Ûthar the Destined

Kâhl Ûthar the Destined of the Greater Thurian League, wielding the Blade of the Ancestors.

Ûthar the Destined, often simply known as Ûthar, is perhaps the most skilled and most well-respected kâhl of the Greater Thurian League of the Leagues of Votann.

As the most accomplished hero of the Greater Thurian league, Kâhl Ûthar is marked for greatness. Few can assess the foe as swiftly or mercilessly as Ûthar and -- once he has his enemies' measure -- he soon cuts them to pieces with the glowing plasma edge of the Blade of the Ancestors.

Ûthar, who calls the Kindred of Vôrtun on the Hold World of Obsyd Gate his home, is the victor of the Deadstar Campaign and the slayer of Gorbrak the Iron Beast, yet it is said his greatest and most important deeds still lie ahead of him.

After the birth of the Great Rift in the Era Indomitus, it was Ûthar who led the Thurian forces in the defence of their space from the Chaos-worshippers spilling from Warp Storm Örgvayr in the continuing conflict in the galactic core that has become known as the Battle of Örgvayr.

History

Origins

A closer look at Kâhl Ûthar the Destined and the Blade of the Ancestors.

Ûthar was born to the Greater Thurian League's Kindred of Vôrtun in the hold of Obsyd Gate on a day of strange omens. In the Fane, the Grimnyr watched with wonder as the Votann put forth a spontaneous screed of prophecy. The information was muddled, printed in ancient datascripts few Kin now comprehend. Argument raged about its true meaning, but it seemed to imply that one amongst the day's newly cloned was meant for some great task.

Meanwhile, the mechanisms of the hold's Forge swung into motion without any Brôkhyr's command and produced a magnificent plasma blade. At the same time, clues in the Votannic prophecy led the Grimnyr to the newborn Ûthar's crucible. Thus, by the end of his first bewildering day of life, Ûthar had been proclaimed as the Destined, and the miraculous Blade of the Ancestors was bestowed upon him. He has striven to live up to the expectations of the Ancestors ever since.

Driven to prepare himslf for his enigmatic duty, he has explored, soldiered and endured hardships to make even a Cthonian Beserk wince. Through it all, Ûthar has dispalyed uncanny good fortune that some have attributed to the aid of the Ancestors, and others to some obscure cloneskein he possesses. Whatever the truth, this has certainly contributed to Ûthar's longevity and his many victories, yet so have his hard-won veteran abilities.

If Ûthar's actions sometimes seem cruel, his comrades simply attribute this to the pressure of knowing that one day his great duty shall come upon him. Besides, Ûthar's ready gallows humour and down-to-earth persona help to cover up his colder side. They also conceal a hidden worm of doubt.

This has gnawed at the Destined since his earliest days, forcing him to question if the prophecy was correctly understood by the Grimnyr and, if it was, whether he can ever be ready for such a momentous yet ineffable task. Ultimately, Ûthar is Kin, and thus able to push his fears aside in favour of duty. He swore long ago to himself that he would make his Ancestors proud.

Battle of Örgvayr

Prelude

Ûthar's great destiny may finally have arrived with the emergence of the Great Rift that shook the Leagues of Votann to their foundations. Holds vanished amidst the roiling energies of the new born Warp storm belt. Trade routes were severed. Many Kindreds were compelled to relocate their holdings, abandoning territories held for thousands of Terran years and venturing out from the galactic core to seek more stable regions to settle.

Both within the core and beyond its fringes, the rift's advent has driven the Kin into new conflicts, as well as stirring up old foes and setting them on a collision course with the Leagues.

The Kin do not recognise or name the Great Rift as a single manifest phenomena. They believe that to do so would lend further superstitious menace to a threat that is already menacing enough. They choose instead to name the greatest of the component Warp storms that have opened within the galactic core, treating each as a separate peril to be weathered and overcome.

