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Maugan Ra is the Phoenix Lord of the Dark Reapers. He wields the Maugetar, a combined shuriken cannon and scythe.
He is the most feared of the Phoenix Lords at range, his Maugetar combining a shuriken cannon with a scythe-like executioner blade. His black armour, sculpted like bone, and his skull-faced helm make him the image of death itself. The spirit stones in his helm hold the souls of every Exarch who has borne his mantle. Maugan Ra, the Harvester of Souls, is the Phoenix Lord of the Dark Reapers. His great shuriken cannon, the Maugetar, ends in a scythe blade. Once a pupil of Asurmen, he came to understand war as pure destruction. Where Asurmen protects, Maugan Ra annihilates. He has repeatedly come to the defence of the Aeldari against the Tyranids.
Origins
He is tied to Altansar, a craftworld that survived the Fall but was dragged into the Eye of Terror.
Among Asurmen's first students, Maugan Ra strayed furthest from his teacher's ways. He forged dark, baroque weapons that slew foes from afar instead of the blades his brethren used. His study of ranged warfare taught him that even the deadliest weapon can be used with surgical precision, and from those lessons came the Dark Reaper Aspect.
Jain Zar: The Storm of Silence gives Maugan Ra a strange childhood. He was left as a foundling in the library of Biel-Tanigh in the Webway. There he watched its scholars turn learning into cruel pride before the Fall. When Slaanesh woke, only the "least-touched" survived, among them twenty Fatecallers whom the boy served by fetching food and tending the gardens. Using the Asurentesh, the Heart of Asuryan, they foresaw the fate of the Aeldari dead. Then they turned their sight on Slaanesh, and it killed them, leaving their bodies furred with crystalline Daemon-webs. The child gathered their waystones and set them in the Asurentesh, the act that first earned him the name Harvester of Souls.
He became Asurmen's second pupil. Of all the Asurya he strayed furthest from his teacher's ways, apart from Arhra. He reasoned that since the Aeldari could no longer match lesser races in numbers, they had to exceed them in killing efficiency. White Dwarf 473's Index Xenos on Altansar describes his craftworld's five-century struggle in the Eye's grip, with seers working to seal it from the warp. Maugan Ra led Aspect Warriors to close the Webway gates, and he alone survived.
Key events
- Was the only soul to escape when Altansar was swallowed by the Eye of Terror.
- Fought in the victorious last stand of Craftworld Iyanden against Hive Fleet Kraken in 992.M41.
- Aided Ulthwé's forces during the 13th Black Crusade.
- Plunged into the Eye while the rift was open to lead Altansar back into realspace.
- In 997.M41 he stood alone against a swarm of Hive Fleet Leviathan on the world of Stormvald and triumphed.
White Dwarf 284 says his arrival is an omen of tragedy. At Iyanden he joined the people in the Place of Answering as they decided to fight, then held the Fields of Sanctuary with his Dark Reapers against Raveners, Genestealers and a vast unclassified serpent-beast. Codex: Eldar (6th edition) calls Baharroth his brother, "as the moon is to the sun." Legend says he once killed a Fiend of Slaanesh with only a shuriken pistol.
Battles & campaigns
- Iyanden (992.M41): He fought in the craftworld's last stand against Hive Fleet Kraken.
- Stormvald (997.M41): He stood alone against a Leviathan swarm.
Personality
Grim, implacable, the embodiment of Khaine's destructive aspect.
He is grim and implacable, rarely speaking and never wavering. He accepts death as a part of war, seeing himself as its harvester rather than its enemy. His loyalty to Altansar is unshakable, even though the other craftworlds treat its returned people with suspicion.
Weapons & Vehicles
The graceful wraithbone gravitic-accelerator firearm of the Craftworld Aeldari, slicing targets to ribbons with silent, monomolecular s…
The reality-tearing distort weapons of Craftworld Wraithguard and Wraithknights, opening miniature Warp-rifts inside a target to banish…
A master-crafted blade sheathed in a crackling molecular disruption field that parts ceramite, bone and steel with effortless lethality…
Skull-masked heavy weapons Aspect Warriors founded by Maugan Ra who embody Khaine the Destroyer, raining inescapable missile salvos fro…
A towering wraithbone walker steered by two Asuryani twins, one living and one dead, who fight as a single mind.
Aspect Warriors who leap through the Warp itself to ambush the enemy, risking their souls with every jump.
Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Connections
Characters (2)
Factions
- Craftworld Aeldari primary faction
Also in this faction
Some links are thematic parallels (marked "parallel") rather than recorded meetings. See the connections web.
Legacy
Maugan Ra is the Harvester of Souls, the Phoenix Lord of the Dark Reapers. His emergence from the Eye of Terror at the head of the lost craftworld Altansar's survivors shows the Phoenix Lords' unbreakable endurance. On the battlefield he embodies the most destructive aspect of Khaine, death delivered from afar with grim and unhurried precision. The Dark Reapers learned from him that the end is something to deliver, not something to fear.
Appearances & sources
- Codex: Craftworlds / Codex: Aeldari
- Iyanden supplement
Contested & retconned lore
Altansar's survivors never remove their helms and speak only in whispers, and the other craftworlds have wondered how anyone could endure the Eye of Terror for millennia untouched by Chaos. No answer has been given.