"Edan had never stopped to consider that Kharneth would be enraged. He didn't consider it because he didn't care."
- —Edan, who favoured Chaos Undivided more than his tribe's traditional god Khorne
Edan was the son of Merroc, the chieftain of the Schwarzvolf tribe of Norsca and his wife Kata, and the half-brother of the future Khornate Daemon Prince Valkia the Bloody. Edan was Merroc's fourth son, but the only one to survive into adulthood.[1a]
Despite his attempts to guide the tribe into a new mode of life dedicated to the worship of the other Chaos Gods besides Khorne, Edan ultimately fell into the worship of Slaanesh and was slain by an enraged Valkia when she returned to the mortal world as a Daemon Prince to take vengeance upon her former tribe.
History[]
As Godspeaker[]
"Because there is a way forward, if you are prepared to listen to me."
- —Edan, scheming with Warspeaker Hepsus
In the patriarchal culture of Norsca, Edan's birth barred Valkia from leadership of the Schwarzvolf tribe according to their laws, however Valkia would take the position by force, stepping into the place of her recently murdered father, Merroc. Edan, still an infant when this occurred, thus did not inherit the title of tribal chieftain after his father's death. He would lose his mother, Kata, to suicide soon afterward.[1a]
Instead, Edan was taken on by Fydor, the "godspeaker" or shaman of the Schwarzvolf tribe, as his apprentice. Edan was undersized and prone to sickness; Valkia was surprised he had lasted as long as he did in the harsh lands of the north. When Fydor died at the age of seventy-Five, Edan stepped into his place as the tribe's new godspeaker.[1b]
Unlike his half-sister Valkia, Edan was rarely roused to anger and despite only sharing a father, they bore more than a passing resemblance to one another, as both possessed dark hair and chiseled features. Though he seemed gentle and demure, there was a bitter rage underneath his soft exterior that would shine through in rare instances. When Valkia was slain by Locephax's Slaaneshi forces, Edan finally stepped out from Valkia's shadow to lead the Schwarzvolf. He did so with the help of Hepsus, the tribe's aged warspeaker. [1b]
Advising the Chieftains[]
Edan had no true desire to see Hepsus lead, and was just as content serving the former warspeaker as his sister. As he predicted, his nieces, Eris in particular, did not warm to Hepsus as the new tribal chieftain. Their conflicting personalities and several insults from Hepsus resulted in the old man's murder by Eris. When both sisters turned their eyes to him, seeing if he would challenge their newfound leadership, Edan did not. Instead, he remained in the role of advisor to his nieces. Originally swearing to never take a husband, Eris developed a new perspective when Edan counseled that the lack of an heir left the line and future of the Schwarzvolf tribe uncertain.[1d]
Eris and Bellona were not the fierce warriors their mother had been and mere months after Valkia's death, civil war had broken out among the once conquered people of the Schwarzvolf tribe. Edan advised marriage to re-unite the fractured tribe. Within five years, Bellona was wed, but finding a match for Eris proved more difficult. Edan needed his niece wed to serve his long-term plans, and finally found a small and non-descript tribe to which Eris could be bound through marriage. Before the ceremony, Edan feigned being in a trance and faked unconsciousness for a day. When he woke, he claimed that all of the gods were angry.[1d]
Death[]
Over the years of Bellona and Eris' leadership of the Schwarzvolf tribe, Edan used his position to gently coax the Schwarzvolf into worshipping all of the Ruinous Powers instead of just Khorne alone. He outwardly claimed that worship of only one of the Chaos Gods weakened the tribe, but in fact Edan made these claims to conceal his own plots. After having witnessed the strength of the Slaaneshi Daemon Prince Locephax during the reign of Valkia when he had sought to convince her to serve the Prince of Chaos, Edan had wondered what dedication to all of the Ruinous Powers in the form of Chaos Undivided might bring, rather than devotion to a single god. He, like Hepsus, saw no gain in the endless bloodshed required by Khorne. However, the intelligent and now five-months pregnant Bellona saw through Edan's ruse and in doing so, sealed his fate.[1d]
In dealings made with Hrafi, another suitor come to court his niece after the death of Bellona's first husband, Edan promised the young man greatness if he killed the pregnant Bellona. Hrafi complied, slipping the woman poisoned wine that put her into a deep sleep from which she did not awaken. He did not, however, anticipate that Hrafi would cut the unconscious Bellona open and remove the child from her womb. Incensed, Edan and Eris hunted the man down, though Edan chose to seek this vengeance for his own reasons, not out of rage at the death of his niece. Edan had actually planned to seize Bellona's child himself and raise it as his own, but with Hrafi's betrayal, this was now impossible.[1d]
They pair failed to find Hrafi, and killed his young thrall in his place, gutting and then beheading mute young slave. A decade passed, with Edan using his position as godspeaker of the tribe to step away permanently from the battlefield. In this time, he had engaged in many indulgences, and grown fat. Without Bellona to balance her sister's rule, Eris proved to be a poor leader for the tribe. Edan sent her into war after war, hoping she would finally be slain, but Eris proved skilled and returned alive each time.[1e]
By this time, Edan had turned the tribe towards activities like farming and tilling instead of combat and raiding to make their living. This had made them a target for other raiding Norscan tribes. As a result of this change in the tribe's way of life combined with the poor leadership skills of Eris as chieftain, the Schwarzvolf tribes stood on the precipice of extinction. Edan counted on Eris' rage to finally be her undoing, after which he could finally lead the Schwarzvolf tribe he had always been meant to do.[1e]
However, all Edan's plots soon came to naught, as Valkia and her faithful servant Kormak had returned to the mortal world, risen from the dead by Khorne as a Daemon Prince and Champion of Khorne, respectively. The pair and their Daemon allies descended from the Northern Wastes, hellbent on the destruction of the people who had betrayed them.[1e]
Edan did not believe rumors of Valkia's resurrection, as he remained interested only in the pursuit of wine and women. Over the years, he had given in to the service of Slaanesh, the Reveller, the taint of Locephax still lingering in his mind and dreams. However, he had other dreams as well, warnings of retribution sent by Khorne.[1g]
Edan was ultimately slain by Valkia, his head torn from his shoulders, when she arrived in the Schwarzvolf tribe's village and enacted her vengeance in the name of the Blood God. [1c]