I Should Have Been Awesome, But They Turned Me Into A Joke (Grimdark WIP)

Hello!

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The Bloody Handed is here to try and salvage his reputation!  So, a bit of backstory - Kaela Mensha Khaine (translated to the Bloody Handed) is the Eldar's god of war, wrath, destruction and murder.  He is one of only three Eldar gods that still (sort of) exist in modern 40K.  The other is Cegorach and Isha who is locked in Nurgle's basement (no really). Ynnead doesn't really count yet apparently.  

Khaine's history is kind of complicated because the Eldar refuse to make anything straightforward and all their stories are allegorical.  The very abridged version is this: Warp god Khaine once wanted more power over the mortal realm and tried to convince the Eldar's greatest hero Eldanesh to serve him.  Eldanesh said no and they fought but was killed by Khaine.  

The leader of the Eldar pantheon Asuryan condemned this, cursing Khaine's hand to forever more drip with the blood of his mortal victim as a constant reminder of his fell act. It is from that act that Khaine's full name is derived, for the Eldar term-title Kaela Mensha is translated as "Red Handed" or "Bloody Handed" in Imperial Gothic.

Fast forward to the birth of Slaanesh, who is killing Eldar gods and scooping up Eldar souls like it was Black Friday.  Khaine challenges Slaanesh to a duel but she's so coked up that Khaine loses pretty badly.  He's about to become another Chicken McNugget but then Khorne decides to crash the party because things aren't cinematic enough yet.  Some bizarre threeway occurs resulting in Khaine being driven into the material world, where his psychic core shattered into a ton of shards.

In modern 40K, the Eldar use these shards to summon Khaine on the field of battle as a towering fiery warrior.  The Ritual of the Young King is the final step necessary to entreat the shard of Khaine to enter his Avatar's body and march forth to war. It has minor variations on each Craftworld, but in essence it remains the same: one of the Craftworld's Exarchs will embody the Young King Eldanesh as he refuses Khaine's offer of dominion over the universe. This brutal reminder of his greatest failure will so enrage the fragment of the god in the Craftworld's Infinity Circuit that it will enter the prepared vessel and slay the impudent mortal once again.

You'd think that a giant molten monstrosity like Khaine would be one of the most formidable and dreaded opponents in 40K.  Haha, so did I but no.  The writers have applied the Worf effect on Khaine so thoroughly, it's hard to think of anything else more disrespected in the 40K setting (maybe the Iron Hands).  It's gotten to the point where I suspect that the writers get a perverse joy in kicking Khaine while he's down.

Here are just a few ways that the stories/codices have humiliated the Avatar throughout the years.  I didn't even have to look these up.  There are so many embarrassments in the Hall of Shame that I just needed to do a shallow scoop in my mental junk drawer:

• Shattered to a bazillion pieces by Khorne and Slaanesh's wrestling match.

• Killed by Fulgrim with plot armour.

• Put out of its misery by Lorgar during his extended acid trip into the warp. (yeah, that's pretty humiliating)

• Trampled to death by a dozen Carnifexes.

• Possessed by a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh which went on to destroy the Craftworld. (haha, what?)

• Defeated one on one by Marneus Calgar, Chapter Master of the Ultramarines.  I know this one really triggers some fans. 😄

Trust me, the list goes on.  Khaine, what did you do to get on the writers' shit list?  Sure, killing Eldanesh wasn't cool but there are tons of in universe characters that have done much much worse.  Maybe it's part of the BL's ongoing policy of 'Eldar can't have nice things'.

Anyways, here's what I got for Khaine so far.  Molten lava fire monsters are awesome no matter what setting they're in.  I'm not going to add the dripping blood on his hands for obvious reasons.  But I'll probably add dripping blood into a junkpile archive that can be kitbashed.  Okay, I'm off to work on the heresy sisters now.  Here's a preview to whet your appetite:

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Stay tuned!