The Librarius of the Wormwood Sons
"If you go outTo the woods,beware, the maiden, beware.If you go outTo the woodsShe’s there, the maiden, she’s there"
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| [//mikl_h-w/@duckcalledsue+] |
'They are all there and waiting. The room is dimly lit. As always on The Wurm, the temperature is well below freezing, and rime coats their battle-plate as they stand in a circle around the slab of rock in the middle of the Vault. The air is thin and only the hum of the reactor can be heard. They are waiting for him to make his assessment.
On the rock the cards are spread out, three different motives. The first: a spiked gauntlet, pierced by a ray of pure light. The second: A blind woman, crippled in the flesh, holds two orbs, black and white. The third: A ruined tower, its ramparts aflame, a gaunt defender on a dead world.
They are all there, the Five, and even though they are all brothers, Lochaghos, they wait for him. The instruments under his cowl wheezes and lets out air, the cold turning it into vapour dancing around his huge frame as he lifts his hand in a gesture that means he is about to adress the others in accordance to the traditions of the Five. The silence becomes pregnant with anticipation.
They watch him as he states what they have all seen in the Tarot of Atom. As he speaks he draws back the cowl, revealing his dark skinned face to them, glagolitic script of Old Terra lining his scalp from his eyes to the neural plugs in the back of his head.
He is speaking the truth and therefore they must see him.
"I have read the Atomic Tarot again and again. The Gauntlet, The Abiotic Maiden, The Purged. They all tell the same tale of betrayal and vengeance. We are forced to muster the Chapter, brothers, the death of Ishim calls for an answer and we must provide it. The Atomic Tarot has revealed this." The announcement is delivered, his gentle voice at odds with its message and his massive posthuman frame.
The largest of The Five steps close to him, his scarred war-plate humming with energy. In the alcove behind him, his choir whispers and shuffles, the rustle of their heavy garbs lost in the sudden noise of active Astartes armour. He towers above the speaker. "So it is war then?" the giant rasps through his helmet.
Gergorii Varn, Chief Librarian of the Wormwood Sons, smiles and nods. He takes one last look at the Tarot as if to make sure that his truth has not turned false.
"Yes, Lord, it is war."
***
The Hand of Atom: Varn, Chief Librarian
Part of the inner council of The Five, Gergorii Varn –Chief Librarian of the Wormwood Sons, Grand Dioiketes of the Five, Scryer-Father, Keeper of the 'Lay of Atom – was trusted with keeping the Librarium of the Sons and responsible for conducting the Atomic Tarot. Varn was a shadowy figure in the War, accompanying various Ruinbringers and lending his power of foresight to those he deemed in the need of them, providing advice and casting the Tarot before battles.
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| Gergorii Varn, Chief Librarian of the Wormwood Sons [//mikl_h-w/@duckcalledsue+] |
As a close confidante of the Chapter Master, Ivanov Kurst, the Chief Librarian was instrumental in the wider conflict, often serving as the proxy of Kurst in dealing with the fellow Partisan Chapters. Though soft-spoken and reserved, Varn did not shy away from conflicts with his allies, especially when decisions conflicted with his visions in the Atomic Tarot. A falling-out over objectives in the latter part of the conflict left the Wormwood Sons under his direct command alienated from the Star Wardens Chapter; Varn refusing to commit the Sons in support of the Star Wardens 7th Company, earning him the enmity of the 7th Commander.
For the outsider, Varn's command would often seem erratic, random even, until the engagement was well under way until the Chief Librarian made his presence felt and showed his hand. While not a charismatic leader like Kurst or the Chaplain Barabas, the Sons showed great reverence and respect for him, and followed his orders without question. Such was his proficiency of the Tarot, a reputation he had built for himself in his ascension to his post and title, that he earned the name ‘Scryer-Father’.
Notable Actions
Varn was present at the Seven Pillars of Salt in the early part of Operation Gauntlet, leading an army group of Wormwood Sons in an assault on the seven shrine-worlds that served as staging grounds for the Frateris Militia in the Morqub subsector.
The first world to fall was Heavenvert, a vast Paradise World famed for its beautiful jungles and Cathedral Ziggurats. Commanding from his own flagship, the Gaugamela, Varn would conduct the atomic cleansing with efficient precision, turning the great Cathedral-district of Urs into irradiated wasteland before unleashing the Son's 4th company into the ruins on a search-and-destroy mission.
The second world to fall under the heavy hand of Atom would be St. Abborre’s Seat, its famed necropolis seas turned into vapour by the arsenal unleashed by Varn, leaving only smears of ash where once stood massive subsea-based edifices commemorating St. Abborre himself and his closest disciples. This campaign was conducted in concert with the Iron Guard.
Last to feel the bitter attention of Varn's fleet would be the bread-basket of the Seven Pillars, Holy See of St. Fabius, where Varn would personally grind the epitaph of the saint himself into the irradiated soil of what remained of the capital’s Grand Cathedral of The Pillars of His Throne. While the local defence forces and Frateris Militia put up a strong resistance, they could not hope to better the Wormwood Sons fighting in the element they were bred to master.
