The War in Heaven is an ancient Aeldari myth that tells the story of a war fought in the Immaterium and on the mortal plane between the gods of the Aeldari Pantheon that is the central defining conflict of the Aeldari Myth Cycles.
It is an epic tale that laid the basis for the present-day cultures of all the Aeldari kindreds and may even contain hints of the truth concerning the Aeldari's origins in the conflict between the Old Ones and the Necrontyr that is the true War in Heaven.
History
The following tale is an extract from The Threnody of Chains and Blood, being part of the Book of Heavens Torn.
Creation of the Aeldari
The tale of the Aeldari people is one of woe that begins with a family's love for a newborn child. The mortal get of Isha the Healer, the goddess of fertility, the harvest and healing, and Kurnous, the god of the hunt, were the ancestors of all the Aeldari. Thus do the Aeldari believe they are all descended from the gods of the Aeldari Pantheon themselves.
The first and greatest mortal Aeldari was Eldanesh, sword-brother, spear-carrier, hawk-friend, shield-bearer and ally of the Falcon. The world upon which he first lived was empty, and forlorn did he feel to gaze upon its expanse of nothingness. Isha shed a tear for him, wishing for his sadness to end. Where that tear fell, forests and oceans and skies sprang up, and the creatures of the lands and the airs and the seas were born to dwell in them. Countless were these things most wondrous, and boundless gratitude did Eldanesh feel for his mother's love.
Love was not the only gift that Eldanesh received from the great Aeldari Pantheon. Many of the gods wished to dote upon the newborn mortal and the others of his kind. Kurnous, the father of the mortal Aeldari, gave the first Aeldari desire, so that they would advance and flourish thanks to all that they acquired. Asuryan, the Phoenix King, the eldest and most powerful of the gods and the elder brother of Khaine, the god of war, gave them wisdom and introspection, so that they might come to know themselves.
Cegorach, the Laughing God, gave them irony, with which they could find humour in themselves and cast down each other's hubris. Morai-Heg, the goddess of fate, gifted them with foresight, so that they would know their place in the cosmos. Lileath, the daughter of Isha and the goddess of dreams and fortune, imparted to them joy -- always its own reward. Hoec, the Silent Wanderer, endowed them with adventurousness, with which to seek out the new and exhilarating, and in doing so expand their minds.
Vaul, the god of smiths and artifice, the industrious master smith of the pantheon and uncle of Isha and Kurnous, gave the Aeldari inventiveness, so that whatever their minds could conceive they could create. Gia, consort of Asuryan and Khaine both, gave Eldanesh and his kin nothing, for understanding they were neither owed nor deserving of anything was as vital a lesson as any. Khaine, the god of murder, destruction and war, gave them anger -- with it, they would have the means to defend both their heavenly gifts and the greatness they would later achieve in the galaxy.
Thus the gods, in giving the Aeldari the means by which they attained their ascension, also unknowingly laid the foundations for their terrible slide into ignominy and near-extinction. In this beauteous beginning was the War of Heaven's first ember ignited, for all families are fractious, and none more so than that of the Aeldari gods. Endless were their games of love, torment, treachery and ridicule. For them, the true curse of immortality was simply boredom.
Forging the Barrier Between Gods and Mortals
Long before the glorious time of Eldanesh, Kurnous and Lileath were bound in courtship. Only Khaine among the gods resented their union, and by every method he could conceive he sought Lileath's hand, so charmed was he by her beauty and wit -- and so desirous to spite the Hunter.
But he could not win her despite all his attempts. An eternity later, fair Lileath was spurned by Kurnous in favour of her mother Isha, the goddess of the harvest, fertility and healing and the Hunter soon got the Healer with his child. Through pretty smiles and pretty laughter Lileath hid her bitterness and jealousy. Then, when a dream came to her of Khaine being torn into pieces by a great army of mortals, a plan formed in her mind. In secret, she divulged this prophetic vision to the Lord of Murder, and he resolved to slaughter the Aeldari to prevent his death. Lileath was pleased, for the deaths of their mortal children would bring tremendous pain and grief to Isha and Kurnous.
