Eliphas The Inheritor

This article is awesome. Do not fuck it up.

Gentlemen, the only competent Chaos Lord in Dawn of War ever

Torquill Eliphas 'the Inheritor' (or simply Eliphas) is a Chaos Lord and former Dark Apostle featured in the Warhammer 40K Dawn of War vidya geym series. He made his first appearance in Dark Crusade as the villain protagonist/main villain who led Chaos Space Marines of the Word Bearers legion into battle on Kronus, and surprisingly made a future appearance in Dawn of War 2 expansion Chaos Rising as a champion of the Black Legion. Eliphas is an Ensemble Darkhorse. That means that he's a character who's gained an unexpected level of popularity, as he was intended as a one-shot character. This was due to a number of factors, the most significant being that he was badass. (He now has his own book, bitches! So yeah. It's here, set during the Horus Heresy where he tries to open a portal in Kronus. Yeah, really!)

Eliphas was truly an anomaly. In what would become a series of incompetent Chaos Lords, he was actually a legitimately cool character. His was a personality of insane zealotry, berserk bloodthirst, dark charisma, and tactical genius. He had excellent voice acting, an excellent aesthetic, and also wondrous gameplay. He was without doubt one of the most deadly hero units in all of Dark Crusade, capable of taking down and destroying utterly Gorgutz 'Ead Unter and the Necron Lord (unless he used that Essence of the Nightbringer ability. seriously, Artifacts allow the Necron lord to handily outclass Eliphas, if only by virtue of the Noobcron lord being untargettable during EoN. Fortunately it doesn't last long, he's easy to kite and his damage is pretty shit compared to Eliphas' anyway.) Keep in mind that this was the time Dawn of War was gaining more RPG traits. He also was loved for his sinister, cruel quips and dickish manners, consistently putting down his enemies not only on the battlefield, but also with his eloquence. He was also the first to imply the Blood Ravens' possible descent from a Traitor Legion, making him incredibly important to the overarching plot arc of the Blood Ravens.

Despite his apparent death in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, Eliphas' legions of fans did not go unnoticed, and he was brought back as the main villain in the Chaos--themed expansion to Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising. Here is where some people think it all went a bit down hill.

Eliphas was downgraded here from a mighty Chaos Lord into a mere Chaos Champion, under the command of an equally badass Chaos Lord named Araghast, justified given that Eliphas LOST in Dark Crusade and the Chaos Gods are not known to reward failure. This new appearance of Eliphas did away with the character's badass helmet and voice. Paul Dobson was replaced with Steve Blum due to the former also being the voice actor for Gabriel Angelos, even though the latter is the voice of Cyrus. Steve Blum's voice acting was excellent all the same and many consider him equal to Paul or indeed, surpassing him. However, others feel that the voice didn't need to be changed and were disappointed. Some fans felt alienated and when Eliphas was defeated yet again, and decided to look to Araghast himself as Eliphas' successor. Ultimately, Eliphas was less well received in Chaos Rising and a percentage of his fanbase were disillusioned with the character. It was also implied in the end that Eliphas in fact served the the most despised Chaos Lord ever to serve the Name of Chaos. This evoked the expected response.

But that changed with Retribution, where Eliphas was given Terminator armour and was made a playable character again. Here, he was once again the single most powerful melee combatant in the game and could now get DAEMON SWORDS. He was also given some of the best writing and truly seemed like the brutal evil warlord he always used to be. Unfortunately, he had to suck up to Abaddon again, but hey. What did you want him to do? Spout out every reason why he's a failure to his face? Games Workshop would throw a bitchfit.

So yeah, people are generally divided on what to think of Eliphas, but most agree that he's a complete badass. Probably the most iconic character in the game, second only to Angelos.

Horus Heresy

"Why do you call him "Inheritor"?"
"It is how he came by the rank of Chapter Master," Yoth replied with a bitter laugh. "During the Purge, he slew the previous leader of the Ark of Testimony, and took his place. Lorgar did not elevate him, saying only that he had inherited his command. He never earned his place, and we will never let him forget it."

– How Eliphas came by his title of 'the Inheritor'

AND NOW HE'S CANON! It remains to be seen whether the book Inheritor is simply a nod to Eliphas' videogame awesomeness or if this is a sign that he may be promoted to playing a bigger role in the setting (wouldn't be first time that's happened), but we can hope!

The story itself fleshes his character out a bit. Turns out he has massive Daddy issues, and wants to burn the Imperium so Lorgar will finally notice him. No doubt that Eliphas is probably jealous of his brother Argel Tal.

