Anakatis Kul Blade-Slave

An Anakatis Kul Blade-Slave -- his body warped by the malign influence of Chaos -- wielding a baleful Anakatis Blade

An Anakatis Kul Blade-Slave was a specialist formation of individual warriors of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion that served the will of their dark master, Zardu Layak, the Crimson Apostle of the Chapter of the Unspeaking, during the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium.

Following the Word Bearers Legion's chastisement and humiliation at the hands of the Emperor and the Ultramarines Legion at Monarchia, many within the Word Bearers' ranks felt powerless and cast adrift.

Within some individuals, this ignited a hunger that could not be denied. Zardu Layak preyed upon such Astartes, bestowing baleful gifts upon those whose ambition and hubris outweighed their caution. These followers became the Anakatis Kul Blade-Slaves -- loyal servants of the Crimson Apostle -- whose bodies became unnaturally warped and contorted and possessed of great strength.

Wielding the Anakatis Blades, gifts bestowed upon them by Layak and weapons of unholy xenos influence and malevolent power, they cut a swathe through their master's foes in a barely controlled hunger for slaughter.

History

There were always those who hungered for power beyond their appointed measure, even amongst the Space Marine Legions long before the dark days of the Horus Heresy. After their humiliation and censure by the Emperor and the Ultramarines, this became doubly so within the Word Bearers Legion as the sting of their fall left many within their ranks feeling powerless and cast adrift from the bedrock of their beliefs.

For the XVII Legion as a whole this would mark the start of a perilous path. For some within its ranks, it ignited a hunger that could not be denied. It was on such morbid cravings that Zardu Layak, the Crimson Apostle of the Chapter of the Unspeaking, preyed, with baleful gifts in mind to bestow on those whose ambition outweighed their caution, and whose hubris overwhelmed their fear.

These gifts were the Anakatis Blades, dark relics of the time before Mankind, weapons which must be ritually given and freely accepted to work their doom, for they promise unearthly might to any warrior who grasps them, but only if that warrior's spirit and will are strong enough to master the beast within the blade. But this never happened, for Zardu Layak made sure that none he chose to wield the blades was every strong enough to truly master them.

Notable Anakatis Kul Blade-Slaves

• Hebek
• Kulnar

Unit Composition

• 2 Anakatis Kul

Wargear

• Anakatis Blade - Only two of these weapons are known to exist. Believed to have been discovered rammed through the chest of a towering alien-carcass mummified by untold millennia on a dead world on the very edge of the Ghoul Stars by Zardu Layak, these occult blades reek of unholy, Warp-spawned power. Their forging may well predate human life. Dark and coiling entities have been trapped within the blades, entities that whisper promises of untold might and power, but such promises are only bought at a terrifying price to both body and soul.
• Power Armour
• Plasma Pistol

Sources

• Slaves to Darkness (Novel) by John French
• The Solar War (Novel) by John French
• The Horus Heresy - Book Five: Tempest (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 242, 250, 253
• Forge World - Zardu Layak & Anakatis Kul Blade-Slaves

Gallery

Zardu Layak, the Crimson Apostle of the Chapter of the Unspeaking, and his Anakatis Kul Blade-Slave bodyguards

An Anakatis Kul Blade-Slave wielding his baleful Anakatis Blade in battle

A close-up of an Anakatis Blade -- a baleful and ancient relic weapon that possesses dark and coiling entities within