Xenothan
Xenothan was an Imperial Assassin.[1a]
History
At the behest of his master, an unnamed High Lord of the Administratum, Xenothan's services were "loaned" to Cezare Feracci, the head of the Navigator House of the same name. Cezare and the High Lord both wished the destruction of the rival House Belisarius, though for their own reasons.[1a]
Xenothan arranged a series of encounters with the Space Wolves of Belisarius's Wolfblade bodyguard unit, allowing him to observe the Space Marines in combat, while remaining invisible himself.[1b][1c]
On the night that the Paternoval Envoy died, before the summit of the Houses to appoint his successor, Xenothan entered the Belisarius Palace with a force of rabid anti-Navigator zealots, to provide a distraction.[1d] Xenothan's target was the House Celestarch, Lady Juliana Belisarius. However, his first shot killed a decoy, thanks to the cleverness of the Wolfblades' commander, Valkoth.[1e]
When Xenothan finally cornered Juliana and her small escort in the Vaults of the Palace, only two Wolves stood in his way: Haegr the Mountain and Ragnar Blackmane. Judging the older Wolf to be the greater threat, Xenothan paralyzed Haegr first with special poison darts, but underestimated the younger Ragnar's speed and ferocity. Ragnar dodged the assassin's remaining darts, and grappled with him in hand-to-hand combat. Even with his enhanced strength, speed and reflexes, Xenothan was overpowered by Ragnar, who sank his teeth into his throat.[1f] Xenothan was barely alive when reinforcements arrived on the scene, and quickly finished off by a shot from Torin the Wayfarer.[1g]
Ragnar, who had been badly wounded in the fight, said he had never faced so deadly an adversary before. Torin remarked dryly that Xenothan, had he lived, would have said the same of Ragnar.[1g]
It was not until several decades later that Ragnar would discover the identity of Xenothan's Master, and his motives for wanting Belisarius destroyed.[1h]
Note
- It was never specified which Temple of the Officio Assassinorum Xenothan belonged to, but given his shape-shifting abilities, used several times during the assault on the Belisarius Palace, the Callidus Temple is the most likely.[1i]
Sources
