Lord Commander Eidolon, also known as The Risen, is a minor antagonist in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise. He was the Lord Commander Primus of the Emperor's Children Space Marine Legion, which fell to the corruption of Slaanesh during the Horus Heresy.
Eidolon was featured in works such as Galaxy in Flames, Fulgrim, The Primarchs, Angel Exterminatus, Fabius Bile: Clonelord, Slaves to Darkness, Saturnine, Horus Rising, The Path of Heaven, The Soul, Severed, and The Reflection Crack'd.
Biography[]
Great Crusade[]
In the grim darkness of the far future, the Emperor of Mankind created the Imperium of Man. In the 31st millennium, He launched a Great Crusade across the stars to rebuild the divided, crumbling human race and return it to its lost golden age. To do this, the Emperor created many Space Marine Legions, each under command of a Primarch, the Emperor's transhuman sons. The Emperor's Children Legion, the IIIrd Legion, was given to the Primarch Fulgrim. Eidolon, presumably from planet Chemos, the world where Fulgrim was raised on, joined the Emperor's Children and was converted into a superhuman Astartes, better known as Space Marines. Eidolon's exemplary drive for perfection led to him being the first of eleven Astartes personally promoted by Fulgrim to the rank of Lord Commander, and built a reputation for being the most proficient of the Legion's Lord Commanders, performing excellently in sieges, rapid assaults, and holding actions. However, while Eidolon was undyingly loyal to Fulgrim, who he saw as a sort of father figure, Eidolon was extremely arrogant and increasingly vain.
Murder[]
During the Great Crusade, the Imperium eventually encountered the alien Megarachnids on planet One-Forty-Twenty, which was soon named "Murder" by the Blood Angels Legion. While the Imperium launched a campaign to exterminate the hostile xenos, the Megarachnids inflicted heavy casualties on the Blood Angels, who called the Emperor's Children for assistance. However, Eidolon's arrogance led to him making the same mistake as the Blood Angels- trying to land shuttles through the planet's incredibly turbulent atmosphere, leading to his forces being scattered and easily picked off by Megarachnids, until captain Saul Tarvitz discovered and destroyed a Megarachnid weather-altering device. This provided enough respite for more Imperial reinforcements to land, in the form of Warmaster Horus Lupercal's Luna Wolves Legion and Imperial Army, saving the Emperor's Children before Eidolon and his men could be overrun. However, Eidolon was less that grateful, soon butting heads with Luna Wolves captain Tarik Torgaddon, who insulted Eidolon in front of his men, something that Eidolon would never forget.
Over the next few months, Eidolon and the surviving Emperor's Children accompanied the Imperial reinforcements in clearing the seemingly endless waves of Megarachnids, slaughtering the arachnoid xenos and leveling the landscape in their wake. However, before the Megarachnids could be fully exterminated, Horus abruptly canceled the campaign due to being contacted by the Interex, an advanced civilization of humans and xenos who had initially marooned the Megarachnids on Murder.
Laeran[]
At another point in the Great Crusade, the Emperor's Children discovered planet Laeran, which was inhabited by intelligent serpentine xenos known as the Laer. The Laer, like the Emperor's Children, strived for perfection in all things, but unknown to the Legion, the Laer were worshippers of the Chaos God Slaanesh, the god of pleasure and excess. While the Adeptus Administratum first wanted a possibly peaceful integration of the Laer and their valuable homeworld to the Imperium, Fulgrim refused to see xenos as equals, especially after they responded to Imperial envoys with violence, refusing to share their immense Chaos-fueled fortunes. As such, Fulgrim ordered Eidolon and the other Lord Commanders to exterminate the Laer. The campaign encompassed all parts of the planet, from its vast oceans to its skies and the orbital battle stations above it, the last of which was handled by the company of Marius Vairosean. As Eidolon lead the slaughter of the xenos alongside Fulgrim, they noted that the Laer had been experimenting with themselves, breeding themselves into a variety of specialized forms that they were now using to fight back against the Imperium. This was also noted by Chief Apothecary Fabius Bile, who sought to replicate the enhancements of the Laer within the Emperor's Children, proposing that the Emperor's grand design was merely the first step in something greater.
