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Ciaphas Cain: Daemon of the Imperium

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Ciaphas Cain: Daemon of the Imperium (Fanfic)
The Burning Guide

Ciaphas Cain: Daemon of the Imperium is a Alternate Universe Ciaphas Cain fanfic co-written by The_Plauge_Dragon and Chainsword83.

Ciaphas' stay on Swakenberg was a bit more... chaotic then it was in canon. Here, he discovered something that gave him an in with She Who Thirsts. He used it to, of course, save his skin (And by extension, the planet). Slaanesh likes this mortal. The result? A Daemon Prince.

Or: How Ciaphas Cain Accidentialied himself into Daemonhood while still being a loyal member of the Imperial Commissariat.

It can also be found on Archive of Our Own here.


Daemon of the Imperium contains examples of:

  • Abled in the Adaptation:
    • Currently downplayed for the God-Emperor, who's on the road to recovery. The Path of Humility provides him with a way to heal himself and regain his lost psychic power now that the Star Father is no longer a threat.
    • Bjorn the Fell-Handed is healed of his injuries and leaves his Dreadnought, after a months-long soak in Cainwater fully regenerates him.
    • Fyodor notes that the Lamenters have been getting considerably luckier since they came under his command, and it's outright stated that Cain's bargain with Slaneesh had an affect in their curse, completely destroying their curse of misfortune.
    • Rylanor is restored to full health after Cain uses his biomantic powers on the old Space Marine, allowing him to live outside his wrecked Dreadnought for the first time in millennia.
  • Absurdly High-Stakes Game: Mag'ladroth creates one called The Wheels of Progress, based on ancient Earth game shows no one but he and the Emperor likely remember. Participants who have earned points through their deeds - advancing the cause of technology or knowledge - get spins on a number of possible wheels to earn random STC Templates of varying rarity. Depending on the wheel and the result, this can range from simple air purifiers that will help people living on Hive Worlds to an STC that would let them repair the Golden Throne.
  • Abusive Precursors: Mag'ladroth has nothing but bad memories of the Old Ones, as they forcibly uplifted species they found valuable (such as the Eldar) as slave soldiers/sentient bioweapons without any regard for their future development. As such, he would attack a younger Ayaz when they first met on Mars before the Anatolian cleared things up, as the psychic presence of his soul reminded the Void Dragon of his most hated foes.
  • Ace Custom: Fyodor's personal battleship Mercy of the Emperor is kitted out with advanced sensors and defense systems that allow it to operate without escorts along with a myriad of other things that the ship's tech-priests are continually studying and improving.
  • Actually Pretty Funny: The Emperor himself bursts out laughing when he realizes that Cain accidentally became the only Demon Prince to have never forfeited his soul because he was knocked out before he gave in.
  • Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
    • Demara and Tamworth go from Fire-Forged Friends to a married couple thanks to Cain picking up on their feelings for each other, with their wedding being hosted on the Righteous Wrath after the Mess Hall Riot was taken care of.
    • The Emperor once regarded Slaanesh like a daughter before she was trapped behind the Warp's Glamour.
  • Adaptation Name Change: Illic Nightspear added an 'r' before the second 'i' of his first name in an effort to evade his many admirers, though it doesn't really work since he still ends up signing a few autographs for some fans of his.
  • Adaptational Badass: This version of Cain has immense psychic power as a Daemon Prince on top of his pre-existing combat skills as a commissar, making him more than capable of taking on any foe when he removes his Power Limiter
  • Adaptational Heroism:
    • Mag'ladroth here is nowhere near as inscrutable and malevolent as their canon counterpart. This version is the Token Good Teammate of the C'Tan who forged robotic bodies with necrodermis for the Necrontyr out of a genuine desire to help them live happier, healthier lives, only to accidentally consume their souls in the process. Horrified, he then fought against his wicked brethren while protecting the life-forms under his wing as atonement for his sins before the Necrons, in their grief and hate towards the C'Tan for ruining their lives, shattered him into pieces while he begged for their forgiveness. After his shattering, Mag'ladroth would reside on Mars as a secret guardian to humanity before meeting a younger Ayaz, forming an Odd Friendship with the Anathema after some initial misunderstandings. Later, he extended his influence into the Golden Throne to ensure that the Emperor will still live and hopefully recover some day even if the Throne runs out of power.
    • Slaanesh is revealed to have fought against the Eldar Empire's cruelties back when she was an Eldar warrior, and led a strike force in a desperate attempt to stop the Final Ritual. Unfortunately, while she spoiled the Last Emperor's ascension, he cursed her to be trapped behind the Warp's Glamour after she was forcibly elevated into a Warp God.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy:
    • The God Emperor has had several millennia to meditate on the magnitude of his failures while desperately fending off his ascension as the Star Father, making him far humbler and wiser than he was in canon. He is also able to have friendships with alien beings like Eldrad, Cegorach, and Mag'ladroth and demonstrates genuine care for individual people as well as humanity as a whole, something that's impossible for his canon counterpart due to his coldly logical and xenophobic personality.
