965.M30, they reached the largest warp storm known to humankind[1h] and found a planet at its edge. After weeks of studying the natives' ways and ideas, Lorgar agreed to take part in one of their rituals, which Tal stumbled upon in the company of one of the Custodes.[1i] The latter attempted to arrest Lorgar, but Tal incapacitated him and watched as the Custodes was made the tenth blood sacrifice for the ascension of the priestess Ingethel.[1j]
Sent onboard the light cruiser Orfeo's Lament with his Company, Tal was shown what lay beyond the storm — an ocean of souls[1k], and the remnants of the Eldar Empire.[1l] His fellow Astartes and he were granted visions of the past: the Fall of the Eldar, and the scattering of the primarchs which Tal himself caused by destroying the Gellar Field protecting the Emperor's laboratory.[1l][1m] Back in the warp, Ingethel persuaded Tal to have the Orfeo's Lament's Gellar field generators destroyed, and she butchered the Word Bearers to enable their possession by daemons.[1m] Brought back to life and finding the ship's crew slaughtered by the denizens of the warp, they headed back to the edge of the storm. While less than a minute passed in realspace, the survivors of Seventh Company took seven months to return, and were forced to cannibalize the dead crew and kill some of their own to survive. At his gene-sire's request, he divulged to the Primarch his experience in the Immaterium, providing useful insight for the Book of Lorgar.[1g]
Favored of Lorgar
In honour of his achievements in the Chapter, his Primarch installed him as the Captain of his Gal Vorbak (the "Blessed Sons"), an elite cadre of warriors who were the first to wear the crimson colour on their power armour.[1n] Despite his accomplishments, Tal held many doubts about the future and confided frequently with the Confessor Cyrene Valantion and over the years the two became very close.[1p] Around 005.M31 came the first signs of the Gal Vorbak's daemons manifesting themselves through their bodies, first as seizures during the Compliance action of Calis.[1q] Like his brethren, Tal had to sequester himself for several days to endure the changes, emerging revitalized.[1r] It was shown to Lorgar by Ingethel the Ascended during his sojourn into the Eye of Terror that Argel Tal will become much more powerful, becoming taller than a Primarch in his Daemon form, and will fight and die during the Siege of Terra. He is said to be killed by the Primarch Sanguinius after rampaging through a squad of Imperial Fists.[2] However, Erebus would later claim that this was only a potential future.[1]
Tal would converse with his daemon, learning during the traitor Astartes' briefing before the Drop Site Massacre that its name was Raum. It was on the same occasion that Raum revealed its host's fated death "in the shadow of great wings", and that Erebus made the first move to reconcile with his former student.[1s] While leading the Serrated Sun on Isstvan V, Tal was the one to give the order to open on the Raven Guard as they were falling back.[1t] In the ensuing battle, his possessed form manifested itself and he let Raum take control for the first time after he was nearly killed by Corvus Corax.[1u] When Dagotal was killed, he realized that all members of the Gal Vorbak were connected psychically[1v], and the end of the fighting revealed that only eleven of the Blessed Sons remained. In the wake of these losses, he had Erebus tell him the extent of Lorgar's machinations during the previous four decades.[1w] Upon learning that the Custodes were loose aboard the De Profundis, he led the Gal Vorbak back into orbit, only to find the Cyrene in her very last moments. Aquillon had slain her, and Tal ordered the Custodes's fleeing Thunderhawk shot down before gathering the Gal Vorbak for a Drop Pod assault. In a brutal close combat fight, six more Blessed Sons fell but all Custodes were killed, Tal ripping Aquillon's head off with his own teeth.[1x] In the aftermath of the battle Argel Tal frequently visited Cyrene's tomb aboard the Fidelitas Lex.[3b] To honour their memory he took up two near weapons: the Guardian Spear that killed his close friend Xaphen and the Power Sword that slew Cyrene.[1y]
After Istvaan V Argel Tal gathered together survivors of broken Word Bearer companies and formed the Vakrah Jal, the Chapter of Consecrated Iron, a new elite unit of Possessed Marines that would train in the fighting pits of the World Eaters aboard their flagship Conqueror. He later fought in the Shadow Crusade alongside World Eaters 8th Captain Khârn, whom he had become friends with during the course of the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. During this time, Tal became the favourite of Lorgar but Erebus attempted to manipulate him to his own ends, going so far to try and earn his trust by resurrecting Cyrene. He took part in the Battle of Armatura and the Nuceria Massacre and in the latter was murdered by Erebus, as the Dark Apostle claimed Argel Tal's influence would prevent Khârn from embracing the Ruinous Powers and thus cost them the war.[3c] Ingethel's prophecy that he would "die in the shadow of great wings" was fulfilled as he died in the shadow of an Aquila on top of the Imperator Titan Corinthian.[3c]
Wargear
After becoming Chapter Master of the Serrated Sun, Argel Tal took up twin Power Swords of his predecessor Deumos dubbed the Twin Swords of Red Iron.[1z] Following the Drop Site Massacre, he wielded the Guardian Spear of Sythran, Shahin-i Tarazu as well as Iktinaetar, the Sentinel Blade of Aquillon.[3d]
Images
Sources
- 1: The First Heretic (Novel)
- 2: Aurelian (Novella), Chapter Six, pgs. 58–61
- 3: Betrayer (Novel):
- 4: The Horus Heresy: Legions
- 5: Warhammer Community: Get to Know Argel Tal – the Word Bearer Who Really Changed on His Gap Year (posted 06/11/2021) (archived from the original 05 October 2021, last accessed 03 August 2024)
