History Fanfic / CiaphasCainWarmasterOfChaos

* DoWithHimAsYouWill: The ultimate fate of [[PracticallyJoker Jeremiah Smile]] is to be handed owner to the stationmaster of a space station he recently visited. The stationmaster in question reflects on how Jeremiah [[NothingIsScarier had done something unspecified to his daughter]] and [[spoiler: promptly [[BoomHeadshot shoots Jeremiah in the head then and there]]]]

* MistakenForBadass: While Cain genuinely is a skilled fighter, others can't read his internal monologue to know that most of the fights he gets into are accidents or fights he felt obligated to join for fear of losing respect, and think he's just a badass fighter who always wants to jump into the front lines. There are also times where he makes a decision or takes an action that's random or only supposed to save himself or sabotage his side that turns out to have great results for his team (e.g. randomly firing his gun at Chenkov's charging men and hitting the knee of a Sentinel, disabling it), which makes people think he planned it all along or has great instincts.

* SuccubusInLove: Make no mistake, despite being the newest daemon princess of Slaanesh, Emeli genuinely does love Cain to an obsessive degree to the point where her long term goal is the eventual ascendance of Cain. In fact, her love for him is the very reason for her ascension in the first place, as -in conjunction with the souls of many of Slaneesh's favorite meals- the strength of her obsession attracted the attention of the God of Excess.

* EvilVersusEvil: One of Cain's most successful manipulations of the Chaos followers of Slawkenberg (who serve Tzeentch, Khorne, and Slaanesh) is to unite them against Nurgle, who he has designated as Slawkenberg's primary enemy (even more so than the Imperium, as worship of the God-Emperor is at least tolerated as long as they don't become incompetent and corrupt like the Giorbas). It helps that Cain himself is genuinely disgusted by Nurgle and his corruption, and his disdain and enmity towards the Plague God is one of the few motivations he's genuine about in his interactions with the rest of the Liberation Council. This particular tactic is so successful that when Cain freely gives a copy of the Panacea to [[spoiler: Amberley Veil]], his Chaos-aligned subordinates barely bat an eye.

* EvilVersusEvil: One of Cain's most successful manipulations of the Chaos followers of Slawkenberg (who serve Tzeentch, Khorne, and Slaanesh) is to unite them against Nurgle, who he has designated as Slawkenberg's primary enemy (even more so than the Imperium, as worship of the God-Emperor is at least tolerated as long as they don't become incompetent and corrupt like the Giorbas). It helps that Cain himself is genuinely disgusted by Nurgle and his corruption, and his disdain and enmity towards the Plague God is one of the few motivations he's genuinely honest about in his interactions with the rest of the Liberation Council. This particular tactic is so successful that when Cain freely gives a copy of the Panacea to [[spoiler: Amberley Veil]], his Chaos-aligned subordinates barely bat an eye.

* EvilVersusEvil: One of Cain's most successful manipulations of the Chaos followers of Slawkenberg (who serve Tzeentch, Khorne, and Slaanesh) is to unite them against Nurgle, who he has designated as Slawkenberg's primary enemy (even more so than the Imperium, as worship of the God-Emperor is at least tolerated as long as they don't become incompetent and corrupt like the Giorbas). It helps that Cain himself is genuinely disgusted by Nurgle and his corruption, and his disdain and enmity towards the Plague God is one of the few motivations he's genuinely honest in his interactions with the rest of the Liberation Council. This particular tactic is so successful that when Cain freely gives a copy of the Panacea to [[Amberley Veil]], his Chaos-aligned subordinates barely bat an eye.

* EvilVersusEvil: One of Cain's most successful manipulations of the Chaos followers of Slawkenberg (who serve Tzeentch, Khorne, and Slaanesh) is to unite them against Nurgle, who he has designated as Slawkenberg's primary enemy (even more so than the Imperium, as worship of the God-Emperor is at least tolerated as long as they don't become incompetent and corrupt like the Giorbas). It helps that Cain himself is genuinely disgusted by Nurgle and his corruption, and his disdain and enmity towards the Plague God is one of the few motivations he's genuinely honest in his interactions with the rest of the Liberation Council. This particular tactic is so successful that when Cain freely gives a copy of the Panacea to [[Amberley Veil]], his Chaos-aligned subordinates barely bat an eye.

* BadassArmy: The Unified Slawkenberg Army (USA) combines Khornate ferocity, first rate disciple and morale, excellent equipment and logistics, exceptional physical fitness and the best medical care to produce troops that have won every engagement they've entered and that can keep up with a World Eater chaos marine.

* AssassinOutclassin: Cain fends off an assassination attempt by [[spoiler:Inquisitor Amberly Vail]] with (seemingly) casual ease.
* BadassArmy: The Unified Slawkenberg Army (USA) combines Khornite ferocity, first rate disciple and morale, excellent equipment and logistics, exceptional physical fitness and the best medical care.