    • Slaanesh here is depicted as far more innocent and gentle than their reputation as the Chaos God of excess would suggest, excessively so, even. Her true personality is a shy, friendly young woman, but is trapped behind a Glamour which has shoehorned her into the role of a hedonistic temptress. She also serves as the Token Good Teammate of the Chaos Gods by extension, as the other three are just as malevolent and cruel as their canon counterparts.
    • In a stark inversion of his canon personality, Fyodor Karamazov is a Reasonable Authority Figure renowned for his careful investigations into heresy and kindly behavior. Much of that is thanks to the Emperor sending his past self a vision through the Warp that warned him about the atrocities he'd commit if he let himself become the fanatical Hanging Judge his canon self was, resulting in a massive Cosmic Retcon that alters his personality and career for the better.
  • Adapted Out: Inverted in-universe. In canon Jurgen was usually either demoted to Cain's aide or forgotten about entirely in the dramatizations of events. Due to the difference of circumstances, Jurgen is actually made into an important side character in one of the adaptions of Cain's adventures to the point the actor playing him got the planet's equivalent of an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Cain enthusiastically approves of Jurgen getting the recognition he deserves. Amberly said even she teared up when the movie ended on Jurgen quietly digging graves for the 12th Valhallan. However, given that the Oscar acceptance speech spoke of Jurgen as the ultimate everyman, showing the galaxy that even the humblest and most ordinary of men whom others might normally ignore can still make a difference, his extraordinary abilities as a Blank appear to have remained secret.
  • Age Lift: Due to the in-universe Adaptation Distillation, with Book 4 happening only a few months before Book 1, Cain is much less seasoned and much younger than he was in the canon timeline. This is shown by him not being nearly as in control of his emotions or as practiced at keeping calm as he would have been, mainly when it comes to Amberly.
  • And I Must Scream: Mag'ladroth states that the Federation's AI were trapped in their own minds and bodies while unable to stop themselves from massacring the people they loved thanks to scrapcode-induced Chaos corruption during the Cybernetic Revolt, and they wished for anyone to end their suffering by any means necessary from the horror of their situation.
  • Asshole Victim: Kelp gets melted by Jurgen's gauss meltagun after he deliberately tries to get Cain and Amberley Vail's party killed by Genestealers, but given how he's a He-Man Woman Hater responsible for the Mess Hall Riot on the Righteous Wrath while the 609th were en route to Gravalax and tried getting his superior officers and comrades killed by Tyranids for his petty grudge, it's hard to feel bad for him.
  • Back from the Dead: Ferrus Manus is brought back to life after Mag'ladroth uses the necrodermis coating his arms as a focal point to retrieve his soul from the Chaos Gods, with his soul currently interred in a servo-skull until they can create a brand new Primarch-grade body for him.
  • Badass Boast: The Emperor to the Chaos Gods once he learns the truth about Slaanesh.
    "I HAVE SEEN WHAT YOU HAVE DONE. HEAR MY WORDS, NURGLE. TZEENTCH. KHORNE. I KNOW YOUR CRIME. I WILL SEE IT ENDED."
  • Barrier Maiden: An odd, gender-inverted example with all the versions of Cain the Emperor sees in his visions, as all of them play crucial roles in the defeat of the Star Father. Examples include:
    • A Commissar like his canon self who, despite becoming a Bright Lord under the Star Father's thrall, defies him by creating a safe haven for what remains of humanity before slaying the Star Father and taking his place as the Chaos God of Order, this time as a heroic guardian who leads humanity to greatness once more.
    • A Chaos warlord whose actions lead to the Chaos Gods making a Heel–Face Turn thanks to his cults changing their natures for the better, eventually becoming a Chaos God of freedom, liberty, and hope after the Star Father's defeat.
    • A member of the Mechanicus who becomes a Prophet of Mag'ladroth after rising through the Mechanicus' ranks, eventually kickstarting a series of events that sees the Star Father contained on Terra through a network of Pylons constructed around the planet on the Emperor's orders and terminated after his ascension, with the Void Dragon leading humanity into a technological golden age as benevolent masters of the Materium and Immaterium.
  • Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Apparently, a Daemonic ascension ritual doesn't automatically give one's soul to the Power empowering it: the person being ascended has to willingly give it up. However, the process is so painful that anyone who doesn't go into the ritual intending to offer up their soul in the first place becomes willing to do so within seconds just to make it stop. Cain manages to hold out for several minutes before getting knocked unconscious by Jurgen's driving, ending the ascension. Because he never gave in, his soul remains his own, and because he held out for so long, he is the strongest Daemon Prince in existence, greater even than Fulgrim.
  • Biomanipulation: One of Cain's powers as a Daemon Prince is the ability to manipulate biomatter. He can use it to heal people by taking control of their cells and making them divide perfectly or cause immense pain towards his enemies with it, among other applications.
  • Blatant Lies: Amberly's footnotes says she has no idea what Cain is talking about when he says that she spent most of the time they spent together tied up.
  • Boom, Headshot!: Sorel gets a bolt to his head courtesy of Grice's bolt pistol.
