The daemon is an immaterial being, a creature of will and emotion
given form by the Winds of Magic. They pool and fester at the shattered poles of the world,
twisted places where the laws of reality cease to function and give way to the
realms beyond. From here, daemons are shaped by the favor of the four Great Gods of Chaos;
Khorne, Nurgle, Slannesh and Tzeetch. Deamons are an extension of their patron god, puppets
molded and directed by the whims of whichever ruinous power has claimed them. Most are formed
within the energies of the Aethyr, yet some were once living beings of flesh and blood.
If a mortal is willing to walk this path of ruin, the greatest, most terrible among them might
achieve a glorious moment of metamorphosis and attain deamonhood, ascending atop a dark pantheon
to become a Daemon Prince. They leave their frail bodies behind and become creatures of
pure magic, free from the burden of death. Such an achievement requires acts of unspeakable cruelty,
a life spent in devotion to one of the dark gods, and a willingness to overcome reality itself.
The rewards are without equal, but these beings will forever be enemies of the natural world.
Every soul that dedicates itself to Chaos seeks this apotheosis.
Though for every champion to roar in triumph as a newly crowned Deamon Prince, untold thousands
will perish on the field of battle, or be warped utterly into wailing Chaos spawn.
But those that succeed are creatures of unbending will and utter ruthlessness, who would tear the
heart from the very world in the service of their own ambition. Yet all among their number still
walk in the shadow of the one who came before, the first mortal ever raised to their exalted ranks.
He is the Lord of Torment, The First Damned: Be’lakor, the Dark Master.
His is a name that has resounded throughout history, a shadowed hand
twisting the strings of fate for as long as any can remember. He is malice made manifest,
a mind of terrible intent that would see all, even the Gods of Chaos, torn down in his name.
Who Be’lakor may have been in life and from what mortal race he rose,
has long since been forgotten across the slow march of time. The only certainty is that he was
once a mighty champion of Chaos, a warrior of peerless skill and unflinching courage.
As his conquests grew in number, he drew the attention of the four ruinous powers, impressing
each in turn with feats of intelligence, endurance, excess and bloodshed. No mortal
had ever drawn the gaze of all four Gods before, and each desired him for their own designs.
Through twisted dreams and whispers on the wind, the champion was drawn into the far
north of the Chaos Wastes. He warred through lands of wild beasts and savage tribes,
until he crossed the borders of reality into the Realm of Chaos itself.
The twisted, maddening lands of the Aethyr are enough to break even the strongest of minds,
yet the champion gazed on, unflinching in the face of the impossible made real.
Impressed by his resolve, the Chaos Gods rewarded the champion by destroying his mortal form
and binding him into a new form of pure magical energy. Each of the four gods gifted a measure
of their power, creating a new and terrible force, Be’lakor, the first Daemon Prince.
Antecedent among demons, Be’lakor was an incomparable prize. The Dark Gods fought to
claim his tainted soul, each seeking to use him as a playing piece in their Great Game and win
dominance over the others. As this contest raged, Khorne, Nurgle, Slaneesh and Tzeetch all offered
Be’lakor even greater power if he would only consent to lead their demonic armies to victory.
The demon prince readily accepted these gifts, but he had little interest in the Great Game.
Be’lakor promised each God his devotion alone and played the bickering deities against each other.
But In truth, he served only himself. When he had grown strong enough,
he abandoned the Great Game within the Realm of Chaos, and fled back to the mortal world.
Be’lakor’s dark majesty attracted many thousands of demons and primitive tribes to his service,
and he swiftly bent them to his will alone. For many years his armies tore across the continents,
throwing the fledgling kingdoms of every race, including many long forgotten,
into madness and ruin. As Chaos spread, so too did the Winds of Magic increase in intensity,
strengthening his daemonic hordes and the Prince’s own immaterial form. His minions built mighty
edifices, great towers and thrones designed to gather the wild magic in great reservoirs for
him to draw from. Be’lekor was worshipped as a god and he reveled in his unmatched primacy.
Yet the Chaos Gods had not forgotten Be’lekor’s betrayal, and each had resolved to put an end
to this upstart creature’s dreams of godhood. Be’lakor might have pursued his own designs,
but his conquests had unwittingly strengthened the Ruinous Powers as well. With every city swallowed
in daemonic tides or race driven to extinction, the Creed of Chaos spread and soon other mortal
followers began to draw the attention of the Dark Gods. None commanded the mutual respect of all
four gods, but with every new Champion elevated by Khorne, Nurgle, Slaneesh, or Tzeetch to demonhood,
Be’lakor felt his power ebb and wane. Slowly his armies began to splinter under these usurpers.