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| [//++ Gergorii Varn leads Wormwood Sons elements at the Holy See of St. Fabius. Time-ident occluded+] [//mikl_h-w/@duckcalledsue+] |
Following several skirmishes with Red Talon and Death Eagle (II) forces in the nearby asteroid belt of Trado Centaurii, Varn disappeared with his fleet, taking the Gaugamela into the blackness of the void to pursue objectives set by Kurst at the beginning of the war. What these were, and how they would fit into the wider plans of the Partisans, is not known.
Varn appeared again at the Casting of the Spear, lending his considerable knowledge in unleashing the Spear of Atom upon the Charnel Guard. The details of that action can be found in other accounts.
***
Dark practice
It is difficult to say with certainty, as the records are few and generally untrustworthy, but Gergorii Varn would seem to spend the latter part of the conflict in altogether darker practices. The appearance of the so-called Solar Wraiths were linked to his personal campaigns and in many instances they would appear alongside him in boarding actions and planetary assaults. Especially the abomination known as the ‘Abiotic Maiden’ seem to have had a special connection to Varn, with at least three separate recorded attacks linking it to the Gaugamela and Varn himself.
“I was there, yeah, at The End. Capital ‘T’ and ‘E’.
Emperor, we were afraid! We had the entire Battlefleet behind us, and the damned Talons too. Some of those spooky-psycho Flesh Eaters too.
It was enough. Just about enough. They threw everything they had left at us, from atomics to chems, the lot. We were barely enough. We died in droves! My men, they…it’s like we weren’t even there, you know? Like we didn’t matter? Like these gods, these abominations, were fighting a last war and we were in the way.
When we breached the last line I thought I’d seen the worst. That’s when we saw her. Lord Emperor, it was terrible. To see one of the giants like that. And she was everywhere! In the walls, all around us I tell you! We couldn’t kill her! We tried everything! Threw everything at her! The wails, I can still hear her wailing, it drove the men nuts! I don’t know how many of us made it out there alive. I don’t care. Just shoot me and be done with it. I don’t care."
[VOX-OFFICER1]: “We’re boxed in, give me a link to Command now, if we don’t[WHITE NOISE]..as that?! GOD EMPEROR WHAT WAS THAT!?[SCREAMING+WHITE NOISE+WAILING]…ILL IT! KILL IT NOW! WHAT IS THAT THING?! GEETI BRING YOUR MELTA AROUND AND HOSE THAT THING[WHITE NOISE+WAILING+KEENING+WHITE NOISE]…RKING! GET ME OUT, JUST GET ME OUT! PLEASE! GOD EMPEROR PLEASE! SHE’S HERE! SHE’S HERE!
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| [//Pict-record label=ABSENT{Cross-ref: suggests redacted title 'ABIOMAID001SS'+] [//mikl_h-w/@duckcalledsue+] |
***
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Of Varn's ultimate fate, little is known. It is thought that he perished in the last stage of the war, his retinue of ships hunted down by combined forces of the Red Talons and nomad-predation elements of the Carcharodons. Other rumours insist that he was ultimately undone by his own experiments with the dread forces he had set out to harness in the thrall of his Chapter.
Whatever the truth, Varn left a legacy of dead worlds in his wake, a trail across the War of the False Primarch few others could have walked with the same confidence as the Scryer-Father.
***
Tiberius Crom, Codicier
The trooper in front drops suddenly, her flatlining vitals ringing in the rest of her squad's ears.No shots had rung out, no signs of enemy snipers, she had simply dropped. Ziegler's geiger counter begins to squeal in his ears, then howl and finally cut dead – alongside its bearer.In concert, each member of Alpha Platoon drops dead, their bodies overcome with rapid-onset necrosis, essential cells lysing and organs failing.Tiberius emerged from the shadows of the manufactorum's primary entrance with a smirk. A dismissive flick of the rest reshaped and thinned the cloak of gamma particles he had beckoned...
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| [//Tiberius Crom, Codicier+] [//nick_t/@k0rdhal+] |
“There exists some integer x such that x multiplied by 2 is equal to 2¹ × 38 × 56 × 75 × 116 × 139, and there does not exist any integer x such that x multiplied by 4 is equal to 2¹ × 38 × 56 × 75 × 116 × 139.” The corresponding formula is:(∃x)(x × ss0 = sss … sss0) ⋅ ~(∃x)(x × ssss0 = sss … sss0)where sss … sss0 stands for 2¹ × 38 × 56 × 75 × 116 × 139 copies of the successor symbol s. This forms the basis what is known as “The House of the Maiden”, a string of formulas thought to hold the truth of existence. There has been numerous tries by various scholars in locating this “House of the Maiden”, but so far none known successes. The symbol ⋅ means “and,” and is shorthand for a longer expression in the fundamental vocabulary: p ⋅ q stands for ~(~p ∨ ~q)…