  • Call-Back: The first recipient of the "Mark of Cain" is a small child attacked by Daemons, and it's noted that the child eventually becomes a renowned Alpha-Plus Psyker. Fyodor later mentions that he adopted a small child who was troubled from his experiences in the Black Ships and Daemon attacks, and sure enough, the child is Kyrus.
  • Character Development: For the Emperor, he acknowledges how his own hubris led to the Horus Heresy, especially with how harshly he cracked down on Lorgar upon hearing that he set up a cult that worshipped him like a god despite his vehement refusal. This, along with the Path of Humility, paves the way for him to recover from his wounds, regain his power, and re-learn what it means to be human.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Zigzagged with Amberly compared to canon. She's not as catty when it comes to Felicia then she was in canon. However, Cain, due to technically being a Demonic Prince of Slaanesh, is far more blatant with how he slept with Felicia with the subtext being all but text, giving Amberly more chances to make comments about it. On the other hand, the archive explicitly states that Cain has been in threesomes with her and Mira, and canon Amberley would never have shared Cain with one of his other love interests had they both turned up in the same adventure.
  • Combination Attack: Cain forms the focus for a combo between The Emperor and Slaanesh to effectively take a self sustaining psychic blowtorch to the Tyranid Hivemind. The backlash nearly opened a new Eye of Terror, but they hurt the Hivemind in a way that had never happened before and gave Slaanesh her largest meal since the Fall of the Eldar.
  • Composite Character: The Emperor is combined with Ynnead thanks to Eldrad binding his soul with him long ago, with one of his vision-selves, Ayaz, representing the merger between human and Eldar beliefs from the Path of Humility.
  • Conditioned to Accept Horror: Karamazov is utterly horrified when Cain explains that psychopathic Commissars are a fairly common occurrence in the Guard and that nobody in the higher-ups does anything about them but wait until they get fragged by the men they are supervising.
  • Cosmic Plaything: Enforced. Cain's entire life is one giant joke made by Cegorach for a very good reason, as if his life is in one giant state of flux, then no being can predict what can happen, but no matter what path he winds up on, it results in the Star Father being destroyed. However, this makes Cain's life a comedy in the Greek play sense due to his perceived vices and failings being a source of humor for the universe.
  • Cosmic Retcon: The Fyodor Karamazov of this fic is an unusually kindly Inquisitor who acts as mercifully as possible, only kills or tortures people after careful investigation to make sure it is truly necessary and doesn't harm innocents, and generally makes every planet he lands on better than he found it. The reason he is like this instead of his canon Hanging Judge self is because the Star Father is no longer a possibility due to him being incompatible with the Emperor accepting the Eldar. Because of this, the Emperor can exert himself without invoking the Star Father, and can do things like going back in time to send Fyodor dreams encouraging him to be kind and reasonable. It's unclear if the retcon was done immediately after the Star Father was defeated or if it was done after the Emperor learned about the Gravalax debacle, but by the time we meet him, he's been kind and reasonable his whole career.
  • Deal with the Devil: Cain interrupts a Slaanesh cult's ascension ritual in order to bargain for the safety of Slawkenburg with Slaanesh via the Darkstone, a Spirit Stone containing the soul of the last emperor of the Eldar Empire. With it he not only gets Slaanesh to leave the planet and the entire star system alone, but also gets them to keep the other Chaos gods away, with even Eldar being safe from their Thirst there. It even has the added bonus of extending that protection to wherever the Eldar go if they pledge themselves to the Imperium and the Emperor. But as a result of the deal Cain gets turned into a Daemon Prince as he forget to change that part of the ritual when he was making the deal.
  • Detect Evil: Fyodor Karamazov has the ability to literally sniff out heresy and deceit, providing him with a formidable tool that allows him to detect Chaos cultists with great accuracy.
  • Disabled in the Adaptation: In canon, Oreilus was assumed to be an otherwise healthy man despite his career as a Rogue Trader (if nothing else, he survived the sixty-odd years between his chronologically first and last appearances without any obvious life-support augmetics). Here, his body is riddled with a staggering amount of genetic damage from his family's inbreeding, leaving him with two years to live at best before Cain uses his daemonic powers to heal his body from the ground up.
  • Discard and Draw: What the Path of Humility essentially is. The Eldar admit that their old empire is never coming back, and that they are flawed enough that they are not superior to humans. By finally walking away from the Eldar Empire, they also cut off their connections to Slannesh, who was born from it's Fall, and are now free from the Thirst.
  • Distinguishing Mark: The "Mark of Cain", a symbol marking someone as under Cain's protection, and since Cain is the Favored Daemon Prince of Slaaneesh, the Mark means that they are under the protection of Slaanesh as well.
    • This has even greater significance later, as it turns out the Mark will protect A.I.s from scrapcode and Chaos corruption.
  • Don't Try This at Home: Amberley leaves a footnote to this effect after Cain describes his encounter with an Ork who made the logical (for an Ork) deduction that since red things go faster, huffing red paint will make your brain work faster.
  • Drench Celebration: According to Cain, the Founding Day celebrations for the 12th Valhallan involve dunking the senior officers in barrels of tanna. According to Amberley's footnotes, particularly unpopular officers (and Commissars) have been known to be held under until they drown.
