Adrax Agatone

Adrax Agatone, called "Nocturne's Hammer," is the Captain of the Salamanders 3rd Company, "The Pyroclasts," and the Salamanders Chapter's Master of the Arsenal.

At some point following the birth of the Great Rift, Agatone underwent the agonising surgical procedure known as the Rubicon Primaris and ascended to become a Primaris Space Marine.

The process of ascension caused all of Agatone's old brand scars to fade away and be replaced by smooth new tissue, erasing all the marks of his deeds for the Chapter as a Firstborn Space Marine.

Agatone found this fitting, as he felt the process had truly led him to be reborn. He felt that his skin should also reflect this new start.

History

At the start of Agatone's career, he was a Sergeant in the 3rd Company of the Salamanders. His was among those squads that accompanied the expedition of the 3rd Company to the world of Scoria, and bore witness to the confusing and tumultuous events of that campaign against the Orks, the Dragon Warriors, and the Iron Warriors that claimed two of his company captains.

After the deaths of Captain Kotan Kadai and Captain N'keln at the hands of the Traitors, Agatone, as the third-highest ranked member of the company, rose to command it.

He later took part in the campaign against the Kabals that sought to capture his company, and routed them with the aid of Vulkan He'stan. His company was also present during the Dragon War that followed, as former Salamander Librarian Nihilan led tens of thousands of aliens, mercenaries, Traitors, and a third of a company of Obliterator-infected Marines Malevolent to steal the Tome of Fire from the vault beneath Mount Deathfire on Nocturne.

He survived, although his company was badly depleted in the fighting, and participated in the deadly fighting of the Third War for Armageddon against the greenskins shortly thereafter.

Just as the duties of the Salamanders 3rd Company place an exceptional strain upon the noble and compassionate warriors who must discharge them, so an exceptional leader is required to ensure that this burden never becomes too great for even Vulkan's sons to bear. Adrax Agatone is that leader.

Personality

Adrax Agatone is a contradiction wrought in transhuman flesh and bone. In some ways, the captain of the 3rd Company is said to be the most akin to his gene-sire Vulkan of any Salamander in centuries.

He is stable and considered, even when the steadiest of his comrades teeter towards wrath or alarm, yet unrelentingly ferocious in the pursuit of his foes. Agatone is also as skilled a craftsman as any of Vulkan's inheritors, working with the same quiet but abiding pride that shows in his conduct as a warrior and a Space Marine captain.

In his sheer merciless pragmatism, however, the captain of the 3rd Company could not be further from the compassionate and introspective Vulkan of legend. Agatone lives by a simple creed: if something must be done for the greater good of the Imperium and its people, no matter how callous or cruel that deed might seem, he will see it done.

Countless Imperial despots have claimed this justification for their brutal actions over the millennia; what separates Captain Agatone from them all is his unshakeable moral certitude. The captain knows well that a weapon is only as noble as the cause in which it is wielded. He knows too that he and his Battle-Brothers are living weapons all, and that their willingness to engage in the most merciless of the Salamanders' campaigns might be exploited by the powerful and the unprincipled.

Indeed, Agatone has seen this very perversion of trust at work upon countless battlefields. In every cruelly manipulated peoples' militia, in every horde duped by demagogues or made the puppets of xenos mind-thieves, Agatone recognises honest ideals twisted to violent and heretical purpose.

Thus he has sworn that no matter how dark the deeds of the 3rd Company must be, he will never suffer his warriors to become the tools of tyrants and oppressors.

Since assuming his captaincy, Adrax Agatone has led the Pyroclasts into some of the most horrific bloodbaths witnessed by the Salamanders in millennia. Yet always they have remained a weapon true to the Chapter's noble purpose, never once taking an innocent life without feeling the proper weight of remorse for the deed.

While he was still a sergeant, Agatone was a stoic, cold, and curt leader. After his elevation to the captaincy, however, he confided in his Chaplain that he didn't believe he would be able to fully live up to the example of his predecessors, Ko'tan Kadai and N'keln.

However, he overcame these feelings, and sought to bring his own brand of pragmatism and vicious fighting style to his company.

As a warrior, Captain Agatone is a tightly focused force of destruction. Every swing of Malleus Noctum, the mighty Thunder Hammer crafted by his own hands, is expertly directed and backed by ferocious strength.

Every fiery blast of his Hand Flamer, Drakkis -- also born from the personal forge of the 3rd Company Captain -- is aimed to engulf the greatest number of foes, or else to blind, madden or wear down his assailants.

Always Agatone keeps his mission foremost in his mind, delivering terse orders to his Battle-Brothers while driving a relentless path towards whatever quarry or strategic goal he has set his sights upon. Just as when at the anvil, Adrax Agatone strikes hard and true in battle, never tiring, never relenting in his ambitions.

In this way has he burned out the cankers of countless rebellions and cults across the galaxy, his bloody victories sparing the wider Imperium from far more costly and tragic wars.

Wargear

• Mark X Power Armour (Any variant as required)
• Malleus Noctum - This potent master-crafted Thunder Hammer was forged by Agatone's own hand after he asended to become a Primaris Marine.
• Drakkis - This master-crafted Hand Flamer was also forged by Agatone following his crossing of the Rubicon Primaris.

Sources

• Codex Supplement: Salamanders (8th Edition), pp. 37-39
• Rite of Pain (Short Story) by Nick Kyme
• Salamander (Novel) by Nick Kyme, Part II, Ch. 4
• Warhammer Community: Fists and Fire – New Miniatures Revealed (Image)