Lucius the Eternal

Lucius was born on Chemos and inducted into the Emperor’s Children during the Great Crusade. He quickly became one of the Legion’s finest swordsmen and earned command among its elite warriors. Lucius measured himself through combat and became obsessed with proving that no opponent could match his skill. His rivalry with Saul Tarvitz grew from this pride. During the betrayal at Isstvan III Lucius initially fought beside the loyalist Emperor’s Children against the forces sent to destroy them. His resentment toward Tarvitz eventually outweighed any remaining loyalty. Lucius betrayed the defenders and returned to the service of Fulgrim.

Lucius descended further into the worship of Slaanesh as the Horus Heresy continued. He sought increasingly dangerous opponents and treated pain as another sensation to master rather than something to fear. After the Heresy he remained with the fractured Emperor’s Children and continued wandering in search of worthy duels. His arrogance eventually led him against Lord Commander Cyrius. Cyrius killed Lucius and took pride in the victory. Slaanesh answered by transforming Cyrius into a new vessel for Lucius. The swordsman emerged again while the agonized features of his killer appeared within his armour.

Since then Lucius has repeatedly returned through the same curse. Anyone who kills him and experiences satisfaction from the act risks becoming the body through which Lucius is reborn. The faces of those consumed by this process remain trapped across the surface of his armour. Lucius has continued fighting throughout the Long War as a champion of Slaanesh and a wandering killer who values the challenge of an exceptional opponent above territory or command. His endless returns have only strengthened his certainty that he stands above ordinary warriors.

Appearance: Lucius the Eternal has pallid lavender-gray skin and an enormous heavily muscular build. His eyes are dark beneath deep ridges. His bald head is covered in raised scar-like patterns with numerous embedded facial markings. A long purple tongue extends from his mouth.

He wears massive black power armor with silver edging and dark purple detailing. The chest and shoulder plates are densely sculpted with distorted faces and raised organic shapes. Thick black tubing runs around his neck and torso. Several glass canisters filled with bright green fluid rise from his backpack and connect into the armor through green hoses.

His left arm is heavily mutated with swollen pink-purple flesh emerging through the armor. Long purple tendrils extend from his body and trail around his legs. One thigh is protected by a dark purple plate covered in rounded studs. Tattered pale cloth strips hang from his waist alongside dark belts and small metallic fittings.

Personality: Lucius is vain and cruel with an obsessive belief in his own superiority as a swordsman. He treats battle as personal performance and takes genuine pleasure in humiliating skilled opponents before defeating them. Failure enrages him because it threatens the identity he has built around martial perfection. He is capable of patience when stalking a worthy adversary but has little interest in discipline for its own sake. Pain and danger excite him rather than deter him. His devotion to Slaanesh centers on sensation and pride and the endless pursuit of a duel that can satisfy him.

Fulgrim remains Lucius’s Primarch and the figure under whom his descent into Slaanesh began. Lucius respects Fulgrim’s power but his strongest loyalty is ultimately to his own ego and the patron that continually restores him. Saul Tarvitz became one of the earliest targets of his resentment because Tarvitz possessed qualities Lucius could not tolerate seeing admired in another warrior. The Emperor’s Children often recognize Lucius as one of their greatest killers while finding his arrogance difficult even by their standards. His relationship with every worthy enemy follows the same pattern. He wants their respect until the moment they become proof of his supposed superiority.

Lucius is an ancient Space Marine with exceptional speed and strength and reflexes. His greatest natural talent is swordsmanship. He can read an opponent’s movements quickly and alter his technique during a duel while exploiting small weaknesses in stance or timing. Centuries of combat have made him dangerous against other Astartes and champions of Chaos. His body has also been heavily altered by Slaanesh and can endure punishment that would disable a lesser warrior.

His most infamous ability is the curse that allows him to return after being slain. If his killer takes satisfaction in the victory then Lucius can gradually consume that person and reform through their body. His armour bears the screaming faces of previous victims trapped within it. Lucius commonly wields the Blade of the Laer or other master-crafted swords alongside the Lash of Torment. The whip can tear through flesh and armour while allowing him to control the distance of a fight before closing for the kill.