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Warhammer 40K: Dread Weapons of the Emperor

5 Minute Read
Nov 27 2023
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The most potent of the weapons of the Emperor have been crafted by His own hands. Pity any who stand before them.

The Emperor of Mankind has crafted several weapons of incredible potency when he still walked among men. These have survived to the 40th Millenium.

The Emperor’s Sword

The Emperor’s Sword is a giant flame-covered blade that the Emperor created by using both his mastery of science and Warpcraft.

Due to the nature of its creation, the Sword is anathema to the forces of Chaos and only the most powerful of Daemons can resist being destroyed by its mere touch. The sword is capable of giving a Daemon a True Death rather than simply banishing them to the Warp. Indeed, in the Emperor’s skilled hands, the Sword destroyed thousands of daemonic creatures during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy and even ended the life of the traitorous Warmaster Horus himself. However, the Emperor was nearly killed in that final battle with his Son and afterward, he was forced to be interred within the Golden Throne to survive his mortal wounds. As for the Sword itself, it was placed within its scabbard and rested upon one of the Emperor’s knees for ten millennia, until the beginning of the Thirteenth Black Crusade.

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Abaddon the Despoiler‘s latest onslaught against the Imperium, saw the rebirth of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman, and the Avenging Son was given his Father’s weapon by Belisarius Cawl  to aid him in saving the Emperor’s empire. It would go on to become the Primarch’s primary weapon and, despite no longer being wielded by the Emperor, the Sword still contains an essence of its creator’s immense power. Due to this, Guilliman has noted that he feels the presence of his Father whenever he wields the Sword and thinks there are still secrets to the weapon that only the Emperor knows how to unleash.

The Apollonian Spear

The Apollonian Spear is the Guardian Spear of the first Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes, Constantin Valdor.

The Apollonian Spear was crafted alongside its sister the Dionysian Spear by the Emperor’sown hand, deep inside his first underground fortress on Terra during the Age of Strife. Wielded for a time by the Emperor himself, he would later give the Apollonian Spear to Valdor to wield after he became the Legio CustodesChief Custodian. Like the signature armament of the Custodians, it incorporates both a power blade and built-in bolter weapon – though in both cases these are of a potency far exceeding those even the Emperor’s elite carry into battle.

After the Horus Heresy and the disappearance of Valdor, the Apollonian Spear was put into storage by the Custodes and treated as a relic.

The Spear of Russ

The Spear was forged by the Emperor himself during the Age of Strife inside His very first subterranean fortress and contains a portion of His power. The sister of the Apollonian Spear, the Dionysian Spear as it was originally known has the ability to “illuminate” those it pierces, revealing to them some aspect of truth.

The weapon was later given to Russ in the aftermath of the Wheel of Fire campaign as a reward, but he was made uneasy by the spear’s presence and never took it with him into battle. He would often “lose” it on battlefields or “forget” it in conference chambers and he carried it only to please the Emperor. Despite his attempts to part with the weapon, it would always ultimately return to his side. While on Fenris, Russ saw a vision of himself that revealed the nature of the Spear and pierces the Wolf King with it, revealing to him the truth regarding the nature of the Primarchs. Afterward, Russ became more fond of the weapon and used it in battle. Later during the duel between Horus and Leman Russ at the Battle of Trisolian, Russ used the Spear to not only badly wound the Warmaster but also restore a measure of his sanity and former glory, washing away much of the corruption that had come to plague him on Molech.

Later on Yarant, the 13th Company seemed amused by the fact that the current Space Wolves view the relic with such awe. During the Battle of Yarant during the Heresy, Russ gave the weapon to Bjorn.

Later sometime during the Great Scouring the spear was snatched up by the Wolf Lord Garm and used to injure Magnus the Red, primarch of the Thousand Sons, when Leman Russ stumbled in battle against him, buying Russ the opportunity to drive off the traitor, albeit at the expense of Garm’s own life. The Spear was stored for millennia in the Shrine of Russ on the planet Garm, named for the Wolf Lord who fell there. Prophecies of the Space Wolves state that, when Leman Russ returns for the Wolf Time he will return to Garm to reclaim his weapon. The Spear was lost, however, when elements of the Thousand Sons, including the sorcerer Madox, stole it for use in a ritual to bring their primarch through to the material world from the warp. The Great Company of Wolf Lord Berek Thunderfist were able to interrupt the ritual, when (then Blood Claw) Ragnar Blackmane seized up the Spear of Russ and hurled it through the warp portal, stabbing the eye of Magnus. This stopped the ritual and closing the portal, but at the cost of losing the Spear of Russ into the warp.

The spear was later used by Madox in a ritual that would cause all Space Wolves to succumb to the curse of the Wulfen, destroying the chapter and critically weakening the Imperium. Ragnar and several other Space Wolves made their way to the warp duplicate of the planet Charys in the Eye of Terror and, with assistance from elements of the Thirteenth Great Company, stopped the ritual before the damage was irreversible. With the help of Rune Priest Torvald the Reaver, and Gabriella Belisarius, Ragnar and the survivors return to Charys and the Spear was returned to Garm.

Later during the Siege of the Fenris System, the Spear was taken up by Egil Iron Wolf and used once again against Magnus.

~One day these weapons may all be brought together, for the defense of Mankind, but who would be worthy to wield them?

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Author: Larry Vela
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