Alistair

Alistair was a Black Legion Chaos Space Marine of some notoriety, active from the days of the Great Crusade, right up until recent times. Alistair was not the Chaos Lord's original name, but one he chose in exile. After the defeat of Horus and the Traitor Legions, Alistair shed his name, the last vestige of his heroic past in the Crusade, and it is said that even Alistair himself has forgotten what his true name was.

A Chosen of the Despoiler, Alistair was among the most influential advisors to the Warmaster during the 13th Black Crusade. He is believed to be ranked below the likes of Devram Korda, Zariphaston and Ygethmor the Deciever in the Despoiler's favour, but is nonetheless a powerful and influential Chaos Lord, and is in command of the Black Legion 3rd Grand Company, a post he has retained since the Great Crusade. Alistair has since participated in every Black Crusade, and several other important actions by the Traitor Legions besides, his name synonymous with relentless slaughter and destruction.

Early History and the Great Crusade
Alistair, though known by a different name in those times, was a miner on Terra who joined the Emperor's legions not long after they began expanding into the Galaxy not long after the Warp Storms isolating Terra abated. He was an early success of the Gene Seed Surgery using Horus' template. Thus, he is amongst the oldest Black Legionnaires in the galaxy. He was appointed to the 3rd Grand Company of the Luna Wolves, as they were known then. In the early battles of the Crusade, he rapidly proved himself a skilled soldier and more importantly, a talented leader and skilled tactician. After his squad's Brother-Sergeant was killed by enemy artillery fire, Alistair took up the Sergeant's Chainsword and Plasma Pistol and led his squad through the teeth of the enemy guns, finally silencing them and allowing reinforcements to pass on and achieve victory. After this battle, Alistair was marked out as something special, a breed apart and above his brother Space Marines.

Again and again, Alistair proved himself in close action, and his acts were often used as shows of force by Horus to force a defiant foe to surrender to the Emperor's glory. Eventually, as Company Champion, Alistair was among the first into action, and the last to leave. He fought at his commander's side in many battles, but never achieved the recognition he had so joyously taken in as a Neophyte and Sergeant. He began to resent his commander for the glory laid upon his brow, which Alistair saw as earned on the blood of hard-working soldiers. When his commander lay greiviously wounded, but not fatally so, in a breach on the world of Skalfar III, Alistair took his chance. In the swirling melee of the breach, he struck the Commander's head from his shoulders as he lay stricken and seized command of the company, leading them to victory. Horus and the Company's soldiers, having not seen the manner of the commander's passing, happily approved of Alistair as their new commander.

But Alistair's thirst for glory did not stop there. While Horus and Abbadon and the other Company Commanders acknowledged Alistair's undeniable skill at arms and flair when leading, the Emperor himself did not. Feeling denied the glory and thanks he was due, Alistair began down a twisting path that would end in eternal glory or eternal damnation. While his body was superhuman, Alistair's mind was all too human, and a resentment began to fester. Seeking to be seen as a leader who destroyed all who stood in the Emperor's way, and hailed a glorious hero, Alistair began to think nothing of slaughtering surrendered enemies, or of levelling cities from orbit. In fact, using the full flotilla of the 3rd Grand Company, Alistair rearranged the geography of entire continents on several planets with ferocious, unrelenting orbital strikes. He knew full-well that with Abbadon, and consequently Horus at his back, there were few in the Galaxy who could, and even fewer who would stop him. Still denied praise and glory by the Emperor as he butchered thousands in his name, Alistair began to look upon the galaxy as nothing more than the playpen of the selfish Emperor he was forced to bow to. This hate, this bitterness, festered all the while as he fought his way across the stars, committing ever greater atrocities and massacres as he moved further from Terra and the Emperor's rule. When Horus turned away from the Emperor, Alistair was all too glad to follow.

The Heresy
Alistair was on the bridge of his personal Battle Barge and Flagship, Requiem when Horus spat on his oath to the Emperor. As his face twisted into a wicked snarl, Alistair turned and cut down his Company Chaplain, cutting him in half and decapitating him before his bisected body could fall with a fluid movement of his power sword, striking so quickly his blade returned to its sheath before the Chaplain began bleeding. The Chaplain's body still adorns Requiem's command bridge to this day, and the Chaplain's skull and Crozius Aracnum adorn Alistair's banner.

Alistair rapidly advanced from his station on the Eastern Fringes in dozens of savage attacks that left nothing but mass graves and shattered skeleton cities behind. Entire continents had to be repopulated in Alistair's wake after the Heresy as he left the Loyalists utterly devastated with the intent of them never being able to rise again to challenge Horus. In return for the slaughter of millions in their name, the Chaos Gods each granted Alistair gifts. Nurgle granted him greater vitality as his body began ignoring pain. Khorne granted him great strength and Slaanesh bestowed supernatural speed and grace upon him. Tzeench granted him by far the most terrifying gift. The Lord of Change awakened Alistair's latent psychic power. Alistair was an Alpha-level psyker, but his power had lain dormant his whole life.

