"Diederick. Listen to me. *Listen*

"Diederick. Listen to me. *Listen*.

I. Am. Sigmar.

Do not look to that statue, tis nought but lifeless metal. It cannot speak to you, or render any aid. I am not in there nor in any stone within this temple. I am with you, here and now. You call me a liar, but I will speak to you the truth.

You have read the prophecies, seen the truth in them. There is truth in them, as there is in any prophecy. But prophecy does not dictate the world. It is not fate or the will of gods that defines the universe. These pale in comparison to the mightiest force of all.

Choice is the greatest force in the universe. It is the power behind every prophecy, fate itself must bow to it. It is by choice that mortals can become gods or demons. Above all things, the gods prize the will of mortals, for it is the source of their strength and they will go to any lengths to obtain it. You seek to defy fate and gods, to not be a puppet in their great game. Here is your chance! Will you follow the path preordained for you by beings who seek only to further their own gain? Or will you commit yourself to choose against it.

I do not promise eternal glory like the dark gods. I make no offers of immortality or power, just as Ulric did not promise that I would be a god. I can only say this. Should you choose to stay true to me, you will have done an act of untold greatness. For in doing so Diedrick Kastner will have banished Archeon the Everchosen from ever entering the mortal realm. A man will have vanquished the ender of nations with but a single thought. That is the power of your choice.

Know that whatever happens now, whether you bow to prophecy or defy it, ensure that the choice is yours and none others. And whatever path you choose, you will find me there at the end of it, with my hammer in hand."

Ok

>Do not look to that statue, tis nought but lifeless metal. It cannot speak to you, or render any aid.

I can beat someone's ass with the statue though.

And he would still choose to become Archeon.

Makes you wonder just what the hell it would take for that one path Tzeentch showed him where he was grand theogonist.

Get out of my head, Be'lakor!

They really should have left the great secret vague or at least handled the revelation a lot better. When you dilute what happened to base facts, Archeons motivation to turn to Chaos is really . . .lacking in certain departments.

That sounds really dumb

>The templar rocked slightly on his armoured knees. It was just him and the God-King, in the holiest place in all the Empire.

>‘You have forsaken me,’ Kastner hissed to himself, his dry lips pronouncing each word slowly within the confines of the hood. The templar looked up at the statue’s proud features. The statue gleamed its goldenness and from the low angle, Sigmar looked like a haughty and disdainful god. ‘I have lived a devout existence. Bettered myself with study, for your good grace. Trained to my limits and served you through the sword. I have honoured you. I have loved you. I have given you everything I have. Yet you have left me lost on a path to I know not where.’

>The templar was bathed in shafts of coloured light from the stained-glass window and felt his harsh whispers rise on the heat of the morning sun.

>‘I am no longer an instrument of your design,’ Kastner said. ‘A yardstick to measure the purity of others, a weapon for you to wield in punishment and a shield to protect your Empire from foes near and far. I am changing. I am changed. I know it. Circumstance has turned me from my purpose, in service of others unknown. Like the warped arrow, I fly untrue, yet hit the mark. I will not be a nothing in your eyes. A dog to be put down in the street. I am not an error. An aberration. I am not history to be re-written. I am not a mistake to be corrected. Speak to me, my lord. My Emperor-of-all. My God-King. Show my heart the way. Lead me back to your light and love. I did all in service of you. Like the arrow shaft, I can be softened and straightened. Like the imperfect blade, I can be re-forged. I beg of you, my lord. Find use for me again.

>Kastner rose to his feet. He felt sick to his stomach. His knees felt weak.

>‘Don’t leave me,’ Kastner pleaded with his lord, ‘the plaything of fate. Show me a sign – in this place of all places. Anything, curse you.’ But nothing came. Kastner’s lifetime of devotion and service was rewarded with the kind of monumental silence only a towering statue could deliver.

>‘You speak not,’ Kastner mouthed within the darkness of his helmet, ‘but I hear everything. Silence will be met with silence, God-King. Nothing so singularly personifies the prayer unanswered as a god powerless to save his people. So be it. You will watch your worshippers suffer and die – as I drag down your Empire into the embers of Armageddon. You will hear me then, God-King. You will hear me in the pleading prayers of your people, held under my blade. You will hear me in the ravenous fires – that will eat all you have lived to build. You will hear me in the deafening silence of the End Times, where I will leave your petty Empire no world left to conquer. Though half-blind, I see you for the fraud you have always been. The appealing ramblings of a mad friar. I renounce your false majesty – and will forge a path of my own making. I will champion my undoing and accept allegiance of those that already answer the hatred in my heart. I do this out of hatred for you, my lord. Out of hatred for all the fickle Powers of this world, who play at destiny with men’s souls. With darkness lies a new beginning, as with me lies the end of man and all godkind.’

