The Animus Malorum
The Animus Malorum (meaning Souls of the Damned) is an ancient baleful skull, the most sacred relic of the Legion of the Damned.[1a][2][3] When its power is unleashed its eyes blaze with light and it removes the soul of enemies, using them to heal and even resurrect fallen Legionnaires, and strengthening those nearby.[1b][3] It can also be used to take the soul of a worthy Space Marine and allow them to become a member of the Legion of the Damned.[2] Accounts vary whether it forms part of a Legionnaire's Armour or if, as legend has it, it is carried into battle by Veteran Sergeant Attica Centurius.[3]
Contents
History
The Animus Malorum is ancient, but its exact origin and nature is unknown, as with everything to do with the Legion of the Damned. However, according to Imperial Scholars, it is almost certainly the skull of a Space Marine Captain, maybe even one from the Legion of the Damned.[1a]
The Animus Malorum was interred in a Basilica of a reliquary-city on an Imperial planet of great significance, but over time the Imperium at large forgot the planet's significance. The planet was attacked by an Ork horde, and only Captain Erices' Company went to the planet's aid. They were overwhelmed by the Orks and fell back to the Basilica district, setting detonation charges throughout the Basilicae catacombs to make sure that the holy site did not fall into enemy hands. However, while Techmarine Marco was preparing to detonate the charges, the Legion of the Damned appeared within the catacombs led by Veteran Sergeant Attica Centurius, in order to prevent them from destroying the reliquaries and causing the Animus Malorum to be lost. Centurius recovered the Animus Malorum, and the Legion drove back the Orks.[2]
The Legion's numbers had been falling for decades and they needed new Legionnaires, so Centurius asked Captain Erices to give his soul to the Animus Malorum and join the Legion. Erices accepted, and Centurius gave the other surviving Space Marines the choice to "Serve or Die", killing those who did not choose to join them, as he considered their souls forfeit as part of the Imperium's debt to the Legion.[2]
Since then the Animus Malorum has become part of the legend of Attica Centurius, who carries it into battle whenever he appears, turning his squad into an unstoppable force.[3][1a] It has been seen numerous times, in vid-records of battles and with corroborated eyewitness accounts. These records were studied by Imperial Scholars, who attempted to determine the relic's origins, and concluded that the skull's three metal Service Studs betray its origin as the skull of a Captain. The accounts also leave Imperial Forces with little doubt of the Animus Malorum's power.[1a]
Description
The Animus Malorum is an oversized archaic skull, that is described as unearthly, sinister and baleful, and is polished, with three metal Service Studs in the upper cranium. Legionnaires in the Animus Malorum's presence are surrounded by a phantasmal haze, and when its power is unleashed, its eye sockets shimmer and blaze with a malignant, ethereal, radiant light.[1a][1b][2][3]
Some accounts claim that the skull is carried into battle, while others insist that it formed part of a Legionnaire's spectral Power Armour, as if the Legionnaire and the Animus Malorum were somehow one.[3]
Before being recovered by Centurius, the Animus Malorum was kept in a Basilica reliquary in a blackened wooden box, perhaps thirty centimeters across. The box had a lid with seals that had corroded by the time it was recovered.[2]
Powers
The Animus Malorum can be used when close to the enemy. Its victims die a horrifying death, visibly withering beneath its sightless stare as unwholesome energies draw out their soul, sucking it out of their body and leaving behind an emaciated corpse.[1a][3] Those affected feel the abyss beckoning and gaping beneath them, shot through with the howling tormented souls of those found wanting in their final moments of service to the Emperor.[2]
Whenever a soul is taken in this way, the haze that surrounds nearby Legionnaires condenses into an aetheric miasma, rendering them all but immune to physical harm, with an unearthly resiliance to incoming fire. Within this miasma, the Legionnaires' rent armour reforms, their intangible flesh knits together even from grievous wounds, and the fallen rise unharmed and ready to slaughter the enemy with renewed ferocity.[1a][3]
It can also be used to take the soul of a worthy Space Marine to join the Legion of the Damned. When Captain Erices stared into the Animus Malorum's sightless eyes and gave himself to it, he saw an infinite timeless abyss yawning there, like a grim mirror that revealed the fate of all those who had lived and died in the Galaxy, including the truth of the Legion of the Damned, and the Animus Malorum's original owner. He gave over his soul to join the Legion, and in doing so left his dead body behind.[2]
See also
Sources
- 1: White Dwarf 195 (UK)
- 1a: Legion of the Damned, pgs. 11-15
- 1b: The Animus Malorum Wargear Card, included cardboard supplement
- 2: Animus Malorum (Short Story)
- 3: Codex: Legion of the Damned (6th Edition), Relic of the Damned: The Animus Malorum