* CallToAgriculture: After numerous failed attempts to assassinate Cain, one inquisition agent becomes certain that Cain still has the Emperor's blessings and retires to take up gardening.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: When Killian finds out that Cain is taking much of his fleet into the Torredon subsector he instantly assumes it must be because Cain knows about the [[ArtifactOfDoom shadowlight]] since otherwise why would he pick a fight with [[SpacePirates the Bloodied Crown]] on their home turf?

* VillainousRescue: For a certain definition of villain. The Valhallan 296th on Adumbria is saved from the Nurgleite monsters by Cain and the (admittedly Khornite) Slawkenberg Army.

* DefusingTheTykeBomb: 100% Cain's sole reason for adopting and raising Zerayah. [[Unreliable Narrator It is most definitely only for that purpose and not because he genuinely cares about her]].

* InSpiteOfANail: Despite all the changes brought about by Cain's new situation in the galaxy and the fact that Emeli now has no interest in it at all, Adumbria still finds itself suffering from a Chaos uprising.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: It appears that someone or something is manipulating things to "help" Cain. It may be Tzeentch, Cegorach or the Emperor . . . or a combination of them. Some of it could just be luck, too.

** The initial difference between canon and this universe is that Cain got himself assigned to be the commissar for the Slawkenburg PDF after the old one died instead of getting attached to an artillery regiment of the Imperial Guard, which led to him being in place to rise to the top of the rebellion. Also notable is that Jurgen is a psyker who got trafficked to Slawkenburg instead of a blank who joined the Guard; the two differences may be connected.

* GoneHorriblyWrong: Karamazov's response to Slawkenburg's rebellion. In his heavy prioritization of Chaos over all other threats and his absolute certainty that he's right and anyone who opposes him is an enemy, he purged the local sector's command of many competent officers and administrators who told him that they couldn't afford to move resources away from other fronts towards Slawkenburg, leaving the sector disorganized and in chaos (no pun intended). The only general who agreed to help him was Chenkov, who is incompetent and hated by his men. After his incompetence and wasteful human wave tactics lead to Slawkenburg winning handily against him and to almost all of the planetside soldiers defecting, Karamazov immediately turns to exterminatus of the planet, only to be killed by Cain and have his ship blown up. Karamazov's soul ends up in the clutches of Emeli, who plans to torture him for all eternity, and whose gratitude to Cain for giving her Karamazov's soul plays a part in Emeli arranging for the Space Hulk to arrive at Slawkenburg. Later, we see that Karamazov's purge of the local sector command led to the Imperium being in dire straits in the area, which means it can't spare resources to deal with Slawkenburg, and keeps having to pull resources away from areas to deal with more pressing threats, which provides an opportunity for Slawkenburg to sweep in and provide help, thereby gaining more allies. In summary, Karamazov's efforts to end a Chaos rebellion didn't hinder the rebellion, but instead massively helped it, ensured its ability to expand, and screwed over the Imperium, all while getting himself damned in the process.

* GoodShepherd: Father Anthony is one of the priests of the God Emperor still practicing on Slawkenburg even after the Liberation. While most of the members of the Ecclesiarchy on the planet [[CorruptChurch were in it for the money and power]], Anthony actually wanted to help people, which pays off when his own followers kept him safe him during the tumult of the Liberation. Whenever we see him, he's providing help and advice to whoever he's talking to, which genuinely makes things better for them.

* TheLeader: Charismatic, but mistaken for The Mastermind. He has the loyalty and love of seemingly the entire population of Slawkenburg, he can unite all the various factions of Slawkenburg and convince them that what he wants is best, and his actions always appear heroic (or intelligent, depending on the person). Imperials who end up on Slawkenburg note that without Cain, the entire rebellion would likely fall apart.

* MysteriousPast: In canon, Cain's homeworld being unknown was a footnote. Here it's making the Inquisition very worried. The Inquisitor who launched the investigation into his background comes away assuming that he was corrupted before entering the Schola (he wasn't) and is part of a massive conspiracy that worked to place him into a position of power at the head of the Slawkenburg rebellion (he's not).

* NotHelpingYourCase: The initial Imperial response consists of [[TautologicalTemplar Inquisitor]] [[BurnTheWitch Karamazov]] and [[GeneralRipper General]] [[WeHaveReserves Chenkov]]. Chenkov fails miserably at retaking Slawkenburg after sending a bunch of his men out to get mowed down by the United Slawkenburg Army and getting shot in the back shortly afterward running away from an attack headed by Cain; Karamazov then proceeds to jump right to Exterminatus of the planet, spending hours and hours ranting to the populace, before getting killed by Cain and having his ship blown up shortly afterwards. Cain notes that most Imperial generals and Inquisitors are not this stupid or inclined towards pointless murder (at least according to what he learned in the Schola), but the fact that such people exist within the Imperium and have actual power really doesn't help its reputation, especially amongst the Slawkenburgians who've only ever had to deal with Imperial cruelty and incompetence.

* ThePowerOfLove: Emeli claims this is how she was able to [[spoiler:enter Commorragh and kill the Haemonculus trying to bring the Archon who attacked Slawkenburg back from the dead, thereby permanently killing all of the Drukhari who died while trying to raid Slawkenburg.]]

