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Post-Heresy Daemon Head

The Latros Sacrum, Badge of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion

Jarulek, also known as Jarulek the Glorified or Jarulek the Blessed, was one of the more formidable Dark Apostles of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion. He was considered one of the favoured servants of the immortal Daemon Primarch Lorgar, a true bearer of the Word of the Ruinous Powers. Through his extreme devotion to Chaos Undivided, furious passion and fiery oratory he brought countless millions into the truth of the Eight-Fold Path. Millions more who had chosen to remain ignorant and resistant to the true faith had been slain upon his orders. Jarulek was slain on the world of Tanakreg by an awakened Necron Lord after successfully recovering a potent artefact from the Necrons' stasis tomb.

History[]

Like all of the Astartes of the Word Bearers Legion, Jarulek was born on the world of Colchis and had participated in the Primarch Lorgar's first holy war where his faction had cast down the devotees of the Colchisian Old Faith and conquered the entirety of their world, uniting the disparate masses in the service of Lorgar's sect of the single religious faith called the Covenant. Jarulek had been there from the beginning, inspired by the reverent words of the blessed Urizen, following him in rebellion as they overthrew the followers of the Old Faith. After the Emperor came to Colchis and reunited with his long-lost son, he had brought Lorgar into the Imperial fold and gave him command of the XVIIth Legion of Space Marines who had been created from his genetic code. Jarulek had been one of the first Colchisian candidates found worthy to join the ranks of the Space Marines of the XVIIth Legion. The Primarch bowed in obeisance to his father's wishes, leading the population of his world in rejoicing and worshiping the Emperor as the one, true God of Mankind. But they would discover that their faith had been sorely misplaced.

Great Crusade[]

During the Great Crusade, Jarulek attained the rank of Captain through his acts of valour and extreme faith in the tenets of his Legion's beliefs. Though the Word Bearers were already engaged fighting the Ork menace in the Chairak Nebula, the Primarch despatched Captain Jerulek and 2,000 Astartes to bring the recalcitrant world of Fortrea Quintus into Imperial Compliance. He had explicit orders from the Primarch to pacify Fortrea Quintus within 3 months. Quickly establishing positions on the planet, Jarulek and the Word Bearers roused the abjectly poor populace with rousing speeches and fiery oratory to rise up against the corrupt and ruthless monarchy that had grown fat off of their labours. The oppressed people of Fortrea Quintus joined Jarulek's march until his army had swollen to more than a million. Only one month after landing, Jarulek and his faithful followers launched a massive attack against the planetary ruler's final bastion. The casualties sustained by the populace were horrific as thousands died charging the heavily defended walls with little more than pistols and spears. Using this as a distraction, the Word Bearers launched a flanking attack that caught the defenders off-guard, as they moved into the heart of the palace. Jarulek himself captured the planet's ruler and threw him to the blood-maddened mob to be torn to shreds. Nearly 90% of the people who had joined the Jarulek's march had been killed, while barely a handful of Word Bearers had been slain. When Imperial authorities finally arrived to indoctrinate the population in the Imperial Truth they were horrified by Jarulek's careless use of the populace, but found the people as loyal to the burgeoning Imperium of Man as any loyal world could be. Later, during the galaxy-spanning insurrection against the Emperor's rule known as the Horus Heresy, the population of Fortrea Quintus rose up and slaughtered their Imperial leaders, siding with the Warmaster Horus. The planet was later cleansed by the Blood Angels Legion because of the depth of Chaotic corruption found amongst its people. Imperial scholars now widely believe that the Word Bearers corrupted the entirety of the populace of Fortrea Quintus to the service of the Dark Gods following the submission of the planet to Imperial Compliance.

Horus Heresy[]

When Horus turned upon his father and instigated the galaxy-wide conflict known as the Horus Heresy, the Word Bearers were one of the first Astartes Legions to declare their allegiance for the Warmaster, and none was more fervent in this decision than Jarulek. By this time Jarulek had become the First Acolyte to the Dark Apostle Sor Talgron, who would later become the Chaos Dreadnought known as The Warmonger. In the waning days of the Heresy, Jarulek took part in the Battle of Terra and fought before the gates of the Imperial Palace. After the Heresy, when his master had been interred within the sepulchre of a Dreadnought following his mortal wounding on Terra, Jarulek was elevated to the esteemed and coveted position of Dark Apostle, taking control of his own Word Bearers' Host. He would later serve as the Coryphaus to the First Captain Kor Phaeron.