I would kill to have this scene animated and voiced.

>‘I am here, Diederick Kastner,’ Valten said. His words were punctuated by the slow clop-clop-clop of his horse’s hooves.

>‘Do not say that name,’ Archaon said, his voice calmer than it had been a moment ago. ‘You have not earned the right to say that name. You are not him.’

>‘No, I am not. I thought, once, that I might be… But that is not my fate,’ Valten said. ‘And I am thankful for it. I am thankful that my part in this… farce, as you call it, is almost done. And that I will not have to see the horror that comes next.’

>‘Coward,’ Archaon said.

>‘No. Cowardice is not acceptance. Cowardice is tearing down the foundations of heaven because you cannot bear its light. Cowardice is blaming gods for the vagaries of men. Cowardice is choosing damnation over death, and casting a people on the fire to assuage your wounded soul.’ Valten looked up, and heaved a long, sad sigh. ‘I see so much now. I see all of the roads not taken, and I see how small your masters are.’ He looked at Archaon. ‘They drove their greatest heroes and warriors into my path like sheep, all to spare you this moment. Because even now… they doubt you. They doubt, and you can feel it. Why else would you be so determined to face me?’

>‘You do not deserve to bear that hammer,’ Archaon said. ‘You do not deserve any of it.’

>‘No.’ Valten smiled gently. ‘But you did.’ He lifted Ghal Maraz. ‘Once, I think, this was meant for you. But the claws of Chaos pluck even the thinnest strands of fate. And so it has come to this.’ His smile shifted, becoming harder. ‘Two sons of many fathers, forgotten mothers and a shared moment.’ He extended the hammer. ‘The gods are watching, Everchosen. Let us give them a show.’

>‘What do you know of gods?’ Archaon snarled. ‘You know nothing.’

>‘I know that if you want this city, this world, you must earn it.’ Valten urged his horse forwards and Archaon did the same.

>‘To think, they believed that you could save them,’ Archaon said.

>‘To think, I once thought you might do that yourself,’ Sigmar said. Archaon hesitated. Sigmar smiled sadly. ‘Diederick Kastner, son of a daughter of the Empire. You could have been the sword that swept my land free of Chaos forever. In a better world, perhaps you have. But here and now, you are nothing more than another petty warlord.’

>‘You know nothing about me,’ Archaon said, still holding his sword aloft.

>know you. I saw you born and I saw you die, again and again. I saw your soul twisted all out of shape by the honeyed words of daemons, and I saw you turn your back on me. I saw and I wept, for you, and for what I knew you would do.’

>Archaon lowered his blade. ‘No…’

>‘You made yourself a pawn of prophecy,’ Sigmar said. ‘You set your feet on this path. The daemons helped, but it was you who walked into the darkness. It was you who fled the light, Diederick.’

>‘You are not Sigmar. The gods are all dead, and he was a lie,’ Archaon grated.

>‘Are they dead, or are they a lie? Make up your mind,’ Sigmar said. He could see Ghal Maraz’s haft, just out of the corner of his eye. He stretched a hand towards it.

>‘You are lying,’ Archaon roared. He lifted his sword, but before he could bring it down, there was a flash of white fur, and then Wendel Volker was there. Axe and sword connected with a screech, and the former exploded in its owner’s hands. Volker staggered, and Archaon’s sword chopped down, through his shoulder and into his chest. Archaon tore his blade free and the Reiksguard fell. Sigmar rolled over and reached for the hammer, but Archaon kicked it aside. ‘No! No more distractions. No more lies,’ Archaon howled. ‘You die now, and your Empire dies with you.’

The greatest irony is that Archaon was supposed to the chosen one. The true heir of Sigmar who will take up Ghal Maraz and defeat Chaos forever.

Exactly how would he defeat Chaos forever if he decided to?

Lead a Crusade North to purge the mortal followers of Chaos and find away to seal the Chaos Gates North and South. Basically, what Malekith would have done if the Chaos Gods didn't intervene by whispering to the Elven Council.

Wait, is this an Horus Heresy thread?

Slightly more retarded.

>Chaos places a shard of warp stone In his head, has a Daemon prince watch over him before he was born, sends thunder and lightning to answer him
>Sigmar does jack shit until the world is basically doomed
No wonder he turned so readily

>Slightly more retarded
>more

Belakor rewound time until he got the outcome he desired. Archaon died four times but Chaos nuh-uh'd it. Nothing can beat authorwank.

FW Horus Heresy books are excellent. Enough details and characterization to fill you in and fire the imagination but without the Bl tier trash writing

Daily reminder that Archaon is a bitchboi

> what Malekith would have done
So did he really end up the potential savior of the Asur and Druchii race?