Exodite Owlbear COMPLETED
Finally finished this absolute unit 😄 Thanks to whoever it was that suggest I run her as an avatar of khaine instead of a wave serpent - on reflection it makes so much more sense, and even inspired a bit of extra lore to boot!
And now, some guff:
For the Exodites of Nythrheim, ongoing survival is a challenge even by Aeldari standards. Nudged from its orbit by an ancient calamity, the once verdant maiden world is now a frozen waste of blizzard-swept tundra and jagged black glaciers, the perils of which only the hardiest lifeforms can hope to endure.
The great owlbears of Nythrheim are one such threat, albeit a mercifully rare one. Leviathans of fur, feather and a seemingly limitless instinct for aggression, these creatures are regarded as quasi-mythic beings by those exiled clans brave enough to call the icy plains and crystalline forests home. Indeed, many regard them to be no mere beasts but avatars of Kamus herself - living, murderous manifestations of the world spirit made flesh. As such, the owlbear is spoken of in hushed, reverential tones when it is spoken of at all.
All life native to a maiden world typically shares to some degree a psychic connection instilled by the network of psychoactive crystals that lattice the planet's crust, and Nythrheim is no exception. But while this feature often facilitates a deep empathic bond between the Exodite clans and their chosen mounts, the owlbear is uniquely resistant to any such attempts at mental unity. It is a fiercely intelligent and ferociously solitary animal, and many a would-be beastmaster struck by the foolhardy notion to pacify an owlbear through strength of will alone has met with an unpleasant end, their minds ripped apart by the creature's violent capacity for psychic resistance just as their bodies are rent to pieces by its razor sharp talons.
Union is not completely impossible, however. For those intrepid - or stupid - enough to dare, an owlbear can occasionally be temporarily brought to heel, although the process is an exhausting one. It can take weeks to hunt an owlbear to exhaustion, wearing its resilience down with javelins infused with psychoactive crystal that gradually dull the beast's cognition until an exodite can get close enough to finally mount and bind it with a collar of runestones that allow the captor to exert some small measure of control.
Goaded into battle, an owlbear is a terrifying opponent capable of tossing tanks aside with ease and reducing entire squads of armoured infantry to little more than a gory smear on the tundra. Exodites that march to war beside such a beast are suffused with a ferocity to match it, believing themselves to be in the presence of a living god.