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Asurmen is the first and oldest Phoenix Lord, founder of the Dire Avengers and of the Path of the Warrior. Each time he dies, his armour lets the hero who wears it be reborn.
He fights with the Sword of Asur and twin shuriken catapults built into his vambraces, the model for every Dire Avenger. He is the teacher of the first Phoenix Lords, the Asurya, who carried his teachings across the craftworlds. Every Aspect Warrior traces their discipline back to him. Asurmen is the first and greatest of the Phoenix Lords and the Hand of Asuryan. Legend says he survived the Fall on a desolate world and founded the first Aspect Shrine, of the Dire Avengers. The warrior disciplines he taught became the Path of the Warrior that every craftworld follows. His surviving pupils went on to found the other Aspects. Asurmen wanders the galaxy, appearing where the Aeldari need him most. The Sword of Asur he carries holds a spirit stone, and the soul inside it belonged to his own brother.
Origins
Before the Fall he was Iliathin of Eidafaeron. He survived the cataclysm, was forced to kill his daemon-possessed brother Tethesis, and sheltered in a temple of the dying gods.
After the Fall, Asurmen learned that the Aeldari needed a way to wage war without surrendering to its passions. On Asur he taught his first students to put on a 'war mask' in battle and take it off afterwards. Those students became the Phoenix Lords, and the shrines they founded became the Aspect Warrior paths.
Gav Thorpe's Asurmen: Hand of Asuryan goes back before the Fall. Iliathin lived a dull life on Eidafaeron and scoffed at the prophets of doom who later became the Exodites, though his brother Tethesis wanted to join them. Both survived the cataclysm only to fight daemons in the ruins of their world. After Tethesis was possessed and Iliathin had to kill him, he hid in an old temple that daemons avoided because the gods' presence lingered there. He lived alone for years and considered suicide. A feral girl, Faraethil, brought him back. When Drukhari attacked her, he took the name Asurmen after Asuryan and saved her, then took her as his first disciple. She would become Jain Zar.
Key events
- Rescued the feral girl Faraethil from Drukhari and took her as a disciple. She became Jain Zar.
- Founded the Asurya and the Shrine of Asur on a moon in the webway.
- Founded the Path of the Warrior and the Dire Avengers, the first Aspect.
- Fell defending Asur from Slaanesh's daemons, but was reborn through his armour.
- Fought alongside the Ynnari in the webway against the Thousand Sons.
Codex: Eldar (4th edition) says he has visited more craftworlds and founded more shrines than any other Phoenix Lord. Soon after the first shrines were founded he vanished into legend, and accounts placed him anywhere from the Eye of Terror to the Eastern Fringe. The Iyanden supplement records that the Keeper of Secrets N'Kari has killed him, but his armour restored him. In the novella The Last Days of Ector, he leads the Crystal Sons of Asuryan to help the Crimson Castellans hold Ector against Tyranids, risking his warriors to buy time for humans. He is saved by the Exodite Isarion and goes on to fight at Dûriel. Gathering Storm shows him following Jain Zar into the Ynnari's service and disappearing during a webway battle against the Thousand Sons.
Battles & campaigns
- The founding of the Shrines: He taught the first Aspect Warriors after the Fall.
- Countless craftworld wars: He arrives unbidden to lead the Dire Avengers.
Personality
Noble, wise and stern, the embodiment of the warrior's duty.
He is the most composed of the Phoenix Lords, embodying discipline and duty. He believes the Aeldari must master their emotions to survive, and he expects the same discipline from his followers. His decision to fight alongside the Ynnari shows that he is willing to consider new paths when the stakes are high enough.
Weapons & Vehicles
The graceful wraithbone gravitic-accelerator firearm of the Craftworld Aeldari, slicing targets to ribbons with silent, monomolecular s…
A master-crafted blade sheathed in a crackling molecular disruption field that parts ceramite, bone and steel with effortless lethality…
The psycho-crystalline force-blades and hurled Singing Spears of Craftworld Farseers and Warlocks, humming with resonant Warp-harmonics…
All-female Aspect Warriors founded by Jain Zar whose psychically amplified war cries paralyse enemy nervous systems before their power …
Stealthy Aspect Warriors who embody Khaine the patient stalker, ambushing prey from deep shadow with whispering chainswords and stingin…
Close-range Asuryani tank-hunters and bunker-busters who channel the sinewy wrath of the mythic dragon through Fusion Guns that vaporis…
Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Connections
Characters (2)
Factions
- Craftworld Aeldari primary faction
Related units (3)
Also in this faction
Some links are thematic parallels (marked "parallel") rather than recorded meetings. See the connections web.
Legacy
Asurmen is the first of the Phoenix Lords and the founder of the Aspect Warrior Shrines, the Hand of Asuryan. His teachings form the backbone of the Path of the Warrior, giving the Aeldari a disciplined way to wage war without being consumed by it. Every Aspect Warrior who dons a war mask follows a road he first walked, and his appearance on a battlefield is taken as a sign of destiny. Every Dire Avenger stands in a tradition that began with grief.
The ancient rune on his chest, explains Codex: Craftworlds (7th edition), represents the Aeldari warrior spirit: fierce emotion balanced by cold, certain skill. His wrist-mounted shuriken catapults are called the Bloody Twins, and his ship, the Stormlance, carries him through the webway.
Appearances & sources
- Codex: Craftworlds / Codex: Aeldari
- Asurmen: Hand of Asuryan (Gav Thorpe)