Dark Crusade

Imperial maggots approach. We will savor their destruction!

Eliphas was known to be already present on Kronus during the events of Horus Heresy, where he participated in a battle against the Ultramarines as a young champion (Lord Eliphas, fresh from his victory in Aurelia, recently told the full details of this defeat; it turns out that he was stuck from behind accidentally by a retarded Ultramarine named Cornelius; who was elevated to sergeant for this act. Cornelius, to this day, has never once more been promoted). When the Word Bearers were routed by the Ultrafags, he was damned to the Basilica of Torments and returned to the mortal plane after a thousand years of torment as a mighty and terrible Chaos Lord of the Word Bearers and brought others under his warband.

Later, during the opening phases of the Dark Crusade, Eliphas and the Word Bearers were summoned back to Kronus by a Chaos cult at the Third Temple of Black Succession in the far south of the Deimos Peninsula. This cabal had turned to Chaos in light of their experiences with the recent rise of the Necrons on Kronus, and Eliphas had answered. Using the knowledge gained from The Book of the Epistles of Lorgar, their leader Virgilius planned to bring Eliphas to Kronus. On the eighth night of their visit to the Temple, Virgilius led them to the great chamber at the temple's heart, where he and eight of his cultists were sacrificed on an icon of Chaos. The Warp opened between the points of the eight-pointed star and Eliphas stepped forth, heralding the beginning of the Ninth Inheritance. Thus, presumably, we have an idea on how he got his name. Eliphas' objective is slaughter the other powers on the planet in glorification of Khorne and bring it under his thrall as a daemon world.

Throughout the campaign he has the following opportunities to get even closer to the Dark Gods: He gets even more favour with the Blood God by assraping the Orks and giving the big guy their skulls along with that of Crull's, Slaanesh's by busting open Eldar soulstones so that the hermaphroditic freak can have a late night snack, Papa Nurgle's by releasing a Great Unclean One from captivity, and Tzeentch's by pwning all the Motherfucking Necrons. Somehow, he can even get the favour of Abaddon if he fucks up the Blood Ravens (maybe Abaddon was watching and decide that he has wonderful arms...you know) and the favour of the Word Bearers' primarch Lorgar by raping the Tau (because he hates the atheistic weeaboo communists even more than /tg/ and that's saying something).

Since the canon winners of Dark Crusade are the Blood Ravens, how much he actually accomplished is up to debate, though due to his closeness to Khorne, we can assume he at least retrieved Crull's skull from Gorgutz in a skirmish or something. In the end, however, Eliphas was defeated by Davian Thule and his Blood Magpies and was judged by Daemon Prince into oblivion.

Chaos Rising

As a result of his unexpected popularity, Eliphas returns in Chaos Rising. He fights as a champion for the Black Legion against the Blood Ravens in Aurelia, having been brought back to life by bargaining his way from the Warp and just fighting his way out in other segments. Like Kratos a true badass out of hell. He then joins forces with Araghast the Pillager and serves as his second-in-command. Only to SSSSINNNNDRRRIII his new master when he runs afoul of Force Commander Hair-Gel and his merry band of Hair-atics. Despite this apparent badassery, Eliphas was defeated by the Blood Ravens anyway during their attack on Keep Selanon, despite being the most fucking hard to kill boss in the game aside from Martellus (FFFFFUUUUUU!!!) and Ulkair (MOTHERFUUUU!!!). He shares the horrendous amount of summons with Martellus, replacing havoc squads with bullshit amounts of bloodletters, and is accompanied by doombolt spewers that absolutely rape anything that's not Tarkus/wearing terminator armor.

He's later seen in the Judgement of Carrion, speaking to a strangely armed Abaddon. Though behind the scenes footage reveals that another Chaos terminator was in fact behind Abaddon serving as his arms. Eliphas swears to Abaddon that we will destroy the Blood Ravens. Depending on whether you think he was trying to set the prologue for the Blood Ravens to destroy themselves in a civil war or simply to outright destroy the sub-sector; Eliphas could arguably have succeeded here or come close to it.

Retribution

Eliphas back to being his awesome old self again...still needs a helmet though.

Eliphas apparently channels the spirit of Araghast's badassness in this expansion. His voice has grown angrier and he seems to exhibit some Blood Knight tendencies. He gets the one liners we all know and love from Dark Crusade back too. He also screams, 'BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!' very often, implying he's gravitating to Khorne (or just the gigantic boner Relic have for Khorne). Yes, it seemed as if Eliphas was finally back to his old self...

