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| “ | The dark gods demand your soul! I will claim it! | „ |
| ~ Tumulus Samael when first facing Malum Caedo |
Tumulus Samael is the main antagonist of the 2023 video game Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, a follow-up to Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. He is a Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer Lord of the Black Legion, who led a renewed invasion of the Forge World of Graia. Samael was not voiced in-game, his dialogue relayed through text via the Incommodus Servo-skull. He is outfitted in powerful Terminator Power Armor, and his face beneath his helmet was never revealed.
Biography[]
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. By the 41st millennium, the Imperium of Man stood as humanity's last hope in an unforgiving galaxy, and in late M41, the Imperial Forge World of Graia was nearly destroyed by a dual invasion of Orks and Chaos Marines led by Lord Nemeroth. Nemeroth acquired a Warp-based power source used by radical Inquisitor Drogan, attempting to use it to fuel his ascension into a Daemon Prince, only to be thwarted by Captain Titus of the Ultramarines. Titus destroyed Drogan's power source, but a fragment of it survived, and was lost somewhere on Graia, before it was picked up by rogue tech-priests and used in heretical experiments. After several years of these experiments, the tech-priests accidentally opened a Warp rift over the planet, causing a Chaos cult uprising around the labs and allowing Tumulus Samael to invade the planet.
Samael, a powerful Sorcerer Lord of the Black Legion, summoned hordes of Daemons to his aid, from Horrors of Tzeentch to Nurglings, Bloat-Drones, Lords of Change, Screamers, Flamers, and Great Unclean Ones. Alongside his well-armed Chaos Marines, and with immense psychic power, Samael quickly yet quietly killed the planet's defenders around the incursion site and pushed deeper into the planet's more secluded settlements, corrupting survivors into Chaos cultists, leaving behind infestations of daemons and heretics alike. However, the tech-priests had already hidden the power source fragment, so Samael sought a database that could point him in the vault's direction, intending to use the fragment to open a Warp rift large enough to consume the planet and turn it into a Daemon World. However, the Inquisition then intervened to investigate why the settlements went dark, deploying a squad of Ultarmarines Sternguard Veterans to clear any Chaos corruption. Samael seemingly made the pod get shot off-course, causing it to crash and kill almost all the Ultramarines, except for one- Malum Caedo.
Caedo set out to complete his mission alone, racing against Samael to reach the database. Samael managed to reach the database first, finding the location of the fragment before being confronted by Caedo, who had just fought his way through swarms of daemons and Chaos Marines. Undeterred by Caedo's ferocity in combat, Samael taunted Caedo for being too late, battling Caedo alongside summoned daemons and underlings, before teleporting away to retrieve the fragment. Caedo gave chase after using the database himself, shooting through more armies of the Ruinous Powers before later encountering Samael again in the deep Mechanicus vault where the fragment was held. Samael got ahold of the fragment and gloated about his newfound power, fighting Caedo again but once more teleporting away before Caedo could do significant damage. Samael promptly took his forces up to a station of the Graian Crown, a ring of space stations over Graia, ambushing the crew and quickly taking control of most of the station. Inquisitor Seibel, the Inquisitor directing Caedo, survived the attack and fended off daemons alongside surviving personnel, calling Caedo to the Crown and discovering that Samael was using the fragment to corrupt the station's Warp-drive, enlarging the rift over Graia.
Malum Caedo stands over Samael's remains
Caedo managed to get aboard the station, finding that Samael had also been directing his men to turn the station's macrocannons on Graia itself. Caedo first freed the gun controls from heretical presence before making his way to the top of the station, where Samael was using the fragment. After reaching the top of the Crown, leaving a trail of death in his wake, Caedo faced Samael one last time. Samael summoned his remaining forces, continuing to mock Caedo as Samael empowered Greater Daemons and sent waves upon waves of the foul agents of Chaos at the Ultramarine. However, Caedo slew any foe that Samael sent at him, wearing Samael down through a grueling battle. Once Samael's supporting forces were destroyed, Samael faced Caedo alone, still declaring that he would claim Caedo's soul for Chaos Undivided. Caedo, fueled by his unrelenting devotion to the Imperium, fought Samael with his full fury, evading the sorcerer's powerful magic attacks. Ultimately, the overwhelming firepower of Caedo's arsenal utterly eviscerated Samael's body, killing him. Standing over the sorcerer's bloodied, severed head, still wearing its defiled helmet, Caedo obliterated it with a few more shots from his bolter, as if ensuring that Samael could not rise again. Caedo was then immediately met with Inquistor Seibel, and the pair took the fragment off Samael's remains and inserted it into a containment unit, neutralizing it and causing the Warp rift to close, once again sparing Graia from an eternal hell.