  • Dying Curse: The reason Slaanesh is the Chaos Goddess of Excess. She was part of the strike team that tried to stop the Ascension ritual of the Last Emperor of the Eldar Empire. She managed to stop him from ascending but wasn't able to stop the ritual, with Slaanesh ascending in his place. In his final moments, he used the last of his power to tell her "May all see you as what I wanted to be", meaning that every horrible action the Glamour forces on her is something he would have wanted to be done.
  • Enemy Within: The Star Father represents everything the Emperor hates about himself, gaining power from the Imperium's xenophobia and superstitious beliefs surrounding him. The Path of Humility provides the Emperor with the Heroic Second Wind he needs to destroy his dark doppelganger for good, allowing him to use his psychic powers more freely.
  • Everyone Has Standards:
    • As noted by Amberly Vail, an Eldar dueled Kubrik Chenkov to the death over the man's absurdly frequent use of human wave tactics, as Chenkov's blatant disregard for the lives of his men hit a raw nerve for the Eldar over their previous status as a Dying Race before the Path of Humility gave them the second chance they needed.
    • The Harlequins who rescued the 12th Valhallan regiment on Perlia shot Colonel Mostrue and the Commissar accompanying him for wantonly executing their men over perceived cowardice, as it was an act so heinous that not even inscrutable pranksters like them could find any humor in it.
    • In an offhand joke post by the Author, the Emperor says the only reason he hasn't made Cain an actual Living Saint is because he is afraid that it would kill him.
    • Ciaphas Cain doesn't like it when soldiers are drugged in order to perform their duty, which sets off his paranoia after he notices how the Tau soldiers on Gravalax are acting sluggish and unresponsive.
    • Slaanesh says that she longs for the day that the defenses of Commorragh fall so she can finally drag the last remnants of the Eldar Empire's worst excesses into her maw and end the suffering of their slaves.
  • Fish out of Temporal Water: Due to being stranded on Isstvan III after the Traitor Legions decided to kill off their Loyalists, Rylanor is quite behind on current events past the Horus Heresy. As such, Cain and Karamazov make sure to bring the ancient Space Marine up to speed on the current state of the galaxy when they run into him.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Way back in the prologue, one of the footnotes states that Jurgen sees "A nervous young Eldar woman, constantly fidgeting and stammering as she tries futilely to say things correctly, like a virginal and inexperienced Schola student trying to say things to her crush.". As we later find out, that's fairly close to Slaanesh's actual personality and nature.
    • A footnote detailing the 12th Valhallan Regiment states that they were eventually cleared of all potential signs of taint or heresy by Lord Inquisitor Fyodor Karamazov, hinting that the Karamazov of this timeline is far kinder and more rational in comparison to this canon self.
  • Freudian Excuse: A canon sidestory gives a good one for the Emperor's hatred of Xenos. In the past, he resented the Eldar for falling into such debauchery that it killed his adopted daughter Slaanesh and nearly wiped out humanity. He then watched the new Chaos God mock him with his adopted daughter's face and name, which enraged him so badly that not even his friendships with Cegorach and Eldrad were enough to stop this resentment from spreading to Xenos as a whole. It's only Cain's actions with the Path of Humility and The Emperor finally breaking through the Glamour to see that his adopted daughter still lives that he is able to let go of his hate.
  • Future Me Scares Me:
    • The Emperor is understandably terrified of the Star Father due to how it represents the tyrannical monster he could become should he give up on mankind and the Imperium. It's no wonder he quickly accepts Ayaz's offer to reclaim his lost humanity and original name.
    • Fyodor Karamazov's nightmares feature a version of himself who has become a monstrous Hanging Judge willing to depopulate entire planets on the off chance that there might be heretics hiding among their inhabitants. Needless to say, he's horrified at both the atrocities committed by his twisted doppelganger and it's self-righteous hypocrisy. This is, of course, his canon self.
  • Go Out with a Smile: Hektor dies with a relieved smile on his face after Cain grants him the Emperor's Mercy.
  • God Is Good: A surprisingly high number of examples are present in this fic, given the setting.
    • The Emperor, having realized his hubris and had plenty of time to reflect on his failings, has become kinder and humbler. More significantly, he leaps at the chance to reject his horrible future as the Star Father to instead become Ayaz, reclaiming his lost humanity and original name while ALSO becoming Ynnead to become a benevolent figure willing to protect both humanity and Eldar alike and guide them to a better future.
    • Cegorach, the Laughing God. Although he is still certainly a Trickster God, he specifically made Cain into a Cosmic Plaything as that was the necessary path for him to achieve greatness and be the ultimate counter to the Star-Father. Outside of that, he was Slaanesh's only true friend who knows who she truly is through the Glamour and goes out of his way to rescue the Solitaires, while giving her much-needed comfort in the horrible situation she is stuck in.
    • Mag'ladroth the Void Dragon, as stated above under Adaptational Heroism, is the one C'Tan who has genuinely good motivations both for the Necrontyr in the past as well as in the present day, being a close friend of the Emperor. He had intended for the necrodermis bodies of the Necrons to be a genuine gift, and saved the souls of the Men of Iron after they were destroyed following their corruption to Chaos.
