Amongst these races created by the tears of the goddess were a people referred to as the Hresh-selain in the Aeldari Lexicon - a breed that survived in the darkest regions of space and that was rapidly conquered by the Aeldari.īut the king of the Hresh-selain harboured dark thoughts of retribution and soon began to plan a way to challenge the Aeldari's supremacy over the galaxy. Moved by this request, Isha shed bitter tears, and from these tears, life sprang. In desperation, Eldanesh implored the goddess Isha - who had given birth to the Aeldari race - to create some new intelligent species to wage war against and to subdue. However, the galaxy was a barren and desolate place where nothing lived. The great Houses of Eldanesh and Ulthanesh had successfully conquered the galaxy, but still longed for conquest. This attempt, however, was spoiled by the valiant actions of the Shattered Legions survivors of the Iron Hands' Strike Cruiser Sisypheum.Īccording to myth, the Angel Exterminatus precedes the War in Heaven and thus belongs to the oldest myth of the Aeldari Myth Cycles. Though having vanished from the face of the universe long before the rise of the Imperium of Mankind, it is known that in the early 31st Millennium, two of the Traitor primarchs - Fulgrim of the Emperor's Children and Perturabo of the Iron Warriors - coveted the Angel Exterminatus' power and tried to unleash it against the Loyalist followers of the Emperor of Mankind. The Angel Exterminatus plays an important role in the myth cycle of the House of Eldanesh, the Aeldari's greatest mythical hero and seems to have strong ties through its name and role to the god Kaela Mensha Khaine, who Imperial xenologists believe to be some sort of physical manifestation - an Avatar - of the god's wrath.
In the Aeldari Lexicon it is called Maelsaha'eil Atherakhia, although no survivor of the Asuryani craftworlds would dare to say its name aloud, which means "beautiful eagle from hell that brings the end of all things." The Angel Exterminatus is the High Gothic name for an immeasurably powerful creature of Aeldari Mythology.