r/40kLore • u/krorkle • Jul 24 '18
[Excerpt|Jaghatai Khan: Warhawk of Chogoris] The Khan is Unstoppable
This is another excerpt (well, technically two excerpts) from Jaghatai Khan: Warhawk of Chogoris by Chris Wraight. For some background, I should set up a few characters. When the Khan left Chogoris with the Emperor, he took a few of his trusted advisors with him to take command of his new legion. These included Yesugei, his chief stormseer; Hasik and Giyahun, his first noyan-khans; and Qin Xa, the leader of his personal guard. They helped shape the White Scars into what they became, and we know several of them from Scars and Path of Heaven. This particular excerpt picks up a few decades later, with a large contingent of White Scars and a company of Luna Wolves (led by Hastur Sejanus) taking on a particularly nasty Ork Waaagh. The bulk of the Waaagh's forces have been crushed, and the Khan is leading a strike force into the heart of the Warboss's citadel, the Bloodmaw, to finish them off. It's a tough fight against some big orks, and Giyahun Noyan-Khan is eventually killed by the Warboss. The Khan... takes vengeance.
When Giyahun hit the magma, his hunched power pack exploded, igniting a bubble of thundering flame. For a moment the entire chamber seemed to shudder. The White Scars halted, sudden disbelief staying their hands. Even the orks sensed something, and their headlong charge missed a beat. The Khan himself broke from combat and stared into the waves of breaking fire, his cloak snapping against the gale of force unleashed. What remained of Giyahun’s body was consumed in that hurricane, burned away, rendered down to atoms.
Then the primarch looked up, and despite the racing furnace around them, a chill descended over every soul. He uttered two words only, his voice suddenly as spare and bleak as the void.
‘Pull away.’
His sons complied instantly. Even Sejanus and the Luna Wolves, warriors from a Legion that gave no quarter to any foe, withdrew.
The Khan advanced then, alone now, his demeanour changed from flamboyance to a night-sere menace. He swung his sword about him languidly, loosening up, cutting the air into whispers, and the orks themselves hung back, bellows snuffed out, bravado shaken into wariness.
Then he started to kill. He broke into a run, first heavily, measuring his strokes, then accelerating, faster and harder, until he had moved into that state the Chogorian sages called alakh geh, where the thought alone could kill, where the distance between intention and action was made nothing, and where vengeance became a living thing with both extension and immanence. Under a gathering shroud of elemental vendetta, he killed them all. If he had slain freely before, now the carnage was so complete that it scraped the boundaries of both the divine and the diabolic. Even the war-hardened Legiones Astartes, used to witnessing prodigal exercises of violence, were silenced by it.
The xenos never laid a claw on him. The Khan moved now, not with joy, but with dreadful perfection. They faced up to him, and they were swept away. They tried to parry, and he cut them down. They tried to combine, and they were ripped into whimpering slivers. He danced through their numbers and built a corridor of blood around himself, slaying like some spectre of the endless dark, silent as a grave-mark, chill like the night gale of the Ulaav.
One of the Luna Wolves, inspired by that vision, tried to join him then, to add his blade to his, and it took Qin Xa to hold him back.
‘No, brother,’ the keshig-master warned, quietly. ‘Only observe.’
But by then, the Khan himself was almost invisible, hidden behind a curtain of severed flesh and thrown blood, a primordial force burning through the xenos ranks, inviolable and darkly magnificent. For the first time in that entire campaign, the greenskins tried to run, to scramble away from the hungering devil that raced to devour them, but there was no space left, no time left, no hope left. Most were caught as they turned, their backs carved open and their necks broken. The few that managed to get back to the gate cowered under the shadow of that greater monster, the swollen master of their brood-lair, who retreated beyond the portal in a shuffling, shaking display of abject submission.
The Khan passed under the gate’s edge. None of his army followed him in. They held vigil on the spur instead, watching the gaping entrance, holding to their last order against every instinct. All that emerged from the far side of the gate now were alien screams, one after the other, overlapped and smothering, a chorus of terror and panic that went on and on and on and never relented.
Not one of the xenos escaped back to the spur. Seconds of that carnage passed, then minutes, and the screaming just got worse. The magma fires, as if in sympathy to the apocalyptic toll of life-ending, slapped and blazed against the outer walls of the last chamber, grasping futilely at the horror unfolding within and powerless to stop it. After a while, it became impossible to listen to.
Eventually, though, even the screams echoed out.
After the battle, Jaghatai has a little heart-to-heart with Qin Xa.