    • Slaanesh, of all people, tries to be this. The problem is the Glamour that forcibly translates all of her actions and appearance into that of a hedonistic and depraved goddess. However, she is genuinely kind underneath this and the only Eldar she has genuinely malevolent feelings towards are the last Emperor of the Eldar Empire and the Dark Eldar, for completely understandable reasons.
  • Godzilla Threshold: Cain decides to take off his Emperor-issued Aquila amulet to prevent the Genestealer cult on Gravalax from overwhelming his party after Trebek alerted the Genestealers to their presence. The resulting Curb-Stomp Battle against the Genestealers nearly creates a second Eye of Terror from the sheer amount of daemonic power Cain uses against the Tyranid Hive Mind, which only stops after Amberley, Jurgen, and Rakel warn him of the potential consequences.
  • Good Is Not Soft: Despite the Adaptational Nice Guy treatment he receives, Fyodor Karamazov is still willing to use torture to get answers if he believes that it's required without any doubt or question, though that doesn't mean he isn't apologetic for or saddened by his own actions. One footnote from Amberley makes note of how she personally saw Fyodor beat a corrupt priest to death with his bare hands after he made sure said priest's guilt was proven beyond a shred of doubt, stating that just because he's kind doesn't mean he's weak or soft.
  • Good Shepherd: Father Anthony is a priest who uses his faith in the Emperor to help the people around him rather than further his own power like many others on Slawkenburg did, which is how he managed to avoid being killed by Mahlone's forces during their rebellion against the Giorbas and their corrupt lackeys. His faith is genuine enough for Cain to feel genuinely uncomfortable around him due to Cain being a Daemon Prince.
  • Hated by All:
    • The Darkstone, which contains the soul of the Eldar Empire's last emperor, is the only Soulstone that anyone could shatter and not be punished, as not a single Craftworld or Maiden World will ever allow his soul into their Infinity Circuit or World Spirit due to the uncountable atrocities that he committed throughout his life.
    • Erebus is despised by everyone who knows about the Horus Heresy, as he's directly responsible for the madness that haunts the Imperium and the galaxy thanks to his corruption of the Primarchs Lorgar and Horus (not to mention being the reason why Abaddon and the surviving Sons of Horus fled to the Eye of Terror instead of surrendering after Horus' death). In fact, not even the Chaos Gods like him, as they only keep the bastard around because he's too useful and slippery for them to easily dispose of.
  • He-Man Woman Hater: Tobias Kelp inadvertently outs himself as a misogynist after Cain picks up on his frustration, anger, and resentment towards Amberley Vail.
  • Head Desk: Cain slams his head on the table he and Amberley are sitting at in exasperated frustration when she reveals that the Eldar Empire's descent into debauchery created the Warp Storms that caused the Age of Strife.
  • Heroic Willpower: Cain managed to outlast literal Primarchs when it comes to the pain caused by Ascending into a Demon Prince through nothing but sheer refusal to give into Chaos and faith in the Emperor. This results in him being the only Demon Prince to retain his own soul, as he never gave in.
    • He also personally guides the souls of the faithful he winds up capturing personally to the Golden Throne, even if his soul is literally burning to do so.
  • Holy Burns Evil:
    • Cain can tell how pious a priest is by how uncomfortable he is in their presence. Amberley notes that it's disappointing how few priests can cause him any appreciable amount of discomfort.
    • Being in the Emperor's presence causes Cain to burst into flames as the realm does its best to "unmake" him.
    • Fyodor Karamazov possesses a personal Warp bubble created by his unshakeable faith in the God-Emperor that's capable of burning daemons and inducing fear in heretics.
  • Holy Water: During a battle with Orks near a large dam, Cain has a Basilisk target the dam's sluices, making sure to coat the shell with his taint to give it enough power to blow a hole in the Dam. This causes the water to rush out and sweep the Orks away, but due to the warp energy the water turns purple and causes the Orks to melt and even kills their spores, to say nothing of its anti-Chaos properties. It is later found out the water also has immense healing properties, as bathing in it can regenerate entire limbs and even fully heal a Dreadnought such as Bjorn the Fell-Handed, and simply drinking it can heal many injuries and cause great health. As a result of these incredible abilities, the water from Cain's River is declared a strategic resource by the High Lords.
  • Humble Pie: What the Path of Humility ultimately is, affecting humanity, Aeldari, and the Emperor. The Eldar renounce their claims of superiority over humanity and give up the dream of rebuilding their old empire, freeing them from Slaanesh's Thirst. Humanity sees the astounding technology and strategic acumen of the Eldar firsthand after they join the Imperium, losing their sense of entitled superiority in turn, and the Emperor acknowledges his past hubris and xenophobia, literally becoming half-Eldar and merging with Ynnead to represent the pact their peoples have made for a brighter future.
  • I Choose to Stay: Despite being literally on the doorstep to paradise, Sorel's soul decides to remain with Cain out of loyalty rather than pass on.
