Ezekiel

Shhhhh.

"That field may lie beneath the sun,

Fair for the treading of an host:

That field in realms of thought be won

And armed minds do their uttermost."

– from 'Ways of War', Lionel Johnson

Ezekiel is the Grand Master of Librarians of the Dark Angels Chapter of Space Marines. He also holds the titles Holder of the Keys and Keeper of the Book of Salvation. He holds the keys to every door in the Rock (besides the ones to Lion El'Jonson's bedroom and Luther’s cell) and the Book of Salvation, which lists the names of all the Fallen Angels +++HERETICS AND SCUM WHO MOST CERTAINLY DO NOT COME FROM THE DARK ANGELS, THE MOST LOYAL LEGION CHAPTER AND AFFILIATED SUCCESSOR CHAPTERS OF ALL+++.

Not to be confused with the other guy named Ezekiel Ezekyle.

History

Ezekiel (meaning: God will strengthen, and indeed He did) was found on Delphyna III, a planet which had devolved into barbarism, where people had rejected technology and replaced it with human sacrifice. Whilst the Dark Angels were righteously introducing the locals to the business end of a flamethrower, they came across a town which was actually eerily pleasant. In a rare moment of 40k cleverness, the Dark Angels brought in their Librarian to assist them in investigating the town hall. Inside they found a bat-shitload of lunatic ravings and a young boy chained up in the basement. Sensing immense psychic power from the boy, the Librarian queried why the boy was still chained up, since he was powerful enough to free himself. The boy replied: "I saw salvation coming on wings of fire. Now it is here."

The boy would become Ezekiel, and while he was feeble and wasted in body, he was genetically compatible enough to be a space marine. Subject to the harshest of physical and mental testing since he was a psyker, he took the whole thing without complaint, which clearly puzzled the chapter's Librarians.

When the Librarian in charge then attempted to read the boy's mind, that Librarian had a stroke... when he recovered eighty days later, he announced that the boy would make it as a Dark Angel, since there was nothing they could do to him which he had not suffered already. Ezekiel was promoted immediately to Codicier (skipping Lexicanum) and made it to Epistolary within ten years, making his rise through space marine ranks meteoric!

During a duel with a Greater Daemon, the psychic backlash caused Ezekiel to temporary lose his divination power, which was also why Ezekiel lost his eye to stray bolter fire from Orks on Honoria. Just as his company feared the worst without him to guide them, he reappeared on the lines of battle (after he had been saved from death by the company's Apothecary just hours before) with a crude augmetic in place, and hunted down the Ork Warboss and challenged him to a duel, whereupon the Ork's axe meeting Ezekiel's blade caused the axe to shatter and take out the Warboss' eye, JUST AS PLANNED. It's worth noting that Ezekiel and that same Apothecary help deliver a woman's baby after she is slain by a stray Ork round. That same woman's husband possessed the cybernetic eye that Ezekiel currently uses.

Following this, due to feeling inferior to Ezekiel's obvious superiority the Chief Librarian of the Dark Angels stood down, taking a demotion so Ezekiel could take the job (actually, the novel Eye of Ezekiel revealed that the Chief Librarian did plan to step down eventually, but he also had the excuse of causing terrible damage to the Chapter by attacking the Necrons.)

Books are, as always, necessary to be a wise-ass librarian.

From here Ezekiel would oversee and approve every promotion and indoctrination within the Chapter's Inner Circle, and there have been instances where marines have actually declined promotion rather than stand under Ezekiel's judgement. This has probably something to do with one case of where a sergeant was offered promotion to captain of the 10th company, so Ezekiel probed his thoughts for a day and night... afterwards the sergeant took his bolt pistol and blew his own brains out. While Ezekiel said that he found nothing in the sergeant's mind that would have prevented his promotion, the sergeant clearly found something in there he couldn't live with.

It was Ezekiel who persuaded Azrael not to tamper with history and to destroy the Tuchulcha Engine, which was the main reason why Caliban itself was destroyed in the past and the Fallen were scattered in the first place!

Tabletop

	Pts	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
Ezekiel:	145	5	5	4	4	3	5	3	10	2+

He's a level 3 librarian with access to the same disciplines as regular Dark Angels librarians. Mind Worm is no longer his sole province.

He carries The Book Of Salvation which gives +1 A to all DA units within 6", which can have the hilarious effect of stacking with DA banners and righteous repugnance meaning the Dark Angels' dedicated melee units can have an insane volume of attacks.

He also has Traitor's Bane an awesomely named but completely average master-crafted force sword which has been placed in his regular gear, rather than being a relic. This has the effect of granting him an additional attack when combined with his master-crafted bolt pistol.

Beyond that, he has near-Captain stats (-1 WS), a psychic hood and artificer armour, making him half decent in a stand-up fight.

On his own, he's not quite the psychic powerhouse of Varro Tigurius or Njal Stormcaller in terms of both power selection or ability to re-roll failed powers. However, he does have his own unique Librarius Conclave, which is different from the vanilla codex one. In this case, while he is accompanied by two or more other Librarians, they can loan each other their knowledge of powers, harness Warp Charges on 3+ at a cost of the donor librarians not being able to cast powers, but you also boost the range of the Mind Worm Primaris power to 24".

Comparatively, thanks to a combination of the Draft Psychic Power FAQ and the way Gladius Strike Forces are put together, vanilla Conclaves have been nerfed badly. Get 3 Librarians together and one nominated Librarian can harness Warp Charges on 2+. but despite having access to phenomenal cosmic powah, unless the players are using Tigurius himself, that nominated generic Librarian is limited to manifesting only two powers per turn at most, while his brethren stand around like idiots. You could of course not use the benefit of the formation, but then you're stuck with a tax of a minimum of three Librarians, since there is no other way to squeeze them into a Gladius Strike Force. Dark Angels can at least take them individually as part of Inner Circle command choices.

8th edition

	Pts/PL	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	A	Ld	Sv
Ezekiel:	110/8	6"	2+	2+	4	4	5	3	9	2+/4++

That's right, Ezekiel comes standard with a 4++ now. His weapons have been given their names back and actually do stuff rather than just grant rerolls. so now the Deliverer is S:4 AP:-1 D:2, and Traitor's Bane is S:+1 AP:-3 D:D3 (Damage:D3+1 against Psykers). Plus he has the Book of Salvation: friendly Dark Angels within six inches who get killed in the Fight phase, may immediately pile in and make one more attack before they die. As for psychic prowess, he can cast/deny two power per phase, has +1 to Deny rolls if the enemy psyker is within 12 inches, knows Smite and all three Interomancy powers, so he can wound his opponent and force them to fight last and inflict a -1 to all of their To-Hit rolls. Sadly no sign of him getting any psychic rerolls or casting buffs, though as an actual warrior, Ezekiel is still one of the most competent Librarians out there with good WS/BS and solid weapons and armour.

Gallery

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  To be near him is a scary experience.