* RedBaron: This version of Ciaphas Cain quickly becomes known as "The Liberator" for his (overestimated) part in helping the liberation of Slawkenburg.
* SpringtimeForHitler: The heart and soul of the fic, the more Cain tries to make Slawkenburg fail, the more it succeeds. Choosing to train and equip his current army extremely well instead of focusing on its expansion, banning the use of servitors and encouraging the Mechanicus to innovate, making Panacea available to the whole population, making education free and available to all... And those are just some of the policy decisions. It really says something about how dysfunctional the Imperium is that doing the opposite of what it says is necessary turns out extremely well. If Cain had actually tried to make Slawkenburg succeed, it would probably be doing significantly less well, or even have failed entirely.

The planet Slawkenberg is celebrating being liberated from the tyrannical government of the Imperium of Mankind, a revolution masterminded by the renegade Commisionar, Ciaphas Cain.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Cains view on why the previous ruling family wasn't corrupted by Chaos. They were so vile that the Ruinous Powers didn't want anything to do with them.

* FascistButInefficient: The Imperium of Man, it is quite telling that many of Cain's unintentional successes come from telling the people of Slawkenberg to abandon things the Imperium trained him to believe were utterly required for human society to function. As an example, Tesilon-Kappa the leader of the Liberation's tech-priests notes that they've been wanting to replace most servitors with trained workers and automation and increase safety in the factories, but their plans were always rejected. Once the revolution occurred and Cain told them to implement these things, the factories turn out much more efficient.

* NeatFreak: This story's version of Ferik Jurgen prefers his surroundings to be clean as possible, as opposed to [[ThePigPen his canon self's more laid back approach to dirt and grime]], it's the result of having been held captive for an extended period of time by cultists of Nurgle.

* {{Panacea}}: An [[LostTechnology STC]] recovered by Protectorate forces aboard the 'Emeli's Gift' Space-Hulk is the Panacea, a medical marvel capable of curing Nurgulite plagues or Genestealer infection, while being cheap enough to produce to provide freely to the population.
* ThePowerOfLove: Emeli claims this is how she was able to [[spoiler:enter Commorragh and kill the Haemonculi trying to bring the Archon who attacked Slawkenburg back from the dead.]]

* SpringtimeForHitler: The heart and soul of the fic, the more Cain tries to make Slawkenburg fail, the more it succeeds. Choosing to train and equip his current army extremely well instead of focusing on its expansion, banning the use of servitors and encouraging the Mechanicus to innovate, making Panacea available to the whole population, making education free and available to all... It really says something about how dysfunctional the Imperium is that doing the opposite of what it says is necessary turns out extremely well. If Cain had actually tried to make Slawkenburg succeed, it would probably be doing significantly less well, or even have failed entirely.
* SuccubusInLove: Make no mistake, despite being the newest daemon princess of Slaanesh, Emeli genuinely does love Cain to an obsessive degree to the point where her long term goal is the eventual ascendance of Cain. In fact, her love for him is the very reason for her ascension in the first place, as -in conjunction with the souls of many of Slaneesh's favorite meals -the strength of her obsession attracted the attention of the God of Excess.

* {{Panacea}}: An [[LostTechnology STC]] recovered by Protectorate forces aboard the 'Emeli's Gift' Space-Hulk is the Panacea, a medical marvel capable of curing Nurgulite plagues or Genesteal infection, while being cheap enough to produce to provide freely to the population.

* GrandRomanticGesture: Emeli gifts her beloved Cain with a several thousand kilometres long collection of extremely valuable space junk known as a "Space Hulk", within which the actual factual Panacea

* {{Panacea}}: An [[LostTechnology STC]] recovered by Protectorate forces aboard the 'Emeli's Gift' Space-Hulk is the Panacea

* NotHelpingYourCase: The initial Imperial response consists of [[TautologicalTemplar Inquisitor]] [[BurnTheWitch Karamazov]] and [[GeneralRipper General]] [[WeHaveReserves Chenkov]]. Chenkov fails miserably at retaking Slawkenburg after sending a bunch of his men out to get mowed down by the United Slawkenburg Army and getting shot in the back shortly afterward by a sneak attack headed by Cain; Karamazov then proceeds to jump right to Exterminatus of the planet, spending hours and hours ranting to the populace, before getting killed by Cain and having his ship blown up shortly afterwards. Cain notes that most Imperial generals and Inquisitors are not this stupid or inclined towards pointless murder (at least according to what he learned in the Schola), but the fact that such people exist within the Imperium and have actual power really doesn't help its reputation, especially amongst the Slawkenburgians who've only ever had to deal with Imperial incompetence.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: [[spoiler: Cain's adopted daughter]] already looks likes she's in her late teens despite having not turned ten yet.
* GrandRomanticGesture: Emeli gifts her beloved Cain with a several thousand kilometres long collection of extremely valuable space junk known as a "Space Hulk", within which the actual factual Panacea
* {{Panacea}}: An [[LostTechnology STC]] recovered by Protectorate forces aboard the 'Emeli's Gift' Space-Hulk is the Panacea