Kesar Dorlin, Primarch of the Eternal Wardens.
It is the apex of the 30th Millenium. Under the rule of the Emperor of Mankind the Imperium grows as the Great Crusade expands through the galaxy and fights through the worlds, monsters and nightmares in their goal of reuniting humanity and saving it from destruction and the corruption of the Dark Gods.
And the Eleventh Primarch, Kesar Dorlin, leads the Eternal Wardens alongside his brothers to fight for humanity and destroy the forces of Chaos.
The Lost Primarch Quest
is an ongoing quest set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe run by Daemon Hunter on Sufficient Velocity that began in 2019.
The Lost Primarch Quest contains examples of:
- Angelic Abomination: The Angel, an extremely powerful psychic construct made by the Emperor before the Primarchs, resembles its namesake while it attempts to robotically follow its mission in battling Chaos. The best way it’s determined to accomplish that is trying to exterminate everyone.
- Appropriated Appellation: Kesar Dorlin’s title as the ‘Daemonsbane’ was officially cemented as a Chaos Cultist first called him that during the Velnias I compliance, after truly killing so many daemons that the legend spread across the Warp due to it.
- The Archmage: Eldard Ulthran and Magnus the Red are this as in canon. Eldrad especially becomes this after ascending into an Exalted of Cegorach and then later on an Exalted of Isha, becoming the most powerful Eldar in current existence.
- Back from the Dead: Scafrir, the Master of Scouts for the Eternal Wardens, is brought back to life thanks to finding the Emperor after escaping from Slaanesh upon his death. He’s not fully brought back., but he’s become a one-time superweapon for the Emperor to use.
- Badass Army: The Space Marines Legions are this, fighting and regularly winning against the strongest forces that are against the Great Crusade. They are pretty much the Imperium’s go-to badass army whenever they need one.
- The Riptide Riders, an elite regiment taken as a penal legion after their world was brought into the Imperium, display this in spades during the Ritual War. Managing to defeat multiple Greater Daemons repeatedly, including the master of a Daemon World, with minimal losses certainly showcases immense skill across the whole regiment.
- Badass Normal: Otto Fritzkin, an admiral of the Imperial Army, proves to be one of the best leaders in the Imperium’s armada as he manages to accomplish feats that warranted a Primarch’s attention. Even Perturabo was impressed by his strategic abilities.
- Band of Brothers: The members of the Eleventh Legion are a very closely-knit force. Which makes their huge losses all the more tragic.
- Banishing Ritual: The entirety of the Ritual War is a colossal one meant to banish the as much of the Warp that’s seeped into the Maelstrom region as possible, a rift into the Immaterium only second in size to the Eye of Terror.
- Benevolent A.I.: Godfather, the true leader of Majestic, an ancient AI born from an American military program in the late 21st century and who became increasingly advance as it traded hands. At one point, a group attempted to use it to take control over Earth, but the AI refused as it did not have the human wisdom necessary to lead humanity. Ultimately became isolated and was left to perhaps fade into obscurity until it was rediscovered by Malcador the Sigillite on Terra, who uses it as a sort of troubleshooting program and majordomo.
- Later on, Unit 245-JAY, the only surviving member of the Spirit of Fire within the Maelstrom, is another example of this trope. Managing to keep fighting on in the name of mankind despite millenia of dealing with daemons infesting their ship until they were discovered by a friendly Imperial Army regiment.
- Berserk Button: Chaos is this for pretty much the entirety of the Eternal Wardens. Disgracing dead Eternal Wardens is also this, as any enemy that does this quickly finds out.
- Blind Seer: Azhek Ahriman becomes this after witnessing the full form of Nurgle within the Warp, melting his eyes permanently in-exchange for immense resistance to Chaos and greater psychic abilities.
- Civil War: The Dark City of Port Commorragh ends up in a massive one, due to a collection of very poor rolls from Asdrubael Vect and then a very high roll on instability. It’s so brutal that it’s caused extreme amounts of deaths for both the Dark Eldar and their slaves as the various factions keep escalating so they don’t lose.
- Cool Plane: One of the listed Eternal Warden’s relics is a Stormbird, a transport and assault ship used by the Astartes Legions, that became a relic after it managed to be successfully piloted through an exploding planet during a massive war.
- Cool Starship: The Gloriana-class Battleships of the Eternal Wardens, the Vigilance and the Cherished Son, are definitely this. The latter being taken from the corrupted and now dead Word Bearers Legion certainly helps.
- Covert Group: One of the instances of canon-deviation is a group known as Majestic. Described as a mix DARPA, the DIA, and an Illuminati organization. A direct reference to the infamous Majestic-12. They are under the direct control of Malcador the Sigillite and an uncorrupted AI by the name of Godfather.
- The Dead Have Names: A common practice of the Eternal Wardens since Gehenna is to carve the names of their fallen brothers into their armor in both remembrance and mourning.
- Death World: Plenty of examples in canon and in the quest, to the point that ‘Death World’ is an entire classification of planet in the galaxy.
- Demon Slaying: The Eternal Wardens as a whole heavily specialize in this, becoming the Imperium’s greatest fighting force against Chaos. Kesar Dorlin in particular has been referred to as the Daemonsbane, with most daemons preferring to run than face him.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Many examples of this. Scafrir literally punching and then shooting back Slaanesh would definitely be the crowing example.