Of course, that's before he starts sucking the minuscule cock of Failaddon. Yeah, that's right. Abaddon is in this game. With a VA no less. He sounds like if Araghast has his massive balls torn off, but hey, what did we expect from Failaddon. His only purpose in the game is to whinge at you, and screech about how he wants Kyras dead. And that's because if Kyras sacrifices the Blood Ravens, he'll become a Warmaster of Chaos and a Daemon Prince. Realizing that his own incompetence shall avail him naught against a Librarian Devotee of Khorne, he enlists/blackmails Eliphas into his service, who is no doubt unaware of the armlessness. However, many people have chalked up Eliphas' subordination to Abaddon as politeness. After all, we all feel a shred of sympathy for Abaddon. Even 10,000 year old, bloodthirsty humanoid abominations who fanatically worship All-Powerful Gods of Evil and who wield mighty weapons not intended for the hands of noble, right thinking men.

Even so, Eliphas is simply so much fun to play in this expansion. Hell yeah, specc him out as a Champion of Khorne with fully upgraded sweeping doom, spend all remaining points in Nurgle, point and kill. Switch on Sweeping Doom on a horde, hell yeah, everything dies. Additionally, upon becoming a Champion of Khorne, that alone causes him to outdamage both Diomedes and Bluddflag (note that a fully upgraded To Victory does more damage than Sweeping Doom, but is harder to aim across multiple units). Speccing the rest of your points as Nurgle turns Eliphas into an unstoppable rape-machine that makes those two look like simpering pansies. (Note that spending one point on Tzeentch turns your heretics into walking batteries for energy, which means infinite zeal for Kain and the ability to spam infection and accelerate metabolism for Varius, but costs you the awesome power-booster that is the Khornate shrine.) And then, when you get Eliphas a Daemon Sword, well, given the tremendously high damage he'll do with it, and from his auras, and his health leeching, any attempt to face him in combat will be met with said person being torn to bloody shreds in under a second. Let us simply say that; Eliphas is a badass.

He starts out in Typhon hunting Thule, he tracks the old bastard Dreadnaught down and takes him out to some rather badass exchange. Killing Davian Thule is however, the most emotionally crippling thing in the campaign. :( Well that, and not finding a Daemon Sword or a helmet. He goes after Kyras, killing copious amounts of shit and then takes the big-ass Daemon Prince down. Taking some time to make Kyras bow before him first before banishing him to the void. He then ascends to Daemonhood and kills the Inquisitorial forces in Aurelia. After sacrificing the Blood Ravens to Abaddon and the entire sector to Khorne.

Excellent campaign, excellent ending. Especially the implication that once he's done with Kyras, Abaddon is next. See, Eliphas has a bad good habit of SINDRI-ing his superiors. Though, we use the word 'superiors' loosely, given that this Failbaddon the Armless of whom we speak.

He seems to have been nerfed somewhat as of the latest patch, even on easy units can routinely survive sweeping doom, hurt badly but still alive. He no longer has superheavy infantry armor, and can be shot to death in the face of massive dakka. Vehicles and monsters give no fucks about sweeping doom and laugh off non-maul weapons. You can rectify this somewhat by getting the flaming skull and going full Khornate, as a single barrage will shave huge chunks of HP off just about anything, letting you beat it down the rest of the way. Optimally, Kain/Varius should really be pulling anti-tank duty while Neroth and Eliphas roll around in melted enemy infantry.

He's also fairly slow unless you take the Tzeentch path. Which is unfortunate as the Tzeentch path is mostly mobility and debuff powers and you only have ten points to spend unless you get a mod to rectify this. Getting said mod is recommended as it ups the campaign to eleven and lets you try out interesting abilities usually passed up for the more effective builds.

He's still awesome as all hell, but he can't quite match the hilarity of Diomedes's TWO VICTOREH (which covers a big line, albeit not to sweeping doom levels though it does far more damage to what it does hit, and sends infantry gibs out of the skybox), a jump pack, heals per hit ability, and vehicle raping thunder hammer.

Trivia

You didn't truly expect to stop the forces of Chaos?