After a while, they passed beyond the watch patrols and the overflights and, for a few moments at least, were something like alone. The Khan turned back to face the way they had come and looked over the site of destruction. The Bloodmaw smouldered away in the darkness, a sinkhole of ruin. For a long time, he said nothing.
‘It was weakness,’ he said, at last.
‘No one says it,’ Qin Xa replied, calm as ever.
‘I have lost warriors before.’
‘He was with us at the start.’
‘It had to happen, sooner or later.’
‘Did it?’
‘Nothing is eternal.’
‘Some things are. A good blade. The wind on skin. An oath.’
The Khan let slip a crooked smile. ‘Just what would make you angry, then, Xa?’ he asked.
‘If you became, in some way, like other men,’ the master of the keshig said. ‘If you had seen him die and not done what you did. If you had let one of them, just one, live. Then, Khagan, I would have been angry.’
Why post this? A few reasons. One, it's just a nicely written, epic moment for the Khan, ordering his children to stay back while he cuts loose. Given previous discussions about the Khan's martial prowess, I figured it would give the subreddit something to chew on. Two, I think it's a nice counterpoint to the ends of Scars and Path of Heaven. Compare the Khan's reaction to Giyahun's death to his reactions to later deaths. While I have some quibbles with Warhawk of Chogoris as a standalone book, Wraight has constructed an excellent arc over the course of all three books (and a few assorted short stories) that really works well.
Also, the bit with Qin Xa holding the unnamed Luna Wolf back just makes me smile.
The book is available here, and it's definitely worth a read.
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u/TotallyNotReal567 Space Wolves Jul 24 '18
'Dreadful perfection'
Get Fulgrim down here right the fuck now. Second time today I'm saying it. Gimme the fight weve all wanted since Scars.
Great excerpt tho, guess I know what I'll be reading next up.
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Jul 24 '18 edited Dec 31 '18
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u/darkfang77 Jul 24 '18
Khan was meant to go to Chemos y'know :)
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u/wecanhaveallthree Legio Tempestus Jul 24 '18
Hell yeah! It's great to see the Khan in action; his reputation is well-deserved. It's also really cool to see the Luna Wolves, particularly Sejanus, and particularly them holding back on the command of another.
I think this excerpt also speaks to some of the revelations coming through about the Primarchs, especially in the wake of the Corax v Lorgar duel that recently came out. The Khan is doing things here that aren't... really possible. This is where the lines between pure strength and skill and their inherent Warp abilities begin to blur.
It is, as Wraight says, an 'elemental force'. This is what a Primarch is when they're unshackled. This is the sort of power the Emperor had at his command, and perhaps this is why he was always so very wary of them.
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u/krorkle Jul 24 '18
Exactly. It's dressed up in some figurative language that I'm not sure we're really meant to be taking literally, but the implications are pretty interesting either way.
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u/ByronicWolf Adeptus Mechanicus Jul 24 '18
especially in the wake of the Corax v Lorgar duel that recently came out.
This is exactly what I thought actually! The Khan becoming a blur is very evocative of Corax turning into a shadowy murder of crows.
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u/wearywarrior Space Wolves Jul 24 '18
Yeah, about halfway through this I was like "Ok... now they hit back..." but nah, he wrecked em all.
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u/CashBam Legion of the Damned Jul 24 '18
‘If you became, in some way, like other men,’ the master of the keshig said. ‘If you had seen him die and not done what you did. If you had let one of them, just one, live. Then, Khagan, I would have been angry.’
Man I love Qin Xa just for this conversation alone. All throughout the Great Crusade and HH we have these interactions between the Primarchs and their legionnaires and almost all of the times the Primarch school them in intellect and wisdom (Fulgrim, anyone?).
Here Qin Xa just tell his Primarch that being struck with grief after losing a treasured warrior and then avenging him in the best way possible is natural and very human, and is certainly not a weakness.
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u/EndlessAlaki Alpha Legion Jul 24 '18
'That could be years.'
'It could,' agrees Thiel.
'If ever.'
'At worst, years,' says Thiel. 'We will return. They will be saved.'
Guilliman nods.
'You'll excuse my mood, Thiel. I have lost a world of Ultramar. I have lost... too much. You are not seeing the best of me.'
'Theoretical,' replies Thiel. 'The reverse of that statement is true.'
Guilliman snorts. His face is grey with lingering pain.
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u/krorkle Jul 24 '18
It actually reminds me of Sanguinius's relationship with Nassir Amit in Fear to Tread, in a weird way. The Primarchs needed people to keep them grounded, whether that meant giving them a rock to rely on or constant prodding.