Alistair fought on Terra with Horus and Abbadon. While it is true that the World Eaters were the first to breach the walls of the Imperial Palace, Alistair was on their heels immediately, following Angron's berserkers into the Palace grounds and slaughtering all in his path. Alistair was strong and fast, even for a Space marine, even before receiving his Gifts of Chaos, but was now vastly superior to his erstwhile brothers. Only when his soldiers met the immovable bulwark of the Adeptus Custodes did Alistair falter. As his men and Angron's berserkers were cut down around him, Alistair met Veteran Sergeant Valdez, cousin to Constantin Valdez, on the steps of the Palace. Battling his foe, Alistair was pushed to his limits and beyond. As the Custodian stood over Alistair in preparation for the killing blow, Alistair revealed his new trick. Unleashing a wave of pure psychic force, Alistair launched the massive Custodian into the air and into the immense Palace doors, breaking his back. His foe crippled and stricken, it was merely a matter of casually decapitating him where he lay. Alistair did so with relish.

Afterwards, Alistair led his Brother Chaos Marines into the Palace, elated with his victory, and slaughtered all in his path. Again and again, Alistair's soldiers were stopped and forced back, and again and again, Alistair turned back into the fray, turning the tide as the one man who turned to face the foe one last time. Between barked orders, snarled threats and glorious speeches, Alistair led his brothers through the Palace, along mile-long corridors and kilometre-wide domes and atriums towards victory and eternal glory.

Exile and the Long War
But Horus' gambit failed. The last throw of the dice was lost as the Emperor slew his most beloved son. Alistair felt Horus' death through the Warp, and heard Abbadon's screams of pain and sorrow through the Warp. Alistair's vengeful roar signalled his anger coming to a head and his uncontrolled psychic power tore a hole in reality itself for a mere second, killing those who stood around him as sheer darkness and pure hate poured from every gap and crack in his armour, leaking through his helmet grille and eye lenses in writhing tendrils that destroyed everything they touched. In that split-second, Alistair saw Chaos in all it's undiluted glory. Glory promised to him by the gods while the Emperor had given him nothing but damning silence.

Joining his brothers in Exile, Alistair shed his name when Abbadon renamed the Sons of Horus. Alistair chose the name for its simplicity. It would become a tenfold curse on a thousand worlds.Alistair remained at Abbadon's side as he rebuilt the Legion, in both manpower and prestige, answering his Warmaster's beck and call just as Abbadon had obeyed Horus. But Alistair did not truly serve Abbadon as a leader. He obeyed him because he was the Champion of Chaos. And as Abbadon's loyal servant, Alistair became the Hound of Chaos.

Alistair fought in every Black Crusade, always on the front lines by Abbadon's side, always a virtually unstoppable juggernaut. Ever the loyal Hound of Chaos, Alistair would obey the darker voices that began to whisper to him. While this often brought him great glory, there were times he felt the gods were toying with him. He put it down to them testing him, pushing his loyalty to see how far he would go, what he would or wouldn't do.

In the Gothic War, Requiem and the other £rd Grand Company ships joined Abbadon as he assailed the Gothic Sector. Requiem had undergone massive overhaul in the shipyards of the Eye. It was no longer the underpowered behemoth like other Battle Barges. It was a swift leviathan, vaulted arches and great spires becoming twisted and altogether more anarchistic and typically chaotic. It's guns, including its fierce dorsal bombardment cannons, now sported gaping, slavering maws that belched forth death with every shot. With Alistair on the command bridge, it was ever deadlier, as Alistair had ten millennia of tactics and experience to serve him. He was among the Planet Killer's escorts through the Sector, but was often sent to fight in other battles as well, burning cities from orbit or mangling patrol fleets as Abbadon held the sector in an ever-tightening chokehold.

In the 13th Black Crusade, Alistair was let loose again. He and the 3rd Grand Company ravaged planets and armies around the Cadian Gate, drawing precious defences away from Cadia itself. After that period of slaughter, Alistair returned to his master's side, on the ground of Cadia. He joined battle in the Basilica Defaux, carrying Abbadon's banner when its bearer was cut down by heavy weapons fire. Again Alistair listened to the voices of the gods as they whispered to him. Every move he made found a new foe to slay, or took him away from the deadly fire of Heavy Bolters and Autocannons. Every move he made brought salvation to his brothers and death to his foes.

Over his actions on the front lines of every campaign he has fought, Alistair has put himself in greater danger than other Chaos Lords, putting him in greater danger, but also putting him in greater stead with the Dark Gods as he himself slaughtered in their name. Several times he has come into conflict with the most dangerous of Imperial Agents, the Inquisition. In these battles, he again proved his great skill, slaughtering every Inquisitor to dare to attack him. As his actions always take him to the forefront of every campaign he takes part in, he will presumably face many more such attacks until he lies dead, broken and forgotten, or until the Emperor's hide adorns his banner as he promised it would ten thousand years ago.

Personality and Traits
The moniker Hound of Chaos is fitting for Alistair. Always seeking to better himself in the eyes of his masters, the Dark Gods, and willing to do anything to gain their favour. Thus far, he has been a "good dog" and earned many favours from them. He is ever loyal and his fiery oratory and infectious charisma has turned whole armies to Chaos. Only the Dark Apostles of the Word Bearers and Abbadon himself can match his skill in making grand speeches and swaying the minds of men.

