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Ghargatuloth

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Ghargatuloth is one of the most powerful Daemon Princes of the Chaos God Tzeentch, The Changer of Ways[1b]. Ghargatuloth is also known by the names "The Prince of a Thousand Faces," "The Forger of Hells" and "The Whisper in the Darkness"[1a]; its manifestation in realspace is a monolithic black pillar of flesh, the surface dotted with many mouths and eyes.[1a][1e] This feature, as well as its ability to appear to its disciples in many varying avatars[1e], contribute to it title as "The Prince of a Thousand Faces".

History

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This page contains spoilers for: Grey Knights (Novel)

Ghargatuloth is a daemon created from information, and is able to manifest itself and corrupt others through this media. In its youth, it walked as a mortal human being, and lived out several lifetimes, sometimes as a warlord, sometimes as a neutral observer. It witnessed the coming and going of the Age of Strife, the rise of the Emperor, the Horus Heresy, and the subsequent decline of the Imperium.[1d]

Its worshippers have been known to corrupt data machines for its cause.[Needs Citation]

The Daemon Prince was present at the conclave on Thalassocres where Tzeentch spoke to his greatest daemons and revealed a fragment of his labyrinthine schemes for the galaxy. For many of the daemons in attendance, this revelation was so powerful that they were consumed and destroyed by it. But Ghargatuloth understood a great deal of it, and its significance to Ghargatuloth's own plans to destroy the Imperium. [1c]

In late M40 the Imperium has spent nearly a century seeking out where Ghargatuloth would manifest, and tracked it to the distant world of Khorion IX deep in the Halo Zone. Knowing the immense threat the daemon posed, the Ordo Malleus mustered a full three hundred Grey Knights. The Grey Knights Grand Master Mandulis was the sole survivor when he confronted the daemon and banished him, but at the cost of his own life. After its first banishment in 999.M40, Ghargatuloth continued to effect its schemes from the warp, subtly manipulating events in realspace in order to bring about its own return. The centerpiece of its scheme was the creation of the Trail of Saint Evisser, imbuing an ordinary man named Kelkannis Evisser‎ with strange powers, allowing Evisser to perform prodigious feats that gained him a cult following. The Ecclesiarchy, rather than condemn Evisser as a heretic and end the sudden prosperity he brought to the Trail worlds, tacitly accepted Evisser as a Living Saint, and allowed the Trail to continue. By creating such an object of worship, and an entire "industry" that dominated so many worlds, Ghargatuloth imbued its creation with a kind of immortality, and drew strength from the flow of worship and information devoted to him.[1d]

With the help of its servant Gholic Ren-Sar Valinov, Ghargatuloth succeeded in returning to the material realm on Volcanis Ultor, only to be banished again. While trying to track Ghargatuloth's schemes, Inquisitor Briseis Ligeia became corrupted by the daemon and lost her mind, but was simultaneously able to glean Ghargatuloth's True Name from her contact with the daemon. These words, dismissed as meaningless gibberish by her interrogators in the Ordo Malleus, were read by Justicar Alaric of the Grey Knights, who pronounced the daemon's true name on Volcanis Ultor, allowing its mortal body to be destroyed.[1e]

Ghargatuloth's true name was then carefully inscribed into the Codicium Aeternum, as preparation for the inevitable day, a thousand years later, when the daemon would rise again.[1f]

Sources