As the hordes of Chaos paused in their sweeping conquest to struggle amongst themselves,
the Elves of Ulthuan conducted their great ritual to stem the Winds of Magic that were billowing
across the world. An immeasurable vortex siphoned away the energies of the Aether,
denying the warring armies the stuff of Chaos the power that kept their daemons in material form.
The Demon Princes, now numbering in the dozens and perhaps even hundreds, lost control of
their armies and collapsed into anarchy. Even Be’lakor could not hold onto the material plane.
He was the last to be banished, for his connection to the mortal world was stronger than any other,
but eventually he too was pulled back into the Realm of Chaos.
Banished from the material world, Be'lakor was left a shadowy essence that drifted through the
Realm of Chaos. He deeply desired to return to the material realm, and reclaim his lost glories,
but the Chaos Gods would not permit it. In a twisted irony, where once Be’lakor’s potential
had united the Ruinous Powers, his treachery had again left them in fleeting agreement.
Unlike other Deamons who might escape the Realm of Chaos when the winds of magic blew strongest,
Be’lakor would be chained to the will of the Dark Gods and only permitted to leave when they desired
it. This was a gift they granted sparingly, and only to inflict greater humiliation.
In the pantheon of the Ruinous Powers, Be’lakor’s new role was to be the “Father-in-Shadow”.
His only duty was to coronate and serve the Everchosen,
a mortal Champion who had won for themselves the favor of all four Chaos Gods.
It was the honor that Be’lakor deeply coveted, and the act of crowning his successor tormented him.
Yet Be’lakor did not simply accept this indignity. From his confines in the Realm of Chaos,
he whispered into the minds of madmen and warlords across the mortal realms. He promised them his
unearthly power if they were to only perform a ritual through which he might be summoned.
But Be’lakor’s promises were as poisonous to these petty despots as they had been to the
Chaos Gods. He would inevitably slaughter those foolish enough to free him from the Aether, and
pursue his own dreams of conquest. But Be’lakor’s strength had been sapped and he remained a shadow
of the being that was once worshiped as a god. His ambitions were always beyond his ability.
Invariably, the presence of a Daemon Prince would draw forth a mortal champion
to lay Be’lekor low, and banish him back into the Realm of Chaos. There he would await the
next ambitious fool to twist with honeyed words, or the coronation of the next Everchosen of Chaos.
Twelve times Be’lakor has left the Realm of Chaos to crown a mortal champion; anointing them as the
“Herald of the Apocalypse”. Twelve times he has been bound to their will to lead armies in their
name. Yet Morkar, Vangel, Khaardun, Avasar Kul, and every other mortal being to bear the title
“Everchosen” has failed. To Be’lakor, Archaeon: The Three Eyed King seems little different,
and while he has performed his duty and placed a crown upon the 13th Everchosen, he is driven as
never before to not simply be the Father-In-Shadow to the newest Lord of the End Times.
When the demonic legions march against the mortal world, it will not be to the whims of Archaon,
but in accordance with the will of Be’lakor, whether the Chaos Gods wish it or not.
For most, such designs reek of madness, but Be’lakor is like nothing else to ever walk
beyond the Aether. He is a nightmare, a monster from a time long forgotten when terrible forces
roared unchallenged across the world. In all the ages since, in the broken dreams of madmen
and in the atrocities they unleashed, the hand of Be’lakor can be felt. He is a creature wrapped
in shadow, a force of ruin and destruction that seeks always to find his way back to
the material world and tear it down, so that he might build it anew in his own monstrous image.
He is a being of pure ambition, a soul obsessed with the conquest of existence itself.
And yet, for all his twisting motives and byzantine plans, for now he remains a prisoner,
shackled to the whims of the Great Four and bound by their laws. Yet the time may be drawing near
when Be’lakor is at last free again and beyond the power of any god or mortal. His strength is
slowly returning in the shadows, and his plans have found their first successes. But the winds
of magic are fickle. Be’lakor -the First Damned, the oldest Champion of Chaos may yet arise as the
5th Ruinous Power of Chaos, or he might simply be the first pawn in their neverending game.