#first captain zerberyn

[caiusmajor]

Warsmith Kalkator and his Sons of Dorn

The War of the Beast, and the Beast Arises series which chronicles it, feature a lot of imperial politics and a lot of fighting with Orks, so I didn't pay much attention UNTIL a fanart of @magicalduck21's tipped me off to the existence of WARSMITH KALKATOR.

Warsmith Kalkator of the Iron Warriors plays a relatively minor role in the War of the Beast saga -- BUT he has not one but TWO intense relationships with sons of Dorn!

First, Magneric. Kalkator and Magneric were friends pre-heresy! As Kalkator says:

I remember a time when our comradeship was lauded as an example of how our Legions could set aside their differences and find brotherhood. (Throneworld, Chapter 17)

Since the heresy, Magneric has been interred in a Dreadnaught, which is how he's still alive roughly 1500 years later for the War of the Beast. He's also become a Black Templar and is the Marshal of a small crusade called the Kalkator Crusade.

... Because he's very much not over Kalkator and has sworn to track him down and kill him.

But then the War of the Beast happens, and well, there are a LOT of Orks. So in an attempt not to all die to Lots of Orks, Kalkator and Magneric agree to a truce:

‘Wait!’ said Magneric, his voice low and distorted, the aged vox-equipment popping. ‘I reluctantly agree. We will fight side by side, one more time. Hear me, warriors of the Black Templars!’ He rotated from side to side, addressing all his followers. ‘No member of our Chapter is to harm the Iron Warriors until our treaty is sundered. So swear I, Magneric, Marshal of the Kalkator Crusade. Ralstan, command Ericus to aid the Iron Warriors ship. Have him provide me an estimated extraction time.’ Magneric bent down, his sarcophagus slit glowing in the failing light. ‘We will leave this world together, Kalkator, or not at all. Do not think to betray me.’

‘You have my word that I will abide by the terms of our agreement,’ said Kalkator, ‘more for the sake of our old friendship than for anything else. Now come! Bring your warriors into the redoubt. We must make our preparations.’ (Throneworld, Chapter 17)

... and they do that! They fight the Orks together and they are successful in escaping the planet full of orks!

Unfortunately the Orks aren't done with them, and catch up to them in the next book of the Beast Arises, Echoes of the Long War, when they're caught up in a void battle between orks and other sons of Dorn.

Magneric doesn't make it out of the battle alive, alas.

But Kalkator does! And he escapes with a portion of the fleet of a chapter known as the Fists Exemplar, a First Founding Imperial Fists descendant probably invented for the Beast Arises saga.

The commander of this portion of the Fists Exemplar is First Captain Zerberyn. I'm going to make a second post for the adventures of Kalkator and Zerberyn, since this one is already getting long!

[caiusmajor]

Warsmith Kalkator Part 2: Zerberyn

In the last post, I talked about the adventures of Warsmith Kalkator with Marshal Magneric of the Black Templars in the War of the Beasts.

Now, we're going to talk about Zerberyn. When we meet Zerberyn in Echoes of the Long War, he is the First Captain of the Fists Exemplar. The Fists Exemplar are a First Founding Imperial Fists successor chapter, but you may never have heard of them because they were later wiped out of the historical record for reasons we'll get into below.

The Fists Exemplar were formed of the Imperial Fists that thought the Codex Astartes was a great idea. In addition to this, they have a fine chapter tradition of insubordination, which explains some of Zerberyn's actions.

At any rate. Zerberyn's small fleet of Fists Exemplar, as well as Kalkator's single ship, both escape from the void battle of Vandis, but none of the ships are in good shape. Kalkator offers to bring Zerberyn to a place where they can all repair their ships and then be on their way.

Zerberyn agrees. Unfortunately, the first place Kalkator takes Zerberyn, the world of Prax, has already been colonized by the orks, who are using it to process human captives en masse into food to be distributed to the ork war effort. (War of the Beast orks are more civilized than most; this is part of why they're such a problem.)

So they fight their way through Prax, which was conquered by the Iron Warriors way back in the Great Crusade, along with some human stormtroopers that...unfortunately have to be killed when they discover that the Iron Warriors are traitors and try to kill them. Zerberyn at this point is getting along well enough with the Iron Warriors that he cooperates with this, and even condemns some of his own Fists Exemplar to death to cover up the Iron Warriors' involvement.

Also Kalkator calls Zerberyn "little cousin," which is cute.

Anyway, it turns out that Perturabo had installed a self-destruct button for the planet Prax. So Kalkator hits the self-destruct button, killing a lot of orks and their human food/slaves and hopefully disrupting their war effort. And Zerberyn and Kalkator and their Iron Warriors and Fists Exemplar fly away together.

After Echoes of the Long War, Zerberyn and Kalkator show up briefly every book or so -- half a chapter in The Hunt for Vulkan, a whole chapter each in Watchers in Death, The Last Son of Dorn, and Shadow of Ullanor.

By the The Last Son of Dorn, Zerberyn's Fists Exemplar and Kalkator's Iron Warriors have set up housekeeping together on a moon of Immitis VII. They're sharing supplies, working together on defenses, and even raising neophytes together:

A pair of bulky, muscular youths, perhaps eleven or twelve standard years of age, hovered behind [the Apothecary]. They looked sickly from blood loss and enforced genhancement. [...] Zerberyn could not tell just from looking whether they were Iron Warriors or Fists Exemplar. (The Last Son of Dorn, Chapter 11)

The Fists Exemplar and Iron Warriors continue to be allied and grow gradually closer (and Zerberyn closer and closer to severing ties with the Imperium), but the next really important developments are in the final book of The Beast Arises, The Beheading.

With the War of the Beast over, Zerberyn finally sends word to the other sons of Dorn of where he is and asks them to "come in peace and bearing the markers of truce." (The Beheading, Chapter 7)

Chapter Master Bohemond of the Black Templars arrives instead, determined to kill the Iron Warriors. When the Fists Exemplar won't give up the Iron Warriors, the Black Templars' ship attacks and Marshal Bohemond himself teleports onto Zerberyn's ship and tries to kill Kalkator.

After some fighting and intense discussions of philosophy, Zerberyn kills Marshal Bohemond to protect Kalkator and orders his fleet to fire on the Black Templars' ship.

At this point, some of Zerberyn's own Fists Exemplar subordinates rebel against orders and fighting breaks out between (and on) the Fists Exemplar ships. One ship gets away and returns to the Imperium; more on them later.

Zerberyn himself? He's made his choice.

‘A Fist Exemplar is never mistaken,’ he said. He knelt [before Kalkator]. Behind him, the crew and Space Marines of the Dantalion followed his example.

‘Iron within, iron without,’ he said.

And this is the last we see of Kalkator and Zerberyn! So, as far as I know, they're still living together as Iron Warriors, somewhere in the galaxy.

As for the rest of the Fists Exemplar, the one ship that defied Zerberyn and made it back to the Imperium shows up with 22 surviving warriors. In the meantime, the Chapter Master of the Fists Exemplar, Maximus Thane, had become the Chapter Master of the reconstituted Imperial Fists. (The previous incarnation of the Imperial Fists had all been killed by orks.)

Because of the shame of Zerberyn's betrayal, Thane has the Fists Exemplar chapter dissolved and all records expunged. Surviving Fists Exemplar not in the Iron Warriors were inducted into the new Imperial Fists chapter.

So that is the story of Kalkator and his sons of Dorn! Please do take a look at the original books if you are interested -- there's a lot of details I didn't have time for here.