33 Aeldari Artificial Gods
Kaela Mensha Khaine, the Aeldari God of War, paced back and forth within the Citadel of Gods in the Warp. Khaine was a tall and handsome god formed by the Old One's artificial spirit creation methods along with the rest of the Aeldari gods. They were meant to act similar to how Arlow had, the Old Ones who were in charge of creating them had set their goals to imitate Arlow in a way that would be controllable for the races of the Materium.
The Aeldari were engineered to be extremely sensitive and an emotional race. Their psionic potential did not lose out to the Old Ones, even surpassing them in raw power during some circumstances where their emotions were on full display. And yet, what they gained in power they lost in emotional stability. They needed a way to suppress the negative thoughts of their race's substantial influence on the Warp. The artificial gods solved this problem quite easily.
The result was a pantheon of gods for the Aeldari to worship and associate their emotions with. These gods were created in a way, in which they could be controlled out of necessity. The gods needed worship to sustain themselves, with the constant thoughts feeding their psychic substance. The Old Ones had created a set of cheap knockoff Arlow's to suppress the unstable emotional changes of the Aeldari, while also treating those same gods as controllable superweapons against the C'tan.
This is quite a genius racial structure they created, but that's to be expected with any work involving Gorvor's hands.
Khaine was one of these gods in the pantheon, responsible for War, bloodshed, and a few other violent emotions. He was a naturally irritable and impatient person, who hated to be interrupted when he spoke. And at the moment, he was especially irritable, because he was being kept waiting.
"Damn lizards," Khaine growled, clenching his hands in frustration.
"Do they think I have time to wait?" Khaine grunted, continuing to pace back and forth.
*BZZZT*
A gate of red lightning appeared at the entrance of the room Khaine was in, and a familiar face appeared. Weklor appeared wearing his adornments and clothing of the 5th High Councilor. He was followed by a Squint behind him, who acted like a cross between a squire and page might to a medieval knight. The gate continued to hum behind them as Weklor greeted Khaine.
"Khaine," Weklor nodded to him in greeting.
Khaine could detect the arrogance of this Old One and it frustrated him to no end that these dirty lizards had been responsible for creating himself. He hated what he was. Who would want to be created and trapped as a tool for others, not to mention he was the god of War? He had a lot of times 'practicing' being a tool for the Aeldari and the Old Ones during the constant wars.
Khaine gritted his teeth and counted to 3 in his mind to calm himself down.
"5th Councilor," Khaine greeted Weklor with the same attitude back to him.
A sneer made its way onto Weklor's face as if to say 'it's quite interesting how you use that tone to address your creators'. But the sneer disappeared as quickly as it came, he just wanted to get this over with.
"There is a new war brewing. The Great Council has divined that the entire pantheon will be needed often in the future. You especially will need to stay in communication with your followers to direct the Aeldari war fleets." Weklor stated.
"And what do I get out of this?" Khaine said, annoyed.
Weklor gave him another look with a raised eyebrow.
"You get to raise your influence. After all, isn't it great that there is a lot of war now? You can increase your influence among the Aeldari. You can become the head of the pantheon." Weklor explained with a fake smile on his face.
"Oh, how great," Khaine said, clenching his fists again.
He didn't want the 'play the game' of power struggles that the Old Ones wanted the gods of the pantheon to play. After all, wasn't this the same as admitting defeat against your circumstances? Who was he? He was Khaine, the god of War! He doesn't lose, and if he does it's only to win the war later.
"That's all that needs to be said. Please relay the Great Council's decisions to the rest of your 'siblings'." Weklor said, before turning to leave with his Squint following behind him through the portal.
*BZZZT*
The portal closed and silence loomed in the room where Khaine was.
"AHHHH!" Khaine screamed and flared his power in anger.
He began kicking and lashing out at anything and everything inside the room. The beautiful decorations were trashed and broken as he destroyed everything to vent his frustration.
From outside the room, Isha, Goddess of the Harvest and Fertility had her ear pressed to the door like a child. She took her head back and shook her head sadly. She didn't know how to comfort her brother, he had the right to be angry. Even more than the rest of them. She opened the door to the room and looked at Khaine who was panting with anger after his tantrum.
"Brother, let's spend some time with the 'children'. I wanted to see them with you." Isha offered gently with her soothing voice.
"Grr, *huff* okay." Khaine agreed, straightening his armor and attire.
Khaine walked passed Isha with a purpose, with Isha following behind him silently. They walked toward the Citadel communications room where the pantheon gods could communicate with their follower Aeldari children in the Materium. Khaine stopped one foot away from the door and Isha stopped behind him.
"Sister, have you ever thought about freedom?" Khaine asked his sister behind him without looking back.
Isha considered her brother before replying softly.
"I don't think about much beyond the 'children' and our family," Isha confessed truthfully.
Khaine clenched his hand into a fist again, before suppressing his anger.
"Sister, you know I don't like to be angry," Khaine confessed back.
"But... if I am not angry. Where is justice then?" Khaine said.
"Sister, who will take justice for ourselves if not us?" Khaine confessed his true feelings to Isha sadly.
Isha and Khaine fell into silence for a few moments, before Isha finally spoke.
"I... don't know." She answered sadly.
Khaine didn't respond, only pushed open the doors to the communication chamber and Isha followed behind him.
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Author's Note:
The final chapter before Arlow is back. But if you can't wait, my pat eron is below.
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More chapters on my pat reon:
pat reon/ MatheuDeWitt