One such raging empyric maelstrom opened upon the north-eastern fringe of Greater Thurian League space, and was soon named "Örgvayr" -- roughly translating into High Gothic as "the Ogre." The Void Strider Kindred and Lâkhryr's Kindred were swallowed up in the instant of its opening. Their pan spectral arrays gave some small forewarning, and so ragged flotillas of Kin refugee ships limped from the fringes of Warp Storm Örgvayr solar days after its emergence, their passangers telling of holds dissolved into raw madness or overrun by howling Daemons.

Close on their heels came ravening Chaos Warfleets. Sailing the void in baroque warships and monstrous space hulks, they fell upon the Greater Thurian star systems bordering the storm zone. As more Chaos worshippers poured out of Örgvayr by the solar day, it became clear to the Greater Thurian League that a terrible new threat had been unleashed upon their holds.

Those Kindreds whose holds lay directly in the invaders' path now faced a difficult choice -- to hold their ground against the onslaught, or to fall back in the face of growing enemy strength. Exchanging messages as best they could via hardened las-com relays, the Hearthspakes of the Deeprock Kindred, the Kindred of Vôrtun, Khâld's Star Breaker Kindred and Kindred Crimson-Two all elected to hold fast.

The Grimnyr interfaced in their Fanes with the Greater Thurian Votann, asking that it communicate their plight to the wider league and begging its advice. Swift merchant craft and scout ships plunged into the Warp, bearing the same messsages to neighbouring Kindreds. Those facing the invasion would stand firm until the will of the Votann and the rest of the league could be made known, or until their defiance was judged too costly to maintain.

Meanwhile, the ravening hordes of Chaos blazed a trail of havoc toward the Thurian Hold Worlds that lay in their path.

Counteroffensive at Törg

By a stroke of good fortune, Ûthar the Destined had recently returned to Obsyd Gate, the hold of his own Kindred of Vôrtun. Ever the dynamic hero of his people, Ûthar convinced the Kindred of Vôrtun Hearthspake that they could not afford to simply mass behind their defences and await the enemies' onslaught. To do so handed all strategic initiative and opportunity to the invaders and would abandon outlying facilities, resources and personnel to their murderous attentions.

The voice of the Destined carried great weight amongst his Kindred, who were swiftly convinced by his arguments. Thus, their mustered Kinhost broke into a number of Oathbands; some would remain to garrison Obsyd Gate, while the rest would sally forth under the command of Ûthar and other prominent Thurian heroes, to launch counterattacks against the incoming Chaos invaders. Their role would be to slow the enemy wherever possible, to evacuate all strategic resources, Kin and Ironkin they could, and to destroy any facilities they could not rescue so as to deny their use to the foe.

Ûthar the Destined's Oathband deployed to the outlying Kin World of Törg. Riven by standard years of deep-core tectonic mining, Törg was a hostile mass of jagged stone, exposed magma veins, convulsing super-volcanoes and Kin harvester fortresses, wreathed in toxic fumes. Several immense Renegade warships had already settled in the vulnerable world's orbit and disgorged warbands of Heretic Astartes to the surface. Mutated Chaos Space Marines of The Purge and ferocious Khorne-worshipping World Eaters had overrun Törg's void docks and cut bands of Cthonian Guild miners off within their harvester fortresses. Swiftly casting the Eye of the Ancestors over the dire strategic situation, Ûthar formulated his battle plan and set his forces into motion without delay.

Void Battle

A Chaos Warfleet and the fleet of the Greater Thurian League battle in orbit of Törg.

In the void above Törg, the warships of Ûthar's Oathband engaged the craft of the Chaos worshippers under the command of Voidmaster Hêmmyk. Their mighty Conversion Beam batteries and salvoes of Drill Torpedoes mauled the Chaos grand cruiser Abomination, and forced other Chaos warships to break off orbital bombardment in order to respond to the Kin assault.

Hêmmyk coordinated her small but potent fleet with consummate skill, fending off each assault by the Chaos worshippers and handing out far worse punishments than her own warships suffered.

