#you know i used to think huntmaster was one of the saner people in solemnace. he was so chill in the bleeding stars after all

[magistralucis]

I am so obsessed with the Huntmaster. Most unusual for a deathmark. I don't know if we get a detailed description anywhere of how deathmarks used to be raised and trained - but they were certainly never considered honourable, except only in the most reluctant circumstances. Death-by-deathmark is a 'base assassination', fit only for the non-sentient or the disgraced, and since their work is a dirty secret they barely get any acknowledgement. Their entire existence is a taboo. According to the rules of their society, they're barely even necron; they don't even suffer the Anti-Life Insanity Disease in the same way other Destroyers do, they have their own variation.

We know that deathmarks don't take this lying down - Lysikor certainly doesn't, but he in many ways is the societal perception of deathmarks played straight. He's scheming and treacherous and nobody is surprised by this, he knows the role he is playing, and he'll exploit it every way he can. Not so much the Huntmaster. He's dangerous, he's expensive, and local necron nobles find his work disgusting - but he's loyal, too, and he is trusted, enough that Trazyn hangs out with him in his oubliette and entrusts the Empathic Obliterator to him. He seems to have been treated well ever since he came to Solemnace, being allowed to work at his own pace - sometimes against his own master's pace! - and everything about him suggests he enjoys being with Trazyn. That's not the usual deathmark treatment at all, they have something special going on here.

Now I've no doubt that a large part of this relates to how Trazyn treats his court, that is to say: with surprising courteousness. As a rule Trazyn values his retainers, and since Trazyn is so far beyond necron perceptions of normality, it makes sense he would be good to his deathmark too. But respect goes both ways, and I find myself headcanoning endlessly just what Trazyn did to earn the Huntmaster's endless loyalty, or what the Huntmaster must've gone through before his residence at Solemnace. He was already infamous when Trazyn secured his fealty. Was he actually admired in his old dynasty, or was he feared and hated like any other deathmark? Did he have that void cape before he came to Solemnace? Did Trazyn offer that price for him himself, or did he have to negotiated over? Was he known for his loyalty before, or is Trazyn the only master he's ever respected? Did they have a genuine friendship prior to biotransference, or did they start spiraling together in their mutual collectors' insanity after the Great Sleep? Some real food for thought there 🤔

#warhammer 40k #wh40k #trazyn the infinite #the huntmaster #the infinite and the divine #fall of cadia #essay #deathmark #necrons #necron #lysikor #the twice dead king #you know i used to think huntmaster was one of the saner people in solemnace. he was so chill in the bleeding stars after all #sure he's taken a few severed heads but with trazyn that's just a fucking tuesday you know? he seemed to have it all together #then fall of cadia came out and it turned out he was exactly as fruitloops as everybody else in solemnace 🤣 #why should i have expected any different eh