Davinites are an Abhuman species from the now-destroyed planet Davin, the site of the fall of Primarch Horus Lupercal and the start of his corruption, leading to an age of untold strife and conflict.
Biology[]
Davinites are descended from Humans who were gradually mutated over tens of thousands of years living in harsh, arid conditions, along with mutations from increasing Chaos corruption. Davinites thus stand taller and more muscular than Humans, with pointed ears, claw-like nails, and bestial features better resembling a simian. Additionally, Davinites had thick, dark hair over their arms and heads, and red pupils that took up almost their whole eyes. Like Humans, Davinites were sensitive to the powers of the Warp, and could become psykers, able to channel Warp energy to a number of powerful effects, even making them dangerous to the transhuman Astartes.
Culture and society[]
Before being integrated into the Imperium of Man, Davinites had regressed from their Human ancestors. Their populace had been split among the planet itself and its moon, although the groups became isolated following the loss of their spacefaring technology. On the planet itself, Davinites were pre-industrial nomads, organized into many constantly-moving tribes. They had a distinct warrior culture, but readily surrendered when faced the far superior threat of the Imperium, also readily embracing the advantages of a foreign way of life. Moon Davinites, however, were far more xenophobic and belligerent, even when outclassed.
Notably, Davinites had warrior lodges among their tribes, which would later be copied by traitor Astartes in organizing the great uprising against the Emperor. Said warrior lodges were quasi-religious societies that venerated various Davin predators as totem animals, and utilized the powers of the Warp in their rituals, implying a connection to the Chaos Gods. The Davinite priests of the lodges were well-trained in using their Warp sorcery and psychic abilities, some serving as seers and advisors while others gathered cult followings as they preached the blessings of the Warp.
Technology[]
Davinites once had spacecraft enabling casual travel between their world and their moon, but lost such technologies prior to Imperial compliance. Most of the technology left by their human ancestors was also lost, and the Davinite tribes would use primitive and unreliable gunpowder pistols as their main armaments, along with knives made of stone or crudely-forged metal.
Following integration into the Imperium of Man, Davinites once again had access to advanced technology.
History[]
Presumably in the 15-25th millenniums, Davin was colonized by Humans during mankind's golden age of space colonization, later known as the Dark Age of Technology. However, the early human empire was shattered by the Age of Strife, destroying and isolating Human colonies across the galaxy, most of which fell into disrepair and declined into feudal or outright savage states. On Davin, the settlers gradually lost their capability to manufacture advanced technology over generations, and began to gradually mutate into a distinct subspecies. However, for a time, Davinites had enough spacefaring technology to colonize their world's moon.
Eventually, Davinites would turn to the dark powers of the Warp, forming warrior tribes and cults worshipping dark gods and whispers from the void, their technology mostly lost and their history lost to time. However, in the 30th millennium, Davin was discovered by expeditionary fleets of the growing Imperium of Man, a galactic human empire formed by the Emperor of Mankind to rebuild the species' lost golden age, which had launched the Great Crusade to reintegrate all lost Human settlements. When Imperial forces landed, led by Primarch Horus Lupercal of the Luna Wolves Legion, the Davinites first opposed who they saw as invaders, but quickly surrendered after a campaign against the technologically superior Legiones Astartes, also known as the legions of Space Marines.
Following Davin's compliance, Horus, impressed by the martial prowess of the Davinites, allowed their society to remain intact. Additionally, Horus examined Davinite society and lifted the idea of warrior lodges from them, establishing the lodges in his legion with the help of Davinites. Davin itself was then placed under command of Eugan Temba, a close friend of Horus who became the planet's governor, while the Davinite populace was reeducated under the Imperial Truth by the Word Bearers Legion. As the population of Davinites was quite low, other Human settlers were moved to the planet, where they reintroduced many technologies that the Davinites had lost.
However, the Davinite warrior lodges continued their worship of the powers in the Warp- Chaos itself. The Word Bearers, having secretly turned to the worship of Chaos themselves, allied with the Davinite warrior lodges in order to corrupt the imitation lodges in the Space Marine legions, turning the affiliated Astartes to Chaos.
Later, in the 203rd year of the Great Crusade, Eugan Temba got reports of unrest on Davin's moon, where the moon-dwelling Davinites had refused to comply with Imperial rule and were launching an uprising. As such, Temba gathered soldiers and flew to the moon to put down the rebellion and bring the Imperial Truth to them- but in actuality, the uprising was a ploy by the Word Bearers, who were in league with the revolting Davinites. When Temba landed, he was allowed a peaceful meeting with the heads of the lunar Davinite tribes, who promptly struck Eugan and his men with their Warp sorcery, corrupting the governor and his soldiers into plague zombies using the energy of the Chaos God Nurgle, corrupting the once-temperate moon into a noxious, foggy wasteland.
60 years later, the Davinites kept the wreck site secret, where Eugan and his men were still alive but horrifically mutated, and now madly worshipped Nurgle. Horus was then called back to the moon of Davin, where he engaged the mutated Eugan in combat. While Horus was able to kill Eugan, the mutant governor was able to stab Horus with an anathame sacred to Nurgle, an ancient xenos Warp-based weapon that could fatally wound even a transhuman Primarch. While Horus lay dying from the weapon, his legion was unable to cure him with their resources, prompting Word Bearers chaplain Erebus- the true orchestrator of these events- to recommend that the Luna Wolves take Horus to the Serpent Lodge, a Davinite warrior lodge supposedly serving as a house of healing. As such, the Luna Wolves delivered Horus to the surface of Davin, where the Davinite Serpent Lodge priests took him to their temple. Within, the Davinites and Erebus healed Horus of his wounds, but also corrupted Horus with the powers of Chaos, planting seeds of jealousy and ambition that would one day lead Horus to betray the Emperor.
Over the following years, as Horus grew increasingly corrupted, he had Davinite priests imbedded in the Astartes warrior lodges to continue spreading the word of Chaos, while other Davinites took part in a mass exodus to distant space. Eventually, Horus launched his betrayal, forever known as the Horus Heresy. Davin was promptly corrupted into a Daemon World, warping its surface in unnatural displays of pure chaos, and turning it into the nexus of the Ruinstorm, a Warp storm that blocked the way to Terra, preventing reinforcements from reaching the Emperor while Horus besieged the throneworld. Davin was later destroyed by Primarchs Roboute Guilliman, Sanguinius, and Lion El'Jonson, creating a breach in the Ruinstorm that allowed them to race to Terra, where the Horus Heresy ended with Horus destroyed, the Emperor locked in the Golden Throne life support device, and the Imperium declining into an authoritarian, theocratic state. As such, the only surviving Davinites are those who managed to get off-world before the formation of the Ruinstorm, some of whom reached worlds that survived the catastrophic Horus Heresy, such as the planet Pythos, and these endangered pockets of the species appeared to have survived well into the 41st millennium, where there is only war.
Appearances[]
- False Gods by Graham McNeill (2006)
- The First Heretic by Aaron Dembski-Bowden (2010)
- Fear to Tread by James Swallow (2012)
- Horus Heresy: Collected Visions by Alan Merrett (2007)