Battle for Törg

Nôkh's Hernkyn Pioneer bands, supported by light gunships and rugged Sagitaur ATVs, swept through the high passes of the Fumarok Range to attack the World Eaters from the rear. They launched swift hit-and-run strikes, using their pan spectral scanners to maintain a fix on their enemies amidst the toxic murk of Törg's surface. Goaded to action, many wrath-crazed Khornate Berserkers broke off their assault on Harvester Fortress Five and pursued Nôkh's band into the hazardous mountain passes.

Separating into several smaller Oathbands, Ûthar the Destined's forces launched a massive drop offensive into the world's Shatterfields. Ûthar himself led an armoured spearhead against the World Eaters commanded by the Chaos Lord Hakatar. Kâhl Svêkh Thûrkann and her Oathband met The Purge head-on. As orbital fire from both sides rained down onto the planet's surface, the two swirling battles erupted into a storm of close-range firefights and brutal offensives.

While the foe were engaged to the north, Grimnyr Khôhn led an elite force of Einhyr and Hearthkyn to evacuate the Cthonians at Harvester Fortresses Two, Three and Four. Guildkin and great quantities of raw materials were loaded aboard Hekaton Land Fortresses and the armoured carriages they drew behind them.

Sensing their prey escaping, the Chaos Lord Urthak Skullripper led a massed teleport of World Eaters Chaos Terminators that cut the Grimnyr and her bodyguards off, even as the Kin forces were pulling out. Though many Cthonian Beserks turned back to hurl themselves into the fight, the Living Ancestor could not be rescued. The surviving Cthonians and many of the Hearthkyn have since formed the Grudgeband of Khôhn -- they will be avenged upon Urthak Skullripper or die trying.

Duel With Hakatar

Kâhl Ûthar the Destined, wielding the Blade of the Ancestors, faces Chaos Lord Hakatar of the World Eaters upon the stone bridge above the Chasm of Embers on Törg.

Ûthar the Destined met the Chaos Lord Hakatar of the World Eaters upon the stone span bridging the Chasm of Embers. The two warlords battled back and forth along the crumbling expanse as their warriors fought and died around them and pillars of volcanic fire blasted up from below. Wounded but unbowed, Ûthar at last wrong-footed his foe, taking the World Eater's right leg off with a vicious sweep of the Blade of the Ancestors and pitching him, still howling with fury, into the flames below.

The Retreat

After several solar hours of rapid armoured warfare, and with the vast majority of Kin assets ferried successfully up to his waiting voidships, Kâhl Ûthar commanded a full retreat from Törg. Howled accusations of cowardice from the Khorne-worshippers followed the retreat. They meant nothing to the Kin; all that was worth extracting from the planet had been recovered and any remaining assets were deemed not worth the cost in lives to salvage.

The Greater Thurian League Oathbands fell back in good order, Voidmaster Hêmmyk giving the enemy flotilla a last devastating volley to scatter their formations before commanding a plunge back into Warpspace. The tragic death of Grimnyr Khôhn aside, the Törg offensive had proved successful, but the wider war zone surrounding Warp Storm Örgvayr was becoming more fraught and violent by the solar hour.

A great battle still lay before the Greater Thurian League and Ûthar the Destined would be needed elsewhere.

Wargear

• Bastium Void Armour

• Rampart Crest

• Volkanite Disintegrator

• Blade of the Ancestors (Plasma Sword) - The Blade of the Ancestors is a legendary relic Plasma Blade wielded by one of the Greater Thurian League's greatest heroes, Kâhl Ûthar the Destined. Along with the relic Ancestral Warding Stave known as the Murmuring Stave, it is said to be one of only two weapons ever fashioned through immaculate forging by the Votann themselves, though prophecy speaks of a third still to be wrought.

• Eye of the Ancestors

Sources

• Codex: Leagues of Votann (9th Edition), pp. 28, 88