When Khaine enacted Lileath's terrible revenge by slaughtering the Aeldari by the thousands, Isha wept for her children. Her wails of grief echoed throughout the heavens, and the Phoenix King Asuryan, lord of the pantheon, heard them. He soon learned of all that had transpired, of Lileath's dream and Khaine's butchery. So did the Phoenix King choose to forge a spiritual barrier, impenetrable to gods and mortals alike, to forever shield the one from the other. In this way do the Aeldari believe that Creation was divided between the Materium and the Immaterium. Though her mortal children were now saved from the rampages of the Lord of War, Isha's tears only flowed faster, for now she could never communicate with her offspring directly.
And so, in the dead of night, Isha and Kurnous did silently approach the forge of Vaul, the god of artifice, and beseech the Master Smith to aid them, for if any could undo the craft of Asuryan, their uncle could. They begged and they pleaded. Finally, Vaul agreed, unable to bear the heart-wrenching weeping of his bereaved niece. Carefully gathering her tears, the Great Craftsman forged them into Waystones that glittered like the stars. Through these gems, Isha could speak to her mortal children. And so she did.
Isha and Kurnous taught much to the Aeldari, in greatest secrecy at first so that none of the others gods would ever learn of their proscribed contact with their mortal children. Yet as time passed, their confidence that they would never be discovered grew to arrogance, and in one careless moment Khaine overheard them discussing their interactions with the Aeldari. All that Khaine had learned he brought to Asuryan, and both anger and disappointment did the Phoenix King then feel; he had been disobeyed because of parents' love, but disobeyed nonetheless.
With a heavy heart, Asuryan declared before all the assembled gods that Isha and Kurnous were no longer under his protection and that they were to be turned over to Khaine for him to do with as he saw fit. Thus was an example set. The god of war and destruction bound the Healer and the Hunter with bonds of flame and scorching iron, making them his prisoners. They endured fiery torments for countless years in a burning pit, out of sight of mortals and gods alike.
Swords of Vaul
Only Vaul pleaded on the behalf of Kurnous and Isha. He had also partaken in the scheme that had seen them sentenced to torment, and thus he was determined to see them set free. The Great Craftsman bargained with Khaine, and an accord was reached. The Master Smith would forge a hundred divinely-crafted swords for the Lord of Murder, each mightier than the last, and in return Kurnous and Isha would be released.
Khaine granted Vaul a single year to complete his appointed task, and every day and night Vaul laboured at his forge, fashioning blades of sunbronze, starmetal and the last cries of sundered nebulae. Each sword was a great prize and a unique masterpiece in its own right.
Yet when a year had passed, one of the promised swords remained incomplete. To conceal his terrible failing -- which would have rendered his agreement with Khaine null and void -- Vaul hid amongst the newly forged weapons a mortal-crafted blade. Elated beyond words with his magnificent prizes, Khaine released his prisoners and only later discovered the smith god's betrayal, long after Vaul, Isha and Kurnous had fled far away. The Lord of Murder bellowed his rage upon the discovery of the errant blade. Branding Vaul a cheat and a liar, he demanded vengeance. Thus did the conflict remembered by the Aeldari as the "War in Heaven" begin.
Divine Bloodshed
At the outset of the conflict between the gods of the Aeldari Pantheon, Asuryan approached Morai-Heg, the goddess of fate, seeking to know the destiny of the gods. The Crone read the wild skeins of destiny and followed every tangled thread. No matter where she gazed, every path led to death and fire and pain, and she could see no further. Perturbed but undeterred, she followed Khaine, and took from him without his knowing a single thimble of his fiery blood. She placed this burning liquid upon her scales, and against it delicately set the strand of fate belonging to the mortal Eldanesh, spear-carrier and ally of the Falcon.
