Kor Phaeron

Kor Phaeron, The Master of Faith

Got just a bit more sleep than Azariah Kyras.

Kor Phaeron is the First Captain of the Word Bearers and Keeper of the Dark Faith. On Colchis, he was a priest in the Covenant, and the one primarily responsible for raising Lorgar. When young Lorgar began having visions about a messiah coming to Colchis, members of the Covenant tried to have him killed, and Lorgar led a civil war against the Old Faith. Phaeron sided with Lorgar, more out of loyalty to his foster son than any religious conviction. After six years, Lorgar's forces won, and shortly afterwards, the Emperor arrived on Colchis, and made Lorgar commander of the XVIIth Space Marine Legion, which Lorgar renamed the Word Bearers. Kor Phaeron wanted to join Lorgar in his new crusade, but since he was already an old man by this point, could not become a proper Space Marine. So they gave Phaeron some of the organs, along with a ton of juvenant treatments, and he was appointed Captain of the First Company. Half the Legion in turn hated Phaeron for the nepotism and the fact that he was not a true Astartes, while the other respected his skills as a preacher.

When the Emperor rebuked Lorgar for spreading the Cult of the Lectitio Divinatus, Kor Phaeron, along with First Chaplain Erebus, was the one who told Lorgar that if the Emperor was unwilling to embrace worship, there might be other gods who would welcome it, leading Lorgar down the path to Chaos. During the Horus Heresy, Kor Phaeron led the Word Bearers assault on Calth, in revenge for the Ultramarines role in Lorgar's rebuke. Having Roboute Guilliman at his mercy, Kor Phaeron tried to turn Guilliman to Chaos instead of killing him. This was a mistake, as Guilliman ripped out Kor Phaeron's primary heart. Running back to his battle barge, Kor Phaeron ran like a bitch to the Maelstrom, eventually making his way to the Word Bearers new homeworld of Sicarus. Currently, Kor Phaeron and Erebus are the co-leaders of the Word Bearers in Lorgar's absence, although "co-leaders" may be a bit strong; the two bicker like an old married couple and can't seem to agree on anything.

On the Tabletop

Kor Phaeron brings his old man strength to the tabletop for your Word Bearers Space Marine Legion in 30k. If taken he must be your Warlord, unless you also have Lorgar in your army. If he is, the Old Man gives all Word Bearers +1 Leadership. He has a pretty weak statline sadly with Toughness and Initiative of 3 and Weapon Skill of 4, but, amusingly, 4 Wounds, something even Praetors don't get. Equipped with a one-use Hand Flamer and twin Lightning Claws, Kor Phaeron has only 2 base attacks, obviously not being a combat monster, but he is a Level 1 Psyker (due to Burning Lore), a count-as (no Preffered Enemy:Loyalists or Daemon USR, but his army do get access to Dark Channeling and he is one for RoW purposes) Diabolist, and a Master of the Legion, which is nice, and 155pts pricetag is a lot lower than for most 30k characters, but still unreasonably high for what he does. Oh, and he allows to take allied detachment of Daemons as Fellow Warriors.

Trivia

• In the PSP/DS game Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command, Word Bearer units will occasionally invoke Kor Phaeron's name when injured.
• His Forge World model is wearing what looks to be a smaller version of Centurion armor, or perhaps a prototype version of Terminator Armor, specially crafted Terminator Armor full of geriatric soothing oils. Because Kor Phaeron was too goddamn old to accept a full Astartes gene-seed, Lorgar had him equipped with a super suit full of geriatric super augments to give Kor Phaeron literal Old Man Strength.
• Out of battle he uses a power-zimmer to walk around because he's so fucking old.
• Did we mention that he's old?