Cyrene Valantion

Cyrene Valantion served as confessor to the Word Bearers legion commanders including to Lorgar himself, hearing their professions of faith in the Primordial Truth.

Although give this highly influential position within the legion, Cyrene was of humble origins. She was born in Monarchia, a city-shrine built by the Word Bearers legion as a focus for their belief in the Lectitio Divinitatus; celebrating the Emperor as a god. While born into the faith Cyrene confessed to never truly feeling a stirring of real faith in the Imperial Cult.

Everything changed when the Word Bearers were rebuked for worshiping the Emperor as divine. Cyrene was present as the Ultramarines legion evacuated Monarchia and saw many citizens that resisted them being killed. She was watching when the city was bombarded from orbit and was close enough to the site that the light from detonations blinded her.

In the aftermath of the stinging rebuke, where the whole legion was forced to kneel before Roboute Guilliman, Malcador the Sigillite and the Emperor himself, Cyrene was rescued from the outskirts of the former city by Argel Tal of the Brotherhood of the Serrated Sun. She was taken on board Lorgar's flagship, the Fidelitas Lex, and taken with the legion as Lorgar searched for Primordial Truth. At first she was simply a passenger, blind and alone on board a crusading ship with no knowledge of what was happening but she was visited by Argel Tal and others of his chapter who took pity on her and spoke to her of what happened.

As a blind, naive, mortal woman she was seen as the perfect vessel for the legion to unburden themselves to; with no understanding of any of the things that she was privy to. Her unbelief in the Emperor was believed to be a sign of prescience or insight and she became something like a saint to the Word Bearers, known throughout their fleet as the blessed lady. She would serve as confessor for years, diligently listening to the 'sins' of many of the legion high commanders as they began to worship the Ruinous Powers. She remained close to Argel Tal and guided him on the path towards becoming the first Gal Vorbak; the blessed sons of Colchis who shared their bodies with daemons.

As the Horus Heresy began to take shape and the Word Bearers began to worship the ruinous powers Cyrene was killed by a party of Adeptus Custodes left with the legion to observe them and report to the Emperor should they be seen deviating from the Imperial Truth again. Cyrene was sadly simply in the Custodes way as they fought to send word to the Emperor of the Word Bearer's heresy. Argel Tal sword vengeance on them and slew the Custodes on the sands of Istvaan V, taking a unique power sword and a guardian spear from their bodies which would become his preferred weapons.

After her death the crew serfs of the Fidelitas Lex, now a rabble of chaos cultists, broke into her coffin and took her bones as relics, even forming a minor cult around her. Lorgar named one of his massive Abyss-class assault ships The Blessed Lady in her honor.

As the legion became more fragmented and chaotic the senior commanders began to scheme against each other. Dark Apostle Erebus had developed a feud with Argel Tal and sought to use Cyrene as a pawn in his plot to manipulate Argel Tal. He promised that he could return Cyrene to life, something that he hoped would push Argel Tal towards his own eventual death. Argel Tal slaughtered dozens of cultists to recover her relics and presented them Erebus who was as good as his word, performing the ritual to return her to life.

Although now alive again, Cyrene's time in the warp has left her scarred. She recovered but being plunged into the warp would always leave a mark on her. After her return she was seen as proof of the power of the chaos gods and a literal living saint, returned to bless their actions. She remained on board the Fidelitas Lex as the Word Bearers and World Eaters undertook the Shadow Crusade against the worlds of Ultramar. Their combined fleet cut a swathe through the mostly undefended worlds of the Eastern Fringes, as Lorgar sought the right circumstances to allow Angron to ascend to deamonhood and thus save him from a slow death.

While this was ultimately successful, the combined fleets attack on Angron's former homeworld of Nuceria was extremely costly as an Ultramarine strike fleet arrived and attacked them. The Fidelitas Lex was slowly but surely destroyed by dozens of attack runs, taking most of her crew along with her. But fate had another path in mind for Cyrene.

In the days leading up to the battle of Nuceria, Cyrene was approached by Damon Prytanis, agent of The Cabal and a Perpetual. He informed her that, unbeknownst to Erebus, her return from death had made her life him; a human who cannot die. While initially skeptical, Prytanis eventually won her trust and rescued her from the Lex before it's destruction.

Her life after leaving the Word Bearers is unknown at this time, although as a perpetual she likely lived an extremely long time but what she did or whether she joined the Cabal is yet to be revealed.