Welcome to Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum! Log in and join the community.

Valerian

From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
Jump to: navigation, search
Custodes-Symbol.jpg Imperium Portal
Adeptus Custodes
Targetdrone.gif This article is about the Custodian; for the Black Templar, see Valerian (Black Templars).
Shield-Captain Valerian and Sister Tanau Aleya[2]

Valerian was a Shield-Captain within the Adeptus Custodes' Hykanatoi's Palaiologian Chamber during the Thirteenth Black Crusade[1a]. He was later named the Hero of Lion's Gate, by Lord Commander Guilliman[3b] for his efforts during the Crusade's battles on Terra and Vorlese.[3a]


Biography

13th Black Crusade

While taking part in a Blood Game, during the Crusade's fifth year, he was asked by the Hetaeron Guard's Tribune, Heracleon, to join their order. This was a great honour for Valerian, as he had long strived to join the Companions, and prepared himself to face the Hetaeron Guard's first trial. It seemed simple enough, as he had to simply enter the chamber of the Golden Throne that held the Emperor, but after catching a glimpse of the Master of Mankind, Valerian body froze and would not obey him. This caused him to fail the trial and Valerian was left ashamed and embarrassed[1b] as he was returned to his former duties of guarding the Imperial Palace's outer walls. He later aided in the Palace's defense, as mayhem swept across Terra in the aftermath of the Great Rift's creation.[1c]

Valerian was part of the 4,000 Custodes warriors which took part in the Second Battle of Terra against the forces of Khorne, during which he met the Sister of Silence Tanau Aleya. Valerian, Aleya, several Sisters, and a squad of Grey Knights managed to take down a Bloodthirster in the battle. As they were about to be overwhelmed, Captain-General Trajann Valoris led a charge from the Lion's Gate that swept across the Chaos forces.[1d]

Following the assault on Terra, Valerian agreed to join Aleya in a bid to follow her captured Black Legion Warp route map to take the fight to Chaos forces. Valerian and Aleya as well as a mixed force of 40 Sisters of Silence and Custodes, journeyed to Vorlese from a Blackship. Once there they found the world under assault from the Black Legion which planned to drop a shard of a Cadian Pylon onto the planets surface to shut down all Warp Travel in the area and isolate Terra[1e]. Valerian and Aleya led a boarding operation of the Chaos Grand Cruiser Heartspite, at the center of the assault and in a desperate last stand, prevented the dropping of the shard. However all of their forces were slaughtered in the process save for Valerian, Aleya, and the Custodes Ujoma. All three were left badly wounded, when Roboute Guilliman's fleet later arrived and defeated the Black Legion by seizing the Heartspite. Valerian and the other survivors were then rushed to Terra to receive priority medical care and all three survived their wounds.[3a]

Era Indomitus

Spoiler!
This page contains spoilers for: Watchers of the Throne: The Regent's Shadow (Novel)

After he had recovered, Guilliman asked to meet with Valerian and thanked the Shield-Captain for his heroic efforts. When Valerian learned that Guilliman planned on launching the Indomitus Crusade, he asked to join and fight beside the Lord Commander. Guilliman, though, declined stating that he would defer to Custodes' Captain-General Trajann Valoris' judgement that Valerian should stay to defend Terra. When the Crusade launched, the Throne World would need to look to its own forces to protect it. He did, however, want to honor Valerian in the tradition of Ultramar, during a ceremony celebrating other worthy participants of the wars on Terra and Vorlese. This would make Valerian an important symbol to the population of Terra and while the Shield-Captain's heart told him he should decline, Valerian ultimately accepted Guilliman's request[3a]. The Shield-Captain took part in the ceremony alongside his comrade, the Witch Seeker Aleya, though, she avoided his attempts to contact her. He did not know it, but Aleya only did so due to not being used to non-members of her Order treating her with comradery, instead of scorn. Valerian did have long to think on this, however, as Guilliman presented him to the crowd watching the ceremony and crowned the Shield-Captain with a laurel wreath taken from Ultramar. Then before the adulating crowds, the Lord Commander proclaimed Valerian the Hero of the Lion's Gate, an ancient honor used only once before, when Terra was invaded during the Horus Heresy.[3b]