Their weight was equal. Now in possession of an answer to the Phoenix King's question, she took it to the lord of the pantheon. The Mistress of Fate informed Asuryan of what she had learned: the fate of the gods ultimately lay in the hands of their mortal worshippers. By mortal actions alone would the Aeldari gods live or die.
Many gods and lesser beings of the heavens took sides and changed sides in the conflict, struck bargains and broke them -- as was their nature -- following their own agendas as much as they pretended to follow those of others. Heaven shook with the thunder of divine battle. Only Asuryan refused to align himself with any other, though he hated the damage that was wrought. No finer example of wisdom has there ever been, for despite all the treachery and fury, when swords were finally sheathed and the dead at last buried, Asuryan still remained the lord of Vaul and Khaine both.
The final battle of this conflict was fought between its instigators, the Great Smith and the Lord of War. Vaul had forged a potent blade, the one hundredth weapon he had agreed to make for Khaine, and the greatest of all the hundred Swords of Vaul. He imbued it with all the art of his mastery, utilising every skill he had ever learned, and named it Anaris, the "Light of Dawn." For many hours did the two gods clash, and severe were the wounds both suffered at the hands of their opponent. For all the might of Anaris, the Great Craftsman was no match for the Lord of War's wrath. Khaine overpowered the smith god and cast him out of heaven. Such were the injuries Vaul had suffered that he was left forever after broken in body. Then Khaine shackled the lamed Great Smith to his own anvil, using chains Vaul himself had once forged.
Khaine roared, glorifying in his final triumph. All he had left to accomplish was to claim Anaris as his own. As he reached to collect the fallen blade, however, Faolchú the Falcon, consort of the Great Hawk, swept the Light of Dawn up into his great talons, crossed the barrier between realms and dropped the divinely-crafted sword into the hands of the mortal Eldanesh.
Murder of Eldanesh
Khaine's hatred for the mortal Eldanesh burned with all the blazing heat of his fiery blood. Long before the War in Heaven, they had once fought side-by-side. Many victories did the Lord of Murder give the mortal shield-bearer, on battlefield after battlefield. Together they struck down the Autochtinii, the Sraerkyn and the Ynk'irln. After one such glorious conquest, Khaine gave Eldanesh a wondrous vision -- in this the Aeldari champion was lord of the galaxy. None were more powerful than he. All Aeldari followed him as their greatest hero, and no enemy could stand against him and hope for anything but a swift demise. All that Khaine requested in exchange was Eldanesh's oath of fealty. But this Eldanesh refused.
Even bearing mighty Anaris and filled with righteous desire to strike down the god who had gaoled and tortured his beloved divine parents, Eldanesh was feeble in comparison to the god of war, and Khaine simply tore him apart in the murderous clash that followed.
As the gods declared Khaine's final victory over god and mortal alike, Anaris held firm in the hand still dripping with Eldanesh's gleaming blood, Faolchú and the Great HAwk bore the lifeless, blood-streaked corpse of Eldanesh into the air, and set it in the sky. There it became the Red Moon, which for aeons served as a constant reminder of the great champion's death. Until, that is, the Fall of the Aeldari, when that ancient race finally succumbed to its own arrogance and hubris, She Who Thirsts was born, and the ancient Aeldari Empire's homeworlds were consumed by the powers of Chaos.
Curse of Khaine
At long last, the War in Heaven was over, with Khaine as the undisputed victor. But his merciless slaughter of Eldanesh was not the last act of this bitter conflict. Instead it was to the god of war's brother Asuryan that the final deed fell. So appalled was the Phoenix King by the slaying of the first lord of the Aeldari that Asuryan laid a curse upon his brother Khaine.
The blood of Eldanesh that dripped from the Lord of Murder's hand would now do so eternally, reminding all of what he had done, of the unnecessary life he had taken in his unchecked wrath. Thus he has been known ever since by the Aeldari as Kaela Mensha Khaine -- "Khaine the Bloody-Handed" in the Aeldari Lexicon.
Sources
- Codex: Aeldari (9th Edition), pp. 6-7