HORUS HERESY Blood Angel Esoterist ‘Revelation.

Mysteries abound in the Age of Darkness. So many personnel files consigned to magenta level secrecy codes, wholesale data purging during our current age, and so much simply left unrecorded in the desolation of the Empire in deep space. 


The origins of the Epistolary [‘Revelation’] is an enigma in a time of fractured truths. A minor figure in the Heresy his later involvement in the fall of Gairados and similarities between the Auric Tyrant has made him a figure of interest to Inquisition kill claves.

 
Explorator fleet 133 took possession of the somnolent ‘Revelation’ in the aftermath of the Taakan Reeva campaign. The 344th Iron Hands exploratory fleet encountered a dead Hulk, or more accurately several dead spacecraft of unknown and imperial origin orbiting one another in installer space. A Blood Angel strike cruiser was found to admit the wreckage, containing several dozen life support sarcophagi unique to the IXth. 


It is unclear whether this is a Librarian of the IXth, his embellished armour reflecting some Word Bearer iconography. It is known that he served alongside the 133rd and survived the Siege, later galvanizing shattered traitor elements…[REDACTED]…

This is the librarian of my burgeoning Blood Angel Heresy collection. It’s starting to look somewhat like an army now! From the outset I knew I wanted a Librarian for my force. The Blood Angels were one of the founding Legions of the Librarius program (indeed, it turns out much of the initial lore used to teach the legions Librarians was gleaned from the repositories of Baal – see Inferno). 


I did however want something different from the usual blue armoured marines. In this time, to wield psychic powers was in direct violation of the Edict of Nikkea. I wanted this Librarian to look like the choice to wield his powers again had cost him. It made sense to me to include a recidivist element within the makeup of the miniature. I used Erebus as the base – the images of purgatory, books hinting at forbidden knowledge, and the sculpt made it perfect for what I wanted. 


I went with a singular paint scheme in mind – I wanted this to be an old, faded, desaturated gold with patina streaks for tears. I feel the I’ve had to sacrifice the readability of the model somewhat to generate atmosphere. In the end, it looked like a Klimt painted by Egon Schiele – something I’m immensely proud of. 


The back story of this guy evolved from the conversion. His armour didn’t always look like this. During a vicious space battle, his strike cruiser was rendered inoperative, so the Blood Angels do what space vampires do and retired to their sarcophagi (early fluff taken from Angels of Darkness). During the decades in the void, the Librarian’s latent, subconscious powers impelled him to prey on his brothers, dreaming their dreams, borrowing into their souls. In a kind of weird psychic vampirism,  he killed them to sustain himself. His armour is a warped reflection of the Purgatory he has made for himself. The revelations of his kinsmen scratched into his armour in Angelic script. 
I imagine this character would survive the Siege and go on to found some kind of Astartes Death Cult, rounding shattered elements of any legion who would follow his banner. 

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