Not all those in the Custodes enthused by Valerian accepting the honor, however, and some now saw him as Guilliman's lackey. The Shield-Captain, though, believed in the Lord Commander's vision for the future of the Imperium and Valerian was willing to become one of the symbols he needed to complete his grand task. Yet not helping matters, was the fact that Guilliman personally requested that Valerian head an investigation into the Splintered Cults that were wreaking havoc on Terra. Captain-General Trajann Valoris agreed and Valerian was given command of a group of Custodes, called the Argent Chamber, to aid him in his quest. Valerian's first act was to order an attack on the Heretic Laxlan Skreto, who was one of the Cults' many leaders. The Custodes' intelligence stated that Skreto's Cult had laid claim to Terra's Gorgantha subsector and had repelled the 23rd Hajada Erthguard's efforts to destroy them. This resistance ended, however, when Valerian led a direct strike at Skreto's stronghold and killed the Splintered's forces defending it, before capturing the Cult leader. Skreto was then interrogated by the Custodes[3c] and through him, they learned of many of the Spintered's other Cult leaders, such as Fyger Deflaim, the Lachrymosa and the Convolute. By then, though, the Imperial Fists Captain, Tor Garadon and his Company had arrived to Terra aboard the Phalanx, from the battlefield of Cadia. With his arrival, Captain-General Trajann Valoris, wished for Terra's population to see the Imperial Fists taking the fight to the Splintered, while the Custodes assumed their traditional role of being in the background. As such, he ordered that Valerian cede the leadership of the investigation to Tor Garadon, which the Shield-Captain reluctantly did. After Valerian shared the information the Heretic Skreto gave to them, Garadon decided to strike at the stronghold of the Splintered Cult leader, known as the Convolute.[3d]

With the combined might of the Custodes and Imperial Fists, the Convolute's Heretic forces were easily killed. But even as his Cult was being torn apart, the furious Convolute unleashed his powers and raved at Valerian, that by attacking him they were only making his rival, the Lachrymosa, stronger. The Convolute was then quickly mortally wounded, but before the Shield-Captain could kill him, the Heretic was blown apart by a Minotaurs squadron that suddenly appeared[3e]. The squadron was then questioned by Valerian, but they refused to answer any of his questions. Due to negative past encounters between their Chapters, Captain Tor Garadon ordered the Minotuars to leave immediately. The squadron refused and the two Chapters would have come to blows, had Valerian and his Argent Chamber not placed themselves between the Space Marines. The Shield-Captain then forced them both to stand down, and the Minotaurs left without explaining their actions or why they were on Terra. Afterwards, Valerian informed the Custodes of the Minotuars' presence and their enmity with the Imperial Fists. With that duty done, the Shield-Captain was left intrigued by the hatred in which the Convolute spoke of his rival the Lachrymosa. Seeking to hunt her down, Valerian sought the aid of the Eye of the Emperor Kalluin, to learn more about her. After gathering information through his spy network, however, Kalluin informed Valerian that the Lachyrmosa was the weakest of the remaining Splintered Cult leaders[3f]. Nonetheless, Valerian felt compelled to search for her, as he continued his efforts to destroy the Splintered.[3g]

