Raezazel
Raezazel the Cunning is a daemon that serves Tzeentch.
History
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This page contains spoilers for: | Hammer of Daemons (Novel) |
Raezazel learned that the universe was nothing but Lies when he was young, and chose to serve Tzeentch because he thought there could be no greater power. He served Tzeentch as both assassin and puppet master. He became an expert at fulfilling the desires of those who called out to Tzeentch in a way that they became utterly damned. He manipulated whole empires to bring a single person low. He witnessed the Dark Age of Technology, and the subsequent Age of Strife. He observed much of the Horus Heresy and reported back to the daemon princes of Tzeentch, whispering promises of power and deliverance as he always had done. He was there at Prospero, Istvaan V, and even Terra when the final stages of the Heresy were played out.
Raezazel was tasked with finding souls and delivering them to Tzeentch. The holier the souls and the deeper they believed in the Emperor, the better. So he became a human, magnificently handsome and glowing with charisma. He came to a belt of isolated worlds and proclaimed himself a prophet. Many of the people were hard-bitten missionaries of the Ecclesiarchy, and denounced him as a heretic and implored the people to take up arms and burn him at the stake. But for every Emperor-fearing citizen who wanted him dead, there were two or three more who believed in Raezazel's promises. Nobles and governors fell under his spell, for they knew more than anyone how tiny and insignificant any one person was, and they yearned for something more in their lives. Raezazel invented the Promised Land, a place of eternal bliss, where they could be free, and the True Emperor would be waiting for them. They found a spacecraft, the Hammer of Daemons, and used all the cult's resources making it Warp-capable, and home to thousands of followers. On the day when the craft was to be launched, Raezazel appeared and told them that they would have to pass through a Warp Rift hidden amongst the worlds of the Eye of Terror. However, the navigation failed to take into account the daemon-world Drakaasi, which drifted across the Eye of Terror on the echoes of the Warp's tides. That planet was in their path as the ship exited the Warp, and the ship was caught in its gravity well. Raezazel raged in frustration, and used his sorcery to force it back onto its course, but his powers were not enough to compete with the gravity of a planet. The ship crashed into a city. Its structure was sound enough to keep it intact, but the minds of its inhabitants were not so sound. The madness and murder that followed were so terrible that the whole planet heard the echo of it. Raezazel slipped out of the ship and hid among the planet's cities.
Titanic daemons fought on Drakaasi, and the Chaos God Khorne won, leaving Raezazel trapped and cut off from the Warp. He lived there for a thousand years, snatching tragedies from Khorne's servants, promising them yet more bloodshed and then robbing them of their minds. Khorne's own daemons hunted him, but more often than not they consumed each other, turned against their fellows by Raezazel. He became the most hated creature of Drakaasi. Then Duke Venalitor rose, and sought out Raezazel as many lords and champions had done before, and, as always, Raezazel asked what Venalitor most desired. Venalitor said that he wanted a worthy opponent, and so Raezazel offered him the best of Drakaasi's fighters, knowing that in besting them Venalitor would either kill himself or be driven mad by victory or defeat. However, Venalitor killed them all, and Raezazel offered himself up as an opponent, believing that no mortal could best him. But Venalitor cut Raezazel so deeply that the daemon knew fear for the briefest of moments. When Raezazel glimpsed into the Warp again, and saw the many faces of Tzeentch laughing back at him, for he himself had been lied to. Raezazel was taken to the Hecatomb and imprisoned behind doors marked with the most powerful anti-magical wards and bound by ancient daemon oaths to serve Venalitor.
Centuries later, Justicar Alaric of the Grey Knights was thrown into his cell, with orders from Venalitor for Alaric to be possessed. Raezazel spent many days trying to break Alaric, bombarding him with horrific visions and offers to fulfill his heart's desires; but only succeeded in driving him temporarily mad. However, in attempting to possess Alaric, Raezazel had let his mind touch Alaric, and Alaric learned of the Hammer of Daemons. It led him to seek out the ship and instigate a slave break-out at the sacred Vel'Skan game, which triggered a massive civil war between Drakaasi's lords. During the chaos, the Hecatomb burned, the wards about Raezazel's prison crumbled, and he was set free. He found his way aboard the Hammer of Daemons, and began slaughtering all the slaves on the ship just as it took off Drakaasi, with the intention of flying the ship to a new world and begin anew. However, the last survivor, Haggard, managed to revert the ship back to its original course, the Warp Rift, and wrecked the controls. As the ship neared the Warp Rift, Tzeentch itself spoke, decrying Raezazel for his failure to deliver the souls of the faithful. Raezazel's ultimate fate is unknown, but it is likely that he was punished by Tzeentch for his failure.
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