L-XII-1884 Tiberius Thanatos
"Go and slaughter, sons of the Merciless. Let there be war."
- Captain Tiberius Thanatos of the World Eaters, Before the Atrocity of Isstvan III
Captain Tiberius Thanatos commanded the World Eaters 16th Great Company (L-XII-1884) during the times of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. A Terran Born veteran once known for his unmatched skills as a void commander, he was among the first to volunteer as a test for the Butcher's Nails soon to become widespread within the Legion. Unfortunately his implants were a particularly strong device and degenerated sooner than expected: after the battle for Isstvan V they had already eroded much of the man he was, allowing him only glimpses of the leader his men were used to and turning him into a colder, killing addicted monster who gladly broke his former self on the same anvil that twisted his father, and would do so again even knowingly.
History
Great Crusade
“Aye. I too witnessed the glorious days of the Warhounds. I lived them all, one by one. And not a single day has passed since then where I did not thank my Primarch for making me a World Eater”
- Tiberius to Irex Nornas, Legate Commander of the Merciless
First born son of a Terran tech-barbarian warlord, Tiberius Thanatos was taken as a tribute and recruited in the Emperor's 12th Legion after his father was cast into submission at the end of the Unification Wars. He swiftfully emerged from the ranks, being the exact kind of officer the twelfth needed at the time: a brutal, cunning but noble leader driven by his own pragmatic honor code, as he had been raised up to be when he was meant to inherit the mantle of command in his tribe. When the 16th Company's Centurion died in the Siege of Hierotzelem, Tiberius won command over the Merciless by defeating every other pretendant in the ritual fights that followed: not yet satisfied, he also challenged those of the other two companies attached to the 32nd expedition along with the 16th, who had also lost their respective Centurions during the Siege. Bending or killing every opponent, he found himself alone to command a battleship and -at full strenght- three hundred Astartes, a position that would later be confirmed with a laughter of approval by the Primarch Angron. In the following years he proved himself a skilled void commander and a warm brother for all of the 12th Legion, respected for his insight and martial sense of humor as well as for his physical resilience and hand-to hand skills, but he was never animated by the same fervour some of his brothers had towards the Emperor of Mankind. To Tiberius he was a distant, brutal tyrant who destroyed the life he was meant to live and whom he was forced to serve by lack of choices. This is why when Angron came to the Legion with his tragic story and his bloody warrior code he was seen by Thanatos as a similar soul to him, and easily won his loyalty over that for the Emperor. In Angron, Thanatos found a true leader to follow, someone he would gladly fight for: such was Tiberius' devotion to his genesire that he was among the first to volunteer as a test for the cortical implants soon to become widespread within the Legion. The Conqueror's Apothecarion was nowhere near creating a stable, final product at the time, and as it would soon turn out, Tiberius' implants were too similar to those of his Primarch. Too strong even for an Astartes to endure, they soon took away the best from him -but he resisted them for long, stoic, functioning as best as he could as a leader for his men and never regretting this act of devotion to his genesire.
The Siege of Sarum
An Adeptus Mechanicus station, Sarum was on the edge of the Maelstrom. Isolated and embattled for centuries, the Techpriests of the world had become warlike and isolationist. These crimson priests of the Machine God paid only lip service to Mars but now found themselves under siege by an Abhuman empire known as the Brotherhood of Ruin which commanded not only legions of malformed cyborg abhumans but also Ork mercenaries. The Brotherhood and Ork forces landed on Sarum's surface in boarding machines, burning and blasting their way to the subterranean facilities beneath the planets crust while their fleet ensured no escape was possible. It was then that the World Eaters arrived, ready to fight for the first time under their Primarch's orders.
The World Eaters launched a single massive assault wave with their fleet to scatter and destroy the foe in orbit, with the Merciless selected as one of the two hundred Battleships to be part of the initial spearhead.
The first outer guard ships of the Brotherhood forces were caught unprepared and outnumbered by this swift but massive strike. Quickly recovering from the shock of the attack, the Brotherhood responded sending a wave of Ork Terror Ships and gunboats which were shot to pieces by the two-hundred strong World Eaters speartip of Battle Barges and Grand Cruisers. Nonetheless, the Brotherhood fleet numbered thousands of smaller vessels: it was then that Thanatos suggested to draw the fleet into a close formation and smash straight through the near cloud-like armada of enemy vessels. In a fiery and savage close-quarters void war, the World Eaters fleet broke the Brotherhood blockade and 15,000 World Eaters prepared to drop onto Sarum's surface directly, but the 16th was not among them: the Merciless remained in orbit, where their good fame for void warfare would be put to better use. Some retrieved files from the archives of the 12th Legion state that the 16th Company successfully boarded and captured four smaller ships and a Battlebarge, while destroying an indefinite number of ork Terror ships. As the battle in space had been won and the Primarch led the final assault on Sarum, the battered Astartes of the Merciless made planetfall and joined the slaughter.
Horus Heresy
Isstvan III
Given Tiberius' admiration for his Primarch, it comes to no surprise that he sided with him in the grim events that would come to be known as “The Horus Heresy”.
The Captain had to personally choose those of his warriors who would be part of the initial assault to Isstvan III, and thus be betrayed and condamned to die under the virus bombs of their own fleet.
Ever obedient and loyal to Angron, he chose almost seventy Astartes and put Irex Nornas in charge of this spearhead.
Nornas was Tiberius' second in command and perhaps his closest friend, but he never even tried to hide his resentment for Angron's reshaping of the Legion: sending him to his death on Isstvan was unavoidable, though this -along with having to secretly betray almost a third of his warriors- would undoubtedly mark the breaking point for a caring officer such as Thanatos, whose only solace had been found in brotherhood for all the years of the Great Crusade.
He nevertheless followed Angron in his assault to the surface and shed the blood of his brothers, abandoning himself to the Nails and the comfort they offered in exchange for slaughter.
A persistent rumour claims that he managed to speak with a dying Nornas before he surrended his will to their artifical oblivion, while others believe that he personally killed his lieutenant.
In any case, it would later be said by many that Centurion Thanatos never made it back to the Merciless, but that a broken monster with his name and face had taken his place at the head of the 16th company.
His cortical implants finally had the better of him, claiming one of the 12th Legion's most exteemed officers among their slaves in a bloody anticipation of what would soon become of all the sons of the Red Angel.
Isstvan V
[Record incomplete]
Shadow Crusade
[Record incomplete]
Wargear
Gorebringer A massive two handed chainsword crafted by Archmagos Veneratus Vel Kheredar himself, Gorebringer (or, as it's often called, “The Primarch's gift”) was given to Tiberius as a reward for his contribution during the Siege of Sarum by the Primarch Angron, not yet completely overrun by the Nails and the despise for his genetic sons. The weapon's teeth, made with a misterious xeno material found during the Golgothan Slaughter, proved enough to tear through a Tactical Dreadnought Armor during the dark times of the Horus Heresy.
