Belisarius Cawl

Overview

Belisarius Cawl is a ten-thousand-year-old Archmagos Dominus of Mars and the creator of the Primaris Space Marines. As both genius and gadfly he stands at the centre of the Imperium's revival in the Era Indomitus. To some of the Mechanicus he is a visionary; to others he is a dangerous innovator.

His body is a sprawling mechanical frame bristling with tools, weapons and servo-arms, and parts of his mind are stored in cogitators rather than flesh. He fights with a solarite power axe and a mechadendrite hive. His Primaris project, the Ultima Founding, transformed the Adeptus Astartes in a single generation. Belisarius Cawl, Archmagos Dominus of the Adeptus Mechanicus, is one of the oldest and most brilliant minds in the Imperium. He spent ten thousand years creating the Primaris Space Marines. His work drew on genetic material from the Sangprimus Portum and on knowledge from a soul-merger with Sedayne. He completed it at the end of the 41st millennium and implemented the Ultima Founding using candidates who had been kept in stasis beneath Mars since the Heresy. He is now working on ways to use Necron pylon technology to close the Great Rift.

Origins

Cawl claims to have lived since the Horus Heresy, and even the most advanced Imperial rejuvenat science cannot fully explain how. During the Heresy era he worked on Terra with the geneticist Ezekiel Sedayne of the Biotechnical Division. Fiction depicts Sedayne's knowledge becoming merged into Cawl's own mind. His memories have been wiped and stolen more than once.

His life began in the birthing vats of Xanthe Terra, run by Magos Biologis Hammareth, in the early 31st millennium. Like most Martian children he came out of the vat already a physical and mental youth. The first record of him is as a tech-acolyte on Trisolian-A4 during the Heresy, trained by Magos Domina Hester Aspertia Sigma-Sigma, a master of 'soul-merging', the copying of one mind and merging it with another through implants. His closest friend was the tech-priest Friedisch Adum Ship Qvo. When Horus attacked the system, Sigma-Sigma defected. Cawl was disgusted by the corrupted Warmaster but pretended to submit. He and Qvo later killed her and escaped, but first Cawl merged her intelligence core with his own and gained her mastery of soul-merging and cloning. After the Heresy, Guilliman gave him two duties in case the Primarch fell: building the Armour of Fate and preserving the Emperor's Sword. He has served as Forge Lord, Lexico Arcanus and above all Magos Biologis, and despite two mindwipes and regular memory dumps he remains a genius in any field he turns to.

Key events

1. Spent ten millennia developing the Primaris Space Marines under a commission from Roboute Guilliman.
2. Has invented dozens of weapons, recovered many STC fragments, and even ventured into the Eye of Terror in pursuit of knowledge.
3. Led a Mechanicus fleet to Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade to uncover the secret of the Cadian pylons, working with Greyfax, Celestine and Lord Castellan Creed.
4. Joined the Celestinian Crusade through the webway to Macragge, where his technology and Yvraine's power resurrected Guilliman.
5. Accompanied the Terran Crusade and unleashed the Ultima Founding, launching the Primaris Marines across the Imperium.

Battles & campaigns

• Fall of Cadia: He came to Cadia to study and reactivate its pylons during the 13th Black Crusade.
• The Ultima Founding: He gave Guilliman his Primaris Space Marines for the Indomitus Crusade.
• Indomitus Crusade: His support was crucial to the first phase of the Crusade.

Personality

Brilliant, arrogant, curious and impatient with dogma. He is loyal to the Imperium in his own fashion and tends to see people as problems to be solved.

He has a high opinion of his own genius and little patience for the slow traditionalists of the Mechanicus. He can be cheerful, playful and blunt, and his loyalty to Guilliman is genuine. Yet he keeps secrets of his own, and others worry about what he does with them.

Weapons & Vehicles

LascannonHeavy Weapon

The Imperium's premier long-range anti-tank laser cannon, firing a blinding lance of coherent light that punches cleanly through battle…

Plasma Gun & Plasma IncineratorRanged Weapon

A volatile directed-energy rifle that hurls bolts of miniature sun-hot plasma capable of vaporising Terminator plate and tank armour—at…

Power SwordMelee Weapon

A master-crafted blade sheathed in a crackling molecular disruption field that parts ceramite, bone and steel with effortless lethality…

Repulsor ExecutionerBattle Tank

Archmagos Belisarius Cawl's heaviest Primaris grav-tank, combining devastating anti-gravitic plates with a turret-mounted Heavy Laser D…

Kastelan RobotsHeavy Support · Unit

Ancient battle robots of the Legio Cybernetica, guided by a Datasmith and following simple combat protocols.

Kataphron Battle ServitorsElites · Unit

Heavy combat servitors on tracked bases, either Breachers for close assault or Destroyers for firepower.

Onager DunecrawlerVehicles · Unit

The Skitarii's scuttling four-legged gun platform, descended from a Martian pack-walker and crewed by two Skitarii slowly used up like …

Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.

Connections

Characters (6)

• 
  Katarinya Greyfax ally · The Inquisition

  Greyfax was a leader of the Celestinian Crusade alongside Cawl.

• 
  Saint Celestine ally · Adepta Sororitas

  Both led the Celestinian Crusade.

• 
  Roboute Guilliman ally · Ultramarines

  Cawl created the Primaris Space Marines for Guilliman's Ultima Founding.

• 
  Abaddon the Despoiler enemy · Black Legion

  Cawl tried to save Cadia's pylons from Abaddon.

• 
  Eldrad Ulthran ally · Craftworld Aeldari

  Eldrad and Cawl's paths crossed on Cadia.

• 
  Trazyn the Infinite ally · Necrons

  Trazyn aided Cawl in activating the Cadian pylons.

Factions

• Adeptus Mechanicus primary faction

Related units (9)

Skitarii RangersKataphron Battle ServitorsKastelan RobotsOnager DunecrawlerWarlord Battle TitansIntercessorsTerminatorsRedemptor DreadnoughtTechmarine

Some links are thematic parallels (marked "parallel") rather than recorded meetings. See the connections web.

Legacy

Cawl is the Archmagos Dominus who created the Primaris Space Marines. His work helped restore Guilliman and changed the Imperium's military forever. He is a genius and a near-heretic in equal measure, with secrets no one fully understands, including how long he has truly lived and what other projects he keeps hidden. The Primaris Space Marines reshaped the whole Adeptus Astartes, and Cawl's ambitions keep growing.

Appearances & sources

• The Gathering Storm I: Fall of Cadia
• Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work (Guy Haley)
• Dark Imperium (Guy Haley)