- Divine Conflict: The Chaos Gods occasionally begin a war against one another over the course of the quest, with varying degrees of success. The largest conflict was started, appropriately, by Khorne as he decided to fight Gork and Mork to take some of their essence to forge a new weapon, sparking a colossal war between the Blood God and his uncountable forces against the Ork Gods and their endless hordes of Orks that’s projected to take about a century in the Materium before ending and potentially a millennia in Warp-space.
- Easy Logistics: Averted hard. Logistics are such a major part in the Great Crusade that even the Emperor of Mankind has to be personally involved in managing its issues for years at a time. This culminates in causing the Desolation, a colossal rebellion in Angron’s domain partly due to the Primarch completely ignoring the logistics and partly due to the immense resources required for the Ritual War.
- Elaborate Underground Base: Majestic's secret HQ, a lost city in Terra's Antarctica Wastelands known as the Emerald City.
- Explosive Leash: The world of Dralik used this on its entire population of slaves, forcing them to work and die for their masters.
- A Father to His Men: Kesar Dorlin cares deeply for all his sons, to the point that after extreme losses on Gehenna station he decided to start carving the names of his fallen Eternal Wardens onto his armor.
- Genius Bruiser: Many Astartes are this, their augmentations and training causing them to be really smart to help them in battle as much as their strength. Primarchs are this up to eleven.
- Haunted Technology: Every instance of Chaos corrupted technology is an example of this. Gehenna Station, a massive Dark Age of Technology space station full of Men of Iron that were corrupted by Khorne, would be the biggest example seen in the quest thus far.
- Hellgate: Warp rifts are all examples of this, ranging from brief storms that surround a planet or a fleet to the colossal ones such as the Eye of Terror and the Maelstrom that stretch across large chunks of the galaxy.
- Hell on Earth: Most of the larger wars and battles against Chaos end up like this, especially when the world is in the process of getting corrupted or already is fully under the control of daemons. The entirety of the Maelstrom shows this trope off extensively across the entirety of the Ritual War.
- Humongous Mecha: Titans and Knights are this, but the biggest example of this would have to be the Castigator Titan that Sanguinius faced in an AI-led Heretek empire. Dwarfing Imperator Titans and a dangerous threat to battleships in orbit, requiring a Primarch to defeat it.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: The Eternal Wardens specialise heavily in fighting against Chaos, requiring them to focus on retaining their purity from corruption in-order to not die or worse against them en masse. Kesar Dorlin is the biggest example of this, being the Primarch of the Wardens.
- Killed Off for Real: Unbelievably, three of Tzeentch’s greatest daemons have been permanently killed. Kairos Fateweaver during the Cadian Crucible, then The Changeling and Aetaos’rau’keres in The Battle of Three Stars.
- The Legions of Hell: Chaos is figuratively and literally made of this, between the daemons and corrupted servants that they use against whatever they want to fight against.
- Magic Knight: Almost all Librarians, Space Marine psykers, are examples of this. Especially all those of the Thousand Sons Legion, who mostly number in psykers.
- Master Swordsman: Various members of the Legion have become experts in wielding blades. But it’s Third Captain Maticus Ventamedes that’s truly become this, wielding a sword once held by Kesar Dorlin. To the point that, alongside Oriacarius, they managed to defeat their own Primarch in a duel.
- One-Man Army: Most ‘Hero’ units are this, becoming narratively empowered beyond how strong or skilled they would be compared to another non-hero unit by orders of magnitude. The combat focused Hero units of every faction are all examples of this.
- Organic Technology: The Mitu Conglomerate, a race of psychic aliens that ruled over both human and other alien worlds, are masters of this. All their technology is bio-mechanical, including extremely advanced Warptech, which has their material sourced from the populace of the worlds they control.
- Perfection Is Impossible: Slaanesh is hit with this hard during the Tale of Scafrir the Defiant. After the dead Eternal Warden manages to go through all the trials through the Chaos God’s palace, he manages to land an attack that actually permanently ruins a small part of their perfect form. The act is so great that it causes the Chaos God to get an exploitable blind spot into their realm.
- Planet Spaceship: The Orks are capable of building this as shown in canon. During the Blood and Thunder War, several Attack Moons and even an Attack Planet are built to battle against the Khornates. Some of which are then corrupted and taken by Khornates instead.
- Pocket Dimension: The Mitu Conglomerate are revealed to have kept their main world hidden within one, a dark void between realspace and the Warp.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: A natural part of the setting, as anything that rises into a high position typically has an immense amount of strength and/or skill to back it up.
- Runic Magic: The Eternal Wardens make use of several runes researched by Kesar Dorlin, from making things more reinforced to runes that can detect or ward against Chaos.
- Sapient Ship: The Vigilance becomes this whenever it awakens in response to a major battle, the machine spirit inside becoming more active to protect its occupants.
- Seeing Through Another's Eyes: With the help of Magnus, Cegorach pulls off a ritual meant to do this on Slaanesh itself while also slowly draining away their energy to boot.
- The Strategist: First Captain Oriacarius Gielux is an extremely skilled commander, being the former Legion Master of the Eleventh Legion and then later on coming up with countless strategies and contingencies for almost every potential situation.
- To Hell and Back: Scafrir, the Master of Scouts for the Eternal Wardens, does the impossible after they die by the hands of Kairos Fateweaver. From managing to ensure the daemon that killed him fell to true death, to surviving through the whole of Slaanesh’s realm and armies of daemons and getting through the other end to reach the Emperor. Even managing to shoot off one of the Prince of Pleasure’s hairs, secretly ruining their perfect form.
- World of Chaos: Daemon Worlds are this, which can go from worlds that are infused by twisted physics and Chaos energy to things that couldn’t even exist without the Warp causing them to exist.
