Pharaa'gueotla
A Daemon Prince from the most ancient times, Pharaa'gueotla had seen galaxies born and die and has destroyed whole star systems for its amusement.[1a]
History
As the newly emergent race of Mankind evolved into a thinking creature, the species' capacity for treachery and guile appealed to the daemon's destructive nature and it settled on ancient Terra to amuse itself. For countless millennia the daemon used its human pawns as mere playthings in its games of mass destruction, that ravaged the surface of Terra. It was with the coming of the God-Emperor that Pharaa'gueotla's terror finally came to an end. Using his first armies of genetically engineered super warriors, the Emperor drove the Daemon Prince from humanity's homeworld. Fleeing across the universe the daemon was finally cornered on the world that would become known as Karis Cephalon. The Emperor, with the help of The Angel, a powerful weapon that he had built himself to destroy mankind's enemies, were able to imprison the daemon in the very bedrock of the planet.[2a]
Imprisoned for fifteen thousand years, the daemon was finally awoken by a misguided Inquisitor Lichtenstein, a Radical senior member of the Inquisition, who had been searching for the location of the Librarium Hereticus, a damned collection of forbidden tomes and techno-arcana, a location he believed the imprisoned daemon knew.[1b] Using the powers at his disposal the Inquisitor was able to free a portion of the daemon's consciousnesses from its prison. Awake for the first time in millennia, the Daemon tricked the Inquisitor into trying to unlock a gateway on Karis Cephalon, which would open into the Immaterium and release the daemon completely. Believing his search to finally be at an end, Lichtenstein began to open the gateway, only to be stopped by Inquisitor Kessel, who had been tracking Lichtenstein.[2a]
Its plans thwarted, Pharaa'gueotla used the followers it had gathered since its awakening to kidnap a powerful psyker, which through possessing his body would allow it to escape its ancient prison. The daemon and its followers gathered at the settlement of Paganus Reach, where they began the ritual that would allow the possession of the psyker. Once again however, its plans were thwarted by Kessel, as well as by a vengeful Lichtenstein. While the daemon was in the process of possessing the psyker, the Inquisitors destroyed the body and with it the Daemon Prince - or so they thought.[2a]
The daemon would not be denied its freedom, and began to roam the planet of Karis Cephalon once more, looking for another host body. Eventually, it located a suitable host in Cardinal Kodazcka. Using its surviving followers, it had the Cardinal kidnapped. Following a daemonic ritual, the daemon possessed the body of the Cardinal and began to enjoy its new found freedom by laying waste to the city of Cephalon.[2b]
Agents of the Inquisition on the planet were tasked with locating the one weapon capable of stopping Pharaa'gueotla: the Angel, the weapon that aided the Emperor of Mankind in imprisoning the daemon millennia ago. Sensing that its hated foe was close to being awakened, the Daemon Prince made its way to the ruins of the Amethyst Palace in Cephalon, where the agents were able to locate the Angel's coffin. Seeing the daemon coming closer, and with it their certain doom, the agents were able to free the Angel. Once more these two ancient enemies clashed in a battle that left massive craters wherever one of the combatants fell. Eventually, the Angel was triumphant after driving its sword through the body of the daemon. Rising high into the air, the Angel hurled the defeated Daemon Prince to the ground.[2c]
See also
Sources
Uncited appearances
- White Dwarf 257 (UK) pgs. 101-115 - The Dweller Beneath: an Inquisitor (game) battle report by Graham McNeill, Phil Kelly and Rowland Cox
