Fuegan

"You are the hand that must cast the spear of flames. Control the dragon, channel its power, and in all things maintain absolute focus. Only the concentrated beam can penetrate, and only that which is tempered will not break. Finally, be not afraid. In the end, everything burns."

— Fuegan, the Scriptures of Exarch

Fuegan, the Burning Lance, Phoenix Lord of the Fire Dragons

Fuegan, "the Burning Lance," is a Craftworld Aeldari Phoenix Lord and the founder of the Fire Dragons Aspect Warriors.

The air around him crackles, and enemies blister and blacken at his touch. Fuelled by the all-consuming fires of oblivion, Fuegan embodies the aspect of the war god Khaine that demands his enemies be not only vanquished, but turned to ash.

Daemon Princes, Ork Warlords and the champions of Mankind have all fallen to his pike and axe, each one strengthening Fuegan's chain.

When the Rhana Dandra, the Aeldari's final battle against Chaos, comes to pass, these legends tell of how Fuegan will use this same chain to bind the Dragon of Aeldari Mythology to his will, unleashing its white-hot fury upon the Dark Gods that prey upon his people.

History

Asurmen, the "Hand of Asur," was the first Phoenix Lord. Prior to the Fall of the Aeldari, Asurmen was the Aeldari who led the craftworlds away from the ancient homeworlds of their now-lost interstellar Aeldari Empire and it was he who founded the first of the Aspect Shrines, the Shrine of Asur, upon the barren moon of the same name located in a region of the Webway that his people initially settled.

Asurmen found that he could not give up the Path of the Warrior to follow a different Asuryani Path, for he desired to use his skills to protect what remained of his species after the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh, "She Who Thirsts." From the Shrine of Asur sprang the first Aspect Warriors, and the Path of the Warrior was opened for the very first time to all Craftworld Aeldari.

Those Asuryani who wanted to follow this new path learned at the feet of their master, and in turn they assumed the mantle of Exarchs before spreading throughout the galaxy. The first Exarchs, the Asurya, the children of Asurmen, were the greatest of his students and went on to become the Phoenix Lords of the other Aspect Shrines, the first masters of the other specialised Asuryani combat disciplines.

Fuegan learned the arts of war in the Shrine of Asur, under the eyes of Asurmen in that distant time, many Terran millennia ago, when the Warrior Aspects were first born. When the Asurya made their way across the galaxy, it was Fuegan who founded the shrines of the Fire Dragon upon the craftworlds -- the Warrior Aspect whose teachings advocate the utter annihilation of the enemy so that their demise is assured beyond all doubt.

Fuegan schooled his disciples in the arts of wielding fire and flame, of channelling and mastering the powers of the mythical Dragon. It was his hope that the Craftworld Aeldari could bring harmony through selective destruction rather than regarding oblivion as a force that could only bring discord.

Fuegan was thought lost when the Shrine of Asur was destroyed by the actions of Arhra, the Chaos-corrupted Fallen Phoenix. Fuegan disappeared for many Terran centuries, before reappearing during the final battle at Haranshemash, "The World of Blood and Tears," in the Aeldari Lexicon.

There, while fighting alongside the Farseer Eldrad Ulthran, he scoured a score of Greater Daemons from the planet with the Firepike from which he takes his name, and claimed a dozen more with his rune-covered Fire Axe. The wounds suffered by the Phoenix Lord only increased his resolve, and Fuegan grew stronger and stronger as the fight progressed, the fury of his attacks blazing ever hotter until finally the last foe was felled.

After that conflict Fuegan vanished into the Webway, and has travelled its secret, labyrinthine passageways ever since, tracking down the enemies of his ancient forebears and emerging only to fight in a noble cause that aids his species. In ca. 999.M41 he was seen during the Fall of Medusa V campaign leading a retinue of Fire Dragon Exarchs in assaulting an Imperial fuel distribution centre.

In the Era Indomitus, Fuegan appeared under the command of the Phoenix Lord Jain Zar of the Howling Banshees, now pledged to the service of Ynnead, the Aeldari god of the dead and patron of the Ynnari cult. Fuegan took part in the battle to defend the Ynnari against the Thousand Sons and Tzeentchian Daemons in the Webway, vanishing during the struggle. He has hunted the ancient tunnels of the Webway since, tracking down the enemies of the Asuryani.

Prophecy

The Phoenix Lord Fuegan in battle unleashing the deadly beam of his Firepike.

Fuegan is a mighty hero to the Asuryani craftworlds, often depicted holding the cosmic serpents of wisdom and entropy in his fiery grasp. In his footsteps entire worlds are set ablaze, for the Dragon of Aeldari Mythology is synonymous with destruction.

Fuegan's gaze is flame; smoke rises from the blistering skin of those who do not address him with the proper respect, and those who truly earn his wrath are swiftly reduced to ash.

In many ways it is Fuegan who most embodies the Aspect Warriors' obsession with their deadly craft. He devotes himself completely to the systematic and total persecution of the Aeldari species' enemies, pitilessly culling them one by one until their deaths form an unbroken chain of retribution stretching across the universe.

The Craftworld Aeldari believe that, with this chain, Fuegan intends to bind the Dragon at the end of days, though such a feat would mean mastery over destruction itself. The eventual fate of Fuegan is foretold in the last stanza of the Asuryata, the legend of the Phoenix Lords, known in full only to the Bards of Twilight.

This passage says that it will be Fuegan who calls all of the Phoenix Lords togther for the Last Battle, the Rhana Dandra, and the Burning Lance will be the last of his brethren to die in that conflict, when the footsteps of Daemon kings and demigods shake the galaxy, resulting in the final death of the Aeldari species and their gods alike, as the price for the elimination of Chaos within the Immaterium.

Wargear

Fuegan in his full panoply of war, armed with his Firepike and Fire Axe.

• Phoenix Armour - The legendary Phoenix Lords wear ancient, invaluable Aspect Armour so finely wrought it is proof against almost any weapon. The helmet contains the Spirit Stones of Fuegan which hold the souls of every Fire Dragon Exarch to become the Phoenix Lord since Fuegan left the First Shrine on Asur himself millennia ago.

• Searsong - Fuegan is armed with a massive, elongated fusion-based thermal weapon known as a Firepike he has named Searsong. These fusion weapons cause the molecules of the target to hyper-vibrate, generating so much heat that their targets burst into flames before suddenly liquefying and then evaporating into nothingness.

• Fire Axe - This ancient weapon glows red with the heat of its forging. Massive in size and yet still possessed of the alien elegance that defines the works of Vaul, the Fire Axe has never cooled since the day it was crafted, and the Aeldari Lexicon runes on its surface constantly writhe in blazing agony.

• Melta Bombs - Melta Bombs are portable incendiary devices utilising nuclear fusion-based Melta technology, and they are lethally effective against even heavily armoured units, as the intense directional blast of heat produced by the Melta reaction can burn its way through an armoured hull in a matter of seconds.

Sources

• Codex: Eldar (2nd Edition), pp. 41, 84
• Codex: Eldar (3rd Edition), pg. 41
• Codex: Eldar (4th Edition), pg. 57
• Codex: Eldar (6th Edition), pp. 59, 62, 88
• Codex: Eldar Craftworlds (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), "Fuegan," "Fire Dragons", "Datasheet - Fuegan The Burning Lance"
• Codex: Craftworlds (8th Edition), pp. 47, 89
• Codex: Aeldari (9th Edition), pg. 151