Marduk

Marduk, is one of the more formidable Dark Apostles of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion. He is a former First Acolyte of the Dark Apostle Jarulek, becoming a Dark Apostle upon the death of his former master.

History
Marduk was born upon the world of Colchis, centuries after the Word Bearers had already been enlightened with the truth of the Ruinous Powers. He had been recruited from the Colchisian masses and found worthy to become a part of Lorgar's blessed Word Bearers Legion. His rise through the ranks were meteoric, and he soon found himself serving as the First Acolyte to the Dark Apostle Jarulek. Considered to have been chosen by the Chaos Gods, Marduk had been granted their favour by being granted prescient visions of many possible futures. He also demonstrated the innate ability to summon Daemons from the Ether to aid him in battle without the usual ritual summoning requiring extensive preparations and sacrifice. In the latter part of the 41st Millennium, Marduk played an important role in helping his dark master with the invasion of the Imperial world of Tanakreg and enslaving its populace. The surviving slaves were forced to build a colossal obelisk known as a Gehemehnet in order to channel enough Warp energy to shatter the crust of the planet, exposing a dormant Necron Monolith beneath its surface. He accompanied the Dark Apostle into the subterranean depths of the Necron Tomb to recover a powerful artefact known as the Nexus Arrangement. This fell device was capable of creating prodigious Warp Storms that could engulf and isolate entire systems. When they 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.

Wargear
Marduk wore an ancient, ornate suit of Teminator Armour which was bedecked with honorifics and artefacts of religious significance. Burnished metal talismans, tiny shrunken skulls and Chaos icons hung from chains on his ornate, deep red armour. A scrimshawed bone of the prophet Morglock was strapped to his thigh with padlocked chains, and extracts from the Book of Lorgar, scratched upon human flesh, hung from his shoulder pads. In battle, he wields an archaic Daemon-possessed Chainsword known as Borhg'ash, which feeds upon the blood of the victims whom are struck by this fell blade.