• He seems to be suffering from a severe case of throat cancer as his voice constantly changes tone.
• His Daemon Prince (treated as a piece of wargear due to how the engine is set up) is a bit of a mixed bag, and under most circumstances you probably don't want it. Daemon Princehood is the worst wargear in the campaign if you're not playing on hard mode, and in most respects is actually a downgrade in terms of both abilities, offensive and defensive power that will lead to him getting stomped by stuff he could take as a Chaos Lord. He loses his most useful secondary effect (upgraded Chaos Lord Eliphas provides constant morale drain; Daemon Prince Eliphas does not). And his stats are all kinds of wonky between the two phases on different difficulties:
  • For Dark Crusade/Soulstorm campaign modes, the player is stupidly OP on easy mode and is at default PvP strength on Hard mode. This is reflected in Eliphas's Chaos Lord form but strangely not his Daemon Prince form. On all difficulties, Daemon Prince Eliphas gets 5000 HP (compared to the normal 2900 in chaos lord form on Hard), morale damage that can instantly break any non-fearless nearby infantry, and he also disrupts massed infantry. All this with damage output effective against everything and daemon armor, some of the highest around. He swings both faster and harder than his mortal form, as well as gaining immunity to morale damage. Just watch out for Nightbringer Necron Lords, who will eat you alive. But on normal and below? Chaos Lord Eliphas does that much damage just by himself and has more than 5000 HP.
• Prior to Dawn of War III, he had equal appearances with Gorgutz and was the only evil character to return from the original DoW series in DoW II. Now, however, Gorgutz' return in DoW III has put an end to both trends... for the time being.
• He's either named after the first man to commit murder and to be executed in the state of New Hampshire, or some French occultist.
  • In Dark Crusade, Eliphas had two Sorcerer underlings, Amphion and Zethus. The two men who created his portal to the Warp in his stronghold and the Warp bomb he would have used to blow up the Necrons, they are named after legendary twins from Greek mythology.
• Ironically considering his origins as an undivided lord, speccing him out as Khorne is the only way to make him effective in the campaign unless you specifically intend to fuck around with the options the other options offer (and they lack the balls-out melee punch of the former). Speccing him out as Khorne makes him more effective a combatant than every other melee campaign hero put together. This is rather fitting, seeing as how Eliphas roars out; 'Blood for the Blood God!" and "Skulls for the Skull Throne!" very often during gameplay. He has been nerfed a bit though while heroes like Diomedes and Bluddflagg got buffed. Be aware that he has lost his superheavy armor type and sweeping doom has been toned down somewhat damage wise.
• Speccing him out as Khorne not only makes him the most damaging unit in the game, it also makes him into the most successful troll in the game aside from that asshole, Kyras. Any unit hitting him will become consumed with RAGE and start hitting each other. Using the Berzerk ability on Eliphas will also cause everyone else to become FUCKANGRY.
• Evidence from Retribution and Dawn of War: Dark Crusade show that Eliphas serves Khorne above all the other Chaos Gods. The proof for this is that, Khorne is the only Chaos God he invokes by name (along with Tzeentch) and generally acts pretty Khornate. He likes fighting and killing more than regular Chaos Lords and gets angry pretty quickly. He also invokes Khorne more than the other Chaos Gods. It is finally proved in Retribution, where he literally screams the infamous 'Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!' warcry regardless of whichever specialization you give him and generally keeps invoking Khorne at the exclusion of every other God except Slaanesh when killing Eldar, and Nurgle, when he tells their followers to fuck off. And he's not respectful in either instance. He also has this frightening fixation on bleeding his enemies out, as is noticed in the first Chaos mission.
• Spends every Friday night with his friends prank calling Shas'O Kais, unaware that the confused Tau is only getting static. Everybody's phone bill goes up- nobody wins.
• Eliphas can be given a permanent helmet in DoWII Retribution via a very well done and easy to install mod. http://www.mediafire.com/file/8uuu264d6ru996k/EliphasHelmet.sga. You can give me a blowjob later.
• He is definitely Belgian Space Belgian.
• His voiced from Chaos Rising and onwards is provided by Steve Blum, who also voices a certain Transformer called "Starscream". That explains the backstabbing tendencies. Steve only started doing that character after Chaos Rising though.
• Even more interestingly, Araghast in the same game is voiced by Fred Tatasciore, who incidentally voices Megatron in the High Moon Transformers games.
• Ol' Stevo does the voice of Wolverine, also. Eliphas basically sounds like a British Wolverine when he gets angry in Retribution now. This explains Eliphas' newfound heights of aggression.

Memorable Quotations

• "Chaos moves at its own pace, alien. Not yours." - Eliphas telling off Gorgutz for complaining about him not killing him fast enough.