His mind became bitter and twisted during the Great Crusade, laying the seeds of heresy (relatively) early in his life. He never shows his true intentions to other Chaos Lords or even his brothers in the 3rd Grand Company. He has even managed to hide it from Abbadon that he holds greater loyalty to the Dark Gods than he does to Abbadon and the Black Legion. All he presents to the world around him is an aura harder than granite. Few Chaos Lords take any joy in working by his side as his intentions are so hard to trace, compared to the berserkers of the World Eaters and the conniving Thousand Sons, who leave their thoughts and wishes relatively exposed.

Alistair is also highly sadistic. Not in the simple way a Chaos Space Marine of the Emperor's Children Legion would be. It goes beyond individual sadism and torturing the foe, toying with them until he can find a new plaything. Alistair's sadism has much more flair. Having turned entire hive cities and whole armies to Chaos, mere rumours of his presence on a world can bring the wrath of the Inquisition down on innocent heads. The crack of bone, the snap of sinew and the cry for mercy are music to Alistair. He does not play with his foe like a cat with a mouse, he utterly destroys them, mind, body and soul and takes great joy in doing so.

Skills and Abilities
As a Space Marine, Alistair has all of their superhuman abilities, including Superhuman Strength, Speed, Endurance and Agility. He also has their modified body systems, Larramann Cells and the ability to spit corrosive poison. From the day his enhancements were completed, Alistair was extremely strong and quick, even for a Space Marine. Some said he was as strong unarmoured as a Space Marine in full Power Armor was. While this is likely exaggeration, it is a testament to his immense strength. During the Horus Heresy, he received several Gifts of Chaos, including even greater strength, speed, agility and vitality that would put an Ork warlord to shame. This put him head and shoulders above his brother Space Marines. During his exile and the constant warring in the Eye, as well as conflicts beyond the Eye of Terror, he was granted many more.

He was an immensely skilled swordsman, said to be unbeatable in single combat with his chosen weapons, a Power Sword and a Combat Shield. His skill earned him an Iron Halo in his days as a loyalist Space Marine, and his skill with a blade was compared to the Primarchs themselves. Again, this is probably exaggeration, although given a Primarch's vast physical superiority, it is difficult to make a valid comparison. He was a skilled marksman with a Bolter and many more weapons Space Marines were trained with, including those not commonly used, such as Sniper Rifles used by Space Marine Scouts.

As a tactician, Alistair knows strategies and maneuvres not used by Space Marines or other Imperial tacticians in centuries, if not millennia. He is an insightful thinker, and after ten thousand years of war, he can see through almost any ruse or trick set against him and respond with a counter-strike no longer commonly known to Imperial Commanders. While not a strategic genius on the level of Horus, he is a match for almost any other tactician or strategist set against him.

Beyond physical and mental skills, Alistair can call upon massive psychic power. As an Alpha-Level psyker, Alistair is a rare and extremely powerful breed of sorceror. While Psychic power is dangerous, especially for a Space Marine, whose enhanced body is all-too tempting for Daemons to try to take up residence. Thus far, even without training, he has been able to keep Daemons out of his head through sheer willpower. He has also extracted several Daemonic Pacts from powerful denizens of the Warp, allowing him to directly and efficiently tap the Warp and channel immense amounts of psychic power. Through the use of these pacts and his own immense talent, Alistair can hide the presence of entire battle companies from almost everything but the naked eye. But as with all pacts, eventually a price must be paid.

Equipment
As with many Chaos Space Marines, Alistair favours close action over long-range combat, although he often uses an Iron Warrior-like meticulous fireplan in battle. He usually carries a Storm Shield and a Power Sword into which he tempted the essence of a Daemon Prince. With this Daemonsword and Storm Shield, he is a virtually unstoppable whirlwind of sword cleaves and shield bashes that rarely gives an opponent time to mount an effective defence, much less a counter-attack. On the defensive, his finely-honed sword work and skill with his shield puts up a wall of defence that few foes can penetrate, deflecting an opponent's attack at the last second to cause the maximum disruption to the opponent.

He always carries his Bolter and Bolt Pistol, and is a skilled marksman. The Mk III bolter has a retrofitted Mk IV drum-feed and a scope looted from another Mk IV Bolter. The Bolt Pistol is of a similar design, retrofitted with a Mk IV drum-feed. The grips are altered, either looted from another bolter or mutated by the effects of the Eye of Terror. Alistair is also trained in the use of his Bolter's pistol-grip, and at times weilds his Bolter in one hand and his Bolt Pistol in the other.

Alistair's Power Armor is ancient and mutated, with parts looted from the newest Power Armor types, torn from the still-warm corpses of Imperial Space Marines. His helmet is a mutated bestial visage, something like a snarling skull with the teeth of a wolf and the eyes of some other beast. The horns on the helmet grew sometime in his exile, from the brow of the helmet. The armour itself has mutated to the extent that faces swim about under its surface, each one the face of a victim of Alistair's blade or his guns.