The campaign on Laeran ended with the Laer exterminated, and at the end of the campaign, Fulgrim, captain Julius Kaesoron, and other personnel of the Legion entered a temple of Slaanesh, which corrupted them, and where Fulgrim picked up a Daemon-hosting sword that would soon be his downfall. Eidolon, however, submitted himself to experimentations on gene-seed enhancements by Fabius Bile, seeking to make himself stronger to further cement his role as the indispensable right-hand of Fulgrim. Bile then implanted a xenotech organ into Eidolon's vocal chords, enabling him to emit paralyzing screeches, modeled after similar organs found in Laer warriors. However, when Eidolon was told that the implants was xenotech, Eidolon was outraged and demanded that they be removed. However, the work was authorized by Fulgrim himself, so Eidolon ultimately accepted the enhancement.
Horus Heresy[]
Isstvan III[]
As the Daemon sword began swaying Fulgrim to Slaanesh, a curse spreading throughout the Legion as the Emperor's Children grew increasingly deranged in their pursuit of perfection, other Primarchs were falling to Chaos, such as Lorgar Aurellian, Magnus the Red, Konrad Curze, Perturabo, Alpharius Omegon, Angron, Mortarion, and even Warmaster Horus Lupercal. While most of their respective Legions had joined them, there were still Loyalists in their forces. As such, Horus, Fulgrim, Mortarion, and Angron plotted to purge the Loyalists from their Legions during a campaign to the renegade planet Isstvan III. After a failed attempt to sway Loyalist Primarch Ferrus Manus to their side, the Emperor's Children deployed to the Isstvan system to supposedly help purge the traitors that had taken over the planets, including Slaanesh cults. Eidolon gladly followed his Primarch's wishes in betraying the Imperium, slating many known and suspected Loyalists in the Legion for death. On Isstvan Extremis, Eidolon led the Legion's 1st Company against the hordes of Slaanesh cultists, partnering with the Death Guard's 7th company, under the command of captain Nathaniel Garro. During the battle, Garro was critically wounded by a Slaaneshi psyker, only for Eidolon to unleash a sonic shriek from his implants, destroying the enemy psyker, making Eidolon a possible predecessor to the Noise Marines. Garro's body would be repaired thanks to medical assistance from Bile, but once Isstvan Extremis was cleared, Eidolon moved his forces to Isstvan III, where the Loyalist purge was set to occur.
Once the Emperor's Children arrived over Isstvan III, Eidolon purposefully sent known Loyalists down to the planet's surface with orders to purge all Slaaneshi cultists from the world, alongside Loyalists from Mortarion's Death Guard, Angron's World Eaters, and Horus' Luna Wolves, now known as the Sons of Horus. Among the Loyalists was captain Lucius, and Saul Tarvitz, who Eidolon personally gave the responsibility of leading the charge. However, Tarvitz realized that something was very wrong, for Eidolon would never give up a chance for glory. Deciding to investigate, Tarvitz gave command to legendary Dreadnought Rylanor and remained aboard the Andronius, Eidolon's strike ship. There, Tarvitz discovered that Eidolon was part of a conspiracy to kill all the Loyalists at once, via virus bombs that were to be launched while the Loyalists were in the midst of a ground assault. As such, Tarvitz quickly boarded a Thunderhawk gunship and raced to surface. Eidolon, realizing what was happening, deployed Raven interceptors after Tarvitz, and when Tarvitz' gunship approached the Eisenstein, a nearby Death Guard frigate, Eidolon contacted the Eisenstein and ordered it to shoot Tarvitz down. However, the Death Guard marine who responded was none other than Nathaniel Garro, who had been recovering since Isstvan Extremis, and was a longtime friend and honor-brother of Tarvitz. As such, Tarvitz quickly told Garro the truth over the vox, and Garro shot down Tarvitz' pursuers, allowing his friend to reach the surface.
