At the Court of the Silver King - Chapter IV: The Fate-Ender

The agents of the Dark Gods also turn their attention to the Court of the Silver King. Seeking to foil the machinations of the God-King Sigmar, Tzeentch calls upon one of his more unusual servants to claim the head of an ancient traitor...

The wizard’s head fell from his body, three hundred years of schemes unravelled in an instant. The cult-leader hadn’t even felt the blow of the axe, only sudden and terrible oblivion as his patron abandoned his soul to the void. Quasdomo looked in disgust as the headless body toppled over, clattering on the floor with the sound of many delicate charms and trinkets breaking. He was a giant of a man, made larger by his hunched back and heavy armour draped in robes and fur. Quasdomo kicked the body twice to make sure the wizard was dead, then strode across the room in three heavy steps to where the head had fallen. He picked it up and beheld the wizard’s grim visage twisted by years of dark sorcery, a mass of half-formed eyes and a mouth that had begun its metamorphosis into a beak. Quasdomo sneered before leaning his monstrous axe against the wall and taking a ceremonial knife from his belt with which he began scraping the flesh from the head. It would be some time before he could properly boil away all the meat, but he decided he would rather carry a bloody skull than have to look at the mutant face for much longer. 

Quasdomo hated wizards, sorcerers, and seers of all kinds. Their endless lies and schemes he found moronic, their pretensions of the arcane pathetic compared to the arts of steel, and their ceaseless grabs for power childish. He hated them with a passion and took great joy in his work. The hunchback finished his grim task and a deformed skull leered back at him, now mostly fleshless. He then drove a small hook into its temple allowing him to hang the trophy from a cord on his belt. Quasdomo retrieved his axe from the wall, smiled to himself at a job well done, and marched from the chamber task complete. By now the Tzeentchian cult the wizard had been leading was in disarray, the executioner having carved a path through several followers and a few summoned daemons on his way. 

It made Quasdomo laugh as he saw cultist fleeing for their lives, make paltry attempts to stop him, or even beg for their lives. What the cultists did not know however was that they and the hunchback served the same master, and that it was not they who had the raven-god’s favour. Often there arose a wizard or a daemon whose myriad plots and intrigues would unwittingly or not run counter to the designs of Tzeentch himself. Usually the great changer of ways allows such plans to go ahead, twisting the strands of fate to alter the outcome to one of his pleasing. On rare occasions however, destiny is not so easily cheated and the great changer of ways sends his executioner to bloodily and definitively end threats to his plans. To those followers of Tzeentch who are aware of his existence, Quasdomo is known as the Fate-Ender and his hulking frame means both the displeasure of their patron and death. In this new age of war in the Mortal Realms, Quasdomo was finding himself particularly busy and he was thoroughly enjoying himself. 

He had only been instructed to kill the cult leader, though he happily killed anything that got in his way as he exited the lair. On his way out the hunchbacked executioner made sure to remove several torches from braziers and cast them onto the ground or against tapestries, ensuring that many more cultists would die that night in a blaze. He chuckled softly to himself, already hearing screams as he reached the entrance. He made sure to close the door behind him, locking it with the stolen key he had used to enter before pushing a nearby cart in front of it as well. The streets of the city were quiet, and he knew that it would be some time before his slaughter that evening would be discovered. He tapped the side of the bloody skull he now carried at his belt twice and whispered the word ‘Vorgh'harr’ before vanishing completely. 

Task complete and signal given, Quasdomo was transported instantly to the fortress of the arch-daemon known as Koreal the Deceiver, a magnificent Silver Tower that floated lazily across the edges of the Realm of Metal. He cared little for Koreal, and had exchanged few words with the Lord of Change since coming to this realm, for the Fate-Ender could go and do as he pleased amongst the servants of their mutual master; only using Koreal's Tower as a safe place to commune with the raven god and receive from him instructions. Ignoring the lesser daemons that busied themselves with the Tower's business, Quasdomo found himself a quiet room and withdrew from a pouch on his belt a scroll made of pale blue paper. He cast it into the air in front of him and watched the scroll unfurl on its own accord. A handful of names were written on the parchment in crimson ink and Quasdomo read them all aloud before holding up the collection of skulls that had been attached to his waist. The most recent addition still bloody and smearing the others with gore. The skulls blackened and turned to ash in but a moment, and the names on the list faded into nothingness. He had executed his mission, and allowed himself another smile at a job well done. Feeling confident with this most recent victory, he chanted a prayer to Tzeentch and knelt before the scroll to await his next target. 

There was a flash of crimson light and the sound of a quill against paper, and suddenly there appeared new text on the scroll. Though where once there were many names, this time there was but one. Quasdomo etched the name in his mind before plucking the scroll out of the air and placing it safely back in its pouch. 'Skisrik Turncloak' he mulled the unfamiliar name over in his mind, he did not contemplate why this wizard must die, Quasdomo never did, he only thought of the moment of execution and the grin it would put upon his face...

I purchased the Space Marine Praetor this miniature is based on, on a total whim. I just happened to be in a GW on the day he was available and thought 'why not?'. I had a bunch of misc. bits laying around and thought I'd have a play and see where I end up. Eventually I constructed this grim behemoth and set about imagining a backstory for a different kind of Tzeentchian champion. One who followed the changer of ways but in a martial rather than magical fashion.

Ideally I would quite like to make some followers for Quasdomo, other operatives charged with aiding him in his task. I'd quite like to create some manner of headless sorcerer carrying his own skull around, a victim of the Fate-Ender who has since become his loathed but necessary partner, though I would need the right miniature to come along and inspire me. Should I make any followers for him I'll make sure to add them to the blog.