Spire Slayer

Chaos Portal

A Spire Slayer is an animated doomsday device, designed to slaughter the population of an entire hive, built by Samech’s artisans constructed for clientele set on eliminating capital worlds.^[1]

Although all Slayers possess common attributes to make them fit for their purpose, no two are alike. Each one is commissioned to a particular hive’s quirks, and given a form that can easily hide on that particular world. Lastly, each blasphemous masterwork holds an empyrean-matrix that sustains a powerful bound daemon. The daemon animates the mechanical chassis, and contributes many unique and unpredictable gifts to each Slayer. It also provides a Spire Slayer with the murderous ingenuity necessary to engineer millions of deaths.^[1]

The majority of Spire Slayers are forged in the shape of gargoyles or statuary, allowing the creator to individualise his work with a terrifying visage, and permitting it to hide in plain sight. Speed and agility are critical to a Slayer’s success so that it can work its way rapidly through the population and traverse the sprawling hivescape with ease. A slayer’s metal shell is capable of sustaining massive amounts of damage; it must be all but disintegrated before the construct ceases to function.^[1]

The elegant blades and pinions adorning a Slayer’s chassis become deadly instruments of bloodshed once the daemon’s essence infuses them. Although each of these creatures relishes personal slaughter, it would only be able to kill a few million victims a year if it hunted the entire population one at a time.^[1]

Activity Cycle

A Spire Slayer’s activity cycle is characterised by three phases:

Walking: The Slayer is full of hunger and violence, but lacks the power necessary to cause mass casualties.Its strength grows as it accumulates victims. This takes anywhere from a few months to a few years as it build its power and sates its most pressing violent urges.^[1]

Culmination: In this state it is all but unstoppable, with the daemon able to power the devastating gifts imbued at its dark forging. The brand of ruin that a Slayer can wreak is as unique as the abomination itself. Mass warp incursion, plague, and seismic disasters are but a few examples.^[1]

Waning: The Slayer hunts the survivors of its apocalypse. The majority of its power has been expended; it no longer possesses the omnipotence with which it attempted genocide, but it is still more than a match for even a small army of humans. Furthermore, it has forged a deep link with the hive, and as such has preternatural knowledge of every living creature in its domain. The entire cycle of murder can easily take decades, but a Spire Slayer has nothing but time and fury to expend.^[1]

Source

• 1: Deathwatch: Mark of the Xenos, pgs. 94-96