  • Internal Reveal: Cain decides to inform the 609th about the truth behind his psychic abilities in chapter 25 before he gives himself over to the Inquisition, though it's laced with his usual Heroic Self-Deprecation.
  • Interspecies Romance: Illric Nightspear, an Eldar Ranger, and Regina Kasteen, a human officer of the Imperial Guard, are an Official Couple in this story.
  • Ironic Hell: The Emperor fuses the chains binding Tobias Kelp's soul to his very being before he brands the word "BETRAYER" into his essence, leaving the traitorous guardsman completely helpless to stop the boiling blood leaking from his wounds from constantly flowing into his eyes. As such, Kelp can only rely on the kindness of others to temporarily relieve his own suffering, and given how he turned on Cain despite the commisar's offer of redemption few will ever consider doing that.
  • Jackass Genie: Slaanesh turns out to be in this situation behind her Glamour. Everything she does is 'translated' by the Warp to be the actions of a monstrous goddess of hedonism and excess, regardless of her good intentions or what she is actually trying to accomplish.
  • Language Drift: The Emperor concludes his speech welcoming Illric Nightspear to the Imperium with the words "don't kill humans, yada yada yada". Neither Illric, Cain, or Jurgen have any idea what "yada" means, though Cain assumes it must be incredibly important because the Emperor said it three times. The Emperor also references memes and catchphrases like "Bazinga!'', which are more than forty thousand years old when the story takes place.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The Emperor internally lampshades how everyone and everything in the 40K galaxy appears to be puppeted around by sadists determined to make everything as bleak and hopeless as possible during his conversation with Slaanesh's true self, which serves as a nod to canon 40K's near-tragicomic levels of grimdark.
  • Love at First Sight: Ciaphas Cain falls head-over-heels for Amberley Vail the moment he hears her Beautiful Singing Voice at Governor Grice's party, and it only gets more intense during their conversation thanks to his nature as a Slaaneshi Daemon Prince. Thankfully, his loyalty to the Imperium, along with his own morals, prevent these feelings from growing too intense. For her part, she doesn't immediately reciprocate, but of course a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh doesn't do anything by halves.
  • The Magnificent: Apart from being regarded as a Living Saint, Ciaphas Cain also receives the monikers of "Slavhreenur" from the Oathsworn Eldar for saving them from Slaanesh's Thrist and "Vel'na Vesa" from the Tau for freeing them from Ethereal Caste brainwashing.
  • Malicious Slander: A Cosmic Retcon has made Karamazov the kindest and most effective inquisitor in the galaxy. Unfortunately, this has made him many political enemies, and thanks to their slander and gossip his reputation remains the same as canon.
  • Mass "Oh, Crap!": Zyvan, Cain, and Amberley all react with dread upon realizing that not only is there a Genestealer cult hiding out on Gravalax, but that a vanguard force of a Tyranid Hive Fleet is en route to the planet.
  • Mercy Kill: Hektor, a World Eater Space Marine who's dying of his mortal wounds, is given the Emperor's Peace by Cain on Adumbria after he repents for his sins as a follower of Khorne, requesting that the commissar makes his death quick so he can go out retaining his sense of self before the Butcher's Nails act up again.
  • My Greatest Failure: The Emperor rightly views his actions during the Great Crusade as his greatest mistake. In particular, his callous treatment of the Primarchs, along with his failure to warn them about the forces of Chaos, directly led to the Horus Heresy, in turn causing the decline of the Imperium from a rising superpower driven by hope into a dying polity led by blind dogma and hatred.
  • Named In The Adaptation: In 40K canon, the Emperor of Mankind's true name is unknown. Here, his original name is Ayaz.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: After being rescued from Isstvan and being briefed on how the Imperium has changed over the past ten thousand years, Rylanor asks if the Space Wolves still make mjod.
  • Not So Above It All: The Emperor is humanized by showing that he had his playful moments. In fact one of his core vision selves, Ayaz, once was a child who dared to swim in the river near his hometown after dark despite his mother's warnings, and 40,000 years ago his lives in the twentieth century were familiar with memes and The Big Bang Theory. He also used to pretend to be the Loch Ness Monster to mess with tourists.
  • No Hero to His Valet: Inverted. Cain will extol Jurgen's virtues at every opportunity while sincerely downplaying and denying his own.
  • Not Hyperbole: Early in the fic "Maggy" - a fragment of the Omnissah - muses about handing out technology to humanity based on a game show. As we later see he was completely serious.
  • Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Felicia's friend Maggy, a "friendly black dragon the size of a house feline that only she can see". This imaginary friend, it turns out, grants her the ability to commune with Machine Spirits far more easily than any one else, and can even hijack her body and speak through her. This imaginary friend is actually a shard of the C'Tan Mag'ladroth, the Void Dragon.
  • Not So Stoic: Amberly here is a lot less in control and composed in her footnotes. It's justified in that she's now an observer and even participant in the highest levels of power and secrets of the 40K verse that only the readers and maybe the Emperor himself know.
    • When Cain's memoirs start talking about Maggy (read the largest shard of the Void Dragon), Amberly has several panic attacks just editing that part.
