Blade of the Laer

Lore & history

Few single objects in the history of the galaxy have caused more ruin than the Blade of the Laer. During the waning years of the Great Crusade, the 28th Expeditionary Fleet of the Emperor's Children Legion—led by their proud, perfection-obsessed Primarch Fulgrim—waged a bloody compliance campaign against the serpentine xenos species known as the Laer on the ocean world of Laeran. When the final alien fanatics made their last stand inside a towering, pleasure-drenched temple at the heart of their capital atoll, Fulgrim himself strode into the inner sanctum and found a long, silvered sword embedded in an alabaster altar block amidst a swirling sensual mist.

Unbeknownst to the Primarch of the Third Legion, the Laer worshipped the Chaos God Slaanesh, and the sword in the altar was the vessel of a potent, seductive Keeper of Secrets or Slaaneshi Daemon. From the very day Fulgrim claimed the silver blade as a trophy and began carrying it at his hip in place of the golden sword Fireblade forged for him by his beloved brother Ferrus Manus, the Daemon inside whispered into his mind—flattering his vanity, stoking his insecurities, and leading him step by step into the embrace of Warmaster Horus.

At the Dropsite Massacre on Isstvan V, when a horrified Fulgrim hesitated at the last second before striking a fatal blow against his brother Ferrus Manus, the Daemon within the Blade of the Laer lent its unnatural strength to Fulgrim's arm and decapitated the Gorgon. Stricken with grief upon realizing what he had done, Fulgrim momentarily surrendered control of his body to the Daemon before later reclaiming his flesh, Ascending to Daemon Primarchhood on Iydris, and eventually gifting the emptied silver Laer Blade to his favoured duellist champion, Lucius the Eternal.

Design, mechanism & battlefield effect

Forged by xenos artisans rather than human smiths, the Blade of the Laer is a long, slender two-handed or hand-and-a-half sabre with a sinuous, gently curving silver blade and a hilt set with a cabochon gemstone of glowing violet-pink amethyst. Even after the original Slaaneshi Daemon vacated the weapon to possess Fulgrim's own body after Isstvan V, the metal remains permanently saturated with the warp-energies of the Dark Prince and sheathed in a crackling molecular disruption field.

When Fulgrim—and later Lucius the Eternal—wielded the Blade of the Laer, the weapon moved with a liquid, almost weightless grace that anticipated the parries and ripostes of any opponent. While the Slaaneshi entity inhabited the amethyst pommel-stone, it could actively flood its wielder's nervous system with heightened reflexes, unnatural speed and intoxicating euphoria, or guide his wrist to find the exact gap in a Primarch's gorget.

In the hands of Lucius the Eternal, the Blade of the Laer is paired with his sentient Lash of Torment and his screaming Armour of Shrieking Souls, slicing through Astartes champions with effortless elegance.

Patterns, variants & doctrine

Though the Blade of the Laer itself is a singular alien-forged relic, its curving, jewel-pommelled silhouette became the aesthetic template for thousands of corrupted power sabres, duelling blades and rapier-like force swords carried by the Palatine Blades and Chaos Champions of the Emperor's Children Legion.

After his apotheosis into a four-armed, serpentine Daemon Primarch on the crone world of Iydris, Fulgrim no longer needed a single mortal-sized sword—he now wields four enchanted blades simultaneously in his four hands while Lucius the Eternal carries the original Laer Blade across the stars.

Notable patterns & relic examples

• The Cleansing of Laeran: Claimed by Primarch Fulgrim from the central altar of the final Laer temple, beginning the corruption of the III Legion.
• The Dropsite Massacre (Isstvan V): Used by Fulgrim—driven by the Slaaneshi Daemon inside the sword—to slay his brother Primarch Ferrus Manus of the Iron Hands.
• Gift to Lucius the Eternal: Bestowed by Fulgrim upon his chief swordsman Lucius, who carries the silver Laer Blade alongside his Lash of Torment.

Wielded & Fielded By

Characters (3)

• 
  Fulgrim · Primarch of the Emperor's Children, the Phoenician
• 
  Lucius the Eternal · Champion of Slaanesh
• 
  Slaanesh · Chaos God of Excess, Pleasure and Perfection; the Dark Prince

Units (2)

Noise MarinesDaemonettes

Related weapons & vehicles

Gauntlets of UltramarThe Emperor's SwordThe Black SwordChainaxePlague Knife & BaleswordSonic Blaster & BlastmasterDrach'nyenSilence (Plague Scythe)

Primary Faction

Heretic Astartes (Chaos Space Marines)