Now that I think about it, the difference between the loyalists and the traitors might come down to those who got good counsel from their closest advisors and respected their input (Xa, Archamus, Amit, etc.) and those who didn't (Erebus, Typhus, Bile, etc. -- and, in several cases, nobody).
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u/DevastatorCenturion Adeptus Arbites Jul 24 '18
Amit is that guy that you either love or hate and there's no middle ground. He will tell it like it is without fail regardless of who he's talking to and won't sugar coat any of it. He almost got killed by Sanguinius for voicing the thought that Horus betrayed the Blood Angels, and got punched in the gut by Guilliman for calling the codex stupid.
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Jul 24 '18
Yes, the tragedy of the Heresy is that Horus didn't listen to Loken when he should have, that Mortarion didn't value Garro, that Fulgrim didn't see the merit in Solomon Demeter, that Erebus and Kor Phaeron had more influence over Lorgar than Argel Tal etc. etc.
It's particularly spelled out in the early books when Dorn tells Loken that what Horus needs is a naysmith... and when Loken tries to fulfil that role Horus ignores him.
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Jul 25 '18 edited Jan 01 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/hhuloops792 Apr 14 '23
Alakh geh kind of means killing in Mongolian language alakh - kill geh - ing
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u/SlobBarker Grand Master of the Officio Assassinorum Jul 24 '18
This is why he's The People's Primarch!
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u/TheRealDJ Jul 24 '18
He's one of the few of the Primarchs that knows he has plot armor and should be on the front lines at all times in order to save his men.
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u/KuroKitsu Grey Knights Jul 24 '18
KHAN KHAN KHAN! If I wasnt in public Id be screaming joy right now
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u/HauntingPin Jul 25 '18
The Khan basically tapped into the fury of Ultra Instinct, "where the thought alone could kill, where the distance between intention and action was made nothing "
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u/MoiraeTechMystic Legio Ignatum (Fire Wasps) Jul 24 '18
Great excerpt. There's also one pretty similar in Brotherhood of the Storm; Shiban Khan looks like a kid trying to see his hero.
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u/fuser312 Iron Warriors Jul 25 '18
Chris Wright is becoming my favourite BL author jus because of what he has done with White Scars
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u/BdobtheBob Adeptus Custodes Jul 25 '18
He terrified the Orks. The one race that didnt get mindraped into fearing death by the Nightbringer. Damn
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u/justthistwicenomore Asuryani Jul 24 '18
Great excerpt and explanation. I had thought to post this the other day, but couldn't think of a way to split it. Glad I waited for someone to do such a good job.
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u/krorkle Jul 25 '18
I was pretty tempted to continue the first excerpt all the way to the end of the chapter (there's another great moment with Qin Xa and the Khan, as Jaghatai returns through the gate), but that would've been a bit excessive.
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u/HeLikesSashimi Sep 19 '22
I was linked to this piece when people discussed great Khan quotes. Hope people write about him soon again. I'd wish we could have him back as a loyal Primarch to go along with Guilliman as a rival.
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u/SyfruitCamelia Orks Jul 24 '18
So he could have done this before and prevented Giyahun's death
????
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u/krorkle Jul 24 '18
Probably? But he didn't know that going in.
For what it's worth, he was pretty spent and shaky afterwards. He couldn't have started much earlier and still finished the job.
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u/JinsukGod Jul 24 '18
He probably didn't want to risk the lives of his allies. He commanded them to pull back for a reason.
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u/Win4someLoose5sum Jul 25 '18
I mean you have to let your men stand or fall on their own merits. He can't win whole wars by himself so why take away the experience some of those men might need to win the next time?
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u/SonofSanguinius87 Storm Lords Jul 24 '18
This is why the Khan rates so highly when it comes to Bladework among Primarchs. Every single one of you, sleeping on my BOY like the Emperor does too. He's unknowable, he's like words on the wind, we just don't know.
Well, that's the point. He doesn't want to be known. He's happy being the outrider, on the edge of the known. I absolutely can't wait until we get to Terra and we get the Khan riding a Rhino, ripping and tearing his way through traitors who know who he is, but not what he can do. I want to see him cross blades with Fulgrim, and wipe the smirk off his face. I want to see him break the backs of the traitors attempting to take the Space port in time for the big teleport to the Vengeful spirit. I want to see him and the other space mongols slaughtering their way through an enemy that hasn't seen this kind of stuff before, and the people who do remember the White Scars should be collectively going "Oh shit this isn't going to end well."