Tlaxu'Minx - Chaos Defiler "Engine of Unchange" - The Immutable Changeling
Tlaxu'Minx was one of the myriad of Horrors, the daemons of minor order in the legions of the Lord of Change. He was unbound, free to change, free to laugh and annoy the serious Blue Horrors, ever changing, ever merry. His fate was sealed when he and his host displeased their new master, the Lord of the Arrogant Sons, the Blind Archivist, the Unseen, Lord Tenebris. In one of the many conflicts with the putrid ranks of the Lord of Flies the Horrors were shamefully defeated by a much lesser order of the plague daemons. Their constant bickering and perpetual fastidiousness angered their Sorcerer lord, grated at its nerves and a punishment was in order.
Tlaxu'Minx was chosen by a lottery, his Lord unwilling to dispose even of his lesser servants but an example had to be made. The lottery was held in the dark halls of the Arch of Creation, the manofactorum part aboard the mighty Arrogance, the ship of the Arrogant Sons. The names, the true names of this lesser daemons were cast into an enchanted rune, bound by contract and by essence to this magical artifact, runes were cast, the invocations of Change were uttered, Tlaxu'Minx knew that he was chosen when his eternal essence was summoned into the body of his unwilling host.
Warpsmith Kalanthrox smiled at the profane torture he was about to inflict upon this ever-changing creature, the pain and insanity he was about to bind with his thin silver chains. The former Iron Hand savored the sheer cruelty of the act, the utter profanity which he will cast into this new weapon for the Warmaster. Kalanthrox learned about the Defiler daemon engine during his journey to the daemonic forge of Xana II, where Abaddon summoned his technomancers in order to cast the image of his new engine of death.
Oh how Warpsmith Kalanthrox enjoyed when he brought Brother Dalemon of the Emperor's Children forth, the Slaaneshi deviant roaring in fits of pleasure as the brimstone shackles bit deep into his naked flesh. The Immutable Changeling was to be the first Defiler to enter the service of the Arrogant Sons, a new technology which sent the cabals of the technomancers into heights of inspiration and creativity across the Empire of the Eye. Abaddon was building his first host of daemon engines to unleash upon the Imperium of Man and the Arrogant Sons would be there, contributing as other did to the Warmaster's vision.
Brother Dalemon's body was interred in the coffin recipient of the Immutable Changeling, the unholy ritual calling the covenant of artificers to bind a mortal host with the immortal daemon. As the shrieks of the Emperor's Children marine became feverish and unbearable the Warpsmith invoked the technocant of his order and the aspiring sorcerers summoned the essence of Tlaxu'Minx. The conjoining of daemon and mortal went without a hitch, the host was once a powerful marine, lost in the throes of insane cruelty and depravity when he walked the fields of battle while the daemon was a Horror, a creature of eternal change. Both were cast in the image of different gods, both walked beneath different stars, one had the acuity of geneforged martial might, the other the everchanging faculty of the minor orders of Tzeentch.
The cruelty inflicted upon this two beings, upon this two so different souls, resonated in the arcane hull of the Immutable Changeling, the soul of the marine was devoured and the essence of the daemon was bind, for eternity. Initially Warpsmith Kalanthrox considered the ritual a failure when the engine did nor respond to his summons but slowly, oh so slowly, an anguished wail echoed from the unholy creature. The despair of the daemon could be felt by anyone in the Arch of Creation, the horror of its fate, the anguish of his destiny. A minion of the God of Change was for evermore cast into immutable iron, never again to morph his body into a form more pleasing to its creator, never again to feel the glory of his master and the caress of his flames, never again to know joy, happiness and the merry embrace of his fellow Horrors. The changeling became a being of entropy, of eternal stillness, of a single form and purpose. Truly not even the most horrible tortures by the hands of the Thousand Sons sorcerers could compare to such fate and the Laughing Host quickly fell in order when the gaze of the Blind Archivist fell upon them.
In this deliberate act of defilement the Arrogant Sons triumphed, order was established but more important of all Warpsmith Kalanthrox proved to his patrons that his knowledge and services were indeed a boon for the warband. Among the Arrogant Sons few liked the taciturn Iron Hand but the patronage of the higher circles of the Warband was returned twice over and a vault was consecrated to the use of his compact of technomancers and dark magi.
As for Tlaxu'Minx his union with the eternal adamantium body of the Immutable Changeling proved to be a great success for the Arrogant Sons. The poor creature was driven insane by his eternal form, by this unholy eternal stillness, and the result was a daemonic engine which surpassed in height even the madness of the servants of the Blood God. When the Immutable Changeling is unleashed in his wake only destruction is left, the hails of anguish that echo from his vox grills are said to drive his enemies insane while his only expression is the unspeakable carnage this engine of woe is able to unleash.
In the following centuries the Arrogant Sons came to perfect the dark arts of Defiler creation, though only the rare occurrence of the destruction of enemy astartes walkers, helbrutes and dreadnoughts offered the animus strong enough to shape their forms into a Defiler. While the warband can summon several of this mighty engines from the Tower of Arrogance their deployment in battle is often considered only when the utter destruction of the foe is mandatory.
It was on Urthwart when the Warmaster unleashed his new Defiler engines upon the foe, Tlaxu'Minx among them. The Warpsmiths of countless warbands observed with pride their creations rip across the imperial ranks, butchering all in their wake. That day the destruction of a world was glorious to watch and many more templates of the Defiler engine were perfected from that day since. The Immutable Changeling has a long list of honors to his name, the engine even contended for the third place in the Games of Brass upon Genzat XI, a daemon world where many Warpsmiths unleash their creations for the amusement of their patrons and the Dark Mechanicus, though fell short in the contest when was pitted against the acclaimed Child of Sin created by Warpsmith Elanon of the Emperor's Children.
Still the Immutable Changeling is considered an ancient and proven daemonic engine, its daemon now beyond despair and recovery, insane and eternal. Warpsmith Kalanthrox is often seen in the company of this, his firstborn engine and it is amusing that only he is able to recall the daemon from the slaughter. Lord Tenebris on the other hand parades the Immutable Changeling before the ranks of the Laughing Host when he suspects that discipline is lacking or any second motifs are discovered. Tlaxu'Minx has become a walking proof that to the defy the Sorcerers of the Arrogant Sons is a grave mistake and that eternal torture is a concept well within their reach...
And what of Tlaxu'Minx ... the poor creature is broken, no longer changing, no longer laughing. Its animus is incandescent and his temper foul but unlike other, lesser daemon engines, he is a faithful dog, knowing full well that when his master gazes upon him he should, he must bark. Needless to say that his fellow Horrors are very well cautious to test the patience of their Sorcerer lords thus they only play with poor Tlaxu'Minx when he is bound in his silver chains... and he is unable to "play" with them.
Edited by Tenebris, 29 October 2014 - 12:45 PM.