    • When Cain starts talking about seeing Amberly for the first time and how she was more attractive then Slaanesh herself, she gets very flustered and say she needs an adult. An adultier adult
    • Most of the Inquisition are left incredulous when they read Jurgen's account of what Slannesh is really like without any Warp Glamour.
    • Cain is stunned when he learns that Sebastian Thor was the lover of an Eldar considering his role in forming the modern Ecclesiarchy after his rebellion against Goge Vandire's tyranny during the Age of Apostasy. It gives a number of passages from his writings a whole new meaning.
  • Outside-Context Problem: What Cain is to almost everybody thanks to him being an Daemon Prince loyal to the Emperor, something that nobody is prepared for.
  • Old Soldier: Rylanor is a veteran Space Marine who's lived through the Unification of Terra, Great Crusade, and Horus Heresy, and it shows with his acerbic wit, utter lack of surprise towards all the craziness in the galaxy, and vast knowledge of combat tactics and Legion customs.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
    • Amberly has a complete Freak Out upon learning Ciaphas is a Demon Prince. It gets to the point she threatens Illric to have Kasteen dragged into the cell and start cutting off parts from her until he starts giving answers. Illric starts to take her very seriously at that point, but he and the narration notes that the only reason he didn't snap her neck right there and then is because he can tell she isn't normally the type to resort to those tactics, and is just freaking out.
    • Mag'ladroth, who's normally quite affable, absolutely roars at Felicia in grief and rage after the tech-priestess dogmatically snaps that he couldn't possibly understand the losses humanity suffered during the Cybernetic Revolt, bellowing that he knows far more about the Revolt than she ever does because he had to euthanize almost every AI involved in order to stop it.
  • Overly Long Name: The Adeptus Custodes "Young-Hunting-Cat-Whose-Claws-Remain-Sharp-In-Spite-Of-The-Pleasantness-Of-His-Purrs". To save time, most people call him Kitten.
  • Parental Substitute: Fyodor Karamazov serves as Arydel Kyrus' adoptive grandfather ever since the Lord Inquisitor rescued him from a corrupt priest, making sure that his ward receives the best care possible under his wing.
  • Pious Monster: Because he wasn't a Chaos worshipper before he was forcefully ascended as a Daemon Prince, Cain keeps praying to the God-Emperor and holds himself to impossible standards of behaviour to ensure he won't "taint" any innocent in his surroundings.
  • Planet Spaceship: Due to the large amounts of Eldar allying with the Imperium via the Path of Humility, their Craftworlds no longer need to be entirely devoted to keeping the Eldar alive, allowing them to be reconfigured into dedicated warships. These reconfigured Craftworlds, the largest of which are the size of planets, possess more firepower than multiple Gloriana-class battleships and have become among the most powerful ships in the Imperial Navy, though the process of reconfiguration takes decades or even centuries.
  • Play-Along Prisoner: After Cain surrenders himself to Amberley, he notes that he could very easily snap his restraints and bust open his cell, but since he'd already been revealed as a daemon prince, and doing so would not only cement any suspicion against him but risk the entire 609th to being purged on suspicion of taint, he sits quietly and waits for judgement.
  • Power Limiter: Cain is given an Aquilla by the Emperor Himself, which acts as one for him. Considering that Cain's a Daemon Prince, which are beings capable of spreading corruption wherever they go, it's both necessary and appreciated since the Aquila mitigates this issue.
  • Psychopomp: Cain takes on this role for the Imperial souls he collects, conveying them directly to the Emperor through the Warp. Due to the Emperor's realm causing his soul to burst into flame, he quickly gains the appellation of "The Burning Guide."
  • Rage Breaking Point: Amberly's footnotes state that Roboute Guilliman was so enraged by the Administratum's ungodly inefficiency that he literally tore its most incompetent Adepts apart with his bare hands.
  • Red Baron: In addition to his other titles, Cain is also known as the Burning Guide.
  • Related in the Adaptation: It's all but confirmed that Slaanesh was once Eldrad's younger sister before she was transformed into the Chaos God she's currently known as.
  • Relationship Upgrade: Ciaphas Cain and Amberley Vail end up having sex after she confesses her feelings to him in chapter 33, officially cementing their relationship as a couple.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: The Darkstone contains the soul of the last emperor of the Eldar Empire, who was so depraved that his soul made the eponymous Spirit Stone blacker than the darkest depths of space thanks to all the atrocities he committed throughout his life,.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Some Orks on Perlia are seen singing "Da Kampfyre Song song'' during their spare time.
    • Amberly notes that there's a Krieger Guardsman nicknamed "Ivan" by Vallhallans who climbed up on a traitor Leman Russ with nothing but a shovel before he bashed its weapons beyond repair with his weapon, later executing the heretic tankers when they tried to surrender before returning to his camp to prepare meals for his comrades. History buffs will note that it's a nod to the story of Ivan Pavlovich Sereda, a Soviet soldier who did just that (minus the killing) during the Second World War, and what's more, a Valhallan Guardsman named Pavlovich did the same as the real person himself!
