Balthasar

Master Balthasar wielding Fellbane in battle.

Balthasar was the former Master of the Dark Angels Chapter's 5th Company, "The Unrelenting," and the Keeper of the Unseen Ritual.

Balthasar was originally a Deathwing Sergeant who succeeded his mentor Master Zadakiel as the commander of the 5th Company after Zadakiel died at the hands of the Crimson Slaughter warband of Heretic Astartes. His lifetime of servitude to the Deathwing honed Balthasar into a crafty and cunning tactician. He held a strong desire for vengeance against the Crimson Slaughter for murdering his mentor.

Balthasar is known amongst the Inner Circle of the Chapter for his low tolerance for psykers, although his negative opinions of the Dark Angels' own Librarians were more due to his conviction that their psychic powers were the only reason why they were chosen to become Space Marines, rather than skill in battle.

Balthsar was slain in the period immediately following the opening of the Great Rift and replaced as Master of the 5th Company by Master Lazarus, the first Dark Angel Firstborn Space Marine to cross the Rubicon Primaris and ascend to become a Primaris Marine.

History

Master Balthsar of the Dark Angels 5th Company, Keeper of the Unseen Ritual.

Balthasar grew up on one of the thousands of worlds that the Dark Angels swore an oath to protect and, in turn, draw Aspirants from. That world had labored under the oppression of a psychic cult until it was brought down by a resistance movement, of which Balthasar was a member. This is what led to Balthasar's later extreme distrust of psykers.

When Balthasar was a Sergeant of the 5^th Company, he took part in the Battle of Honoria. During the mission, Ezekiel was tasked by Grand Master Danatheum to assess whether Balthasar should ascend to the Deathwing (a replacement was needed following the death of the Veteran Joadar).

During the defence of Honoria's capital city, Aurelianum, the then-Master of the 5^th Company Zadakiel was wounded by the Ork Warboss Groblonik. Although he survived, Zadakiel had to enter a Sus-an Membrane-induced healing coma; Balthasar assumed acting command of the 5^th Company for the remainder of the Dark Angels' time on Honoria. Although Ezekiel decided that Balthasar was worthy of a position in the Deathwing, impressed by his actions on Honoria, the Librarian thought Balthasar was not yet ready for the position.

Eventually, however, Balthasar did earn a place in the Deathwing. While a member of the elite 1sy Company, Balthasar was seconded to the Deathwatch for a period of 12 standard years. He was part of a Kill-team sent by an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos to investigate the remains of the destroyed Aeldari Craftworld known as Kher-Ys.

Within the craftworld's Infinity Circuit, they found the Ruin of Kher-Ys -- the Spirit Stone of the Aeldari whose actions allowed the daemon called "Heartslayer" to manifest on the craftworld. Balthasar and his Watch Captain were the only two members of the Kill-team alive by that point, and it was the Watch Captain's intent to turn the Spirit Stone over to the Ordo Xenos. However, Balthasar and the Inquisitor killed the Watch Captain, revealing that the mission had always been to secure the stone for the Dark Angels alone.

The Inquisitor died shortly afterwards, succumbing to the wounds she had sustained when she was stabbed by a Keeper of Secrets. With her last words, she asked Balthasar to tell Supreme Grand Master Azrael that her debt to the Dark Angels was paid.

Upon returning to The Rock, Balthasar was questioned about the mission by Interrogator-Chaplain Asmodai. His superiors were satisfied with his work in the Deathwatch and Balthasar returned to the ranks of the Deathwing with none of his Battle-Brothers learning of his mission.

After returning to the Chapter, Balthasar was assigned to a Deathwing force attached to the 5^th Company led by his former Master Zadakiel to the world of Stern's Remembrance where they discovered the notorious Fallen Angel Attias the Untamed, who then attempted to warn his erstwhile brothers that it was all an elaborate trap and that they should take their leave.

The Dark Angels took Attias into custody and attempted to return off-planet, but as they made their way back to their Thunderhawks the trap was sprung. A massive Drop Pod assault was launched by the Chaos warband known as the Crimson Slaughter while their allied Chaos Cultists surrounded the outnumbered Dark Angels.

Master Balthasar wielding Fellbane in battle against a Daemon of Chaos.

In the ensuing battle, the Dark Angels reluctantly freed Attias, allowing him to fight by their side in order to survive the Heretic Astartes' onslaught. As Zadakiel was about to board the hovering gunship, the Helbrute Mortis Metalikus appeared. Zadakiel drew the Heavenfall Blade called Fellbane and started to do battle with the beast. Despite his agility, the Helbrute eventually got the upper hand and was about to crush him underfoot when the Thunderhawk appeared, shooting the Helbrute and giving Zadakiel the chance to climb aboard.

However, as the Dark Angels Master grabbed the open ramp at the front of the Thunderhawk, the Helbrute snatched at him, dragging Zadakiel down. Seeing he could not escape his fate and that the Helbrute was aiming his Multi-melta at the Thunderhawk, Zadakiel threw Fellbane into the Thunderhawk and let go, falling to his death.

His position as Master of the 5^th Company was then passed on to Balthasar, who became the new leader of the company. Afterwards, Balthasar continued to obsessively hunt down the Crimson Slaughter, intent on enacting his vengeance against those Chaos Space Marines by destroying them utterly and avenging his fallen Master.

He would eventually defeat Kranon the Relentless and his Chaos Space Marine warband in the Battle for Bane's Landing, with help from Librarian Turmiel and other forces of the 5^th Company.

Unfortunately, Balthasar was later slain in the chaotic battles surrounding the birth of the Great Rift at the start of the Era Indomitus.

Wargear

• Artificer Armour
• Fellbane - Fellbane is one of the legendary Heavenfall Blades wielded by chosen heroes of the Dark Angels Chapter.
• Bolt Pistol
• Master-crafted Bolter
• Frag Grenades
• Krak Grenades

Sources

• The Eye of Ezekiel (Novel) by C.Z. Dunn, Chs. 1, 3, 5, 12, 13, Epilogue
• Deathwatch: The Last Guardian (Audio Book) by C.Z. Dunn, Tracks 12-14
• The Ascension of Balthasar (Audio Book) by C.Z. Dunn
• Dark Vengeance (Novella) by C.Z. Dunn
• Crimson Slaughter - A Codex: Chaos Space Marines Supplement (6th Edition), pp. 25-26
• White Dwarf 392, pg. 35
• White Dwarf 37 (September 2019), "Index Astartes: Dark Angels," pg. 28