During that time, Valerian was approached by his comrade the Sister of Silence Aleya, who sought his aid in an investigation she was undertaking. As Custodes had battled the Splintered Chaos Cults, the Sisters' Somnus Citadel stronghold was struck by a failed attempted to destroy it with a bomb-filled lander. Aleya had then tracked down the some of the culprits, but they killed themselves, or were murdered. She, however, found a auto-catechism device, which led her to believe the Imperial Church member known as Peder' was behind the attack and asked Valerian if he knew who that was. After pouring through the device, the Shield-Captain determined that the Peder in the notes, likely referred to the deposed Ecclesiarch and High Lord Baldo Slyst, who had been removed from power by Guilliman. Now that she finally had a target to go after, Aleya asked Valerian to join in her hunt, but he refused due to his orders to strike down the leadership of the Splintered Cults. Before she left, however, the Shield-Captain gave Aleya his Misericordia to wield against Slyst[3h]. Soon afterwards the Splintered took such heavy losses at the Minotaurs' hands, that the Cults rallied under the leadership of Fyger Deflaim for a final stand in the Cathedral of the Emperor Deified. Valerian and the Argent Chamber were part of the Imperial forces sent to confront them, but all were surpised when the Minotaurs launched a sudden strike and destroyed the Splintered Cults. Afterwards, it was revealed that the Minotaurs were acting on the behalf[3i] of the Hexarchy - a group of current and deposed High Lords, that sought to overthrow Guilliman's rule of the Imperium. They broadcasted the Splintered' defeat across Terra, showing that they and not Guilliman would restore order to the Throne World. The Hexarchy then demanded that the High Lords loyal to Guilliman stand down and cede rule of Terra to them.[3j]

The Hexarchy and the Loyalists, led by Captain-General Valoris, then entered a stalemate, as their terms were considered, but this was nearly undone due to a group of Sisters of Silence led by Aleya. The former Ecclesiarch Baldo Slyst was a member of the Hexarcy and she led her Sisters into the Cathedral, to kill her long sought after target despite being heavily outnumbered. Captain-General Valoris, ordered Valerian, who was nearby, to stop her and he led his Argent Chamber after Aleya. Using the homing beacon on the Misericordia he had given her, Valerian was able to catch up to Aleya's group, just as they began to battle a squadron of Minotaurs that had discovered them. Valerian immediately led his forces to their aid[3j] and both groups succeeded in killing the Minotaurs, though not without suffering losses. The Shield-Captain then attempted to convince Aleya to withdraw, but she refused and instead asked him to join her in attacking Slyst[3k]. Valerian ultimately relented and agreed to aid her and both groups advanced onto Slyst' postion[3l]. It was then, however, that the traitorous High Lord Fadix revealed that his loyalty to the Hexarchy's cause had been a ruse from the start. He was the Grand Master of Assassins and after a signal was given, each of the Hexarchy's members were killed by Fadix's well placed assassins.[3m]

Valerian at once realized, that Captain-General Valoris had used Aleya's attack as an excuse to get him into the Cathedral, so that the Shield-Captain could ensure Fadix's survival. Both the Sisters and Custodes then raced to Fadix's side and defended him from both the Astra Militarum Regiments that had been tricked into aiding the Hexarchy, as well as the Minotaurs Chapter. In the confusion that followed the Hexarchy's deaths, the two groups successfully did so and eventually the Astra Militarum and Minotaurs obeyed orders to stand down from the loyalist High Lords[3m]. After the battle, Aleya visited Valerian and informed him she intended to keep the Shield-Captain's Misericordia until she had made a worthy kill with it. When Valerian stated that meant their paths would cross again, Aleya told the Shield-Captain he was likely right before she then departed for Luna[3n]. Valerian later met with Captain-General Valoris, who informed him that not all of the Splintered had been destroyed, as they had originally thought. As most of Splintered' forces were being destroyed in the Cathedral by the Minotaurs, the Lachrymosa's Cult had escaped Terra aboard several captured space ships. Valoris then explained to Valerian, that the heretic Convolute had been correct about the Lachrymosa's power. The Captain-General now considered the escaped Cult leader to have been the greatest threat amongst the Splintered and he ordered Valerian to hunt her down.[1o]

Wargear

Valerian wields the Guardian Spear Gnosis.[3a]

Images

Valerian miniature[2]

Sources

Retrieved from "https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Valerian&oldid=537604"