Dark Fate[]

Before the end of the Horus Heresy, Jarulek had been gifted with a dire prophecy by the Dark Gods which he had penned into his own flesh. Ten millennia later this prophecy came to fruition after the Word Bearers Host he commanded invaded the Imperial world of Tanakreg. The Dark Apostle led the 34th Host, whose ranks had swollen a century past when the warriors of another Dark Apostle had been amalgamated into its ranks after their leader had been slain in battle. Ceremonies of mourning had lasted weeks as the Legion honoured the passing of one of its religious fathers. Jarulek had, of course, ordered the execution of all the captains of the leaderless Host's companies for having allowed such a sacrilege to take place. It was deemed by the Dark Council on the Daemon World of Sicarus, the spiritual home of the Word Bearers Legion and the throne world of the blessed Daemon Primarch Lorgar, that Jarulek take command of the leaderless Host, for he had an apprentice, First Acolyte Marduk, who would soon be ready to bear the mantle of Dark Apostle. When, and if, the First Acolyte became worthy of the title of Dark Apostle, then Jarulek would split the combined Host once more into two.

The invasion of Tanakreg progressed as Jarulek had foreseen. Though the planet possessed a formidable air defence network protecting it from orbital attack and a large number of local Planetary Defense Forces (PDF), numbering approximately 200,000 soldiers, they were subsequently slaughtered by the invading Word Bearers. The Word Bearers Host only suffered minimal casualties as they had seeded the planet before their invasion with a large number of Chaos Cults and then incited them to rise up against their Imperial overlords when the time for their invasion had arrived. This cancerous rot had spread into the upper echelons of the Tanakreg PDF, whose members sabotaged the world's air defence network so that the Word Bearers could launch a deep strike planetary assault. With the successful subjugation of Tanakreg, Jarulek had the remaining populace enslaved and forced them to build a massive obelisk known as a Gehemehnet. This foul structure was designed to channel Warp energy directly into a planet, effectively transforming it into a Daemon World. Jarulek used the Gehemehnet to channel enough Warp energy to shatter the crust of the planet, exposing a dormant Necron Monolith beneath its surface. Accompanied by his First Acolyte Marduk, the Dark Apostle made his way into the subterranean depths and managed to recover a powerful artefact from the Necrons' stasis tomb. This artefact was known as the Nexus Arrangement -- a fell device of Necron manufacture capable of creating prodigious Warp Storms and stasis fields that could engulf and isolate entire systems, leaving the artefact's users free to launch an invasion and conquest at their leisure. Such a device would be a potent weapon in the hands of the servants of Chaos. When the two Word Bearers had reached the centre of the tomb, Jarulek turned upon his First Acolyte and attempted to kill him in order to fulfill his dire prophecy, but as the pair of Word Bearers fought one another, a long dormant Necron Lord awoke and slew Jarulek. Marduk seized the artefact and took up his former master's Accursed Crozius Arcanum, and made good his escape.

Appearance[]

As a dedicated servant of the Lords of Chaos, Jarulek's devotion was such that he had penned the hallowed words of his Daemon Primarch across every centimetre of his exposed pale skin. He was literally a walking Book of Lorgar. The tiny, intricate Colchisian script was inscribed perfectly across his flesh. Litanies and catechisms ran symmetrically down each side of his pale, hairless head, and his cheeks, chin and neck were sprawled with passages and curses. There was not a place upon him where a data-stylus could be placed and not touch the hallowed words of the great Daemon Primarch. Devotions, supplications, and orisons extended over Jarulek's lips, inside his cheeks and across his tongue. Not even his eyes had been spared, as citations of vengeance, hate and worship had been scribed on the soft, glutinous jelly of those orbs.

Sources[]

  • Dark Apostle (Novel) by Anthony Reynolds
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