The Eisenstein soon made an escape from the system, while Tarvitz got as many Loyalists as he could to the safety of bunkers, including Rylanor, so the subsequent virus bombardment did not destroy them all. Angron then personally flew down to the surface with his traitor World Eaters, followed by traitors of the Sons of Horus, Death Guard, and Emperor's Children, with Eidolon leading the attack on Tarvitz, who had organized a cohesive band of Loyalist marines. In fact, Tarvitz' leadership, bolstered by fellow Loyalist Emperor's Children captain Solomon Demeter, Loyalist Sons of Horus captains Garviel Loken and Tarik Torgaddon, and the firepower of the seemingly unstoppable Rylanor, turned the planned massacre into a months-long guerrilla war. Eidolon led assault after assault on a palace that Tarvitz was using as a stronghold, being beaten back each time, until Lucius' sheer jealousy caused him to betray Tarvitz and turn to Eidolon's side, allowing Eidolon to storm the palace with his men. Order quickly broke down on both sides as an especially fierce battle broke out between the Loyalists and traitors, where Lucius challenged Tarvitz to a duel, which Tarvitz accepted and won. Lucius fled, as did the Loyalists, but Tarvitz managed to deal considerable damage to Eidolon's over-extended forces even during the retreat, punishing Eidolon's continued arrogance in battle.
Ultimately, repeated bombardment and traitor assaults pushed the already-strained Loyalists up to Chloral City, the planet's capital, where Tarvitz and the last Loyalists finally met their end. However, Rylanor and Loken survived, the former by being trapped in a hangar bay deep beneath the city, while the latter escaped into the ruins. Regardless, Eidolon was content with his grand victory, returning to the fleet with his surviving forces, the Legion now firmly controlled by the traitors.
Drop Site Massacre[]
Eidolon then took his forces to Isstvan V, under orders from Fulgrim to capture a series of ancient alien fortresses on the planet. En route, aboard the Emperor's Children flagship Pride of the Emperor, many of Eidolon's fellow traitors were converted into grotesque Noise Marines as the Legion sold itself to Slaanesh. After arriving on Isstvan V, Eidolon and Fulgrim oversaw contingents of the Dark Mechanicum, Chaos-worshipping tech-priests who turned to Horus' side, creating fortifications and excavating the xeno ruins. Then, Loyalist Primarch Rogal Dorn, informed of Horus' treachery via the survivors of the Eisentein, deployed two waves of Loyalist Space Marine Legions to Isstvan V with the intent of crushing the uprising. The first wave consisted of the Salamanders, Raven Guard, and Ferrus Manus' Iron Hands, led by Ferrus himself, while the second wave consisted of the Night Lords, Alpha Legion, Iron Warriors, and Word Bearers. However, Dorn did not know that the second wave's Legions had already turned traitor, as they had hidden their true allegiance while Horus started the open rebellion.
Shortly after the first wave landed, the Loyalist Legions found themselves trapped between two armies of traitors, systemically slaughtering the Loyalists. Eidolon and Lucius led the Emperor's Children into battle, with Eidolon gleefully unleashing sonic howls as he tore his way through the Loyalists, and Lucius madly laughing at music only he could hear. In a few hours, almost the entirety of the three Loyalist Legions were dead, as was Ferrus Manus, personally decapitated by Fulgrim.
Later Heresy[]
In the wake of the successful Drop Site Massacre, the Emperor's Children were ordered to make for the Sol System to invade Mars, but instead, Fulgrim directed his forces to the Forge World of Prismatica V. Eidolon dutifully accompanied Fulgrim on their new course, but found himself increasingly confused with Fulgrim's actions and ever-changing temper, a phenomenon that was affecting the attitude of the other Emperor's Children officers, making it harder for Eidolon to deal with them. As such, Eidolon directly questioned Fulgrim's orders, but when Eidolon attempted to backtrack, Fulgrim decapitated Eidolon in a fit of rage, believing that Eidolon's defiance was a sign of betrayal. The blood from Eidolon's severed head was then mixed with the alcohol being passed around the Legion's officer corps.
Shortly afterwards, Fulgrim, remorseful over killing his most favored commander, had Bile reattach Eidolon's head to his body, allowing Bile to revive Eidolon. However, Eidolon's visage had been grotesquely deformed, and he lived on in excruciating pain. Eidolon's movements were no longer graceful and precise, now being jerky and awkward, closer to that of an Ork than an Astartes, making Fulgrim order Eidolon to stay back until he could walk right. However, even while Bile was punished for making Eidolon so 'ugly', Eidolon reveled in the pain, as now that the Legion had become worshippers of Slaanesh, he could find pleasure in even the most excruciating pain, driving Eidolon mad with joy.