• "Then I won't lie to you brother. You have been lied to enough." - Eliphas, to Davian Thule.

• "Such inspiring courage! Perhaps we'll mount your corpse on a golden chair and make an idol out of you as well." - The quote that solidified Eliphas' popularity amongst the Imperium hating Heretics.

• "Wonder instead how we could have ever trusted one such as him...brother." - Eliphas to Thule after Thule says how could the Emperor have ever trusted "trash" like the Word Bearers, and Eliphas is actually avoiding the question by that comment.

• "No...that cannot be so..." - Eliphas when responding to the Necron Lord of Kronus telling him of the coming (shit) storm of Matt Ward.

• "Alien, you come to your death." - Eliphas to Shas'o Kais, not knowing Tau having no presence in the warp means that O'Kais thinks it's just static.

• "Yesss... Come into my home, Taldeer." - Eliphas killed the Vindicare Assassin and raped Taldeer. Or vice versa.

• "The people here have already accepted the Black Testament. So will you." - Eliphas is a religious badass. Far moar so than any SPESSH MEHREEN.

• "Come! See the faith of my crusaders, they shall soon cleanse you of your disbelief." - Eliphas sending in yet another tide of squeaking Cultists and Chaos Space Marines.

• "Well done! You have come further in this blessed land than I ever thought! Lord Khorne shall drink your blood from the very soil!"

• "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" - Eliphas, channeling Araghast's badassness.

• "SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!" - Because Khorne > Every other Chaos God. overused battlecries are overused.

• "Do not be so quick to make foolish offers, Daemon. Araghast too once thought I would be an asset to his cause. Look to what has become of him." - Eliphas being a BADASS MOTHERFUCKER in the face of the ascended Azariah Kyras.

• "You wish to honor Lord Nurgle? THEN DO SO FROM THE GRAVE!" - Eliphas, upon slaughtering a coven of Nurglite guardsmen, also is funny because decomposition joke.

• "YOU FIGHT FOR NOTHING, YOU ARE NOTHING!" - Eliphas, upon soloing a Land Raider.

• "Observe, brothers. Observe how Space Marines choose to die, and how little choice they have in the matter. Come Davian, we have unfinished business!" - Eliphas, just about to kill Davian Thule, the bastard.

• "Oh, Davian, He cannot hear you." - Eliphas upon killing Davian Thule. The bastard.

• "THE ETERNAL WAR ENDS FOR YOU THIS DAY!!" - Eliphas, out-Khornate-ing a an Black Alpha Black Legion (what in the fucking eleven circles of hell would make you think that the deranged chaos champion was from the Alpha legion? Perhaps because he bore Alpha Legion colours? (Nonsensical rambling, no legion like that ever existed) Chaos Champion, while Typhon was getting the shit blown out of it. Said Champion died in one hit.

• "WHY DOES ANYTHING THINK I CAN BE KILLED!?!" - Eliphas, shrugging off bolter fire and in the mood for some rape.

• "An ambush, we are finished! /sarcasm" - Eliphas mocks the Blood Raven's unmanly attempts to kill him while also being sarcastic. Oddly enough, most people who hear this line miss the obvious sarcasm. Which can lead you to suspect that most people are monkeys.

• "No coward has ever remained hidden from the Black Legion! I will relish in your soul's eternal suffering!" - Eliphas expresses his idealized view of the Black Legion whilst calling Kyras' a faggot and calling him out to some FIGHTAN.

• "CAN YOU WEAKLINGS NOT FIGHT ANY BETTER?!" - Can YOU scream this to an on-rushing army of Orks after having slaughtered their Warboss? No, you can't.

• "These are the Blood Ravens; finest slaves of the Dead Emperor. We owe them much more than a quick death." - Eliphas, alluding to how he shall rape the Blood Ravens.

• "IN BATTLE, WE ALL HONOUR KHORNE!!!" - Eliphas always did worship Khorne above all the other Gods.

• "Kill any xenos and take what you need. Their pitiful souls will do little to sate the Chaos gods, but oh, how they bleed." - Eliphas once again showing his preference for Khorne and busting a sweet rhyme at the same time.

• "You cannot impede the Black Inheritance." - Eliphas, unlike a certain other Chaos Lord who's first name is Ezekyle, has a reason for his title.

• "Give my regards to Slaanesh, Eldar!" - Eliphas, showing those pansy fucks right to Slaanesh's palace.

• "Hey Corpse-Emperor, furk you." - In a letter to the Emperor, shortly before getting psychically punched from halfway across the galaxy.