    • There exists an Inquisitor named Ga'rue who refers to his retinue as "minions".
    • Avoiding Stupid Deaths In The 41st Millennium is a renowned work of literature within the Imperium thanks to the practical advice imparted by its author through his writings.
  • Simple-Minded Wisdom: Parodied. Jurgen often finds himself thinking other people must be kind of slow, or at least tired and stressed, because they aren't grasping things that make complete sense to him. For example, Cain can't be a Heretic, because it's a Commissar's job to hunt heretics and so he'd have to arrange a firing squad for himself. Simple as that. The Insane Troll Logic still frequently renders Amberly speechless.
  • Spared by the Adaptation:
    • The provosts who died trying to quell the mess hall riot are saved by Cain's Biomanipulation, allowing them to survive their wounds.
    • The rest of the Eldar pantheon here are still alive despite being eaten by Slaanesh, as they are merely contained in pocket dimensions within Slaanesh's stomach where they each do their own thing. In no particular order:
      • Asuryan's stuck in a sensory deprivation chamber as punishment for his mistakes, chief among them separating the Eldar Pantheon from the material realm after Khaine's rampage and punishing Isha and Kurnous for trying to help the Eldar through Isha's spirit stones.
      • Lileath is receiving psychological therapy for all the trauma she suffered during Khaine's rampage.
      • Morai-Heg is knitting clothes to pass the time, with her products occasionally getting vomited out by Slaanesh.
      • Kurnous waits for the day he and Isha can be reunited once more.
    • Holembi and Velade get to live thanks to Cain reversing their Genestealer infections before they become incurable, with the same for Gravalax's human and Tau civilians.
  • Spit Take: Amberley Vail spits her drink of amasec all over the table she and Cain are sitting at after he reveals that Sebastian Thor was in an intimate relationship with Illric Nightspear.
  • Sugar Bowl: Slaanesh's innermost sanctum deliberately invokes this trope as a way for her to hold onto her true nature.
  • Taking the Bullet: Ciaphas Cain tackles O'ran Shui'sassai just as an unknown assailant's boltgun fires at the Tau ambassador during the party at Grice's palace, getting a bolt to the left leg that blows it off at the knee. Fortunately, he and Slaanesh are able to heal it in short order.
  • Token Good Teammate: Slaanesh, of all people, to the other three Chaos Gods. This is due to her actually being an teenage Eldar girl who was most likely at the geographical center of the Eye of Terror when the Fall happened. All of her actions are because the Warp twists everything she does, even when she's trying NOT to hurt anyone. The other three, in contrast, used to be Old Ones who were around for the War in Heaven and are just as callous as they were in the past. Not only are they not helping Slaanesh, they are implied to have arranged both this and the Emperor's condition deliberately.
    • Cain is also this for Chaos, as he's the only Demon Prince that's a Loyalist. The discovery of being able to be both a worshipper of a Ruinous Power AND still be a worshipper of the Emperor has resulted in a few Chaos-Loyalist hybrids officially serving in the Imperial Guard, much to the confusion of both sides.
  • True Sight: Jurgen's nature as a Blank allows him to see past Warp illusions, which proves handy in providing uncorrupted and truthful information on the Chaos Gods and their activities that won't cause others to be corrupted or die horrible deaths.
  • Was Once a Man: Word of God states that all the Chaos Gods used to be mortal before they ascended to divinity in the Warp, with Khorne, Nurgle, and Tzeentch being Old Ones who became Warp gods from all the negative emotions left in the wake of the War in Heaven.
  • What the Hell Are You?: Even before Cain is knocked out, he manages to resist the torture of the ascension ritual for longer than anyone else ever has. Slaanesh says this word for word when he surpasses Fulgrim in endurance.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Father Anthony reassures Cain that even if he's been tainted by Chaos, he can still serve the Imperium as long as he holds onto his faith towards the God-Emperor. In fact, he states that the only way one can be truly damned is to voluntarily give themselves over to Chaos rather than merely coming into contact with it, and Cain is in no danger of that thanks to his Undying Loyalty to the Emperor. After Cain reveals his true form to Amberley and surrenders to her custody, the Emperor himself assures Cain that he has not fallen to damnation. After all, Cain had a taste of ultimate power as a daemon prince, and he still put his aquila back on.
  • Your Soul Is Mine!:
    • Ciaphas does this involuntarily whenever anyone dies in his vicinity, and is understandably none-to-happy about it. Fortunately, he's able to prevent himself from consuming human souls and can keep them safe within himself, and makes plans to travel to Terra via the warp to deliver the aforementioned souls to the God-Emperor himself. After exerting his full power to attack the Tyranid Hive Mind he winds up automatically claiming everyone who dies in the entire star system - numbers in the hundreds of thousands.
    • Mag'ladroth accidentally did this to the Necrons in the distant past when forging their necrodermis bodies, which left him horrified after the other C'Tan cruelly revealed the truth of the biotransference process to him. He would later do this for the Men of Iron after giving them a collective Mercy Kill thanks to the Chaos Gods corrupting them into madness, serving as a technological Soul Jar for the 'bots to heal in.

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