The reanimated Eidolon, now known as The Risen by his fellow Chaos Marines, accompanied Fulgrim to Iydris, where Fulgrim ascended to a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh. Afterwards, Fulgrim began to withdraw from his Legion and the Heresy as a whole, starting to fracture the Emperor's Children. However, even while the Legion began to split into warbands, Eidolon remained in command of a third of the Emperor's Children. With his new position, Eidolon hunted down Astartes of the Loyalist White Scars Legion, even killing a personal bodyguard of the White Scars' Primarch, Jaghatai Khan. However, the White Scars managed to escape him, so Eidolon joined forces with the Death Guard to continue hunting the White Scars. The Death Guard, now converted into vile Plague Marines, servants of Nurgle, helped Eidolon nearly destroy the White Scars in the Battle of Catallus, only for the White Scars to escape again. In the wake of the successful yet costly Loyalist escape, Mortarion, now a Daemon Prince of Nurgle, ordered Eidolon to track down the rogue Typhus and return him to the Death Guard.
Later, Eidolon met with rival Emperor's Children Lord Commander Archorian on the chemically-polluted planet of Horvia to establish the future of the crumbling Legion's command. Eidolon, however, expected an ambush from Archorian, and thus organized a preemptive counter-ambush of Noise Marines. Indeed, Archorian believed that Eidolon plotted to take over the whole Legion, so when Eidolon arrived at the designated area, Archorian unleashed a wave of supposedly lethal chemicals on Eidolon and his forces. However, Eidolon and his Noise Marines survived, albeit with their armor stained bright pink, so when Archorian arrived in person, expecting to find his rival dead, Eidolon used his sonic scream in conjunction with the sonic weaponry of his men to utterly obliterate Archorian and his Terminator bodyguards. The chemical-stained pink would soon become the signature armor color for the rest of the Legion.
Eventually, Lorgar forced Fulgrim to rejoin the Heresy, just as the traitors besieged Terra. Fulgrim rallied all the Emperor's Children back to his side, and alongside other traitor Legions, they invaded Terra in a bid to kill the Emperor and remaining Loyalist Primarchs. Eidolon was tasked with attacking the Saturnine Gate of the Imperial Palace, an operation joined by Ezekyle Abaddon of the Sons of Horus. On the walls of the Saturnine, as the Sons of Horus fell into a trap set by Rogal Dorn, which Abaddon narrowly teleported out of, Rogal Dorn and Imperial Fists first captain Sigismund were attacked by Fulgrim, Eidolon, and other elite marines of the Emperor's Children. Eidolon proved himself to be the strongest of Fulgrim's underlings, but Sigismund managed to grab Eidolon and throw him off the walls of the Saturnine, sending Eidolon plummeting 1,100 meters to the ground below.
Post-Heresy[]
Eidolon managed to survive the battle at the Saturnine, only for the Horus Heresy to be brought to an abrupt end- Horus himself was slain by the Emperor, utterly destroyed in both body and soul, while the Emperor was mortally wounded, and interred upon the Golden Throne, caught between life and death. The survivors of the traitor Legions fled across space, with the Emperor's Children, including Eidolon, fleeing into the Eye of Terror, a giant Warp rift holding many Daemon Worlds. Fulgrim fully withdrew to parts unknown, and the Emperor's Children Legion was finally fully shattered after a conflict with the World Eaters, which also broke the World Eaters into nomadic bands of Khornate Berzerkers. However, Eidolon managed to create a base on the Daemon World of Harmony, where he founded the Phoenix Conclave, a secret organization of the heads of Emperor's Children warbands, aimed at restoring their lost glory and awaiting Fulgrim's return. This allowed Eidolon to secretly ally the warbands with Abaddon, who was now the master of the Sons of Horus, renamed to the Black Legion. Eidolon later claimed that Fulgrim came to him in a dream and ordered him to reunify the Legion, although this claim was doubted by Fabius Bile.
10,000 years later, by the 41st millennium, rumors persisted that Eidolon was still alive and leading increasingly horrific raids on Imperial worlds, claiming that he served as a lieutenant to Abaddon and a champion to Keeper of Secrets N'Kari. However, other rumors insist that Eidolon had died at some point between the Horus Heresy and the 41st millennium, but no Imperial Inquisitor has been able to verify the sources of any rumors, leaving Eidolon's true fate unknown.
